This, watching him come out of the shower in only a towel, or better yet, taking a shower with him, was among my top ten fantasies of the two of us together.As was swimming in the ocean… water would cling to his naked skin then too.
But that was before, in a life I still haven’t let go because I was pulled out of it so harshly.By him.
So in this life…
“I curse you to a life full of pain and heartache and an early death, Matteo Rovina.You’ll know no happiness from this day forward.”
His eyes burn hotter than the sun for a moment as he glares at me.But in the next moment, the darkness I could always see surrounding him returns and envelops him whole.
He walks to the ornate wardrobe covering one wall.The smell of ancient mothballs and old wood wafts out as he opens it.The smell of decay and dead hope.
“You’re a little late to the party with your curse,” he says.“I’m already cursed.Been cursed since the day I was born.Worse than anything you can come up with.”
He unfastens the towel and lets it drop to the floor, his back turned to me.And I don’t want to look, don’t want to admire how his muscles coil as he reaches into the bag in the wardrobe, pulling out first a pair of boxers, then a shirt.I don’t want to remember the heat, the overwhelming desire he woke inside me the first time he stripped for me.Or the night I gave myself to him.Or the hours I spent committing every dip and rise of his muscles to memory.Or how very much I wanted to memorize every line of ink on his arms and chest.
All that is disappearing now as he dresses in a simple grey suit and blue shirt, all of it with just enough sheen to make me think of long summer evenings by the sea.
“I also already have your curse hanging over me,” he says, turning to me and grinning.“Don’t all men who try to get with you die or something?So by my count, you’ve already cursed me, Goldie.”
“One more won’t hurt,” I say, finally coming to my senses after I realize I’ve been feeling sorry for him.“And you’re never getting with me again.”
He shrugs.“You keep repeating it, but that won’t make it any more true.You’re mine now.And I saw you checking me out before.”
He grins and I hate the surge of heat the sight of it and his words send straight through my core.
But that’s just a delayed reaction.Because my mind hasn’t yet fully caught up to this new reality he forced on me.One where I’m his prisoner and he betrayed me more completely than anyone ever could.
“Whatever attraction I feel for you is just physical,” I tell him, because I want him to know.“Because you tricked me into liking you just so you could do this… but don’t worry, it’ll fade.And you’ll never have my heart.”
He chuckles.“I guess I’m safe from your curse after all then.But don’t worry, ruin will come for me.Probably soon now that I’m on my way to finally getting what I’ve been craving for the last ten years.”
“Ruin?”I ask.“What’s that mean?”
Actual pain crosses his eyes for a split second before he chuckles.“It’s my curse.Everything I achieve will always turn to ruin.Guaranteed.”
“Why do all this if you knew you were going to fail?Why destroy my life?”
Why am I even talking to him?I should be turning my back on him and never speaking another word to him.I guess it must be the old Gianna talking, the one who wanted to know everything about him.
He shrugs.“I gotta try.Maybe it won’t happen this time.You must’ve been thinking the same thing when you got with me… knowing it could kill me, but hoping it wouldn’t.Right?”
I have no idea if he’s being serious or just messing with my head now.Marriage.That’s what sets off my curse.As long as we were never wed, he’d be fine.I believed it.Along with many other things.Like that true love would break my curse.And that he was my one true love.And so much more other nonsense that seems so stupid now.I wish the little pieces of it still floating around in my head would dissolve already.
“You didn’t think,” he adds.“Or you were just hoping for the best.Like me.”
The nerve.I lost sleep worrying my curse would kill him.Or my father would.How dumb was I?
He turns away and walks to the door.“You should take a shower too.And change.There’s clothes for you in the wardrobe.I’ll be back.”
“Were you planning to kill me too, along with my family?Or was it always your plan to drag me here and lock me up?”
He turns back with his hand already on the doorknob.“I could never kill you, Goldie.It’d be like killing myself.”
Then he leaves, the sound of the lock clicking echoing in my mind long after I can no longer hear his footsteps on the landing.
Why can’t I just hate him?Why is he talking to me like a friend, like a man who’s in love, and not growling at me like the monster he really is?
And how come can he still say exactly the right thing at the right time?Exactly the thing I want and need to hear?
