How dare he?. Just because we were in public he think he could dote on me and I will forget about all what he did?. The audacity!.

I was in front of the mirror trying to calm myself down and pull it together. His touch definitely affected me more than I let on but I could never let him know that. When he first placed his hand on my thigh I felt a strange but familiar tingling at my core. I was almost tempted to pull his hand up further but thought against it. Then after his little 'darling' it just felt revolting. I tried to pull it off but he grabbed on harder. So hard he left fingerprints on my once bare thigh. I looked at the bruise again then I felt the uncertainty slowly creeping into my mind. I remembered the times when we were younger. Alejandro had always sworn to protect me, to keep me safe, to never hurt me. I had hoped there was still a sliver of the old Alejandro left. The one I had fallen so deeply in love with and still was. But as I looked at the bruise which was slowly turning an ugly shade of purple, I felt uncertain. I knew Alejandro had a deep resentment for me, maybe he hated me. But surely not enough to want to harm me. Tears welled up in my eyes, but I quickly wiped them when I heard the door to the ladies room being opened. I turned around to see Olivia giving me a sympathetic look. God if there was anything I absolutely hated, it was pity.

"Hey, you okay?", she asked

"Yeah I'm fine. Just feel a bit under the weather", I answered.

"You know you can tell me about it. I know we only just met but I promise I'm not gonna sell the deets to a gossip blog"

I laughed. She was right. We had only just met but for some reason I felt I could trust her so I told her everything that happened at the office. By the I was done she was so mad I had to hold onto her to stop her from going out and throttling Alejandro.

"That asshole. Oh by the time I'm done with him he's gonna wish he was dead", she said

"Calm down Olivia. We are not killing anyone"

She looked at my saddened face and then seemed to be in deep thought. "You know what?", she asked, "We're going out tonight"

"I don't think that's such a good idea Olivia. We've never been in Cuba before. I barely even know my way around the hotel", I reasoned.

"Relax will you?, I have a friend who runs a tour company here. I'm sure he can help", she persuaded.

"I don't know Olivia"

"Oh c'mon D. You're only ever gonna be in Cuba once. Well maybe a few more times but this is a vacation. You're meant to have fun. Besides, you need to get your mind off Alejandro. Maybe if you show him what he's missing, he'll come around.

I had a bad feeling about this. But Olivia was right I needed to unwind and stop thinking about a certain dark haired demon. I gave her a small smile, "Ok"

*******************

After the boys went back to the office, Olivia came up to my room with a bunch of outfits. According to her, she was determined to find me the perfect mix of beautiful and sexy. I sat still on bed while she rummaged through the many gorgeous dresses.

"Found anything yet?", I asked

"Nope. But just give me a minute", she looked around some more, "Eureka!", she screamed so loud I flinched, "I found it", she turned to show me the most gorgeous dress

(Pic of dress)

If I didn't want to leave before, this dress was definitely going to take me out. I quickly grabbed it from her hands and rushed into the bathroom. I got dressed and slipped on a pair of black strappy heels. I walked out to see Olivia in a beautiful grey number.

(Pic of Olivia's dress)

"C'mon lemme do your makeup", she ushered me into a chair.

"What about you?"

"Forget about me. You're the one who needs this night remember?", I nodded.

30 minutes later and we were in the elevator on our way to the lobby. I couldn't help but feel uneasy. I felt like Alejandro would get mad but why did I care!, last time I checked I was mad at him. As soon as the elevator doors opened and we stepped out, I could feel the eyes on us. I felt good knowing I could still get this much attention. We walked outside and there was a chaffeur waiting in front of a sleek back limousine.

"Mrs Hapstall, Mrs Delmanti", he offered

I gave Olivia a questioning look, "Don't worry. He's with Camilo", she replied

"Camilo?", I asked. The chaffeur opened the door and helped us inside. As I entered I was met with a broodingly handsome man. He sat lazily on the chair sipping on what appeared to be a glass of Bourbon.

"Diana meet Camilo. He's the friend I was talking about", Olivia said.

I turned to greet him but I noticed he was already staring at me. It irked me. But nonetheless I offered my hand, "Nice to meet you"

He took my hand and placed a gentle kiss on the back of my palm. I quickly but subtly pulled it away. His face took on an arrogant smirk after that. As the car took of, I observed him from the corner of my eye. He was handsome but definitely not as handsome as Alejandro and I was not being biased or anything. He had brown hair which was ruffled in that 'just got out of bed' way with stormy grey eyes and skin so tan you could think he lived in the sun. He kept staring at me though and I honestly couldn't wait to get out of the car. As soon as it stopped I eagerly jumped out only to get a weird look from Olivia. I looked at the club and saw a neon blue sign saying Oxygen. Funny name for a club. Camilo led us to the front of the club and we got in with no hassle. Guess Camilo was really well known around here. We got in and made our way to the VIP section courtesy of Camilo. A few minutes later, a waitress came over with drinks. I got my glass of champagne and quietly sipped on it. Olivia grabbed it from my hand and replaced it with a shot glass.

"If we wanted champagne honey, we would have stayed at the hotel and ordered room service. Now, bottoms up!", she screamed over the music.

Oh well, I thought. I quickly downed it.

6 shots of tequila, 3 dirty martini's, and 2 Manhattan's later and I was absolutely positively drunk. I swayed from side to side, my legs barely holding me up. I left the VIP section and made my way to the dance floor. Olivia had gone ahead of me an hour earlier and was lighting the dance floor up. I swayed to her and joined her in dancing. We kept grinding on each other till I noticed the vacant pole. I had taken pole dancing classes in high school much to my father's chagrin. So I knew a thing or two about the kind of dance stripper's do, meaning no disrespect to the profession of course. I'd like to think it was the excess alcohol in my system that caused me to walk up to the pole and strut my stuff.

I had always been a lightweight.

***************

Alejandro

I was anxious to get to our hotel room and apologize to Diana. She had tried to hide it with her shawl but no one could miss the contrast between her flawless skin and the ugly purplish bruise. I felt like punching myself when I saw it. As much as I was mad at her, I had been raised never to hurt a woman. My mother had been hurt by my father. I couldn't see myself doing it to someone else. I entered our room and immediately sensed something was wrong. It was eerily quiet. Not that I was expecting her to talk to me but something just felt off. I walked into the bedroom and saw the clothes strewn on the bed and floor. I checked to make sure her luggage was still there. I checked the bathroom and the balcony but she wasn't there. I left the room to go find Sebastien. I needed to find Diana. As the elevator doors opened, I saw him.

"Diana's missing"

"Olivia's missing", we both said at the same time.

Where the hell could they be?. They had never been in Cuba before so the couldn't have gone far.

"God, if I see Olivia I'm gonna kill her!", I said

"Sebastien looked offended, "What makes you think she did this?", I gave him an 'are you serious?' look, "Fine!"

We sat for close to 30 minutes trying to figure out where they could be. All of a sudden Sebastien stood up, "I've got it. I'll just use the tracker I have on Olivia's phone"

"Seriously dude?, you had that the whole time and couldn't say anything?", I yelled

"Calm down Aly. Well, they're at some club called Oxygen"

"At a club?, they're at a fucking club?", I almost bellowed. I got down to the lobby in record time. Good thing I had the sense to rent a car. I got into the driver seat and Sebastien in the passenger seat. I put in the address into the GPS and started driving.

A club. A goddamn club. What the hell was she thinking?. I clutched the steering wheel so hard my knuckles started to turn white. Sebastien was too busy hanging onto the seatbelt for dear life to notice my inner turmoil.

"Um... Alejandro. If you go any faster, we might not be alive to get them out of the club", he reasoned.

I slowed down a little. Only a little and it record time we were at the club. Sebastien and I made our way inside. I tried to find Diana in the crowd of sweaty bodies but there was no such luck. Everyone seemed to be fixated on one of the stripper's dancing on the poles. She had to be real good to be getting this much attention. I went closer and that's when I saw it. Those curves. I could recognise them anywhere. She kept grinding on the pole, moving her body so sensuously you would think she was making love to it. It was like a drug watching her dance and we the willing addicts. Oblivious to the crowd of horny men below her, itching to touch her, she glided her silky skin across the smooth pole. I felt like punching someone. The song came to an end and the crowd cheered for her. She blushed profusely, accepting a stranger's hand to help her down with a shy smile. Some guy approached her and tried getting touchy with her. She tried shoving him away but was having a hard time. She was probably wasted. Then he placed his hands on her ass.

I saw red. I saw bloody red, "Get your hands off my wife!", I bellowed.

*************