24 Confession

I suddenly caught myself feeling how my shield was absorbing his fire, and turning it to warmth, that was going up and down my body. Markus probably felt it too, because his eyes started turning back to black onyx, and soon he took his hands away from my face, stepping back. He looked around everyone in the dining room, then looked at me, still a bit confused.

"I'm waiting for you upstairs," he said, then quickly vanished under the door. I turned around, feeling my cheeks still burn pink from his fire.

"Raphael, Rick, I need one of you to ask to clean the dining room as the dinner has ended. As for the quests, if anyone decided to stay, take care of them to have everything they require. But if they choose to leave, show them the shortest way out, please." I turned around and gracefully headed to the door, then closed it and went upstairs. Markus was clinging to the wall near the elevator, waiting for me. I took his hand and pressed it to my cheek. He was hot as hell, and not in the literal meaning of that expression.

Markus hasn't said even a word. He just clicked the button on the elevator, then closed his eyes.

"Take a shower as soon as we will get to the room. The cold water should calm you down, at least a little…" I said, playing with his platinum blond hair with my fingers. Actually, it was hard to identify the color of his hair. It differs depending on the light, so I will say it's just platinum white.

We got inside the elevator and Markus put the button "up", so we got to the third floor in a second, then to his room. Markus went silently to the shower, while I changed from the dress to the red nightie, put the dress on the hangers, and went on the balcony. I leaned on the railings and looked down at the garden. I'm here already for some time and I still wasn't able to get outside and look over the garden, nor to sit there on a bench and read a book or fill my diary.

The diary… I haven't written in there since I met Markus.

Suddenly I felt cold hands wrapping my waist and I straightened up, then turned back and looked at Markus. He was in a towel on his nether regions, and water drops were slipping down from the tips of his hair down to his muscled torso and then to the towel. I put my hand on his chest and he pulled me closer to himself, then put his head on mine. We were standing like this for some time until I finally straightened up and looked into his eyes. They were deep onyx, calm and cold, but as soon as he looked at me, they became warm, just warm.

It would take me a long time to forget his eyes with a burning fire in them. I bet he imagined those things I'm not even allowed to say. His cold fingers suddenly took my chin, waking me up from dreams.

"What do you have on your mind?" he asked, looking inside the depth of my eyes as if trying to read my thoughts in there. I smiled.

"You…," I closed my eyes, enjoying him stroking my chin with his fingers and hearing him chuckle.

"Me almost burning my own family to ash or me standing in a bath towel on a balcony?" his question almost made me laugh.

"Can I think about something else than sex with you?" we both laugh, then he went back to the bedroom to change into some clothes, while I turned back to observe the garden below.

"So, what do you think about all this?" Markus came back to the balcony in a black bathrobe tied on his torso, then put one on me and gave me a glass of fresh blood. I smelled it and felt nausea rising inside my stomach again, so I stepped back, closing my nose. Markus looked at me bewildered.

"There was so much blood in the dining room, I almost threw up… I still feel bad when smelling it… Sorry." I looked at how Markus put the glasses aside and took a deep breath, then put on the bathrobe and wrapped me in it. It was so warm, I regretted I haven't taken it before going to the balcony. Then I came closer to Markus and hugged him from the back, then put my hands on his torso. "What do I think about all this? Your family isn't that bad, they just don't know everything about you, and especially about me. Even I don't know why you chose me over all those dozen of girls you had…"

I mocked him to get some answers.

"That's a very interesting point," he looked at me, then hugged my hands, "As well as hard to answer. I just felt attracted to you from the time I saw you in the nightclub… When I opened my eyes in the morning and saw you, I understood, I want you to be the only one waking up near me…"

I put my head on his shoulder, listening to his every word and absorbing it deep inside my mind and body. His words were like a lullaby to me.

"A decision came to my mind too quickly to think about its pros and cons. I studied who you are, where you work, and who were your parents. I quickly understood your mother was hiding something about your true identity…" He suddenly turned and caught me in his arms, so I opened my eyes from his fast move and understood that my body relaxed so much I was slipping down. He took me in his arms and went to the bedroom, then put me on the bed and wrapped me with a blanket, "You need to sleep. We can continue talking tomorrow…"

"No, please, continue," I wrapped in a blanket and turned to him, closing my eyes again. Markus laid near me, hugged me, and started stroking my head and my hair.

"When I saw you in the police station, I felt not only desire for your body… I also felt something I never felt before… Strange behavior of my fire I wasn't, and I'm not able to explain even now. It was slightly burning, making my heartbeat what I haven't felt for a long time…"

When I woke up in the morning, instead of Markus's male aroma I smelled flowers near me, so I opened my eyes to find a bouquet of red and white roses in the place where Markus was supposed to be. It made me stretch my body, take the bouquet in my hands, and smell them…

"Thanks, darling…" I smiled, then stood up and put the flowers in the vase, then turned around and noticed a note on the bed. It probably fell off the bouquet when I moved it from the bed to the night table with a vase. I took the note and read it up quickly.

"𝑀𝑜𝓇𝓃𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒷𝑒𝒶𝓊𝓉𝓎… 𝒲𝒶𝒾𝓉𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒻𝑜𝓇 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝒾𝓃 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓉𝓇𝒶𝒾𝓃𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓇𝑜𝑜𝓂 𝒶𝒻𝓉𝑒𝓇 𝒷𝓇𝑒𝒶𝓀𝒻𝒶𝓈𝓉. 𝒫𝓇𝑒𝓅𝒶𝓇𝑒𝒹 𝓈𝑜𝓂𝑒𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓈𝓅𝑒𝒸𝒾𝒶𝓁…

It was a note written in Markus's accurate handwriting. I put the note near the flowers and went to the shower.

It took me around half an hour to take a shower, got dressed into a training suit, then get breakfast of freshly made pancakes with honey on the balcony, only after that got to the training room. But when I almost reached it, I heard a female voice coming from the inside. I froze near the door, trying to figure out who was there.

"So, what's so special about her?" It was a young female voice that reminded me of Markus's sister, Mallory, whom I just met yesterday.

"She's different…" Markus said in his cold voice.

"Interesting… Will you tell me more?" The same female voice asked. I was curious to get inside and to stay here listening to them, but my curiosity for going inside won, so I turned the handle while hearing Markus's words.

"You'll know soon on your own…" Markus and Mallory both turned in my direction. His onyx eyes looked at my black slim-fit pants, black singlet, and black sneakers while Mallory's eyes stopped at the pendant on my neck. I put my maroon hair in a high ponytail before going here, so she could also see the same earrings I found Markus left me. Her reaction, however, was way different from her mother's.

"They suit you," she smiled, pointing at her neck and ear, meaning the pendant and earrings look good on me. I got closer to them and Markus immediately wrapped my body with his cold hands and pressed me to him. I kissed his cheek and looked at Mallory.

"Good to see you stayed," I smiled, feeling Markus's cold lips on my neck. He left a kiss there and moved to my ear.

"To your wonder, THEY stayed too…," Mallory grinned, showing me her white sharp fangs, then looked at Markus, "C'mon bad boy, you should talk with mom and tell her everything you've told me. She's gonna understand, I'm sure…"

"No way…," he said, then stood straight and looked at his watch, then back at Mallory, "Today's dinner was canceled, so you better ask Raphael or Rick to serve you."

"Are you going to train her tête-à-tête?" Mallory giggled, then looked at me and winked, "He's not a bad teacher on those private lessons…"

"Do you know anything about his private lessons?" I asked with jealousy in my voice. Mallory laughed, then put her cold hand on my shoulder.

"I've only heard," she turned around and went to the exit of the training room, then stopped, turned to me, and said, "You made them really amused. George couldn't stop talking about you pressing Markus's burning hands to your cheeks and staying alive after that…"

She left after that, leaving us alone in the training room. I looked at Markus and arched my eyebrow.

"Private lessons?"