Chapter 58 - A Shield

The couple continued with another activity offered by the mountain resort. Yera gradually felt at ease with Xander, who was as bubbly as always and would shamelessly do the things he wanted to do, although there were times when the intimate scenes between the two of them would flash through her mind and made her feel shy. Her cheeks would flush out of nowhere as those scenes replayed in her head.

"Do you want to try that?" Xander asked as he pointed his finger up to a zipline ride. Yera felt Xander touch her chin so she would look at him as he said, "Are you perhaps scared of trying it, Darling?" 

She shook her head, so Xander clasped her hand with his and led her toward the entrance of the ride.

"Make sure you take a lot of nice photos, okay? Give me a lot of shots, the more, the better," Xander instructed the zipline attendant. 

Due to its intimate position, Xander chose to do tandem traversing, in which he and Yera would zip in one single harness together, instead of two separate ones, while facing each other.  

"Here, make sure to hug me well…" Xander instructed her as he guided her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist. Seeing Xander's mischievous smile, Yera could already guess what Xander was planning, but she could care less because all she wanted was to try ziplining. She was nervous, so she held on tightly to Xander because, for some reason, sticking onto him like that took her nervousness away.

"Here we go," Xander whispered as he tightened his grasp on Yera when the operator gave the signal for them to be released. Yera closed her eyes as she felt the cold air brushing against her face while her body floated high in the air.

"Open your eyes, Darling… The view is great," Xander encouraged her, so she did as she was told. Xander was right, the sight was spectacular.

"We should strike a lot of pose for the photos…" Xander said, grinning as he sneaked a kiss on Yera's lips. Yera scrunched her face, which made Xander laugh as he enjoyed her mixed expression… She was annoyed, nervous, but also thrilled at the same time, and she screamed as they zipped quicker on a downward slope.

Yera could feel a mix of excitement and anxiety all over her body as they continued ziplining. They feasted their eyes on the sweeping views of the lush forests beneath. All throughout the ride, Xander kept stealing a kiss on her lips, cheeks, and even nose, that Yera had lost count of how many times it was. She swore that Xander was the most shameless person she ever met in her life.

After the ride, Xander excitedly checked their pictures that were snapped by the zipline operator and bought all the copies.

"Let me see them," Yera said, but Xander kept the envelope and said, "Let's look at them later."

Yera suddenly remembered Xander's promise to teach her how to swim and decided to ask him to do it during this trip. She was determined to make the most of their vacation because she knew that once she joined the Life Hospitals group, she wouldn't have time to do this kind of thing anymore. "Alright, let's go back to the cabin, then? You promised to teach me how to swim," Yera reminded him.

"Okay, Darling… Let's have lunch first, and I'll teach you how to swim after that…" Xander complied as he walked hand in hand with Yera.

Back in their cabin, Xander was laughing at some of the pictures, in which Yera was screaming. Yera was in the middle of cooking, and Xander kept teasing her with those pictures.

"Do you want me to put some poison in your food right now?" Yera hissed.

Xander walked toward her and hugged her from behind. "Okay, I'll stop. I'll just hug you like this instead. Hmm, that smells good…" He praised as he nuzzled Yera's neck. He rejoiced inwardly because he succeeded in being touchy-feely with Yera quite frequently nowadays. Yes, he was doing it on purpose to make Yera get used to him more, and he had no plans on stopping.

"Maybe I should change your name on my phone into 'The Shameless One' instead," Yera said, to distract herself. 

Xander chuckled and whispered in her ear, "Hmm, if trying to get your attention means I'm shameless, and not just a bully, as you said before, then I don't mind… As long as I can hold you like this, and have all of you, then you can call me shameless all you want…"

Yera heaved a long sigh before murmuring, "Really really shameless."

She could only utter those words to shield herself emotionally because her body had already betrayed her. She knew she could no longer control her own body because that shield had long broken. So there was no use to deny her physical attraction to Xander any longer. Even being hugged from behind by him like this felt good… 

But for some reason, she didn't think she deserved this kind of feeling. It felt like she was betraying Bernard... It had not been long since he passed on, so how could she already be attracted to another man? Wasn't it too early to entertain things like this? 

She was really at that state, where she was totally confused with the various emotions she was having.

She needed some more time to sort out her feelings because they overwhelmed her.  Was she a coward? Yes, maybe she was… But how could she not be one when she had lost someone that she loved? When Bernard left, her whole world crumbled. The pain was immense that many times after that, she was not even sure if she would be able to live on. How could she forget that kind of agony?

Therefore, right now, she was still shielding herself emotionally. She had to deprive herself of emotions that could make her weak. Especially when she had a battle ahead, which she had to overcome. She could not allow herself any weaknesses that would hinder her from winning. 

"What are you thinking about, Darling?" Xander murmured as he noticed that Yera was deep in thought.

"Nothing… I'm just thinking about how to protect myself emotionally because my physical shield is already broken from the tremendous amount of shamelessness that you have," Yera answered truthfully.

Xander knew Yera was a straightforward person, so he was no longer shocked by her words. Instead, he kissed her neck and shamelessly declared, "Hmm… Yes, I've obviously broken your physical shield. But your emotional shield is still my top priority, so I guess I should work harder to break it."

Xander understood Yera very well because Rui had already explained to him about the complexity of her emotional struggle. Just by talking to Yera occasionally, Rui could already tell that she had experienced a lot of tragic things in her life that had caused her to wall herself up emotionally. It was her defense mechanism.

So Xander smiled before he added, "Don't worry, Darling, your husband has a generous amount of patience. Especially now that I've fallen in love with you, Yera…"

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