117

"You okay, little one?"

Emilio looked down at me, breathing heavily, gently stroking my trembling lips with his fingers, while at the same time a warm feeling spread in my stomach and somehow I couldn't quite believe what I had just done.

But it was really nice, albeit very demanding and his taste unique, like himself.

"Yes," I breathed exhaustedly and gratefully took his hands, which he gave me to carefully help me up. My knees felt numb and I really had to hold on to Emilio's strong body to keep from falling over from the force of my emotions.

"You're amazing," he whispered in my ear as he pulled me into a comforting hug and gently rubbed my back. Hearing those words from him was just breathtaking because they made me feel accepted and loved. Add to that the light wind on my overheated skin, the pleasant feeling of the sand under my feet and the choppy sea right next to us...

Who would have thought that there really would be that one perfect moment in life?

I certainly don't, but I was taught better at that moment, because I had met a man who let me go beyond my limits. He let me experience sensations that I had previously only known from books and that I had longingly dreamed of reading for years.

"Emilio?" I whispered to his chest with my eyes closed, clutching him even tighter because now that everything seemed perfect, I was also afraid that it might be taken away from me again.

After all, luck hasn't been on our side lately...

"Yes?" he replied quietly and put his hand in my hair to snuggle me in safety.

"Can't we just get out of here? Without all the drama and chaos that seems to be following us?"

Emilio pulled away from me slightly to look down at me with a smile, but one glance at his eyes was enough to tell immediately that the smile didn't look real.

"I can't just leave, as much as I wanted to," he breathed apologetically, but immediately after his words took my face in his hands. "But I will arrange everything as soon as I can so that I can travel this beautiful world with you with a clear conscience."

Even if the doubts were still raging in me, which wanted to make it clear to me that with all the problems and worries it seemed almost impossible to simply be happy, just the idea alone put a smile on my lips.

"I would like to go to Ireland," I said dreamily and snuggled up to his body again.

"And we'll fly to Ireland," he promised, and I believed him, even though I should have known that fate wasn't kind to us.

But the hope alone made me dream of it and I was grateful that I finally had something in life again that I could really look forward to.

"But before we fly to Ireland, we should go home, butterfly," Emilio said suddenly and, unfortunately, he broke away from me to fasten his belt and bend down for my wig.

"If you really want a future with me," he suddenly began, handing me my wig with a goofy grin. "Then you have to promise me that you'll never dye your hair."

I saw his eyes with a smile and, shaking my head, took the black wig to knock the sand out of it.

"If you promise me you'll stop smoking," I demanded playfully and he just picked up his jacket to reach into the inside pocket.

I watched him curiously as he took out a pack of cigarettes and after nodding in the affirmative, he suddenly threw them into the sea in front of us.

"You know this is pollution?" I immediately interjected, raising an eyebrow, but beaming all over my face at the same time, knowing what smokers are like.

This nicotine was an addiction, but here he gave me a sign to fight this addiction for me, which made me more than just proud.

"Let's go."

I took one last look out at the dark sea, pulling my wig up and then taking his hand in mine to walk alongside him back to the fiesta.

"How do we actually get to the apartment?" I asked after a few steps and was briefly ashamed of having thrown away his key, but he suddenly brought up a different topic, so that the car disappeared from my mind.

"We're going to the villa," he explained, and I stopped abruptly and looked up at him in confusion.

"Why?" I asked, slightly shocked, because this mansion was his real home... It would only be a matter of time before Ernesto would find out that I was there.

"Because I sold the apartment."

He glanced at me and then looked back at the revelers in front of us. I was just about to say something, but he suddenly pushed me behind him and turned to face me.

"Look over my shoulder," he instructed me and showed me the direction with his eyes, where I looked and spotted someone I knew between the revelers.

Emilio must have noticed my look and then tensed even more.

"Is that the policeman who spoke to you?"

"Yes," I replied immediately and looked briefly at the police officer before Emilio led me on my back in the other direction.

"You stay here," he said demandingly when we arrived at a remote table and looked at me intensely until I nodded shyly.

"Where are you going?" I asked and he pointed behind him.

"I have to go to Hektor. We need his car," he explained and then gave me a gentle kiss on my cheek. "And I don't want the cop to recognize you, so wait here."

I nodded again and watched him walk briskly across the sand past the revelers.

The situation here was very tense, because it was somehow strange that the policeman was here. Shouldn't he actually be standing in front of my apartment and shadowing me? Or did he know all along that I was gone and maybe even watched us having sex.

"Oh God," I breathed, disgusted by this idea and wanted to turn around to see the sea, but suddenly a tall, blond guy was standing in front of me who seemed to be swaying slightly.

I didn't say anything and wanted to quickly turn away again, but then he grabbed my wrist and looked at me in amusement.

"How much?" he asked and I didn't understand what he was even asking me to do, so I pulled my hand away and tried to get past him, but without any warning he just grabbed my chest and urged me with my back against the bar table behind me.

"Just tell me how much you cost!" he demanded irritably and my heart started beating so fast that I couldn't get a word out. My breathing quickened and I remembered Carlos. Suddenly had flashbacks of what he was trying to do to me and then shoved this beer smelling guy away from me with all his might.

"I'm not for sale!" I retorted, horrified, but he only seemed to get angrier.

"Oh yes?", he asked in a dark voice and wanted to approach me again, but then I suddenly watched wide-eyed as Emilio hit him so hard from the side that the guy fell to the ground without reacting.

"Emilio!" I frantically demanded his attention, but suddenly he just kept hitting the guy who was lying on the ground while I looked behind me for the policeman and gasped in panic.