Page 113 of Drawn Together

“This is over,” I said, feeling the weight of each word as my heart broke into a thousand pieces.

Sebastian’s eyes went dark, but his face remained impassive.

“You’re finally being sensible.”

I laughed, feeling miserable.

“And now what?” I asked, controlling the urge to cry.

“Marcus has access to the cameras,” he explained. “That’s why I treated you that way this morning.”

“I want you to take them out, all of them!” I shouted furiously. I wasn’t going to let that psychopath watch me whenever he felt like it.

“I can’t.”

I shook my head as my mind spun, trying to process everything. “This is a nightmare.”

“It will only be for a little while,” he said in an attempt to console me.

I glared at him. He wasn’t the one being watched!

“I want you to take the camera out of my dance studio.”

Sebastian opened his mouth, but I interrupted him. “Make up some excuse, Sebastian!” I shouted. “He’s not going to watch me dance. I refuse.”

Sebastian thought about it for a few seconds before he spoke again. “I can try to rig the system for a little while, but I’ll still need to have access,” he said, leaving no room for objections. “I’m sorry, but the room opens onto a fire escape.”

I pursed my lips and repressed a desire to tell him to go to hell. “Well, I hope you enjoy the show,” I said instead.

I turned around and started running home. Sebastian followed, and as the wind blew my tears away, my mind began devising a plan to make each and every one of my bodyguards wish they’d chosen another profession.

CHAPTER 31SEBASTIAN

Marfil tried her best to make our lives a living hell. Knowing now that there were several cameras watching her at home, she refused to spend time there, choosing instead to sleep over at Tami’s, and then packed up to go stay with that asshole Liam. This meant that I had to remain posted outside their apartments, night after night, in the company of those two muscle-heads.

The little time we were in the apartment, I watched her through the cameras more than anything because she refused to say a word to me. Her rebelliousness only seemed to increase with every day that passed: She stuck her middle finger up at the cameras on a daily basis after discovering the location of each and every one of them, and when she danced in her studio, she alternated between pirouettes, obscene gestures, and erotic dance moves that drove me crazy.

She seemed to know that I watched her from the moment she went in to the moment she came out, and she enjoyed slowly torturing me. It was the only time we were ever alone, even if there was a camera between us, and she had a single objective: to piss me off.

That day, for example, we’d just come back from Liam’s house. Marfil was seated in the back seat, and Egor and Jakov followed in their car. Not only was I exhausted from having spent the night in the car, but knowing that she’d slept over at Liam’s drove me crazy. Marfil knew it, and when she gotout of the car, she made sure I saw the bright red hickey on her porcelain neck. I slammed the door so hard it almost fell off. I needed to control my jealousy before it gave us both away. Marcus Kozel could observe us whenever he wanted, and for all I knew, he was glued to the cameras twenty-four hours a day.

Marfil entered the apartment, totally indifferent to my mood, and shortly thereafter, sauntered past my door, wearing another one of those black leotards that left so little to the imagination. She looked me directly in the eye before entering her dance studio, closing the door behind her.

I scrolled to camera number ten and observed her. She no longer danced facing the mirror, instead looking fixedly at the camera. She began to move, and I knew it would be no classical ballet routine today. I watched as she opened and closed her legs, tracing impossible figures on the floor. Her body was a work of art, something that could’ve caused a riot if she’d ever been allowed to dance on stage.

My breathing started coming fast as I caught another glimpse of that hickey on her neck. She’d pulled her hair back to leave her bare skin exposed, telling me to go fuck myself for being such an idiot. She did a few more impossible pirouettes and then stopped, leaned against the barre in front of the camera, and, panting, stared into it.

I turned off all the cameras and entered her studio.

CHAPTER 32MARFIL

I hadn’t really expected him to come into my studio, convinced he would resist the temptation. I had tried to make it hard for him, but Sebastian Moore had an enviable resistance.

All week, I had done my best to provoke him by any means necessary. I was pissed at everyone, especially him, for having lied to me, and for sitting back and letting Marcus watch me whenever he wanted. A part of me hoped that Sebastian would just forget about his job and take me away… but nothing could be further from reality.

Staying over at Tami’s and at Liam’s had been mean of me. I knew that he’d have to wait up all night in his car, that he wouldn’t sleep well for days, but my anger was greater than everything else. I refused to let Marcus watch me through his spy cameras! And although I knew I was being childish by provoking Sebastian, like with the hickey that went too far, it was just so easy. There was nothing I wanted more than to penetrate his armor of self-control. We had broken off whatever it was we’d had between us, and I hated how quickly he’d given up, how little he’d been willing to fight for me.

He came into the studio, slamming the door behind him, and stopped in the middle of the room. “Is this what you want?” he asked, pupils dilated and breath agitated. “You like seeing me like this?”