Chapter Twenty-five

Athena's POV

Alex lifts his head, quickly hovering on top of me—covering my body—but it's pretty much visible to Liam. I cover my face with both of my hands in embarrassment, I can feel my cheeks heat up from Liam's stare, ''Liam what the fuck man!'' I hear Alex shout. He barely swears...

Peeking through my hands, I see Liam's eyes widen as he look back at Alex and me. He covers his eyes, ''Fuck.'' Liam swears before hurrying outside and slams the door shut. I hear him walking down the stairs—I finally let out a sigh of relief.

Looking back at Alex, I see him frowning. His lips are red and swollen—taking me awhile to get embarrassed again at what we have just done. Lightly, I push his chest and he pulls himself away from me. My eyes wander on the ground until I spot my shirt.

''I'm sorry.'' He mutters under his breath.

I put my shirt back on before turning to face him. His back facing me as he looks down at his fingers, ''For what?'' I ask and I mentally slap myself for asking such a stupid question.

''If it wasn't for Liam, I wouldn't have stopped.'' He replies and before I could say anything, he continues, ''I shouldn't have touch you in the first place.'' There is a hint of regret in his voice.

He turns to look at me, ''I got carried away.''

My eyes look up at his jawline, seeing him clenching his jaw. He stands up in my surprise, walking straight toward the door before closing it back afterwards—leaving me alone in the room.

The silence became my friend once more. Does that mean he really doesn't want to but he just got carried away with lust? I end up gripping onto the sheets, confused myself. Was I really giving in to him? What was I thinking? This will all end in a matter of six months but I almost give him one thing that I wouldn't get back.

He's right. If it wasn't for Liam, none of us would have stopped. He was making me feel all sorts of pleasure from different levels. I know both of us got carried away—I did realise that—but somehow I just didn't want him to stop.

I know we were both heading there and it would have happened. I didn't even stop him at all. If I did, he would have back away and wouldn't continue any further but from all I could remember, I was gladly persuading him from all those moaning.

Hearing voices from downstairs, I step out of the room and start walking down the stairs. Seeing Liam sitting on the sofa, looking down at the ground as he rub his temples with his fingers. As for Alex, he's standing and clenching his jaw.

''How the hell did you get in?'' Alex starts to ask. I grab harder onto the railing, taking a few stairs up.

''I know the freaking code man.'' Liam replies, sounding a little bit annoyed, ''I didn't know tonight was the night!'' He looks up at Alex.

''What the fuck?'' Alex frowns as he shakes his head, ''Why are you even here anyway?''

''I thought on hanging out. The team has been asking for you. You keep on spending time with your wife—no, I know you just got married but at least give some time for us like we used to. All you do now is just train and deal with your company then go home. Where's all the fun?'' Liam says, ''Once a week wouldn't be wrong.''

Alex keeps on looking at him as he stays silent, ''You came all the way here to just tell me that?'' He crosses his arms, letting out a sigh, ''You could have called me. And besides, they didn't even tell me they wanted to hang out.''

Liam shrugs, ''You didn't pick up your phone.'' Then he rolls his eyes, ''Clearly you were busy.'' He stops for awhile, ''Look, I'm sorry. You're right, I should have probably called. It was a bad timing and I really don't want to see again what I saw minutes ago.'' He stands up, walking toward the front door.

When he presses his hand on the doorknob, he starts to chuckle, ''I know you're there, Athena.'' Then he steps out as soon as Alex turns around to see me fidgeting. Alex then closes the door before putting it the code and locking it.

He walks up the stairs until he's standing right next to me—looking straight into my eyes. When I keep on looking down, he lifts my head up by the chin so that our eyes would meet, ''You want to go to bed?'' His voice low.

I blink a few times—feeling my cheeks heat up. I quickly look away but to only hear him chuckle.

''I mean it this time.'' Alex shrugs before walking up the stairs, leaving me alone once more. I quickly walk up the stairs and catch up with him as soon as he opens the bedroom door. He walks straight to the bed, patting on one of the pillow.

After awhile, both of us end up laying on the bed. Me facing the other side because I don't really know where to face. I feel him shifting beside me but I keep my body steady, not moving, not even a little bit. My breathing seems to stop.

Minutes or even hours has passed but I still can't sleep. My eyes are open wide every time I force myself to sleep. I cup my own face, feeling tiredness surrounding me but I can't seem to sleep. I close my eyes, trying to imagine darkness but as soon as I did, images of Alex kissing me came into view—causing me to open my eyes once more.

''I know you're awake.'' I hear Alex says beside me.

I curse mentally before turning to look at him—seeing him looking up at the ceiling as one of his hand rests on his stomach. I snuggle closer to the pillow wall we made, just to study his features, ''I can't sleep.'' I mutter under my breath.

I sigh, before I groan in frustration and sit up straight, receiving Alex's attention. He looks at me with one raised eyebrow, ''I give up, I can't seem to fall asleep and this is frustrating.'' Throwing both of my hands up in the air before falling down on the sheets once more.

Alex chuckles before joining me. He breathes out as he look down, then he looks back up as if something has appeared in his mind—more like an idea, ''Do you want to go swimming?'' He smirks.

I feel my cheeks heat up once more as I groan and mess up with my hair, ''No.''

''Why not...'' He leans in forward so that our face are inches apart. He looks down at my lips before looking back into my eyes—smiling, ''You can join me if you want.'' Then he slowly slides off the bed and walk out of his room.

''Are you serious?'' I follow him.

''Yeah,'' He shrugs before walking out, his swimming pool came into view. We both stop and as soon as we did, Alex starts to take off his shirt. I eye down his body and he smirks when he sees me enjoying the view. I blush once more but I bite hard on my lip, to stop myself from blushing. He starts to take off his pants, only standing there in his Calvin Klein boxer shorts.

''Um—'' I awkwardly rub the back of my neck.

Alex throws his shirt to the side before looking at me. He just looks at me and I know he's more like undressing me with his eyes—wanting me to get into the pool but I just stand and look back at him.

I thought he was going to jump in but he walks inside, leaving me. I furrow my eyebrows in confusion until he's out of my sight, ''Alex?'' I call out for him and just like that, all of the lights went off. The whole house turns dark, only showing light coming from the swimming pool.

Stepping closer to the wall, I groan, ''Alex this is not funny.'' I say louder, ''Come on.'' I sounded a bit desperate. To be honest, I'm not scared but I'm just scared if he might do something.

I hear footsteps and as soon as I turn around, I am being picked up by someone over the shoulder. I scream as loud as I can before feeling my body being thrown into the water. My screaming ends as I swim back up to the surface—seeing Alex laughing at me. I grab onto the side of the pool, removing my wet hair away from my face.

''You're so dead.'' I mutter angrily.

He keeps on laughing before crouching down so that there won't be much of a height different. He looks down at me, smiling. I pull myself up as I use both of my hands for support. He gaze at my lips and I smile back at him—seeing that he has fallen into my trap.

I brush my lips against his, feeling him staying still. The coldness of both of our lips somehow create warmth afterwards. But before he could lean in and kiss me full on the lips, I use my right hand to pull his neck and just like that, we both fall into the pool.

Alex appears to the surface, shaking his head and running his hand through his wet hair. I laugh at him, seeing his nose redden at the coldness. He looks at me as he gives me one of his evil smile and with that he grabs me around the waist, causing me to scream once more.

His cold fingers brushes against my freezing skin.

He spins me around and I grip tightly onto his shoulders. We both fall into the water once more, feeling my shirt sticking onto my body. I stay still in the water when he let go of me. He takes a few step back, just looking at me and pinching the bridge of his nose—removing any excess water.

I start to feel uncomfortable when I feel my shirt and pants clinging onto my body for dear life so I slowly take my shirt off. Alex raises an eyebrow as I throw the shirt near his and take off my pants afterwards—leaving me in my bra and panties. Lucky enough for me, I'm wearing the same colour. But bad luck enough because I'm wearing black.

Black underwear has a meaning and I'm pretty sure he knows the meaning when he eyes down at my body. When I thought I was safe in the dark, all of the light starts to turn on. My eyes widen as I look around. Alex keeps on eyeing my body, now that he has a better view since the lights are on.

((i want you guys to open flight by lifehouse right now as you read))

He swims toward me, before slowly wrapping his arm around my body. One of my hand moves up to his chest as he leans in and presses his lips onto mine. I feel the water prickling down on my skin as I enjoy his soft moisturised lips. Both of my hands move to wrap around his neck—pulling him closer.

From anything that we do, we would always end up like this. Kissing.

I hear the sound of our lips moving in sync and just like that, he bites the bottom of my lip, making me open my mouth—he takes the chance to slide his tongue in. I feel his hand touching at the clasp of my bra, not doing anything further, just placing his hand.

He tilt his head to the side, deepening the kiss.

Sometimes I wonder how someone can be a great kisser.

When I feel him lightly breaking the kiss, I open my eyes to see him looking down at my lips. I do the same, seeing them red as they did before. He backs away from me and I just look at him in confusion but he smirks and before I know it, he splashes water toward me.

My eyes widen as I turn my head around, blocking my face.

''Alex!'' I shout his name but he keeps on splashing water.

Turning around to face him, my heartbeat stops beating as I see him laugh—showing his perfectly straight teeth. Everything seems to move in slow motion, seeing him as he keeps on splashing water at me. My lips parted as I look at his breathtaking laugh. He stops laughing but only to smile afterwards.

His blue eyes twinkle as he keeps on looking at me.

Somehow, I can hear both of our heartbeats. He starts laughing again, as if not noticing me being under his spell. He runs his hand through his hair, looking down and smiling. Without me knowing, I smile back and I see him looking down at my lips—smiling—before looking back up into my eyes.

We both seemed to get caught in the moment.

I see as his smile drops, turning into a serious expression but his eyes held emotions. I find myself moving toward him. He keeps on looking at me—tiny hint of confusion written on his face—but he stays still, waiting for my next move.

My hands move up to cup his face, looking straight into his eyes. Seeing his eyes up close, they are beautiful. They have tiny specs of yellow, almost invisible. I couldn't seem to remove my eyes away from them. I eye his eyebrows, his nose and last but not his least his lips. I touch each of them slowly.

He let me.

I pull his head toward me and as if he has read my mind, he let me rest my forehead on his. He looks down at me, not questioning what I'm doing. I don't even know what I'm doing myself but I just want to be in this moment where I don't care and just do.

Alex breathes out and I feel his warm breath on the bridge of my nose.

My hands move down to touch his arms until touching his waist. I move my hands further to the back of his body before placing my head on his chest, right near his heart. Closing my eyes, I feel him pulling in for a deeper hug as he wrap his arms around my body, as if they were made to hold me.

He rests his chin on the top of my head.

I like this.

I like it that he's not asking me what's wrong.

I like it that he just let me hold him.

I like it that he returns it back.

I snuggle closer and I feel one of his hand raises up to put behind my head, rubbing slowly.

Remembering the deal I've made with Joanna. I felt stupid. Yet I don't care about Alex. He's no one, right? He's just someone I'll be spending time with for the next months. Nothing more. Then everything will be over between us. But still, there will always be regret—deep inside.

When it felt like hours, I finally let go his body and he does the same after hesitating at first. He looks down at my face but I just smile and back away. I pat lightly onto his shoulder and sigh.

I walk inside, glancing at him.

He just stands there, looking down at his hands.