Dark Masquerade: A Bad Boy Billionaire Romance

by Michelle Love

  In the morning, Elli woke up with Indio’s arms around her and felt happier than she ever had. She turned in his arms and watched him sleep for a few minutes before he opened his eyes and smiled at her. “Good morning, beautiful.”

  “Good morning, my love.”

  Indio kissed her, and they made love before showering together. Indio went out to buy some breakfast rolls, returning just as Elli finished dressing. She was waving two passports at him. Indio was confused. She grinned and handed him one of them.

  “It’s Aldo’s. I took it so he couldn’t follow me here.”

  Indio laughed, flicking through it. “Clever girl, although, knowing how corrupt he is, he probably has several under assumed names.”

  Elli’s face fell. “Damn, I never thought of that.”

  Indio mussed her hair. “It was still a good idea. We can see where he’s been.”

  Something snagged in Elli’s memory then. “Hey, let me see that for a second.”

  She flicked through to where there was a customs stamp and held it up. “This is from when we went to Seattle. US Customs stamp, right? They always, always stamp it?”

  “Yep.”

  “Well,” she said, flicking through the passport, “This passport is about halfway through its life, so any trips that Aldo took—as Aldo— within the last year should be in here. Indio, about a month into mine and Aldo’s relationship, he said he was going to New York for a meeting for a few days. I didn’t think anything of it, but during that time, I was attacked and threatened by a stalker.”

  Indio sat up, alarmed, but she waved him down. “I wasn’t seriously hurt, don’t worry. But I spoke to Aldo via Skype one night, and my friend Tandy—I’ve told you about her, right?—she was staying with me and made a comment about where Aldo was speaking from.”

  Elli recalled the confusion on Tandy’s pretty face …

  “Something struck me. He’s a solid-gold billionaire, right?”

  Elli half smiled, half frowned at her friend. “So?”

  “Well, it’s just, if I had his money, I would be staying in the penthouse suite. From what I saw, that wasn’t the penthouse of The Four Seasons.”

  Elli told Indio exactly what Tandy had said and waved Aldo’s passport. “There’s no customs stamp for the time he said he was in New York. I don’t think he left the country. I think he was watching me and that he attacked me to make me feel vulnerable.”

  Indio nodded slowly. “You’re probably right …what with the cameras in your home and his sick games …Jesus, Elli, there’s no way I’m letting you go back to that man.”

  She took a deep breath in and nodded. “Yes, there’s no way. But we still don’t want him to flip out, so when I go back to Italy, I’ll say I need some space and that I think we need to be apart for a while. Rather than pull off the band-aid, I’ll ease him into it, so he doesn’t get suspicious. I don’t underestimate his capacity to hurt the people I love if I upset his equilibrium.”

  “I don’t want you to be at risk,” Indio said with real emotion. “If anything happened to you.”

  Elli went to him and perched on his knees. “Indio, your proposal last night …I got on the internet this morning. We can get married here, but we need to be resident for thirty days for it to be legal.”

  His arms tightened around her. “Damn. I wanted to be your husband right now.”

  She chuckled. “And I wanted to be your wife. We should go somewhere, in Paris, that’s totally cliché and have our own little ceremony. Then, as soon as we get back to Italy, I’m yours, baby.”

  Indio kissed her. “That sounds like a plan. In the meantime, let’s go find what we can on Constanza.”

  ***

  They flew into Uganda the next day and, much to Indio’s amusement, Elli wore a short blonde wig. She posed in it, and Indio shook his head. “You’re not a blonde, baby.”

  She stuck out her tongue at him. “But you like my disguise, right?”

  The fun was soon over when they began to see the conditions that the local people had to live in and Elli was moved to tears. Decades of civil war had torn the country apart. She visited some of the aid camps set up by Aldo’s organization, and on the surface, they seemed to be places of hope.

  It was Indio who found someone willing to talk to them. They met late at night at the rundown hotel where Indio and Elli were staying.

  The man, David, was a Ugandan-born medic who had resigned from Aldo’s organization the previous year.

  “I was fooled for a few years. I didn’t think to look below the surface and took everything Constanza said at face value. He comes here often, and it took a while to realize that after his visits—every time—there would be a child or two or three who went missing. All girls.”

  Elli felt sick at the implication. “So, he’s not selling guns?”

  David shook his head. “Eventually, it got back to me. The kids that went missing were being sold to the sex trade.”

  Elli gave a sob, and Indio rubbed her back, his own face drawn. “How the fuck is he getting away with this?”

  “Russian contacts and unlimited money to hush things up. People have died here …I’m sure my life too is now forfeit, which is why I have nothing left to lose by talking to you.”

  Elli grabbed his hand. “We will protect you, David.”

  He smiled sadly. “Do not promise that, lovely lady. This world is rough and corrupt. Even the people hired to protect a person can turn at the promise of money.”

  “Why don’t you leave?”

  “Because this is my country and they are my people. I may not be able to stop Constanza, but I can do something about the flow of children into his grip. My colleagues and I, we offer free medical treatment with the little money we have to buy supplies.”

  Elli looked at Indio, who nodded. “David, I can help …we can help. We can open clinics and get you supplies.”

  David smiled. “That sounds easy, Mr. Navaro, and I thank you, but we have to deal with so much more here. Any supplies are usually stolen by insurgents and our people killed.”

  “There must be something I can do?”

  “Any help is, of course, welcomed, but the best thing you could do for us is to bring Constanza down.”

  Elli drew in a breath. “David …I would ask you to go on record, but I fear for your well-being if you do. So we’ll bring him down some other way. We know he’s a murderer. We have video of the last murder he committed—that we think he committed.”

  “We know,” Indio said shortly, and Elli nodded. She sighed and patted David’s hand. “You are a hero, David. A hero. We will bring Constanza to justice and then we’ll come back to do what we can to help.”

  ***

  Back in Paris the next day, they spent the next few days strategizing. “We have to take that video to the police.”

  Elli shook her head. “We cannot prove it was him in the video, nor that he wasn’t sent the video as some kind of blackmail. He’s already told everyone who will listen that you killed Yvetta. We don’t have enough, Indio—not without putting lives at risk.”

  “We could do an anonymous expose?”

  “Been there, done that, and it still didn’t work. He deflected that article easily. And he’ll know it’s us.” Elli sighed and sat back. Her back ached from being hunched over the table. Indio massaged her shoulders, and she smiled gratefully at him. “I hate to say this, Indio, but I think I’m going to have to play nice with him a little while longer.”

  Indio’s fingers tightened on her shoulders for a moment, then relaxed as he nodded. “God, I hate to agree, but …” He looked at her unhappily. “I wish this were over.”

  “Me too, baby. Look, let’s enjoy these few days together before all hell breaks loose. Let’s make the rest of the world go away.”

  Indio kissed her passionately. “Good idea.” He drew her to him and began to unbutton her blouse, taking his time to kiss every inch of exposed skin gently. Elli lay back on the couch as he stripped
first her and then himself and went into her outstretched arms. Elli hooked her legs around him, drinking him in and gasping as he entered her. “You’re so wet, baby.”

  “Always with you. God, you’re so big …”

  Indio grinned, thrusting his huge cock deep inside her. “You make me big, il mia amore …all this is for you …” He thrust harder and she moaned, sinking her fingernails into his buttocks, wanting him to go deeper and deeper, until he was balls-deep inside her.

  “Indio …Indio …”

  He pinned her hands above her and she chuckled as he grinned. “All mine.”

  He fucked her hard, barely letting her catch her breath after she came before his mouth found her cunt, his tongue delving deep inside her and lashing around her clit. “You taste like honey.”

  Elli was almost delirious with pleasure as she came again and again, his mouth and his cock reaming into her, on the couch, the floor, and in their bed. Their bed.

  Afterward, they lay, gazing at each other. “You know, we could just run away,” Indio said idly, running a fingertip down the valley of her breasts, over her stomach to her belly, circling her navel. Elli kissed his mouth.

  “That’s not your style—or mine. Anyway, we need to do this …for Yvetta and for our future.”

  She saw the admiration in his eyes. “You’re amazing.”

  “Because I’m with you.”

  “No, you’re just amazing.” Indio covered her body with his again, gently pushing her legs apart and gliding his rock-hard cock into her. Elli sighed happily.

  “Elli Bella …I already consider you my wife. I think I always have.”

  She smiled at him, her eyes glistening with tears of joy. “You are my world, Indio, my love. My husband.”

  And with those simple words, they bound themselves to each other.

  Bubbles don’t just burst, Elli thought, five days later. They smash, they splinter, and they cause damage. They hurt. She was back in Italy, back within Aldo’s reach—back in his bed.

  She’d managed to persuade him that she was too jetlagged to make love, and if he was suspicious, he didn’t show it.

  Vivienne, in Elli’s absence, had the office check for cameras and bugs under the guise of remodeling the space, but to their great relief, the only bug the experts found was Indio’s poorly hidden (but still unnoticed for months) bug on Elli’s desk. It made Elli breathe easier that she and Vivienne could talk about what they found out in Uganda without risk of Aldo finding out. She also showed her friend the horrific videos she’d found on Aldo’s computer.

  It was in the evenings when she had to return to Aldo’s house that she felt scared …scared and disgusted every time he came near her. They limped on for a couple of months, becoming more distant from each other, and even when Christmas came and went, they were civil, if not affectionate.

  Elli and Indio spoke every day, and Indio urged her to break things off with Aldo. “We haven’t found anything we can use,” he said. “And every day I wake up wondering if today is the day when I hear that you’re dead. I hate this, Elli. Please.”

  It was just after the New Year when Elli asked Aldo if she could talk to him.

  “Of course.” They were in his study, and Elli’s eyes kept drifting toward the filing cabinet. He was clever, she thought, and didn’t keep a paper trail back to him. She wondered if he got paid in cash to sell those children into the sex trade. She pushed that thought away; if she dwelt on it, she might crack and start to accuse him, and then all would be ruined. Instead, she smiled at him with fake warmth.

  “Aldo, darling …this isn’t easy to say. But …. I think we need to consider spending some time apart. We haven’t exactly been getting along so well of late. You must agree.”

  Aldo nodded slowly, his eyes locked on hers. “I cannot deny that, Elli. It had been breaking my heart.”

  “And I’m sorry for that. But I do think we have reached the end of our time together. I need to regroup and work out what I want from life.”

  Aldo gave a soft, sarcastic laugh. “I think you know what you want, Elliana. It just isn’t me.”

  Elli decided to ignore that. She did not want him to lose his mind. “I need time on my own.”

  Aldo studied her. “As you wish.”

  Really? He was taking it this easily? Something didn’t add up here.

  “So, I’m going to pack my stuff tonight. I’ll ask Umberto to take me back to my apartment.”

  “Fine. Is that all? I do have to get on.” He turned back to his computer, and Elli flushed. She hated him, but she also felt he was dismissing her. Like a whore. Again. Asshole.

  She didn’t say another word, and in an hour, she was being driven back to town by Umberto. He looked over at her. “I’m going to miss our talks, Elli.”

  She smiled at him. “Umberto, can I give you some advice? Between the two of us?”

  “Of course.”

  “Get another job. Work for anyone else but Aldo.”

  Umberto looked shocked and uncomfortable. “Elli, I …”

  “It’s okay, Umberto. Forget I said it.” She didn’t want to make his life harder, after all. She hugged him goodbye as he dropped her at her door, then she took her suitcase into the lobby …and waited.

  In five minutes, Indio was there and she ran into his arms. “It’s over. It’s really over.”

  But, of course, it wasn’t. Elli could never have guessed how quickly things would unravel.

  Elli stretched her body as she woke in the late February sun. Carnival time again. Here in her new apartment—their new apartment—she rolled onto her side and studied the face of her love, her Indio, and as of five days ago, her husband. She was officially Mrs. Indio Navaro. They had married quietly, with just a few friends, but it had been the best day of Elli’s life. “Today, my life finally begins,” Indio had said in his toast, gazing down at his bride, and Elli had cried at the love in his voice. She had worn a simple, lilac, cotton dress to marry him, matching Indio’s tie, and they both wore lilac flowers pinned to their chests.

  They had lived together as if they had always done so, easily, reveling in the time together, fucking each other’s brains out, and having adventures.

  The only dark cloud was the unresolved issue of Aldo Constanza.

  “He took it too easily,” Eli said, and Indio agreed.

  “He’s up to something, for sure.”

  Elli could tell Indio was terrified that Aldo would get to –her—even on their wedding day when she’d arrived at the city hall, accompanied by Vivienne and Tandy and three hulking bodyguards, she saw the relief as well as the look of love in his eyes. She couldn’t blame him. The night before the wedding, she’d had awful nightmares of Aldo coming for her as she got ready to marry Indio and stabbing her to death as he had done to Yvetta.

  But nothing went wrong that day.

  Elli got up now and pulled her robe on, going into the kitchen to make coffee. Indio may have been as rich as Aldo, but he didn’t believe in staff—unless it was security staff for her, of course. So they cooked for each other and cleared up themselves, and Elli liked it that way. They talked about their future, living in the country at his farmhouse. “Or, if you like, we can find something else together. I can’t look at my workshop without remembering what I did to you there.”

  Elli swept a hand over his hair. “Our reunion, however brutal, was there. I wanted you to fuck me that day, so badly, and for me, it was heaven. Regardless of what happened afterward, you were just trying to protect me.”

  He kissed her hand. “Another reason is that Aldo probably knows about it.”

  Elli’s smile faded. “We’re never going to be able to stop running, are we? Maybe we should end this once and for all.”

  Indio’s eyebrows shot up. “How?”

  Elli gazed at him for a long moment before saying it. “Entrapment.”

  It took Indio a second to realize what she was saying. “Listen to me, Elliana Moretti Navaro. If you ever, ever, e
ver suggest using yourself as bait again, then I’ll …. god, Elli … He will slaughter you. Do you understand? You saw what he did to Yvetta, and she wasn’t even part of his great revenge plan. She only said no to him. Can you imagine what he’ll do to you now that he probably knows we’re married—that you deceived him and married his enemy? That he had you and you slipped through his fingers?”

  “Exactly,” Eli said calmly. “He’ll get riled up, especially if the magazine runs some op-eds about him—imagine it. One year on from his exclusive interview, we do a follow-up and see where he is now.”

  “It’ll be written off as a bitter woman’s clap back after she’s dumped by him. I’m just saying, that’s the way he’ll spin it.”

  “Let him. It’ll still get to him, especially if we intimate about his ‘connections’ in Russia. We only have to drop one name—someone already in jail for sex trafficking—and he’ll flip out. I saw him on that plane, Indio, when that stuff about the alleged gun running came out. He was insane with rage and that wasn’t even true.”

  “Still making yourself bait,” he shook his head, and Elli sighed.

  “Okay, what if it’s not my magazine that does it? We can send it out to …”

  Indio’s voice was hard. “No, Elli. Just no. I don’t want to be the control freak here, but no. No risk, no bait.”

  It turned out a day later that Aldo had made the first move anyway. Indio called Elli into the kitchen, then handed her his iPad. Elli read through the newspaper article.

  Constanza Sells Up: ‘It’s Time for A New Life, Somewhere Else,’ Says Heartbroken Billionaire.

  Elli rolled her eyes at that, then went back to reading.

  Aldo Constanza, 42, billionaire philanthropist and businessman, is leaving Venice just a year after relocating from Rome. Reports say he has put his seven-million-euro home in Mira up for sale and has emptied his office in the city, laying off a number of staff. Business insiders are somewhat confused, as Constanza had told them only recently that Venice was where his life was now, but perhaps his very recent break-up with journalist Elliana Moretti might have swayed his decision to leave the city. Ms. Moretti, 29, was with the billionaire for just over a year, but in the few weeks since Constanza ended the relationship, has moved on to another billionaire, architect and property mogul, Indio Navaro, 38. We have confirmation, indeed, that Moretti and Navaro were married only last week in a small, private ceremony. In a strange twist, not only did Navaro design and build Constanza’s Mira home, but was also once briefly a suspect in the murder of Constanza’s fiancée, Yvetta Lima, three years ago.