The Sweetest Temptation
Chapter 223: Blood

Chapter 223: Blood

He had to handle a lot of projects whilst dealing with family as the first born. It was a lot of hassle for someone running several companies all at once, and a young man at that.

She smiled to herself as she began to picture instances of herself and Matteo together handling stuff. It’d be the most precious moment she’d ever known with a man, one that she was sure would not lay a hand on her.

What makes you so certain that he will not lay a hand on you? Don’t get your hopes up, Stella.

Her thinking was her worst enemy right now, because she was beginning to enjoy her imagination.

That was probably what hindered her from getting herself another person in the first place. She rubbed her forehead with her fingers, willing the ache in her head to get away, but it was to no avail. What she needed was rest, but the instruction from Matteo was not to leave until he’d shown up. After all, she was his personal assistant, for the meantime probably. But till then.

She was still debating when, in the thick of the silence she had long become accustomed to, she heard the ding of the elevator like a distant muffled sound. She jerked her head up with a start, wondering what was happening.

Is this a possible robbery?!

"This is a skyscraper for God’s sake," She spoke to herself as she got up from her seat and started towards her door with her phone in her hand, just in case the intruder invades the main lights. She opened her door slowly, taking in the quietness that seconded her current surrounding, she wasn’t liking the silence that followed the elevator ding.

And she could not believe she was walking towards the sound.

You’ve gone insane! She thought to herself as she put her light on and continued forward.

"Hello?" her voice echoed through the empty hallway that lined several offices including hers and Matteo’s.

"Hello," Just then, she thought of something else to say. "I’ve got a gun!" She pointed two fingers upwards while she held her phone against her arm mimicking a gun in her grasp.

"Drop it!" she froze in fear from the deep baritone of an unfamiliar voice bellowing from a spot behind the open door of someone else’s office.

"Alright, okay, I got nothing, please don’t hurt me." She whispered as she closed the distance towards the door, drawing out a handy pocket knife she always carried on her – in the case of Nolan.

"Please don’t hurt me," She feigned whimpers of fear, while she readied herself for a launch attack. But there was no sound.

"I’m una –" She twisted into the opening where she believed the intruder to be, but then, a sturdy arm wrapped about her wrist and twisted in the wrong direction, causing her to flex into its rightful position and crash into solid biceps.

"You gave yourself away when you kept repeating it," a hoarse whisper coursed into her ear, sending a chill through her veins and causing a familiar warmth in her core.

"Matteo?!"

"Stella."

She was anxious, more excited even. The more she processed her current situation, the more her excitement bubbled in her depths. In order to regain more clarity and space for reasonable thinking, she struggled to release herself. But when she began to wriggle, she realized more to her excitement that his grip was tight around her waist. Her breathing became ragged; she could feel her knees give way underneath his mere touch. It was baffling. He did nothing more than seize hold of her – waist. And he wasn’t planning on letting go – even after knowing that it was just her.

Say something Stella, say something! She thought to herself in a haze, and then she made an attempt.

But when she opened her mouth, her words came out as so, "What – what are you doing? What –" futile.

However, during her struggle, her words got stuck when her hand smeared against something sticky – something greasy, but with a more metallic feel. She looked down at her palm to behold – blood.

Instinctively, she pushed herself against him, and like a miracle, she was set free. While she stepped back, she raked her gaze over him, assessing his body for where it had come from.

She did not have to look much. There was an almost deadly looking gash along the length of his arm, pumping out blood furiously. It looked like a blade cut – a really sharp blade too, because it cut through his suit and his dress shirt – and his sinews. Her breath hitched. Through the tears of his materials, she could see his heavily built and hairy arm in all its glory –

This is no time, he’s in pain. She stood transfixed and in pain, for him.

She grabbed hold of his injury-free arm. With as much strength as she could muster from her entire being, she draped it across her shoulder, in a futile attempt to help him on his feet. It was only when he managed to be upright that she realized his leg had also been affected.

He definitely just got out of a fight, but of what sort? She began to question in her thoughts. She wondered, if indeed, it was as she’d thought, what could be so important to be worth fighting for to the point of bloodshed?

There was absolutely no point to know if he somehow made it out alive. But it wasn’t just about making it out alive. What if the people that did this were still out there? What if he was plotted on? What if he eventually got killed?

The words began to spill out as she was in a rush to convey her thoughts to him as fast as possible, to prevent her from talking too much. "We should call the police, get to know the people responsible –"

"No!" Almost immediately, he interrupted, seizing her waist and drawing her close to himself as he locked his eyes with hers, his gaze dark and intense with pain and – something else. But it was gone in a flash. "You will do no such thing." He whispered against her lips.