Chapter 30 Marfil
I woke up with a smile on my face. I had so many reasons to be unhappy, but Sebastian Moore eclipsed them all.
I had always heard that being in love made you see the world through rose-colored lenses.
Well, I didn’t exactly have a filter over my eyes, but I was happy.
The night before, even though we hadn’t taken things any further, had been super special.
Sitting together to watch a movie, like a couple, had made me start to feel hopeful, so much so that the night’s events carried into my dreams, which had been filled with scenes of us together.
Unfortunately for me, I’d woken up just when things were getting interesting, and my body was left wanting more.
Sebastian was prone to change his mind according to the direction of the wind, but I wasn’t going to fall for his misdirection this time. I showered quickly, with only one idea in mind: I wanted to sleep with him.
The situation my father had placed me in with Marcus made me realize that I couldn’t go on living under the premise that what Alejandro Cortés believed was correct. I was twenty years old. I was an independent woman. I could listen to my mind and body and stop waiting… for what? It was ridiculous.
I silenced the voice that told me my father would kill me, and I walked out of my room naked, covered only in a white towel.
Sebastian was on the phone, and it took me a few seconds to realize he was fighting with someone. When he saw me, three separate emotions seemed to cross his face. The first, surprise; the second, fear; the third, anger.
“What the hell are you doing?” he said in place of his usual good morning.
What a slap in the face.
“I’ll call you back,” he said into the phone, and then walked toward me, his eyes black with rage. “Go into your room right now and put some clothes on,” he hissed.
Well, I definitely hadn’t achieved the desired effect.
“What’s wrong with you, Sebastian?”
“Get dressed, Marfil, or you’ll be late for class,” he said, his eyes communicating urgency.
I felt ridiculous and humiliated as I turned around and went into my bedroom.
What the fuck was wrong with him?
I put on my leggings and my favorite black sweatshirt and left my room, steaming mad. It was true that Sebastian had never been one to easily fall victim to my charms, but did he have to be so rude?
I shot him a curt glance when I walked out and found him seated, waiting for me.
“Are you going for a run instead of class?” he asked, now in a normal, cordial, yet still cold tone.
“That’s my plan, yes,” I answered, crossing my arms and facing him. “And what’s yours? Are you going to keep on treating me like this? Aren’t you exhausted from all these mood swings?”
“Not now, Marfil,” he said, staring fixedly at me.
I frowned, my anger reaching new heights. Sebastian stood up and walked past me, forcing me to follow him. He stopped and leaned against the wall, looking as serious as I’d ever seen him.
“Why do you have to be like this, Sebastian?” I said, hurt. “I never know what to expect from you. One day you kiss me, and the next day you ignore me! I’m so sick of it! I’m sick of sounding like a broken record.”
He didn’t say anything.
“Yesterday you took off my dress, and today you’re upset that I came out wrapped in a towel?” I continued, raising my voice. “Am I a fucking plaything to you?”
“Of course you’re not,” he said very quietly, barely moving his lips.
“Well, it seems like it,” I answered, hating his attitude. “Last night I asked you to sleep with me, and you just took off with a single-syllable response.”
“I had something to do.”
“What?”
He didn’t answer, he simply observed me. It was all so ridiculous! I needed to get out of there.
“Where’s Rico?” I asked.
“I took him out earlier. He’s sleeping.”
I glared at him and left the apartment, furious.
We waited for the elevator without even looking at each other. Then, when the doors opened and we stepped in, he took me by the arm and gently pressed me into the mirror.
“I couldn’t say anything inside the apartment,” he said, briefly stroking my cheek, leaving me confused. “You’re not a plaything. Haven’t I made it clear that you matter to me? But things have changed.”
“What?” I asked, not understanding what he meant. “What are you talking about?”
The elevator stopped and the doors began to open. Sebastian jumped back, as if my skin suddenly burned him. I followed him out, more confused than ever.
Seated before Norman in the lobby were two very large men in nice suits. They both stood as soon as they saw me, and I instinctively stopped short.
Sebastian didn’t step away from me, but when he opened his mouth, my stomach nervously flipped inside.
“Marfil, this is Jakov and Egor,” he said, gesturing toward them. The two men stared blankly at me. “From now on, they’ll be working with me on your personal security detail.”
I scoffed and glared at Sebastian with a rage that I knew shouldn’t be directed at him. “No fucking way,” I said, backing away from him.
Sebastian stepped in front of me, blocking my view of the two gorillas. “Marfil,” he said in a low voice, “there’s nothing we can do; he ordered it.”
“He’s no one, fuck,” I said, pushing Sebastian away and dashing out the door.
I raced toward Central Park, almost getting run over as I crossed the street. When I finally glanced back, I saw Sebastian and the other two men glaring at me as I moved farther away and they were forced to stop for traffic.
My head was spinning. Everything was changing. Everything was happening too fast and I didn’t understand anything.
If you were mine, you’d have five men guarding you.
I ran faster still. The adrenaline was coursing through my system, and I felt as if my world were collapsing all around me without being able to do anything about it.
I stopped at one of the many bridges and climbed onto the rocks underneath, tucked out of sight.
I didn’t want to see anyone, especially not Sebastian.
Did he support this? Had he approved or even requested more men? How long had he known about it?
It didn’t take long for Sebastian to find me, and when he did, he didn’t look angry, just relieved.
“Come out from there, please,” he said, out of breath from running.
“I want to be alone, Sebastian,” I said, looking down at him.
“I asked them to wait at the apartment. You and I need to talk.”
“Oh, now you want to talk?” I asked, not intending to move an inch. “Fine, let’s start with how you found me here,” I said, suspecting that I wasn’t going to like the answer one bit.
Sebastian sighed. “You have a tracker on your cell phone,” he said calmly. “I can follow it from an app, but I’m the only one with access to it.”
Fuck. That explained a lot.
“That’s how you knew where I was the day of the concert.”
He didn’t say anything, which was enough of a response.
I climbed down from the rocks and stood in front of him. “Were you ever planning to tell me?”
“If I had, and you wanted to get away from me, it would’ve made things pretty easy for you, don’t you think?”
I looked away… It was true, I had snuck out… If I had known, I could’ve simply left my phone at home and he would’ve never known where I was. Also, considering more recent events, my little escapade that night could’ve ended very badly.
“Why more bodyguards?”
“Marcus wants to keep you in line, and me, too.”
My eyes returned to him. “You? Why?”
Sebastian seemed to debate whether to tell me or not. “We’ve known each other for a long time… To sum it up, we don’t get along too well.”
“How do you know him? Did you work for him as a bodyguard?”
“The less you know, the better, Marfil.”
“God!” I groaned, frustrated. “How long are you going to go on hiding things from me? And what was with your attitude this morning? You could’ve warned me, but instead you just acted like some asshole who can’t say more than three words at a time, and…
” My brain was trying to connect the things he’d just told me, and something finally clicked.
I couldn’t talk inside the apartment.
Sebastian was looking at me with his usual poker face.
“Was there someone else in the apartment this morning?” I asked in horror.
Sebastian stepped toward me and held me by the arm.
“There was no one else physically in the apartment, besides the two of us, but that doesn’t mean he couldn’t see us.”
I opened my eyes wide.
“He installed cameras?!”
His silence said it all.
I pulled out of his grip and tried to control the panic attack I was starting to have. Marcus couldn’t have had his men install cameras without my realizing it; I would’ve heard it!
I spun around and faced Sebastian. “You put them in, didn’t you?
” I shouted. Suddenly, everything made sense.
“That’s why you always knew what I was doing or came in at just the right moment every time I needed you!
That’s how you knew I fell while I was dancing!
That’s why you were always able to get ahead of my every movement! ”
Sebastian still didn’t say anything, and it made me even angrier.
“You’ve been spying on me?!” My God, I felt so humiliated!
The other night, when I’d cried myself to sleep over the way he’d treated me.
How many times had I stopped in the hall outside his room, trying to decide whether to knock?
Had he been watching me standing there like an idiot? “I hate you, Sebastian!” I shouted.
He held me back before I could run away again, although what did it matter, since he could just track me through my cell phone? Knowing him, he’d probably be able to track every single person who mattered to me.
“Let go of me, dammit,” I shouted, pulling away. “You lied to me!”
“I was just doing my job.”
“Your job is shit! You can’t invade my privacy without telling me!”
“It was necessary, Marfil. I didn’t put any cameras in your bedroom and bathroom, but the rest of the house had to be under surveillance.”
“You should’ve told me!”
Sebastian clenched his jaw tightly. “You’re right,” he finally said, looking me in the eye.
“I was going to, but when I met you and I saw how opposed you were to the idea of having a bodyguard, I knew you’d try to outsmart my surveillance.
I’m really sorry, but my priority has always been keeping you alive.
” He brought his hand up to my cheek. I tried to turn my face away, but he held me firmly.
“It was only to keep you alive, Marfil,” he repeated, staring at me intensely.
My heart was pounding out of my chest. I was so angry, so scared…
“Did you watch me in my studio?” I asked, daring him to lie to my face. We both knew the truth, and I wanted him to admit it.
Sebastian stammered, nervous for the first time since we’d met. Finally, he opened his mouth to speak. “Getting to see you dance was an unexpected bonus.”
I shoved him as hard as I could. “You had no right.” That was something private, something special to me. I couldn’t believe he had been watching me do it all this time. If I had known…
“It’s true, I had no right,” he said, a fierce look in his eyes, “and I also had no right to touch you or kiss you or to feel any of the things I feel for you, but that’s the way things worked out.”
I had so badly wanted to hear those words from him, but it wasn’t enough. I couldn’t let them make me forget the reality of the situation. I didn’t trust him. Sebastian Moore had too many secrets, and they seemed to be related to my family and to Marcus Kozel. I didn’t want any part of it.
“This is over,” I said, feeling the weight of each word as my heart broke into a thousand pieces.
Sebastian’s eyes went dark, but his face remained impassive.
“You’re finally being sensible.”
I laughed, feeling miserable.
“And now what?” I asked, controlling the urge to cry.
“Marcus has access to the cameras,” he explained. “That’s why I treated you that way this morning.”
“I want you to take them out, all of them!” I shouted furiously. I wasn’t going to let that psychopath watch me whenever he felt like it.
“I can’t.”
I shook my head as my mind spun, trying to process everything. “This is a nightmare.”
“It will only be for a little while,” he said in an attempt to console me.
I glared at him. He wasn’t the one being watched!
“I want you to take the camera out of my dance studio.”
Sebastian opened his mouth, but I interrupted him. “Make up some excuse, Sebastian!” I shouted. “He’s not going to watch me dance. I refuse.”
Sebastian thought about it for a few seconds before he spoke again. “I can try to rig the system for a little while, but I’ll still need to have access,” he said, leaving no room for objections. “I’m sorry, but the room opens onto a fire escape.”
I pursed my lips and repressed a desire to tell him to go to hell. “Well, I hope you enjoy the show,” I said instead.
I turned around and started running home. Sebastian followed, and as the wind blew my tears away, my mind began devising a plan to make each and every one of my bodyguards wish they’d chosen another profession.