by Reina Torres
But it sat in silence, staring back at him.
His bear lunged at him from the darkness, pushing him up and onto his feet. The wardrobe was steps away and easily opened under his hand. Clothes were pulled from the drawers and pulled on with efficient movements as the bear padded back and forth through his consciousness. Every so many steps of his legs, the bear would turn his massive head and give Valerio a pointed stare. His midnight eyes bled into Valerio’s with a practiced ease that spoke of how close his bear was to the surface.
Pants, shirt, jacket, then buttons, layers before details. Nameless worry over specific fear.
His hands reached for his keys and stopped.
The phone jolted to life, the display bright and easy to read.
Bringing the phone to his ear he fought the bear out of his throat. “I’m on my way.”
Doors slammed open, lights turned on, and by the time Valerio had wrenched open the front door Uberto was on his heels. Salvatore urged them on, staying behind to deal with alarms and remain with Natale. Valerio would call if he was needed.
The door to Allegra’s apartment came off the hinges like the heavy metal was no more than paperclips, unbent and snapped in two. Uberto stood in the doorway, his back to the apartment, ready and willing to stop anyone that came after his family. The smallest of the three, Uberto was not small by human standards. His form was more compact than his older brothers, but his power came from his explosive nature and the wild fury he held deep inside.
Valerio pushed through the apartment, his ears focused on the sounds present in the room. He’d dropped his cell phone into his jacket pocket when they’d approached the apartment door, needing his hands free, but as he approached the back room which served as both bedroom and practice studio, he heard Allegra’s voice calling out his name.
“I’m here.”
He stepped through the doorway just as she began to apologize. “You didn’t have to come back. I just wanted to hear your voice.”
“You can have whatever you want from me, Allegra,” he sat on the edge of the bed and pulled her into his arms.
She went willingly enough even though she kept telling him to go.
Valerio pressed a kiss to her forehead before brushing her hair back from her face. “What happened?”
Turning her face up toward his, she shook her head. “Chopin,” she mumbled, “he always wanted us to play the Chopin. Cello and piano. I heard the piano piece tonight, the music came from,” she made a strange stilted gesture in the air before covering her ears, “it came from everywhere. Inside my head, all around the room. It wouldn’t stop but I couldn’t wake up. It felt like,” he looked down and saw her hand fisting in his shirtfront, “like I was stuck in the nightmare, but I was already awake.”
He drew her closer, tucking her head under his chin. “You were frightened and you called me. I could never stay away when you needed me.”
“I don’t want to be afraid.” She trembled in his arms. “I want to put it all behind me.”
He heard something unspoken in her words, but there would be time to worry about it later. There were other things to do first. “Then that’s what we’ll do, but right now there’s a problem with your door.”
“My door- Hey,” she sat up a little, confusion written across her features, “how did you get inside?”
“That’s the problem with your door.” He eased his hold on her body and smoothed his hand over her back. “I didn’t have a key and I had to get to you.”
“The door-”
“Is in the hallway.” He saw the shock register on her face and smiled. “You don’t believe me?”
She shook her head. “That’s the trouble, Valerio. I believe you. Don’t ask me how I know that you managed to pry it out of the frame, but I know. What I don’t know,” she smoothed her hand over his chest to work out some of the wrinkles she’s twisted into the fabric, “is how I’m going to fix it so I can get some sleep.”
“I’ll fix it.”
“You mean I’ll fix it.”
Valerio glared at his brother, his arm tightening ever so slightly around Allegra’s generous curves. “Mine.”
Uberto’s laughter only made Valerio draw her closer. “Relax. You know I’m not going to try and steal her from you.”
Allegra tensed just a little. “Who is it?”
Gesturing for Uberto to move closer, Valerio gently touched the soft skin under her chin, lifting her face up so he could see her face instead of the top of her head. “My little brother.”
“Little, my ass.” Uberto wasn’t known for holding his tongue. “I could kick your ass, ‘big’ brother.”
Allegra’s arm pushed across Valerio’s stomach as if she could hold him back. Her touch sent all kinds of delicious sensations through his body. “You won’t,” she wondered aloud, “will you? Hurt your brother?”
Valerio saw Uberto’s reaction as plain as day even in the darkness of her apartment. The youngest Orsino knew how to growl and snap like the rest of them and more practice in bluster. He wasn’t afraid to let emotions ride him hard. It was part of his nature and what made him the fiercest of the three even if he was the youngest. Over the years, Valerio had seen many an emotion reflected in his brother’s dark gaze, but this was perhaps a first.
Uberto was concerned… and strangely enough, silent.
Taking Allegra’s hand in his, Valerio brought it up to his lips and brushed a kiss over her knuckles. “He won’t, Stellina. My brother would defend each of us with his last breath, but hurt us? Only by accident. Childish wrestling.”
“Childish?” Uberto huffed, his eyes darkening in the shadows. “But I wasn’t the one who broke down her door.”
Valerio felt a growl roll through his chest and Allegra’s answering shudder. He fought down his bear to help her relax against him, she had no idea what lay beneath his skin and now was not the time to delve into that truth. “I’ll call someone.”
“Already done.” Uberto’s voice was smug. “You were a little busy cuddling and I don’t think I want to sit around waiting until you dragged yourself away.”
“You wouldn’t joke if you-”
“Don’t say it, brother. Don’t finish that thought. You don’t understand. Just go.” His brother’s usual bluster had changed to something darker, angrier. “I’ll stay here and wait for the crew, take her home and get some rest.”
His bear was tired of the conversation. The sound of ‘home’ in their ears was heaven. Standing up from the bed, Valerio brought Allegra along with him, carefully cradled in his arms.
“I can,” she clutched at his shoulder, trembling slightly, “I can walk.”
“Let me hold you.” He leaned into her temple, inhaling her scent, filling his lungs with her. “Please, let me.”
He felt the tension bleed from her body as she relaxed against him. A little yawn escaped her lips as she leaned her head against his shoulder. “Just don’t drop me.”
His bear wanted to argue with her words, as if they’d ever let anything happen to her. Valerio ignored the growling objection and carried Allegra through the front room and out into the hall.
The only problem he was going to have was letting her go… ever again.
Chapter Five
With her first indrawn, semi-conscious breath, Allegra stretched under the covers. The room was oddly warm, almost as if she’d somehow curled up beside the heating unit in the wall. Startled, she blinked her eyes to clear her vision, an old habit that she’d never managed to outgrow, even after all these years, no matter how many times she’d woken up to the darkness before her. The surface beneath her was soft, as if the bed cradled her body in comfort. “So I’m not on the floor.”
“Hardly.” The voice that answered her held a hint of humor somewhere beneath the brittle surface of tension. “You’re in our bed.”
Our. That woke her completely, pushing her up from the bed on a bent arm beside a warm, hard body.
She felt a blanket draw u
p and over her arm and up to her shoulder. “Go back to sleep, Stellina. There’s more than an hour before you have to be awake.”
Once the blanket was draped over her body, warm fingertips trailed over her cheek.
“Besides,” his sigh pulled at her like a caress, “I want you back in my arms.”
Allegra couldn’t seem to move. “I slept with you?”
A hand slipped down her side to settle on her hip, and only then did she realize that he’d had a hand on her ribs while she was sleeping. The thought was seductive on its own. She fought down the thought… but her feelings grew.
It was hard enough to relax into the touch of another person, a man, even more so, but she’d slept beside Valerio for at least a few hours if her calculations were correct. She slept beside him and the nightmare hadn’t returned.
She felt the gentle warmth of his hand on her side and she cuddled against him. “I bet I’m taking up a lot of room,” she yawned slightly and settled in even closer against his side, “if you want, I can sleep on the couch or something.”
Valerio swallowed and then she heard him draw in a deep breath. “No.” His voice was rough, she could almost hear it scratch through the tender flesh of his throat.
Allegra struggled to sit up beside him. It would have been easy enough on her bed, she was an active sleeper, turning and tossing enough to kick her blankets to the ground instead of tangling around her legs, but in this case, there was another person in the bed. Where she was tall, she was also curvy, but Valerio seemed to take up every inch that she didn’t.
“Let me help.” A moment later she felt him untangle the sheets from her legs before he sat up beside her in bed. “Better?”
Allegra held still for a moment, drawing in his scent. She hasn’t been this close to a man since… since the darkness and even if she couldn’t see the way he held her or the way he looked at her, she was sure that Valerio was unlike any other man she’d ever been with.
Yet, even that list was a little lacking.
She sighed. “Very lacking.”
He bristled against her. “Explain.”
His breath was warm against her neck, her hair caught against his cheek. She lifted her hand to brush against her cheek and felt the tender spot high on her cheekbone where they’d likely brushed against each other while they were sleeping. The intimate touch burned her cheeks with more heat. “My experience with,” she moved her hand away from her cheek to gesture at the bed beneath them, “this… is sorely lacking.”
His arms tightened around her body but she didn’t feel any pain, or constriction, she felt sheltered, protected. “I’m glad, Allegra.” His voice was barely a whisper in her ears. “The thought of anyone touching you,” she felt a growl vibrate through his body, the sensations rolling through them both, “we don’t like it.”
“We?” The odd choice of words piqued her interest. “What does that mean?”
He tensed against her back, leaning his cheek against the crown of her head. She wondered what he was thinking about.
“I should blame it on the fact that I grew up speaking Italian,” he began, “but there’s something you should know about me. Something that might change the way you think about me, but not how I think… how I feel about you, Allegra.”
“Okay,” she hesitated slightly but didn’t pull away from him, “what is it?”
A knock sounded at the door and even though Valerio tensed initially, he leaned back and let out an indulgent sigh. “Come in.”
The door opened a few inches. “It’s just me and I’m not looking.” Allegra recognized Natale’s voice and the warm humor that spread through it like a smile. “So, if you two are indecent I can’t tell.”
Allegra reached up to touch her shoulder and remembered that she was still wearing her tank top and sleep-pants from the night before. Allegra answered, “I’m dressed,” before turning toward her shoulder to ask, “are you?”
His hand settled on her hip and gave her a squeeze. “Enough.”
“Enough?” Allegra’s question was coupled with a cough of laughter. “What does that mean?”
She felt a quick kiss touch her temple before Valerio swept her hair back behind her ear.
“I’m dressed enough that Natale can come in here and Salvatore won’t rip me apart.”
“Oh please,” Natale entered the room and crossed toward the bed, “Salvatore wouldn’t do that even if you weren’t. He knows how angry I’d be if he hurt you.” Something heavy touched the bedside table. “I brought coffee for you both.”
Allegra hesitated but didn’t say a word.
“If you’d like tea, I have some brewing in the kitchen,” she explained. “Still, we have to get going.”
“Going?”
Valerio doubled Allegra’s question, holding Allegra closer to his chest. She tried to ignore the thick length of his erection under her thigh. “We have time before Allegra needs to go to rehearsal.”
Natale’s sigh was telling. “You have time unless you forgot to pack her things and bring them over last night.
“But I’m betting that you were in such a hurry to get her here that you didn’t think to bring her a change of clothes.”
She felt Valerio’s body tense and if someone offered even money on a bet, she would guess that he was blaming himself.
“We didn’t bring anything,” Allegra answered it herself, “which was my fault, really. He had his hands full.” The admission made her grimace at the sound of her words, but not Valerio. He cuddled her closer and she could feel his body’s grateful reaction, it had the same effect on hers. “If we leave in a few minutes I can get a cab and-”
Natale’s laughter interrupted her first and then turned into a motherly ‘shhh’ to Valerio. The growl, that Allegra was quickly becoming used to, filled her ears. “If you’ll both just calm down for a minute, I have a perfect solution.”
Valerio calmed down first, giving in to his sister-in-law in what Allegra could only believe was a survival thing. After all, who was going to argue with Natale Orsino?
Natale’s hand closed over hers. “Let’s have you come with me, Allegra.”
As soon as Valerio eased his arms from her middle, she scooted to the edge of the bed and slipped off the edge and onto the floor.
“Allegra.”
She stopped and felt Natale’s reassuring squeeze as she turned her ear toward the sound. “Yes, Valerio?”
“Let me know when you’re ready.”
She nodded but it took a moment for her voice to form her answer. She heard what he’d said, but maybe it was just her imagination, but she wondered if she’d ever be ready for a life like this. A life with someone like Valerio.
She only hoped that she might have a chance to find out.
They made it all the way to Natale’s closet before Allegra started to explain. “We weren’t, you know… doing anything in his bed.”
“Oh?” Natale’s voice was muffled by the clothing she was searching through. “Then you weren’t sleeping?”
“Oh yeah! Yes. I mean, yes, we were sleeping together-”
“Oh?”
“No!” Allegra reached up a hand and gathered a handful of her sleep-tousled hair. “I mean, yes. We were sleeping and in his bed, but not ‘sleeping together.’” She cleared her throat. “You know?”
There were a few scrapes of metal on metal, likely hangers. “Sure, I know.”
Allegra’s shoulders sagged in relief. “Good. Thanks.”
Natale laughed and the sound made Allegra smile. “That must really suck. Beside Salvatore, you won’t find a man with more inches of sexy muscle up and down his body than Val. And just like his brother,” she sighed, “he’d be entirely devoted to the woman he loved. You.”
“Me?” Allegra shook her head. “That’s not who I am to him. I know what he said, but that’s just… I just can’t believe it.”
“Give it time, Allegra. Being with an Orsino brother… well, it takes a lot of getting used to.�
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Natale took Allegra’s hand and set it on a hanger. “Given what you’re going to be doing today I have a few choices of outfits. We’re nearly the same size, but you’re a little taller than I am, so none of my slacks would fit you, even though they’d likely be the easiest for you to wear and play.
“So, the dresses I have here are all jersey. Comfortable and easy to wear. You’ll need a coat outside, but it’s fall so you’d need one anyway. I’ll match the color when you pick a dress.”
Allegra trailed her fingers over the dress, feeling the fine stitches along the neckline and then the armscye. She gave a little wince. “Do you have one with sleeves?”
Natale’s laughter was shared. “I know what you mean. I wear this one with a light jacket, but I can see how that wouldn’t work for playing an instrument.”
A soft clatter of sound said that the dress was set down.
“This one has three quarter sleeves and wraps around.”
Allegra hesitated again. “I don’t want the bow to get caught in the ties.”
“That would be something to worry about.”
“You probably think I’m a huge pain. You’re really doing me a favor and I’m just being picky-”
“You want to feel good. Believe me, Allegra, I understand.” A gentle hand settled on Allegra’s shoulder. “The whole reason I started my Bellezza line was to give women of all sizes beautiful clothes that not only made a woman look as gorgeous as she is, but to feel just as amazing.
“Now, here, this one,” the fabric was set against Allegra’s hand, “this one has three quarter sleeves, cut on the bias to flow around your body, but keep out of your way. If you like this one, we can have it made in any color or fabric that you like.”
“No, please don’t put yourself to any trouble, I just need something to wear until I can get my things from my… I mean, until I can go back to my apartment.”
“Right,” Natale’s tone told her she was fooling herself. “Now let’s get you into the shower. I have some soaps you can use until we have your brands delivered.”