I downed another drink.
Another.
Until the bottle was empty and I began to hear voices.
“Rocco,” the light voice whispered, and it made my bones jump. Against the wall, a new shape had taken form, and it reminded me of a witch’s hat and cape.
“Rocco,” she whispered again, and I felt her caress along my back, along my shoulders.
I jumped up, and the world spun, but there was no one there. I reached out for the chair, barely making it to sit, before darkness overtook me and the shadows behind my lids began to chant and laugh while they danced.
Chapter 28
Wake Up!
Rocco
It sounded as if my wife was in a tunnel, and she was shouting my name from afar. My eyes seemed sealed shut. I reached out my arms and pulled her to me. At all times, her essence made me feel drugged, but especially in the mornings when the sun softened her to a creature I could not get enough of.
She was soft, supple, so sweet and tender—the thought of her made my mouth water with desire.
My wife.
I pulled her even closer, breathing her in. I growled low in my throat when I felt for her hair, and it was gone. “What are you doing to me, ah? You are sending me out of my mind.” I felt her body in my hands and pressed her body to mine even harder.
We were at war, but I would make love to her until she surrendered to me.
I began to repeat the opening lines of an Aerosmith song that the sister of my heart was fond of listening to. “Come here …” When I repeated the last line before the song truly began,my hand dropped down to herculo, and my fingers were searching for the spot between…
My wife shouted my name, her frantic hands on me, attempting to shake me.
This was when I forced my eyes open. It felt as if I had to slice them to get them to rise. My wife was half on top of me, half on the ground.
I blinked, attempting to bring the scene fully into focus.
We were on the ground in the barrel room, sparce pieces of hay that had loosened from working boots underneath us. I set my hand behind my head, itching. It would not quit. I had red whelps all over my body.
“Rocco!”
I forced my stare on my wife, my eyes focusing in and out, before it straightened on her.
A breath slipped from my lips. She was sent to me from above. Any man who dared to tell me otherwise would have to challenge me. “You are a vision,” I whispered, my voice as if sandpaper had grated it. “My eyes had found plenty of women, but none, not one as gorgeous as you. What you do to me goes beyond the skin. This is how powerful you are.”
Her head came to my chest and she was crying.
“Shh,” I shushed her. “We will work it all out.”
She pulled away from me some. “You didn’t come home last night, and oh God, I thought something happened to you! Giovanni escorted me out here, the last place he’d seen you. And I find you like this!” She motioned to my body.
I was naked.
I was not naked before.
Or was I?
My mind began to go in reverse, the memories sketchy. The last thing I remembered was driving my wife and I home.
“I had Giovanni call the doctor,” she said. “Something’s not right, Rocco.”
