Her mind became colluded with numerous thoughts as she retracted herself back. In her head she could clearly see the vivid images of a child crying in pain and the bloodshot eyes of Scarlett. She felt like she could hear Scarlett's words still echoing in the room. It was all pretty weird and as a cumulative effect, she slowly started getting drowned in a pit of guilt.

His breath was also haggard and he paused to take a deep breath or two before he asked,

"Are you ok?", and he looked into her eyes.

She just gently nodded.

This man in front of her was everything that she wanted in her life. He was like the constant in her multiverse. But the thought of jeopardizing someone else's life kept haunting her no matter how much he assured her with his love.

He could still taste the coffee which she had taken minutes before, lingered in the crevices of his mouth. He saw her struggling for air. He saw her body react to his touch in ways that he could never think that anyone can react to. The man inside him felt happy, happy that he could stir and skim such reactions from her body.

He went a step forward and then carefully placed her hips first on the table.

She was about to release her hands which were twined around him when he said,

"Not yet!!!".

He took a deep breath again and said,

"Just hug me for some time".

He inched closer and lifted her shirt a bit and then embraced her. She kept her head on his chest and closed her eyes. Although she was torn from inside, she didn't want to let him go. Her inner demons didn't let her. As her warm breath slowly settled down, he saw her sticking to him like she had been glued. He kept caressing her back, running his fingers. They stayed like that for God knows how long as eventually sleep crept into her eyes.

He saw her sleeping comfortably leaning on to him, and didn't want to wake her up till her sleep became deep. So he stood there for quite some time, making sure that she won't wake up when he lifted her up. Once he was assured that she was in deep sleep, he lifted her body swiftly and took her to his bed.

As he lied her down and got up, he saw that her shirt was unable to hide her in the right places and before any dirty thoughts could creep, he immediately pulled the duvet and then covered her up. He sighed and fondly looked at the creature sleeping on his bed. He bent down and gave a kiss on her forehead and said,

"I wish every night can be like this with you".

Then he saw her nose crinkle slightly and he smiled at the sight of it.

He went ahead and kissed the tip of her nose.

Her lips slightly parted as he kissed her nose as if they were inviting him even in her sleep.

"Are you playing with me Akira? Huh, I am walking on a thin line here. Do you get that?", he said softly and ran his fingers on her soft face, which looked so surreal when she slept.

His mind couldn't reject the invitation and moved a bit below and gave a small peck on her lips and got up. But somehow his heart wanted more, so bent down again and planted a big wet kiss on her lips, taking her lips into his own. But he was slow and gentle and made sure that she didn't wake up. He parted her lips wider and slowly sucked on her lower lip like a thousand times. Then he moved and took her upper lips in the flow.

He was so involved in the kiss right now that he had almost forgotten that she was asleep. His one hand somehow stole its way under the duvet and started moving from her navel to down south, sliding on her bare body. But suddenly his fingers could feel something lacy and he stopped abruptly.

"Raymond no !!! Don't break her trust!!!"

And with a jolt, he got up and immediately left the room.

He was so close to the fire, almost on the verge of burning himself up. He paced rapidly outside the room trying to get a hold of himself. Frustration gripped him from all the sides like there was no room to escape from it.

He went inside his study room and tried to sit there for some time to stop his running thoughts to go all haywire. He drank water and took deep breaths and went back to the bedroom. She was sleeping like a baby with no care in the world. A smile crept on his face.

He then took the paper which David had given him earlier and went back to his study room. He knew how to keep his mind occupied. He started his laptop and started modifying his code to be able to trace the source of those IP addresses. He wanted to reach the main DNS server using which these fake IP's were being accessed and which in turn acted as the host server. Someone had very meticulously planned the whole thing so that a traceback would be difficult. But not too difficult for a person like him. He wanted to know the source of the huge wired transaction into Scarlett's account. He knew that something wasn't right. The time of her arrival, the date of wired transactions and the date on which she pulled out 10000 USD from her account. They all seemed connected and he knew he had to figure it out now or never. His hands swiftly moved on the keypad constantly till the wee hours in the morning.

While he struggled with his laptop, she struggled to push herself to sleep as sleep was miles and miles away from her. She acted that she had fallen asleep so that he would leave her and go as she needed to clear her head and reflect on her actions. Only heavens can vouch how difficult it was for her not to kiss him back on the bed. Every touch of his was causing her to tremble with pleasure. When his hands moved on her bare skin, she was on the verge of giving up as it was becoming too much for her but then he detached himself.

A part of her was displeased but a part of her thanked her luck that he did so, else nothing would have stopped her from caving in.