Bewitched His Soul

The rest of the dinner was followed by complete silence. When Justin told her to take the guest room Aria agreed without any arguments, as she was dead tired. When Aria closed the bedroom door, she noticed that Justin continued doing his work.

Early in the morning, Aria's phone started to beep, she thought it was the alarm and shut it off but the phone kept ringing continuously.

Aria half opened her eyes and saw that it was a call from Piper.

"Hello, what's the matter?" Aria asked in a sleepy tone.

"Aria, I am downstairs. I did not have a good night's sleep knowing I had your key. I wanted to make sure you are okay," Piper stated.

Aria was wide awake now and sat down leaning towards the bed headboard. She did not want Piper to come up and find out their boss Justin was her neighbor and how she spent the night in his house. She was not ready for Piper's endless questions or to place Justin in an awkward situation.

Maybe she was overthinking Justin's embarrassment, he will probably stand there with a cold face and act like whatever was happening did not concern him in any way.

"Piper, your name is not on the visitor's list and since I returned home late last night I am still sleepy. Please don't mind me, can you leave the key with the security? I will collect it later," Aria lied.

"Oh no problem, it's good you are alright. I will do as you say," Piper thought Aria had unlocked her door with a duplicate key.

Aria kept the phone aside and pulled the blanket on her face to get some more sleep. Unfortunately, she could not go back anymore, so she got up and slowly opened the door hoping not to disturb Justin with the noise.

She opened the fridge to get a bottle of water when Justin came out of the gym. He spent most of his time sitting at the desk so he was very religious about his workouts.

He was wearing a blue tank top and black shorts. He was showing off his biceps, flat tone abs and those strong legs. And He was so damn good looking making it impossible for her to take eyes off him, even though he was sweating a lot, and when wiped his face with the towel around his neck, she just had to look away.

Aria was drinking cold water, but her body felt hot by looking at him.

"I am leaving for the office in twenty minutes. I don't usually cook breakfast," Justin stated. He just had a smoothie after workout and had breakfast around 10:30 am in the office.

"Don't mind me go ahead. My friend returned the key so I'm going home now," Aria went to the room to get her handbag and cellphone.

When she came out Justin was waiting in the same spot, with a blank expression.

"Thanks for letting me stay the night," Aria smiled and in turn he just briefly nodded his head.

Aria went to the office in a good mood. Today Mr. Francis was their mentor and just as Piper said he was very strict. It was like nothing satisfied him. He did not raise his voice but pointed out the mistakes and made them redo the paintings until it was perfect according to him.

"This is the fourth time he has told me to blend the colours well. I even asked him to show me how to do it. You know what he told me? That I should have been more attentive in my college. That's it I cannot do it anymore," Piper laid on the floor.

Even Aria was annoyed at Mr. Francis, he nitpicked such minute details which no one else seemed to notice.

"How about we sneak out," Piper whispered.

"We are not in school," Aria raised her brow.

"Oh come on, at least let's go to the canteen and get a strong cup of coffee," Piper had reached her maximum limit.

Piper and Aria quietly went out of the auditorium thinking they will come back before Mr. Francis notices them. After going to the canteen, they completely relaxed and started chitchatting.

"What are you guys doing here?" a voice came from behind. Piper and Aria turned around to see Justin standing there and it looked like he was kind of pissed.

"I …was just …," Aria stammered.

But Piper answered quickly, "I was not feeling well so came out."

"So will you get better by playing games on your phone?" Justin rolled his eyes.

"Don't you have to be in the auditorium now. There is a reason why I have hired the mentors. You can skip all your classes if you want to be there, but don't complain if your paintings are not selected for this exhibition," Justin continued when Aria and Piper lowered their heads.

Seeing his gaze on her, Aria lifted her eyes. He was looking at her as if he could burn holes through her, there was such intensity and fire in his eyes.

Justin walked away not saying anything more, he clearly understood that these girls were bunking the classes and chilling out.

"Hey don't mind him," a sweet voice said. Aria's attention was on Justin the whole time and she did not notice that there was a woman behind him the whole time

She was tall, beautiful and dressed sexily with a skirt and high heels and emitted an attractive aura.

"Mr. Justin is in bad mode because there was a last minute change in the guest list. Otherwise he would not have bothered with such small things," the woman said in a soft tone.

Aria knew that this woman was trying to make them feel better with kind words. If everything was fine then Justin would have screamed at them.

"Hmm," Aria nodded.

"If you need any help here, don't hesitate to ask me. By the way I am… ", before that woman could say her name Piper replied.

"You are Josie, who doesn't know you," there was a hint of excitement in Piper's voice.

"It's good to meet you," Josie chuckled and followed Justin's wake.

"Who is she? Is she someone famous?" Arai asked.

"She is the daughter of the person who tortured us this morning," Piper stated.

"You mean Mr. Francis," Aria widened her eyes.

"Yes, the one and only. You know Josie is not only pretty but quite talented too. She is very sweet and always goes out of her way to help others.

Since her father works here, sometimes she comes to visit. Everyone in the office kind of worships her and tries to be in her good books.

You always sit at the back and never give an ear to all the gossip so you had no idea that at least once in a day her name is mentioned in all our classes," Piper explained.