‘One day you will fall deeply in love with someone and you will understand that no matter what the other person does you will be unable to kill the love you have for them.’
‘I will never fall in love with anyone,’ I swear bitterly. ‘Never.’
Sixteen
Dahlia Fury
I wake up two mornings later and Zane says to me, ‘We’re going to Rome.’
‘What? When?’ I ask with a big stupid grin plastered all over my sleepy face.
‘Today.’
‘Huh? Why?’
He shrugs casually. ‘Weekend break.’
‘But why didn’t you warn me?’
‘It’s a surprise. A bit like your surprise party.’
‘OK, great.’
‘We’ll be travelling incognito though.’
My grin dies away. ‘What do you mean?’
‘We’ll be travelling as Mr. and Mrs. Zhivanecskaya.’
I stare at him stunned. ‘You mean we’ll be using fake passports?’
He reaches to the bedside cabinet drawer and extracts two passports. He looks into the first, then passes me the second one. I look at it and there it is. The photograph of me that Yuri took for security purposes teamed with the name Dahlia Zhivanescskaya. Age 24.
‘I can’t even pronounce my last name,’ I whisper.
He says it slowly.
My eyes narrow suspiciously. ‘Why do we need fake passports? Are we going to be smuggling drugs, or some kind of contraband?’
‘Not drugs. You’ll be carrying 15 million Euros worth of diamonds.’
The passport falls from my hand. ‘What?’ I splutter.
He actually looks at me sheepishly, as if asking someone to illegally carry 15 million Euros worth of diamonds is a sheepish matter. ‘Don’t worry,’ he adds in a conciliatory tone, ‘there is no chance of us getting caught. We’ll be flying private and I know the people at the airport.’
I shake my head in disbelief. Us? He means me! ‘You want me to be a diamond mule?’ I’m not sure if that is what the idiot carrying the diamonds is called, but this conversation is so out there my brain can’t compute. Then I become absolutely livid. ‘How dare you even ask me to do such a thing?’
He seems surprised by my reaction. ‘Do you have a problem with it?’
‘Yes, I fucking have a big problem with it.’
‘The others didn’t,’ he says mildly.
I glare at him. ‘I don’t know what kind of women you’ve been dating, but yes, I do mind very much. I’m not carrying diamonds for you. You must be out of your head to think I would do something like that.’ Then another thought occurs to me. ‘And how am I supposed to be transporting these diamonds?’
‘Inside your vagina,’ he says slowly.
My mouth drops open. ‘Oh my God. I don’t believe this. You think it is OK to ask me to stuff a bunch of diamonds up my vagina and take them across borders for you? I really thought better of you.’
‘Will you at least think about it?’ he asks in a wheedling voice.
That fucking makes me explode. ‘Fuck no,’ I yell.
‘Damn. Does this mean I’ll have to take someone else instead?’ he ponders, staring away from me.
Then it hits me. ‘You bastard!’ I cry and, pulling up a pillow, smack his head as hard as I can. He goes down laughing.
‘I really thought you were serious,’ I say, and continue hitting him.
He grabs a pillow and swings it into my body. Immediately I slam my pillow back at him really hard and feathers start flying around us. I get on my knees to take my attack to the next level but he tackles me and brings me down. Pinning me down with his body he grins at me.
‘You’re an asshole, you know?’ I pant.
‘You deserve it for assuming I’d ask you to do a low thing like that,’ he says with a laugh.
‘I don’t know you well enough for you to play those kinds of jokes on me,’ I say primly.
He raises his eyebrows. ‘You don’t know me well enough? How well do you have to know me? I suck your pussy!’
‘Nevertheless it was a horrid prank,’ I say, pretending to be angry.
He smiles at me. ‘Sorry. I couldn’t help it. You’re delicious when you are outraged.’
I crack a smile. He is so gorgeous it is impossible to even pretend to be angry with him. I want to kiss his throat. ‘So why are we really going?’
‘Because the oppressive heat of summer is gone, Italy is an explosion of color. Autumn is also harvest season for truffles, chestnuts, and pumpkins so it is the best time to eat pasta al tartufo or pumpkin risotto.’
I look at him curiously. ‘I got all that, but why are we travelling incognito?’
‘Because I love it. Incognito means there is no need for security. We will go to a villa that Boris has rented and paid for in cash. Nobody will know where we are. We will be completely free to go anywhere we want and do anything we want.’
‘Just the two of us?’