“But,” she smiled to soften the blow. “For years now, there has been someone who I have been …preoccupied with. My brother’s best friend. As you know, I saw him at the party, and since then, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about ‘what might have been.' I need closure. I need closure so that I can finally put him behind me and give myself entirely to you.”
Aldo was studying her. “Why haven’t you told me this before?”
Elli chewed her lip. “Right now, I can’t tell you. I suppose I never thought this would be an issue. I’m going to see him, to talk things over, to put it to rest.”
Aldo was silent for a long moment, his big body tense. He looked at her. “Elli, you have to do what you think is right. Go see him, seek the closure. Then come back and tell me if you want me. Whatever happens when you see him stays there. Whatever happens.”
Eli was a little shocked. “Aldo, I’m not going to do anything but talk to him.”
He looked at her a little sadly. “Are you sure?”
No. “Of course I am.” She leaned forward and kissed him, trying to ease some of that tension; it was a little frightening, seeing his huge, muscled body so tense. Elli realized he could easily break her in two without even trying.
Why would you think that right now? She shook her head and wrapped her arms around Aldo’s neck. “Take me to bed, Aldo. Let me show you how much you mean to me.”
He pulled her roughly into his arms, kissing her fiercely, and rolling her under him on the couch. He pushed up her skirt and ripped her panties away, Elli gasping as the cotton snapped against her skin. Aldo was rock-hard as she freed his cock from his pants, and then he was driving his cock into her, hard and mercilessly. Elli gasped at the violence of it, but was turned on by his lust. She clung to him as he fucked her, ramming his hips against hers. then pinning her hands above her head. His eyes seemed to darken from hazel-green to dark brown as they bore into hers, his face almost angry.
Elli arched her back as she came, and Aldo withdrew, moving down her body, biting at her breasts and belly, then clamping to her sex and teasing her clit until she was almost weeping with desire. Then his cock was back inside her, punishing her, slamming into her with such force the couch was moving. Finally, Aldo came hard, groaning her name again and again and pumping thick, creamy semen deep into her cunt.
“God, I love you. I love you,” he said, burying his face in her neck. “Don’t ever leave me. Please don’t leave me …if you do, I’ll …god, I love you, Elli, Elli, Elli …”
Eli held him in her arms, shocked at the emotion he was displaying—the vulnerability. How could she think of Indio when this man in her arms loved her and needed her so entirely?
And yet …when she fell asleep that night, it was Indio poised above her, his cock driving her toward orgasm, his face masked. And when she came, he stabbed her again and again before tearing off his mask and telling her loved her as he watched her die. This time, when Elli woke crying from the nightmare, she stayed very silent, making sure not to wake Aldo.
The nightmare was still fresh in her mind as she drove the rental car out to Indio’s farmhouse. She parked way down the hill and walked the rest of the way, not wanting to give away her presence just yet. As she approached the farmhouse, a little ramshackle but rustic and charming nevertheless, she heard hammering out in one of the workshops to the side of the main building.
Nervously, she smoothed the skirt of her lilac dress, worn deliberately because she knew it was Indio’s favorite color, then walked to the door of the workshop. It was open slightly and she peeked in.
Indio, dressed just in shorts, was hammering nails into a table he’d obviously built. The ferocity with which he banged the hammer down was daunting. An unlit cigarette hung out of the corner of his mouth, three days of beard on his face. His hair was as wild as she remembered, not tidied for a party, with long curls and waves in a shock about his head. His thick eyebrows shaded those incredible green eyes of his, his brow furrowed both in concentration and anger.
Elli watched him for a few minutes, all that feral beauty and rage. His body wasn’t sculpted from working out, but rather from working with his hands—muscled arms, taut chest, flexed back, and a flat belly. He once was, and still remained Elli realized, the handsomest man she’d ever seen. Yes, even more so than Aldo, she thought guiltily. No one could touch what Indio did to her, just by being a few feet away.
She suddenly smelled cigarette smoke and opened her eyes. Indio stood, gazing at her, his expression unreadable. Frozen momentarily by that intense gaze straight out of her darkest memories, Elli mustered up her courage and cautiously stepped into the workshop.
“Hello, Indio.” They were the first words she’d spoken to him in years and they didn’t come close to saying anything of value. But he was watching her … watching her … and she couldn’t find the breath to form more words, suddenly.
Silence. Indio dragged a long toke on his cigarette, still gazing at her. Finally, he spoke. “Hello, Elli.”
Oh, dear god, that voice. All chocolate and raspy and low—sexy didn’t begin to cover it. Elli stepped toward him, her eyes searching his.
“How have you been?”
God, how lame. Indio didn’t answer her at first, then he looked away. “You shouldn’t be here.”
Ouch. Elli tried again. “Indio …it’s been years. Can we talk?”
“About what?”
About how much I fucking love you, you asshole. Elli felt tears spring into her eyes and pressed her palms to her thighs to keep from reaching out physically to him. “Indio …please.”
“Whatever it is you want, Elli, I can’t give you. It would be …dangerous for you and I won’t have that. And if you had any sense you would realize that Aldo Constanza is dangerous for you too.”
Elli stood her ground. “I’m a big girl, Indio. I can make my own decisions.”
Indio gave a mirthless laugh. “And your decision was to come here today and what? What is it you want, Elli?”
Elli drew in a breath and decided to go with the plain truth. “You, Indio. I want you.”
Indio dropped his cigarette on the ground and crushed it out. “You want me? How? How do you want me?”
Elli was trembling, but she was too far gone now. “With me. Inside me. I love you, Indio. I’ve always loved you.”
In two steps, he was with her, crushing his lips against hers. Elli gasped at the ferocity of his kiss, and when he pulled away, the desire and anger in his eyes. “You want me inside you?”
She nodded, everything and everyone out flying out of her mind as Indio pushed her skirt up and tore her panties from her. Her hands moved as with a mind of their own, cupping his hard-on, then freeing it and touching it at last, the silky skin belying the diamond-hard muscle beneath.
And then he was inside her and Elli sighed with the release of eight years of tension. His mouth was on hers again as they fucked, Indio forcing her back against the rough stone wall. Sharp stones dug into her back but she couldn’t have cared less about the pain. Indio, her Indio, was in her arms, his green eyes fixed on hers, his cock, huge and thick, driving her on to the most sublime orgasm of her life.
“I love you. I love you,” she whispered over and over, crying with happiness, and when he tumbled her to the dusty floor and fucked her again, Elli knew that this was where she wanted to be. As Indio came, he groaned her name and came long and hard. Elli didn’t want him to pull out, but he did, rolling away from her and putting his head in his hands. Elli reached for him, but he ducked away.
“Go. You need to go, Elli. Now. And don’t come back. Please trust me in this. If you stay, you’ll be in danger. Please …”
“Indio …”
“Go!” He roared and stood, hauling her to her feet and marching her to the door. “You got what you wanted. Go!”
Elli was shocked to her core. “No, Indio, please don’t …”
He tried to shove her out of the door, then seemed to realize how
violent he was being and let her go. He leaned his forehead against hers, his eyes squeezed shut.
“Please, Elli …please go. I can’t do this.”
Tears poured down Elli’s cheeks—how could she have gone from heaven to hell in a few seconds? “Please don’t send me away …I love you so much, Indio. I always have …”
Indio’s face creased in pain and he wouldn’t look at her. “I can’t be with you. Not when …he’s around. You’re not safe.”
Somehow his words got through to her, and as she wiped her face from her tears, she asked the question she didn’t want to know the answer to. “Indio, it’s not true …please tell me it’s not true …tell me you didn’t kill Yvetta ...did you kill Yvetta?”
For a long moment, Indio squeezed his eyes shut, then, with haunted eyes, he gazed at her. “Yes,” he said simply and closed the door in her face.
Hollowed out and empty, Elli drove straight to Aldo’s home, not really registering where she was going. She found him in his study, working. He looked up and smiled, but Elli didn’t return the expression.
He stood and reached for her, but she backed away. Indio’s scent was still on her. She could still feel his arms around her and see the despair in his green eyes as he shoved her bodily away, shouting. “Aldo …did Indio Navaro build this house for you?”
She saw his shoulders slump. “Yes.”
“And did he and Yvetta have an affair?”
Aldo nodded, his eyes wary. “And then he murdered her. In this house. In your bedroom. Where we make love. Is that correct?”
Again, Aldo nodded. “Elli, I’m sorry. I didn’t know you knew him.”
“I went to see him this afternoon and I fucked him.” Elli felt dead inside, but she was still shaken by the look of hurt in Aldo’s eyes.
Aldo drew in a deep breath and took a step back. “I did say what happens there, stays there.” He rubbed his hand over his eyes. “But, damn, Elli. Why did you have to tell me?”
“Because you would have wondered and I want to be honest with you. If you want me to go, just say. I never wanted to hurt you, Aldo, but I can see that’s what I have done. I cheated and I’m sorry.”
Aldo shook his head, sitting down heavily on the couch. For once, Elli didn’t feel like she could sit beside him. “No. I said you were to do what your heart told you to. I don’t count that as cheating.”
“He told me he killed Yvetta.”
Aldo’s eyebrows shot up. “He confessed to it?”
Elli nodded. “Aldo, why didn’t you have him arrested?”
“You sound angry at him.”
“Please answer my question.”
Aldo sighed. “Because there was no evidence that he had done it, apart from their affair. The police questioned him, but for some reason, he was released without charge. I have no doubt he stabbed Yvetta to death.”
He got up then and came to her, and Elli let him pull her into his arms. It felt right … and yet so wrong. “He’s a dangerous, sick man, Elli. When I think of you alone with him—god.”
Elli wanted to protest, to tell Aldo that Indio would never hurt her, but inside, she didn’t believe it herself. Indio was so changed. So angry. She stood in Aldo’s arms for a long time before Aldo made her look at him.
“Just tell me. Do you love me?”
Elli nodded. “Yes, Aldo, I love you.”
“Do you love him?”
She hesitated, then nodded again. “I’m sorry, but, yes, I do. I’m trying not to.”
Aldo stroked a finger down her cheek. “I know. I know.” He sighed, and Elli watched as a million emotions went over his face.
“Aldo, if you wanted to end things with me, I wouldn’t blame you.”
“God, no,” he breathed. “That would kill me, Elli. Just kill me. Elli, you have no idea how much you mean to me. I want to be with you forever. I was hoping your …obsession …with Indio would be dampened by meeting with him, but I can live with it.”
“I’m not obsessed,” Elli said, a little stung. “Indio and I just have history.”
Aldo gave her a soft smile. “Was he your first?”
Elli shook her head. “No, it was more than sex, it was …” She struggled for a moment. “We didn’t have sex at all. We were just very, very close friends. Indio was my brother’s best friend. That part I didn’t lie about. But I fell in love with him—completely. He was my world. Then something happened between him and my brother and he went away.”
“You were heartbroken.”
“Yes. And it didn’t start to heal until I met you, Aldo, and that is the truth.”
Aldo leaned over and pressed his lips against hers, apparently not caring that she’d been kissing Indio only minutes back. But Elli cared. Indio’s lips were so different. Aldo’s lips held a kind of despair of their own, though, she realized as he kissed her hard again and then pulled back. “Elli …we’ve both made mistakes. Maybe your brother discovered Indio’s true nature. I don’t know. But, god, Elli, please, don’t go near him again. For your own safety. I couldn’t bear it if he hurt you. I still see the blood on Yvetta’s dress …there were so many stab wounds, the medical examiner had to check and recheck he’d counted right. He gutted her. Indio Navarro gutted Yvetta because she wouldn’t leave me. If he were to do the same to you …” Aldo dropped his head in his hands and gave a sob, and Elli wrapped her arms around him.
“He won’t, Aldo. I swear. It’s over now. I have closure.”
Elli wondered just how many times she would have to tell herself that before she believed it.
A bottle of scotch and two packs of cigarettes, both now empty, lay on the ground next to Indio. He sat back against the stone wall surrounding his property, staring into the inky black night. He was aware that it was still winter and that the temperature had dropped to just above freezing, but he didn’t care. He felt as if he had been hit by a sledgehammer, worse than when he’d seen Elli weeks back, dressed in lilac at the party.
Turning around and suddenly seeing his Elli Bella, his best friend’s little sister, looking more beautiful than he had ever dreamed, he’d been torn between storming over to her and running away. She was staring at him in that same way she had the last time they had seen each other, when she had told him she loved him and he had wanted so desperately to tell her that she was the love of his life, the one person he would never hurt and yet …he had done just that. That day he had broken not just his heart, but hers too, and he would never forgive himself.
Two steps, a voice told him. She’s two steps away. Go to her, kiss her, tell her you’re sorry, and never, ever let her go. Ever.
He had taken one step and then seen a man take Elli’s arm. The spell was broken. Indio had felt another sledgehammer, this time one filled with hatred and loathing.
Aldo Constanza.
You bastard. No, you don’t get to love her. You don’t get to touch my Elli.
But by the way Aldo was behaving, there had obviously been something more than friendship between them. He’d watched Aldo bend down and kiss her perfect mouth, then Elli’s shocked look of dismay as she looked back at Indio to see if he had seen it.
He had. And he had fled.
Indio rocked his head back against the stone wall, welcoming the light thud of pain.
Elli. His Elli Bella had come here, and finally, after all these years, he had felt joy. Her beautiful smile, the feel of her lips against his, and the way her body curved into his as he made love to her. No.
That wasn’t making love—it was the desperate fucking of a man who couldn’t be with the woman he loved. That wasn’t the tender lovemaking he’d dreamed about for years, that was the only comfort in his solitary world. He’d imagined the first time he and Elli would have sex to be a relaxed, fun time together, laughing just like they had in the old days. He had lived for the moments when the shy, young girl would come to see him. Enzo would roll his eyes and make himself scarce, and Elli would snuggle under the blanket with Indio to watch old movi
es. They had never even kissed until that terrible day when he’d gone away.
He knew she was in love with him, of course, because he felt the same way. He was done. He had the girl of his dreams and he was done. Elli was his entire world; there wasn’t one cell in his body that doubted they would be together forever.
Then Enzo’s girlfriend, Imelda, for whatever reason, had accused Indio of assaulting her. Indio denied it vehemently, but the damage to his and Enzo’s friendship was fatal, even if Indio could see that Enzo didn’t believe his girlfriend. He and Imelda had broken up anyway and Indio had been banished. There was no way Enzo would let him near Elli, regardless of his innocence. Indio had begged him not to send him away, but Enzo wouldn’t bend.
And so, Indio exiled himself. For years he worked everywhere else but Italy. He settled in Seattle for a time, making friends, but then he met Yvetta and his world fell apart.
Indio pulled himself to his feet and shuffled into the house, falling fully clothed onto his bed. If he died right there, he couldn’t have cared less …except Elli was in trouble. Real, bad, desperate trouble, and he didn’t know if she knew it.
The terrifying thing, Indio thought as he gave into drunken unconsciousness, was that he didn’t know if he could save her—or if he would end up causing her a long, painful death.
Two months. Elli counted the days since she had seen Indio—touched him, kissed him, fucked him—and knew she shouldn’t torture herself. Things with Aldo had been steady, but now he wanted more from her. It had started with him insisting she join him for a business trip to America. Elli had arranged the time off from work, apologetically, as she knew they were busy.
Vivienne had taken her aside. “I’m worried about you, Els. You’re too pale and you’ve lost a ton of weight.”
“I’m good, honest.” Elli hadn’t told Viv about seeing—and sleeping with—Indio. She couldn’t bear to say his name aloud, not even to her close friend.
“Darling, Aldo isn’t being too controlling, is he? I’ve noticed. Lately, he’s around more, telling you what to do …”
Her Dark Melody Page 26