Kian Turner

Stunned by Aura's cold response, I followed her to the DJ where she was standing beside Ezra. I saw Ezra offering her headphones to wear, but before she could put them on, I approached her.

"Hey, Aura, would you mind coming aside? I wanted to discuss a few things with you." I let out and she turned her eyes to me, studying me as if I were a stranger to her.

"Yeah, sure." She mumbled impassively as she passed the headphones over to Ezra. Meanwhile, Ezra kept his gaze fixed on me. For some reason, I found it irksome.

Aura stepped a few steps aside from Ezra and crossed her arms at her back. "Yeah, what it is?" Her cold question with her gaze wandering away from me confirmed that something was undoubtedly up with her.

I rubbed my face with my palms in exasperation before asking, "Okay, tell me what's wrong with you?"

"Wrong?" She frowned. "There's nothing wrong with me. What are you talking about?"

A frown formed on my face as well at her reply. "Then why have been acting strange? You didn't even react to my teasing a while ago, which you do every time. Did I do anything wrong last night that offended you?"

She visibly rolled her eyes and puffed her face. "I ain't behaving strangely in the first place and if I were, you are certainly not the reason. Secondly, I am not obligated to give reasons for my moods, and if you really want to know it's just the pressure of work that's getting heavier every passing day. That's all."

Okay, this was the Aura I met with; cold and straightforward. But she had gradually loosened up to me, she had started to smile, laugh, and have fun.

"Hey, Aura, you wanted to try the DJ controller, didn't you? Come on, DJ here will help you learn." Ezra exclaimed, grabbing both of our attention.

"Oh, I'm coming." Aura happily exclaimed and dashed to him, leaving me standing dumbstruck. How could she have left in the middle? We were not done talking yet!

My jaw ticked as rage bubbled inside me like lava inside the volcano when I saw Ezra getting touchy with her. He was being closer with her on the pretext of helping her wear headphones. And Aura being utterly naive or dumb, kept giggling at whatever he said or did.

She left me hanging in the middle just to be with him. They seemed to be getting closer day by day and I was not a fool not to notice what was happening between them.

For unknown reasons, it hurt me, but Fuck it! If she didn't want to be around me then I was also not going after her. My world surely didn't revolve around her! Damn with her!

I went back to where Leo was and stayed with him for a while until I got an opportunity to find Mia and Rachel free and luckily Gemma was away from the girls as well. I took it as an early opportunity and texted Gemma to call Rachel over to her. Gemma waved her hand at Rachel gesturing her to come over.

Rachel jumped in excitement. "I'll be back, Mia, Gemma's calling me."

Mia being already suspicious about Gemma, stopped Rachel by grabbing her wrist. "Why is she calling you over?"

Rachel gently smiled at her. "She mentioned before how much she liked the accessories I wear. She just wants to know where I bought 'em from. So, I'm just gonna help her through the website." With that, she withdrew her hand from Mia's grip and walked toward Gemma.

Mia's hand remained hanging in the air as she watched Rachel go. I saw the change of expression on her face, her eyes expressed hurt. I could already feel the anger radiating through her veins and I decided to blow the fuse.

Without letting her know, I stood beside her, our shoulders were almost touching, yet she failed to notice my presence. I also didn't disturb her and looked where she was looking at. Rachel and Gemma.

A few minutes later, I decided to break her trance. "You know I know Gemma personally," I commented casually.

This broke her trance and slowly she looked up at me, curiously. "And why are you telling me this?" She asked.

I chuckled and gazed at her. "Because Mia, darling, I know what's going inside your head."

Her eyes grew a little and she opened her mouth to say something but couldn't form any words.

My eyes glistened with mischief, I leaned towards her and whispered. "And you know what? Your fear is genuine. Gemma may be having a fiance right now, but she swings the other way too."

Her eyes switched back to both of them giggling at a bullet speed. "W—what? You're joking, right?" She stuttered and I felt her tremble beside me. Uh oh, did I take it too far? Maybe. Damn, I was being so cruel, but it was for her own good.

She then looked at me with fearful eyes. "But...but Rachel loves me and she is just helping her shop for accessories. Rachel adores people who love the way she looks."

Her eyes began to turn misty. "But I can't say anything about that Gemma. What if she—"

"Hey, hey, hey..." I pulled her towards me by wrapping my arm around her shoulder. "Don't worry, I will go to them and guard your love with my life. I will not leave Rachel alone, okay?"

She sniffed as she looked at me hopefully. "You will?" Oh, dear. My plan indeed worked.

I sincerely did the scout's honor hand gesture. "You can count on me on that."

Stifling my laughter, I assured her once more and left her there, and approached the girls. When I reached there, Rachel was excitedly scrolling down her phone, showing Gemma different accessories online.

"Hey, girls." I circled my hand around Gemma's neck and pulled her head towards me. I then whispered. "You're doing good, but brush up your skills, woman. I have given you some good lessons. Use them now, be a little touchy with her."

Gemma turned her face to me, glaring. "I'm trying." She mouthed. "I am not used to all this, you jerk!" She hissed and pulled away from me.

Rachel, who was busy scrolling through her phone didn't notice our little banter.

"Hey, Gemma, see this. This bracelet is much cooler than the previous one." Rachel raised her phone to Gemma and I shoulder bumped Gemma to go further with acting.

Gemma fake-giggled and touched Rachel's arm. She then acted looking into the phone and crawled her hand up to her shoulder, leaning a bit into her.

My eyes caught Mia standing at the same spot with her hands clenched in a fist, her eyes radiating fear as well as anger. And in another second, she stormed away from there. Bullseye!

However, unwillingly my eyes traveled to where Aura was, and astoundingly, although she had her earphones on and was trying to learn to control the DJ, her eyes were fixed on me. And the moment was sealed when our gaze connected. Every time I looked at her all I saw was a natural beauty, her one look would always ignite a fire inside me that wouldn't subside unless I had been near her, beside her, with her. That's the effect she had established on me in such a short time.
And her oh-so-awesome hair flowed with the unnoticeable breeze. The urge to run my fingers through her hair overpowered me to check the softness, but I controlled it.

It seemed as if our eyes had minds of their own and they communicated without words, but the moment was short-lived because Ezra snapped his fingers in her face, breaking both of our trance.

Fuck, what was I doing?  Calm your senses, Kian, you fool, she preferred to be with Ezra more than you.

Regardless of knowing the reality, I couldn't take my eyes off them. Their laughter and their closeness took me to another level of fury. I would have ignored them completely if Aura hadn't been acting distant.

Girls weren't my weakness. They had never been. But this particular girl, Aura, seemed to be breaking the walls I had built to stay clear of female species since they could not understand me and my ambitions. Could she be the one I had been looking for by flirting with every other girl I met to check if they could fulfill the requirements I had been looking for in a girl? However, my requirement list was never long or out of morals because the only thing I was looking for was understanding.

Just then, I grunted lowly when I was elbowed on my side. Frowning, I looked at the culprit. "What is it, Gemma?" I asked, rubbing the area she nudged.

"Love interest?" She smirked along with raised eyebrows.

"What?" Bewildered as to what she questioned, my frown deepened. Then I looked for Rachel, who shockingly wasn't there anymore. "Where did Rachel go?" I asked.

"Oh, you were too busy practicing eye-to-eye contact with that girl over there that you failed to notice someone called for Rachel and she left," Gemma replied smugly as if caught me red-handed having intercourse with some random girl.

"So, what's the name of your love interest?" She asked, crossing her arms across her chest.

I rolled my eyes. "I do not have any love interest at the moment. I haven't found one for me."

She chuckled dramatically. "Oh, so she's one of your random flings, isn't she?"

Even though Aura was just some girl I had begun to find my interest in, her being called a fling sounded wrong on many levels.

My gaze again traveled to her. "She's too precious to be categorized as a fling," I muttered.

Gemma grasped my upper arm all of a sudden and pulled me to face her "Whoa, Whoa, Whoa, Kian, who are you lying to? Me or yourself? You are clearly head over heels for her!"

"I am not!" I stated stubbornly as I withdrew my arm from her hold. "And stop putting absurd things inside this little head of yours. Concentrate on the task I gave you and on your fiancé."

"Kian, I know you enough to tell when you are lying, confused, or being ignorant. Don't act dumb and confess your feelings to yourself."

"Geez, Gem, I'm in no mood to listen to your lecture. Just cut it, okay?"

She raised her hands in surrender. "Fine, fine. But do tell me a little about her, please?" She gave me a puppy dog look and I knew she would not leave me until she had heard something from me.

"Fine. So, she's cold, frosty, fierce, stubborn, straightforward, and yes she's beautiful, smart, confident, daring, badass, and yes, cute." Then a gentle smile broke on my lips. "She's someone you can sit with for hours without getting bored even when no one's speaking. Happy now?"

Leaving her there, I walked away from her. Love interest? Head over heels? Just what had gotten into her?

I had decided to just sit somewhere and clear my mind when I found Rachel in the middle, looking for someone.

"Hey, Rachel, what are you looking for?" I asked as I stood by her.

"Who, to be exact." She muttered, surveying the area with her gaze. Certainly looking for Mia who was nowhere to be seen.

I rubbed the back of my neck. I had to tell her what I was up to as it would be more practical to have her on my side. "Uh, Rachel..."

She faced me with raised eyebrows. "What?"

"Uh, do you remember I told you I'd help you make Mia stronger?" I asked.

She placed her hands on her waist. "And I clearly remember telling you there was no need for that."

I cleared my throat. "Well yeah..." I shifted on my feet in the apprehension of being brutally kicked into the pool in front of all the sexy girls.

"Uh, well, I did something— no actually planned something..." And then I told her what I did and how Gemma was helping with it.

"You did what?!" She screeched, making me instantly cover her mouth with my hand.

"Don't shout!" I whisper yelled. She harshly swatted my hand away.

"Don't shout? Don't shout?" She slapped my arm. "You practically planned on ruining my relationship with Mia and you have the guts to order me not to shout?"

"Hey, I assure you your relationship is not getting ruined. If anything, it's going to act stronger. Because girl, my plans never fail." I stated, then I wiggled my eyebrows.

"And guess what? Mia got extremely jealous." My lips grew in a wide grin. "A victory!"

"What will I do with this victory? It's normal to get jealous watching your partner getting closer to someone else. Haven't you experienced this before, you dumb?" She snapped and my mind ran back to Aura and Ezra.

Could it have been jealousy? No, it could not be. I did not have any reason to be jealous.

"Rachel, it's just the start. Just wait and see Mia confessing her love for you to the world." I assured her and waited for her response.

She crossed her arms across her chest and looked away, then she brushed her hair back furiously as if trying to attack me.

I as a reflex action raised my hands to save my face from being punched when she raised a fist at me.

"Stop being dramatic and look at me, you jerk!" She snapped and slowly I lowered my hands, but her fist was still in the air.

"Do you see these rings in my hand?" She twisted her wrist to show the rings on her fisted fingers. "Well, these will leave a lifelong imprint on this handsome face of yours if anything went wrong, get it?"

She stated firmly, which in return brought a smile to my face, and my senses danced in happiness. "So this means you are permitting me to continue with the plan?" I asked hopefully.

"You started it without my permission and since then things have gone too far so now as well end it." She pointed a finger at me. "But I am warning you—"

I carefully grabbed he finger and lowered her hand. "I know, I know, I myself do not want anything to happen to my face. It's a precious part of my body."

"Yeah, make sure to protect another more precious part as well." She glared down at my jewel before storming away.

What sort of threatening permission was that?! Damn, she was a fucking walking volcano. More dangerous than Aura.

Speaking of Aura, I needed to clear my head because she had taken every reserved spot inside my head and heart, leaving me confused and over the edge.

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Don't forget to read the next chapter. It's a double update today.❤