Chapter 21 Marfil #3
I nodded, admiring his handsomeness. Up close, he looked a bit older than Sebastian. I don’t know why I was so obsessed with their ages, but I needed to know what league I was moving in.
“Do you live alone?” he asked as he slid his arm across my back.
“Yes, but it’s a very safe area,” I said, taking another sip. I was nervous, but I didn’t want him to think that he intimidated me.
“Your father told me that Sebastian Moore shared the apartment with you…” he said, without taking his eyes off me.
“Well, yes. He moved into the staff room a few months ago,” I explained.
“Then why did you say that you live alone?”
I didn’t like the way he was looking at me. It made me feel tense and uneasy.
“Why did you ask if you already knew?”
“Touché,” he said, lifting his glass to his lips.
The waiter brought the first course, and from there the conversation became more casual, more relaxed.
Marcus was a true gentleman at all times, and he seemed to be genuinely interested in the things I said.
Even so, I realized I was holding back with him.
I hadn’t let my true personality shine through, and I knew part of it was because this man was a friend of my father’s.
Whereas with Sebastian, I was one hundred percent Marfil from the first second I met him.
I didn’t like the realization that, with Marcus, I was trying to conduct myself the way I knew he expected a woman to behave, but I tried not to get too worked up about it.
By dessert, Marcus was practically glued to my side, his hand caressing the sensitive skin of my neck. “I brought you a gift,” he said after we finished sharing a slice of chocolate cake. He opened his jacket and slipped his hand inside to produce a black velvet box.
I opened my eyes in surprise. “You didn’t need to get me anything,” I said, feeling suddenly nervous.
“I enjoyed choosing it. Take a look,” he said. “I noticed you weren’t wearing any type of jewelry, just that necklace. A woman like you deserves diamonds and sapphires, Marfil.”
I opened the box and sat looking at the necklace, unsure of what to say. My heart was pounding in my chest, and not in a good way. I didn’t like jewels. They reminded me of my mother, of the reason for her death.
“It’s…” I tried to find words. “It’s too much. I can’t accept it,” I said, running my fingers over what I was certain was an authentic diamond.
“Nothing is too much for you,” he said, taking it out of the box. “Will you allow me?”
I was going to say no. I was going to explain that I didn’t wear jewels, but before I knew it, my ballet slipper necklace had disappeared from my neck, replaced by something that had likely cost thousands of dollars.
When I tilted my head toward him, his eyes shone with some indecipherable emotion.
“I want you to be mine, Marfil Cortés,” he said, rubbing my knee a little too forcefully.
“You’re going too fast,” I replied, stopping his hand as it began to slide up my thigh.
Marcus halted his caress and fixed his eyes on my lips. “When I want something, I simply take it,” he said, very sure of himself.
“That’s quite an ambitious motto.” I unclasped the necklace. “But you won’t win me over with flowers and jewelry, Marcus.”
I’d feared that he’d be offended, but he simply let out a small laugh. “That only makes me want you more,” he admitted.
The waiter came to remove our dessert plates, and I took the opportunity to ask for the check.
This time, Marcus laughed loudly. “You’re ready to go so soon?”
“My sister is leaving tomorrow, and I promised her I wouldn’t be out too late.”
“It’s fine,” he said, handing his black credit card to the waiter.
Minutes later, as we waited for the elevator, my eyes met Sebastian’s, and I felt a stab of pain in my chest. Marcus took me by the hand and didn’t let go until we reached his car.
We rode back in silence. It wasn’t uncomfortable, but it made me question whether it had been a good date or not.
When we reached my house and he turned off the engine, I knew he would try to kiss me.
“What would you say if I told you I wanted to see you again?” he asked, turning toward me.
I smiled automatically. “I would say you’re looking at me right now.”
Marcus leaned closer, his hand on the back of my neck and his scent filling my nostrils. A part of me wanted to jump out of the car and rush inside, but another part of me wanted to see if he could make me feel the way my bodyguard did.
He closed the distance and kissed me. Seconds later, his tongue was tangled around mine, probing further than I was comfortable with. I tried to pull away, but he gripped me tightly until he finally released me.
We were both out of breath, and I could tell with a simple glance how excited he was.
“Marfil… my new drug of choice.”
Our eyes met, and he kissed me again, this time more delicately.
“Go back inside before I kidnap you again myself.”
I shot him a questioning glance.
“Bad joke, sorry.”
“Thanks for everything,” I said, then got out of the car without looking back.
Wilson had disappeared inside, but Sebastian stood waiting at the front door, holding it open for me. I felt strange, unable to look him directly in the eye, as if I’d betrayed him.
“Good night,” Sebastian said, turning around to go to his room.
“Wait,” I said eagerly.
He looked back at me blankly, not revealing anything.
“You don’t have anything to say, Sebastian?” I asked, hating that everything I’d been hoping to feel with Marcus came to me now in that instant, torturously, just by simply having Sebastian near me, his body mere inches from mine.
“You make a great couple,” he said, walking around me to continue on his way.
He hadn’t even made eye contact with me.
He was angry, I could tell. I would’ve been, too, but it didn’t matter one way or the other.
He might be bothered that I went out with someone else, but he still stubbornly refused to touch me because he was my bodyguard, and that made me angrier than anything else.
Why didn’t he speak up and say I belonged to him?
Why couldn’t he at least admit that he felt something for me?
I woke up a thousand times in the night, my usual nightmares interspersed with scenes of Marcus suffocating me with a diamond necklace as Sebastian stood watching from a distance, without intervening, without even blinking.
I called to him, stretching out an arm to show that I needed him, but he just looked on, impassive, as a crushing sense of loneliness pressed down on me.