Falling for Italy (7 page)

“Hello,” she answered groggily.

“Were you asleep, princess?” he asked, his voice sounding lazy and sexy.

“Yeah, I was just… What time is it? It’s nearly dark,” she said rubbing her eyes, then looked outside.

“It’s half past five. I slept a couple of hours myself, after playing cleaning boy for Linda.”

Laughter tickled her throat as she imagined him vacuuming and dusting, wearing a silly outfit. Like one of those strippers women threw their panties at.

He went on. “Linda asked me to invite you for dinner at seven. Since you told me you didn’t have any plans, I thought you might like to come. What do you think?”

She heard herself saying, “Sure,” thinking that Linda Coriola wanted to take a good look at the woman her brother had spent the entire night screwing. “Uh, that would be nice. Should I bring something?”

“Just your gorgeous self. I’ll pick you up at six-thirty.”

“I can drive myself,” she protested yawning. “Give me the address.”

“No way. How else can I have the pleasure of taking you home after dinner and tucking you into bed early?” he said insinuatingly, turning her brain to mush. “Be ready at half past six, okay?”

He hung up before she could argue any further.

She stretched languorously, trying to ignore the knot in her stomach. Why should she be nervous? Giovanni was a grown man—oh my, in more ways than one—and he could see any woman he chose. He would be gone soon after his sister’s wedding anyway. This thought brought an undefined and unexplainable wave of pain and grief in her heart.

Their relationship had escalated so fast, so strong, so tumultuously that she hadn’t wanted to think of the consequences. She didn’t want to do it now either. Even if her heart would shatter when he would leave, she didn’t regret a single moment spent with him. He had taught her what a real man was like. He’d showed her what kind of a woman she was and had given her the passion she’d yearned for all her life. Yes, he was all she had ever dreamed of, not only in bed, but also outside of it. He was fun, intelligent, successful, tender and caring, attentive and hot-blooded—all in one fabulous looking package. What woman wouldn’t fall in love with him?

She was just getting out of bed when this thought struck her and she bit her tongue hard, involuntarily.

She swore lavishly, groping for a robe. She wasn’t in love with him, damn it! Maybe
in lust
, but not
in love
. There was a huge difference. And she simply couldn’t be in love with a man who would leave in a few weeks and whom she would never see again.

“Gosh, would you stop this bloody female whining?” she snapped to the bathroom mirror. “He probably won’t give you a second thought when he leaves and you fancy yourself in love with him? Can you get more pathetic than this? Get freaking real!”

Yet somewhere deep inside, she knew she was being unfair. Maybe he wasn’t in love with her, but he cared about her. She wasn’t just a vacation sex toy. She wouldn’t have accepted that in a million years anyway.

“Don’t think about his leaving. Don’t think,” she whispered, supporting her forehead against the window, watching the grayish-white landscape outside.

She breathed deeply and started doing her makeup. She wasn’t going to start stitching her heart before she’d have to.

When Giovanni arrived a little after six, she was waiting for him downstairs in the building’s lobby. She’d put on black tight jeans, a black sweater and black boots. Since she wouldn’t do much walking in the cold, she had taken her long leather coat. She suspected Linda Coriola expected to see a badass, tough-looking bitch and she didn’t want to disappoint her.

Giovanni parked just in front of her building and stretched out a hand across the passenger seat to open the door for her. When she climbed into his car, he bent to kiss her lips, making a pleasant rush warm her entire body. She smiled at him, trying to seem cheerful, hoping he won’t sense anything wrong.

“So, your sister wants to meet the woman you’re currently nailing?” she joked, as he started the car.

He turned his head to her quickly and his eyes darted her with such a hard glare she was stunned.

“You know you’re more than that, Sonia. At least, for me, what we did was more than just fucking.”

Speechless and disconcerted, she looked at his rigid profile, noticing his clenched jaw. After a tense silence, she said awkwardly, “It was just a figure of speech. I didn’t mean for it to sound like that. I’m sorry.”

His fingers relaxed a bit on the steering wheel, but his posture was still strained. She decided it wasn’t the time to start a discussion about the status of their relationship, so she said instead, “Tell me something about your sister. I want to be able to make conversation without giving away the fact I don’t know shit about art.”

His lips twitched slightly.

“Don’t worry. Linda doesn’t like to talk about her work. It’s not even displayed in the house, except for a small wooden thing she sculpted when she met Gerard. A pair of hands. I think it’s a safe guess whose hands they are.”

She laughed lightly.

“Ah… So the man has magic hands, huh? And he’s a brilliant doctor. I suppose he doesn’t like to talk about his work either. I don’t know how he does it,” she said, shuddering a bit. The thought of sick people depressed her. She couldn’t understand how doctors worked, day after day, how they managed to cope with losing patients. Yes, they saved lives, indeed. But what about the ones they couldn’t save? Something like that must haunt them forever.

“Gerard is a very strong and dedicated man,” Giovanni said, interrupting her thoughts. “Curing people is his calling. I guess he was born with that kind of strength. But it’s weighing on him, especially now that he’s going through a bad phase. I told you about his problems in patenting his cancer treatments. If this matter isn’t resolved soon, I’ll take him to Italy and pull all my strings if I have to, in order to help him. He has to succeed for the millions of people in need of cures, as well as for his and Linda’s peace of mind.”

She was impressed by his words. She wanted to ask if he was really such a big shot in Italy, but she didn’t want him to think she was interested in his money or other such nonsense. Instead, she asked, “What is it exactly that you do in Italy? Tuscany, you said that’s where you live? What do you do there, at your company?”

“I deal with clients, with stupid technical questions, I negotiate deals, I listen to moronic ideas from customers, approve
alpha, beta
and commercial versions of software…”

He looked over at her and she felt her eyes cross under this assault of foreign information. He grinned wickedly.

“Do you want me to get more technical than that?”

“Oh, no! Please don’t. It’s…quite enough. I’m very impressed, to say the least.”

“There’s nothing impressive about it. Your job is much more exciting. Do you have time for me tomorrow?” he asked, smile still in place.

She thought about her schedule, then remembered the next day was Tuesday.

“Afraid not. Tomorrow I’ll have a morning session with the boys, then a very short training with the girls in the afternoon, when they get off school. After that I go to the gym.”

“The gym? Ah, I miss a good workout,” he said as he concentrated on the traffic jam growing in front of them. “I’m going soft with Linda’s cooking and nothing to do. Do you think I could join you?”

She looked at him. Dressed in jeans and a tight blue sweater, he looked nowhere near
soft
, just mouthwatering. She cleared her throat.

“Um, sure. Why not? I got the gym to myself anyway. The owner is a friend of mine—a fitness trainer—and she gave me a key. I go on Tuesday and Friday evenings so I can be alone, without people ogling me.”

“Well, you’ll have someone ogling you tomorrow, if you take me with you,” he said and a corner of his beautiful mouth lifted, emphasizing his dimples. She noticed he hadn’t shaved. His usually perfect smooth skin was covered by dark stubble. He looked like a sexy pirate.

“I think I can stand your ogling,” she remarked in a low voice. “After all, you’ve been staring at me ever since we’ve met.”

He turned his dark gaze on her, his eyes sparkling with mischief.

“You didn’t seem to mind it. I’ll try to behave myself tonight. Here we are,” he announced.

He stopped in front of a massive old-looking gate and got out of the car to insert a code into a sideway panel. The gate glided open with unexpected grace. He drove down a vegetation-bordered driveway to a rust-colored brick house. It was quite big, tasteful and simple—not at all the eccentric mansion she had expected.

“I love this house!” she exclaimed admiringly, while Giovanni parked the car at the end of the lane.

“Me too. I feel so at home here,” he replied and climbed out of the car. He opened her door and helped her out. Together they made their way to the massive front door. Giovanni urged her inside into the big homey hallway. It was warm and smelled of classy restaurant food. A white cat came to sniff her suspiciously. When she bent to scratch him behind the ears, he rubbed himself against her legs.

“This is Pirata,” a female voice said. Sonia glanced up to see Linda Coriola, wearing a black and blue sweat suit and fluffy pink house slippers. Her slanted blue eyes were welcoming and curious.

“Hi,” she replied to Linda, as Giovanni came up behind her, pushing her forward with a hand on her waist.

“Hi, Sonia. Thank you for accepting our invitation. Come in,” Linda urged. “Dinner is ready.”

They went into a beautiful dining room, simply furnished, where a huge Christmas tree reigned next to large windows. Lights and scented candles were scattered all over the room—actually, all over the entire house—making her feel like Alice in Wonderland.

In front of the windows was a square table. Gerard, who was sitting in one of the chairs, stood to greet them.

“Hello, Sonia. I’m glad you joined us for dinner tonight.”

“Hi! Thanks for inviting me. Smells delicious.”

He smiled and she noticed how attractive he was, with his dark sandy hair and exotic green eyes.

“Yeah, well, Linda is a great cook, when she can be bribed to put on an apron. Let me take your coat,” he said and took her coat, disappearing with it in the hallway. Giovanni winked at her.

“Have a seat. What would you like to drink?” he asked, pulling a chair for her.

“I don’t know. Do you have Cola?”

“Sure. Coming right up.”

She sat on the very comfortable chair and Pirata jumped onto her lap. She stroked him delighted, as he purred enthusiastically, sticking his whiskered nose close to hers. He had a black fur patch around one eye and black spots on all four of his paws.

She looked through the window and gaped in amazement, seeing an army of elves and dwarves holding multicolored torches in ceramic hands. They surrounded a now unused pool and seemed detached straight from a fairytale.

“Like them?” asked Linda, who appeared in the doorway carrying an enormous platter.

“They’re gorgeous! Do you need help?” Sonia asked her and started to get up, but Linda gestured her back on the chair.

“No, no, thank you, I can manage. I hope you like Chicken Valdostana,” she said, putting the platter on the table.

“I’ve never had this,” said Sonia, analyzing the food. It appeared to be chicken slices, with a crust of cheese and something else she couldn’t identify. “It looks and smells great.”

“It is,” said Giovanni, who had returned along with Gerard. The latter carried some plates and proceeded to set the table, while Giovanni handed her a glass of Cola.

Linda brought another platter loaded with fries, a huge salad bowl, bread, napkins, then sent her brother for cutlery.

“I always forget something,” she told Sonia, laughing. “I’m a complete scatterbrain.”

“I doubt that,” Sonia replied. “I couldn’t prepare this kind of meal with a chef breathing down my neck and guiding my every step.”

“Wait ‘til you taste the dessert,” Gerard said, sitting next to Linda, so the two couples faced each other. When Giovanni joined them, handing forks and knives, they began eating.

The food was delicious, juicy and spicy, just the way Sonia liked it. She praised both it and the cook, truly impressed by Linda. Although Giovanni’s sister was one year younger than herself, Sonia noted she was an excellent wife-to-be and hostess, unlike herself. She and Gerard fit so well together, they shared the same ideas, they anticipated each other’s words and completed each other’s sentences. Sonia found herself observing them during the meal with a trace of melancholic admiration, as conversation flowed smoothly around the table.

Chapter Five

“You know,” Sonia told Linda. “It’s funny how you and Giovanni are so different, yet so much alike. He does that all the time, crackling his fingers.” She pointed to the hands of the younger woman. Caught in the act, Linda laughed.

“Oh, it’s a very bad habit. Mother always told us we’d get arthritis if we keep doing this, but we just can’t seem to help it. Right,
fratelo mio
?” she said, winking at Giovanni, who smiled back.

“We’re very different in looks, as you might see,” he told Sonia grinning. “Our father is fair-haired and blue-eyed, like the brat here,” he explained and dodged to avoid a French fry Linda threw at his head.

“On the other hand,” Linda picked up, “Don Juan here takes after our mother. She is tall, dark-haired and has nearly black eyes. She’s gorgeous.”

She cocked her head, looking at Sonia. “She looks a bit like you, now that I think about it. Doesn’t she,
amore
?” she asked her fiancé, who nodded with his mouth full.

He swallowed and said, “I’ve only met Giovanna—my future mother-in-law—once, but Linda’s right. You two have a slight resemblance. In fact, you and Giovanni look like you could be siblings,” he teased, smiling.

“Thank God we’re not,” muttered Giovanni, taking another piece of chicken. “I may have many sins, but incest isn’t among them.”

Sonia laughed, poking him in the ribs.

As she took another sip of Cola, Linda asked, “Would you mind telling me about your job? I’m fascinated by this, by
you
. I mean, a woman handling guns on a daily basis isn’t somebody one has every day invited for dinner. I might just as well take advantage and pick your brain.”

Smiling, Sonia told them briefly about her passion for guns and about the beginnings of her career.

“I started practicing target shooting strictly as a sport, then I was offered a job as a trainer and discovered I liked it. More to the point, I was good at it. So here I am now,” she concluded.

“Do you still participate in competitions?” Gerard asked her, popping his last fry in his mouth.

“Yes, I do, but not so often. Only in big competitions like national championships, international ones… Next week, we—my junior teams and I—have the Juniors National Championship in Manchester. I’ll only go as their trainer.”

“You have to go to Manchester?” Giovanni asked, seeming slightly displeased. “How long will you stay?”

“A couple of days, maybe three,” she replied, smiling at him as he watched her with intent dark eyes. “It’s not that long.”

They gazed at one another for a long moment, until she noticed from the corner of her eye Linda and Gerard were watching them amused, throwing glances full of meaning at each other.

Pirata, who had been mysteriously absent from the room, appeared in the doorway. He walked lazily to the table, whiskers twitching. After a short inspection, he jumped onto Sonia’s lap, to her delight.

“He likes you,” remarked Linda. “He’s usually wary of strangers, he’s never friendly with people he doesn’t know. Do you have pets?”

“She’s got a plant,” Giovanni put in dryly, making Linda and Gerard burst out laughing. “She nearly killed it.”

“Um, I plan to adopt a puppy one day,” Sonia said defensively, giving a
drop-dead
look to her lover. He placed a hand on her knee and squeezed.

“
Cara
, the poor animal has already my pity. If you treat him like you do that plant, he won’t live a week.”

She bristled, scandalized.

“Of course I will treat him well! What do you take me for? The thing with the plant is that I don’t quite know how to take care of it. It’s not a puppy, which needs food and water every day. I never know when it’s time to water it. But I’m great with animals, and they love me. See?” she continued smugly, burying her cheek in Pirata’s clean white fur, as the cat purred noisily.

“Yeah, well… He’s a male, after all. What male could help falling in love with you?” Giovanni teased, but her heart jumped at his remark. The other couple seemed to have heard it too, because conversation stopped suddenly. The only one who seemed impervious to the reaction his own words had triggered was Giovanni. He consulted his watch and, pushing his plate aside, told her, “It’s nearly nine. I think I’d better take you home, if you have to wake up early tomorrow.”

She raised her head to look at him over Pirata’s ears, her heart still pounding with ambiguous excitement.

“Oh, you’re right. I should go, it’s getting late.”

“But you haven’t had dessert yet,” Gerard protested. “We made you talk more than we let you eat.”

Sonia smiled at him. “It’s all right, thank you. I’ve had enough. Dinner was fantastic, Linda.”

“Thank you. I’m glad you came and I hope you’ll be our guest again very soon,” the younger woman replied, looking at her strangely as though in speculation, then her gaze moved to her brother. “Let me give you some cherry pie to take home with you,” she said and went to the kitchen, waving off her guest’s protests.

After Linda had gone, Sonia went on scratching Pirata’s chin, tuning out the men’s talk about a soccer game. Suddenly, she noticed something glowing dimly in a deep corner of one bookshelf.

“I think somebody’s phone is ringing on silent,” she said.

When they both looked at her in surprise, checking their pockets for their cell phones, she nodded in the direction of the faint light.

Gerard turned his head to look at the object in question, then gazed at Giovanni. Something strange passed between the two men—a look charged with an odd, unknown meaning that made her a bit uneasy.

Eventually, Giovanni rose and went to pick up the object.

“It’s not a phone, Sonia. It’s just a…bizarre souvenir Gerard and Linda brought from their trip to Romania, a few months back.”

He showed her the object and she took it from him, curiosity urging her on. The pale stone, approximately the size of her hand, had a very irregular form. Lacy-looking edges, all in different shades of white and ivory, seemed translucent. She noticed the rock—if that’s what it was—had a phosphorescent glow when she covered it with her other hand.

“Wow! Romania, you said?” she asked thoughtfully, lifting her gaze.

“Yes,” Gerard replied. “We had a…quite unusual experience there.”

The tone of his voice and his wary expression sharpened her attention.

“What do you mean?”

Gerard looked at Giovanni, who shrugged, in a
you-tell-her
gesture and sat back down, picking up the cat from Sonia’s lap. Overwhelmed by so much attention, Pirata was purring like a jet engine, tail high in the air.

Gerard sighed and, after taking a sip from his soda glass, began his story.

“Well, I have a very good friend who lives in Romania. He’s a physician, like myself, and has developed a cancer cure using a plant called hellebore. A few months back, Linda and I went to Romania to talk with Jean-Paul—that’s his name—and exchange notes on our treatments and formulas. On the way there we got lost in a forest. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of it. It’s called
The
Hoia-Baciu
Forest, located in Transylvania and nicknamed
The Romanian Bermuda Triangle
, because of the…observations on paranormal phenomena going around there.”

Intrigued, Sonia raised her eyebrows, but didn’t say anything. Linda had come back with a casserole in her hands. Probably hearing the discussion, she’d stopped dead in the doorway, listening to her fiancé.

He resumed. “This forest is the most unusual place one could imagine. Its trees are contorted and strangely shaped, bent, twisted. Nothing about it is typical or normal. The first time we set foot there, we each had a surreal feeling about it. Personally, I felt like I was in a cemetery. It gave me the creeps, though it had an undeniable unearthly beauty. Linda took some pictures. Then we saw a cabin, deep into the woods, and thought to ask directions to Cluj—the city Jean lives in. We went to the cabin, which was situated in an even more odd-looking clearing. There we found a woman. She spoke French and she told us her name was Maria. She gave us directions, even drew a kind of map for us on Linda’s notepad. She gave her this.” He indicated the rock. As he talked, he seemed lost in recollections, the kind that appeared to have left him puzzled, unsure if he wanted to forget them or not. Linda picked up the story, stepping behind him and placing one hand on his shoulder.

“Everything seemed very real, if not quite normal. The cabin, the woman had a rustic archaic air about them, with no electricity, primitive-like. But they seemed real. Then, when we got to Jean’s house, we told him and Mariana, his wife, about that. What they told us made our hairs stand on end,” she said, in a voice that made Sonia’s own skin ripple in faint goose bumps.

“Jean gave us what we thought was a history lesson. He told us about one of the Romanian rulers, the first one who had officially formed a united Romania. He said he had an informant, who lived with his family in that forest—the
Baciu
forest. He told us that after the ruler—Alexandru Ioan Cuza was his name—was forced to abdicate, in 1866, his enemies had ordered his informant’s cabin to be burned down, along with all the people living in it. Then he told us the informant’s wife was called Maria.”

Sonia was stunned. She felt her lips part, but no sound came out. She was so caught in Linda’s story she’d nearly forgotten the rock she still held. She looked down at it with new interest, just as Linda restarted her tale.

“After that, he gave us the background facts about that forest. He said there were dozens of witnesses who stated they saw the cabin in daylight, though it had burned for nearly two hundred years. Also, there are documented UFO apparitions there, people who say they hear strange noises, trees that seem to bleed… All kinds of stuff like that. Of course, we couldn’t believe our visit to that cabin hadn’t been real. It was unthinkable. But my notepad had vanished, and the camera hadn’t registered a single picture I took in the woods. So we went there the next day, to prove to Jean and Mariana the cabin and Madame Maria were real.”

Sonia wasn’t sure she wanted to hear the end of this particularly creepy story, yet she continued listening, fascinated.

“There was nothing there,” said Gerard. “In the clearing there was no cabin, no woman. Just a blackened trace of a rudimentary oven. We’d seen it the night before. Madame Maria was cooking on it. But there was absolutely no trace of the cabin the next day. And the trees were indeed bleeding.”

A cold shiver ran down Sonia’s spine as she listened to the matter-of-fact tone in which the couple had related their story. She put the rock she held on the table and rubbed her palms as though they had been branded. She divided an intent look between them.

“Are you serious about this?” she asked, her voice sounding incredulous to her own ears. “Or is this just a late Halloween joke?”

She glanced at Giovanni, who put a hand on her thigh, saying, “It’s true,
cara.
That’s exactly what happened. When they told me I was pretty shaken myself, but not as much as them. Imagine their horror and astonishment. It’s the strangest thing I’ve ever heard. If they weren’t my family, I wouldn’t have believed a word. But it’s true.”

She looked at them, as they both nodded soberly.

“Wow. It sounds…out there,” she exclaimed, still incredulous. “But if the whole deal wasn’t real, how come you still have this?” She indicated the rock.

“Good question,” replied Gerard. “Linda found it in her bag, where she’d put it when Madame Maria gave it to her. I guess we’ll never know the answer or how the pieces of this particular puzzle fit.”

They sat in silence for a few moments, and then Sonia asked, “Have you ever thought of going back? To try and elucidate this mystery? It sounds crazy, but…” She trailed off, not knowing what more to add.

“We went back once, that day with Jean and Mariana,” said Linda, “and we didn’t find anything there. What else could we do? As Jean said, we can only be grateful nothing bad happened to us and try not to think about this much. We weren’t the only ones who had abnormal experiences in that forest.”

Sonia dragged a hand through her hair, thinking of everything she had just heard. It sounded scary as hell, but also exciting in a bizarre way. Before she could voice any of her thoughts, Giovanni consulted his watch again.

“I’d better take you home, princess,” he told her. “It’s getting late. Enough ghost stories for tonight. I have to make sure you won’t have nightmares.”

He winked at her in such a suggestive way she almost blushed under the knowing gazes of the other couple. The atmosphere seemed to have relaxed with Giovanni’s statement—she didn’t think it was a joke—and she decided to drop the subject. They didn’t appear to like talking about it anyway. Who would, for that matter?

They all stood and Gerard brought her coat, while Linda gave her a big casserole that smelled divine.

After warm goodbyes and Sonia’s promise she would be present at their wedding, she and Giovanni left, facing briefly the cold night air on the way to his car.