The Immortal Greek (20 page)

****

Alexander opened his eyes to the most beautiful sight in the world. “Hello.” He had been dreaming of her and couldn’t wait to try in real life a few of the things they had done in his sleep.

Ravenna raised one eyebrow. “We must talk.”

Her tone dissipated the last of the happy images that had populated his dreams. “Already?”

She raised the magazine she was looking at. “What is this?” She turned the magazine toward him and pointed at a picture.

“I can explain that,” he said without looking at the magazine.

“And that. And that.” She pointed at several different pages. “And that as well?” She closed the magazine and threw it on the bed. “You can explain all of it?”

“If you let me talk, I can try.” He took her hand, but she didn’t let him. “Ravenna, I love
you
.” He gave the magazine’s cover a peek, and sighed. It was the
Roman Chronicles
. “Do we have to go pic after pic dissecting every word that lunatic is writing about me?”

“That lunatic seems to know your tastes in women rather well.” Ravenna’s eyes were lit with barely suppressed fury, which he found endearing and sexy in her. “I won’t share you.”

“I won’t share you either.” He cursed Lena Chiosi to the seven hells for being the cause of their quarrel. “What that journalist doesn’t seem to know is that I’m quite monogamous when I’m in a relationship.”

“You were in a polyamorous relationship for a while. A threesome makes you monogamous how?” Ravenna took back the magazine and rolled it tight until her knuckles became white.

“Two different things. You’re confused between polyamory and engaging in sex with two or more people at once.” He realized a word too late she wasn’t expecting a treatise about the various shades of sex. “Anyway, the polyamory experience happened several years ago. And, most importantly, we weren’t in love. We lived together for a while, but the novelty ran its course soon. I have had, up until very recently, threesomes and orgies though. They are fun. But, again, I’ve never been in love with any of the women I was with.”

Her eyes widened in disbelief. “You’ve got to be kidding.”

“No, I’m telling you the truth. I am loyal to a fault when I am in love with someone. Besides you, I only loved two other women.” He looked at her to gauge her reaction to his statement, but she had lowered her head and her hair hid her expression. He moved slightly away from her, then gently put a finger under her chin. “Do you want me to be honest with you?”

After a moment, she nodded and raised her face.

“I slept with women. I don’t know how many. I’ve been around for a long time and I really enjoy the feminine body in any form and shape. I’ve never been cruel to my lovers, and I always provided for them if they were in need. I cared for them, but I never loved them.” He took her hand, but this time didn’t let her decide and brought it to his heart. “I love you.”

****

Despite his declaration, Ravenna was hurt and confused. She had known Alexander had a reputation, but hearing him confirm everything those magazines had written about him was hard to accept. She would have never wanted a man who lied to her, and in his case lying would have proved rather difficult. Yet, she felt physical pain at imagining him with other women. Then he had told her she wasn’t the only love of his life. Again, given his age, it was only natural he had fallen in love before.

“Ravenna, why are we talking about those things that are of no consequence to us?” He caressed her hand, the one he had pressed over his galloping heart. “We should be celebrating our union instead. We should be making plans about our future life together.” He moved closer to her in the bed to kiss her.

She let him because she couldn’t spend a minute longer being angry at him. His lips felt soft and warm on hers. Her heart skipped a beat when he pulled her to him. She couldn’t think when he was so close to her, but she still hurt.

“I see that we aren’t done yet. What else has that wretched journalist written that has upset you so much?”

Her eyes filled with tears and she lowered her head again because she didn’t want him to see her crying, and yet she couldn’t stop.

He wiped her tears with soft strokes of his fingertips. “I can’t erase my past. But I can give you my future.”

His voice was as soft as his touches, and her treacherous body leaned into his caresses lulled by his words.

“I’m sorry I’m causing you pain.” He traced the line of her right ear and she shivered.

Then she realized what was really upsetting her. At first, it had been the stupid magazine and the stupid pictures and articles about his adventures. Then when he had told her his side of the story, her anger had shifted and focused on a different matter altogether. “It’s not about the hundreds of women you slept with.” Not anymore.

He stopped touching her, his eyes locked on hers, a sudden weariness visible in the way his body tensed. “What is it?”

“You said you loved two women before me.” She couldn’t stand the mere idea, but now that she had confessed it out loud, instead of lessening the pain had become sharper.

His expression softened. “Do you want to know about them?”

She shook her head, as a bout of nausea hit her. “No. Not really.”

“I think you should know everything there is to know about Eloisa and Cherry. You’ll feel better.”

Just the way he had pronounced their names, the affection she could hear in his voice made her regret having mentioned the topic in the first place. “No. I don’t think so.” She turned, unable to bear his eyes on her, undressing her feelings and leaving her heart naked before him when she was so vulnerable. “Please, let’s talk about something else. Anything else.”

“No. We’ll get to the bottom of this. Now. Then we’ll talk about how much I want to make love to you.” Alexander put both his hands on her shoulders and gently pressed his fingers on her skin.

A subtle gesture that immediately reminded her she was putty in his hands.

“In the late seventeen hundreds, as many of the nobles of that time, I spent my days playing cards. Faro, a French gambling card game, was all the rage among the European upper society. I was quite skilled at that game. Eloisa was the daughter of an English earl who lost his entire fortune to me. I didn’t need the money and I was going to outlive him in any case, so I let him and his family use their former properties as if he had never lost them. Every summer, they left London to spend several months in Amalfi. Among all the real estate the earl had owned, the villa in Amalfi was the only one I was interested in. We came to vacation in the same period of the year, and, although I was in my house, I was introduced to the family as a good friend. I fell in love with Eloisa at first sight. I adored her—”

“Stop, please. I can’t listen to this.” Ravenna pushed herself out of the bed and went to the window.

Alexander followed her. Then he stood a step behind her for the briefest of moments, before closing the gap and taking her in his embrace, his arms circling her chest, his head nested between her shoulder and neck. He brushed the sensitive area behind her right ear. “It was the first love of a teenager. I had never felt anything like it and I thought she was the one. Despite being turned in my late twenties, and had already lived several hundred years by the time I met her, I had the emotional stability of a fifteen-year-old boy. She was an English rose, bred to enchant and please. She fell in love with me as childishly as I had, and we married in Amalfi at the end of that summer. Soon after our honeymoon in Paris, we came back to Amalfi, and I told her the truth about myself.

“In my foolishness, I had thought that Minerva would’ve granted my bride immortality had I asked. By that time, the gods were already deserting us, and Minerva hadn’t contacted me in a while, but I had still hoped that if I called she would’ve answered. That wasn’t the case. Eloisa accepted her fate, but our relationship changed. A decade or so later, she had aged, but I hadn’t. One day, she told me she couldn’t stand my presence anymore and left me. I was heartbroken and I swore I would never fall in love again. In the late fifties, I renovated villa Eloisa in Amalfi and added a covered section that connected the house to my garage. While excavating along the perimeter, the workers unearthed a jewelry box I had once given her. Inside, Eloisa had hidden all the letters she had written to me and never had the courage to give to me in those ten years we had spent together. She left me because she couldn’t bear the idea I would see her aging and die.”

“That’s really sad.” Ravenna relaxed her stance and molded against him. “I’m sorry you had to go through such heartache.” She took one of his hands and lay a kiss on it, then raised it to her cheek.

“It’s in the past.” He gently tilted her chin up and to the side to meet him and give her a peck. “In the late eighteen hundreds, I spent several decades traveling through the Far East, and I took residence in China for a long while. In Beijing, which I knew of as Peking back then, I met Samuel. We discovered we had a mutual interest in collecting Asian antiques and went to auctions together. At one of those auctions, I acquired the whole estate of a Chinese merchant who had committed suicide and left his family destitute. The day Samuel and I went to check on my new properties, I discovered I had bought
all
of his properties, including an army of servants and a little girl. It turned out the merchant’s wife, the little girl’s mother, had unexpectedly died, and the merchant had taken his life soon after. The little girl, my sweet Cherry Blossom, had been left with not a single person caring for her. I adopted her and brought her with me when I went back to Italy. She was my daughter and I loved her with a love I never thought possible.” He moved her hair out of the way with a caress and trailed kisses on her shoulder. “Just recently, I met the most infuriating enforcer, and I swear I never felt anything even remotely close to the array of emotions that wreak havoc through my body and soul anytime I look at her. When I see her, I can’t think straight. And when she isn’t around, I can’t breathe. The morning I woke and she wasn’t by my side, my heart ripped open. When I thought she was someone else’s, I stopped feeling. I couldn’t bear that level of pain without dying. When she was kidnapped and I feared for her life, I went to a very dark place. When I finally had her back…” He turned her around.

“Oh, Alexander.” Ravenna locked eyes with him and her heart filled with tenderness at the sight of him quietly letting his tears fall. She rose on tiptoes and pulled him lower to brush his eyes and wipe his tears away.

“I love you, Ravenna.”

He hugged her so tight, she couldn’t take a breath, but she didn’t complain. “Now and forever. I love you.”

****

“I can’t believe you’re okay with this.” While facing Ravenna, Alexander pointed his finger at Samuel.

The angel had come to visit Ravenna and bring her news about Malina. The bullet Ravenna had shot in self-defense had broken Malina’s leg, and she had needed surgery to fix the bone. The were-panther was hospitalized one floor up, with her leg in a cast. They had gone to visit her, but Malina had been sleepy and had smiled the whole time thanks to the strong painkiller pumped into her system.

Now, they were back in Ravenna’s room, and he was furious with both of her and Samuel. “You just went through hell. You shouldn’t be working. Not tonight of all nights.” He started pacing, again. Ravenna’s hospital room was stuffy and he needed fresh air.

“We already went through this all afternoon—”

Alexander was well aware of that. “Exactly, and what a waste of precious time we could’ve spent otherwise.”

Ravenna blushed and glared at him. “We have an audience.”

“No, please don’t mind me.” Samuel threw his hands in the air.

“I can’t stay behind and wait while you risk your life.” Ravenna took his hands in hers. “I’m not going to change my mind. Please, accept my decision.”

Despite being so mad with her, he couldn’t help but wish the angel was somewhere else. “Do I have to like it?”

She smiled at him. “No. You can hate it if it makes you feel any better.”

The treacherous creature snuggled closer to him and he took her in his arms. “Don’t you have anything else to do?” He looked at Samuel from over Ravenna’s head.

The angel shrugged his wings with a sigh. “Unfortunately, I really don’t.”

Ravenna chuckled against his chest, then gently pushed him away, and gestured at herself. “I must change into something more appropriate for a gala.”

Alexander gave her an assessing look. “I heard hospital green is all the rage nowadays.” He lowered his mouth to her hear. “It’s also easy to tear away.”

She blushed, but her eyes lit with mischief.

Samuel scratched his stubble with a bored expression. “In case you’re about to add details to your thought, I must remind you I have better than average hearing.”

“Okay. Let’s get it over with already.” Ravenna went to the bathroom where she exchanged her hospital gown for a dress Samuel had brought for her.

Samuel gave them a ride to the impound where Alexander finally reclaimed his Mercedes.

“They did a number on it.” Samuel walked around the convertible as Ravenna was staring at several scratches on the right side. They both looked horrified by the car’s condition.

Without a comment, Alexander opened the passenger door for Ravenna and waited for her to sit before going to his side.

“Really?” Samuel gave Alexander an amused look. Then he leaned on Ravenna’s open window. “He loves you.”

She laughed. “If you say so.”

“When you have a moment, ask him what happened to the last person who left a single, minuscule scratch on one of his beloved cars.” He looked inside the Mercedes to say good-bye to Alexander. “Drako, I never thought I’d see this day.” He let out a mirthful laugh and left.

“What was all that about?” Ravenna laid a hand over his as he maneuvered the shift.

He looked at the angel’s retreating form in the rearview mirror, and the memory of their last fight came to mind. Good times. He smiled. “Nothing important.” He drove to her house, enjoying every minute of the ride, asking her questions, listening to her laughs, stealing glances at her. Her presence was a powerful drug that addled his senses. He even forgot for a moment or two that he disapproved of her decision.