Bewitched His Soul

Aria walked to the parking lot with large art books in her arms. She and Piper had studied some art details the whole afternoon, but they could not complete the whole syllabus so she decided to take a few books home.

Justin was leaning towards his car and typing on his phone, but as soon as he sensed Aria coming near him he switched off his phone keeping it back in his pocket.

"Aria, I will drop you off today," Justin stated.

"But what will I do with my car, I cannot leave it here overnight," Aria voiced her concern. Justin thought for a second and told one of his trusted staff to take Aria's vehicle home.

"Now there is nothing to worry about, get in," Justin opened the car door.

After a few minutes Aria noticed that this was not the way home.

"I am taking you for a long drive," Justin played some romantic track.

Aria lowered the car window to feel the fresh air, and smiled.

He stopped in the middle of the lonely road and asked Aria to get down.

The place where he stopped was very calm and serene, on either side of the road there were tall trees full of yellow flowers. Since it was the city outskirts the sky was clearly visible and so was the full moon

Justin came and stood behind Aria too closely when he touched her shoulder, she stiffened and turned towards him.

"Aria…," Justin called her name slowly and sensually.

"Hmm," Aria responded, lost in his eyes.

"I don't think you are so innocent as to not guess my intentions. But still I will make all of them clear at this moment. I know we did not have a good start. That was because I like to be in my own space and avoid everyone. But we always run into each other, leaving no choice but to get to know one another. You are so different from what I expected and I am unable to stop myself from falling in love with you.

Aria I like you," Justin confessed. The last three words had a pause in between them and said much louder making them unforgettable.

Aria's heart beat increased, yes, she always had a clue that he was interested in her, but today after hearing his confession, she felt special.

His words sounded so sincere, but his facial expression did not change much. His eyes did not show too much emotion. Aria knew he was an introverted man, and saying this much was probably a big deal. Justin was looking at her impatiently, waiting for her response.

"Justin, I like you too," Aria answered, not wanting for him to wait any longer. Justin let out a breath, which he was holding for a long time, and ran his thumb on her cheek.

"You are so damn beautiful," he whispered.

Justin lowered his head and his lips crashed on her. This time he kissed her without any interruption. The kiss was cut short just after a few seconds and his tongue did not enter her mouth, just sucked on her lips.

Aria did not experience anything even though she had never been in a relationship but she had read a lot of romance novels and watched movies.

Wasn't a kiss supposed to be earth shattering? Consuming her whole being, and burning her belly with a fire that one is unable to extinguish?Because it was their first kiss and they have just gotten together, so maybe Justin was not trying to scare her off.

They stayed together in each other's arms and after some time headed home.

"Because of you I need to pull a all-nighter to study all these books," Aria complained.

"Tell me the names of the books," Justin asked and she gave all the six books names.

"Freshen up and come to my house. I will teach you," Justin commanded.

"Have you read all six books?" Aria was impressed, knowing he had already read such books.

"Not all, just four. What do you want for dinner?" Justin stated.

"Hmm... I don't know,something simple," Aria replied.

As promised Justin explained everything to her in much simple terms and gave her a lot of examples. She noted important points on her notepad and it saved a lot of time. Justin did not try anything with her, he was full on in his professional mode. Only when she returned home did he give her a brief hug and told to come to him, if she encountered any problem.

Feeling happy by his care, Aria slept blissfully recalling today's event.

The next day, it was very hectic as there was only one week left for the exhibition. Josie kept picking on her for one reason, or the other. Saying some of her documents were not filled correctly and making her redo them.

Aria had to show the mentor her final product so she said that she would fill the documents at home and mail them to her. But Josie refused to agree, so Aria missed her appointment with the mentor.

She cannot even show the painting to the mentor tomorrow as he will be leaving for his hometown.

"Aria, I will try to talk with the teacher, and ask him whether he can look at your pieces during the lunch break," Piper suggested.

Aria agreed and filled the form as per Josie 's instruction. The mentor had known that Aria was a good student and because of some emergency she had to miss the appointment so he agreed.

The mentor checked her painting and pointed out just two mistakes and told her everything else is fine. Aria thanked him and went to have lunch.

But now another problem came into her way, the spot where she was about to put up her paintings has been given to another person.

When Aria went and asked what the reason for the change, Josie replied that they were displaying the paintings according to a genre and her paintings did not match that row.

Aria knew it was an absolute lie because until yesterday, her painting belonged in that row according to the mentors, but now Josie who did not have much knowledge about paintings was judging her work.Aria knew it was no use arguing with Josie and just followed her lead.

She was a hundred percent sure Josie hated her, because she was friendly towards everyone except her.But she had no idea what she did to get on Josie's bad side.

By the time she reached home, she was very tired and hungry. She had been running here and there since the morning, and she could not even drink a cup of coffee peacefully.

She had some instant noodles and went to bed, not before replying to Justin's goodnight message.