Olivia Sparks

Olivia tapped out and peeled away when she felt his erection poke her underneath. Their attraction was fatal and she knew that another second on his l.a.p would be a full-blown make-out session.

"I'm still mad at you," she reminded him and herself too whilst panting with her eyes closed and her forehead leaning against his.

With his eyes closed too, Maxen cupped the back of her head and nodded against her forehead.

Like the rhythm of the crashing waves outside, their breathing gradually started to be in sync too. 

"Yes, be mad at me baby. I'm a bad boy," he colluded, nibbling on her plump lower lip.

"Okay, you should let me go. It's getting uncomfortable for me," Olivia protested. She grunted as she pushed herself off his l.a.p and went back to her seat.

Fixing his tie, Maxen peeped at Olivia who was now drinking water from her stainless steel bottle. "Why do you always crinkle your nose?"

"Huh?" she asked, crinkling her nose.

"There, you crinkled it again." Maxen bopped her nose this time.

"Oooh that. I used to wear eyeglasses. People would talk me into getting contact lenses but I'm too scared because I have a classmate in university who fell asleep with her contacts on and by the time she woke up, it got stuck in her eye that her ophthalmologist had to scr.a.p.e it out."

Maxen gagged and covered his mouth at the morbidity of Olivia's story and how convincing she looked with how animated she retold the story. 

"So you opted for LASIK eye surgery?"

"You don't saaay?" Olivia's hand flew to her mouth, her eyes wide like saucers as she teased Maxen. 

Her theatrics, however, earned her a round of tickles on her waist that the car was filled with her bell-like laughter.

Coming down from her high, Olivia saw that Maxen was in a better mood than earlier, so she decided it was the best time to break the news why she didn't go through the lease of East Hangar.

She fished out her phone from her bag and tapped on the screen, showing Maxen a photo of a building. 

"You found a new office place?"

"To be clear, Tristan offered this building last night when I mentioned to him in passing that I might sign a lease sooner than expected. And when he showed me the details, I have to agree with him that location-wise, it looked more promising than East Hangar."

Maxen snarled at the mention of Tristan's name. He rolled his tongue over his teeth and cracked his neck that had turned red from the pent up heat of jealousy. 

He kept his reply short, saying, "Your business, your call," and focused his gaze on her face instead, completely ignoring the glaring photo on the screen.

As if magnetized by her thick long eyelashes, he tipped her chin so he could look into her eyes. His anger vanished into smoke and the scowl on his face was replaced by a smile. 

With the sunshine illuminating her orbs, the tiny green flecks are more visible, giving her usually dark hazel eyes a lighter honey color, showing more depth than it usually had. He marveled at how beautiful and riveting it was up close.

"You have beautiful eyes, baby." Maxen rubbed her cheeks and sighed heavily. "What a pity I won't be waking up next to it for the meantime."

"We can do sleepovers." Olivia winked at Maxen and a shimmer of hope ignited in his heart. 

In the driver's seat, Uncle Jin cleared his throat to let his teenage passengers at the back, who were engaged in another passionate moment, know that they were nearing the Lin's ancestral home. He tapped Shadow and pointed towards the console so she could grab a mask for Maxen.

Knowing Henry Lin's animosity towards the Suis, Uncle Jin knew that Maxen should at least conceal his face to avoid detection in the Lin's grounds. 

After the shuffling at the backseat subsided, Shadow glanced at the rearview mirror just to validate that whatever was happening at the back was over which thankfully was. 

She twisted in her seat and handed Olivia the surgical mask who did the honor of covering Maxen's face with it. 

"Uncle, do you have a cap or a hat? I don't think the mask alone will work," Olivia requested as she eyed Maxen and sneered when her eyes landed on his clear blue eyes which were a dead giveaway of his identity even with the mask on.

"Naku, I don't have a cap, Miss Olivia." Regret laced Uncle Jin's voice as he replied to Olivia. He scratched his bald head as he glanced at the rearview mirror.

Shadow, who contemplated for a while whether to offer her favorite hat, offered with much hesitation that Maxen and Olivia both heard it in her voice, "I have a spare one in my bag at the compartment, Miss Olivia."

Olivia cupped Shadow's shoulder and gave her a smile and sweetly told her, "I knew I could count on you."  

Shadow wanted to mirror the smile on Olivia's face but she couldn't because that was her favorite hat and the thought of a stranger using it irked her, so she just nodded at her boss in reply.

The car pulled over so Shadow could grab the cap in the compartment before the envoy continued to their destination. 

Reaching the Lin's tall iron gates, Uncle Jin rolled down his window and showed his ID to the guard who was manning the gate.

"Miss Olivia and Victor Lee?" the guard yawned as he eyed the two figures inside. 

He really didn't want to go through the stringent security protocols because he knew Olivia was Henry Lin's one and only daughter, so it doesn't make sense to scan her entire entourage's IDs. Plus, Miss Ava called in earlier that 'Victor Lee', her cousin, would be tagging along with Olivia too.

Without much questions, the guard pushed a control button and the iron gates split open, granting Olivia's vehicle access while the two other cars were left outside to wait.

"Does your dad hate you that much to send you away and to make you go through security every time you visit your own home?"

"Tell me about it. And wait till he finds out that you came here today with me. He'll make sure we won't be seeing each other again so you better keep that hat and mask on, do you understand?"

Maxen scoffed at her warning and pulled down his mask below his chin. "He can try but he will fail big time." Olivia rolled her eyes at him and tucked the mask back in place.

Upon reaching the back of the Lin's premises, Olivia went straight to her mother's cabin and was surprised to be welcomed by the resident gardener who looked like Quasimodo of Hunchback of Notre Dame what with the latter's disfigured face.

If one was to stare at him, one could not tell what he's feeling because his face looked like a melted candle that a facial expression was impossible to etch on his face and the only way to see through him would be by the glints and flashes in his eyes.

"Uncle Chan," Olivia greeted the gardener with a smile but was blocked by Maxen's bulging forearm. 

"I apologize, I didn't mean to look mean. I saw him pull something from his back that I thought he was holding a weapon," Maxen rattled, embarrassed at the situation.

"I-it's o-ok," Uncle Chan stuttered a reply and lightly dipped his head, avoiding eye contact. 

He quickly gave Olivia a dozen of freshly picked Green Goddess calla lilies that were accented with green veins at the tip of its creamy white trumpet blooms. "Ha-happy Bi-birthday, O-Olivia."

"Thank you, Uncle. These are lovely. Do you have anything that I could place inside Mum's room too?"

Without a beat, Uncle Chan cut a bunch of white and red roses in the garden and made sure it was free of thorns first before handing it to Olivia who gladly accepted it with a heartfelt smile. "I'm sure she's going to love this. Thank you."

Uncle Chan bowed and let Olivia and Maxen pass, walking along the cobblestone steps that led to the cabin's door.

Sensing someone staring at his back, Maxen turned about-face and locked eyes with Uncle Chan's who was looking fixedly at him as if scrutinizing him. 

Maxen was about to take a step forward to ask if Uncle Chan wanted to say something but the latter bowed and left without saying a word, carrying his basket of garden tools with him, never once looking back to the cabin's direction.

Maxen stood frozen by the cabin's door and his eyes lingered at Uncle Chan's retreating back. The gardener's penetrating glare earlier unsettled Maxen that he couldn't shake off the nagging feeling in his gut.