Ofelia
W e gravitated towards one another and stayed in each other’s arms like that’s exactly where we belonged. And maybe I did. Maybe I belonged just like this. First, dancing slowly to fast music, following our own rhythm while everyone around us watched on like we were crazy. We were, that much I deducted for sure, but I didn’t care. Then, we migrated to a couch near his friends, where he promptly pulled me onto his lap and held me there. He ignored his friends–all of them dressed similarly to him–and focused solely on me. Having that much attention on me made my throat tight throughout the night.
It was one thing to dance on stage in front of hundreds, but when Fabián stared at me, it felt like something else entirely. Something I couldn’t even put a name to, but I craved it and shied away from it in the same measure.
I knew we’d only just met, but he stared at me like I was the only person in the room. Like I was the only person in the world and no one else existed outside of the small bubble we’d only just created.
His fingers often lifted, sliding along the curve of my jaw line, fluttering down against the pulse at my throat. Every time it happened, I swallowed, and he smirked like he knew exactly what his touch did to me.
I’d never known it was possible to be this attracted to someone you’d just met, but beneath my uniform skirt, I was soaking through my panties, and I wondered if he could tell. Maybe a part of me fantasized as he spoke about his favorite foods that his hand currently on my thigh would slip higher beneath the hem of that checkered skirt and finger me for all to see.
The stray thought had my face burning with embarrassment. I’d never had a fantasy that vivid before and was almost ashamed enough to slide off his lap. But the moment I inched away from him a fraction, his grip tightened, holding me right where I was. In doing so, his palm slipped just a little bit higher near the edge of my hem, and I wanted to groan aloud.
“So, ...” My attention cut from Fabián’s intense stare and over his shoulder at one of his friends. He hadn’t introduced them to me, or if he had, I hadn’t paid much attention. “What does your family do?”
The guy appeared older than Fabián, by a few years at most, but seemed far more laid back in his mannerisms. He leaned over the back of the couch, spreading his arms wide and wearing a smirk like a trickster from a storybook.
At the question, Fabián turned back. “César,” he hissed softly, a low word of warning. “Déjalo, ya.”
Tension flickered between the two of them before the other one, César, laughed it off. “Sorry, it’s just your last name sounds very familiar.”
“Ignore my brother.” Fabián turned to me. “He’s a chismoso with no manners.”
“You’re one to talk,” César parried back. “You haven’t even introduced your friend to us, yet we’re the ones with no manners?”
My face flushed once again–it did a lot of that around him, apparently–and I held out my hand. “I’m so sorry, that was very rude of me. I’m .”
“Oh, I know who you are.” But César took my hand and shook it just the same, swaying it lazily side to side. “I’m César, Fabián’s older brother. And the grumpy one babysitting us is Sebastián, our other less fun brother. And this is Santiago, our cousin.”
I gave my hand to each of them. They all shook it politely, save for Sebastián, who had a tight grip and angry expression as he took me in, though I tried not to let that get to me. I had been rude after all. My mamá always told me it was important to remember my manners, to introduce myself properly to people. Fabián and I had been entirely too lost within our own world, and I’d forgotten myself.
“It’s very nice to meet you all.” The sentiment was genuine, even if not all of them seemed to return it. I pointedly ignored Sebastián’s gaze, afraid at what I’d find if I looked too closely.
Almost as if sensing my unease, Fabián’s hand pressed against my hip, giving it a reassuring squeeze. He glared at his older brother, his dark brows pressing into slashing, angry lines above his eyes.
“Weren’t you complaining you wanted to leave?”
Sebastián rolled his eyes and didn’t say another word as he turned and skulked out of the party. I watched him go, observing as everyone seemed to part and let him through, almost as if some invisible force or power that emanated from him cleaved the crowd in half to make room.
It was a strange thing to witness. Almost as if he were dangerous and they feared coming into contact with something so dark.
I wondered what that said about me, clinging onto a man I just met who’s entire aura felt obscure.
“We’re gonna head out, too,” César said, nudging Santiago and nodding in Sebastián’s direction. “Got things to do. You understand, Ofe?”
I blinked at the nickname he suddenly blessed me with. I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t endearing or that I didn’t let my gaze bounce back and forth between brothers, searching through their differences and similarities.
I wasn’t sure why I felt so hungry for more about him, about them. About the strange reactions they created in the people around them. How was it that I was so drawn to Fabián? How was it that his family seemed so feared?
There was more to them that I wasn’t completely seeing yet.
César gave us an exaggerated finger wave before something appeared in his other hand which he tossed in Fabián’s direction. I flinched, but Fabián caught it, holding up jangling keys.
“Careful with it.” With a final wave, César turned and left.
“Your family is... interesting.” I was still staring after them.
“I’m not sure that’s the word I’d use to describe those assholes.” Fabián turned his full attention back to me, his brilliantly white smile a dazzling thing. “Sorry if they made you feel uncomfortable.”
Only Sebastián had. I didn’t say that. I smiled and shrugged. I was used to people and strange behavior, even when I didn’t want to be.
His fingers flexed against my thighs, pulling me back to the moment and the way my body perched against his far too comfortably.
I didn’t dare move away, knowing he’d use that excuse to pull me closer still. Maybe that’s what I wanted, but before I could slyly make the move, Paola appeared next to us with Dani at her side.
“Hey, Ofe.” My best friend was staring at the way my body was pressed against Fabián’s, the scandalously limited amount of space that existed between us, and her eyebrows raised, her smile kicking up suggestively. “Dani and I are about to head out,” she said. “You going with us or...” Her voice trailed off, her gaze bouncing back and forth between Fabián and me, leaving little room to anyone’s imagination as to what she was implying.
My face reddened at that. I wondered if the thoughts were written plainly across my face for all to see. How embarrassing would that be?
I wasn’t sure how to even answer her, either. At least not without sounding like I was in need of... that.
This wasn’t a position I normally found myself in, if ever. I wanted to stay. I wanted to spend more time with him, get to know him without the music drowning out our voices. So I could study the pitch in his cadence and memorize his tone as if it were a melody playing across my senses. I knew my thoughts had taken on romantic notions, notions I wasn’t even sure if he echoed. But I couldn’t voice it, because it wasn’t something I was even supposed to say or want.
Where I came from, what I was taught, women were supposed to be demure, shy. I wasn’t supposed to voice my desires or dreams. There were subtleties involved in the art of seduction that I never bothered to learn because they’d never interested me before now.
I wished I’d paid more attention. Right then, I just wanted to say yes, I was staying with Fabián, a needy and greedy part of me wanting every moment of his time without wanting to give voice to it.
“I’ve got her,” Fabián said with a confidence I wished I could muster. “I’ll get her home safely.”
Paola nodded, smiling and flushing before wiggling her eyebrows once again.
Dani, however, stepped forward, drawing my attention to him. He’d seemed so happy earlier. Now, his entire posture was rigid, his jaw tight and almost angry as he took Fabián in.
“If anything happens to her...” The threat underlying his words was clear.
Fabián let out a laugh that even I, with as little as I knew him, figured was without mirth. “You’ll do what , exactly?”
Dani swallowed, fear obvious in his gaze. He looked at me, and I wondered what that pleading in his expression was. If he wanted me to come to his defense. For some reason, my tongue felt heavy in my mouth and I couldn’t find the words even if I wanted to.
Maybe I should have been ashamed to feel so turned on by the danger lacing Fabián’s tone.
There was something to be said about men who were sweet, gentle. But then there were men like Fabián, with a tone and demeanor that spoke of violence. Like they’d kill a man for looking at you wrong.
And yes, Dani was one of my best friend’s who I should have defended. But when Fabián looked like he was ready to rip someone apart for me , well... I wanted to swoon.
“That’s what I thought,” Fabián said. “I’ve got her.” His fingers flicked, almost as if he were shooing Dani away.
Paola linked her arm through Dani’s and tugged. I watched them go, swallowed up by dancing bodies as they made their way out of the party.
And Fabián and I were alone once more.
“Should I be worried that everyone seems...afraid of you?”
I wasn’t, which was a crazy notion. He was practically a stranger. But something in my chest, down to the very fiber of my soul, told me I could trust him. And maybe I was afraid of many things, but he wasn’t one of them.
“I’m not going to hurt you, preciosa.” His lips brushed the top of my cheek. Warm. Sensual.
I shuddered. “That’s not what I asked.”
He smirked.
“Why is everyone afraid of your family?”
He sighed and his fingers slipped up the hem of my skirt, fingering the skin on my thighs and igniting a slow fire across my nerves. It was a good, delicious distraction, and I knew it was done on purpose.
“Because we’re bad people,” he confessed. “And we do bad things.”
His fingers slid higher up the hem, every caress a dangerous suggestion that had me leaning back first and then into his touch.
I wanted more of it. So much so that the words he’d whispered almost couldn’t be processed by my brain. And that was okay. It didn’t matter.
Nothing did.
“Want to get out of here?”
I swore I whimpered in response.
Fabián chuckled.
“Let’s go.”