After the short but heated argument, it didn't take me long to storm out of Ace's room and fling myself onto the bed in my assigned room. I knew I was throwing an useless tantrum because no one was there to see me anyway...but wasn't that the reason I was throwing the tantrum in the first place?

As angry as I was with Ace, a small, immature and unrealistic part of me that still craved love and attention wanted him to come after me, watch me ugly sob into the bedsheets, patiently endure through all the sniffing and then finally, when I calmed down, hug me and tell me that it was okay...that I wasn't wrong for simply being curious and that he had misunderstood me.

But nothing of that sort happened. Neither did Ace follow me into the room to try and console me, nor did I break into an ugly fit of sobs because honestly, I was already so ashamed of myself for crying over every little thing that I couldn't bring myself to cry over an insufferably i sensitive idiot like him. Ever since he'd come in my life, all I had gotten into was trouble and whatever his deal was, I wasn't about to let myself cry over yet another jerk.

I sniffled softly, trying to calm down but jumped in surprise as the only answer my half-complete tantrum recieved was a slam of Ace's door and then...complete silence.

Grimacing, I slid off the bed.

What a sour-tempered fool.

I figured that since he'd so kindly slammed the door to his bedroom shut, I had no choice but to
endure a bone-chilling five minutes in my room's shower and moodily stalked up to the bathroom, cursing him and his stuck-up ass to the best of my abilities.

After showering, I plucked the first dress I saw hanging in the small closet and slipped it on, not caring if it didn't fit...only to regret my decision when it did. The last thing I had expected was for someone else's dress-that was also a couple sizes too small for my comfort-to look this good on me and despite not entirely liking the way it considerably enhanced all of my assets, I couldn't bother to take it off.

Slipping on my shoes, I checked my phone again for a signal but no such luck. Sighing, I decided to leave it behind and go exploring around the place for a bit. Maybe, I could also find a clue as to what exactly was going on and why we were hiding here.

Tiptoeing to the door, I slipped out trying to make as little sound as possible and then, waited for the door to silently click shut behind me before going any further because if Ace got a whiff of what I was upto—that I planned to go sniffing about his little hideout, it wouldn't end well for me. Considering how angry he'd gotten over an innocent question that I'd solely posed out of curiosity, I wouldn't be surprised if he secretly murdered me and then got rid of my body all by himself, if he knew that I was snooping around deliberately.

Crossing my fingers, I prayed that I wouldn't stumble over the seventh step and silently jumped over it, breaking into a run as soon as I was out of earshot.

Circling our little hideout didn't yield much, save for unbearable cramps in my legs. After a vain, hour long search amongst the prickly sharp grass, I was starting to sweat profusely.

"That's not a very appropriate attire for poking about, don't you think?"

I whirled around to find Ace standing against one of the corners of the house, his hands pushed deep into the pockets of his fitted jeans. With a half-tucked, white oversized shirt resting on his lean torso and dark combat boots on his feet, he looked every bit the model than a wanted criminal on run.

"How long have you been standing there?" I frowned, slowly rounding my way back towards him.

"Enough to get a good look at your ass when you were bending over, searching for god knows what in this half-dried up grass." He chuckled. Even though he had just commented upon my ass, his tone didn't sound sexual in the least and I couldn't decide if I was supposed to feel relieved or offended.

"As if you could ever have it." I rolled my eyes, biting back spitefully. Dusting my hands, I came to halt in front of him just to notice his eyes leisurely roving over my body—not in an overtly suggestive manner, but more in a way that hinted at his probably long experience of checking out girls, although I could very much be assuming things because I was still bristling over his comments about me since this morning.

Ever since the kiss had happened, he had been expertly avoiding bringing up the topic and I had firmly decided that I wasn't going to cave in first and start up that conversation either...even though the way the sunlight caught his face, giving his skin an ethereal sunkissed glow and making his platinum hair look like spun gold, were deftly breaking through all the defences I had managed to put up in the last one hour.

"You know," Ace finally grinned. "Unlike me, you aren't very discreet about the staring."

I immediately snapped my eyes away from his beautiful face and looked away. "You're in a surprisingly jovial mood for someone who was ready to strangle me barely an hour ago." I stated brusquely, eyeing him intently as his smile seemed to falter. "Why did you even come here anyway? I think it'll be better if you leave me alone, lest I try to pry some more of whatever goddamn information that you're so touchy about, out of you."

A subtle frown marred Ace's flawless face, making his eyebrows raise slightly in confusion. "You sure are in a snappy state of mind, aren't you?" His jaw moved as if he was biting on his tongue, holding back his words.

"Yeah, go ahead and blame me for being snappy." I chuckled derisively, side eyeing him distastefully. "Until then I'll just pretend to ignore that you weren't glaring daggers at me this morning." Why couldn't he just man up and tell me the truth once and for all so that we could both stop wasting our time bickering.

Ace sighed. "You asked me if I was an ex-convict, Ivana." He looked up me through hooded eyes. "How else was I supposed to react?"

"Like every other normal person and laugh it off. You can't think that I was actually being serious when I asked that, can you?" I scoffed incredulously.

Ace's expression darkened. "Well, maybe i can't laugh it off, Ivana." He rolled my name over his tongue, the word falling out of his mouth like soft but sinful caress. "When things strike a chord...you can't really laugh it off."

I crossed my arms and regarded him with the most serious of my expressions, even though I really just wanted to run away as far as possible from him. Maybe I would think of coming back if he straightened out the mess in his life because goddamn this boy was one hell of a looker—a beautifully sculpted face complete with a somber, brooding expression...I just wasn't sure I wanted to shoulder his problems as well.

"Seriously," I began. "What is your problem, Ace?" I cocked an eyebrow. "Or you could tell me what exactly got you so worked up earlier, because I'm getting tired of talking in code."

Ace stayed silent, his head lowered as I went on, slightly pressed that he was making me feel this anxious. Whatever he was hiding, I just didn't have a positive feeling about it. "You know, we—you and I, we are here together. It's not fair that I don't know half of the things while you knowing everything just pop into my life out of nowhere and drag me out to this place." I tried to keep my voice stable, to avoid losing my calm. "I'm not blaming you, Ace—I'm sure you had your reasons. All I'm asking is that I too, should know what those are."

"Ivana—" Ace began, but I was done with him keeping the truth from me. I was done with him and his caged up emotions. Even now, as his ice blue eyes bored into mine, they were narrowed as if in a desperate plea, as if he wasn't ready to confide in me just yet and it broke my heart.

"You know what, Ace?" I forced a smile onto my face, pushing my hair out of my face as a gust of wind blew them into my eyes. "If I wasn't aware of just how much of a smooth talker you are, I would actually have thought that you were struggling with expressing yourself. But I know that's not the case and now, all I see in your face is the unwillingness to tell me the truth and I'm not having that."

Turning away, I muttered under my breath. "Not when you've basically ripped me away from my cafe, my family and my life back in Phoenix—all in a blink of an eye—and still keep acting like you're the only one getting affected by whatever you and your friend Aiden," I paused to scowl, making my irritation clear.
"—have done in the past. So unless you are ready to tell me the complete story, do not bother approaching me again, because I'm not going to sit still. I'm going to do whatever I can to get out of here. I haven't done anything to be forced to hide in this god forbidden place with you and I will not suffer! Goodbye, Ace." Literally ready to spew fire, I spun around and stomped away, not even bothering to spare another glance at Ace.

"Goodbye, Ivana." I heard him mutter tightly behind me. "For now. Because you'll come back."

"Go to hell, Ace because I'm not coming back." I flashed him a middle finger, not caring to stop or even look back and continued to trudge uphill to get to the main highway, still fuming.

How dare he?

I was going to get out of here and leave him and stupid, brooding ass to hide here for as long as he wanted. I didn't give two flying fucks about what happened to him, I thought.

Not in the least.