Chapter 6

“So, will you accept my offer, Camila?”

I jumped at the sound of his voice, then shook my head quickly. That’s crazy! There’s no way I’d kiss a guy I’d only met a few hours ago.

“Well then, how about this drink?” Pedro said, holding out the glass filled with that strong liquid toward me again.

With a hesitant, trembling hand, I took the glass. My mind went blank. To me, forcing myself to swallow this hard liquor was far better than having to kiss a man I didn’t love at all.

I brought my lips close to the rim of the glass, which had a pungent aroma. But just as the liquid was about to touch my tongue, a strong hand suddenly snatched the glass roughly from my grip.

I looked up, staring intently, and my heart seemed to stop beating when I realized that the man was Javier. I thought he really didn’t care anymore, but it turned out he was helping me.

“Go to your room,” he said quietly but with absolute firmness.

“Come on, Javi, she’s a grown woman. Don’t keep her locked up all the time—let her experience the beauty of the world. Get a boyfriend, drink alcohol—isn’t that how it goes?” Pedro interjected, staring at Javier with a defiant smile.

“Go to your room, Camila,” Javier repeated, completely ignoring Pedro’s interruption or the scornful glances from the others in the room. His gaze pierced me so sharply and intimidatingly.

I nodded slowly, preparing to walk away. But just as I turned around, Adriana suddenly stepped in front of me, blocking my path.

“Honey, what’s wrong with you? She’s an adult—the others are right. When will she ever be able to have a boyfriend if you keep restricting her like this? She must want to drink and experience a kiss too, right?” Adriana said in a tone thick with condescension.

I froze in place, glancing at Javier, who was still staring at me with a clenched jaw. Finally, the next string of words that came out of Adriana’s mouth managed to shock me half to death.

“Besides, he’s not your biological brother, is he? So you’re really overreacting.”

I never expected Adriana to be so brazen as to reveal my status in front of her friends. It wasn’t just me—Javier, too, instantly looked at his fiancée with a look of disbelief. In an instant, the atmosphere in the room turned icy, and every pair of eyes turned to me with judgmental stares.

“She never drinks alcohol. If anything happens to her, you’re the one Mom will be scolding,” Javier said slowly, but his voice sounded very cold. Without waiting for a response from anyone, he immediately grabbed my wrist and dragged me away from that cursed place.

As soon as we were far enough away in the quiet, dimly lit area outside the inn, I roughly shook his hand off. I turned around, glaring at Javier with a fierce, burning gaze fueled by anger and pain that had already boiled over.

“Why?” I asked in a soft, trembling voice.

“Why what?” Javier retorted, his face turning as cold as ice once more.

“Why did you help me?! Don’t you care about me anymore?” I demanded, tears beginning to well up in my eyes. “Don’t you think of me as a stranger now? So just leave me alone! Let me be humiliated by your boyfriend and his jerk friends!”

“You’re the one who’s stupid for choosing to come along, Camila,” he snapped.

“Yeah, I’m the one who came! And it’s all because of your boyfriend’s invitation and coercion!” I shouted, refusing to back down. “Besides, I’m an adult—you should just leave me alone, shouldn’t you?”

I gave him a cynical smile. Even though I’d flat-out rejected the idea right from the start at the dinner table, Adriana always had some sneaky way of forcing me to go on this annoying vacation.

“Stay away from them. They’re not a good crowd for you,” Javier said again, his tone sounding like an older brother giving an absolute order to his younger sister.

Hearing that, a hollow laugh escaped my lips. How funny. When he first arrived, he just stayed silent and acted indifferent, as if I didn’t even exist. But now, he’s suddenly acting like my protector.

“It’s none of your business. It’s my personal right to be friends with whoever I want, isn’t it? Besides, weren’t you the one who asked that we act professionally and not get to know each other? So, don’t meddle in my affairs!”

“That’s at the office, Camila.”

I just smiled; to me, whether we were at the office or not made no difference.

I could clearly see how Javier’s fists at his sides clenched so tightly that the knuckles turned white. I didn’t know if my words had actually hurt his feelings or merely offended his ego as a man in power. But whatever—that’s the bitter reality I have to swallow every day.

“I’m warning you once again, Camila. Never get involved with them. Especially not with Pedro—he’s a sly womanizer,” Javier hissed softly, taking a step toward me.

“If I keep seeing him, so what? That way, I can learn how to kiss nicely from him, right? I can also learn how to date him so I don’t get—”

Cut!

My words trailed off as my body was suddenly yanked with a strong jerk by Javier. The jerk was so powerful that our chests collided directly, leaving only the thinnest of gaps between us.

Honestly, my entire nervous system froze instantly. My heart was pounding wildly because of this intense and dangerous proximity. I could feel the warmth of his body and the rich, masculine scent wafting from his clothes—a scent exactly like that of the man who always dominated my dreams.

“Let go! I don’t want your boyfriend to see us like this,” I stammered, trying to push against his broad chest to salvage what little sanity I had left, which was on the verge of collapsing.

Instead of pulling away or releasing his grip, Javier closed the distance even further. He lowered his head, bringing his stern face close enough that his warm breath brushed against my cheek.

“If I ever catch you getting close to him again… you’ll regret it for the rest of your life, Camila,” he threatened in a deep baritone that shook the very core of my chest.

After hurling that intensely possessive threat, he immediately shoved me away and turned to walk off, disappearing into the darkness of the hallway leading to his room.

I stood frozen in place, exhaling a harsh, pent-up breath as my chest rose and fell erratically. My heart was still pounding wildly, completely baffled by the hidden flash of anger in that man’s eagle-like eyes.

****

Elsewhere, Adriana clenched her fists tightly as her boyfriend took Camila away. If only Camila were her biological sister, perhaps she wouldn’t be this angry. If only she hadn’t sensed that strange look in Camila’s eyes, she wouldn’t have planned all of this. The way Camila looked at her—not like a sister—made her jealous and solidified her evil plan.

****