It didn't take long to find Jake and Pam, they were seated at the booth next to the window. Jake was teasing Pam and Pam glowered at him, completely clueless to the meaningful reason of why he always teased her.

Alana had always known Jake had a big crush on Pam, ever since back in university. She had once asked him why he never made the move to ask her out. He'd only replied that he was a coward and was afraid of her rejection and ruining their friendship. He told her he preferred she remained clueless, that way he was still close to her.

"Your drinks, ladies and gentlemen." Alana announced her presence.

Pam squealed when she saw Alana's whole attire. "You look fabulous babe!" She commented as she took one of the lager Alana had placed on their table.

"Doesn't she look amazing, Jake?" Pam nudged him.

Jake throated an assent.

Alana twirled, basking in their flattery. Then she pouted as she thought of the possibility of Lylas losing interest and deciding to disappear for good. Anxiety made her rush her interaction with them.

"I know I promised a full night in my treat, but this guy is really cute and I can't have someone else snatching him away." She told them.

"You need to introduce him to us." Pam mentioned.

Jake agreed.

"You've already seen him before. That night at X Gallery." She told them.

Pam gasped. "The yummy guy in Armani?"

Alana nodded whimsically.

Pam squealed again. "You definitely should go right away! I'd gladly release you for tonight if it's to be with him? You better hurry too, if I remember correctly his looks were to die for, you don't want competition."

Jake rolled his eyes at Pam's compliments and excessiveness.

Alana hugged them and said her farewells.

"I'll see you on Monday to relay the news of how it went." She promised.

They shooed her away. And so Alana returned back to the bar. However, just as she was about to reach it, she was stopped by a persistence drunk young man wanting to try his luck with her.

Alana smiled politely and sidetracked the guy in refusal. However, before she could leave, he stopped her movements by grabbing her wrist tightly and forced himself into her. This damsel in stress clichè was trifling, but Alana decided she was no damsel. Although, she was in distress since the guy's hold was so strong she couldn't wrench free. She wasn't weak as to not fight for her freedom.

The man wrenched her froward and just as she was about to collide into his arms, a force not to be reckoned with loomed over them. Alana only saw a black shadow advance toward them and within quick successions, she was out the drunk man's grasp. What was perturbing was the disappearance of that man.

His presence was replaced by Lylas, whom now stood in front of her with a growling icy expression too sour to look at.

Before she could speak, time froze around her, suspending everyone in their activity while only she and Lylas were able to move normally. Then he quickly pulled her close into him, his arms wrapping around her. Before she knew it, she was flying in a dark golden cloudy space.

He transported them to a sky rise rooftop building. The height of the building, along with the blinding city lights were too much for her to think she was still in London. It took a while of adjusting and looking around at the other sky rise buildings—that were smaller than the one they were standing on—for her to realise she was in New York. Specifically on top of the Empire State.

She gasped and before she could begin to panic, Lylas steadied her.

He stood behind her and beside her ear, he whispered, "Just look up."

The sudden invasion of his voice and wisp of breath tickled her ear, leaving a burning tingling sensation there. His scent bombarded her and as she looked up, Alana gasped at the many stars that filled her vision.

"How is it possible to see stars when I'm in the most light polluted place?" Alana wondered as she gazed upon the Milky Way.

"I turned off all the lights." He told her.

She looked at him in surprise and then at around her, only to be in even more shock when she saw what New York looked like at night without any lights.

"How is there no commotion?" She asked.

"I froze time." He answered.

"Is this allowed? Aren't we trespassing?" Alana worried.

"The building is mine." He explained.

Alana gasped, staring at him in shock, "The Empire State Building belongs to you?"

The ghost of smile in his eyes completely brightened his face. Her reaction amused him.

"All of this realm's monuments belong to me. For the past fifteen thousand years, I was the one who influenced those people to build them."

It was at that moment that Alana finally realised the age gap between them, fifteen millennia was really a long time.

"Lylas, may I ask how old you are?" She stared expectantly.

He was thoughtful for a moment before he began explaining, "I've lost track... Although I was found and grew up in the fairie realms, I only lived twenty thousand years in that realm. The fairie realm's timeframe is different from mortal's. Since the fairie realms are closer to the heavenly realm, a day there is a year here. I also spent time in the demon realm whose timeframe also differs. So I'd say, I'm about fifty thousand years in mortal age."

Alana almost choked in her gasp. 50,000 years old and yet he barely looked to be no more than thirty.

She looked up the constellations once more to hide her frown. She momentarily distracted herself from how prominent the age gap was. Although below them was covered in darkness, where they stood was bathed in starlight. This phenomenon took her breath away.

It suddenly occurred to Alana how romantic this scenery was. However in her experience, since knowing him, romance and Lylas didn't go together.

"It's really beautiful," She told him. "But, why did you bring me here?"

She studied his reaction and the neutral expression began to glower in remembrance of where they had been before here.

"He forced his hands on you." He replied easily in explanation. Reminding her of the drunk man who had grabbed onto her.

"So you decided to save me?"

He shrugged in response.

"Where did you send him, he disappeared right in front of my eyes."

Lylas blinked as if trying to remember. "I actually don't know."

"The poor guy." Alana muttered under her breath. Wherever he was, Alana prayed for his soul.

"You pity him?" He suddenly asked.

The anger in his undertone perplexed Alana. It couldn't be that he was jealous. There was no way. She decided to test this to be sure.

"Well yes, the poor man was just probably enamoured by my beauty and wanted a chance to talk to me..." She began, surprising herself how she could speak so confidently.

"...Although the way he went about it is inexcusable, his only fault was encountering you." Alana accused.

The dark expression on Lylas's face was unreadable. He closed the proximity between them, making Alana swallow instinctively out of nervousness and something more. The dark glint in his eyes spoke of danger.

"In your eyes is he better than me?" The jealousy in his tone was hard to miss.

Alana was elated. She nodded just to tease him some more. Of course in her eyes, no one was better than him. However, Lylas shouldn't know this yet.

"You–Why did you chose to wear this dress?"

Alana didn't know how she could still act unfazed outwardly while inside she felt mushy.

"Don't you like it?" She slightly shook off her leather jacket to reveal her shoulders.

Lylas gasped, his eyes drinking her in.

"It's a dangerous colour." His voice was low and had a sultry undertone.

Does he find me attractive? Alana wondered what his reaction could possibly mean. The glint in his eyes intensified, making her hesitate as a tingling feeling fluttered below her stomach.

She couldn't be the only one feeling the sizzling heat between them, right? Although her breaths were the loudest between both of them, she felt no shame. She wanted to show him how much he affected her.

Because his eyes were staring dazedly at her lips, as if he was starved man watching the most delicious meal being cooked in front of him and yet he had to refrain from touching and eating the food.

That look right there in his eyes, was what gave Alana the confidence to touch him. Her small hands met his cheek and he seemed to tremble upon her touch.

Alana watched in fascination the way his eyebrows wrinkled as he closed his eyes, as if her touch caused him pain. Her fingers stroked his lower lip and his eyes promptly opened to catch her gaze.

Her eyes were cast on his pinkish lips. How succulent they looked. She could only wonder how they would taste in a kiss. And it was that wonder and desire that urged her to quickly close the space between them.

Under the gaze of starlight, on her tip toes, she brought her face close to his and breathed in succinctly. The scent of sandal wood mixed with her sweet citrusy scent. It intoxicated her to close her eyes and edge on forward toward him. Lylas watched her in shock as she closed the space separating them and smashed her lips with his in a kiss.

Alana felt him shudder against her, and for ten seconds she was the only one kissing his lips. He only remained a frozen statue, letting her attack him. Alana was in the world of her own as she explored his lips, opening her mouth briefly to stick out her tongue so it could taste his lower lip.

It was this action right there that caused a sudden reaction from him. The hands that were previously dormant on his side suddenly came to life. They grabbed her face and stopped her from releasing herself from the kiss. Instead, he walked them backward until her back hit the edge of rails barricading the rooftop.

She gasped as his tongue latched on to hers, instantly deepening the kiss. One of his arm left her face as it hooked onto her thigh, easily lifting her weight up against the rails. Her leg ended up circling around his waist. One hand hooked on his neck, while the other ran through his silky dark locks, before tugging for dear life.

She heard his deep throated moan and the sound reverberated through her, coiling a heat that churned so deep inside her it melted everything else.

She mewled when he took her lower lip between his teeth, the sensation from it was what made her state of mind become foggy. The haze of desire stretched on her mind and body, the feeling was something she had never experienced before. And yet kissing him and being in his arm felt so familiar and so right...as if she had long belonged there.

Just as her foggy brain was mulling over this, he suddenly jolted away from her. He recoiled from her as if she were a burning hot pot and he'd touched her accidentally. Because she had relied on his strength to keep her steady, the sudden release had her crashing straight to the ground.

It took a while of orientation for her to realise what had happened. Slowly and feeling the unearthed wrath in the air, she stood up to face him.

The glare was back on his face. Looming and intimidating.

Alana bit her lip, stopping herself from spewing an apology. She wasn't sorry for initiating the kiss. No matter what he felt, she had wanted to let him know, to show him how much she wanted him.

"I can't—" Lylas sighed deeply and she knew the frown wasn't directed at her this time. Only to himself. He was berating himself for giving in to the desire momentarily.

"Why?" Her voice was low, barely coherent but her protest was clear.

"I just... I can't betray her."

"How long will you keep her in your heart?" Alana asked grittily.

"For as long as I shall live."

His loyalty to that woman punctured her heart, the feeling subliminal.

"Then why did do you kiss me back." She kept the prickling tears at bay.

"The fact that you kissed me too means you don't love her anymore." Alana deluded herself.

Lylas inhaled sharply. The warning eyes glinting fiercely. "How dare you question my love for her...you, a mere—"

"Mortal?" She finished his sentence. So used to the reproach it didn't offence her anymore.

His anger was suddenly abysmal, the gold in his eyes hinted a red colour she almost thought she had imagined it.

There was something frightening about the look in his eyes. Alana felt it right then and there. This time, she had truly offended him. Since he was angry at her for questioning his loyalty, then it meant he really had no plans to let go of his dead wife.

If before she had felt as a spectator toward Kayla's love, then now she was the truly an outsider to Lylas and Anala's love story. She felt like an antagonist second-lead trying to get him to forget his lost wife and love her instead. This realisation right here that she had stopped this low, brought a deep mitigated fury and shame.

Alana felt so angry and ashamed at herself. This woman in his heart wasn't ever going to be her. She will never belong to him. She never had in the first place. These feelings she had for him, although at first she had thought were just desire and lust, she didn't realise how much they deepened overtime.

Nevertheless these feelings she had couldn't be explored, shouldn't be explored. She was setting herself up for failure. In the end she was the one going to end up with a broken heart.

And yet he had kissed her back.

Alana squeezed the leather material of her jacket and bit down roughly on her cheek. Just to contain this confused elation she was feeling from the fact that he had kissed her back. There was something truly and utterly wrong with her. She was angry at herself for having feelings for him, this was the truth. And yet again she was rejoicing at the mere fact that he hadn't detested her kiss. That, in fact, he liked it so much, he had kissed her back.

She suddenly realised what a terrible friend she was...she had broken the promise she made to Karla about never falling for Lylas. In the end, she was destined to hurt the only thing of family she had left in this life. She already hurt her friend by even feeling an attraction for him.

Alana was now realising just how terrible she was. The guilt, although had been kept at bay before, was suddenly starting to crack through her elation.

***

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