Housewarming 4

A few minutes into the game after Stellar and Yanyan came back from the loo, Stellar was already hiccupping from all the wine she drank.

Her head wobbled left and right as she was losing control of its weight.

Peering to her side, she smiled at Holden when he held her up, using his body as her pillar to lean on to. "Thank you, handsome. Our national treasure, right, Yanyan?" she slurred.

She snorted upon seeing a slumped Yanyan sending her thumbs up.

"See? I told you." She then bopped her finger on Holden's nose before she hiccupped, her chest heaving as she spoke.

Holden stifled a smile. He couldn't understand a thing of what Stellar was saying, but she looked relaxed and content that a smile curled on his lips.

Suddenly, Stellar fell backward and Holden's reflex kicked in, catching Stellar before the back of her head hit on the ground.

Ejecting from their seats, Cooper and Yanyan rushed to Stellar and pried her away from Holden's grasp as if Holden was an enemy.

"Get your hands off her," Yanyan said in a threatening voice. Her eyes sent daggers to Holden's way. "You have to step over my grave before you can touch her. Right, beshy? OOOP. She's out."

"Let's bring her to a room," Cooper slurred. He was over his alcohol limit. He didn't usually drink more than two glasses, but he was having a blast that night that he didn't notice how much he had drunk.

"Keeeeey," Yanyan agreed with her eyes closed. She was swaying left and right, pretending she could carry Stellar's weight, but she, too, had one too much wine for herself.

"Good Lord, she's heavy," Cooper groaned.

"Stop being a wussy, Cooper. And she's not heavy, she's just drunk."

"How are those two correlated, Yanyan?" Cooper bit back. "You're the one who's drunk. Stellar is just tired, so she needs to sleep. Right, Stellar? Hmm?"

"You're the one who's drunk talking to a drunk." Yanyan rolled her eyes.

"Yes, because I'm talking to you."

"So you admit it?"

"Admit what?"

"That you are drunk?"

"See this bottle in my hand? Let's finish this one and see who's drunk? Okay? Okay!" Yanyan challenged.

"Don't go hugging the toilet after we finished the last drop of that bottle," Cooper taunted.

Instead of rebutting, Yanyan poked Cooper with the wine bottle.

The duo continued to bicker as they held Stellar with one arm each, while Holden silently trailed behind them with his hands dug inside his pockets.

At first, he thought they would bring Stellar to the guest bedroom on the second floor.

Then, his lips quivered in disdain when the two hooligans brought Stellar inside the master bedroom.

What were those two thinking?

Why would they bring her in Cooper's room?

After laying the passed out Stellar on the bed, the duo then dropped on the bed like an apple falling from a tree. They were drained from all the energy they exerted from carrying their friend.

Two drunk stooges lay horizontally on the bed and sandwiched Stellar in the middle. Cooper's arms were stretched upwards, while Yanyan clutched the wine bottle in her chest.

Holden, with his body leaning on the door frame, watched as Cooper and Yanyan's eyes slowly closed when the comfort of the bed swallowed them and their drunkenness took over their bodies.

As his hand reached to flick the lights off, a smirk ghosted Holden's lips.

When the room was dark and the light from the moon spilled inside it, he then stalked towards the bed. His muscles flexed as he carried Stellar princess style in his arms.

There was no way he would let Stellar sleep in Cooper's room that night.

Who knew what Cooper could do in his drunken state?

After safely laying Stellar down in his bed on the first floor, Holden then climbed up the flight of stairs to fetch Yanyan as well, but to his surprise, the bedroom door was locked.

"Cooper, let me in," Holden gingerly knocked to get Cooper's attention. However, he heard the door thud.

"Go away! I'm sleeping!" Cooper whined.

Holden snickered upon guessing that Cooper must have thrown his shoes at the door.

Tugging his ear, Holden then decided to just search for the keys to the master bedroom so he could retrieve Yanyan and let her sleep beside Stellar.

To no avail, however, he didn't find the keys in the cupboard.

Holden didn't want to wake up Manang Juliet too, so he just gave up. He decided to sleep in the living room so he could hear any commotions upstairs in case it happened.

He was scanning the area for Irina, but he guessed that she must have found a room for herself to sleep in.

Before he retired for the night, he made a quick sweep and cleared the mess on the terrace.

Finally, the lights in the penthouse suite were already dimly lit. It was already past two in the morning.

Holden was locking the glass door that led to the terrace when an arm wrapped around his waist, surprising him.

The seductive scent of perfume was not hard to miss.

"What are you doing, Irina?" Holden calmly ripped Irina's arms off of him, caging in the dragon in the pits of his stomach that threatened to breathe fire on Irina and turn her into dust.

He did not want to jump to conclusions, but his brows still furrowed as he swiveled on his spot to face Irina.

"Baby… what are you saying? It's meee," she mewled, cupping Holden's face.

She then wrapped her arms around his waist and rubbed herself against him, hoping to rouse up his lust.

Tipping on her toes, she whispered in Holden's ears, "Let's go to your room. I'm not wearing any panties."

Holden's brows furrowed. There was no way Irina was drunk when she rarely touched her glass all night.

Unless she was just pretending to be one to test him if he would take the bait.

Holden scoffed. How could this lady easily throw herself on him as if she was free meat for the taking?

Did this lady have any ounce of self-preservation in her? Obviously, there was none.

Was that the reason why Cooper never took his relationship with Irina to another level?

Holden sneered in derision.

If she thought she could snag his attention because of her looks, then she was in for a surprise of a lifetime.

A cruel smirk curled Holden's lips, and it scared the soul out of Irina. She couldn't believe what she was seeing.

The Holden in front of her was a far cry from the quiet yet approachable one all evening.

There was something haunting in his aura and the evil glint in his obsidian orbs sent shivers down Irina's spine, raising the hair on her nape.

As if his scalding gaze burned her, Irina withdrew her arms and took a step back when Holden eyed her from head to toe and intense dislike painted his face.

"Sorry, Holden, I thought you were…"

"I am who?" Holden interrupted.

"You were… you were. I was drunk. I am sorry," Irina stuttered. Whatever plan she had was flushed down the drain.

Suddenly, her flight instincts kicked in, and Irina ran towards the elevator, snatching her purse on the couch.

Reaching the elevator doors, she jammed her fingers repeatedly on the button in panic.

However, Holden twisted the key in the control panel, disabling the lift.

Irina turned to face Holden and felt her back hit the cold elevator doors.

She closed her eyes when Holden's towering figure overshadowed her.

"Don't leave without your panties on," Holden reminded her as if he cared if she flashed her tushy to anyone on her way out.

His harsh tone grated on Irina's skin, and she felt exposed. Humiliation washed over her as he never left his eyes on her.

Closing her eyes, Irina swallowed. "It's in my purse."

She jerked when she heard the elevator beep after Holden twisted the key.

When the doors opened, Irina rushed inside to escape. However, she flinched in her spot when Holden blocked the sliding door with his arm.

"Who am I again, Irina?" Holden asked her again. He wanted to make sure she knew exactly who he was when she pounced on him.

Training her eyes on Holden's white sneakers, a tear dropped from Irina's eyes. She couldn't bring herself to tip her chin up and meet his eye. "You're Holden… Holden Knight."

Satisfied with her answer, Holden released the door and spoke, "And people like you shouldn't mess with my brother or with me. Remember that."