Chapter 5 Marfil
I opened my eyes and realized that I was lying on a wrinkled sheet of paper. I picked it up, half asleep, and read the note Liam had left me.
I didn’t want to wake you. You need your rest. I’ll see you next Wednesday for dinner and a movie. Love you, babe.
I smiled. I liked feeling that things were still the same. Well, more or less. Our Wednesday movie night might still be in place, but my inner voice told me that something had changed. I looked at the time. Eleven thirty!
“Shit!”
I jumped up and threw on a pair of jeans and a red-and-white-striped T-shirt. Then I stepped into my motorcycle boots and went to the bathroom to wash my face and brush my teeth. I had a mark on my right cheek from where I’d slept on Liam’s note, but I couldn’t waste time putting on makeup.
I rushed out of my room and shrieked when I saw Sebastian standing there.
He was dressed in light jeans, a dark T-shirt, and white Nike sneakers.
Was this the same guy who’d picked me up at the airport yesterday looking like a bank manager?
He lifted one of my white coffee mugs with hearts to his lips, and I felt so dizzy that I had to hold on to the wall behind me for support.
Sorry, you’re not scary; I was just startled by how hot you are, I would’ve liked to explain. But I still had some self-respect, so I tried to play it off with as much dignity as possible.
“I’m running late,” I said as I walked to the kitchen and stood on my tiptoes to reach my pink thermos, when an arm stretched over my head and grabbed it for me.
I turned to face him and found him much closer than I’d expected, that it took me a few seconds to snap out of it and take the thermos he was holding out to me.
“Th-thanks,” I said, walking around him to heat up the milk.
Once warm enough, I added honey, then poured it into my thermos at lightning speed. “Can we go?”
Sebastian nodded, picking up a jean jacket and putting it on.
I opened the door without looking back and pressed the button for the elevator.
His presence made me uncomfortable. I couldn’t help it; I was extremely attracted to him.
We stepped onto the elevator, and as the doors closed, his Hugo Boss cologne filled my nostrils.
I thought I might finally experience an orgasm right then and there.
I was anxious about what it would be like to have him following me around all day on campus.
He was dressed enough like a college student to blend in, but what would people think if he was always right next to me, watching me at all times?
I didn’t want anyone to know he was my bodyguard, so when we got to the car, I ignored his orders and climbed into the front passenger seat.
“You should sit in the back, Marfil.”
Once again, that tingling feeling returned when he said my name.
“You’re not my driver, Sebastian,” I said, enjoying the feel of his name on my lips. “I don’t want anyone to know what your job is. If I show up to school in the back seat, my friends are going to start asking questions.”
“The windows in the back are bulletproof; it’s for your safety.”
I put on my seat belt, ignoring him. “No one is going to shoot me.”
Sebastian clenched his jaw and looked forward. He started the car and I smiled, happy that I’d gotten my way.
“We have to think about what we’re going to say when people see you with me,” I said a few minutes later.
Sebastian acted like he hadn’t heard me.
“You might pass for a student, but if my friends see us always together, every day, they’ll think we’re a couple.”
“What others think should be the least of your concerns.”
Maybe that was true, but I didn’t want to give people any more reason to talk about me. They did that more than I was comfortable with already. “I don’t want anyone to know I have a bodyguard.”
“Well… tell me what you expect me to do, because I am your bodyguard.”
I looked at him, annoyed by his condescending tone. “Pull in here,” I said as we neared the parking lot that was farthest from my first class, where no one would see us.
Sebastian shot me a confused look but did as I asked.
I grabbed a notebook out of my backpack and ripped out two pages. “Here’s a schedule of my classes and a map of campus. Don’t talk to me; keep a safe distance without looking suspicious. We’ll meet back here after I grab some lunch.”
I got out of the car without waiting for his response. If I didn’t take control of the situation, Sebastian Moore might get the wrong idea about me. I was the one who would be calling the shots; I wouldn’t let anyone boss me around, and I had a feeling Sebastian wasn’t going to like that one bit.
When I entered my Intermediate Microeconomics class late, the professor looked irritated.
Silently excusing myself, I went straight to my favorite seat at the top of the room, right by the hallway door.
Only after I’d taken out my laptop and opened my notes did I allow myself to look around.
Sitting to my right, like he belonged there, was Sebastian, scanning the classroom until he spotted me.
For some reason, I didn’t avert my gaze when my eyes met his across the room, but I should have.
It turned out to be almost impossible to concentrate knowing he was watching me.
The rest of the day flew by. Asking the professor to let me make up the exam I’d missed because of the kidnapping was useless. I didn’t want to tell him the real reason for my absence, and my excuse of being sick was laughable to him.
“You’ll have to make up for it with the midterm and final, Miss Cortés, that’s all there is to it.”
I stormed out of class, making my way to the closest dining hall.
As soon as I landed on the third floor of Lerner Hall, my bad mood turned worse.
Regan, my betting ex-boyfriend, was leaning against the cafeteria glass wall, surrounded by all his asshole friends.
They had to comment when I walked past, as always.
“Hey, Marfil! We missed you. Some of us had to go back to watching porn.”
I ignored their stupid comments, crossed the cafeteria, bought a salad with arugula and cheese, then went straight to my usual table, where my friend group sat.
Lisa and Stella were classmates more than friends, but they were some of the few girls I could more or less tolerate.
I’d met Lisa at orientation and Stella in the campus infirmary, where we’d both landed with epic hangovers after our first college party.
I liked them, but it was hard for me to open up.
“Where have you been?”
“I was sick,” I lied as I took a sip of water.
I watched as Sebastian sat down at the table next to ours after walking across the cafeteria with his eyes on me.
I observed him as he took a bite of a cheese sandwich.
I liked seeing him eat, proof that he wasn’t actually a Greek god, just a mere mortal like the rest of us.
“Who are you looking at?” Stella asked, following my gaze until landing on Sebastian.
“No one,” I answered, quickly looking away.
“Who is that?!”
Lisa turned, and her eyes lit up just as Stella’s had.
“Who?” I said, playing dumb.
“What do you mean, who?” Lisa said, looking incredulous. “That snack over there in the corner. I’ve never seen him around! He’s so hot!”
“Ooh, he is a snack; I’d like to dunk him in my glass of milk,” said Stella, shameless as ever.
I looked at my two friends. I didn’t want them to even look at him, and my irrational jealousy concerned me more than the fact that, when I glanced around, I noticed they weren’t the only students eyeing Sebastian. Several other girls were stealing glances at him.
Fuck, Sebastian Moore had just become the talk of Ferris Booth Commons, and an object of sexual desire for half the students. Wasn’t he supposed to pass unnoticed?
We didn’t make eye contact again until we reached the car. I sat down, furious and exhausted, my emotions close to the surface for reasons I didn’t fully understand.
“Is it really necessary for you to come to all my classes and even eat in the exact same dining hall, at the exact same time as me? You could wait outside—nothing’s going to happen to me here on campus.”
“My job is to protect you twenty-four hours a day, Marfil.”
I sat in silence as he drove. I wasn’t used to a man being so indifferent to me. Sebastian seemed immune to my presence, whereas his presence drove me crazy.
We didn’t exchange another word, but in my mind, I was beginning to formulate a plan. Although I knew that, if I was successful, it would only cause more problems.
Back at the apartment, Sebastian went into his room, and I locked myself in my bedroom with a single objective in mind.
I wasn’t going to deviate from my daily routine, although I did spend a few minutes longer than usual choosing my dance outfit.
I finally settled on my favorite leotard—black with a lace back—chose a matching skirt, and finished it off with tights, leg warmers, and my pink sweater.
Ready to set my plan in motion, I knocked on the door to his room, and he told me to come in.
Like some practical joke destiny was playing to give me a taste of my own medicine, I found him standing before a boxing bag in sports shorts and a white sleeveless shirt that left his muscular arms bare.
In place of boxing gloves, he had white tape over his knuckles.
My eyes paused on his tattoos. I wanted time to study them, to ask him about each one…
Seeing me enter, he stopped the bag, which he must’ve hung from the ceiling the day before, and stood looking at me without a word.
To my satisfaction, his eyes scanned my body down to my legs and then back up to my face.
I didn’t usually display myself to men, but I felt a smug satisfaction to see that, even if Sebastian Moore seemed to be from another planet, I could still get some type of reaction out of him…
“I’m going to be dancing for a while…” I said.