Loving Marcello

Chapter Eight

"O. M. G." I exclaim to myself. "This is the second fucking time!"

I glare at the wall that I've managed to run into not once, but twice.

"Are you happy? You stupid wall." I insult childishly, rubbing my head with a pout on my face, as I sit on the ground.

It's been 5 minutes, but I still refuse to get up until my head stops throbbing. Continuously rubbing it, my pulse still reverberates throughout my skull.

Maybe this is why I've always been a bit off.

Maybe I've run into one too many walls.

I gasp, "That's it!"

"What's it?" A voice from behind me asks, the accent rolling from his tongue perfectly.

I stand up frantically, "N-nothing!" My mouth stutters.

The man in front of me props an eyebrow up, looking at me condescendingly. "Did you seriously run into that wall again?"

I scoff, "No!"

Yes.

"Riiigghhtt." He drags out, looking unpleased with my lying skills.

I glare at him, "I didn't!"

"Don't lie to me." He says darkly, his mood suddenly changing.

Woah.

What?

What was that?

Holy snap sizzles, that was fast. One second he was all amused and joking, the next he's looking at me like he wants to choke me to death.

I roll my eyes, "I can do whatever I want, Mr. Toughguy."

"And who says that?" He takes a menacing step forward.

I take a frightening step back, "Me?" I say with uncertainty.

He takes another step forward, and I attempt to step back, but realize that he's backed me into a wall.

"You don't seem too confident with that answer." He cocks his head to the side, examining me as if he were the predator and I were the prey.

I glare at him, "Because you're basically giving me the vibe that you wanna strangle me."

He blinks at me. "Am I?" His voice sounds mocking.

I glare up at him, not liking his tone of voice. "No." I begin sarcastically, "You look like you're about to give me a cupcake and send me on my merry way!" I finish.

"Don't you dare speak to me like that." He whispers threateningly, his body looming over me as he looks at me with a murderous glare.

I've honestly never felt this threatened in my entire life.

And if I'm telling the truth, it was pretty exciting. Yes, that's right. Exciting.

Don't ask, because I don't know. As I was saying, maybe I ran into one too many walls.

"I can speak to whoever however I please." I hiss back, accepting the challenge.

His glare intensifies, if possible.

His hand finds my throat, causing my heartbeat to speed up a bit. "The hell if you can."

He squeezes his hand threateningly, but not enough to hurt.

"Oh, if you liked it kinky, you should've just told me." I smile with a wink, feeling bold.

His face shows a flash of surprise, then dropps to disbelief, "Why aren't you scared?" He asks, looking at me like I was crazy.

"Why would I be? Just because some guy puts his hand around my throat, I'm supposed to be scared?" I snort mockingly.

I  am scared, but the fear is the excitment. And this was why I should be concerned for my mental health.

Yup, I don't know if it was the excitement of coming to Rome or what, but I'm definitely more risk-taking than usual.

Hmm.

"Yes. You are supposed to be scared if some guy puts his hand around your throat." He says, still looking at me like I was insane.

"Apparently not." I mutter, rolling my eyes.

"I could kill you!" He exclaimes, putting pressure onto my throat to prove his point.

"Buuuutt you're not." I give him a grin.

"But I can." Is his retort.

"But you won't." I continue.

"How do you know?" He raises an eyebrow.

Taking him by surprise, I grab his hand that was currently around my throat, twist it, spinning myself over his back to grab his other hand as he's  bent over from my recent blow, I successfully manage to have both of his hands restrained behind his back.

But what I don't expect is when he flips me over his back and above his shoulders so I land in front of him, and before I know it, he's pinned me to the wall again.

"Well dang." I laugh, "Back to square one."

"Fast, but not fast enough." He states.

"Did I at least surprise you?" I ask hopefully.

He grunts, "That's the only reason you managed to get my hands behind my back." He says, seeming displeased with himself.

"Hm." I hum thoughtfully, trying to appear to be relaxed, then attempt to jump into motion again, but he sees it coming.

Before I can do anything, he has both of my hands above my head, only using one of his, and his legs pin mine to the wall as his body is shoved forcefully against mine to prevent me from moving even a centimeter.

"That was a fail." I huff to myself, trying to ignore the tingles his touch is giving me.

"Nice try, but not gonna happen." He says gruffly.

After a moment of awkward silence, I clear my throat.

"As fun as this little...encounter has been, I've got some touring to do." I pipe up excitedly.

He looks at me, amused, "Touring?"

"Yup. I even have that little pamphlet-slash-brochure thingy. Looky." I say happily, gesturing my eyes down to the ground at the papers sitting there, blowing slightly in the gentle breeze.

He glances down to see it, then snorts, looking back to me. He seems to sober up a little and look more serious, "How about I show you around?"

I raise an eyebrow, "Threatening to kill me one minute, then offering to be my personal tour guide the next? And you think I'm the crazy one? Pfft. Funny."

He glares at me, "Let me rephrase how I said that. Come on, I'll show you around."

"Nu-uh." I say stubbornly.

"It wasn't a question." He glares at me.

"It was the first time." I respond.

"And now it's not, c'mon." He commands, taking my hand and dragging me out of the dark corner we were occupying.

"Ugghhh, I don't wanna." I whine.

"Well, you have to. Now shut up."