Seduced by Innocence Read Online Free PDF

her that it was her business, that he would tell her anything she asked, in return for the relief of being able to talk about Rufio’s loss to a sympathetic heart. The need filled him with alarm. Of course, this was just one of her seductive tricks, and he must be extra careful.
    “Not at all,” he said blandly. “It’s very kind of you to be interested. Tell me some more about your brother.”
    “Actually, I was going to ask you about him. I know he came here a lot. Surely you must have seen him?”
    “Many people come to the Midas...but yes, I recall Leo Wainright, a fair-haired young man, with a face very like yours. He was fascinated by art and wanted to be told about each of the pictures in the hotel.”
    “That’s Leo,” Terri said eagerly. “He was always interested in art but he felt he had to hide it because—”
    “Because?”
    “Because our mother didn’t like it. Leo would have liked to be a painter, but he had to make do with learning how to design jewelry at evening class. She’d have stopped him doing that, too, if she could.” Terri hesitated, on the verge of telling him the whole story, but decided against it. It was curious how easy she found Maurizio to talk to, as though they had natural entry into each other’s minds. It was pleasant, but it tempted her to be incautious. For the moment, she was feeling her way gradually, picking up snippets of information about Leo, hopefully without attracting attention. “She felt that art was a lot of nonsense,” she finished lamely.
    “But that wasn’t what you were going to say,” Maurizio said, looking at her strangely. “There’s something more, something that you couldn’t decide whether or not to tell me.”
    “No, truly, there’s nothing,” Terri disclaimed.
    “I think there is,” he urged.
    “Well—I’ve forgotten what I was thinking,” she said hastily.
    She was lying, he thought. And that was a kind of relief because it fit his original ideas about her. Except that she didn’t lie like an experienced schemer, but like an awkward schoolgirl.
    “I’m sorry if I’m disturbing you—”
    Terri looked up quickly to see the man who’d spoken. He looked about sixty and although he was well dressed, his face suggested someone who’d knocked about the world and gotten roughed up in the process. But he’d learned kindness and wisdom, too, if his gentle, smiling eyes were anything to go by.
    “My Uncle Bruno,” Maurizio said, indicating the stranger.
    “I won’t stay long,” Bruno said, “but I need your signature on a couple of forms.”
    “And of course it couldn’t have waited until tomorrow,” Maurizio said wryly.
    “I thought I’d clear my desk out immediately,” Bruno said placidly. “These impulses seize me sometimes.”
    “I should have guessed that one of them would seize you tonight,” Maurizio responded. He spoke good-humoredly but with a touch of exasperation, and Terri had the sense of swirling undercurrents outside her comprehension.
    Maurizio signaled a waiter to bring a fresh bottle of wine and another glass. “Sit down and join us, Bruno,” he said.
    “Well, if you insist.” Bruno seated himself beside Terri and gave her all his attention while Maurizio flicked through the papers, adding his signature here and there.
    “What do you think of our city?” Bruno asked Terri.
    “I’m still new to it, but what little I’ve seen is magical,” she answered at once.
    “Ah, yes. Those who see Venice for the first time always think it magical.”
    She laughed. She felt relaxed and full of enchantment. “Are you trying to tell me that it isn’t?”
    “I’m saying that there’s more than one kind of magic,” Bruno said slowly. “Black magic as well as white. Venice isn’t always a place of sunshine. You need to know about the shadows—secret corners where reality comes and goes and a million things are hidden. Darkness is dangerous but twilight is more dangerous still, for in the darkness