The Obsession and the Fury by Nancy Barone Wythe Read Free Book Online

pleasure, I never have,’ but he pushed her back against an enormous slab of rock where she stretched out luxuriously for him, an expression of bliss and urgency on her beautiful face. She sought his thighs, her fingers lingering over his turgid penis.
    “Lord Almighty,” he groaned and leaned forward to kiss her mouth, taste her lips, sometimes delicately, sometimes roughly, as if he would devour her whole.
    His mouth blazed a trail down her throat and she shivered in delight when he reached her inner folds again, and she opened her legs wide for him.
    “Rea,” he whispered, licking her. “I love you, sweetheart.”
    She pulled him toward her, her breath short as he lifted himself onto his arms, and she caressed his head and back. He turned his face to kiss the palm of her hand, murmuring her name.
    Gone were the fear, the shame and the sense of displacement. But the bliss only lasted a few moments. Anxiety gripped her chest. She couldn’t let this happen! She couldn’t fall in love with Alex, the stranger she had dreamed. For his own sake. For his own safety.
    * * * *
    “Margherita’s mother tells me she gave you a gift and you won’t accept it,” Alex said the next morning during a rare moment of quiet in the shop. “Is that true?”
    Rea looked up from the conserves she was sorting out, then back down.
    “Rea? Honey?”
    Rea plunked the jars down and ran for the private room at the back of the shop. Here, she burst into tears. It was the beginning of the end. When she told him about her dreams, he’d think she was crazy, and leave her. But wasn’t it what she wanted, for him to leave her and live, rather than stay and die?
    “Rea? Are you okay? Talk to me.”
    But it was a long time until she could speak, and so Alex comforted her as she sobbed into his shirt.
    “I can see the future,” she said under her breath.
    “Yes, someone told me about your Tarot Cards. They say you’re very good.”
    “They say that now,” she interjected. “Before you arrived, they used to say I was a witch.”
    Alex chuckled. “You are, my little witch.”
    “No, Alex, you don’t understand! I saw them die in my dreams! All of them! And they died shortly after, every time!”
    “Honey, that’s just a coincidence. They must have been ill and didn’t know it.”
    “What, all of them? Some died in accidents, or drowned at sea! They used to say I caused their deaths! That’s why everybody hates me!”
    “Sweetie, no one hates you. If anything they have a great deal of respect for you and the things you do. Look at Margherita. She is grateful to you. Accept her gift.”
    “I can’t! It’ll only make it worse!”
    “How can a gift harm you?”
    “I can’t tell you!”
    “Why, what was it?”
    “A dress that I dreamed.”
    “I don’t understand.”
    “Please, Alex, I have to leave you!”
    He blanched. “Why?”
    “Because if I don’t there will be trouble and you will die!”
    His eyes softened. “Did you dream that?”
    She nodded, unable to speak.
    “What was the gift, Rea?”
    She looked up at him squarely. “A wedding dress.”
    Alex’ eyes widened. Then he took her hands and kissed them. “A wedding dress is a symbol of happiness and prosperity.”
    “Not for us! You have to go, Alex! Sell the shop and leave! It’s for your own good.”
    “For the love of God, Rea, isn’t this difficult enough?”
    “I know what I saw!” she cried in desperation. “The wedding dress is the confirmation!”
    He studied her at length. He recalled Don Raffaele’s words, ‘She’ll trap you with her wiles.’ How wrong the priest had been. They had all misjudged her. If anything she was discouraging him from any development in their relationship. Alex hadn’t sat down with himself yet, but he knew he couldn’t let a day go by without her.
    Yes, they were different, on all levels. He was well-respected, and she was as unpopular as the plague.

CHAPTER EIGHT

    Alex spent the entire morning up in the hills