It helped to pull her out of her stupor and before the photographer could even leave, she dashed away blindly. She wasn't sure where she was headed or what she would do when she got there, but anywhere on Earth would better for her than nose to nose with Eduardo. She felt like she was running endlessly through the hotel hallway until she made it to the elevator lift safely, pressing the ground floor button ten times in hopes it would make it go faster. The chrome doors were shutting slowly, slower than she ever remembered them being before, and almost shut before a tanned hand pushed through and propelled his whole body into the lift with her.

Her body was set on fire in ways that made her feel so uncomfortable, and she would give anything to feel this way about Mick- the fact that she could be so passionate for a rude, leeching nobody made her angry to no end. And where the hell did he get off talking to her the way he did?

She desperately wanted to knock him back a few pegs, or at least slap him... anything would make her feel better at this point.

When the door shut crisply behind him she went with her first thought and kept her clutch tightly in her hand and swung it across his face, feeling a surge of satisfaction course through her when the force of her surprise attack pushed him against the doors. He looked down at her more deadly than ever before- she was sure he was going to kill her.

Isabella tipped her chin up proudly. "Don't ever touch me-"

But when he slammed her against the elevator wall by her throat and pressed his lips onto hers, her mind completely stopped working. She was kissing him back just as fervently and when he lifted her dress she made no complaints, just leaned to his fingers with want.

Rational, normal Isabella would have been mortified to even imagine being this way with a mere stranger… but there she was, moving against his figure as if they had known each other their whole lives.

The doors had opened sometime during their session because the double ding of the elevator awoke her from her senses. "Eduardo!" She hissed when he refused to unlatch his mouth from her neck. They couldn't stay in this damned elevator all night and the faster she could get away from him the better off she could be.

Instead of letting her go he pulled her out of the elevator and dragged her along the lobby into an empty hallway. Bella clawed at his hand that clamped tight on her arm, but before she could draw blood he slammed her into a dark nook.

Her chest heaved up and down in frustration, anger… and excitement? Was that the unknown fire licking at her belly? Isabella had her share of make out sessions in college and some fooling around in cars, but this was what they wrote about in novels. This was what her parents had feared when they sent her off to school in another state- excitement. It was addicting and all-consuming, it was… wholly unsettling.

But her mind snapped her back to reality when the hotel's cold AC nipped at her cheeks. What the hell was she doing? Who did he think he was? Why the hell was groping her so publicly, no shame to be found?

One of his hands wound through her hair and yanked her head back until she touched the wall- Isabella's eyes were wide and more doe looking than ever before, that element of excitement slowly churning into something more. This was what she had been into for as long as she could remember- the rough stuff, the weird, kinky sexual acts that most boys were too off-put to even try with her. Half of her was begging for more, half of her was begging her hands to push him away and make all of this end.

"Isabella." He whispered the name against her cheek like a dirty word, letting his accent swallow up every syllable.

She swallowed back a moan as his fingers pushed aside her underwear once again, and it took all her control not to buck her hips to meet his pace. They were in a dark corner but they were also in public- if she was photographed or spotted by paparazzi, this would humiliate her and the whole family! Isabella tried to give herself credit for imagining she would stop him but he crooked his index finger against the nucleus of her pleasure, Isabella bit down on her hand to silence the sound of her own release.

It was a quick, small release but still made her top ten list of orgasms easily.

She kept her eyes closed for as long as possible, praying to her parents' Catholic God that he would make this mysterious stranger disappear until she was ready to see him again. But when she finally was able to compose herself again, he was still standing there with one of those nasty smug looks on his face.

Eduardo held her gaze for a few more seconds, letting her whole face catch on fire from her the sudden onslaught of embarrassment that came over her. She had let this man that she didn't really know finger her, kiss her, push her against walls! What had she been thinking?

He looked down at his fingers and then back up at her, a snide look going over his once brilliant features. "So wealthy and yet... so cheap."

Her brown eyes glassed over at his words. He had no right to talk to her like that, especially not after they had just… did that. Her fists balled up again but this time her blood was boiling for an entirely different reason. She had been so stupid to go along with all of that, she realized. But for once she wanted to just live-

Two bright flashes went off and nearly blinded her, almost knocking her clear off her feet. Isabella snapped her head around and caught the eyes of the paparazzo dead on, and though he had just snapped a photo of something so intimate and private, he had the look of absolute righteousness on his face. She was used to the invasion of paps since she was a kid, seeing as her parents often took on legal cases that would accelerate their star in the media; she had never been in such a precarious situation before in front of one of the vultures, though.

Time stood still in her heart as she looked back at Eduardo and a million different thoughts raced through her mind. One was the frontrunner and stung deeper than she wanted it to- he had called them.

He put her in this situation. He held her dress up to expose her thong. He tipped off the paparazzi to be at the right place at the right time.

Isabella felt… betrayed. She felt stupid. She was stupid.

In a last stint of bravery, she locked her eyes with Eduardo and defied even her own humiliation. There was something unreadable behind his green opals, but she would be fooling herself if she didn't think he had a hand in this. He had made it clear he disliked her from the moment they were introduced- this was the perfect revenge.

She felt the tears in her eyes and made a mad dash out of the hallway and ran through the lobby in hopes she would find the garage on her own. There was no use slapping the pap, he would just sue her- and there was never a chance that she would beg the picture of his hands, either. A scandalous shot of the youngest Aguirre-Lopes daughter would sell nicely, and since her mom was currently defending a well-known drug lord in court, this would hurt her parents more than ever.

And above all, it would hurt her own heart to end.