He calls me Angel

18. Playing hard to get

Erika's POV:

"Hi." His voice was like velvet in my ears, the burning fire within me just getting stronger.

"Hi." My voice was just above a whisper, a very breathless whisper.

"You seem flustered." He stated with a smirk on his face.

'You have no idea...' I thought to myself.

"You do, too!" I answered back. He chuckled and I bit my lower lip, enamored with that sound.

"I guess you're right." His eyes darkened, following the movement of my lips. I couldn't control myself and licked before biting my lower lip yet again.

"How- How have you been? Is your shoulder healing well?" My voice was still small, but the doctor inside me couldn't resist, as I looked at his shoulder, touching him slightly.

"I'm fine, Angel." His voice was huskier than before. "You don't have to worry about me."

"You know that's impossible, right?" I said with a smile and he chuckled. "You seem better tho-."I was startled by my brother's fake coughing behind me. Without giving it a second's thought, I pushed Brandon away from me, missing his embrace seconds later.

"Everything alright?" Markus said approaching us, pulling me towards him.

I knew how that looked. We're fraternal twins. We had little to nonmutual characteristics that showed we were siblings. I turned to look at Brandon, an angry and perplexed expression on his face. He was staring at my brother's hand around my wrist, his own hands in fists making his knuckles almost white.

'Thank you, Markus, for pulling that card at the worst possible moment.'

"We should be going, Erika..."

"Markus, don't be an idiot!" I said through clenched teeth, while he started pulling me towards the locker rooms. Damn him and his strength.

"Markus, stop embarrassing your sister!" Oh, grazie Dio for Stella and her best timing in the whole wide world.

"What? You're siblings?" Brandon's demeanor changed faster than a Ferrari reaching the finish line. "Oh, thank God." He said almost to himself, but I heard him and tried to hide the smirk on my face.

"Yeah! They're fraternal twins," Stella said, before she pulled his other hand in hers, interlocking their fingers. "We would like to stay here and chat, but we have a small party to organize. You should come-"

"I don't think he should." My overprotective brother chirped in. Stella was going to be in trouble for all this, but I couldn't help but thank my lucky stars.

"Deja de ser un idiota, Markus. This is actually a once in a lifetime experience, so chill." She told him, before facing Brandon once again. "Peter Parker here is actually the one that introduced us to the whole MMA scene, when we first came to the US. Behind his hard exterior, lies a Guardian-fanboy, really." She said as a matter of fact, wiggling her eyebrows as she nudged Markus' side.

Truth be told, I've never watched a match of the man in front of me; not before Stella shared that piece of information with me. He really seemed talented. I guess I was almost considered a King fan, or a King Guardian fan, like his fans liked to call themselves because of his MMA stage name Guardian.

My brother's eyes widened at the realization; Stella basically told Brandon King that he was a fanboy playing hard to get. 

Oh, she was in deep shit this time.