Today had done absolutely nothing for my heart. The way Markus was with Callie, it was almost easy to assume that he was her father instead of her uncle.

He had held her on his shoulders while they chased me around the pool, the pair of them trying to shove my head under the water, because I had made the mistake of telling Markus that I hated it when my head disappeared beneath it.

Callie, of course, had found it highly amusing when they had finally caught up with me and Markus forced me to the bottom of the pool. She had been sat on the side at the point, clapping her hands with glee, and telling Markus to do it again.

Naturally, being at the mercy of my three-year-old daughter and lacking the ability to tell her no, he had resumed to force me beneath the water on three more occasions. But there had been other moments, where Callie had been distracted by her floating frog, that Markus' hand would graze my own or it would rest on my back as he edged it towards my waist.

He had even carried me on his back a couple of times, and I would be lying if I said that my hands didn't roam over his muscles, and I would also be lying if I said that I wasn't throwing side glances at him whenever I thought that it was safe to do so: he was forcing me to question everything I thought I felt when it came to being around him.

"Ready?" Markus made me jump slightly as he appeared behind me.

"I suppose so. Where are you taking me?" I began following him across the garden towards the trees at the bottom, where we had been a couple of hours before with Callie holding both of our hands, swinging and talking about how excited she was to start nursery.

"You will have to wait and see, but I assure you now, that you will like it," he laughed from in front of me.

"Are you taking me to some really secret place?" I chuckled.

"Yeah." Markus continued to stare ahead as though he was remembering something and he was debating whether he should tell me or not, so a part of me was relieved when he carried on speaking. "I've never shown anyone else this place. It's where I used to hide whenever I was in trouble, or when I just wanted to get away from Matt."

Markus' fingers quickly found my own as he dragged me towards the trees. To me, it didn't seem as though there was a way through, but I had to trust that he knew where he was going. He did, after all, spend all his time out here when he was a child.

When we finally made it into the clearing, I was amazed by what Markus was showing me, and I was speechless as I looked around at the space he had brought me into.

He had created a small space for him, somewhere no one would find it nor would they think to look either. It had everything you would need to hide out here for a couple of days without having to go back to the main house, and I could only imagine the fun Markus had out here when he was a child who wanted to hide away from the world.

There was a bed in the corner, which was covered in black and white bedding, and there was a table beside the table which was covered in some of Markus' belongings: including a picture of him with Callie I didn't even know he had. There a small cupboard at the end of the bed, filled with dry food and drink, and there was a couple of bottles of alcohol on top of that.

The entire thing was protected by some sort of gazebo and the walls were made from, what at least looked to me, like bamboo and the floor had concrete covered in a couple of fur rugs. The entire thing was cleverly hidden behind the surrounding trees and no one was going to know it was here, not unless Markus brought them into his hiding place.

"You did all of this?" I continued to look around in awe. I was surprised that he would want to show me—of all people—this place: a place which clearly held so many secrets for him but held so much happiness at the same time.

"I had some help from my father before he died. He was the only one who knew this is where I would hide. But he never told my mother or Matt." He took a seat on the edge of the bed, a ghost of a smile on his lips, and I took his invite to sit beside him.

"I could imagine you playing here as a kid. Callie would love it here," I chuckled. I found myself looking around the space, paying attention to the smaller details, such as the picture of a young Markus and his father which hung from the wall, and I thought of all the games he would have played here with his father.

"Callie would love it here. I could share the games with her which I used to play with my father." I found my head falling against Markus' shoulder and I felt him kiss the top of my head, and my heart started going all sorts of crazy, while my head wondered what the hell I was playing at. "My father and I used to have so much fun here. It was the only time we really got to spend together. He was always having to run around after my mother, fulfilling her wishes while making sure Matt got everything he wanted."

"Hey—"

"You know, Matthew only made his fortune when our father died, because he inherited most of the money. Being the oldest and all."

"What did you get?" I was quick to realise what I had said and just how personal that question was. "Sorry. You don't have to answer. I ju—"

"Soph, it's fine," he laughed at my awkwardness. It was the first time I had not felt the need to correct him and tell him that my name was Sophie, because it sounded almost affectionate as it came from his mouth, rather than taunting as it usually did. "I never wanted his money. Sure, he left me money, but I've never touched it. I made my own money because I only ever wanted one thing from my father, and I got that."

"What was that?"

"His love." I found myself looking up to Markus, making contact with his eyes, and it was the first time I appreciated just how different Markus was to Matthew. While Matthew had green eyes, Markus' were blue with a slightly grey tinge to them, and neither of them looked anything like each other: except perhaps their noses. Other than that, there was nothing about the two of them which would distinguish them as being brothers, other than the fact they shared the same surname as each other.

"Why do you stay here then? It's not like Matt wants you here. He spends most of his time proving he's better than you." I found my hand subconsciously landing on his knee, gripping at it slightly as my head fell back against his shoulder.

"I've got nowhere else to go. The room I have in this house is the only thing which keeps me close to my father. He made sure that I would always have that room, and there's nothing Matthew can do about it." There was a certain smugness to his tone as he thought about the fact he was always going to have that room, in a house which officially belonged to Matt, but there was nothing which Matt could do and he was always going to have his younger brother looking over his shoulder.

"What about your mother? What happened to her?"

"The day we buried my father, it was all about her and Matt. People were offering their condolences to the pair of them, but everyone seemed to forget that I existed. That's how it always was and how it still is. I'm the forgotten part of the Barnes family that no one cared about." I suddenly found myself feeling sorry for him. I might have had a shitty childhood, but his seemed just as shit in comparison.

I might not have liked it, but I did have a mother who was there when it suited her and a father I saw when my mother permitted it, and I also had Logan there for a period too. Markus had no one, he was forgotten, and was treated like he was nothing.

"Do you want to know the reason that I'm the way I am?" I found myself thinking back to the first day I was here and Markus told me that I was going to understand why he was the way that he was by the end of these three weeks.

"Only if you want to tell me. I'm not going to force you to tell me," I replied as he put his hand on top of mine with a slight smile gracing his lips.

"It's pretty simple actually. My mother is the reason that I am the way that I am. Stupid as it sounds, I seek the love and attention from women which my mother never gave to me as a child. It's just a shame that I've found the perfect girl, who could potentially love me for who I am, but she doesn't even spare me a second glance at times." I found an unfamiliar feeling surge through me at the mention of finding someone who was perfect for him, and I didn't even know where it had come from, nor why I felt the desire to punch this girl I had never even met.

"Parents aren't perfect," was all I could say, and I knew it was a stupid thing to say as soon as the words were out.

"You seem to have everything pretty perfect for you." I felt Markus pull his body away from me and there was an underlying anger to his tone, as though he was daring me to say something else about parents when he had just told me how crappy his mother was.

But I knew as well as the next person that parents weren't perfect. Neither of mine were perfect, heck I had gone from having a relationship with my mother to hating her again in a matter of weeks, and I couldn't remember the last time I spoke to my father. But then I never told anyone how crappy my childhood was.

I kept everything to myself.

Acted out the perfect family scenario, imaging what it would have been like to have a father who could be there for me and a mother who gave more of a damn about me than she did about the alcohol. I imagined what my life would have been like if I had been normal and I had parents who were both there for me, and who gave a damn about me.

"Yeah. I guess I do have everything perfect." I stood up from the bed and turned my back on him, admiring the scenery which encased this small paradise. "I have it so perfect that I haven't seen my mother since I was eighteen and my mother continues to blame my daughter for ruining my life. I have it so perfect that my older brother walked away from my mother and ended up being killed by a drunk driver. I have so perfect that I only found out I have a younger sister a few months ago. That's how perfect my life is, Markus. Wonderful, right?"

I felt myself on the brink of tears as I erupted. Years of pain and anger, especially the fact my older brother and best friend had left me without even saying goodbye or telling me that he loved me, emerged at once.

And it emerged to the person I had least expected it to. I had just admitted the things I held closest to the person I had spent so much of my time hating, or perhaps I was confusing hate with something else and I didn't want to accept that it was more than hate.

But I guess, in a strange way, we weren't that different to each other. Perhaps that's why we didn't get on with each other. We were too similar to ever be friends, instead clashing with each other helped us to hide just how much we needed the other in our lives.

"Sorry." I muttered, deciding that it was for the best if I left now, before I did or said something I regretted in the morning.

"I guess we're not so different. You and me." That comment forced me to pause in the entrance to his little hideaway, and I didn't want to acknowledge that he had just voiced exactly what I was thinking, which is probably why the next words which left my mouth made themselves heard.

"We're nothing alike. You sleep with women for fun and without the intention of ever having anything more with them. You're cruel, heartless, and have no regard for how much you hurt people when you act the way you do. You're a player who will never be able to settle down."

"Oh. Because you're sooo perfect. Let's not forget that you've still not told my brother that he's the father of your daughter, yet are you going to claim that you've never played with another man's feelings for your own kicks? Or hurt someone you care about with your actions?" I wasn't prepared for Markus' response and, while what I had said was harsh, what he had said cut through me like a knife because it was entirely true. I had played with another man's feelings before and he had never forgiven me for doing it, and I had hurt people I cared about with my actions. "You, Sophie, are never going to settle down either. You're always going to be a sad and lonely bitch."

"I'd rather be sad and lonely than a heartless pig," I practically whispered, the tears rolling down my cheeks, my back still turned on the idiot behind me. I didn't need him to know that he had hurt me, not when I had spent so much time insisting that he didn't have an effect on me. "Are we done here?"

"No. We're not done." Markus harshly grabbed hold of my wrist and twisted me around so that I was looking at him, and I noticed the limited space between the two of us.

But he didn't say anything. Instead, his actions did all the talking, as he put his right hand on my cheek and he then his lips were on mine in an aggressive kiss: a kiss which was more teeth than it was lips but I didn't stop him.

Markus Barnes was kissing, and I wasn't doing a single thing to stop him.

What did we think of the discussion between Markus and Sophie? They do say that passion always comes after a fight.

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