Hellbound Heart

Another bunos chapter dedicated to @Ivette_M11 and @edi_o! Thank you so much for the supergifts!

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With a confident smirk, Elle stepped out of the elevator. She was very sure that she had given her all and ran like the wind the moment she was ready. The corridor was empty, but she still did not lessen her pace at all. It was no good to be too confident that she would relax her guard.

She ran as fast as she could with victory plastered all over her face. No matter how fast he could go, there was just no way she would lose. Not with the speed that she had employed. Unless of course if he had magic. An amused glimmer flashed across her eyes at the thought.

When she saw the large double doors at the end of the corridor awaiting to be opened, Elle finally slowed down. She shook her head and smiled. What was she doing? 'Seriously… Elle…' she muttered to herself, unable to believe what she had just did.

Reaching her hand out for the gold door handle, Elle laughed at herself. But oh well, that was one enjoyable way of running away from his grasp. And an exercise for her too. With this, she could probably immediately fall asleep even if Sebastian was around. She really hoped so.

As she pushed the door open, her body stiffened. Her eyes slowly stretched wide as she watched a large hand covered hers, effectively stopping her from pushing the door open any further.

"Caught you!!" Came a rumbling whisper against her ear, jolting her heart so damned bad that her hand flew to her chest as that traitorous organ jumped and thumped with such anticipation. She readjusted her mind and the sudden welling of longing stirred up by his velvety and dark tones.

Her gasp was loud as she turned around with a start. Wait…!! That could not be possible!

The world stilled for a moment as she looked up at him. Her ice blue eyes so wide that it might have popped out of their sockets if it was possible.

"Breathe, Izabelle." He muttered lowly in her ears and Elle snapped back to reality from the intense shock.

Her lips opened and then closed. How… just how did he manage to…

His dimple appeared again as he lifted his hand and wiped off the sweat on her temple. "Indeed, you truly run fast, I'm impressed." He commented in a sultry deep voice. "But..." he bent over, bringing himself close to his ears and whispered, "… it's just that too bad because I'll catch you no matter how fast you run. There is no escaping me."

Elle unconsciously stepped back only to hit her back against the door. Oh my…

"H-how… how did you…" she still could not believe it. She had lived in this wing of the castle for the last three days. The butler had told her everything already, even the position of the secret passages. So, she was extremely confident that there were no areas and secret paths she still did not know. There was no way that Sebastian could have used another elevator, right? There was only one elevator in this wing of the castle! So how? How on earth?

Tilting his head innocently, Sebastian did not wait for her question to be completed anymore and answered. "I have my ways, Izabelle."

"Ways? What ways?" she pressed him for answers, her eyes still circled wide. No, she could not just let it off so easily!

,m He braced his hands on both her sides and leaned on her. His smile had faded. What was left was the storm in his eyes that seemed to be sucking her breath away.

"Running and leaping." His answer came out flat and direct.

A heavy silence reigned before Elle closed her eyes and sighed so heavily for a couple of times before she lifted her gaze at him again, expecting to see humor and victory flashing in his eyes. But what she only saw was him staring down at her with that peculiar look.

Elle could only bite down on the insides of her lip. There must be some kind of secret short cut that the butler did not show her. Perhaps the butler thought that as the master of the house, he needed to have some secret passageway that was only known to himself and that was why he had not revealed it to her. That was the only explanation on why Sebastian was able to catch her.

But oh lord… now there goes her chance to have him sleep on the couch! What will she do now to…

Her thoughts were cut as she was suddenly being lifted from the ground.

Sebastian was scooping her up again in his arms. Why… oh why… Did he like to lift people without any warning like this? Was he actually trying to kill her by means of a heart attack?!

"What are you doing? Please put me down, Sebastian. I can walk." She quickly protested but the man did not listen to her pleas and entered their room with her securely tucked in his arms. He had kicked the door with the heel of his shoes after entering their room with her still held in his arms.

"Sebastian…" Elle called out to him again when he did not speak. But he continued walking silently towards the couch.

When he finally sat her down, Elle was about to sigh out in relief when he squatted before her and reached out for her feet.

Shocked once again, Elle gaped at him. "W-what are you…" the words were stuck in her throat as she watched him gently lift her feet and started checking on it. Was he trying to see if she had hurt her feet?!

After placing her right feet down, he checked on the other one casually. As if that was not the first time that he had done something like this to her. As if this was something so commonplace for him to do.

She clenched her fists that were on her sides as her heart drummed up a crazy beat within her chest. Why… what was wrong with this man tonight? Why in the world was he suddenly like this?

Without putting her feet down, he finally lifted his gaze to her. And Elle's breathe snagged in her throat.

"Be thankful you had not suffered any wounds, Izabelle." He had said it so seriously. "Because if you had gotten even a tiny scratch…" he trailed off, his gaze trailing down from her eyes to her lips and then down to her throat.

"What…?" she creased her brows at him. "So what if I accidentally scratched myself while running? What are you going to do about it?"

"I'll teach you a lesson so you would no longer run barefooted like that again and end up harming yourself."

"H-huh?"

He rose and towered over her, never releasing her from his gaze. He reached for his necktie and loosened it. The set of his jaws changed and now he looked like the dangerous rage that he had buried back in the party had been unleashed. He braced his hands against the couch and said in low voice. "You've done something really dangerous tonight, Izabelle. You need to be... disciplined... for your sake."