32. Unnatural
366 Words
Satsuki stole another glance at the photographs in her hand and had to fight off the blush threatening to stain her cheeks. Really, when the insistent photographer had coaxed them into posing for him, she had never expected the end result to look like that. It was highly unnerving to look at the photographs. For one, she had barely recognised herself in the feminine beauty sparkling with inner fire. The unexpected image had sent her blinking for several seconds before she had finally been forced to accept that the woman in the picture was indeed her.
But even more disturbing than her strange image on the paper was how in the photograph, she seemed to stand in such an ease within the arms of someone she so desperately despised. If she hesitated in giving herself reasons to hate him, she was afraid that small part of her that could not deny her apparent attraction would be allowed more room. And that would be giving Narita Ken exactly what he desired, and Satsuki was not about to fall into the clutches of the womanising jerk. Nuh-uh!
Then why did it seem to be completely normal, the way her arms were wrapped around the insufferable but oh-so-charismatic actor in the photograph?
How could the woman in the photograph – the woman who was her and yet could not be her – be at such an apparent ease with the man whose dark eyes belied his passions? How could she appear to be comfortable in the dangerous man's embrace? How could the woman match the man so well, to such a degree that even Satsuki couldn't deny that the two people in the picture looked like a couple?
How could the two of them radiate such intimacy that the mere sight of the preposterous picture made Satsuki's cheeks flush?
But the first and foremost question echoing in Satsuki's troubled mind was how the hell could something that was so utterly unnatural in real life have been made to seem so desirable in the simple little photograph?
How could the couple in the picture appear to be so well-suited to each other that their close embrace seemed nothing but right and natural?