I Have Fallen In Love With You

The couple continued with another activity offered by the mountain resort. Zuzzy gradually felt at ease with Mark, who was as bubbly as always and would shamelessly do the things he wanted to do, although there were times when the intimate scenes between the two of them would flash through her mind and made her feel shy. Her cheeks would flush out of nowhere as those scenes replayed in her head.

"Do you want to try that?" Mark asked as he pointed his finger up to a zipline ride. Zuzzy felt Mark touch her chin so she would look at him as he said, "Are you perhaps scared of trying it, Darling?"?

She shook her head, so Mark clasped her hand with his and led her toward the entrance of the ride.

"Make sure you take a lot of nice photos, okay? Give me a lot of shots, the more, the better," Mark instructed the zipline attendant.?

Due to its intimate position, Mark chose to do tandem traversing, in which he and Zuzzy would zip in one single harness together, instead of two separate ones, while facing each other.??

"Here, make sure to hug me well…" Mark instructed her as he guided her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist. Seeing Mark's mischievous smile, Zuzzy could already guess what Mark was planning, but she could care less because all she wanted was to try ziplining. She was nervous, so she held on tightly to Mark because, for some reason, sticking onto him like that took her nervousness away.

"Here we go," Mark whispered as he tightened his grasp on Zuzzy when the operator gave the signal for them to be released. Zuzzy closed her eyes as she felt the cold air brushing against her face while her body floated high in the air.

"Open your eyes, Darling… The view is great," Mark encouraged her, so she did as she was told. Mark was right, the sight was spectacular.

"We should strike a lot of pose for the photos…" Mark said, grinning as he sneaked a kiss on Zuzzy's lips. Zuzzy scrunched her face, which made Mark laugh as he enjoyed her mixed expression… She was annoyed, nervous, but also thrilled at the same time, and she screamed as they zipped quicker on a downward slope.

Zuzzy could feel a mix of excitement and anxiety all over her body as they continued ziplining. They feasted their eyes on the sweeping views of the lush forests beneath. All throughout the ride, Mark kept stealing a kiss on her lips, cheeks, and even nose, that Zuzzy had lost count of how many times it was. She swore that Mark was the most shameless person she ever met in her life.

After the ride, Mark excitedly checked their pictures that were snapped by the zipline operator and bought all the copies.

"Let me see them," Zuzzy said, but Mark kept the envelope and said, "Let's look at them later."

Zuzzy suddenly remembered Xander's promise to teach her how to swim and decided to ask him to do it during this trip. She was determined to make the most of their vacation because she knew that once she joined the Shi Hospitals group, she wouldn't have time to do this kind of thing anymore. "Alright, let's go back to the cabin, then? You promised to teach me how to swim," Zuzzy reminded him.

"Okay, Darling… Let's have lunch first, and I'll teach you how to swim after that…" Mark complied as he walked hand in hand with Zuzzy .

Back in their cabin, Mark was laughing at some of the pictures, in which Zuzzy was screaming. Zuzzy was in the middle of cooking, and Mark kept teasing her with those pictures.

"Do you want me to put some poison in your food right now?" Zuzzy hissed.

Mark walked toward her and hugged her from behind. "Okay, I'll stop. I'll just hug you like this instead. Hmm, that smells good…" He praised as he nuzzled Zuzzy's neck. He rejoiced inwardly because he succeeded in being touchy-feely with Zuzzy quite frequently nowadays. Yes, he was doing it on purpose to make Zuzzy get used to him more, and he had no plans on stopping.

"Maybe I should change your name on my phone into 'The Shameless One' instead," Zuzzy said, to distract herself.?

Mark chuckled and whispered in her ear, "Hmm, if trying to get your attention means I'm shameless, and not just a bully, as you said before, then I don't mind… As long as I can hold you like this, and have all of you, then you can call me shameless all you want…"

Zuzzy heaved a long sigh before murmuring, "Really really shameless."

She could only utter those words to shield herself emotionally because her body had already betrayed her. She knew she could no longer control her own body because that shield had long broken. So there was no use to deny her physical attraction to Mark any longer. Even being hugged from behind by him like this felt good…?

But for some reason, she didn't think she deserved this kind of feeling. It felt like she was betraying Richard... It had not been long since he passed on, so how could she already be attracted to another man? Wasn't it too early to entertain things like this??

She was really at that state, where she was totally confused with the various emotions she was having.

She needed some more time to sort out her feelings because they overwhelmed her.? Was she a coward? Yes, maybe she was… But how could she not be one when she had lost someone that she loved? When Richard left, her whole world crumbled. The pain was immense that many times after that, she was not even sure if she would be able to live on. How could she forget that kind of agony?

Therefore, right now, she was still shielding herself emotionally. She had to deprive herself of emotions that could make her weak. Especially when she had a battle ahead, which she had to overcome. She could not allow herself any weaknesses that would hinder her from winning.?

"What are you thinking about, Darling?" Mark murmured as he noticed that Yera was deep in thought.

"Nothing… I'm just thinking about how to protect myself emotionally because my physical shield is already broken from the tremendous amount of shamelessness that you have," Zuzzy answered truthfully.

Mark knew Zuzzy was a straightforward person, so he was no longer shocked by her words. Instead, he kissed her neck and shamelessly declared, "Hmm… Yes, I've obviously broken your physical shield. But your emotional shield is still my top priority, so I guess I should work harder to break it."

Mark understood Zuzzy very well because Rauf had already explained to him about the complexity of her emotional struggle. Just by talking to Zuzzy occasionally, Rauf could already tell that she had experienced a lot of tragic things in her life that had caused her to wall herself up emotionally. It was her defense mechanism.

So Mark smiled before he added, "Don't worry, Darling, your husband has a generous amount of patience. Especially now that I've fallen in love with you, Zuzzy …"