sea here,” he murmured, his gaze following my every excited step around the room. “You’re more than welcome to sunbathe. Our part of the beach is private. Not that you'd be disturbed anyway since there are hardly any tourists around.”
Drawn by the sounds I hadn't heard in so long, I stepped onto the large balcony and was awestruck by the beautiful sight of the sandy beach and the moonlight illuminating the sea. I inhaled a huge chunk of fresh, salty air and slowly exhaled. Alessandro stalked behind me.
“It's so beautiful,” I whispered without diverting my gaze from the reflection of the full moon in the restless water. “I've never seen anything like this.”
“Wait until you see it in the morning,” he whispered as he approached closer.
I threw him a glance over my shoulder. “Have you been here before?” I asked curiously.
He paused and his eyes went distant. When he spoke again, his voice was heavy with emotion. “Yes, I’ve been here before. As a matter of fact, we own this house, tesoro.”
The gesture didn't escape me. We own it… In that one sentence, he treated me like his equal, but I didn't give it much importance since another thing plagued my mind. “I thought it was a rental,” I said quietly. “You told me a friend recommended you visit this place.”
Alessandro smirked. “But I didn't say when, did I?”
“No...you didn't,” I retorted. I faced the amazing view once again, gripping the iron railing as I stood on my tiptoes and tried to distinguish all that I could with the limited light. “So when did you buy this house?”
“I didn't exactly buy it,” he said mysteriously.
“Then what did you do to acquire it?”
“Nothing much,” he said simply. “I had it built from scratch.”
“It must have taken a lot of effort and money to achieve such a grandiose result,” I concluded, once again whirling around to take in my luxurious surroundings, but came face to face with Alessandro instead.
He shrugged. “It was what I wanted at the time.”
“A house in Italy?” I was curious, and he responded with a nod. “Do you come here often, then?”
“No, not at all,” Alessandro revealed, taking a strand of my hair and caressing it between his fingers. “Lorenzo assured me I haven't been here even once during the five years we’ve been married.”
I narrowed my eyes, ignoring the flutters in my tummy from his closeness. “Then why build it?”
Once again, his face settled into a strange expression. “I asked myself the same question once it was finished. I'm not sure, cara. It might have been sentimentality...possibly caprice.”
“Do you regret it?” I asked innocently.
Murky shadows covered his gaze, and he sneered as though I’d said something ironic. “No, I don't regret it. It just didn't have the effect I expected.”
“You thought you'd visit Italy more often if you had a house here?” I wondered.
He smiled with mystery again. “Yes. Something like that.”
“And it has never occurred to you to sell it?” I didn't know why I kept asking about the house. There was just something odd in the way he talked about it.
“No. I don't want to sell it, but I don't quite want to keep it either,” he admitted, dropping my hair and letting his fingers trail down my arm. “So, I guess most of the time I just pretend it doesn't exist.”
“Do you have any other properties in Italy?” I probed further.
“No. Just this house.”
I gave him a weak smile. “Then I can imagine why you don't want to part with it.”
He returned my smile and caressed my cheek. There were traces of something I would almost describe as sadness in his eyes. “You know me so well, piccola.”
His fingers remained frozen on my cheek as we gazed into each other's eyes. I couldn't remember a time when he looked at me like that. He somehow seemed vulnerable and bared to me...like a little boy trapped in the body of this powerful, dangerous man. This was the only occasion I could discern a hint of innocence and frailty in Alessandro. The thought there was this hidden side to him—no matter how small and insignificant—unnerved me. A cool breeze skittered over my skin and I instinctively wrapped my arms around myself.
“Cold?” Alessandro asked faintly.
“A little bit,” I whispered, rubbing at the goosebumps that broke out along my arms. “Perhaps we should go back inside.”
“No need.” He took off his jacket and arranged it over my shoulders. “Here. Is that better?”