Temptation's Song (Kimani Romance)

by Janice Sims

  “And because Satan disobeyed God by wanting Adam and Eve to worship him, he was demonized,” Elle said. “You know, I’ve read my Bible, too. My grandfather made sure of that. Before the war in heaven between Satan and his followers who were rebellious angels and the archangel Michael and his faithful angels, there was no such thing as a demon. The losers, those rebellious angels who followed Satan, were tossed out of heaven and after that were known as demons.”

  Dominic was nodding as he steered the boat toward the villa’s dock. “That’s right.”

  “So you identify with Satan because you were a rebellious son, too.”

  “Yes,” said Dominic, smiling. “That doesn’t mean I want to worship him or anything. It just means I find his situation fascinating. I wonder if he’s doomed forever, or if God will give him a chance to redeem himself in the end?”

  “And that’s why you give him human qualities in your operas. You make him fall in love to see if he has the capacity to love.”

  Dominic maneuvered the sailboat into its slip. Then all was silent around them except for the lapping of water against the boat’s sides. “I know it’s silly,” he said, “a being like Satan falling in love. But it’s very dramatic, isn’t it, the notion of the embodiment of evil falling in love with a human? Then again, it’s not such a far stretch of the imagination, since Satan has been observing humans for aeons. Why shouldn’t he have developed affection for them?”

  Elle laughed. “Because he’s the embodiment of evil!” she cried. He laughed, too.

  Together, they secured the boat. As they walked up the hill to the villa hand in hand Dominic said to her, “You’re the only person I ever told that. I wonder why?” He looked at her with an enigmatic smile.

  Elle smiled back. “Maybe because you knew I wouldn’t laugh at you.”

  “But you did laugh,” he reminded her.

  “Yes, but I laughed with you, not at you.”

  The next three months passed quickly. Elle’s life was consumed by work: going to rehearsals, appearing nearly nightly in the opera and practicing drills with her voice coach. On weekends she and Dominic went to the villa.

  The opera did so well that Dominic started getting offers from other opera houses around the world that wanted to produce it in their venues even before it ran its course in Milan.

  Three weekends out of those three months were devoted to recording the cast album of Temptation. All of these developments were exciting for Elle. Her energy never seemed to lag. It was as if she were being carried on a wave of new and wondrous things. Opera houses in London, Madrid, Munich, Paris and New York wanted her to star in their productions of Temptation. Her new agent, Blanca Mendes, was calling her nearly every day with more news.

  After the play closed in Milan she and Dominic went to the villa and stayed there for a month. Dominic was working on a new opera and Elle got the chance to hear his piano playing well into the night. When he was creating he was very nearly a madman and she could see that he was one of those artists who suffered through the process.

  She, on the other hand, believed that art could be conceived in joy.

  They had been at the villa for two weeks when Elle, unable to sleep due to Dominic’s impassioned playing, got up and went downstairs to the music room.

  He was so involved with his music that he didn’t notice he had an audience. Elle stood outlined in the doorway wearing a short, sheer white sleeveless nightgown. His playing touched her. This opera was different from his other three. It didn’t involve spiritual beings like the devil and angels. It was about a human who had been bitten and had to live his life as a vampire. For over two centuries he had roamed the earth, his life one of solitude because he couldn’t get close to anyone for fear of them learning his identity. Then, he meets a very special woman who accidentally finds out he’s immortal. She is not repulsed by it but is fascinated, and they fall in love. She asks him to turn her into a vampire. But can he do that to the woman he loves? He has suffered greatly. She argues that if she is turned, then he will never have to be alone again. It’s very tempting. In the end, though, he can’t do it and falls on his own sword, ending his suffering and giving her the chance to live a normal life. Elle loved the story, loosely based on Bram Stoker’s Dracula.

  She was standing in the doorway listening to the man she loved create a work of art, when Dominic abruptly stopped playing, startling Elle. He rose. “How long have you been there?” he asked, his tone gentle, not in the least accusing.

  Elle began walking toward him. The marble floor was cool beneath her bare feet. She liked the feel, though. Since she’d been with Dominic she had discovered a sensual side to her personality. Pleasure for her didn’t begin and end in the bedroom. She found the feel of the floor beneath her feet a sensual experience—a pleasant smell, an interesting texture in a fabric. She was more aware of the physical world around her.

  Dominic took a deep breath and slowly released it. This was a strange sensation for him because while he was playing a minute ago, he had been thinking of Elle. His mind had been split. Part of it was down here translating the many emotions inside of him into music on the grand piano. Another part of him had been obsessing about Elle.

  He’d wanted to be in bed with her, beside her, inside of her. Then he’d looked up and there she was, as if she’d materialized solely because he’d desired her so intensely.

  “A few minutes,” she answered him. “I didn’t want you to stop.”

  When they reached each other, he pulled her into his arms. The thin fabric of the nightgown she wore was little hindrance to the pleasure he derived from running his hands over her back and bottom. “I was ready to stop for the night. I wanted to be upstairs with you.” He breathed in her scent. “You smell so good.” He kissed her cheek. “Why did you come downstairs?” he asked softly.

  “I heard you playing and wanted to be closer to the music,” she said. “To watch you play. I like watching you play.”

  Dominic bent and rained little kisses on her mouth, her chin, her throat as she tipped her head back to allow him easier access. Then he kissed her mouth, parting her lips and tasting her sweetness. Elle’s arms went around his neck as she pressed her body closer to his, abrading her hardened nipples in the process.

  “Mmm,” Dominic moaned. He broke off the kiss to say hoarsely, as he gazed into her eyes, “Elle, there’s something I want to ask you. Now, I don’t expect you to answer right away. It’s usually something a woman has to think about for a while. Weigh the consequences.”

  Oh, God, Elle thought. Is he getting ready to propose? Her heart thudded. She felt tingly with excitement all over. Be calm, be calm, she told herself.

  “What is it?” she asked, her voice cracking in spite of attempts to sound normal and unperturbed.

  Dominic smiled warmly and fondly touched her cheek. “I never thought I’d ask a woman to do this. I never thought I could bear to be around someone twenty-four hours a day and not wish for privacy. But with you I don’t feel imprisoned. I crave your company. In fact, I think when you’re around my work goes smoother. I feel inspired.”

  Elle felt like telling him, Get on with it. Say the words!

  Looking into his eyes, though, she could tell that he was as excited by what he was about to say as she was.

  He took both her hands in his, drew in a deep breath and said, “Elle, would you consider…living with me?”

  Elle’s mouth hung open in shock. She had to remind herself to close it, and then it closed with a soft pop! Live with him? Was he nuts? She believed in marriage and fidelity and having children. Perhaps he thought that because he had convinced her to enter into an affair with him when it was clearly against everything she believed in, she would take it one step further. In a Catholic country, for God’s sake!

  He interpreted her silence as surprise, not shock. He was still smiling at her. “I can see you have to think about it,” he casually said as he picked her up and began walking to the stairs that l
ed to their bedroom. “Take all the time you need. I’m in no rush, although I would like us to decide so that we can start looking for a house in Milan. I’m tired of apartment living. It’s time to buy a home. Then we’ll have a house in Milan where we can work all week, and come here on the weekends.”

  As she clung to him on the ride upstairs, Elle wanted to scream, We’d just as well be married, you idiot! Living together, sleeping together, joined at the hip. We’re already married!

  Inside, she was yelling like a banshee. Outside, she smiled calmly, her eyes looking into his as he carried her to their bed.

  Then, as he set her down on the bed, a peaceful feeling came over her. Why was she getting upset? She had known what she was signing up for on opening night when she had agreed to be his lover. Dominic Corelli had a set of rules he lived by and he was oblivious to everything else.

  She would think about his proposition. Yes, she would give it serious thought and if she decided that she just couldn’t live with it, she would break it to him gently.

  In the meantime, she would simply love him.

  Chapter 15

  Two weeks later they were back in Milan and Natalie had phoned and asked Elle to come to her yoga class with her. “It’ll help you to relax between performances,” she said, extolling the benefits of yoga. “And the breathing exercises are good for a singer. You’ll be surprised by the extra lung capacity you’ll gain. What do you say, Elle?”

  Elle said yes.

  So it was that after the first class, Natalie drove them to a little trattoria near Elle’s apartment and they had lunch together. It was a beautiful fall day, and there wasn’t a cloud in the crystalline blue sky. Elle couldn’t appreciate it, though, because her mind was preoccupied with Dominic and his offer for her to live with him.

  Natalie, looking wonderful in a black turtleneck and rust-colored slacks with matching suede boots, was chatting up a storm, not seeming to notice that Elle was very quiet. A nod of the head from Elle or a grunt seemed to satisfy her.

  Then, after their meals were brought to their table and they’d picked up their forks to begin eating, Natalie dropped her fork back onto her plate with a clatter and cried, “What’s going on with you, Elle? You have been so far away it’s like I’m talking to a changeling.”

  “A changeling?” Elle asked.

  “A child left on a human’s doorstep by fairies. It was really a fairy disguised as a human. I don’t remember why they did it, but that doesn’t matter. The point is you look like Elle, but Elle is not here today!”

  Elle focused. She smoothed her hair back. Recently she had started wearing it straight and, since the curls were relaxed, it now hung nearly to her waist. She had it in a ponytail today and was dressed in a chic black pantsuit and black leather boots.

  Meeting Natalie’s eyes across the table, she asked, “Are we friends?”

  “You know I’m fond of you, Elle,” Natalie said, a concerned expression bringing frown lines to her usually smooth forehead.

  Elle smiled. “Yes, and I’m fond of you. But I need to know that we’re true friends before I confide in you. This is not something I would normally talk to my boyfriend’s mother about.” Her eyes watered. “I have to make a decision and I’d like your opinion on it, if you can remain unbiased about it. No matter whom it concerns.”

  “This sounds serious,” Natalie said. She liked Elle. She thought she was good for her son. That had been proven in so many ways since Dominic had started seeing her. He was calmer. He was actually happy. Not nearly as brooding as he used to be.

  Natalie made up her mind. “I promise to be impartial, and to give you the best advice I can come up with. Tell me what’s bothering you.”

  Elle took a deep breath. Looking Natalie straight in the eyes, she said softly, “Dominic asked me to move in with him.”

  A nerve underneath Natalie’s right eye jumped. Elle could tell she wanted to say something but, to her credit, she didn’t utter a word except to say, “Go on…”

  “I know this sounds hypocritical,” Elle said. “We’re already lovers. Your family is well aware of it, so is my mother and my friends. But to me, moving in with a man feels like I’m giving up on ever having a real marriage, something secure, something I can count on, like you and Carlo have. And Dominic doesn’t even seem to realize that’s how I feel, when I’ve told him I want the traditional marriage with all the benefits.”

  Natalie nodded gravely. “I must say I’m with you. I was hoping for a wedding and, later on, babies. But at least my son is headed in the right direction with the right woman.” She smiled. “Elle, you don’t know how much he’s changed since you’ve been in his life.” She sighed. “He was so intense. He was like a caricature of a musical genius, caring only for his work. Oh, yes, he sincerely loves his family and he would do anything for us. But the women in his life were only accessories, Elle. None of them meant anything to him at all and they were interchangeable. Many of them were foreigners, living and working in Milan only for a while. He liked the fact that they would not always be here, just passing through.”

  “It was convenient for him,” Elle surmised, “since he wasn’t planning to invest his emotions in them anyway.” Elle reminded herself that she was passing through, too.

  “Exactly,” said Natalie. She smiled at Elle. “When he brought you home to meet us, even though he swore that you were just his leading lady in the opera, I knew he was already half in love with you, Elle.”

  “He’s not in love with me,” Elle was quick to deny.

  Still, deep down, she harbored hope that Natalie was right.

  “Oh, but he is, my dear. I’m his mother, I know him. I might be wrong in saying this to you. I might be getting your hopes up that everything will turn out the way you want it to and Dominic will marry you. Then, if he doesn’t, you’ll be left brokenhearted, and I’ll be left feeling guilty because I could have advised you to not go any further with this relationship. But I think you should follow your heart, Elle.”

  “But what will people say?”

  Natalie laughed shortly. “It’s 2010, Elle. Italian couples live together. Their mommas might not like it but it happens all the time. I can’t say that Carlo won’t give Dominic an earful, though. He believes that men should honor women with marriage if they’re going to share their beds. I wouldn’t be surprised if they haven’t already had that conversation. But Carlo won’t treat you any differently.”

  Elle thought about that. Carlo was always very sweet to her. She hated to disappoint him. She hated to disappoint herself. But maybe Natalie was right and Dominic was slowly warming to the idea of marriage.

  “What are you going to do?” Natalie asked.

  “I’m still thinking about it,” Elle said truthfully.

  Natalie picked up her fork. “Whatever you decide, I’m here for you. Now, let’s eat before our food gets cold.”

  Later that night, Isobel disagreed with Natalie. “Don’t do it. Sixty percent of couples who live together never get married. They either break up or wind up living together for years without the benefit of marriage. If you do it and you don’t break up, how long do you think you’ll stay with him before getting fed up? And what if you get pregnant? If he’s okay with living with you without marrying you, doesn’t it reason that he would also be perfectly happy to have a baby with you without getting married? One thing leads to another.”

  “I love him,” Elle stated, just to put it on the table for Isobel to consider.

  “Can’t you love him without living with him?”

  “Yes, but if this relationship is doomed anyway, I would prefer to spend as much time with him as possible before it’s over.”

  “Do you know how desperate you sound?” Isobel asked, pulling no punches. “I didn’t raise you to lower your standards in order to be with a man!”

  “No, Isobel, you raised me to think independently. To know that, should the right man never ever come along, I would be fine on my own. And I know
I will be fine after we’re through, but for the first time in my life, I’m in love. And all of those feminist sayings about not needing a man don’t resonate with me as much as they used to. Because unless you’re in the thick of it, you really don’t know how you’re going to react. It sounds good to say I will never live with a man without the benefit of marriage, but the man I love is in the picture now and the fact of the matter is I would do anything to be with him.”

  Isobel sighed resignedly. “I hear you, baby. Just think about it a bit longer. Put on Aretha and have a glass of wine.”

  “You’re not disappointed in me?” Elle asked.

  “Hell, no,” Isobel said with a laugh. “If anyone knows what it’s like to be a fool for a man, it’s your mother. I just hope you don’t end up a bitter old woman like me.”

  “You’re not a bitter old woman,” Elle said firmly.

  “I might not be old, but I’m definitely bitter,” Isobel disagreed. She laughed again. “The stockbroker and I went out for coffee and, Elle, you wouldn’t believe how hard he came on to me. Talk about lonely and desperate. He couldn’t even wait until my coffee got cold before he was asking me to come back to his place with him. It seems that it’s his theory that when men and women get to be a certain age they can skip the preliminaries and get right down to the dirty. And he thought I should have been grateful that he was showing me some attention. Grateful in the form of granting him sexual favors! You should have heard the string of cuss words at that table that day!”

  “He has a filthy mouth on top of everything else?” Elle asked incredulously.

  “No, I was the one cussing him out!” Isobel cried laughing. “Now when he sees me in the hallway he slinks in the other direction.”

  “See?” said Elle. “You don’t have to worry about my getting hurt. Should worse come to worst between Dominic and myself, I’ll just cuss him out and go away and never see him again.”