“I’m going to fuck you first,” he said. “Then we’ll try something different.”
He unzipped his pants and thrust deep inside her. Elli gasped, and Aldo clamped his hand over her mouth to silence her. It was a hard, quick, thrilling fuck, and they both came quickly.
Elli rammed her legs together as she felt his cum trailing down her leg, but it was such a turn on to play like this, the fear of being caught adding to the fun. Aldo lowered her skirt and turned her to face out of the balcony.
“Now,” he said quietly, moving behind her. “The game is this. I’m going to fuck you from behind, but you must remain as if a statue, so that no one guesses what we are doing. Every time you feel my cock thrust into you, I want you to find a man in the gathering below, gaze at him, and pretend it’s his cock fucking you. Control your orgasm. Concentrate on feeling it entirely in your cunt.”
Elli felt him push up the back of her skirt and part her legs with his hand, caressing her clit from behind. She put her hands flat on the waist-height balcony balustrade to steady herself as Aldo entered her.
“Look at him, or him, or him …” Aldo’s murmur was low and masterful. “All of these men in this room would kill to fuck you, Elliana. Look at them.”
As he fucked her, Elli obeyed his instructions and imagined that some of the good-looking, successful men in the gallery were the ones whose cocks was reaming her so hard. The international property magnate with the red-gold hair, or the sleek, blonde racehorse owner …or Maceo Bartoli …
Elli felt disloyal to Ori, looking at her husband with those thoughts, but Maceo was easily the handsomest man in the room. Aldo thrust harder as he neared his peak and keeping still was getting harder for Elli. She concentrated on Maceo, registering again how much he looked like Indio, and as she neared her peak, she felt Aldo’s hand on her belly, pulling her back into the shadows. He muffled her cry with his mouth. They panted, calming themselves. They tidied up their clothes, grinning at each other.
“That was such a rush,” she whispered, and Aldo grinned, nodding and kissing her again.
“Thank you for helping to fulfill that particular fantasy,” he said, and she laughed.
“It was my pleasure.”
The countdown to midnight was starting, and Elli and Aldo kissed as the clock struck twelve and the cheers went up in the room.
“Happy New Year, Elli, my beautiful one.”
“Happy New Year, handsome.” He kissed her again, long and hard. They were breathless when they broke apart and Elli grinned at him. “Dang, that one kept going.”
Aldo laughed and reached for her hand. “Ready to go down?”
“I must just use the bathroom to freshen up.”
Aldo nodded. “It’s just along this corridor, two lefts, and a right. I’ll meet you back downstairs.
Elli walked along the hallways of the art gallery. There was no one around and her shoes clicked on the marble floor and echoed off the old stone. She found the bathroom where Aldo said it was and went in. She was washing her hands when she had the feeling of being watched again, that same feeling she’d had a while back in the alleyway. She whirled around, but the vast, luxurious bathroom was empty.
What is the matter with me, she started to think, when suddenly the door of the bathroom, partially ajar before, was yanked closed with a slam. Acting on instinct, Elli rushed outside and looked both ways down the hallways., For the briefest second, she saw the back of a tall man rounding the corner. He had dark brown messy curls, and Elli’s heart began to beat heavily against her ribs.
Indio …
She yanked the high heels from her feet and took off after him as fast as her lilac column dress would let her. She pushed through doors, glancing around the rooms, sure he had been watching her. She told herself over and over that it couldn’t be him, and finally, breathless, she slowed and stopped.
This is ridiculous. It’s just paranoia, she reprimanded herself.
Stop. Just stop.
He doesn’t deserve your time, Moretti. He left you. He’s gone, and there’s a gorgeous, sexy man, with whom you’ve just had public sex, waiting for you downstairs.
She turned and retraced her steps back to the bathroom. Just as she was about to descend the stairs, a light breeze carried the scent of a man’s expensive cologne to her. Indio’s favorite. For a second, she breathed it in, eyes closed, then gritting her teeth, she stomped downstairs, almost angry now.
Aldo was chatting to Maceo and Ori as she returned to his side and slipped her hand into his. He smiled down at her and kissed her cheek, scanning her face for a brief second, leaving Elli feeling like he saw everything, even things she hadn’t admitted to herself yet. Then he turned back to the couple, resting his arm securely around her waist. “Here she is.”
“We were just saying, we should all have dinner sometime,” Ori said to Elli, and Elli nodded.
“I would love that.” Maceo, she noticed, didn’t seem as enthusiastic as he had earlier and she wondered if she had done something to offend him. But when they said goodbye later in the evening, he kissed her cheek warmly.
“If you or your magazine ever need any artistic spaces or anything, please let me know. It would be great to work with you.”
Elli smiled at him. “That sounds like a great idea. How about we talk around mid-January?”
“Great. Happy New Year.” He handed her a card, and they said goodbye.
In the car on the way back to Elli’s apartment, Elli leaned her head on Aldo’s shoulder. “I’m glad we’re staying in the city tonight.”
“You don’t like our house?”
She chuckled. “Your house, and of course I do. It’s just my place is closer, and I’m feeling very, very horny right now.”
Aldo laughed. “Well, that’s just about the best news a man could hear.”
She kissed his jawline as he drove to the parking garage nearest to her apartment. Walking hand-in-hand back to her place, Elli looked up at him. “Aldo?”
“Yes, baby?”
“Feel like getting kinky tonight?”
Aldo grinned. “Always. What were you thinking?”
Elli hesitated. “I’d like to try the blindfold thing again. I think it would teach me to trust better.”
He nodded. “We could do that. We could play some games.”
In bed with her a short while later, he wound his tie around her eyes. “Can you see?”
“No,” she grumbled. “And it’s torture knowing you’re naked and I can’t see you.”
Aldo laughed. “And you won’t be able to touch me either. I’m going to tie your hands behind your back, beautiful.”
“You are?”
“Yep. On your stomach, Moretti.”
Elli laughed and obeyed, and Aldo bound her hands, tucking them into the small of her back as he rolled her onto her back again. Elli wriggled, smiling.
“You like that, huh?”
She laughed. “Surprisingly, yes. Now, tell me about this game.”
“Well, you see this beautiful, soft belly of yours?” He ran a finger down her stomach, and she sighed happily. “Well, we’re going to play a game of guess. I’m going to stroke various objects down it, and you have to guess what they are.”
“Are all these objects attached to you?”
“Some of them will be.” They were both laughing now, “Some I will have culled from your place.”
Elli giggled. “And what is the purpose?”
“Apart from me spending quality time with your gorgeous abs? Well, here’s the game. If you guess six or more right, you win, and I go down on you like I never have before. Get four or fewer, and you suck my dick and let me come into your sweet mouth.”
“Dirty boy.” But she was getting wet at the thought. “And if I get five correct?”
“Subtract one from seventy.”
Elli laughed. “Oh, you are so on, Mr. Constanza.”
She heard Aldo go back to the kitchen, then the living room. “I’m n
ot trying to sway you, but you might want to look in my nightstand.”
She heard him come back into the bedroom, the drawer of her nightstand opening. “Oh, ho ho,” he said with a chuckle. “You’ve been holding out on me, you little minx.” She heard the buzz of her vibrator, then jumped as Aldo touched it to her clit. “I have to say I’m relieved my only competition comes with batteries.”
Elli smiled. She felt Aldo climb onto the bed, then his fingers stroking her belly. “Too easy. That’s your hand.”
“Did I say I had started? I was just preparing the playing field.”
Elli started to giggle now, both with amusement and nervous anticipation. She felt him kiss her belly, then run his tongue around her navel.
“Okay, my beautiful Elli, what’s this?”
She felt something cold, very cold, circle her navel. “Ice cube?”
“An easy one to start.” He traced the ice around her belly, then to her nipples. Elli moaned at the sweet pain of the ice. Aldo chuckled softly, stroking it down her body and into her sex. Elli shifted, wriggling with pleasure, and when she felt Aldo’s mouth on her nipple, cold from the ice cube, she gasped a little and arched her back to meet his lips. He teased her nipples with the ice cube until it melted, then kissed her mouth. “You taste like heaven, Elli. Next item.”
A soft, ticklish thing, a feather, was next. Aldo traced it around her belly, then up and down her body as his other hand massaged her clit. Elli, enjoying the game and getting more aroused, guess the next three items as –well—a crystal ornament Vivienne had brought her from Paris, the edge of a wooden box from her desk, and the cold metal of her fountain pen.
Aldo kissed her. “You have five correct already, baby.”
“We could just stop here and suck each other,” she said, but Aldo laughed.
“No way …this is too much fun. Next one.”
Elli felt something cold and metallic touch her skin. At first thin, like a needle, and then flat against her skin …like a knife? Elli’s blood ran cold, and for a second she couldn’t breathe.
“A knife?” she said hesitantly. She heard Aldo’s sharp intake of breath.
“Of course not, Elli. What do you think I am? It was my watch.”
“I’m sorry, Aldo. I wasn’t accusing you of anything. Some people like knife play. I’m just not one of them.”
“Me neither, Elli, especially after what happened to …” his voice choked off and Elli felt terrible. She couldn’t reach out to comfort him, her hands still bound behind her.
“God, Aldo, I’m sorry. I was insensitive. Please, let me up so I can hug you.”
“No. It’s okay. I understand why you would have guessed that. Let’s just put it down as a wrong guess. Next one.”
It was hard, but soft at the tip against her skin, almost silky. Elli, trying to cheer him up, smiling at him. “Is that your incredible cock?”
Aldo laughed and pushed her blindfold off. Elli blinked to see him tracing his cock around her navel. “Correct. Which means you win, beautiful. Now …” He shifted down the bed and hooked her legs over his shoulders. “Hold on tight, little one.” He grinned up at her, and Elli could see no lingering anger or hurt in his eyes. Aldo buried his face in her sex, and she sighed as she felt his tongue twist around her clit until it was hypersensitive, then he plunged his tongue deep into her cunt, almost violently, until she was screaming his name and begging him never to stop.
Afterward, they fucked until dawn and fell asleep together, lips almost touching, Aldo’s big arm locked around her waist. To Elli’s great relief, the nightmares didn’t make another appearance, and when she woke in the morning, she felt rested and safe.
In the shower, she took him in her mouth and milked him until he was groaning and coming into her mouth. He lifted her afterward and took her against the shower wall, his big frame almost filling the tiny cubicle.
While Elli dressed, Aldo went out to buy fresh, soft rolls for their breakfast. He returned as she was brewing some fresh coffee. He held out a newspaper to her, and she took it, registering the anger on his face. “What is it?”
“Page eleven,” he said shortly. She opened the paper and saw the picture of them leaving the art gallery the previous night. Aldo was kissing her. She looked up at him. “So, we’ve gone public.”
“That’s not the problem. Read the article.”
Elli looked down and began to read. “What the fuck?” The article, far from just outing them as a couple, ripped into Elli’s journalistic integrity over dating a subject of an interview and called into question whether it had been a legitimate article or a puff piece designed to sell her ‘boyfriend’s’ business to the masses. There was no identification of the writer in the piece.
“Ms. Moretti seems preoccupied with Mr. Constanza’s physical attributes far more than whether his philanthropy is genuine or masks a man whose ruthless business acumen means he leaves few survivors in his wake. But what strikes me most is this—since when has Il Mondo Italia been what amounts to a gossip magazine pandering to the elite? Since Ms. Moretti needed to get her rocks off, it seems. It is a sad downturn in the quality of a previously exemplary investigative magazine. Ms. Moretti, you should be ashamed.”
Elli’s hurt, and anger rose to the surface and she threw the paper on the table. “Fuck.” She tried to keep the tears from welling in her eyes. She’d had bad reviews before. Of course she had—it was part of being a writer, but this was one step away from calling her a whore. She slumped into a chair and covered her face. Aldo stroked her arm.
“None of that is true. You know that, right?”
She nodded, but it didn’t make her feel better. Being called a whore in public wasn’t the way she wanted to start her New Year, but she knew that responding would only make it worse. Her cell phone rang and she saw it was Viv calling.
“I may be about to be fired,” she said to Aldo, who shook his head. Elli answered the call. “Hey, Viv, guess you saw the article.”
“Yes, I did.” Vivienne sounded mad, “And when I get my hands on the writer of it, he’ll wish he’d never been born.”
“I’m sorry, Viv. I really am.”
“You haven’t done anything wrong, Elli. This article is completely unjustified, and what’s more, false in every way. I can’t believe the editor let it get through.”
Elli sighed, somewhat relieved. “Look, I’m coming in to work. We can talk about it in greater depth and consider how we might respond.”
“Are you sure? What about what the doctor said?” Vivienne asked.
“That was days ago. I’m fine. See you soon.”
Elli put her phone back on the table. “Well, I guess the vacation is over.”
Aldo leaned over and stroked her cheek. “Don’t worry about this joker. Look, I’ll walk you to work, but then I have to go away for a few days for work. Will you be okay?”
Elli was surprised. “You’re going away?”
“Yes. Is it a problem?”
“You haven’t mentioned it before is all. Where are you going?”
“New York. I’m sorry. I thought I had.”
She shook her head. “But then again, there’s no reason you should have to run anything past me, so don’t worry about it.”
“You sure, Bella? You look a little annoyed.”
She shook her head, but the truth was, she was a little scared. This business trip seemed to come out of nowhere and she wondered if Aldo thought a little distance between them would be a good thing after the article.
Aldo was watching her, and as she got up, he pulled her onto his lap. “Whatever it is you’re thinking right now isn’t what’s happening. It’s just a short trip, and if I didn’t know you had work, I would have invited you to come with me. “
Elli leaned into him, already missing him. “I know. I’m sorry.”
At work, after Aldo had kissed her goodbye and promised to heat her bed with his phone call later that night, Elli went to see Vivienne, who hugged her, th
en asked her to shut the door behind her and sit down. “I called the editor of this rag.” She waved the offending newspaper in the air, still mad. “The article wasn’t from one of his own people, rather an anonymous submission. He thought it made good points—which, by the way, it doesn’t—and put it in. Elli, did you piss this guy off at all?”
Elli thought back, then shook her head. “I don’t think so. But then that paper has never liked magazines like ours—we’re too ‘elite’ or ‘left wing.'”
Vivienne still looked unhappy. “Smearing one of my employees is not something I’m willing to let go, Els.”
“Fair enough, but if we engage with them, it’s like saying their opinion is worth something. I hate to say it, but let’s just leave it alone. I’ll just have to make sure that my future articles are …”
“As good as they always have been,” Vivienne said, a little forcefully. “Do not let this asshole make you feel as though you’re not talented. You were born to do this, Elli, and you know it.”
“Thanks.” Elli got up. “I’m going to distract myself with some work. I’m fine,” she emphasized, before Vivienne could check up on her yet again. “Sitting around at home won’t do me any good.”
As promised, she immersed herself in her work. It felt good to be back in her office, calling some of the shots in her life. She did some general research on some pending pieces, then called Maceo Bartoli and set up a meeting with him to discuss working together. “I’d love it if we worked on something that was both investigative and beautiful to look at,” Elli told Maceo. “If we could do something actually in your own gallery—I’ve heard it’s a beautiful space.”
Maceo laughed a deep, sexy chuckle. “You should come have lunch with Ori and me sometime and have a good look around. Then you’ll see it’s chaotic and frenzied, but. yes, I adore it. We’ve managed to build it up over the last few years so that we have a family atmosphere. You would enjoy it.”
Elli smiled down the phone. “I would love that.” They set a date for the following week, and Elli said goodbye, feeling a lot happier. She also got a message from her colleagues, supporting her after reading the article. A couple of journalists from local T.V. reached out to her, but she politely turned down their requests for interviews. “I’m not the story,” she told them, wishing she could go back to the relative obscurity she had known a few weeks ago.
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