Her lips tasted bittersweet—the humid room had started to make her sweat, and her usual sugary taste had been touched by salt. Something else was there too—an undercurrent, long dissolved.
“Peppermint,” I said.
She nodded. “It helped soothe my stomach. That and ice seems to do it.”
“Then you should never be sick again. You can’t escape the ice here.”
Floating around with her in my arms, head back, muscles relaxing, I made a contented noise deep in my throat.
“Brando,” she whispered, clinging to me even harder. “Look—” She motioned with her head toward the scene outside, the snow and the moon.
The silver essence of the world seemed to blanch her of color, transforming her into a rare creature. A rare creature that moves as though grace was her blood and water was her bones. As fluid as a jellyfish, but more beautiful than any law allowed.
My wife’s beauty went deeper than the flesh, though—Scarlett had a rare gift. She could make people feel. She had a certain kind of magic that was irresistible to men. Especially fucking monsters.
I used my finger to move her chin back towards me. “It’ll do, Ballerina Girl.”
She ran her finger underneath one of my eyes. “Sorry for waking you up.”
She went to move out of my hold, but I kept her chin in place. She was forced to hold my stare.
“Back in the day, when you walked into the room, I lost my breath. Now my soul catches it. If you're walking in, that means you were not beside me, and if you weren't beside me, that means you were too far. You take my life with you wherever you go. I can't be separated from you anymore, Scarlett Rose Fausti. If I am, my soul feels it, like an old man feels the chill in his bones. Like the moments you were away from me were years instead of minutes, and the time has done irreparable harm, turning my black hair gray.”
Her eyes searched mine. “It’s easier for you to say those things now. Such beautiful words.”
She shoved away from me, back stroking toward the opposite side of the pool. Scarlett wasn’t much of a swimmer, but I could tell she enjoyed our midnight swims. Her body was rapidly changing, and floating did her good. But there were times I couldn’t stop seeing the picture of her, the one Cesare had stolen from me, and what he had done to it.
Her head was back, her arms gliding, her legs barely kicking, almost swooshing from one place to another. The tone of this scene was the same as the photo—black, silver, and white.
The silver light filtered in, the moon casting her body in its light, illuminating each elegant bone. When she turned, her back bones reminded me of angel wings.
Her anger reached me, though, like a bloodied line in the pool.
“You’re thinking it has to do with Luca,” I said. “My words. How easy it was for me to say them.”
“It always has to do with him,” she shot back.
“Even when the man isn’t here, he’s here. Between us.” I ran a hand through my hair. “How about for once we speak of things—normal things. We discuss normal couple problems. Not when Luca is going to tear a new hole in me.”
“He won’t,” she said with a confidence that made me narrow my eyes at her. “He’s thinking about what I said and will realize soon enough that I’m right.”
I swam to the edge of the pool, using the side to lift myself out of it. She swam to me faster than I thought possible, for her. She set her hands on my legs, blinking up at me.
“Don’t go,” she whispered. Using my thighs, she pushed herself up to get closer to my face.
I didn’t want her to strain, so I lifted her, keeping my hands under her arms. Slowly, she came in to kiss me, and I didn’t turn away, but I didn’t kiss her back.
“You’re right,” she whispered against my lips. “We should talk about something else. I’d like that.”
Our eyes met and I almost had to close mine. I caught the spark that lit when our eyes met. Heat started to emanate between our bodies, ready to catch fire.
“Come on,” she said, sliding back in. “Get back in with me.”
It wasn’t as easy as she made it out to be. It was still fucking hard to get the words out. She understood that when I sat there, staring at her.
“Come on,mio marito,” she whispered. “Get back in with your wife.”
This time, after I got in, I slid under the water, gliding back and forth like a shark. I came up a few minutes later, water running into my eyes from my drenched hair. I ran a hand through it, slicking it back, out of my face.
