Page 84 of The Mastermind
But, always, the bubble burst.
I groaned, opening my eyes as reality surged in like a rogue wave. My fight with Cesare last night. His dismissal. Trying to contain my distress as I showered and, for the hell of it, slid on the lace lingerie set I’d planned to wear for him when I saw him today.
Locking the door, tossing the key into the back of the bathroom cabinet so I couldn’t find it eas?—
Locking the door.
So why was it wide open?
Oh God.No, no, no!
I jerked upright.
Cesare occupied the armchair near the window, his eyes feverishly fixed on me. Something in his quiet watchfulness,the dark shadows in his eyes, locked my breath in my lungs. While I was in no way an expert, I was learning Cesare’s myriad expressions.
This one… wasn’t good.
‘Good morning,’ I said hesitantly, dragging my tousled hair from my face.
He followed the move, then chased it across my arm, my shoulders. My breasts. Searing every inch of flesh it touched.
A deep, long exhale expanded his chest, and one hand dropped between his legs to adjust himself. But if I thought the sight of my body would alter the turbulent electricity careening around the room, I was wrong. Hell, it almost felt like his arousal was an afterthought to a more significant subject.
I slicked my tongue over dry, swollen lips, wondering whether to stall or meet whatever this was head on.
He decided for me with one simple sentence. ‘I found you sleepwalking last night.’
Shitshitshit.
I tried to swallow and nearly choked. I disguised it with a throat clearing as I dragged my fingers through my hair again to buy myself time. ‘You did?’
His look of fury mocked my efforts. ‘First of all, you didn’t think to mention it before I booked us into a fucking overwater bungalow? You’re lucky I was the one who found you before…Cristu, Maddelena. You could’ve fallen into the ocean, been badly hurt. Or worse.’ He spiked his fingers through his dishevelled hair, and I caught a haunted look in his eyes.
My heart lurched, then carried on lurching some more as my brain supplied the possibility that Cesare cared about me. Perhaps beyond temporary hot-enemy-fucking-it-out-of-our-system basis. ‘But I wasn’t,’ I pointed out a little sheepishly.
He levelled a searing glare at me. ‘For that there will be consequences, trust me.’ He took a beat, a few breaths, then ploughed on. ‘How long has it been going on?’
I suspected he could put two and two together if I answered with a precise timeframe. But there was an off-chance that sleepwalking was all I’d done. That the even worse flaw that had triggered both loathing from my father and grandfather but had given them no choice but to protect me – until recently it seemed – hadn’t been revealed. So I dragged my gaze from his and shrugged. ‘A few years.’
He studied me for a minute, then his hand dropped back between his knees, and that look I’d first seen on waking up settled over his face. This time when my heart dipped, it kept going, charting a path of terror all the way to my toes. I drew my knees up and wrapped my arms around them, as if it would protect me from the grenade he was about to throw at my feet.
‘That wasn’t all that happened.’
My breath froze in my chest.
‘You also talked in your sleep last night.’
No. Please God no.‘W-what… what did I say?’ I whispered, my lips numb.
His eyes had darkened until the grey was barely discernible from his pupils. The skin around his mouth was tight with fury. Grief. Regret. Disappointment.
For the darkest, most horrifying secret locked within my soul.
‘I think you know exactly what you said,bedda mia.’
Fear chiselled chunks out of my heart.
This was the reason Bonafacio had forbidden me from going to confession and downright laughed in my mother’s face when she’d hesitantly broached the subject of therapy.
