I like you

He parked and she stepped down from the car with her purse.

He found a place to park and went after her but he could not find her. He groaned as he wanted to hit his lips for speaking about her past. He might have poured salt into her wounds.

He called her but she was unavailable.

********

Lin Jing looked back at him as he drove off. She swallowed holding back the urge she felt to stump her feet in anger. Did she just get abandoned?

She knew she had to do something to stop him from talking about her past. If those men she dated in the past ended up ruined, it was not her fault and he had no right to bring that up when they were not even in a real relationship.

She clenched her purse so hard she feared that he fingers might dig into the leather it was made of. She decided to get a cab and return home.

"Hey, pretty," a guy said stopping beside her with a smirk lifting a corner of his lips.

She took a step away from him and stretched her hand to stop an approaching cab.

The street was busy with people enjoying the nightlife but she certainly did not feel comfortable with a man getting so close to her especially when his eyes were fixed on her bosom.

She felt his hand approach her wrist but she remained calm as she knew there was no way she would tackle him without getting unnecessary attention and if she was not careful it might get recorded.

She moved her hand away from him slowly but he still caught her wrist. Standing so close to him now, she could smell the strong uncomfortable smell of alcohol from him.

She looked ahead at a club and around to the few people who had begun taking note of what was happening. She began wriggling her wrist from his grip.

"Let go," she murmured loud enough for the closest person to hear. When one of them began approaching them, she looked at him with her eyes begging him to help her.

The guy was with his friends looking like her had just turned twenty. He was scared as he hesitated before tapping his friend.

His three friends including the gurl with them began walking toward them. Imagine if they were in this all with the man but the innocence, she saw in the boy's eyes which was difficult for someone so good at reading people like her to mistake, made her keep begging.

The man's grip on her wrist only tightened and he began pulling her away when he took note of those people advancing towards them.

"Let go," she continued pulling away from him.

Pow!

Thud!

Her wrist was released. She turned to see the young men she asked for help behind and looked forward at the man dressed in a black suit on a black shirt with the first two buttons undone.

Her eyes went from the first undone button and the white skin underneath to his lips. She was able to know who the person was before she met his black enraged eyes directed at the man on the ground.

She swallowed and moved away from the two men and moved close to the young men. She tried to hail a taxi. Her wrist was wrapped in a firm palm when a taxi approaching slowed down.

She froze unsure if it would be a good idea for her to struggle with him. "I am fine, I would just take a taxi home," she told him with a tight smile.

"Are you okay?" he asked her with that cold deep voice she has been forced to get used to.

"Oh, yes I am," she replied nodding energetically to assure him.

"I cannot let you go in that taxi; I will drop you off at home," he told her firmly giving her no room to escape.

She looked at those young men again and shook her head subtly as his presence so close to her made her shiver against her will.

"I will drop you off, you can call Shen Yan and tell him so that he won't get too worried about you," he told her firmly again.

She swallowed and nodded as there was no way she would be able to get out of this without causing a scene that might lead to some future troubles.

"Thank you," she mouthed as she passed those young men but she could see that they knew she was not comfortable with the man but they did not have the guts to advance to offend this man who looked very powerful.

"I recognized her. That is, one disadvantage of being pretty," the lady among them told her friends in a low whisper Lin Jing did not miss.

She would have to accept that. She was pretty and she enjoyed being pretty but things like this could happen sometimes to dampen her mood but there is always someone like those young men around to protect her or even like this man.

With a pained expression, she was forced to appreciate his help when he took her into his car. She wanted to seat in the co-pilot seat but he had already opened the back door for her.

"Thank you," she appreciated with a slight bow.

"Why you out there alone?" she heard him ask her in what sounded like an interrogation.

She shifted until she was closer to the door and farther from him. She wanted to throw his question back at him like what sort of crazy coincidence was this? How could he be there at the moment she needed help. Or was he stalking her?

"I like you," came a clear announcement. It was even clearer than she would have heard it if he had used a megaphone.

Her heart stopped only for a few seconds like a sprinter about to race to wait for the sound of the gunshot. As you know, the gunshot does not need to sound to have her heart racing like it had to win the race by all means.

She felt her throat tighten in a dry irritating manner and she swallowed in need of water to wench this annoying thirst.

He picked a bottle of water from a compartment she was not aware of at that moment or she would have picked it herself. He passed it over to her and she did not hesitate to gulp down the water as soon as the bottle touched her lips.

This should not happen so fast. It was too fast.