Page 10 of Dark Masquerade
He looked playfully mournful, but Elli felt stung by his words. Was she really that pathetic? She rubbed her forehead, trying to stave off a headache. She occasionally still got one in the aftermath of the concussion, but this one felt different.
“Are you all right?”
Always watching.The thought hit Elli, but she brushed it away.Don’t be unfair, girl. He’s just concerned.“A headache. Maybe I should go home.”
He kissed her cheek and looked at her in concern. “Nonsense. Look, I’ll get some aspirin for you, and some water, and you can go lie down.”
When she was alone, Elli stared at the fire that Aldo had lit earlier, her emotions in turmoil. Was she just freaking out because it looked like she was about to embark on a relationship, whether she liked it or not—and she’d always studious avoided any type of commitment?
Vivienne’s words came back to her.Indio is gone, has been gone, for eight years. He’s not coming back.
“I know, I know,” Elli murmured to herself and scrubbed at her face with her hands. She wasn’t being fair to the lovely man in whose house she sat and in whose bed she experienced great sex and tenderness. Earlier, she had wanted to run when he got too intense, but she had talked herself down from it. It hadn’t been violent or degrading, just more forceful than she was comfortable with.Maybe that’s what it feels like when it’s not a fuck of convenience,she told herself. Because how would you know otherwise, Moretti?
She squeezed her eyes shut, willing the headache to go away. A moment later, she felt a cold, damp towel being pressed against her forehead. It felt so good, she had to smile. “You are the sweetest man,” she said softly, and Aldo responded by kissing her softly on her lips.
“Here, sweet girl, take these.” He dropped a couple of aspirin in her hand and gave her the glass of water. “You should go lie down.”
Elli opened her eyes and smiled at him. “If you come with me.”
Aldo smoothed her hair. “Always.”
They lay in bed, talking quietly, Aldo’s hand stroking her face until she felt herself drifting off to sleep, her head still pounding.
The nightmare began as sweet memories of her and Indio and Enzo, down at Indio’s mother’s farmhouse in Tuscany, the summer heat, and picking olives in the grove.Indio teasing her, chasing her with a spider in his hand down the hill until they were both breathless, laughing and collapsing together. Indio plucking a bloom from the field of wild flowers and winding it around her finger. His lips were soft against hers. “Sposami?” Marry me?
Elli found herself in a white dress before she could even say yes, drifting down the hallway of Aldo Constanza’s home. She was confused now …why was she here, of all places? Was it still Indio she was marrying?
She pushed open the two huge, white doors in front of her to see an altar and Indio waiting for her at the end of the aisle. As she moved toward him, she saw her brother, her Enzo, step in front of her. “Don’t do this, Elli, please. He’s not who you think he is …he’s dangerous.”
“I love him, Enzo. I’ve always loved him.”
Her brother’s image faded away, and she turned, smiling at her groom.
“Listen to your brother.” Another voice behind her. She turned. Yvetta, herself in a wedding dress, but with the hilt of a knife protruding from a huge blood stain on the bodice. Yvetta smiled, as beautiful as in Aldo’s painting.
“He did this to me, Elli. He will do it to you too.”
Elli shook her head. “You don’t know him like I do …he isn’t capable.”
Yvetta disappeared, and she was left alone with Indio. He took her hands and led her up the stairs toward a faceless priest who began to read the marriage ceremony.
“If any person should have an objection …”
“Yes.” A man’s voice, broken and full of grief. Elli turned to see Aldo staggering up to the altar, heartbroken, his face streaming with tears.
“Please, Elli …don’t marry him …he’ll destroy you like you’ve destroyed me. Please …”
Elli closed her eyes. “I’m sorry. I did love you for a time. I did.”
When she opened, Aldo was gone and she was married. Her new husband looked down at her. “Come with me, my beautiful Elli.”
Elli followed Indio into the hallway. In a flash, Indio cuffed her around the head, hard. Elli went down, confused and shocked. She looked around and the blood froze in her veins.
The knife Indio was holding was huge, lethal.
Oh, god, no …
“I’m sorry, Elli, my beautiful Elli, but you know it has to end this way, don’t you?” He walked slowly toward her, and she started to crawl backward.
