Chapter 16 Marfil
The next morning, I woke up with a hellacious hangover.
I went into the kitchen, where Sebastian and his delicious breakfasts were nowhere to be seen.
I’d woken up early, considering I hadn’t fallen sleep until almost three o’clock in the morning, tossing and turning over how guilty I felt.
Liam had sent me a picture of his black eye, saying that if he saw my asshole bodyguard again, he was going to break his face.
He wouldn’t last thirty seconds against Sebastian, but I didn’t want to add fuel to the fire, knowing that Liam’s visits to my apartment were going to get a lot more tense.
I was pouring cereal into a bowl with my eyes fixed on the hallway, waiting for Sebastian to appear, when I noticed that the apartment was too silent. I could always hear the murmur of the television in Sebastian’s room or the bad music he listened to when he was in there alone.
Setting my bowl aside, I walked down the hall to check if he was still asleep.
No one answered when I knocked on his door.
I debated as to whether I should open it or wait for him to show some sign of life, but my curiosity won out in the end.
The room was dark; the shades were drawn against the sunlight, his bed neatly made.
Had he left, sick of putting up with me?
I went into my studio, which was also completely dark. I was feeling along the wall for the light switch when an arm encircled me from behind, causing my heart to leap into my throat. I tried to scream, but it came out muffled by a giant hand covering my mouth.
My body shook uncontrollably. Someone had broken into my home. Sebastian was probably dead somewhere, and they’d kill me next. Sebastian was right—someone wanted me dead, and I had tempted fate, serving myself up on a platter.
“You’re shaking like a leaf and you haven’t even put up any resistance, Elephant,” he whispered in my ear. “You think what you did yesterday was funny?”
Shit, fuck.
“Sebastian, let me go,” I said into his hand, which was still covering my mouth.
Despite the fact that I’d relaxed as soon as I realized it was him playing a trick on me and not some murderer who had me trapped in that dark room, I couldn’t help but feel a twinge of fear when I heard his deep voice vibrate against my skin.
“I want you to answer me,” he said, squeezing me tighter, almost hurting me. “Did you have a good time, while I was going crazy, fearing for your life?”
I flinched. I did have a good time, a great time, but honesty was not always the best policy.
“Mm s’rry…” I mumbled into his hand.
“You’re going to be even sorrier,” he said ominously as he spun me around.
He stood in front of me, holding my arms over my head and pinning his body against mine, completely immobilizing me.
“You’re going to do exactly as I tell you, Marfil, or I swear to God I’m going to make life impossible for you. Do you understand?”
I swallowed.
He grabbed both of my wrists with one hand and used the other to cup my chin, forcing me to look at him. “Answer me.”
“I understand,” I said. “But now you listen to me: You’re not going to touch any more of my friends.”
Sebastian smiled in the darkness. “Or what, Elephant?” He laughed.
“Stop calling me that,” I gritted out.
“Would you rather I call you what you are? A fucking spoiled brat?” he went on, holding me tightly as I tried to knee him. “No, no, that’s not the way to do it. You have a long road ahead before you’ll be able to harm so much as a hair on my head.”
“You think you’re so tough, don’t you? All tall with your big muscles… You don’t scare me, Sebastian, if that’s what you were trying to do surprising me like that… I’ll have you know, I’d let you tie me up whenever you want.”
He showed irritation at my last comment as his fingers wrapped tighter around my wrists.
“Do you want me to tell you what I think?” I said without taking my eyes off him.
“No.”
“What happened in the bathroom between you and me… is going to happen again, sooner than you think.”
“You underestimate my self-control, Marfil. I’ve won medals for it.”
“Did you also win a medal for being the biggest asshole in the Navy?”
He smiled, immune to my insults. “I don’t want you to mention that issue again.”
“What, the issue of you kissing me or the issue of you being a monumental asshole?”
“My patience has a limit, Marfil, don’t forget that,” he replied, lessening the pressure on my wrists.
“If you don’t mind, I’d like you to let me go. I have stuff to do.”
Sebastian stared at me with a serious expression, studying my face. He released me and took a step back. My eyes had adjusted to the dark, and I saw how huge his arms looked in the sleeveless shirt he was wearing.
“I’ll be in my room, studying,” I said without moving.
“Good,” he answered, his eyes still on mine.
I spent Sunday locked up at home, studying for my upcoming midterms that week.
I was really behind in most of my classes, considering all the days I’d missed because I was sick.
Still, I felt confident—ironically enough, I did have the memory of an elephant and knew I’d pass my midterms with flying colors.
That night, I didn’t eat dinner with Sebastian, not because I didn’t want to, but because he took his plate into his room, claiming he had to make a call.
That piqued my interest. Who could Sebastian be calling when he wasn’t working?
Was it really true that he didn’t have a girlfriend?
Just thinking about it drove me crazy with jealousy.
It would be weird if he didn’t have girls interested in him, since he was so fucking hot, but I took him for more of a one-night-stand kind of guy.
It was hard to imagine him committing to anyone, probably more of the “love ’em and leave ’em” type.
He had barely batted an eye when we’d kissed, after all.
God, I wanted so badly for it to happen again.
I bit my lip thinking about it as I walked past his door. What would it be like to have his dick in my hands? I was suddenly very curious. My mind started to imagine how that conversation might go.
Hey, Sebastian, can I jack you off until I make you come? Or I could do it with my mouth, you decide.
Yeah, I’m sure he’d think it was as funny as I did, unless he had a heart attack.
I went into my room after eating the dinner he’d cooked, a meal fit for a queen, and I fell asleep almost immediately. What I didn’t expect was to find him at my bedside a few hours after I’d closed my eyes.
“Up!” he said, pulling the comforter off me without any warning.
I opened my eyes to see him leaving my room.
What the hell?
I put the pillow over my head, assuming he must’ve lost his mind after some kind of head injury, karma finally on my side, so I ignored him and tried to go back to sleep. It was still dark out.
He appeared again a moment later.
“Either you get up on your own or I’ll wake you up the way they do it in the military.”
All I heard was: Blah, blah, blah.
Just then, a stream of freezing water landed on my face, causing me to jump so high I fell off the bed.
“What the fuck are you doing?”
Sebastian stared down at me blankly. “Don’t you want me to teach you how to defend yourself? Yesterday in your dance studio you proved how helpless you are in the face of danger, so I’ll start by teaching you that without discipline, you won’t be able to so much as fend off a rabid dog.”
I stared at him, unable to believe what I was hearing. “Did you seriously just pour water on my face?”
Sebastian didn’t answer my question. “I want to see you in the kitchen in five minutes, dressed and ready for breakfast.”
I laughed in his face as I stood up and looked at him like he’d lost his mind. “I don’t know whether to punch you or feel sorry for you if you really think I’m going to get up at”—I looked at the clock above my bed—“five thirty in the morning!” I slapped his arm. “Have you totally lost it?”
“You’re the one who wanted me to teach you, and I’m going to do it my way.”
“Well… I don’t want you to teach me anymore, thanks.”
I got back in bed, but Sebastian wrapped his arm around me and started to squeeze my neck, leaving me breathless. His other arm wound tightly around my hips, completely disabling me. I couldn’t move a muscle; I couldn’t even open my mouth.
“Come on… What would you do if this were happening for real?”
He lessened his grip slightly so that I could breathe, but without letting me go.
I tried to think about how to escape this idiot but felt utterly powerless.
I made a move to kick him in the balls, but he pressed me into the mattress and got on top of me so that I was unable to do anything to free myself from him, and I started to get pissed.
“What would you do?” he whispered next to my ear.
As sexy as the situation might have seemed, it was not at all.
“Any guy, any, could pin you like this, in this position, in a snap of a finger. I’m much stronger than a normal guy, and that’s why I’m giving you a chance to free yourself,” he went on, still right in my ear, very serious.
“You should know how to get rid of anyone who tries to touch you unwanted, Marfil, and believe me, as beautiful as you are, there will be plenty of guys who will want to try it.”
“Let me go, Sebastian,” I said into the mattress.
“No,” he replied, pressing his hand into my back. “Think, what would you do?”
I thought, trying hard to find a way to get him off me, but I couldn’t. It was impossible.
“Scream… I would scream!” I answered after a few seconds, pulling air into my lungs.
“Like a little princess?” He was making fun of me.
He’d totally lost it, taking this self-defense lesson way too seriously.
Then I thought of something. He hadn’t yet registered it, or maybe he had, but the hand he wasn’t using to pin my wrists behind my back was resting on the mattress right beside my face.