v

I heard Alex snort as he ran his hand down my cheek and gave me a gross grin.

He didn't even think about stopping.

I squirmed under his weight again as he was suddenly thrown off me.

"Didn't you hear what I said?" Malio's voice was so calm and menacing that I knew it was getting dangerous. "What's your problem, Malio? You had your fun with someone else. So let me have my fun. She'll like it, don't worry."

Malio gave a short laugh, a dark laugh, then smashed his fist into Alex's face. Fast, straight forward, destroying everything as if he had done it many times before. I heard the bone snap as Alex fell to the ground with a crash, clutching his bleeding nose and yelping, his face twisted in pain.

Malio watched Alex in silence, waiting for him to calm down and finally stop throwing curses at night.

"You asshole!" I heard Alex say through my hands and watched him get to his feet. "You're lucky it was just your ugly nose. Take it as a gift, it was awful and should have been long ago anyway should be judged." Malio replied.

I stifled a giggle, drawing Alex's attention back to me.

"You," he jumped towards me and raised his clenched fist. I jerked back, intuitively closed my eyes and already expected the second blow that evening, but the pain didn't come.

I carefully peered through the half-open eyes and noticed that Malio had pushed himself between Alex and me, clutching his fist with his own hand. Judging from Alex's surprised look, he hadn't expected that. Admittedly, neither do I.

I didn't realize I'd been holding my breath when Alex walked up to me, so I exhaled in relief.

Blood spurted down Alex's face as it grimaced. “Are you serious, Malio? For a bitch?"

Malio quickly pulled Alex's fist towards him and when Malio's headbutt hit Alex's forehead hard, I heard myself squeak in surprise.

Alex flew off his feet again, the only difference now was that he lay there dazed while Malio held out his hand to me.

I hesitated. Unsure what would come next.

When he made no move to remove his hand, I slowly offered mine to him and he pulled me back to my feet in one easy jerk.

Alex had passed out, which somehow worried me. I've always been too social. My mother always said I cared too much for people who didn't care about my own well-being. What I was painfully reminded of today.

Only then did I realize that Malio was busy unbuttoning his white shirt. I looked at him in shock, but I couldn't help but let my gaze wander over his muscular torso.

On the right side of his chest stretched the continuation of the tattoo I had already spotted on his arm.

A flying dove holding an olive branch in its beak. A peace symbol.

"Do you like it?" Malio asked with a grin when my gaze lingered on the tattoo for far too long.

I hadn't even noticed that I had taken a step towards him and that there was hardly any space between us. "She's beautiful." "Do you know what it stands for?" His open shirt blew in the cold night air that hit us, but I hardly felt the cold anymore.

"For peace," I said, almost in awe. "In the Bible, Noah sends out a dove. With a fresh olive branch in its beak, this dove returns safely from a violent earth to Noah and the ark. The symbol is used as a peace offering by God interpreted to mankind," he said, and I felt like there was more to it than the story of Noah's Ark.

Malio slowly pulled his shirt off his shoulders and held it out to me. "Your dress is torn." I looked at him in surprise, unable to say anything. His gaze traveled to my bare thigh for a moment and I could have sworn he exhaled heavily before dropping his blue-eyed gaze now glaring at me like diamonds in the darkness, pointed back at my face.

"You can tie my shirt, I'll give you something else to wear when we're in the house." He held out his white shirt again. "Are you serious?" "Do I look like I'm joking?" Malio asked and I immediately heard the irritated undertone. "Come on!" he said again, but now it no longer sounded like an offer, but like an order .

I rolled my eyes annoyed and took his shirt off to tie it around my waist. "Come now!" Another command.

"Hey, what's the matter with him?" I pointed to Alex, who was still lying unconscious on the cold floor. Malio turned around, first looked down at Alex, then his gaze darted to me and he shrugged his shoulders. I'm not interested."

“WHAT?"

He couldn't be serious, could he? Sure, Alex was a bad person and I was the last one who wanted to side with him now, but we couldn't just leave him behind either. Here. In the cold

I stopped Malio by grabbing his arm. He stopped abruptly and his eyes slowly wandered to my hand, which was gripping his forearm tightly. It would have been easy for him to free himself from my grip, I knew that, but to my amazement he didn't.

"We'll leave him here!", There was no doubt in his voice, no room for discussion. "Malio!" He finally lifted his eyes from my hand and looked straight at me.

"We'll leave him here, I said!" I felt his words getting harder. "But..." "It's enough! I'm not arguing this with you!" he said sharply, roughly breaking free of my grip. For him, this discussion was over once and for all.

I snorted and trotted after him until I caught up with him. “OK! If you're such a heartless..." Before I could finish my sentence, I tripped over a root sticking out of the ground.

Damned!

I felt Malio's arms wrap around me and save me from the impending fall.

Yet again!

"Where did you learn to walk? Can you please stop tripping over your own feet? It's getting tiring trying to save you all the time!" he said angrily, pulling me a little closer to his face.

I gasped. This was how it had to be when all the air was out of your lungs and you were fighting the panic of drowning. That's what it felt like when he met mine with those unfathomable blue eyes. Like drowning in them. Every second they dragged me deeper into the doom that clearly emanated from Malio.

Don't look at him, don't look at him, I reminded myself mentally.

And although I kept repeating this sentence inside myself, like a mantra, I just couldn't take my eyes off it.

"Sorry!" I stammered, at least that's how it sounded in my head, I couldn't tell which word finally left my lips.

"Watch where you step, there are roots here," he said unnecessarily.

I nodded, afraid to say something again that I couldn't remember afterwards. Malio silently pushed me back to my feet and stomped away without a word.

To my amazement, he didn't lead me back the way I'd come with Alex, he led me down a small side path and the next moment we were in front of a small door that I probably wouldn't have even noticed if Malio would not have driven them directly.

"Where are we going?" I asked, surprised that he didn't seem to take the party as a new target. "To my room," he said, holding open the small, nondescript door that led to the inside of what also always led. "What's that entrance?" "The staff entrance," he replies, as if it's perfectly normal to have employees cook, clean, and do the laundry for you. The fact that he also spoke in the plural made me speechless for a moment.

"What is it, come on!" he said impatiently while I stopped in place and gaped at him. "Do you need a written invitation?" I saw him tap his foot in annoyance, so I quickly followed him through the door.

"Wow, is that a wine cellar?" I asked stunned as he led me through the old vaulted cellar from which some other rooms opened, one of them being this wine cellar. "Yes, we like to drink wine!" He said short and grabbed my hand. ,, Hurry up."

I heard a low whimper coming from one of the closed doors that Malio hurriedly pulled me past. I paused and listened to the silence. "What are you doing, come on!" I heard him say, but I tuned it out completely.

There it was again, it was like a soft sob.

"Do you hear that?" I asked Malio. "Come on!" Another command. By now I had almost developed a sense of when he was not allowing the possibility of disobedience.

"What's that?" I asked him anyway, even with the risk that he completely lost his nerve. He dragged me on without giving me an answer to my question.

As he pulled me through the huge vaulted cellar, I kept glancing over my shoulder, but I couldn't hear anything anymore, probably we were already too far away to hear the muffled sounds from the locked door.

He stopped in front of an elevator, which I used to ask him about the noises in the room again. "What was that, Malio?" He waved me off and motioned for me to shut up.

With the incoming silence that now reigned in the cellar vault, I suddenly heard it too. Steps. Many steps.

The elevator sprang open and Malio shoved me roughly into the small square room.

If earlier I was uncomfortable standing next to Malio in the elevator, now that he was still naked to the top, it was almost unbearable.

I could literally feel the warmth of his body even though we weren't touching.

When the elevator doors finally opened, I sighed with relief, to my amazement, however, we were not in the foyer as I expected, no, we were standing in a long, narrow, burgundy colored hallway. I stroked the dark red walls, which were decorated with golden plaster, forming a noble pattern.

Malio headed straight for the first door - his room.

***

I stopped uncertainly in front of Malio's open door.

He was already seated on his huge bed with its glossy black satin sheets and was amused as I shifted my feet nervously.

I couldn't help but wonder how many women he was in bed with. How many women he had slept with.

As if Malio could read my thoughts on my face, he leaned forward and asked, "Are you nervous about being alone with me up here?" A seductive smile that made him look incredibly sexy at the moment faded on his lips.

For a moment I was not only speechless but also surprised at what his words triggered in my body.

I felt a wave of heat surge through my body as those piercing blue eyes rested on me for a few seconds.

His grin grew even wider, even cheekier, even more confident. As if he knew exactly what his words and his look triggered in me.

I scraped together all the self-control that could still be found in the depths of my body, rolled my eyes in annoyance and replied snippy: "Exactly. As if. I just don't feel like going to this party anymore, with its stupid guests."

That wasn't even a lie. Recent events had made me realize how stupid it was to have come to this party. I should have just faced Malio and I would never have ended up at this party.

After a few more seconds, in which Malio continued to watch me in silence, he got up and headed for the dark wardrobe that took up most of the wall.

Quite a lot of clothes for a guy, that's the first thing that popped into my head.

I took advantage of the moment his back was turned to look around his room.

In one corner was a huge bed, made up with the same shiny black linens. The clothes stand Malio was now standing in front of was also black and the massive sliding doors were mirrored. The curtains in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows, which overlooked the open sea, were the same dark gray as the huge round carpet that lay in the middle of the room.

A few green plants were the only dots of color in the rather sterile room. But perhaps the strangest thing about the room was the floor-to-ceiling mahogany bookcase, which looked completely out of place.

I was about to let my gaze wander over the various covers - which found their place neatly and neatly in line on the bookshelf - when Malio's clearing of his throat pulled me back to the present.

I quickly looked away from the books and was surprised to see that he was holding out a long black hoodie.

I doubted the sweater would cover up any more than the torn dress did. Nevertheless, I took a step towards him and then took the sweater from his hands.

I felt his eyes on me as I pulled the sweater over my head, causing my dress to ride up slightly. I straightened the sweater and gave myself a skeptical look. The pullover was longer than expected and reached just above my knees, the torn dress still peeked out a bit, but I didn't care. "Thank you!" I said quietly.

There was a tension in the air for a brief but palpable moment as our eyes met again. Malio took a step towards me and I intuitively backed away.

A smile crossed his lips and he brushed his dark hair back from his forehead. Again he took a step towards me and again I took a step back.

“Malio! Where the hell have you been?", the brunette, who had been sitting on Malio's lap earlier, stormed into the room.

Suspiciously she exchanged a look between me and Malio and then hissed angrily: "What's going on here?"

I felt my cheeks begin to smolder as she fixed me with her dark brown eyes, "What are you doing here, bitch? Malio is mine!" She took a big step towards me and grabbed my shoulders: "That's his sweater, are you kidding me girl?"

I vigorously freed myself from her grip, but before I could tell her what I thought, Malio forestalled me. "Chantal, what do you want here?" Malio spoke calmly, but the tone of his voice left no doubt that he wasn't in the mood for a scene from her.

“What am I doing here? What the hell are you doing here with this bitch?" she yelled in exasperation, pointing her finger at me angrily. I raised an eyebrow, "Bitch?" I looked at her defiantly.

What was she imagining?

Angrily she whirled around: "You little slut keep your dirty fingers from Malio!" I looked at her in disbelief. Stunned to be approached by a stranger like that!

"It's none of your business, but I don't want anything from him." I didn't know why I felt the urge to justify myself to her. Maybe because her brown eyes, blazing with anger, were constantly on me.

Chantal took a step towards me and grabbed my collar. "You bitch! I don't care what your excuses are, Malio is mine."

I heard Malio laugh, then he said something that would probably break any woman's heart.

"Chantal, you mean nothing to me and if you don't want me to stop fucking you, shut the fuck up. Because I can't hear your annoying voice anymore, it makes me sick. "

The coldness in his voice made me swallow. I had long noticed how Chantal had flinched under his words, as if he had hit her with every word. Big tears formed in her eyes and she immediately sagged her shoulders as if the fighting spirit she had just glared at me had been squeezed out of her body. "Don't start crying now." Malio said coolly as Chantal turned away from him.

"I'll drive her home now.." Malio pointed to me and fixed Chantal with his cold blue eyes, which had already broken my will when she turned back to him. "..and when I come back, You either lie in my bed and we fuck or you can leave and never come back. I don't care. You're just one of many - nothing worth wasting my time with this fuss over here."

Before he finished his words, I already felt the rising jealousy. He was actually going to sleep with her today. Immediately, the images of her on his lap entered my head - and just the fact that this thought made me incredibly angry made me even more angry, angrier at myself for allowing this feeling in the first place.

"You don't have to drive me." I said quickly. "No?" He looked at me amused. "I can take a taxi." "Without money?" His words made me blush with shame because his statement somehow offended me. "I've got money," I said, so I said. "You really don't seem the brightest if you think you can afford a cab into town," Malio said, amused.

Before I could reply, he raised his hand and said harshly, "I'll drive you!" Another command. And again I realized why I didn't like Malio.

Even the sweet moments like protecting him from that bastard Alex or lending me his sweater didn't change the fact that he was just terribly arrogant and overbearing! He just didn't allow other opinions.

"And you don't have to say anything more about it now!" He added when I had already opened my mouth to object. I shut it again angrily and let Malio push me gently but firmly out of the room.

"I'll wait here for you!" I heard Chantal whisper and again I felt that pang that was clearly wrong and totally inappropriate.

I shouldn't really care who Malio slept with...