by Lori Dillon
Sera tugged at a particularly strong one that seemed determined to remain imbedded in the dirt. It reminded her of David. Somehow, he had managed to weed his way into her life, and now he refused to go, even though by staying he threatened everything dear to her.
“So, how are things at the ruins now that you’re back?”
“We’re making some progress.”
“Ah yes, we. How are you and that handsome young assistant getting along?”
Sera stopped tugging at the weed. What was Maria, a mind reader?
“We’re doing fine.” Liar.
Evidently her conscience wasn’t the only one who could perceive the truth.
“Come now, your face is scrunched up so tight, it looks like you just swallowed a bad olive. What’s going on between you two?”
Sera felt the burden of David’s identity weigh heavily on her conscience. She knew she should never tell—for heaven’s sake, she promised him she wouldn’t only an hour ago—but the newfound knowledge was practically choking her.
But of all the people she knew, Maria was the one she felt she could trust the most.
“If I tell you something, will you promise not to tell a soul, not even Heberto?”
Maria paused in her weeding and looked at Sera with warm, compassionate eyes.
“This sounds serious. Of course.”
“I just found out David is an American.”
“Oh, really? My, isn’t that interesting.” Maria shrugged her thin shoulders and went back to her work.
“Interesting? That’s all? You think it’s interesting?”
“Well, yes,” she commented, without even looking up from her chore. “What else am I supposed to think?”
Was Maria getting senile in her old age? Didn’t she realize what this meant?
“That makes him a spy.”
“A spy,” the old woman whispered. She looked up and grinned at Sera, her eyes like two hard-boiled eggs with big blue yokes. “Now that does sound exciting.”
“It’s not exciting. He’s the enemy. What if someone finds out?”
Maria’s fascinated look turned to one of censure as she cocked a white eyebrow at Sera.
“No one will find out if you don’t tell them.”
Sera ducked her head. She already felt guilty enough telling Maria. The woman didn’t have to rub it in.
“He didn’t tell me. I managed to find out when he spoke English without realizing it. How long do you think it will be before someone else discovers the truth?”
“Well, you’ll just have to make sure no one figures it out when he’s with you.”
What was she suggesting? “You think I should protect him? If I do and it’s discovered, I could be arrested for harboring a spy.”
Maria tossed a handful of weeds into the basket and crawled on her knees to the next section of the garden.
“You’ll do it because you know in your heart it is the right thing to do.”
“No, I don’t.”
“Come now, Serafina. You don’t care about the war any more than I do. Why is this really upsetting you?”
Why? Because the David she had come to care about was now the epitome of everything she hated.
“You know, not every American is your father.”
Sera felt a shiver race down her spine. How did Maria always have the ability to know what she was thinking? She’d been doing it since Sera was a child, and at times like this, it completely unnerved her.
“I know that.”
“Then why are you blaming David for your father’s sins?”
“I’m not.” Liar, her conscience screamed again.
“Yes, you are.”
Would her conscience and Maria please stop ganging up on her?
“It’s just that… he lied to me.”
“No, not really. It sounds to me like he just didn’t tell you.”
“It’s the same thing. He led me, and everyone else, to believe he was Italian.”
“But only because he had to.” Maria wiped her dirty hands on the blanket, lines of contemplation adding to the wrinkles on her face. “What would you have done if he had told you the truth when you first met him?”
“I don’t know.”
Both women stood, and Sera helped Maria fold the blanket.
“Yes, you do. You, my hot-headed Serafina, would have turned him in on the spot. Then he would have been shot at dawn, and you would not have the pleasure of knowing him as you do now.”
“But that’s just it. I don’t know him. Not anymore.”
“Really?” Maria handed Sera the folded blanket and picked up the weed basket. “It seems to me that the only thing that has changed is the young man’s nationality. He’s still the same person he was yesterday.”
“How do I know that? He’s been lying to me all this time. Maybe he’s not at all who he seems to be.”
“Then again, maybe he is. You do like him, don’t you?”
Sera hugged the grass-covered blanket to her chest like a shield, trying desperately to hold her emotions inside.
“Yes.”
“Then trust your heart, and it will show you what to do.”
*
Sera arrived late at the ruins. She knew it was cowardly of her, but she was avoiding David.
Funny how easy it was to refer to him as American David as opposed to the Italian Dah-veed. If that was even his real name. He probably lied about that, too. The hard part now was forgiving him for deceiving her, for risking her career and her life for his own cause.
But Maria was right. Had the situation been reversed, what would David do? After all, he never had to become her friend. He could have gone about his business, done his work at the site, and she probably never would have known.
But he had gone out of his way to be nice to her, even when she didn’t always deserve it. Maybe that’s why the betrayal felt deeper than it should.
As she approached the dig site, her steps faltered. What was she going to say to him? How was she supposed to act?
When she got there, David was standing up on the old stone tower, looking out in the distance as he did several times every day. Only now she knew exactly what he was looking at—the German camp just a hundred yards away.
Her stomach twisted. Maybe Maria was wrong. Maybe she should turn him in. She risked everything if she didn’t. Allied sympathizers didn’t usually live to see a trial.
David must have sensed her presence. Turning, he leaned a broad shoulder against the crumbling wall and gazed down on her from his high perch, casually sticking a blade of dry grass in the corner of his mouth.
“I wasn’t sure if I’d be welcome here this morning.”
She was struck by how fluent his Italian was. His voice sounded so calm, so relaxed. Did he feel half as uneasy as she did? If he did, he hid it well.
“And I wasn’t sure if you’d be here at all,” she replied.
He shrugged and rolled the piece of grass from one side of his mouth to the other.
“I almost didn’t come. I figured instead of you, I’d have the Italian guard waiting with a complimentary blindfold and cigarette.”
“Don’t think I didn’t consider turning you in a half a dozen times last night.”
David jumped down from the wall, startling her, and she took an involuntary step back. Just how dedicated was he to this mission? Did he see her as the threat she saw him? Would he kill her if she got in the way? Was he even now planning a way to silence her forever?
Closing the gap between them in four quick strides, he stood so close she swore he could feel her heart pounding even though he wasn’t touching a single inch of her.
“So, why didn’t you?”
Why did he have to stand so close? She glanced down at his hands hanging loose at his sides. Strong hands that could easily wrap around her neck and squeeze the life out of her before she could utter a sound.
“I promised you I wouldn’t.”
“People break promises all the
time.”
Her eyes shot back to his face. Whether he knew it or not, he’d hit a nerve. She tried to pretend telling Maria didn’t count.
“Not me.”
For a long time he just stared at her. She wondered what secrets he saw, what vulnerability he might sense deep inside and use against her. Regardless, Sera refused to retreat.
“I know.” He spoke in English, his voice so low it was almost a whisper. “That’s why I trusted you enough to come back.”
Now it was her turn to look into his face and search for the truth. His soft brown eyes showed nothing but trust, full and complete. But then again, she’d been wrong about men before.
He tilted his head to the side, and the slight movement blocked out the morning sun in the sky behind him, creating the effect of a glowing halo around his handsome face. But she reminded herself that he was no angel. He was a spy.
She stepped back, needing to put some space between them, and tripped over the forgotten shovel David had thrown in anger yesterday. Her arms spun around, grasping for balance in the air as she felt herself falling. He reached out to grab her, but her feet tangled with his, and they both crashed to the ground.
David raised himself up on his arms above her, concern evident as his eyes flicked over her face.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine, except for the fact that I have a shovel digging into my back, and you weigh a ton on top of me.”
A slow grin crept across his face, the boyish charm he flashed sending her heartbeat into double-time. He reached beneath her and eased the shovel handle out from under the small of her back. After tossing it to the side, he looked back down at her, his upper body hovering over her with his arms braced on either side of her face.
“Better?”
“You’re still on top of me.”
The grin slowly faded. “So I noticed.”
His eyes mesmerized her as they darkened, the pupils dilating to nearly engulf the brown ring encircling them. She couldn’t find the will to look away. He bent his arms, lowering the upper part of his body down onto hers, pressing her into the dirt. He dipped his head, and it took everything in Sera not to lick her lips in anticipation.
Oh, God. He couldn’t possibly want to kiss me. Not here. Not now. Not after everything that’s happened.
“David, no. You shouldn’t. We can’t.”
“I know.” He touched his forehead to hers, his breath falling across her lips like a lover’s kiss. “God, Sera. I tried. I tried so hard to stay away from you. To keep my distance. To not get involved. But I couldn’t. Something always kept drawing me to you. It still does.”
Sera stilled beneath him. What could she say to something like that? How was she supposed to respond?
“I have another confession to make,” he said, his forehead still touching hers. “I lied.”
“What? When?” Now she was more confused than ever. What was he talking about?
“There is no one else. There never was.”
She tried to ignore the hopeful flip of her heart.
“Why did you tell me there was?”
He raised his head and looked her in the eye, his expression full of regret.
“Because I don’t know how long I’m going to be here. My mission will be over soon, and I didn’t want to start something between us that I couldn’t finish. I didn’t want to hurt you.”
“So you lied to me?” Was that supposed to make it easier for her? As if finding herself attracted to a man she couldn’t have—or thought she couldn’t have—was easy.
He squeezed his eyes shut, as if by doing so, it made the truth easier to speak.
“It was stupid, I know. But at the time, it was the only way I could think of to keep some distance between us. To keep me from hurting you.” He sighed heavily and opened his eyes to look at her. “I didn’t want to be like your father.”
Sera’s heart shattered into a thousand pieces and then reformed again. She didn’t think she’d ever seen David so open, so vulnerable.
“Why didn’t you just tell me the truth… about everything?”
His dark eyes pinned her with an intensity that nearly set her on fire.
“Because the truth wouldn’t have stopped me from wanting you. I needed you to not want me.”
She reached up and touched his cheek, feeling the soft stubble beneath her fingertips.
“Oh, David.” Then she repeated the words he spoke to her when he first kissed her in the pit. “How could I not want you?”
Surprise lit his eyes, and then he lowered his head, inch by slow inch, giving her all the time in the world to stop him. She didn’t.
He kissed her, softly at first, just a tender brush of his lips against hers. Her head swam with the feel of him. His unique scent of soap and sun-warmed skin surrounded her. Everything felt so natural, so right.
Her other hand came up, cupping his face and drawing him to her. She returned his kiss, feathering her lips against his. He seemed to hold back until she ran her tongue along his full bottom lip, ripping a primal groan from deep within him. Whatever control he’d had snapped.
He tunneled his arms underneath her and crushed her beneath him, deepening the kiss and taking possession of her mouth with his tongue. It was all-consuming, powerful, and sent her senses into a spinning whirlwind.
His lips left hers to trail down the curve of her neck, and her body warmed to his touch. She heard him inhale deeply, breathing in the scent of her. In that moment, she felt beautiful, cherished, wanted.
His mouth resumed its relentless assault on the tender skin just below her ear, sending tingles shooting through her entire body. She felt the heat of his hand on her waist through the thin cotton of her shirt. His hand rose, burning a gentle trail up her bruised ribs until it cupped her breast. He squeezed her gently, and she arched into his hand.
She heard a strange sound. Did it come from her? Was she actually purring?
His thumb flicked her taut nipple through the fabric, sending a lightning bolt straight to her core, and her hips jerked up off the ground.
“Oh, God! David!”
He moved over her, wedging his knee between her thighs and pressing her down into the dirt with his full weight.
But the fact that he was an American spy came creeping back from the recesses of her mind. With a groan of regret, she turned her head away.
“David, please…”
He didn’t stop. His lips continued to kiss her neck, his warm breath hot on her skin. She couldn’t contain the moan that escaped from deep inside. She couldn’t stop herself from cupping his head in her hands and running her fingers through his hair.
What was she doing? He was a spy—the enemy—and here she was rolling on the ground with him like some wild animal in the field.
She pried open her heavy-lidded eyes, the only part of her that seemed to obey her. For a moment, her vision seemed blurred, then the ground came into focus, and she saw a small hole gouged in the earth where David’s shovel had been.
Sera’s body stiffened, her mind trying to grasp the significance of what she saw.
“Get off me.”
“Hmmm?” David nestled deeper into the curve of her neck, pressing his leg higher between her thighs.
Finding a sudden burst of strength, she pushed against his shoulders, trying to force him from her. “I said get off.”
He didn’t seem to hear. She wiggled, trying to get out from under him, but all that accomplished was to elicit a masculine groan of pleasure.
“Get off!”
He finally seemed to hear her and rolled to the side.
“Sera, what…?”
She didn’t have time to explain. She scrambled out from under him and crawled on her hands and knees to the place where his shovel had pierced the ground. She used her fingers to gently brush away the loose dirt around the hole, revealing a hardened layer of volcanic matter surrounding it.
“Oh, my God.”
David knelt at h
er side, looking from her to the hole and back again.
“What is it?”
She could feel herself trembling.
“I’m not sure, but it could be something incredible.”
He looked again to where her hands framed the small crack in the ground.
“What’s so incredible about a hole?”
“Oh, it’s not just any hole. Look.” She stuck her fingers inside. “It’s hollow.”
“So?”
“It might be a body cavity.”
David looked at the dark hole in the ground and swallowed hard.
“Do you mean to tell me there’s a body in there?”
“Not anymore. Bones would be the only thing left now.” She felt breathless. Her whole body shook with the enormity of what may lay just inches away under her fingertips. “But, if I’m right and this is a body cavity, we can pour plaster into it. Then, once it hardens, we’ll chip the volcanic layer away, and we should be left with a perfect cast of the person at the exact moment of their death.”
David looked at her, understanding dawning in his eyes, but his reaction over the discovery did not match her own.
“Like the plaster child?”
As he recalled the reality of what could lie just below them, Sera’s excitement sobered a bit.
“Exactly.”
He seemed a little pale, and she wondered briefly if the big, brave American spy might faint on her.
She turned her attention to the tiny crack in the ground, and everything else seemed to slip away. Nothing mattered now except this. She felt her spirits soar, as if her soul were trying to float out of her body.
Looking back at David, her heart threatened to beat its way out of her chest.
“Have you ever had one of those days when you know, just as it’s happening, that it’s going to be one of the days you will remember for the rest of your life?”
“Yes.”
“This is one of those days.”
Chapter 19
“Let me see it! Let me see it!”
David looked up in time to see Olympia’s apple-shaped body and pencil thin legs trotting down the ancient road, her beaming smile reaching them long before she did.