I keep on running as soon as I'm out of the car, till I reach my apartment and lock the door behind me, secretly hoping he'll follow me.

He didn't.

I lean my back against the door, trying to catch up with my breath. It has been hard to resist, his grip on my arm still burning my skin.

I close my eyes just to shape his face in my mind, those black eyes peering at me as if I'm the only existing scenery for him.

He's my father's best friend, he's the man I've called uncle all my life. And yet here he is today, the man to melt my heart with every stare, the man to suck me in that lustful look like I've never felt before.

Now I do miss the guards my father has always set for me, but I've refused once I've left our home. 'Being rich brings enemies,' dad used to say, but I knew better. It wasn't being rich to put us in danger but him being who he had been all of his life.

Most probably he still is, because mom has never denied the type of business my dad is doing ever since he knows her, and the type of businesses he has had for years with Grandpa Marce.

And even though he has never spoken about it, we all know he's still the head of shady businesses in NY.

He has managed to offer me and mom a normal life, though, except for the guards following us everywhere and the security around our mansion. And the guards, taking me to school. And Mike. And Tea. But other than that, we have been a normal family for most of the time.

My decision to go to a law school had its roots in my dad's type of business. Pretty sure he would need a good lawyer one day. Or maybe not, but I still wanted to be there with real help if the need came, even though my strongest desire had always been to get away from that life.

I felt caged, trapped, having his guards walking around behind me as if I was some sort of state treasure. When

I told dad I don't want them anymore it caused a few days of tense discussion to make me understand they were mandatory but finally, my father gave up and let me have it my way.

Truth be told, I believe that there is still someone, somewhere, watching me. My father would never give in as easy as he did that day and that's why I knew the guards were still watching, but hidden.

Nevertheless, I wished I had them now. They would have kept Enzo away. They would have made it hard for him to get close and mess with my brain... and my heart.

I hit the snooze button twice this morning. The third time I had to open my eyes and sit up straight with a groan, stretching my arms up to the ceiling, and squeezing my eyes till I felt the blood running through my veins again.

I've slept just a few hours, the rest of the night my mind being busy with... Enzo.

He kept coming into my thoughts the entire night, and I imagined his arms around me and his lips kissing me.

I dreamed about a parallel world for us, one in which we were not Eve, the daughter of Lucas and Becca, and he was not Enzo, the best friend of my father and the man I held as my uncle for almost all my life. A world in which we are just Eve and Enzo, living our love story. Now, how crazy is that?

I shake the confusing thoughts away and sigh deeply, not quite keen to get out of bed but still standing up, grabbing my phone, and reading the text message flashing on the screen.

E: Wake up, sleeping beauty. I am taking you to school today.

Wait! What?

I jump to the window and glare outside just to see Enzo leaned against the coupe, legs crossed and hands in his pockets, waiting for me outside, looking gorgeous in his creamy shirt with buttons opened, sleeves rolled to his elbows, and suit pants dressing his long hips so damn sexy.

Why the hell does he has to look so F handsome?

As expected, I panicked. I don't really panic easily.

The last time I did was when dad taught me to shoot a gun. Soon I mastered it. There. Panic gone.

Then what in the world is happening to me now?

I run to the bathroom, turning on the shower so the water warms up, while I brush my teeth and after I quickly wash my hair and myself I run to the closet, picking something to wear when my phone buzzed again.

E: Hurry, Eve. You will be late.

"What the F? Is he my father or what?" I murmur, but I undoubtedly hurry, preferring a yellow sundress as an outfit for today, covering my hips all the way down and stopping just above the knees.

I grab my bag with my notes and run to the door, putting on my shoes on the way.

"Why the rush?" I hear Jason saying and I startle like a rabbit, turning around and seeing him sitting on the sofa in my living room.

"Jas, what are you doing here?" I ask him as if he's not my boyfriend but a dragon with three heads landed in my living room.

"Your friend can be quite a trouble when she's drinking. I had to bring her home last night and I crashed in here. I hope you don't mind," he says, walking straight to me and pulling me into a strong hug, smashing my lips into a deep kiss. "I missed you last night. I told you I would," he confides, and, damn... I really don't need his smoothy words right now.

The doorbell takes both of us by surprise and I pull myself out of his grip to open the door, thankful to whoever decided to stop Jason's romance moment.

I grab the doorknob and pull the heavy door but instead of relief, my breath stops when I see Enzo leaning against the frame of my door, wearing a naughty smirk.

"Are you ready?" he scolds but when his eyes land on Jason, he stands up straight and I swear I can see all his muscles stiffening under the fabric of his shirt.

They stare at each other with an awkward silence and I feel the need to... just go.

"Jason, this is uncle Enzo. Uncle Enzo, meet Jason, my..."

"Boyfriend. Nice to meet you, sir," Jason says as if he knows I would not say it, walking determined to the door while I turn my face away, unhappy, wrinkling my nose up and rolling my eyes.

Jason reaches for his hand to shake, but Enzo ignores it and grabs my hand instead, pulling me outside.

"Likewise, Jackson," Enzo replies, completely aware of acting like a jerk and willingly mistaking Jason's name.

"Eve, you're late," he continues spitting venom, and walks away, squeezing my hand even harder and dragging me to his car.

He opens the passenger's door for me almost throwing me in and slamming the door closed. The rings of my curly hair sway in the draft caused by Enzo's hasty moves, making me chuckle, amused by his attitude.

He is jealous.

Saying no other words but visibly fuming, he gets in the car and turns on the engine.

"Seatbelt," he spits.

"What?"

"Fucking seatbelt, Eve!" he shouts at me and presses the gas to the floor, yanking the car out of the parking, as if running away from something. Or someone.

"What the F is wrong with you?" I shout back at him, hardly being able to fasten my seatbelt.

"What the F?! What are you? Five?" he speaks in a raspy voice, mocking me.

"I don't swear around family," I speak roughly, hoping he understands I want to keep him at arm's length.

"I don't see any family around," he roars, beating the air with his right hand.

"Stop the car," I whisper.

I feel suffocated around him and I just can't control my shaking hands, so it's better I get away. Like, right now.

"What?"

"Please, stop the car. I need air," I mumble again and Enzo parks the car on the side of the road just in time for me to get out and gasp air like a fish out of the water.

Some large hands cup my face and lift my head while I'm leaning against the car, trying to breathe. My skin shiver under his soft touch and the sparkles in his eyes make me skip heartbeats one after another.

"Hey, hey. Are you okay? What's wrong with you?" he speaks softly, searching for something in my eyes, and the worry in his glare melts even the last ounce of rejection I have left.

Lifting myself on my toes and enjoying the shock building up in his eyes, I reach his lips where I plant a soft kiss, hardly touching and giving him time to react.

Which he doesn't, so I kiss him again, molding his plump lips, a kiss to which this time he responds hastily, smashing my lips under his, earning a muffled sob from the pit of my throat.

I slow the pace and pull myself away in a painfully slow move, wanting nothing more but to melt myself again under his hot mouth ravishing me.

"This. This is wrong," I tell him, and he looks at me frozen in his place. "We can't do this."

"I can't stop it. I'm sorry, Eve. I just can't. I want to do this since I've met you at the airport today, from the first second you've looked at me. And this wanting is stronger than me," he speaks in a heartbreaking honesty that throws me into the sky and crashes me back to earth.

The reality of falling for my uncle, who is not even my uncle, and above all, being double my age makes my heart shrink and almost faint. Everything we know seems to be against us, the Universe itself seems to be against us, and for now, I don't see any door out.

"Please take me to school and don't... just, please..." I try to speak but he leans in, pressing his forehead against mine, still holding my face in his warm palms, making my words stop and my heart flutter.

The truth is I'm falling for him, suddenly, imminently, hard... hopelessly.

"Come, get in. I'll drop you at your school," he says after holding me to his chest as if the source of his life springs out from me.

Planting a feathery kiss on my forehead, he opens the door for me and helps me get in the car before he takes his own place and continues our drive to my university in the tensest silence ever.

From time to time, I would steal a look at him. My eyes can't stay away. His face is hard, and his eyebrows frown, with lips pressed in a thin line, visibly ignoring me, never sparing me a glare. Not even once.

I have been wrong, so wrong to assume that he feels the same way as I do. He becomes so cold and inaccessible in a millisecond that all I can feel right now is a very painful embarrassment for having kissed him earlier.

His sudden change, from lustful and eager to cold and distant is so confusing and no matter how much I try, I can't clearly see who is the real Enzo.

I'm practically incapable to cope with having him inches away from me but in reality so far. So, when the car stops at my school entrance I just jump out and run to the building never looking back.

The battle in me is exhausting, the struggle to keep myself away is draining all my powers. I want so much to be away from him and die to be in his arms as well.

I don't know which one is stronger.

Feeling torn between the two wishes and being unable to decide, I choose to avoid him for a while, and it turns out to be a mutual decision.

I asked Jason to take me home today and gathered about a million excuses not to visit my parents whenever they would call.

Studying is the best. I know they're having high expectations of me and it's the perfect cover, never raising doubts.

"Alright, Eve, I need you to come clean and tell me what the fuck is going with you," Pepa says, crashing herself next to me on the sofa, interrupting my work.

Social media is my work at the moment. I'm killing time surfing and checking stupid networks and apps unable to wrap my head around the recent events in my life. Or afraid to.

"I don't understand what you mean," I answer her without looking and growing my interest in the stupid app just to make her go away.

Suddenly she fetches the phone from my hands and hides it behind her back.

"Peps, what the F?" I shout, fighting with her and trying to get my phone back.

"First, it's 'what the fuck!'. Second, you have been absent for the past week, like you don't even live in this world. You don't visit your parents and Jason is driving me crazy asking about you. Now, what is going on?" she repeats her question, staring into my eyes with a challenge in her glare.

I look back at her, finding no words to escape her but wishing like hell she just gives up and leaves me alone. It's been an awful week for me, isolating myself from the outside world where Enzo is ruling my thoughts like a ghost adamant to haunt me forever.

"Nothing," I mutter, trying to keep out of reach for any talk around the subject. "Can I have my phone back now?"

"No, Eve, you cannot have your phone back. I've never seen you this way. Since this uncle of yours..."

I snap my burning eyes at her for daring to go down that path, and she freezes. She looks at me as if I'm growing another head and she widens her eyes in shock.

"It is your uncle, isn't he? What did he do to you?" she quickly becomes pissed.

"He's not my real uncle," I say, and I don't know why, but I sob lightly, which gives Pepa the totally wrong message.

"Oh, honey. Don't tell me he..." she mumbles, with the horror growing in her eyes, fearing the worst from Enzo.

"I like him," I say, stopping her just before the storm breaks out of her tongue.

"I don't know how I've got to this, but..." I continue, standing up and pacing restlessly around the room. "He is my father's best friend, he is my mother's age and all my life I've called him 'Uncle Enzo' and now, out of the blue, all I want is to be with him," I say, all in one breath, running my fingers through my hair and wiggling my hands in spasmodic moves, releasing the frustration I've collected the entire week.

The frustration of having no word from him, no call, no text, no sign as if he has disappeared from the face of the earth just as tempestuous as he appeared into my life.

Pepa's arms curl around me, holding me affectionately and ending my nervous pace, and pulling me out of my anguish and I succumb to her blessing hug, crying my eyes out.

She says nothing for a few long moments, apparently having nothing to say.

There is nothing to say. For obvious reasons, even she knows it can never be something between me and Enzo, but then my best friend proves to be nothing less than my best friend.

*****
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