Page 51 of Drawn Together

“If you’re going to make fun of my—”

“Okay, okay, sorry. God, it was just a dumb joke… How do I do it?” I said, becoming more serious and looking at him with the eyes of an attacker.

“I just explained it.”

That was true, but I had been too distracted by the closeness of our bodies to focus on the words coming out of his mouth.

“If you haven’t noticed, you’re like a full head taller than me…” I said, lifting my chin to look him in the eye. He was solid as a refrigerator.

“The majority of men you encounter are going to be taller than you.”

“Are you calling me short?”

“No, Marfil, I’m not saying that. I’m just stating a fact.” He seemed to be losing his patience.

“Okay, okay,” I said again, stepping behind him. “I’m going to attack you, and you’re going to be sorry you showed me your deepest, darkest secrets.” I could almost see him roll his eyes.

Shit, he was huge. I wouldn’t have been able to hurt him even if I wanted to.

I stepped back to get a bit of a running start, and I jumped on his back. He barely flinched, but I don’t think he’d been expecting it. I wrapped my legs around his hips and hung from him like a monkey. Without hesitating or giving him time to object, I did what I thought I had to do: wrapped one arm around his neck as I applied pressure with the other.

“Like this,” he said, using his hand to guide mine onto the pressure point and adjusting my hold on him. “Press harder, Marfil; this just feels like a warm hug.”

Shit, I wasn’t even making it hard for him to breathe.

I did as he said, and he flailed around with me perched on his back.

“This is what anyone would do if they had you on their back,” he said, and then smashed my body into the wall. My hold broke as all the air I’d been holding in rushed from my lungs. He hadn’t hit me hard, but enough to leave me disoriented.

He grabbed me by the legs so that I wouldn’t fall, and I instinctively held on to his neck.

“You shouldn’t let this happen. If they start to move around, you should be prepared for an impact.”

Of course. As if it were that easy.

He stepped away from the wall and released me. When he turned around, he was utterly composed, as if nothing had happened. I, meanwhile, was panting like an idiot.

“That’s enough for today. Go get dressed or you’ll be late for class.”

I glanced at the kitchen clock and was surprised by how quickly the time had passed. I tried to shake off the sensations aroused in me from having him so close, his muscular back under my body, his hard-as-steel arms around my neck…

Oh, fuck, how was it possible for tae kwon do to suddenly seem so sexy?

I went to my room and quickly got dressed. Giving myself one last look in the mirror, I noticed a gleam in my eyes that had never been there before.

Sebastian… What are you doing to me?

CHAPTER 17MARFIL

Spring break finally arrived, and my father sent his private plane to bring me home. I usually only traveled on it if we were going somewhere together, but since I was still in danger—something I tried to forget about but everyone insisted on reminding me—I got to travel like any other rich girl. Gabi, on the other hand, would fly commercial, although they’d told me she’d been assigned a bodyguard as well.

Sebastian drove me to the terminal, where the plane was already waiting for us. I’m not sure why, but I suddenly felt excited for him to see where I’d grown up, my home when I wasn’t away at boarding school. Given the size of the house and the level of security, I knew we likely wouldn’t spend all day together, though I couldn’t help but fantasize about showing Sebastian everything I loved there: the stables, the library, the heated pool, the creek.

But when I stepped out of the car and saw my father’s majestic plane, I felt a sense of unease.

Too opulent.

Sebastian stopped to speak with the pilot as I climbed the stairs and sat down in a beige leather seat beside a window that was considerably larger than on a conventional plane. My father and my uncle used the plane for their business trips, but they also took it to their Las Vegas escapades, ones it was best to know nothing about. I didn’t even want to imagine the things that had gone on in this airplane.