by Rose Haven
He chuckles at this revelation. “Again an honest reply! At least now I know how to silence you and make your mind go numb,” he says teasingly. I blush at his blatant flirting.
“Alberto!” I slap him playfully on the chest and he takes me in his arms. We both stay like that for a few moments.
“You know, Gemma….uhhh….is it alright if I call you Gemma and not Arianna?”
“Actually, I would get offended if you call me anything BUT Gemma!”
He chuckles again and continues, “I really lost it when I found that you’d been lying to me. I can tolerate anything, but lies….I just can’t stand lies.”
“I am so sorry, Alberto. I knew I had to tell you the truth sooner or later, but I was just waiting for the right occasion. And there is another thing I want to confess,” I look at him a little apprehensively.
Chapter Nine
“Tell me sweetheart. I am listening,” Alberto says calmly.
“I….I used to make cakes and other dishes that Mrs. Antoni taught me and take them to the hospital for Rio. You remember I used to go to the Chapel so often….well, most of the time, I actually went to the hospital. ”
“What a terrible thing to do, Gemma! You’ll have to pay for this,” saying so he crushes his mouth against mine. Once again, I am lost in the sweet sensations that he arouses in me. We both kiss each other as if there is no tomorrow. He puts his hand at the small of my back and pulls my body closer to his. I can feel his hard erection pressing against my belly. I want him as badly as he wants me.
The sound of approaching footsteps brings us back to our senses and we spring apart. Both of us are breathless from the passionate kiss that we’d just shared. Mrs. Antoni notices this and gives me a secret smile. I feel myself blush to the roots of my hair.
“Ary, I just saw my new bedroom. It is so big!” Rio is still brimming with excitement. He turns towards Alberto and says in a more sober tone, “Thank you, Mr. Graziani. You are a very nice man.”
“You are most welcome, my dear. And I would prefer if you call me Alberto and not Mr. Graziani,” says Alberto patting his back.
“Alright, Alberto. You know, I am so glad that Ary loves YOU and not that awful Andrew.”
I am as shocked at his words as Alberto and Mrs. Antoni.
“What are you saying Rio?” I ask him. He looks at me sheepishly and replies, “Ary, Andrew and new mama kept telling me that you would marry Andrew one day. He even told me that you loved him secretly….and I saw him trying to touch you so many times.”
“Oh God! Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I don’t know….perhaps I didn’t want to hear you confirming what he said. I hated Andrew. He was so mean! I didn’t want you to marry him,” Rio says almost in tears.
I hug him tight and say, “Forget the past, Rio. Forget all that happened back in Murlo. We have left all those bad memories behind, okay? From now on, everything will be good, I promise.”
“Yes, Rio. I will make sure you both get all the happiness that you deserve. And as for that Andrew, I will make sure the Polizia gets hold of him as soon as possible,” Alberto says with clenched teeth.
“Alberto, I think you shouldn’t waste your time and money on that poor excuse for a man. Both of us are happy and safe here and that is all that matters.” I don’t want to involve Alberto in all this. Andrew is a dangerous man and I don’t want Alberto to make enemies with him.
“I think she is right, Alberto,” adds Mrs. Antoni.
“No, I cannot live peacefully knowing fully well that he is out somewhere enjoying his life after what he’s done to Gemma. I’ll make sure he has to pay for everything he’s done.” Alberto’s eyes are glistening with rage.
“What did he do to you, Ary? And why is Mr. Graziani calling you Gemma,” asks Rio, still a little scared.
“Uh… He…he tried to kill me Rio. That is why we left Murlo in the middle of the night.” I watch as Rio’s eyes go wide with shock. “But relax sweetheart, he no longer knows where we are, so I guess everything is alright now, huh?”
“And I call her Gemma because that’s the name Mrs. Antoni gave her when she came to our house.” Thankfully, Alberto’s expression has changed from thunderous to a calmer one. “You can call her Gemma too if you like.”
“No. For me, she’ll always be my Ary,” says Rio and smiles at me.
“Of course, sweetheart,” I return his smile.
Chapter Ten
Life has once again become beautiful. Alberto, Mrs. Antoni, Rio and I….we have all become one small, happy family. Rio is becoming healthier and happier by the day. I have to take him to the hospital occasionally for treatments, but other than that, he’s absolutely fine. Alberto also got him admitted to a good school and he has proved to be a fast learner. I am so happy for my little brother. He’s been through so much at such a tender age that now I want him to enjoy every moment of his life.
Till now, there has been no information about Andrew. Alberto told me that the Polizia searched for him in Murlo and questioned Sammy too but she had no idea about his whereabouts. He had left Murlo soon after Rio and I escaped from that hellhole.
As for Alberto and me, we both have fallen hopelessly in love with each other. He can’t seem to keep his hands to himself whenever he is around me. I usually go to sleep with Rio in his room and end up waking in Alberto’s arms. He comes every night and quietly carries me to his room where we make love most of the night. I actually wonder when does this man get some rest. He spends his days in the office and his nights making love to me!
This particular evening, Alberto comes home early and asks me to accompany him for dinner. I am a little surprised at this sudden plan but quickly change into one of the best dresses I have (Alberto took me shopping one day and filled my wardrobe with all kinds of dresses and shoes).
Mrs. Antoni helps me style my hair and the way she is helping me get ready, I cannot help but think that they both are up to something again! Anyways, we both bid Mrs. Antoni and Rio goodbye and head out for what I hope would be a lovely evening.
Alberto takes me to one of the best restaurants in town. Everything in that restaurant, from the furnishings to the décor, screams elegance. It is one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been to. With light music playing in the background and the dim lighting, it looks extremely cozy and romantic.
I follow Alberto to a private table at the far end of the luxurious restaurant. The hostess arrives almost immediately once we get seated and asks us what we would like to drink. Alberto orders red wine for himself and iced tea for me. I smile at his choice of drink for me…after all this time, he knows that I hate alcohol.
“So, now would you bother to tell me what is all this about?” I finally ask Alberto once the hostess leaves.
“What? Can’t I take you out for a dinner date?” he questions innocently.
“Oh come on, Alberto. I know there is something going on. I caught you and Mrs. Antoni sharing some kind of coded message.”
Alberto laughs. “So you’ve been spying on me?”
“Of course not! I happened to pass by your room when you were saying ‘Mission Accomplished’ to her in a hushed tone!”
“Just wait bella. You’ll get the answers to all your questions!” he says with a naughty glint in his eyes.
I am dying with curiosity. I just hope it is a pleasant surprise! I am tired of life throwing terrible surprises my way, so much so that I have begun to detest surprises.
In a matter of few minutes, one of the waiters approaches us with our drinks. As he serves me my iced tea, some of it accidentally falls on my dress. He immediately backs off and starts apologizing profusely for the mistake. Our hostess for the evening arrives on hearing the commotion and says, “I am extremely sorry on his behalf, Mr. Graziani. He has just recently joined the restaurant and….”
“It’s perfectly okay,” I tell her. “It was not his fault. I think my hand jerked while he was handing me the drink and that caused the spi
ll.”
I notice the look on Alberto’s face as I lie to her. He knows that it had been the waiter’s mistake and I was just covering up for him. He smiles at me with love shining bright in his eyes. The waiter and the hostess excuse themselves after apologizing once again.
“I think I’ll just go to the washroom and clean up a bit. This dress has been ruined,” I lament.
“Don’t worry sweetheart. I’ll get you a hundred similar dresses if you want.”
“Do you have any idea how pompous you sound at this moment,” I ask him getting up.
“Pompous! Well, nobody has ever called me that, I’m sure!” Alberto exclaims.
“Well then, I shall join you back in a moment, Mr. Pompous.” I hear him chuckle behind my back.
I head towards the washroom to get myself cleaned up a bit. The washroom is also as sparkling clean as the rest of the restaurant. A decent meal here would cost a fortune, I think to myself.
Lost in my own thoughts, I start wiping my dress with a damp napkin. When I am satisfied with the result, I turn around to go back to our table where Alberto is waiting for me. I once again try to guess what surprise he has in store for me tonight.
A familiar, malicious laughter makes me stop in my tracks. I am too scared to see where it is coming from….I am too scared to even move!
A small movement to the right catches my eye. I see someone coming out from one of the toilets. This is a ladies’ washroom but that ‘someone’ is most definitely not a lady!
“What did you think, you bitch! You could run away from me? I would’ve found you even if you’d been hiding in hell…”
THE END
Italian Billionaire Romance
If You Need Me
Book Three
Rose Haven
Italian Billionaire Romance: If You Need Me
Prologue
Alberto Graziani, one of the richest men in Florence, meets with an accident in which a young girl gets injured. As a result of a grave head injury, she loses her memory. Alberto and Mrs. Antoni, his late mother’s best friend and his only family in the world, decide to keep the girl in their home as long as her memory doesn’t return. Mrs. Antoni even gives the girl a new name - Gemma. As time passes, Alberto gets attracted towards the gentle and kind hearted Gemma and soon they both fall in love with each other.
Soon after, Alberto finds out that Gemma has been lying to him and Mrs. Antoni about her memory loss. Her real name is Arianna Rizzio and she has a young brother who is being treated at a cancer hospital that was actually started by Alberto in the memory of his mother. He is extremely furious and heartbroken. But when Gemma/Arianna reveals her sordid past that forced her to take such an extreme step, Alberto and Mrs. Antoni understand her plight and forgive her.
Everything seems perfect for a little while until Arianna is forced to come face-to-face with her painful past. To find out what happens when the darkest chapter of Arianna’s past returns to haunt her, read on…..
Chapter One - Andrew Dioli
I have been searching for Arianna for the past six months….since the night she left me to die in Murlo. I have forgiven her for that night….she probably thought I was going to kill her; though I have no idea why she’d think so. I don’t know why she is so scared of me. I love her so much. I fell in love with her the moment I saw her. I still remember that day vividly when her good-for-nothing father brought her and Rio to our guesthouse. She was wearing a yellow floral top and a plain white skirt. How beautiful she looked! I had decided that very day that she’d be the girl I’ll marry.
I don’t know why she keeps hiding from me. This attitude of hers annoys me to no end. I want to marry her and make her my own. But she just doesn’t seem to understand. Instead of coming into my arms, she is living with that Graziani fellow! I can’t explain how angry I was when I saw her picture on the front page of newspaper the other day. She was smiling at that man, standing way too close to him. I could have killed her that moment for betraying me like that! She’d even changed her name from Arianna to Gemma to fool me!
I have to make her understand that she belongs to me. And no matter what, I’ll make sure I get that into her head. After all, I have all the time in the world to express my feelings to her now that I have her by my side.
I look at her sleeping peacefully beside me. She’ll be waking up any moment now. My hands are itching to touch her body but I have to wait patiently until she gets up. I want her to experience my love for her. I want her to be wide awake when I finally make her mine.
As I am looking at her beautiful face, I hear my phone ring. It is that fellow from the restaurant.
“Hello?”
“What the hell do you think you’re doing calling me like that in the middle of the night? I told you I’ll be sending you your money tomorrow morning.”
“Uh… Andrew I just wanted to ask you if that woman is alright. I don’t want you to kill her or do something stupid. I don’t know if you know it but she came to the restaurant with one of the most powerful men in the area. If something happens to her….”
“Oh shut up! I don’t need a fathead like you telling me what to do. You just take your money and get out of Florence for a few days.”
I end his call. I am furious again! I know fully well that she was in that damned restaurant with that stupid Graziani fellow. I don’t understand what she sees in him. He may have shitloads of money but he can never love her as much as I do. My fists curl with rage when I remember these past days that I’d spent hiding from the Polizia. Graziani had sent them after me. They’d even gone to Murlo to search for me.
But I was here all the while…in Florence. While the Polizia were looking for me all over the place, I was busy keeping an eye on Graziani. Today, I saw him going to a jewelry shop and when he came out, I followed him discreetly for a while. That’s when I heard him book a table for two at that luxury restaurant where Matthew worked. And later, when he called Arianna and asked her to get ready, I suspected that he’d be proposing to her tonight.
I laugh to myself at the thought. Poor Graziani! He’d be waiting for his….what did he call her….Gemma, yes, he’d be waiting for his Gemma to return from the washroom with a ring in his hand. But little does he know that his Gemma is actually MY Arianna! And tonight if anyone will confess his love for her, it will be Andrew Dioli!
I look at Arianna once again. She is beginning to stir a little. Just a few moments more and the effect of the sedative will vanish completely. I have to make her comfortable once she regains consciousness or she’ll freak out. I have to make her understand that no one can keep her as happy as I can and I am sure she’ll understand. I know that secretly she’s in love with me too but she’s too shy to admit it.
But tonight, there’ll be no place for shyness between us. Tonight, she’ll have to surrender herself to me completely…..with mind and body! And once that happens, I’ll take her far away from here to a place where no one will ever be able to find us.
Chapter Two - Alberto Graziani
“Mr. Pompous!” I laugh at the way Gemma said that. Nobody has ever called me pompous before! But Gemma, you can trust her to be completely honest with you!
Once again, my respect for her grew when she took the blame of the waiter’s mistake on her. That is the Gemma I know. Yes, she lied to me about a lot of things….no, I wouldn’t say she lied; she just hid the truth. But then, I guess I would have done the same thing if I had been in her place. In fact, I am skeptical I would’ve been as strong as her, considering what all she had to go through.
I will never forget the look on her face when she narrated her tale. The pain that I saw in her eyes is still afresh in my mind. I wanted to tell her to stop, but then realized how important it was for her to get all that guilt and pain off her chest. She seemed relieved of a huge burden after she’d said it all.
I promised myself that day that I’ll make life beautiful for her and Rio. I’ll try to give both of them all the happiness and lov
e that they deserve. I plan to marry Gemma and officially make her and Rio family.
This is the surprise that I plan to give her tonight. On my way back from the office, I stopped at the jeweler to select a ring for her. I know she’s not the type of girl who’d want a big rock on her finger. So instead, I bought a delicate ring with rubies and diamonds placed beautifully in a floral pattern. I am sure she’ll love it. And Mrs. Antoni thinks likewise too. She knows that I’ll be proposing to her tonight. I could see the happiness that reflected in her eyes when I told her about my plans.
“God bless both of you. I am so happy for you Alberto. I wish your mama was here to see you both getting married,” she’d said with moist eyes.
I am waiting eagerly for Gemma to come back. Why is she taking so long, I think to myself. When she doesn’t return after more than half an hour, my instincts begin to tell me that something’s wrong. I decide to go and check myself.
“Mr. Grazizni, can I help you?” The hostess comes up to me as she sees me getting up.
“Can you please check what is taking my partner so long? She went to the washroom about half an hour ago to get cleaned up and has not returned as yet.” I am beginning to get a little worried.
“Sure sir. I’ll just go and check myself.”
When the hostess returns after about ten minutes, there is a confused look on her face.
“Sir, are you sure she went to the washroom? There is no one there right now.”
“What? How’s that possible?” Something that tells me that Gemma is in trouble.
“Why don’t you call her and check where she is.” Even the hostess looks worried now. Perhaps she is thinking that my girlfriend has ditched me.