Somehow his sentence ignited her mind, body and her soul. She felt like she had been struck by lightning, just with his words.

He loved to play with his words and she knew it, but he would always catch her when her guards were low. She was unarmed against the assaults of his words.

She stuttered and said,

"What... what do you mean by ascending me?"

"Whatever your mind is able to picture, exactly that multiplied twenty times in intensity. That's what I mean by ascending," he said, without taking a breath.

Somehow she had already started feeling hot, somehow the airconditioning of the room didn't seem to be adequate enough. Unable to stand on her feet, she jumped on to her bed and asked,

"Are you able to drive well?"

"Why? Aren't you able to stand well?", he asked, because he perfectly knew what effect his words had on her. He knew that she was melting from inside.

"I am lying on my bed now", Akira said and took a deep breath.

He could picture her lying on that bed of hers, on top of those lilac-colored sheets, wearing her pajamas. Somehow this picture was becoming too much for him as now it had started enticing his manhood.

So exhaling a pound of air, he said,

"Maybe its better that I call you back once I reach home", saying that he disconnected the call before she could even say a word, and drove back home as fast as possible.

His hands were all restless, his mind was restless. Even though they had known each other since long, it felt like they were flirting with each other for the very first time. That giddiness, that strange feeling of a pit in the stomach was still feeling the same, just like the day when he had touched her hands the very first time while pressing the elevator button.

He reached home and rushed inside his bedroom.

He didn't bother to remove his shoes, nor his jacket.

The first thing that he did was to call her up.

The same was her condition. She was lying on the bed in the same position with the phone in her hand and her heart racing with the speed of a horse, waiting eagerly for his call.

The moment he rang, she picked it up before even the first ring could complete.

"Hi..."

"Hi"

"Were you waiting for my call?"

Akira flipped after hearing his question. Of course, she was but no way in hell she was going to admit that.

So she retorted back.

"No, I wasn't. I just wanted to know if you reached home safely or not. That's all. Nothing more than that."

"Really? Then how could you pick my call even before the first ring could complete? Wasn't the phone in your hand?"

"Yes, it was, because I was... You know I was checking the weather."

"The weather?"

"Yeah, I was checking the weather to see if I need to wear a blazer or jacket to the office tomorrow."

"Oh, I see. And what was the temperature that you saw?"

"Damn it this guy !!!"

Akira muttered and tried to google it while she was still on the call with him. But that was such a rookie mistake as he could clearly hear the sound as she was typing.

"Akira!!!"

"Stop googling now."

"How... How do you know that I was googling now?"

"That's because I can hear it when you were using your touchpad. You haven't disabled the touchpad key tones."

Akira was rendered all speechless.

She admired his brilliant mind, but his brilliance was taking a toll on her. She had no place now to hide her face.

Taking a deep breath, she was about to say something when he said.

"I like it when you wait for my call eagerly like this. Makes me feel special about myself and I would love to keep it that way."

His raspy voice was killing her softly. He was rendering her all defenseless with his blatant confessions and she couldn't possibly in any way escape from him.

"I was waiting for your call", she said and then stayed silent.

All they both could hear was the sound of each other's breath and somehow that itself was comforting for Raymond. It had been ages that he had spoken with her this way. It had been ages that he had made her feel this way.

He loosened the tie around his neck and got up from his bed. He removed his jacket and shoes and was still holding the phone close to his ears as he undressed because he didn't want to even miss a single breath of hers.

Then breaking the monotonicity of silence he asked,

"Did you eat well?"

"Yes, I did !!!"

"But I guess u must have missed your dinner at Four Seasons."