“I did. I dreamt we were in Italy, at the villa.”
I smiled at the thought. Yes. What a good thought. I’d always talked about that villa, and in one of my dreams, she lay naked in the sea of gardenias in the front garden. She lay there under the moonlight in all her glory and beauty.
“Were you naked in the garden of gardenia’s?” I chuckled.
“No, but they were there. I was sitting in the grass watching you.”
“What was I doing?” I loved the radiance of the sun washing over her, picking out the lighter brown parts of her eyes.
“Walking toward me with a bonsai tree. Butterflies surrounded you. Pink ones like the ones that live in Italy.”
I cupped her face, feeling my heart swell. “It will happen.”
When we first met, I’d introduced her to my love of flowers and gardening. I had a bonsai tree I’d had for years. I was dumb when I took it to LA and stupid to surround the thing with butterflies. That whole setup must have withered away by now. I hadn’t seen my plant in over a month.
It was so stupid to think of such a thing now. Maybe I’d be lucky enough to make it through all this craziness and become the gardener, and she the dancer.
It seemed like a dream because if I knew anything, it was that this was another quiet before the storm. The last few weeks were part of the game. Part of Victor’s game.
I didn’t know Tag, but I knew enough from what I’d seen over the last few weeks to know he was probably crazier than Victor.
“I wished I’d known you when I was last here.” Her voice broke into my thoughts.
I chuckled at that. “Amelia, in case you didn’t notice, I’m five years older than you. Your father would have killed me himself if he’d caught me sniffing around you. You were seventeen.”
“So?”
“I would have been twenty-two and asking for my ass to end up dead or in prison.”
“Would that stop you?” A sexy smile filled her face because she knew my answer.
“No.”
“We could have seen each other in secret. I was a few weeks away from my eighteenth birthday when I left.”
She was a few weeks away from her birthday again.
“I would have been your first. I would have made love to you for your birthday.”
“I wish,” she breathed.
She held my gaze, and we both seemed to know that while this talk was nice, we’d have to get up and break out of this bubble of passion we’d created.
“Amelia…” I smoothed my hands under her chin.
“I know… you have to go… or something. I don’t know what’s going on, but I can see in your eyes that you’re leaving.”
“Claudius will stay here with his men.”
“Why can’t you stay?” She frowned and a grimace pulled at the corners of her delicate mouth.
“I need to search. I need to do something. I know how Victor works, and I have a few hunches about where I may find intel on him. Claudius will take care of you. You and Raphael.”
“I want you.” She squeezed her eyes shut, then opened them again.
“I can’t stay here and let what happened yesterday happen again. I can’t.” My stomach tensed.
“What if something bad happens to you?” Pain darkened her eyes and she tucked her hair behind her ear.
