Courage to Love

A young woman was seen sitting at the chair in the airport terminal, deep in thought as she concentrated intently on the sketch pad in front of her.

Her short, curly dark hair fell on her shoulder, with one slightly longer braided hair that fell over her the side of her oval face as she looked at the sketch pad. She didn't have any bangs, leaving her forehead clear and revealing her thinly arched eyebrows.

Her long, naturally curved eyelashes fluttered as she blinked, focusing upon the sketch pad. She had silky smooth and blemish-free skin, slightly puffed up cheeks that had a slight blush to it, and currently, her small heart-shaped pink lips were pursed in a small pout.

She would be looking outside at the airplane that was currently being prepped for flight, then back to her sketch pad, her long, slim fingers holding a pencil and making lines on it.

It was obvious that she was an artist, for her fingers had the dents formed by holding a pencil often, and there were dark smudges on her dainty, fair hands.

A young man that was silently observing her from a distance found the sight extremely captivating for some reason.

He was sharply dressed in a dark suit, and his entire demeanor screamed "CEO" for some reason - despite the fact that he didn't quite have the looks that one would associate with one. Instead of a cold, domineering chiseled handsome face often stated in numerous light novels, he had soft, delicate features.

If one didn't know any better, one would think he was a K-pop celebrity.

His hair was brown, like smooth caramel with some natural highlights in his hair that looked like it had been kissed by the sun. He had the typical two-block haircut, whereby the sides and lower back were very short while his crown hair was left longer.

It was the hair on his crown that had the sun-kissed highlights, and with the 4/6 parting, his wavy bangs fell over the right side of his face. The hairstyle showed off his heart-shaped face to its fullest, making one not being able to steer their eyes away from him.

Everything about him was just perfect. It was as if all the best pieces of the face was put together right on his!

He had the 'Duchess' nose [1], which was a straight-edged nose with a 106-degree nasal tip rotation, often touted to be a mathematically almost perfect (noses between 104-108 degrees in their orientation are the most beautiful).

His cupid-bow lips were perfectly proportionate, whereby the top and lower lips were of the same size, neither full nor thin - just right. Worse, his lips had a natural shade of pink, making it seems as if he was wearing lipstick when he wasn't. Instead of making him look girlish, it just added more to his charm.

He had curved eyebrows, which were above oval-shaped eyes. The most striking part of his eyes was that he had grey eyes, the rarest and most mysterious colour one could have.

Suffice to say, he was breathtakingly beautiful.

He had the sort of features most women would die to have.

However, despite this, no one would mistake him for a woman, as his height and lean, muscular physique that was barely hidden under the suit would show that his face may be gentle, but his aura wasn't.

He even had this dangerous vibe to him, and no one in their right mind would tease him for his delicate features.

He was a walking contradiction that, nonetheless, caused many people to stop and stare, or stumble when they noticed him.

As for the man himself, he was oblivious to the attention he was getting for his focus was entirely on the equally oblivious girl in front of him.

He didn't know why, but she had caught his eye the moment he had entered the waiting room lounge. In fact, he was on the way to the VIP waiting room when he suddenly discovered that his legs just chose a seat that allowed him to watch her without being caught.

His gaze took in the small girl, who couldn't possibly be older than 14. Was he becoming a pervert? He was already 21, and he had countless women jumping themselves at him ever since he could remember but none of them sparked any sort of interest within him.

He felt women were just too troublesome.

So what was it about this girl that made him stop?

She was dressed simply, in a short-sleeve blouse and a 3/4 capri pants. It didn't appear to be any designer label that he was used to seeing on the women who surrounded him, yet ... somehow, it just suited her so well.

She wore flats rather than heels, probably opting for comfort rather than style. Her fingers were long and slim, very beautiful and she would most likely be a wonderful pianist if she played. She had this who aura of wholesomeness and youthfulness that he never experienced while growing up.

It had always been 'fight fight fight', figuratively and literally, as he climbed the ranks to become what he is now. Men attacked, women schemed - everything was a game to see who would win.

There was not a single person that he could trust. Not even his mother.

Not because his mother was an evil scheming woman, but she was just too naive and innocent. She would be used by others to get to him so he had to always scheme behind his mother's back to get back at those who did so.

In his mind, the girl in front of him was like a breath of fresh air.

An oasis in his parched soul.

Just then, his nose twitched.

He smelled the most disgusting fragrance ever. The woman practically bathed in the perfume, thinking it made her irresistible to men. He, on the other hand, just found it cloying.

He didn't have to turn around to know that the annoying woman was heading his way.

On impulse, he stood up and walked straight to the girl he had been looking at. His long legs brought him to her quickly and he sat down next to her, leaning close and placed his lips close to her ears.

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Lianne was busy concentrating on drawing the scene in front of her.

She barely noticed the people walking about as she took in the distance, the lines, the depth of the object she was looking at and transferred it onto her blank canvas. Soon, the blank canvas was filled with lines that didn't make sense at first but slowly, gradually, shapes could be seen emerging.

Lianne had lots of time, for her flight had been delayed by two hours. Thus, she passed the time by sketching the area. One never knew whether it would be useful for the next cover.

She was her brother's exclusive artist for his novel covers and she liked having a variety of portfolios to look at when he made his requests.

Whenever she started working, she would tune out the world around her and she would draw quickly.

Her surrounding was not important. The drawing was.

Under normal circumstances, her surroundings tended to overwhelm her with too much information, thus the comfort she gained from drawing was beyond words. However, due to the fact that she would zone out whenever she was in 'her zone', she never allowed herself to do so in public unless it was in a secure, or safe, area.

She had felt the airport lounge was safe enough.

She soon discovered that she had been completely wrong about that.

Well, it's not like it was her fault, really.

Ordinarily, people don't bother others in such a place. It's just that she had to have come across a shameless, thick-faced guy that was acting out of the ordinary.

His presence was so strong that despite the fact that she was 'in her zone', he managed to penetrate it. In truth, she had actually sensed him somehow even from afar. There had been this feeling of being looked at that only got stronger as he got closer.

She had ignored it previously as she did not sense any danger from that gaze. It was more like ... interest? Perhaps, curiosity. After all, she was drawing in such a public place and generally, this would spark some interest.

People just didn't bother her though.

Perhaps, this guy was just that shameless?

When he sat down next to her, she continued to ignore him. Maybe he would go away if she did. Who would really be that shameless as to continue being a pest, right?

To her utter shock, as she was concentrating on the sketch pad, his rich, sexy voice sounded right in her ear, his breath lightly caressing it as he said, "Please help me get rid of this woman. Pretend to be my girlfriend and I'll be forever grateful."

Lianne's hand went out of line and she stared in horror at the offending scribble.

Her senses went into overdrive.

She could *feel* him so close even though their bodies were not touching. His voice sent shivers down her spine and the way his breath just lightly touched her ear as he talked gave her goosebumps.

Not the 'I am scared' goosebumps but more of the 'oooooohhhh' type of goosebumps.

With all of this sensation being invoked upon her innocent self, she got extremely angry and turned her head slowly towards him. As she had her head down all this while to sketch, naturally, her eyes would fall on his legs first.

His amazingly gorgeous long legs.

She blinked for a while.

Damn.

She had a weakness for long legs. Long, slim yet muscular legs.

Just like the ones her eyes were feasting on.

Even though he was wearing pants, somehow, she could actually sense that it was the perfect shape. It was long enough and she had this sudden desire to look underneath his pants to see if it was as she thought it was.

Tearing her eyes from that pair of evil temptations, she looked up to the man beside her and her breath got caught in her throat.

'Oh my Momma! How can there be anyone this beautiful on Earth?!'

Lianne was face-to-face with a person that the two things she found absolutely captivating in a man.

First, one who is beautiful. There was just something about those soft features that would make her weak in the knees. The second: legs. Specifically, long legs.

And this Heavenly Creature next to her fit both to a T.

No, he was more than perfect.

Lianne gulped.

She was in trouble.