CHAPTER ELEVEN

"Arcadio, stay with me please," the words sounded desperate, but the comfort of his arms didn't make me feel like one.

"Mia Bella, I am right here," he said and laid down beside me on top of the sheets and covered me with his arms.

Was what I was doing right now? My mind was shouting a hundred times to get the hell away from him. Yet the warmth in my heart said otherwise. How can it feel right and wrong at the same time? Ignoring everything, I closed my eyes shut and took in his scent before I drifted back to sleep.

A shriek wakes me up. "Ellie, wake up. Are you alright?"

I come face to face with Leo, looking back at me with worries written all over her face.

I groggily replied, "I'm alright." Then shocked waved my hand on the other side. If Leo saw me with his brother, there would be some other problem. But when the cold side of the bed meets my hand, I feel slightly disappointed. Why would he want to stay with me anyway?

Ignoring the dejected feeling, I smile at her, "why are you gazing at me as if I am a wounded rabbit?"

"Don't joke around, Ellie?!" She snaps suddenly.

My eyes widen at her. Does she know? I must've asked aloud because she replies, "Of course I know. What do you take me for, an idiot?!"

"Leo, calm yourself down," I try to reason with her. However, my words don't work because she is walking around the room exasperated.

"You used to hate my brother. How could you even think about him that way now?!" She asks with disbelief.

"Wait a minute, what?"

"Tell me, did he force you? Or did he try to blackmail you with anything? Answer me, Ellie," she sits beside me.

"Why would Arcadio force me for anything?" I still have no idea what she is insinuating.

"Then you decided to sleep with him all on your own?" My eyes widen with shock.

"How can you think that?!" I questioned with anger.

"Then please explain to me. Why are you sleeping in my brother's room, on his bed, and that too naked?"

I look around the room. It is full of colors, black, and grey. Arcadio's bedroom is just like him. Yesterday, my attention had not gone to the details of the room because whenever he is around me, surroundings don't matter. But now, due to the brightness from outside everything, looked clear.

The furniture in the room was expensive. It showed all of Arcadio's wealth. I tightened the sheets around me and explained. "Leo, chill. I did not sleep with your brother."

"What?" The frown line on his forehead gets deeper.

"Yes, I know it's hard to believe, but I did not."

"So you're telling me that nothing happened between you and him when I know that your buck naked beneath those sheets?"

I felt like a bucket of cold water fell on me. I can't tell Leo what exactly happened between us. I blush, remembering the closeness I had with him and the way his skin felt close to me. I yearned for his touch now more than ever. Yet I replied, "No, nothing happened between us."

I am not about to ruin this friendship over a mere fling because that is what it was to him. He had slept with o many people that I'm sure I was going to be another girl on his bed.

The thought of him sleeping with someone else in this room made me nauseated. It felt suffocating.

"Well, if that's the case, good then. I brought you some clothes after Arcadio told me you were naked here. Go and change." Leo interrupts my thoughts.

Arcadio told her, no surprises there, it seems. I take the bag from her hand. I go inside the bathroom, which appeared to be just as extravagant as the room.

I needed to get out of here. Arcadio's scent was all over this place, making me more sad thinking about how whatever happened yesterday was over and how it had meant nothing to him.

Taking a heavy heart, I moved out of the bathroom changed into a pair of blue jeans and a white off-shoulder corset top with converse below.

"Let's go," Leo says, and we move out of his room. We moved to the dining area. Thank God there was no one around. I don't want to face any men, especially Arcadio.

Leo moved and sat at the table. "Sit down, Ellie. You must be hungry." I was about to deny her when my stomach started to grumble. "Good, now you can't say you are not hungry."

Even though Leo would never admit it, she is more similar to Arcadio than anyone else in her family. The same cold expressions, the same level of anger and can scare anyone with those stares. Still not wanting to ignite her Arcadio side, I sit down.

The food is spread out in front of me, brewing my hunger more. I put everything on my plate and start eating. After food in my system, I feel much relaxed.

"Anything else, Ellie?" Leo asks. I shake my head.

"Leona, what is she still doing here?" Romero's voice comes from behind me.

"What do you mean what is she doing here? Didn't we clear that yesterday that she was staying here." Leo instantly becomes defended of me

Rolling his eyes, Romero states, "this is a house, not a hotel that when anyone wants to spend a vacation, they can stay here."

"This house is owned by Arcadio's, and if he says that she stays here, then she stays. If anyone has a problem with it, they can put up with him, but I assure you that Ellie won't go anywhere." Leo threatens. It was the first time I had seen her so angry.

"You mean Arcadio has now eyes on your best friend, and instead of saving her from his darkness, you are letting him make her one of his slut?" His voice vibrated through the whole room.

I felt something break inside me probably, my self-respect because whatever he was saying was somehow honest, even though what he said about the reason for me staying here was wrong, but I did let Arcadio get inside my mind. I let him touch me. Suddenly I wanted to take a bath and wanted to wash over and over again. Until even the memory of him touching me gets removed.

I turned my back towards them and walked away, only to be stopped by a shadow standing at the corner listening to the whole conversation. Arcadio stood there wearing his black suit, seeming sharp as ever and his face blank as ever.

"Leona, take our guest to the bedroom while I talk to our dear brother here."

Romero smirks at him, "what scared that she would know your actual plan?"

"Don't be absurd, brother, because if we are talking about my sex life, let's talk about yours as well. About how you are exactly like me, the only difference is that I own up to whatever wrong I do, and you tend to hide in that tower you call an office."

"At least what I do is at least respectable instead of murdering people just because you can," Romero scoffed. The tension and aggression between the two could cut with a knife. "But what I find more interesting is how you became so protective of our sister's best friend. Don't you think it's a bit overrated when you are simply planning to sleep with the girl and leave her?"

I saw Arcadio's hands turn into a fist. I know that in his mind, he was thinking of hitting his brother to a pulp. Because that is what I was thinking, and I'm sure Leo was as well. I never liked Romero since he was always his great self. Egoism and arrogance are some of his traits, among others. I knew that he never desired me because he always was silent and his eyes always made me feel insecure but hearing his words now makes me realize how low he thought of me.

A tear slipped from my cheek. No one has hurt me this much, and I wasn't going to stand there listening to it more. So I turn and walk away when Arcadio's words stop me. "Well, I didn't have the chance of sleeping with her till now, but I'm sure this marriage would change that, right baby?"