As if (though)
Her arms halfway stretch'ed' out
'as though' she 'would have liked' to embrace me but dared not.

1. Is this a subjunctive mode?

2. If I change 'would have liked'
to 'liked' or 'had liked', does it make sense or is there any change of meaning?

3. How was 'would' used here in this sentence?

If you know answers, plz..!

Question

As if (though)
Her arms halfway stretch'ed' out
'as though' she 'would have liked' to embrace me but dared not.

1. Is this a subjunctive mode?

2. If I change 'would have liked' 
to 'liked' or 'had liked', does it make sense or is there any change of meaning?

3. How was 'would' used here in this sentence?

If you know  answers, plz..!

Answer

“As though” is a conjunction and it’s used to express something that appeared a certain way, but was not.  You need the conditional “would have liked” because it’s an “imagined” scenario. Your proposed alternative tenses don’t make sense here.

Answer

Hi