“I know that Officer. You know, I actually believed this woman when she told me tonight that she loves me. But she made a fool of me! She loves that Graziani fellow and looks like he loves her too. Then where do I stand?” Andrew once again laughs like a mad man. “I guess I stand nowhere. Graziani, you win this time! But next time around, Arianna will be mine and mine alone!” He looks at Gemma with a forlorn expression in his eyes and then suddenly turns the revolver towards his head and pulls the trigger!
“I love you Arianna!” Those are his last words.
Gemma shouts in horror as his blood is splashed on her face and body. Unable to stand the scene before her eyes, she falls down unconscious.
Chapter Eleven - Arianna Rizzio
As I open my eyes, I find myself in Alberto’s room. I can’t seem to clearly remember if what happened was a nightmare or reality. But my tattered dress and the stains of Andrew’s blood on it prove that it had not been a nightmare. Andrew is no more….he killed himself! Oh God! How will I ever forget the look in his eyes when he pulled the trigger of his revolver! He almost seemed likeable in that moment. If only he could understand that I was not in love with him…. I feel tears rolling down my eyes.
“Are you awake, Gemma?” I hear Alberto’s gentle voice. I nod my head a little as I am unable to speak at the moment.
“Sweetheart, open your eyes. Look at me.”
“I killed Andrew Alberto….I killed him,” I burst into sobs.
“Shhh….. Don’t cry, my dear. And don’t blame yourself. It was not your fault. That man had mental issues. He was completely delusional.”
“Maybe, I don’t know! He kept telling me that he knew I was secretly in love with him. And when I tried to explain that I loved you, he got very angry.”
“Did he….did he hurt you in some way?” I understand what Alberto means by that.
“No. He said that we’d get married tomorrow morning. And he did try to….to come near me but I asked him to wait until our wedding.”
“And he agreed?” Alberto sounds a little surprised. I nod my head once again.
“He just wanted me to love him. Yes, he was a very violent person, but I think he really loved me in his own twisted sort of way.”
“Hmmm…. My heart almost stopped when I heard the gunshot. When I realized that he’d aimed the gun at his own head, I was shocked beyond measure.”
“Alberto, where is Rio? Does he know…?”
“Rio is still asleep in his room. It is seven in the morning now. He’ll be awake any moment. Do you want to change before he gets up?”
I look at the state of my dress. “Yes. And please don’t tell him anything about all this. He’s already had his share of bad memories to last him this lifetime.”
“Of course, my dear. I am really sorry you had to go through all this. I should’ve taken better care of you. I had promised myself that I’d not let any harm come your way and yet…..” I can see regret in his eyes.
“Alberto, please. Don’t blame yourself. We should be thankful that we both got out of this nightmare unscathed.”
“I think you’re right. You know, when I found out that Andrew had kidnapped you, I got so scared… I thought I’d lose you forever.”
“I thought so too. Andrew was planning to leave Florence forever with me. If you’d come a little later, we’d already be on our way out of this city.” My heart fills with dread at the thought.
As we speak, Mrs. Antoni enters the room with a cup of coffee in her hand.
“How do you feel now, cara?” she smiles at me.
“Better. I’ll just go and wash up.” She looks at the blood stains on my dress and shudders slightly.
“I still can’t believe that man had the guts to kidnap you! It has been rightly said that evil ends in evil only.”
************************************************
It has been almost two months since that fateful night. Alberto and I are getting married today. The happy phase of my life has just begun and I am enjoying every bit of it.
“Is the bride ready?” Rio peeps in from the door. I laugh and call him in.
“You know, you’ve betrayed me Rio. You are supposed to be on the bride’s side and here you are---all dressed up to be Alberto’s best man.”
“I couldn’t say no to him Ary. I love him so much.”
I laugh once again at his innocent words. I am not getting any wedding jitters per se, but yes, I am very nervous. I’ve been plucked, waxed, ironed and God knows what other tortures I’ve been subjected to in these past forty eight hours. But as I look at myself in the mirror, I think every bit of that torture was worth it.
My wedding dress has been specially designed by one of the biggest designers in Milan and it is absolutely gorgeous. It is difficult to believe that the woman staring at me in the mirror right now is actually Arianna Rizzio!
Both Alberto and I were not in favor of an elaborate wedding. So we are having a small wedding celebration at the nearby Chapel with Mrs. Antoni, Rio and a few close friends in attendance. I’ve heard that there’s going to be tight security there to keep the paparazzi at bay. After that, we’d be heading to Bora Bora for our honeymoon. Alberto chose the place for our honeymoon as I’ve never travelled out of Italy. He’s told me that I’d fall in love with the place.
As I reach the chapel in my carriage, I once again feel my nerves overtaking me. I take a deep, calming breath and step down from the carriage. The double doors open before me and I am awestruck as I step inside the church. It has been decorated with thousands of twinkling lights and the smell of roses is filling the air. I feel a tear drop from my eye as I remember my father on this special day of my life. Today, I have no one to give me away. I am walking to the altar all alone.
As I walk towards the altar, I see Rio waving at me. I give him a big smile and then finally look at Alberto. He is looking extremely handsome in his tuxedo. He smiles at me as I approach the altar. We both look at each other with dreamy eyes. No moment could be as perfect as this one. We both are about to get tied in a lifetime of love and happiness.
As the minister reads out the Bible verses and we recite our vows, I feel an overwhelming sense of completeness. At last, I am getting married to the man of my dreams. The love and promise that I see in his eyes fill my heart with joy. My only regret is that my parents are not here with me today to share my happiness.
In a few minutes, we both finally say “I do” and Alberto bends his head to kiss me. It is not a light kiss on my lips but a full-fledged assault on my nervous system. I feel myself go weak in the knees by the time he’s finished!
“Do you want me as badly as I want you at this moment?” he whispers with a naughty glint in his eyes.
I am too breathless to respond to that question but I guess he already knows the answer!
THE END
Demon Romance
Finding Fortunes
Submission to the Dark Forbidden Mate Series Book One
Lucile Wild
Demon Romance: Finding Fortunes
Chapter One
The fire in the center of the table began to die. Signaling the end of the meeting, its blue flames turned to a rustic orange. Several of the members nodded their heads and got up to leave. Only Preston and Damien stayed behind.
“I noticed the empty seat,” Preston said in a low voice. He tapped his fingers absently on the table.
“Ortho is no longer with us,” Damien said through clenched teeth.
Preston cocked his head. To no longer be with the Slavante Brotherhood meant three things. The most common was to die. As half-breed demons, they were not given eternal life, although many did live for several hundred years. But if Ortho had passed, there would have been a ceremony for him. The second option was that Ortho had chosen to leave. In the hundreds of years that Preston had served on the Slavante committee, he’d never seen anyone leave. That meant that Damien, leader of the brotherhood, had asked Ortho to leave. And by leave, Damien wou
ld have had to kill him.
It was rare, but it did happen. “Do you want to explain?” Preston asked in a low voice.
He could see the naked pain in his friend’s eyes. “I’d gotten suspicious reports for a while, but it didn’t make sense. Ortho was as loyal as they come. But then I saw it with my own eyes. Ortho was meeting Cresher. I confronted him. I expected him to come up with a plausible explanation, but Ortho only laughed and said that my days were coming to an end.” Damien swallowed hard. “He sounded like a madman.”
Where Damien and his predecessors had sworn to protect humanity against the half-breed demons that wandered the earth, Cresher was determined to enslave them. He hadn’t been difficult to stop in the past, but he’d always escaped death, and for the past year, he’d been oddly silent.
But Ortho? “Not possible,” Preston said. “Ortho lived for this brotherhood. There’s no way he’s been fooling us for all these years.”
“Maybe he got tired of defending a group of people who would rather see us burn,” Damien said hoarsely. “God knows I am.”
Preston fell silent. He had no idea how old Damien was, but he knew that Damien had been a leader for a long time. Preston was next in line for the position, but he didn’t want it. As far as he was concerned, Damien was the Slavante Brotherhood.
“You just need to sleep, my friend. Ortho’s death could not have been easy.” Preston stood as the last of the demonic flame was snuffed out. “The new moon has passed. I’ll see you in a month.”
Damien raised his eyebrows. “You’ll see me at Gordo’s tomorrow night.”
Preston shrugged. “True. But I feel like, at least because of Ortho, we should end the meeting on a traditional note.”
His friend shook his head. “You’ll be a good leader. Far better than I was. Far better than I am. Sleep well, my friend.”
Preston moved silently out the room and gazed at the rising sun. Sleep? Preston wasn’t sleeping tonight. In a few hours, he would sit in front of a group of board members and discuss the future of Wellington Incorporate.
And not a single member of his staff would ever entertain the idea that Preston Wellington was not human.
All eyes were dry as they lowered Clarice Mason into her grave. At the age of fifty-five, Clarice had lived far longer than most demon hunters, and the community members learned at a tender age that demon hunters didn’t live long.
The Mason family had a reputation.
Clarice’s husband, Daniel, had taken down more demons than any other known member. He had the scars to prove it, and Sierra knew her father had never expected to bury her mother. After all, Clarice had given up that life to protect and train her children. But when Garret had died a year ago, Clarice had had jumped back into the fight with vengeance. Garret was expected to supersede his father in victory, and after three years of successful fighting, it looked like he would do well.
But all it takes it one wrong lead. One wrong clue, and Garret had been led to his death.
Now Sierra had buried her brother and her mother. She knew her father was disappointed. Daniel believed that males led the demon hunt, and he’d been unhappy when Clarice had trained Sierra. But Daniel was wheelchair bound, and Sierra was the last living Mason hunter.
Huntress.
At twenty-two, she was well past the age that most hunters went off on their own. But her father had insisted that she attend college, and now Sierra had a degree she had intended to do nothing with.
At least, until now.
After Garret’s death, she’d been painstakingly trying to piece together his final moments. Why had he gone to that warehouse alone? He’d been ripped apart by at least ten demons, and they weren’t known to hunt in packs. Someone had tipped him off, and Garret thought something different. He was practically unarmed.
Sierra knew that Clarice was also trying to figure it out. She’d died the exact same way.
And all the leads she had led to one name.
“Sierra.” She looked up sharply. The ceremony was over, and everyone was tossing their flowers and leaving. She cast a cold eye down at her father.
“Daniel,” she muttered.
He cleared his throat. If he wanted a tender moment with her, he’d waited far too long. She and her father had never had a good relationship, and she expected now that her mother was gone, things would only get worse. She’d been the buffer between them.
“I expect you to go back home and forget this mess,” he said in a low voice.
“I am an adult, and I will do as I please.” She leaned down briefly to give him a kiss on the cheek. “You may not believe in me, but I’m going to find who did this,” she whispered.
“I don’t want to have to bury my daughter too,” he said as he gripped her arm. “You’ll stay out of this.”
“If it were Garret, you’d have him out on the streets looking for vengeance. You’d want the streets to flow with demon blood. I may not be Garret, but I want the same thing.” Sierra wrenched her arm free.
“You’re not wrong,” he called out to her. She turned her back to walk away. “But if I had lost you and her, I’d tell him the same thing. The survival of this family is important to me as well.”
She turned her head. “You should have thought of that before you dragged us all into this. Mom was a schoolteacher. You turned her into a killer. I’m all you’ve got left, and she made me an exact copy.”
She could see the pain in his eyes, but she didn’t stop to console him. For years, she’d wondered how her life would have been had they been normal. None of her friends knew about demons. How wonderful that must be. She could have grown up with boyfriends and girly nights and shopping trips. Instead, she’d grown up with weapons, stakeouts, and violence.
When she first went to college, she’d been excited. Daniel had given her a second chance at life, and she wanted to be as far away from the Mason family tradition as possible.
But then Garret had died, and Sierra realized that this was her life. This was what she was meant to do.
She sat in her car and picked up the business card that lay in her passenger’s seat. It was time to find the truth. She picked up her cell phone and dialed the number on it.
“Wellington Incorporated. How may I direct your call?”
Sierra took a deep breath. “Yes. My name is Sierra Mason. I received a call yesterday about a job interview? I’m quite interested in the position.”
She heard some clicking of keys. “Yes. Ms. Mason, it’s a pleasure to hear back from you. Mr. Wellington is free tomorrow at three. Would that be convenient?”
Sierra gripped the phone. “Yes. That would be fine. Thank you.”
“Excellent. We’ll see you at three.”
The woman hung up, and Sierra stared at the card.
Preston Wellington.
He had something to do with their deaths, and she was about to find out what.
Chapter Two
Sierra smoothed her hand over her suit. Preston was hiring for a new marketing intern, and she knew that his company was competitive. She had the grades to get in, but she hadn’t bothered with any actual experience. There would be a slew of other applicants that would no doubt be far better suited for the position, but she needed this job.
She needed to get close to Preston Wellington.
The receptionist nodded her head. “Sierra Mason? Mr. Wellington will see you now.”
Sierra took a deep breath and gripped her portfolio tightly. It was now or never. For all she knew, he would slaughter her as soon as she walked into the room.
And that was why, within her portfolio, she’d hidden a dagger.
Rule Number One. Never go anywhere without a weapon.
She straightened her shoulders and walked with what she hoped was poise and confidence. The door opened, and her heels clicked on the linoleum. There was no obvious danger, but there was also no Wellington.
The burgundy chair behind the desk swiveled slightly, and she gripped her dagg
er. There was someone there.
It whirled around, and she gasped.
She knew that most half-demons could pass as human, but she’d never expected him to look so young.
Or so gorgeous.
He had a head of dark curly hair that reached the nape of his neck, and dark intense eyes. There wasn’t a single wrinkle on that face, and a dark shadow of stubble covered his strong chiseled jaw. He had his sleeves rolled up, and she could see the muscles that flexed when he stood.
He towered over her.
Holding out his hand, he gave her a disarming grin. “Sierra Mason?”
Reminding herself that there was a larger purpose at stake, she released the dagger and strode over to the desk to shake his hand.
Warm.
His skin was warm to the touch. She faked a smile. “Mr. Wellington. I was pleased that you called me in for this interview.”
He gestured to the seat and sat only after she did. He was a gentleman as well? Sierra wasn’t fooled by his pretense.
“You came highly recommended by several of your professors. They sent me their recommendation letters even before I’d received your resume. That’s certainly enough to capture my attention.”
Of course they’d had. She’d asked them to send the letters in case she hadn’t gotten back in time from the funeral to submit the resume. They’d been more than happy to comply, and she’d felt bad about using her mother’s death to get her foot in the door.
But it had worked, and this wasn’t about the job. This was about vengeance.
She gave him what she’d hoped was her most surprised look. “I have developed some strong relationships with several of my professors. I was lucky enough to be taught by the best, but I had no idea they thought enough of me to send a letter here. Truthfully, I simply applied for the experience.”
He leaned back in his chair. “You don’t think you’re good enough?”
Sierra smiled coyly. “Good enough, yes. But I know I lack the experience that a company as big as yours would be looking for.”
BILLIONAIRE ROMANCE: The Unforgettable Southern Billionaires: The Complete Collection Boxed Set (Young Adult Rich Alpha Male Billionaire Romance) Page 110
