Alessandro touches the white linen napkin to his mouth. “I would already know if you had,topolino.”
Of course. He would have had a full report from the house guards about my activities. “Can I ask…”
“What is it?”
“What would have happened to me if I tried to get into the security room? Or your study? Or…” I shrug. “Anywhere I wasn’t supposed to be?”
“You would have been gently redirected.”
I nod slowly. Then, the wine making me bold, or maybe just reckless, I ask, “Are you going to kill me?”
He says nothing for a moment, his fingers playing with the stem of his wine glass. Then: “No.”
I take a deep breath. “You promise?”
“You have my word, Teddy. I will not harm you.” His voice is so soft tonight, a feathery caress.
“But you should. Youshouldkill me. Right?” He says nothing to that. I finally look at him, right in the eyes, and see something flicker through them. “What are you going to do with me, if not kill me?”
He gives another smile. “For tonight, my only plan was to enjoy dinner with a beautiful companion. Tomorrow’s problems can wait until tomorrow. If it makes you feel any better, I don’t plan to keep you here forever.”
“What if I want to stay?”
I’ve surprised us both with that. Alessandro seems at a loss for words, hesitating before he gives up on what he was about to say.
At last, he tells me, “You can’t stay here.”
“Why not?”
He gives a light scoff. “For one thing,Idon’t plan to stay here much longer.”
So hedoesn’tlive here. I was right. “Where will you—”
“For tonight,” he interrupts me, “perhaps you could tell me about yourself. Perhaps we could enjoy some conversation, some company, and leave all those other issues until the morning?” He pauses to see how I’m taking it. “Humor me,” he adds. “I am a bereaved son, after all.”
He doesn’t sound it, but I can’t really argue. “Alright. I’ll tell you about myself. What do you want to know?”
He leans in, eyes sparkling in the candlelight. “What is your greatest secret, little mouse? The one thing you don’t want me to know? Tell me that.”
My hair stands on end. Literally, the hairs on the back of my neck stand up and I feel a prickling all over my scalp. My throat closes up, thank God, because despite myself, I want to admit it, admit it all, get it out in the open.
But I can’t. Even with his promise not to kill me, I can’t.
“Come on,topolino,” he cajoles. “I can see it in your eyes, youwantto tell me. So tell me.”
I take another big sip of wine. “Alessandro?” I whisper afterward, my tongue slithering over his name.
“Yes, Teddy?”
“I want to go to bed with you.”
CHAPTER20
SANDRO
Suddenly my gameis not so fun anymore.
It was underhanded of me to give him alcohol to loosen his tongue. To set up a dinner in the hopes that he would relax a little, let something slip. IknewTeddy was hiding something, but I did not expect…
