Page 7 of Dark Masquerade
An hour later, she was being driven through the snow back to her apartment. Before she got there, feeling energized and joyful, she decided she would go grocery shopping and asked the car to change directions.
Wandering around the Christmas markets, she spent a leisurely afternoon shopping and didn’t notice how late it had gotten until the streets were emptying. Elli hauled her full bags back toward her apartment, contemplating what she might make with the fresh ingredients.
It began with a prickle up her spine as she walked down a dark alleyway. Elli stopped and turned. Though an alleyway could suggest danger to some, this one was as familiar to Elli as any main road. She’d never felt any kind of fear while walking through it, regardless of the time of day. But now, she felt as if someone were watching her. She sucked in a breath and checked every dark corner she could see. Nothing. Not even a breeze. Picking up her pace, she walked quickly back to her apartment., Relocking the door behind her, she put her grocery bags down. Walking into her own home, she should’ve immediately felt secure, but the feeling persisted. Hesitating just a second, she grabbed a knife from the kitchen drawer.
Her apartment was only three rooms, but she checked everywhere she could think of. Nothing and no one. Elli shook her head. She had never been one to be paranoid, so why now? Was it just the seismic shift in her life from a week ago? A night ago?
“It must be that,” she said aloud to herself, feeling her body finally relax, and went to unpack her groceries.
She had just finished cleaning up the kitchen and was getting into bed as her cell phone rang. “Hello, sweet girl. I just wanted to make sure that you’re okay?”
Elli smiled. “I’m good, Aldo, thank you. I’ve had a very decadent afternoon and stocked my refrigerator.”
Aldo laughed. “I’m glad to hear it, although I do wish I was with you. I realized tonight what a big, empty house this is.”
Elli felt a little uncomfortable. “There’ll be other nights, Aldo.”
“Oh, I know, sweet girl. What are you doing now?”
“Just about to go to bed.”
“Naked?” He sounded like a hopeful little boy, and she laughed.
“Of course.”
“Hmm, now I’m beginning to visualize that, and it’s very, very nice …” His voice dropped low. “If I were with you, I’d be running my hands down your soft skin, cupping your beautiful breasts …will you do that for me,cara mia, and pretend it’s me touching you?”
Elli closed her eyes and did as he asked, enjoying the sensuality of his voice purring down the phone. She stroked her hand down her body, over her breasts. “What else would do you do to me?”
“I would circle your bellybutton with my thumb, gently, over and over until I could feel your belly quiver under my touch.”
Elli moaned softly, turned on by his words and the feel of her hand on her belly. “Then lower, my love, down into your sex, your delicious tight little cunt. I would caress your clit until it was hard and so sensitive that you wanted to scream. Spread your legs wide, my baby, and stroke yourself for me.”
Elli gasped as she obeyed him. “Aldo …Aldo …are you touching yourself?”
He gave a low, amused chuckle. “You better believe it, sweetheart. Now, I want you to imagine my cock is sliding into you, so slowly that you get annoyed with me and scream at me to fuck you …”
“Wait,” Elli gasped, panting. She reached over to her nightstand and grabbed her vibrator. She pushed it inside of herself, moaning as she imagined it was his cock.
“Good. That’s good, sweet girl. My cock is inside you now, filling you, plowing deep inside you again and again until you see stars in your eyes …Elli?”
Almost delirious, Elli gasped her “Yes?”
“Are you free tomorrow? Can I come see you?”
Elli came as she sighed, “Yes, yes, yes …”
Aldo gave a satisfied laugh. “Good …tomorrow, then?”
Elli chuckled, still catching her breath. “Tomorrow, Aldo.”
All traces of her earlier fear had long fled as she said goodnight and fell straight asleep, thoroughly sated.
Two weeks later—two long weeks full of every manner of fucking, whether or not Elli and Aldo were in the same —room—Vivienne met with Elli for lunch. After an enjoyable thirty minutes spent discussing everything under the sun, Vivienne finally got around to work talk. Only, because Vivienne was Vivienne and her radar missed nothing,workhad a double meaning. “Girl, this article is one of your best. Hands down. How’d you get him to open up so much?”
Elli could feel her face burn a little, thinking of all the different kinds of opening up she and Aldo had been doing. “He’s very … loquacious when you get him on the right topic. His work in Uganda, his love of art. He even told me some stuff about his personal life, but I felt it didn’t add anything to the article and it would be taking advantage of a personal tragedy.”
. “You’re sleeping with him,” Vivienne said bluntly, not asking.
