“I thought you liked me to wander around naked,” she teased, kissing him in thanks.
“I do,” he assured her, running his hands over her bare body once more. “But occasionally you might get chilly. I wouldn’t want that …”
He made sure, for the next hour or so, that she was anything but.
Later, after they had dinner, they sat together, drinking scotch and watching the tree lights twinkle. Aldo stroked Elli’s face and was quiet for a while. “Elli, spend Christmas with me. I hate to think of you alone in that tiny apartment. Spend it with me here, and we will eat too much food, drink too much champagne, and watch cheesy movies.”
Elli half-smiled at him. “Are you sure? What about your family?”
Aldo sighed. “My father will be skiing with his wife in Austria; my younger brother, Antonio, is at college in the United States and does not intend to beg around his boring older brother. So, you see, I’m as alone as you.”
He looked playfully mournful, but Elli felt stung by his words. Was she really that pathetic? She rubbed her forehead, trying to stave off a headache. She occasionally still got one in the aftermath of the concussion, but this one felt different.
“Are you all right?”
Always watching. The thought hit Elli, but she brushed it away. Don’t be unfair, girl. He’s just concerned. “A headache. Maybe I should go home.”
He kissed her cheek and looked at her in concern. “Nonsense. Look, I’ll get some aspirin for you, and some water, and you can go lie down.”
When she was alone, Elli stared at the fire that Aldo had lit earlier, her emotions in turmoil. Was she just freaking out because it looked like she was about to embark on a relationship, whether she liked it or not—and she’d always studious avoided any type of commitment?
Vivienne’s words came back to her. Indio is gone, has been gone, for eight years. He’s not coming back.
“I know, I know,” Elli murmured to herself and scrubbed at her face with her hands. She wasn’t being fair to the lovely man in whose house she sat and in whose bed she experienced great sex and tenderness. Earlier, she had wanted to run when he got too intense, but she had talked herself down from it. It hadn’t been violent or degrading, just more forceful than she was comfortable with. Maybe that’s what it feels like when it’s not a fuck of convenience, she told herself. Because how would you know otherwise, Moretti?
She squeezed her eyes shut, willing the headache to go away. A moment later, she felt a cold, damp towel being pressed against her forehead. It felt so good, she had to smile. “You are the sweetest man,” she said softly, and Aldo responded by kissing her softly on her lips.
“Here, sweet girl, take these.” He dropped a couple of aspirin in her hand and gave her the glass of water. “You should go lie down.”
Elli opened her eyes and smiled at him. “If you come with me.”
Aldo smoothed her hair. “Always.”
They lay in bed, talking quietly, Aldo’s hand stroking her face until she felt herself drifting off to sleep, her head still pounding.
The nightmare began as sweet memories of her and Indio and Enzo, down at Indio’s mother’s farmhouse in Tuscany, the summer heat, and picking olives in the grove. Indio teasing her, chasing her with a spider in his hand down the hill until they were both breathless, laughing and collapsing together. Indio plucking a bloom from the field of wild flowers and winding it around her finger. His lips were soft against hers. “Sposami?” Marry me?
Elli found herself in a white dress before she could even say yes, drifting down the hallway of Aldo Constanza’s home. She was confused now …why was she here, of all places? Was it still Indio she was marrying?
She pushed open the two huge, white doors in front of her to see an altar and Indio waiting for her at the end of the aisle. As she moved toward him, she saw her brother, her Enzo, step in front of her. “Don’t do this, Elli, please. He’s not who you think he is …he’s dangerous.”
“I love him, Enzo. I’ve always loved him.”
Her brother’s image faded away, and she turned, smiling at her groom.
“Listen to your brother.” Another voice behind her. She turned. Yvetta, herself in a wedding dress, but with the hilt of a knife protruding from a huge blood stain on the bodice. Yvetta smiled, as beautiful as in Aldo’s painting.
“He did this to me, Elli. He will do it to you too.”
Elli shook her head. “You don’t know him like I do …he isn’t capable.”
Yvetta disappeared, and she was left alone with Indio. He took her hands and led her up the stairs toward a faceless priest who began to read the marriage ceremony.
“If any person should have an objection …”
“Yes.” A man’s voice, broken and full of grief. Elli turned to see Aldo staggering up to the altar, heartbroken, his face streaming with tears.
“Please, Elli …don’t marry him …he’ll destroy you like you’ve destroyed me. Please …”
Elli closed her eyes. “I’m sorry. I did love you for a time. I did.”
When she opened, Aldo was gone and she was married. Her new husband looked down at her. “Come with me, my beautiful Elli.”
Elli followed Indio into the hallway. In a flash, Indio cuffed her around the head, hard. Elli went down, confused and shocked. She looked around and the blood froze in her veins.
The knife Indio was holding was huge, lethal.
Oh, god, no …
“I’m sorry, Elli, my beautiful Elli, but you know it has to end this way, don’t you?” He walked slowly toward her, and she started to crawl backward.
He smiled down at her, his eyes soft. “I asked Aldo to come here, to see if you would be tempted, to see if you were true to me,” he said. “I had to get him here, so that you could be tested, my darling. And you failed. You fell in love with Aldo Constanza and let him put his hands on you.” He crouched next to her and grabbed her wrists, winding a rope around them. “He will find you here, stabbed to death. It will destroy him, and that’s all I want. Well, apart from seeing you die and your beautiful skin split under my knife. I’m going to butcher you, my darling, put my knife into your belly over and over until you are dead. Right now, Elli …”
Elli kicked out and caught him hard on the knee. Indio went down, howling, and Elli flipped over and started to pull herself away from him. She couldn’t believe this. Indio, her beloved Indio, a killer.
It wasn’t enough. Indio recovered and plunged the knife into the small of Elli’s back. Elli cried out in agony, and laughing, Indio stabbed her again, an inch away from the first wound. Elli gasped for air as Indio flipped her onto her back and ripped open her dress. Elli’s back arched as he drove the knife into her, pain ripping through her as he stabbed her again and again. Elli was losing consciousness from the pain.
“Stop,” she whispered, weakening. “Stop. I’m dead …”
But Indio’s bloodlust wasn’t sated. He stabbed her again, smiling as she moaned in agony.
Hot, sticky blood pumped out of her belly. Indio leaned over and kissed her mouth. “This is even better than marrying you might have been. Enzo knew the truth. Why do you think he warned me away from you all those years ago? Yvetta—poor, sweet Yvetta, loving me while knowing I could never love anyone but my Elli—still believing it when I put this very knife into her. You might call poor Yvetta a practice run.”
No. No, she couldn’t believe this. She wouldn’t believe her Indio was a killer—and yet …it had always lingered in his beautiful eyes. The violence. Had she mistaken it for passion?
“Why?” she whispered with the last of her strength as the last of her blood left her body. “I love you, only you, Indio.”
Indio smiled. “And you always will, for eternity, my love …” And he slid the blade between her ribs, into her heart …
“No!” Elli screamed, bolting up in bed, then scrambling across the dark room. She tripped on something or other and went sprawling, nearly striking her head aga
inst a wall before she caught herself. Drenched in cold sweat, she trembled as she watched a figure rise in the bed a few feet away, broad shoulders turning toward her.
“Elliana?”
She relaxed slightly at Aldo’s familiar voice, but not completely. Tension still sang through her, making every muscle ache.
“Elli?” he said again, getting out of bed and approaching her. Immediately, she stiffened against the wall, feeling the knife in her body and smelling her own blood.
“Elli,” he murmured, stopping a few feet away and crouching. “Cara mia, what is it?”
The tenderness in his voice drained some of the terror from her veins. She moved hesitantly toward Aldo and he closed the narrow gap between them, his face wracked with shock and concern as he put his big, strong arms around her, not to hurt her, but to comfort and love.
“Sweet girl, what is it? You’re safe here, you’re safe …please, calm down, Elli.”
She rode out the panic attack, breathing deeply and resting against his solid body. His lips were on her forehead as he stroked her back, whispering soft reassurances. “I’m sorry,” she managed eventually. “It was a nightmare. God. Horrible, and stupid, and not real.” Thankfully, he didn’t press her for details.
She was sweating, but shivering violently. Aldo swept his hand onto her forehead. “Jesus, you’re burning up.”
He lifted Elli back into bed, and she was glad of it because she really was starting to feel sick, the nightmare receding in the face of real pain.
Aldo leaned down to kiss her gently and drew back at the expression of agony on her face. “I’m calling a doctor,” he said firmly, and Elli didn’t have the strength to protest.
Aldo’s billions commanded the highest level of service. The doctor arrived within the hour and wasted no time examining Elli and prescribing much-needed pain relief. While she rested, waiting for the pills to take effect, he spoke to Aldo just outside the room. Shortly, Aldo returned, sat on the edge of the bed, and held her hand. “Better, darling?”
“Much.” Her eyes followed his lips as he pressed them to the inside of her wrist. “The doctor gave me the good stuff. What did he say?”
“Post-concussion syndrome,” Aldo told her. “It should resolve itself in a few months, but he wants to do a CT, just to make sure nothing more insidious is going on.”
“Can this really happen from a fall?” she asked. “I didn’t think it was that bad …”
He laughed humorlessly. “Elli, I’m the one who picked you up after that fall. You bled all over me on the way to the hospital. It was bad, sweet girl. Trust me. I’ll set up an appointment for the scan in the next couple of days. And don’t give me that look. I’m not dictating, love. I’m taking care of you.”
Elli wrapped her fingers around his big hand. “I know. I know. But I’ve already missed enough work—”
“I called Vivienne—” he held up a hand, forestalling her immediate protest. “I knew she’d want to know, even if you might not have told her. She said to tell you that there are only a few days before you’re off for the Christmas break anyway. You should take the time off and call her to let her know you’re improving.”
“Post-concussion syndrome,” Elli muttered, shaking her head and immediately regretting it. He was just trying to help. She knew that. Why was she reacting so moodily? She reached for her iPad and batted Aldo’s hands away as she started to do some fast research. After a few minutes of scanning different pages, she sighed and put the iPad aside. “This explains a lot.”
“What does?”
“The symptoms list anxiety and irritability. If you knew me better, Aldo, you’d know that I’m pretty easy-going, but lately, I’ve felt on edge.”
He smiled gently. “I know you better than you think, Elliana. And I had noticed, sweet girl.”
She squeezed his hand guiltily. “I’m sorry, Aldo. I never meant to make you feel badly.”
“Not at all …it’s just, Elli, I’m in very great danger of falling in love with you,” he confessed. “And somehow, it has seemed that you hold part of yourself back from me. I never want to make you feel obligated—so all I ask is that you’re honest with me about how you feel.”
Elli nodded, and for a few moments, she was silent. Finally, she decided it was time to confess. He’d been nothing but good to her and holding secrets back from him felt increasingly wrong. “Aldo, for a long time now, I’ve been stuck in a rut. I loved someone deeply. Entirely. It’s been eight years, and he still haunts my dreams—and now my nightmares. He broke my heart, Aldo. Shattered it.”
If she’d been afraid Aldo might react jealously—and she realized belatedly that she’d been somewhat worried about that, though he’d never shown a single jealous tendency yet—he calmed those fears immediately by sitting quietly and calmly, letting her speak, his expression betraying nothing but compassion.
“He was the moon and the sun to me,” Elli went on, choking up a little. She was grateful for the reassuring pressure from Aldo’s fingers on her hand, guiding her through the memories. “It’s been eight years and I don’t want to feel that way anymore.” She reached up and touched his cheek. “That’s as honest as I can be at this moment, Aldo. I love being with you, as a friend and as a lover. You are the first person since him who has broken down even some of my defenses. I can’t promise I’ll get there quickly, but I can promise to try. I do have feelings for you. I really do.”
“As I do for you. Thank you for being so honest, Elli.” Aldo bent his head and kissed her. Then he pulled off his clothes and slid into bed with her.
“Just to cuddle, don’t worry,” he said, as she settled comfortably into his arms. “I’ll buy that you do actually have a headache.”
Elli chuckled. “Which is getting better, by the way.”
“Oh, really?”
“Really.” She tilted her head back so he could kiss her. Aldo smoothed her hair back from her face, studying her.
“Still, I think you better get some sleep, baby. We have plenty of time.” He told her what Vivienne had said. “So I’m going to ask again, but I won’t be offended if you say no. Spend Christmas and New Years with me. I promise, as soon as you’re feeling one hundred percent well, we will have a riot together. There are a few parties I’ve been invited to, which I would love for you to attend as my partner, if that suits you. And if not, we have the world at our fingertips, Elli. Anything, anywhere.”
Elli smiled at him. “As long as I’m with you, I don’t care what we do.”
Her heart warmed when she saw the delight in his eyes. He is lovely, Elli thought now. Why the hell am I holding onto the ghost of what might have been, when this man is offering me the world?
Elli fell asleep locked in his arms, feeling something had shifted in her soul. Yes, she would try to be the woman Aldo thought she was, for him and for herself. Vivienne had been right.
It was time.
It was Christmas night and Elli and Aldo had finally stopped eating, lying with full bellies on his couch. Elli was groaning. “I seriously haven’t eaten that much in years,” she laughed and moaned as Aldo patted her bare stomach. “Don’t. I’ll explode.”
“Sexy,” Aldo said and laughed as she looked at him askance. “Elli, I’d like to thank you.”
Elli looked at him in amazement. “You thank me? Aldo, look at this place. Look at what you’ve given me.” She held up her wrist with the elegant and delicate diamond bracelet he had given her that morning, along with a host of other gifts. “You have given me something I thought lost to me. A family Christmas.”
Aldo looked delighted, but he also shook his head. “You don’t understand—Christmas for me, for the last few years, has been …painful. Dark. You see, Yvetta was born on Christmas Day.”
“Oh, Aldo, I’m sorry.”
“No, you see? You have brought the light back into my life and into the holidays. You, Elli, have given me more than I ever thought possible. Oh, I’ve dated a few women since Yvetta died,
but none could come close to you, my love.” He leaned over and kissed her. “Elli, I told you a few days ago I was in danger of falling in love with you. These last few days have made me realize …I’m no longer in danger. I am in love with you.”
Ellis eyes filled with tears and she looked away. Aldo turned her face back to him. “Hey, hey. I don’t expect or want you to feel the same until you do. There’s no pressure, but I had to tell you that. I love you, Elliana Moretti.”
Hot tears flooded down her cheeks as she kissed him. “Aldo …I am changing. I can feel it, and you’re the reason. I’m not there yet, but I’m starting to believe I will be. When I tell you I love you, I want it to be the absolute truth. But it’s only you, now, Aldo. Only you.”
It was only a partial lie, but Aldo seemed satisfied, grinning as he kissed her. “If only we hadn’t been so gluttonous, I would take you on this couch right now.”
She grinned. “Remember the time I was out on the balcony? I wouldn’t mind reliving that, Mr. Constanza.”
Aldo laughed. “Kinky girl. Just how kinky do you get, Ms. Moretti?”
She wrapped her arms around his neck. “What did you have in mind?”
“Hmm, how would you feel about restraints?”
Elli nodded slowly. “We could do that.”
“Or perhaps we should invite someone to join us.”
Elli’s eyes opened wider. “A threesome?”
“What do you think? If we’re getting real here, one of my fantasies is to watch you getting fucked by another man—as long as I could join in afterward, of course.”
Elli thought about it for a long moment. “If it would turn you on, I wouldn’t be against it. Who did you have in mind?”
Aldo adjusted himself so he could study her reaction. “A professional. Someone who can be trusted to be discreet.”
“We’re really talking about this, huh?” Elli was getting turned on now.
Aldo shifted, so he was on his knees, between her legs. He started to unbutton her jeans as he talked. “A young man. I’d ask him to undress you slowly so I could film your delectable body as he revealed each piece of skin.” He tugged her jeans off and then pulled her t-shirt over her head. Elli grinned at him as he reached behind her to unclasp her bra, then took her nipple in his mouth greedily, sucking and teasing. His fingers were on her belly, stroking a circle around her deep navel. He smiled up at her as he released her nipple and moved to the other. “I would tell him to suck on your nipples as he finger-fucked your bellybutton. Meanwhile, I would fuck your perfect ass, fingering your clit until you were begging for your sweet cunt to be filled.”
Dark Masquerade: A Bad Boy Billionaire Romance Page 4
