Chapter 22 Marfil
Friday morning, my sister left to spend the rest of her spring break with her mother and stepfather. It made me sad to say goodbye, knowing I wouldn’t see her again until the month we always spent here in the summer.
Marcus Kozel and I went out again that night, not alone but with a group of his closest friends, who he wanted to introduce me to.
They were nice and I felt comfortable around them.
After an hour of friendly chatting and an intense kiss outside my house, he said goodnight, promising that he’d visit again before the end of my stay to say goodbye.
Things with Sebastian had cooled considerably.
I avoided him and he avoided me, a major feat, given that we were forced together all the time.
And even though Marcus showed an avid interest in me, Sebastian was the one who occupied my dreams. As much of a catch as Marcus might be, and as happy as my father was with me for the first time in my life, I couldn’t keep going out with him while another person consumed my thoughts. It wasn’t fair to him.
I would tell Marcus how I felt and suggest we just be friends. That was my plan when he came to see me early Saturday morning.
“One thing’s for sure, you can really ride,” he said as we galloped together through my father’s fields.
“How about a race?” I said, throwing him a glance over my shoulder.
“Last one to the barn owes the other one a kiss!” he shouted, catching me off guard as he galloped past at top speed.
I followed automatically, but he had a head start and beat me there.
Sebastian and Wilson were coming up behind us, but they stayed outside to give us privacy. I didn’t need to look at Sebastian to know he had on the same poker face he’d been wearing for days.
“You lost,” Marcus said, walking over to help me down from my horse.
When my feet touched the ground, Marcus bent over to kiss me, but I reared back with all the subtlety I was capable of.
“Aren’t you going to give me my prize for winning?
” he said, trailing kisses along my neck without my permission.
“Marcus…” I started to say gently, looking at the spot where, days prior, Sebastian had behaved quite unprofessionally with me.
“Oh, come on, princess,” he said, placing his hands on my hips and pulling me to his body, wanting more. “Give me something to remember you by…”
He was a good kisser, but I didn’t feel anything. Also, kissing me right there, with Sebastian outside, made me uncomfortable.
His hands roamed my body and cupped my breasts.
I stiffened.
“You’re going too fast, Marcus. I don’t…” I began, but he placed his mouth over mine, shutting me up with a kiss. His tongue felt like it was about to poke my tonsils out, and I was immediately disgusted. I pushed him away, but the more resistance I applied, the harder he forced himself against me.
“You drive me crazy,” he said, squeezing my ass so hard it hurt.
“Let me go!” I shouted, angry and scared, upon noticing that my attempts to distance myself from him were completely unsuccessful. I couldn’t get him off me, and none of what Sebastian had taught me to defend myself could be put into practice in that moment. “Fuck, Marcus!”
“I deserve something in exchange for following you around all these fucking days, don’t you think?” he said, thrusting his erection into my groin and blocking my attempts to kick him.
“Let me go, you fucking—”
He covered my mouth with one of his hands as the other squeezed my left breast, hard.
Never in my life had I been treated that way. Not even Regan had dared to go that far. My heart pounded and fear coursed through my veins. I knew in that instant that it didn’t matter what I said. If he could, he’d take me right then and there, against my will.
“Sebastian!” I screamed at the top of my lungs when Marcus moved his hand from my mouth to rip my blouse open.
“Be quiet, fuck!” Marcus growled in a terrifying tone.
I sobbed soundlessly, barely able to breathe. Then I heard a loud click. Marcus stopped. I opened my eyes, trying to see through my tears, when Sebastian came into view. He had his gun aimed at the back of Marcus’s neck, who, to my surprise, smiled, as if amused.
“Get away from her,” Sebastian ordered in a measured tone.
Marcus laughed and slowly stepped away from me. I rushed to stand behind Sebastian, arranging my clothes back into place.
“Who the hell do you think you are, telling me what to do?” Marcus said as he turned to face Sebastian without a hint of fear in his blue eyes. The gun was now pointed directly at his throat. “You gonna shoot? Huh, Moore?”
Sebastian kept the gun steadily pointed at Marcus, the twitching muscles in his back the only sign of any tension in his body. “Get out of here,” Sebastian said.
Marcus laughed again and turned to me, huddled behind Sebastian.
“Tell your father I’ll be calling in his debt sooner than planned.
” His eyes blazed into mine, so dark and menacing that I felt true terror.
How had he gone from Prince Charming to total psychopath?
To make matters worse, I’d been right. Men only wanted me for my body.
The rest didn’t matter. It had never mattered.
Once Marcus left, riding back to the house, escorted by Wilson, I discouraged Sebastian from doing or saying anything else. I couldn’t handle it right then. Sebastian had warned me about Marcus, and I’d ignored him, like always.
“Marfil…” he said, approaching me from behind after making sure they had left. “He’ll never lay a hand on you again.”
I turned around to face him and saw that he was still fuming, his fists tightly clenched at his sides.
“I forgot all my tae kwon do,” I said. “You’re going to have to teach me better.”
Sebastian didn’t smile. He simply looked at me and closed the short distance that separated us.
When he reached me, he lifted a hand to wipe the tears from my cheeks.
“I’ll teach you anything you want,” he said, stroking my face with his rough thumb.
His eyes shifted to the spot where Marcus had ripped my shirt open, exposing my pink bra.
Without a word, he took off his jacket and held it open so that I could put it on.
He stepped in front of me and slowly zipped it up, without taking his eyes off me.
“If he touches you again, I’ll kill him.
” He said it as if it were an undeniable fact.
I shivered, fully realizing for the first time that my life had changed.
I hadn’t wanted to admit it, but Sebastian had been trying to warn me all along.
Ever since the kidnapping, from one day to the next, my life had ceased to be the normal drama-free life of any ordinary college girl, to one fraught with threats and dangers.
“I want to leave this place,” I said, wrapping my arms around myself. “I want to go back to New York and forget about all of this.”
Sebastian stood silently observing me. I took a step toward him and, without asking for his permission, I rested my cheek against his chest, still hugging myself.
When he wrapped his arms around me, squeezing me tightly, I knew that no matter what happened, Sebastian Moore would protect me; he would never let anything bad happen to me.
He was the only man I could trust. He was the only man I’d ever desired…
would ever desire. And that certainty, I would later learn, meant absolutely everything.
Sebastian said that he would speak to my father about Marcus.
I had no idea what Marcus had been referring to when he said that he’d be calling in the debt sooner than expected.
I also didn’t understand how he could’ve dared force himself on me, knowing that his father and mine were friends.
But the thing that surprised me the least was the fact that my father didn’t say a word about it to me.
I was very upset, and I wanted to leave as soon as possible, so I asked Lupe to change my flight to leave earlier than I’d planned.
Spring break had ended horribly, and I simply needed to be home, back to my routines, to try to forget about everything that had happened and feel like I had control of the things around me.
The only true benefit of that short vacation was that I was now sure of three things. First, that my life was still truly at risk; second, that my father hid an unimaginable list of secrets; and third, that I was beginning to fall hopelessly in love with my bodyguard.