"What are you talking about? I'm not escaping you," I excused, not really meeting his eyes."Really? Then what was that at the lobby?" Gaze hard.Surprise lit in me. He saw me? Damn! I knew I'd gained weight. My fat ass couldn't even run faster!"W-what was what? What did I do now?" I feigned innocent.His lips pressed together in annoyance. "You ran away seeing me."I shrugged. "I don't know what you're talking about. I was already late for office. And a lot of work was piled up. I was busy. You're just mistaken.""Busy talking to my employee?" he asked, nostrils flaring.My eyes widened. How did he know that I was talking to Matt?Was he keeping an eye on me now? Could this man be anymore weird?"You don't have time for me but you do have time to talk to another man?" I staggered back as

Ace's POV Sweat trickled down my neck to my spine, the thriving heat in my body accelerated my speed, and the hum of zeal flowing through my veins encouraged me to force myself more. Even the cuts on my knuckles didn't stop me from going for another hit into the hard punching bag. The more pain I got, the more I could keep myself in check. The more my head would concentrate on my physical agony, and not my heart's desires and… fears. His brown eyes never left me from the corner of the gym as I worked on my pain and salvation. Until I didn't get my actual redemption. Her. "Achilles, stop it. Your knuckles are bleeding! What's wrong with you tonight?" Caleb's voice reached my ears. But the anxiousness of his tone couldn't halt my movements. Intense working out every night to help me sleep and keep myself sane was a routine of my life, bu

H-he remembered that? Though our visits here were vague in my mind, I still remembered the day when Tobias brought him along to our family to introduce his new best friend. How could I forget the day I got encountered with those stormy grey eyes for the first time?The reserved yet shy boy was uncomfortable among so many unknown people until his gaze locked with mine. The soft smile that had tugged across his lips in the return of my own toothy one, had engraved into my heart since then.He gently brushed his thumb on my cheek. "Those adorable freckles are almost non visible now.""I still have them. It's just the make-up." Words came out of my mouth of its own, lost into his grey pools.A tiny frown set between his brows. "The make-up that hides your beauty, you should avoid them.""Again back to dictating me, are we Mr. Valencian? I'm not

Taking a sip on the tea, I ran my eyes on the newspaper. The noise of Mom's chopping vegetables and moving utensils in the kitchen rang across. But nothing moved my attention from the paper, not even her curious glances."You know, the Blackwood's daughter ran off with her cousin's fiance?" Her sigh resonated from the opposite side of the counter. "I got to know from the kitty party last night. Children these days, I don't know what runs in their head."I flipped another page. The business column."Your aunt called me this morning to inform me how she's enjoying her vacation in Switzerland with her third husband and soon will be sending me some pictures of their little honeymoon." She snorted. "As if I wanted to know anyway. I'm glad that your Dad didn't go after his elder sister. Thank God she's not in the country right now. At least I got some relief from her frequent visits."I stayed quiet. Not warning her about

"What's wrong with him? I don't know how can that insane man impress you that much?" Warner asked, baffled.Sending him a look, I walked back to my bed and plopped down on it."What's going on here, Em? Will you tell me now?" he queried again. "Did you two already break up?""We were never together for the break up you're talking about.""Then?" Raising his brow, he probed me to explain further.Sighing, I told him everything. And he listened, taking a seat beside me.But I kept some of the parts from him. Ace's past, especially his being a drug addict back then. It felt wrong to disclose his extremely personal and sore past to Warner. So I kept that part left out. Instead I told him after Ace's father's death, he went into depression and decided to push me away from him taking my sister's help.It was all I could come up with.