Entangled

Unraveled

Waking up in a strange place is never a good feeling.  But, waking up on a different continent?  That sucks in the worst possible way!  The other-ness of my surroundings was difficult to miss, even without the endless cacophony of indecipherable chatter going on outside my glassless window.  Glassless window?   What the...?  The whole place screamed 'foreign' to me.  The room I woke in was stone.  I mean, like stone everything.  The walls, the door jamb, the arched window frame, fireplace... everything.   

Easing out of the oddly luxurious bed and leaning out the window, I hoped to determine if I could come up with an idea of just where in the hell I was.  The view was like nothing I'd ever seen in person before.  

Directly below my arched window was a cobbled street, packed full of animated pedestrians, selling wares and vegetables and such.  Sitting almost at eye level with me was a similar window, only it was fitted with a tiny little balcony ensconced in wrought iron railing.   The façade of the building was a bright peach looking color accentuated with dark blue shutters.  Also, no glass in the window.  When I scanned down the wall, it abruptly changed in design and color.  The new section was canary yellow with flakes of paint chipped off and every detail trimmed in white.  There was a smaller portion of the building that resembled a tiny cabin, nestled on top of the roof.   It had a swirling metal rail closing in what looked like a very healthy garden oasis, filling the space clear up to the cute little front door.  

Glancing up, over the roof-line, I found more of the same.   Lines and lines of long strips in varying colors and repair. It was obvious that more than not, these places were homes.  Just beyond the clutter of buildings, I could see the outline of several sails and the glitter of the sun shimmering off the water.  I had a pretty good idea that I knew exactly where I was, even though I'd never stepped foot out of the Carolina's before in my life.   I'd seen similar scenes on TV before.  The problem was figuring out just how I got there and more importantly, why. 

"Ah, lei è sveglio. Buongiorno! Spero che tu abbia dormito bene. Benvenuti in Italia." I turned to find my alarmingly magnificent kidnapper, who had somehow lost his southern drawl and adopted a perfectly fluent Italian accent, complete with words and all. 

"The only thing I recognized in that sentence was 'buongiorno' and 'Italia', which answers the question of where I am, at least." I replied dryly, eyeballing his hands and waist for any weapons. It was at exactly that moment that the meaning of his words sprung into my mind unbidden.

Ah, she's awake. Good morning! I hope you slept well. Welcome to Italy. 

When he took a step towards me, I was stupefied by my knee-jerk reaction to close the distance.  

Instead, I regained some semblance of composure and threw my hand up at him, "Stop right there!" I demanded firmly, "Don't come any closer." 

The corner of his devastatingly sumptuous mouth quirked up into a grin and he continued my way, purring, "Chéri, ce que vous dérange?" 

Now, I'm no language major, but I was pretty damned sure that was not Italian. It sounded very French to me.  

"Yeah, again... I figure I've got a rough idea about 'chéri', but that's about it. What's your game here?" I began scanning the room, as he stalked across the floor, at a loss for what to do. 

Darling, what troubles you? 

Momentarily distracted by the translation of his latest phrase filtering through, he was able to reach me quickly without my even noticing. The slight brush of his finger grazing along my jawline, in a weirdly intimate gesture, I'm ashamed to say had a dazzling impact on my lady parts.  Even still, I managed to wrench my face away from his touch. Leaning down, his breath fanned my neck and I thought he might start nibbling my earlobe.  And, didn't that do wonders for my teetering self-control!