Coming back to the present, I looked at the beautiful face before me. Even when he was angry, he was still so handsome.
Aidan looked down at me, his voice deliberate. “I’m not the same man I was three years ago. I won’t be played by you again. I don’t
even want…”
His words were cut short.
I had suddenly hooked my arm around his neck and kissed him.21
Our lips had only just met when I was forcefully pinned against the wall.
Aidan’s grip on my shoulders was tight, the corners of his eyes red with a mixture of humiliation and anger. He couldn’t speak. He
looked like he wanted to either hit me or kill me.
I bit my lip, about to say something.
But in the next second, his tall frame silently crumpled.
He knelt before me, closed his eyes, and then tilted his head up, slowly, tentatively, moving toward my lips.
It was a posture of someone desperate for affection.
My heart trembled.
My vision filled with a flurry of text:
“? Dude, we know you’re all talk, but could you at least try to resist for more than two seconds?”
“Damn, you must have been exhausted from all that acting. You’ve been planning this since the moment you knew she was back,
haven’t you?”
“What a fraud. First, he fakes a relationship with the second Tasker, then he acts all cold and distant with this one, and one kiss is
all it takes for him to break.”
“Say what you will, but I haven’t seen a good kiss scene since the first Tasker left. I’m so excited.”
My mind went blank. Even my breath was stolen, captured by his careful kiss.
The System’s shriek echoed in my head: “HOST, WHAT DID YOU DO?! THE MALE LEAD’S AFFECTION METER JUST SPIKED TO NINE
HUNDRED AND NINETY–NINE!”
As our lips tangled, I stared at Aidan, lost.
After a long time, he pulled back just a fraction of an inch, his ragged breaths brushing against my face.
Chapter 2
“Let’s go home.”
22
20 44 C
Aidan gave me a black card.
I played with it for a moment, sighed, and set it aside.
He picked it up, his lips pressed into a thin line, and pushed it back into my hand.
“I know the money in this world means nothing to you,” he said with a self–deprecating smile. “But you need money here, too. At
least while you’re with me… take care of yourself, Please?”
I nodded silently.
Aidan was right. I was never good at taking care of myself. Before coming back to the book, I hadn’t had a proper night’s sleep in a
long time. To make money, I had given up my art. I worked three jobs a day, from five in the morning until midnight. My tiny rented
room didn’t even have its own bathroom.
I was just so, so tired.
So when Aidan laid me down on the bed, I fell into a deep, heavy sleep.
It was the most peaceful sleep I’d had in years. I was completely oblivious, not even dreaming.
I slept for a full day and night.
When I woke up, I was curled up in Aidan’s arms. He was gently patting my back, his eyes half–closed, a rare look of tranquility on
his handsome face.
23
I rubbed my eyes and shifted to hug him more tightly.
