Tandy shook her head. “No, just 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 shrugged. “Maybe it was already booked. It was a last-minute trip.”
“Yeah, maybe. Anyway, I’m getting off the topic. You’ve probably heard this a million times from Viv, Elli, but …”
“Indio is history. Concentrate on the sexy man in your life now. Yeah, and I know you’re both right. I am trying.”
Tandy scooched down in the bed and tucked her arm around Elli. “Good. Now let’s get some sleep, or you’ll look like shit in the morning.”
“So will you, bitch,” Elli laughed.
“Not possible. Go to sleep.”
When her friend left for India on Thursday morning, Elli hugged her tightly. “Please come back soon. I miss you too much.”
Tandy got a little choked, but hid it with her usual bravado. “Don’t get all mushy. I’ll be back before Christmas.”
“Too long,” Elli grumbled, but waved her goodbye at the gate and headed to the taxi stand.
She caught a cab back into the city and went straight to work. It was still early, six-thirty a.m., and the office was empty as Elli sat down and flicked on her computer. She filled the coffee pot as she waiting for her ancient laptop to boot up, then wondered if she should grab some pastries for breakfast. She patted her flat belly—she could do with gaining a couple of pounds, she thought. She had lost weight lately, mostly due to the Olympic sex she’d been having.
She decided to go down to the nearest bakery, a couple of streets away. Venice was just coming to life in the dark January morning, but there were few people around. The bakery was just opening, and Elli bought a couple of breakfast rolls and some pastries for her colleagues when they got into the office.
She was almost back, walking down the short street that led to the magazine’s back entrance, when it happened. Suddenly, she felt someone slam into her from behind, knocking her flat against a stone wall. Elli cracked her head hard against the stone—the feeling was disturbingly familiar—but couldn’t scream before her attacker knocked her to the ground and landed a vicious kick to her stomach. Elli tried to curl up in a ball, pain ripping through her, too shocked to cry out or fight back, but her attacker straddled her, his face obscured by a black mask, and reached into his pocket for a knife.
Oh, god, no …
“Please, don’t.”
As he raised the blade to drive it into her, there was a shout. Elli heard footsteps running towards them. Her attacker took off, and Elli struggled into a sitting position on the ice-cold ground. Two young men helped her up, peering worriedly at her. “Are you okay, signorina?”
She nodded, shell-shocked, and touched her forehead, but there was no blood. Thank god.
“Tomas, you take her to the hospital while I get the polizzia,” the taller of the two men said, starting down the street already.
Elli’s hand shot out and grabbed him by the back of the sweater. “No!”
He stopped and both men looked at her, confused and concerned. “I’m fine,” she assured them. “My office is right here. I’ll go in and … get help there.”
With her rescuers staring unhappily after her, she walked slowly to her office and went in. It was still empty and she went to the little bathroom to clean her face of dirt. There was a small bump that she knew would bruise badly, but otherwise, aching stomach muscles apart, she was unhurt. But he had been about to kill her …or had he? Something was bugging her about the whole attack—more than just the fact that her life had been threatened. The thing was …it just didn’t seem like whoever it was had his heart in it. Even though the men had interrupted them, he would still have had time to stick the blade into her and then run. So what the hell? Not to mention, why?
She poured herself some coffee and sat at her desk, opening her emails. Working methodically, gradually distracting herself from the earlier fear, she opened another message without looking at the sender and suddenly there were photographs of her, taken that morning as she walked to the bakery.
Elli stared at the shots, gritting her teeth as she scrolled through the extensive footage of her small excursion. But it was the last photograph that made her gasp. It wasn’t a photograph of her; it was a beautiful, dark-haired woman in a pristine white wedding dress—pristine except for the blood spattered across it and the knife wounds in the bodice of the dress.
Yvetta.
“Oh my god.” Elli was trembling. Suddenly it all became clearer to her. This wasn’t about her or Indio—it was about Aldo. Someone was threatening to kill her to torture him. She grabbed her cell phone and called him, knowing it was after midnight in New York. She texted him, Aldo, baby, we have to talk. Please call me back when you can.
She’d barely hung up the phone when Aldo called her back, and after she quickly explained, his answer was definitive. “I’m coming back to you, Elliana. Do not even think to argue. No business trip is worth more than your safety. Umberto will pick you up from work and take you back to your apartment.” His tone softened then, likely knowing she didn’t respond well to orders. “Please, Elli, for me, pack your stuff. I want you safe in our home for as long as this psychopath is at large.”
Elli hated the idea of being cooped up in an ivory tower, but she had to admit she was frightened. “Okay. Okay, Aldo, just until it’s over.”
Umberto, Aldo’s sweet driver, gave her a grin as she walked outside the office to meet him. “Good afternoon, Miss Moretti.”
“Call me Elli, won’t you?” She got into the front with him, obviously something he wasn’t used to. She grinned at him. “Umberto, I’m just a normal girl. Unless Aldo is with me, count on me riding up front with you.”
She chatted with him as normally as she could, trying to distract herself from what was happening—circumstances forcing her to live with a man when she knew in her heart she wasn’t ready.
She packed two suitcases, not wanting to have to keep coming back here, and Umberto took them down to the car for her. Elli looked around her apartment, wondering with sadness when she’d be back. She went to the window to look out over the Lagoon at twilight, seeing the lights of the city come on. A movement caught her eye below on the street and she froze. He was looking up at her, half hidden in shadow, and as she met his gaze, he moved back into the darkness and was gone. But she knew that gaze. It haunted her nightmares, and often, also her days.
Her heart thumping painfully against her ribs, Elli dashed down the stairs and out onto the street, ignoring Umberto’s shocked face as she blitzed past him. Running down the alleyway to the street behind her home, she searched and searched, her hysteria bubbling higher and higher with each corner she turned without an answer. Finally, when it was clear there was no one to be found, she screamed out over the dark waters of the lagoon.
“Indio!” All her hurt, her rage, and her love was in that scream, and as she ran out of oxygen, she felt a hand on her back. Jumping away in sudden terror, she realized it was Umberto, looking at her with confused compassion. Leaning back into him, she began to sob as he guided her toward the car.
On the drive back to Aldo’s house, Elli managed to pull herself back together and looked sheepishly at Umberto. “You must think I’m a mad woman, Umberto.”
He shook his head. “It is not my business, Ms. Moretti.”
“Elli.”
“Elli, it is not for me to judge anyone else.”
“You’re very kind …could I ask you to not mention my little freak out to Aldo?”
Umberto glanced briefly at her, a smile on his face. “What freak out?”
Elli relaxed and smiled. “You’re the best, Umberto.”
“Elli, you have a friend in me. I would never reveal anything told to me in confidence, by anyone, by Mr. C
onstanza, or by yourself. I would not keep my job long if I could not keep my mouth shut. But you have a friend in me.”
Elli chewed her lip, wondering if she should ask the question she was dying to know. “Does that apply to Yvetta? Can I ask you if you knew her?”
Umberto’s smile faded. “It was before my time, Elli. And the staff, they never talk about what happened. You know she was killed in Mr. Constanza’s bedroom?”
Elli felt a shock of ice in her veins. The room where she, Elli, had sex with Aldo? That room? “The same bedroom he has now?”
Umberto nodded. “Between us, the staff has always thought it strange, but no one has the courage to ask Mr. Constanza why he stays in the room where so much violence took place.”
Elli was silent for a while, staring out at the Italian countryside. She was trying to think of all the reasons why Aldo would still sleep in that room—especially now, with her. If he was keeping it as a memory of Yvetta, she felt uncomfortable sleeping and having sex in there. Maybe he just doesn’t want to admit what happened there. Maybe he thinks by loving me, he can erase the hurt. In that case, she would go along with it and help him heal the wound. Both of them had lost their great loves. Maybe it was time they both moved on …with each other. Elli was surprised how happy that made her feel.
She made sure Aldo knew exactly how she felt when he arrived home that night. Curving her body, clad in a dark red dress, her hair loose and flowing down her back, around him, she pressed her lips on his fiercely. Aldo looked delighted and swept her up into his arms.
“God, I missed you, beautiful girl.”
“I missed you too,” she said, stroking his face. “I love you, Aldo.”
She was astonished at seeing his eyes fill with tears, and only then did she know the depth of his feelings for her. He leaned his forehead against hers, closing his eyes, and she felt his tears on her cheeks. For a moment, they just stood there, then Aldo pressed his lips to hers. “If you only knew how happy you just made me, Elliana.”
“You make me happy, Aldo.” At least that was true, she thought, guilty now that she’d said she loved him. It was partially true; she did love him. She just wasn’t sure yet she was in love with him. But her not saying it to him was beginning to get awkward, and after the events of the day, Elli had thought, what the hell? She was glad she had made him happy and that was enough.
She smoothed his short hair. He looked fatigued as they walked into the house. “Darling, I can walk,” she said with a smile. “You look exhausted.”
He put her on her feet and chuckled. “I am tired, I have to admit.”
“Hungry?”
“A little.”
Elli took his hand. “Come. I’ll fix you something to eat, then you can go to bed.”
“We can go to bed.” Aldo grinned wickedly, and Elli laughed, pulling him along.
“Ambitious, given you’re half asleep now, but I’m in.”
She made him some soup, then took him to bed. Aldo lay on the bed as she undressed him, then complained when she got off the bed. “Where are you going?”
Elli grinned. “Just over here. Gonna do a little striptease for my man.”
Aldo smiled and nodded. “Then please continue. That dress is sexy as hell, by the way. You should always be in red.”
She looked over her shoulder at him as she unzipped the back of it. “You think?”
Aldo, grinning, his cock already hard, nodded. “Hell, yes. Bathed in scarlet. Always.”
“Kinky.” The dress slithered down her body to the floor and she was naked underneath, except for the delicate white-gold body chain he had given her. Grinning, she crawled on top of him and kissed him. “You just lie back and let me do all the work.”
Aldo chuckled. “Whatever you say, ma’am.”
Elli moved down his body and took his cock into her mouth, sweeping her lips over the wide crest, and sliding her tongue up and down him as she sucked gently at first. Then, as he grew harder and more aroused, she hollowed out her cheeks, her hand massaging his balls and fisting the root of him until he came, gripping her head as his seed spilled onto her tongue.
Afterward, panting for hair, he smiled up at her as she moved to kiss his mouth. “God, Elli, that was incredible. Thank you.”
Elli smiled as he rolled her onto her back. “There’s more of that to come, so to speak.”
Aldo laughed, then looked up across the room. “I have an idea.” He went across the room and dragged an old, antique, free-standing mirror to the side of the bed. “Let’s watch ourselves fuck.”
He covered her body with his, his cock already stiffening again, and hitched her legs around his waist. “I’m going to fuck you so hard, pretty girl …watch my cock go in and out, in out …”
As he plunged his cock into her, Elli was mesmerized by the sight of it driving deeper and deeper into her cunt, the way their bodies entangled, and how masterful he was with her as he fucked her. His fingers bit into the soft flesh of her hips as he gathered pace, his eyes locked onto her face as she moved beneath him. “Scream my name, Elli. Scream it,” he ordered as she came, and she obeyed, gasping, moaning, and calling his name over and over.
His breath was hot against the back of her neck.
“You belong to me now, Elli. It’s you and me from now on, yes?”
“Yes,” she breathed, then gave a long moan as his cock drove deeper inside her again and again. She felt him bite down on her shoulder as he came, his hand stroking her clit. Eli shivered through another orgasm, then begged Aldo to let her catch her breath. She turned onto her back as he lay down beside her, his fingers stroking a pattern on her belly, which was rising up and down as she panted for breath.
Aldo smiled at her. “You’re so beautiful, Elli. Every man in the world would be jealous of me.”
She flushed and laughed. “You’re biased.”
“I admit I am, but it’s still the truth. Look, let me draw a map.”
Elli giggled as he started to trace a pattern on her belly. “Venice …Rome …London …Paris …New York …” Aldo was grinning, knowing he was tickling her and feeling her abs quivering. “Seattle …”
Elli froze. “What?”
Aldo frowned at her. “Is something wrong? Don’t you like Seattle?”
“I’ve never been,” Elli felt her face burn and she regretted saying anything. “Sorry, I guess I was just expecting San Francisco or something. Silly me.”
Aldo still looked bemused. “You would love Seattle. I have friends there. It’s about time we took a trip together.”
Elli felt the panic rise up in her. No. No way. She would spend the entire trip looking for Indio everywhere. God. No. “I really can’t take any more time off at the moment, Aldo. Maybe later in the year?”
Aldo shrugged. “As you wish. Anything to make my girl happy.”
They made love again, until Aldo decided he really was exhausted and Elli wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled his head onto her chest.
Later, in the early hours, Aldo had fallen into a deep sleep, but Elli stayed awake. She wished Tandy hadn’t told her that Indio was in, or at least had been and had people in, Seattle. Elli wanted so much to live in the now, with this wonderful man.
And I will, she swore. We will have a happy life together. She tucked herself into the curve of Aldo’s back and tried to sleep, only succumbing just as the sun started to rise.
A month later, and Elli was starting to believe she could do it. She and Aldo spent their time together laughing and talking and making love—as well as making plans. She found Aldo, for all his wealth, loved the simple things she loved: home-cooked meals, art, and books. They took long walks together out in the Italian countryside near his home and spent one weekend in Rome together.
“I was born in New York, but raised here,” Aldo told Elli one day as they strolled through the manic and crowded streets of the capital city, worsened by the crowds that were arriving in preparation for Carnevale di Venezia. Vivienne alway
s gave her staff part of the festival period as a vacation. “Somehow, in the last few years, I gravitated toward Venice—I must have known you were waiting there for me.”
Elli smiled at that. “You’re sweet to say that.”
Aldo shrugged. “I love you. I am starting to believe, Elli, that you are the love of my life.”
Elli felt uncomfortable. “What about Yvetta?”
“I will always love and miss her, but even with Yvetta, there wasn’t such a complete connection, you know?”
Elli smiled, but changed the subject, not knowing really how to respond to such a declaration. “I love Carnevale,” she confided as they walked past a vendor hawking excessively expensive costumes. She lifted a glittering mask and held it to her face, winking at Aldo from behind it and laughing when he swooped in for a kiss that ended up with a feather almost poking out his eye. “I love walking among all the masked figures, even when they creep me out.”
Aldo chuckled. “I have to admit, it gives you pause to think who’s behind them,” he said. “There’s always a frisson of danger and sensuality. Speaking of which …”
He leaned in closer to kiss her, his big body shielding her from the crowds shoving past. Elli smiled, her lips curving up against his. Fortunately, Venice was a city of lovers, and no one paid any attention to them as they clung to each other.
“I have something to tell you about, Elli. Something that might interest you.” Aldo’s smile was mischievous, and Elli laughed.
“Why do I think this has something to do with sex?”
“Guilty.” Aldo looked around comically and lowered his voice, drawing Elli off to the side of the street to try and avoid most of the crowds. “I’m a member of a certain …club, shall we say? We only meet once a year, at a villa just outside Venice during Carnival week. Very exclusive, if you know what I mean. Exclusive and … open-minded.”
Elli felt her pulse race, both intrigued and a little nervous. “Go on.”
“For one night, we leave all our inhibitions behind. Anything goes. We wear masks …and nothing else. We fuck and are fucked by anyone who turns us on. Sometimes threesomes. Foursomes. It’s basically an orgy.”
Dark Masquerade: A Bad Boy Billionaire Romance Page 7