"Why?" The confusion and shock had rendered her so speechless that her gasp came out silent and her words were like gasps.
The man before her smiled his child-like smile as he swooped her in one go, into his arms and jumped down the window sill. Waltzing into the room as though he owned the place.
"Why?" She asked again, her voice coming back to her after reigning her emotions from her initial shock. He didn't say a word, but he gently held her hand that had a steely grip on the club, slowly but gently undoing her grip on the weapon. Once he had reached her bed and the weapon was in his hands, he gently placed her on the bed in a sitting position.
"How…?" She asked a different question, this time online, to be cut off with his index fingers on her lips. She became a bit irked when she saw his goofy grin but decided against doing anything as she waited for an explanation of his sudden intrusion.
"I thought you'd miss me so I came to comfort you." He said with a cheeky grin.
Tanya eyed her boss with eyes filled with weariness, suspicion, and doubt. "I'm still going to see you tomorrow at your birthday gathering so what's the use of doing this and risking us getting caught."
Alvise's grin grew even wider, and his cheeky grin turned into a child-like glee, one so infectious and stunning that Tanya felt herself at a loss all of a sudden. She hated it when he did this to her, catching her off guard and rendering her vulnerable with that look. He was dangerous and she needed to stop forgetting that ever so constantly.
He slid a hand under her rich locks and tucked one behind her ears. Tanya was almost sure she was as red as bell peppers at this action. Her heart skipped a beat and her steel hard guard came crumbling down like a house of cards. It was unnerving and unbelievable the way he made her feel so foolish and flustered over small and useless gestures like these.
He looked at her as though she were the only one in his world and she suddenly felt queasy in her stomach. Perhaps dinner didn't settle well, she thought. Well, she mused internally, this was a good excuse to taste the wine she had brought from Alvise's home with his consent.
The thought of wine snapped her from her stupor and she backed away. "That's impossible." She finally breathed. "We just saw each other a few hours ago."
"Eleven hours." And her eyes widened at the comment. "You were counting?"
Alvise was almost tempted to say something but he bit his tongue and smiled. It wasn't the time yet. He'd only push her away with his forwardness.
"You are my most valuable asset, and you owe your life to me. Of course, I'd take care of you." Tanya eyed him suspiciously, and he just chuckled and sprawled onto her princess-sized bed.
"You still haven't told me, young master, the reason why you had to sneak into my room like a thief this late at night and sprawl on my bed as though it were yours," Tanya said as she shifted to face him while sitting.
Alvise turned to face his raging wild cat, which looked very domesticated and so furious that it was cute. He then propped himself up to the side with one of his elbows and rested his head on the hand of his propped arm.
"Are you mad, Tanya?" Alvise asked with a slight smile.
"A bit shocked and confused at your sudden appearance; not to mention frustrated that you're just answering my questions either vaguely or responding with another question. In all, I'm anything but."
Alvise smiled warmly at the response and then sat up straight on the bed. Thankfully for Tanya, Alvise had taken care of his footwear before getting onto the bed, "I did it for the thrill."
With eyebrows slightly furrowed at the absurdity of the response, Tanya asked, "Thrill?"
"Why, yes Cherie. Don't you love the thrilling possibility that we could be here, together alone, late until the night without your family's knowledge?" And then he drew closer to her face and caressed her from her ears to her chin and an almost inaudible gasp escaped her lips from his light touch. What was he doing?
"Don't you feel this wild, strange excitement fill you up from your bones like molten lava? The urge to be different, to be wild and not give a care." At that statement, Tanya's breath caught, and her heart began to thud heavily and painfully against her chest with… fear.
"The urge to give in and let. The. World. Burn." Tanya felt that Alvise's eyes seemed to have an eerie blood-red glow. His words seemed to be slowed all of a sudden, filling her with an eerie premonition.
Somewhere in her head, she heard this scream to run, to run, and never look back. Her spine straightened due to the reflexive fear and her mind spiraled into this chain and entanglement of madness. Madness that stemmed from the fear that had been with her since her reincarnation. The madness seemed to consume her and chain her, suffocating her till she couldn't breathe.
A small part of her said otherwise. That small part gently spurred her on to break free from her shackles. It felt like the light showers of spring, the warm sun in the heavy and cold air of the rainy season, like… an oasis.
Her reason suddenly came back and she masked her emotions like she normally did and smirked as though she hadn't just gone through her kind of hell and back. Her body's tension slowly eased, and she breathed out a small sigh and soon replaced the smirk on her lips.
She raised her head and faced his worried gaze and her heart pleasantly skipped a beat. It seemed she had shown her inner fears to her boss.
She raised a hand to unfurl his furrowed brows that were knit in worry and confusion.
"I'm okay, Alvise. I promise." He seemed unconvinced, and she gripped one of his hands and gave it a reassuring squeeze while she stroked his chin with the other.
"Now," she said, and suddenly the air in the room turned cold, and Alvise felt his spine straighten. He tried to back up, but he couldn't decide between the vice-like grip on his hand and chin or the look in her eyes that turned his legs into jelly and filled him with dread, which made him stop and kill the idea of running away.
"Will you stop beating about the bush and tell me why you came?" Her gaze turned murderous, and as though he had come in direct contact with a hot knife, Alvise immediately removed himself from her steely grip and backed up to the edge of the bed that was directly facing her.
He sighed dramatically and Tanya rolled her eyes at how impossibly dramatic this boss of hers was.
Suddenly, she heard a loud noise, akin to a scream, come out from the drama king across her, and Tanya's heart went to her lips in an instant, "Are you planning on killing me before my birthday, you witch?"
Tanya's eyes immediately widened and he body went into action before her mind could register what she was doing. She carried him out of her bed and into her closet, stuffed a single clean sock into his mouth, and covered him up before locking him up and removing the key.
Then, she immediately whipped out her laptop from its bag and placed it on her study table with her speakers on each side that were wirelessly connected to the system. She then started playing a movie selected at random onto the laptop and connected an earphone device to her laptop.
She quickly sat down and counted down till three as she slipped in the earpiece, and as she counted to one, the door flew open, and her father came into the room. Behind him were her brothers, and beside him was her mother.
Tanya removed the earphone from her ear as she swerved in false shock to the direction in which her family had barged in while secretly exhaling a sigh of relief. Never had she been so grateful for those evil reflex training she had been put through in events prior.