Burning Desire (Completed)

chapter 59

The reception was moved to the grand patio for the cocktail hour. The patio overlooked a Mediterranean-style of pools and courtyards. The pianist played soft piano music as some of the guest picked their partners and started dancing.

Jasmine sat back at the ballroom, looking towards the patio as she watched couples dancing and smiling.
She took a sip of her drink and glanced around, searching for Raymond.

"Jasmine."

She knit her brows in a frown as she recognized the voice. Andrew sat down, facing her with a smile on his face.

"Hey," he said softly and reached to touch her face.

She pulled away slightly and hissed."Don't."

He was surprised by her reaction but he slowly brought down his hand and placed it on the table, not taking his eyes off her.
"Jasmine what's wrong. Why are you treating me like I'm a total stranger?"
He sounded hurt.

She glared at him with dark blue eyes.
"You're asking me what's wrong?
So you have no fucking idea what you did?" She asked coldly.

He exhaled deeply and wiped a palm on his face.  "Look Jasmine, I understand you're angry with me for ignoring you all these while. I'm really sorry for not calling you or replying to your messages. You see, i've been really working on this case and it really messed up everything." He explained, hoping that her resentment towards him might cool off.

Jasmine let out a hysterical laugh. It was funny how genuinely sorry he looked and how pathetic he thought she was stupid to believe a word he said.

"Do you really take me for a fool Andrew?" Her tone was harsh.

"No no. I would never Jasmine. You know that." He tired to assure her, his eyes pleading for her to believe him and trust him.

"Really? So let me get this straight. You were too busy to call me but you were able to make out time to come to Gainesville and have a romantic date with your friend, right?" She shot at him.

He arched his brows. "What're you saying?"

"I saw you Andrew. I saw you with that brunette at Sergio's restaurant on Monday. I watched you kiss her Andrew. Don't you fucking try and deny it,"  she said bitterly, trying hard to hold back the tears from spilling out.

Deep down she was still hurting. She'd thought she had gotten over the pain but she was wrong.

A wave of shock and guilt washed over Andrew's face as his lips parted slightly.
She'd known all along, that was why she had been ignoring him when he tried to reach her.

"Jasmine, look I can explain. It wasn't what it looked like please..." He tried to say but she cut him off rudely.

"I don't give a fuck about your explanation. Whatever we had is over Andrew. I've moved on," she said with a serious look on her face.

He was filled with an agony of regret.
"Jasmine, please." His voice was small and whispery, his green eyes begging her as he took her hand into his.
"Please we can talk about this, I beg you."

She was almost tempted to give in to his pleas. She was touched, seeing him in this hopeless state but she shook her head against it. He'd hurt her and lied to her face.

She pulled her hand away from him.
"Please go." She turned away from him.

"Jasmine please." He begged as he got on one knee and reached for her hand. "I'm sorry, please let me explain."

"What are you doing?" She felt embarrassed as she could see the eyes of everyone in the room on them.

"Get up Andrew," She said through gritted teeth, shifting away from him.