Page 6 of His UnBearable Touch

“I could guess, but I’d rather just hear you talk. A musical name,” he mused, “I should have known you were a musician.”

“I’m certainly not a dancer,” her own dark humor caught her by surprise again, it was tantamount to courage and neither felt like the woman she’d become. Nervous laughter entered the silence in the cab. Maybe, she hoped, maybe he hadn’t heard her after all.

“Why do you say that?”

Nope, no such luck.

“Why wouldn’t you be a dancer?”

She blew out a breath and tried not to bite back at him with words, ask him if he happened to be blind too.

“Because I’m… not the right shape for that.” The words sounded thin in her ears, her stomach twisting at the pain she felt. “I’m sure you see what I look like.”

A moment later she was at a loss for breath. Her hand, her palm was pressed between his hand and… his chest. She could feel the steady pulse of his heartbeat.

“I see…” his words were steady but she felt like she could hear a slight edge in his tone. She waited for the familiar fear to creep up her spine, make her tense, pull her away from him.

But it didn’t happen.

“… but I don’t know who twisted you up inside, Allegra.”

Her mouth opened in silence. What a strange comment. And yet, she knew what he meant. It didn’t mean she understood the feelings he stirred up inside of her.

“You make fun of yourself, and you laugh,” his hand shifted over the back of her hand and she felt the gentle caress of his skin, “but you’re just hurting.”

She wanted to give him some kind of snappy comeback. She wanted to prove that she could shrug it off, but she couldn’t say a word. Damn him for being so right.

The unmistakable ‘tick tick’ of a turn signal interrupted her thoughts and the driver called out to them. “We’re here.”

Allegra freed her hand from his grasp and sat back in her seat. She set her hand on the seatbelt buckle, preparing to push the button when they stopped. She didn’t have to do it so early, but she needed that space between them to focus her thoughts.

For years, she’d felt like she was so very alone with her thoughts. The only one to make any inroads into her head were her music teacher and Nurse Owens, but even they had only seen what she’s allowed them to see.

Valerio Orsino must be some kind of psychic to burrow that deep inside her head. Her door opened and she heard his intake of breath, offering her hand before he asked for it. She released the belt and shrugged the restraint off of her body.

He helped her down, offering a few comments so she’d know what she was doing, but he wasn’t ordering her around or leaving her out to hang in space.

It was crazy how comfortable she felt with him. And how much she wanted to feel him against her. For so long all she’d done is pull inside of herself, but in just one afternoon that had all begun to change.

* * *

When the cab pulled away from the curb, he reached his arm around her and stepped close enough to keep the blustery city winds away from her smaller form. His bear rose up with a heavy push and reminded him that her ‘form’ was curvy and everything they wanted pressed all over them, under them… wrapped around them.

“If you could just show me to the door.” Hesitant. Tentative. Arm’s length. He didn’t like anything that her tone implicated. He felt a paw pushing on him through his link, but he didn’t need the hint.

His hand moved down her arm, gently sweeping over her elbow and to settle on her hip.

Her hip. He felt a silent growl vibrate through his body. The warm curve of her hip fit the broad palm of his hand, and he fought off the urge to burrow his hand under her coat and woolen dress and feel the heat of her skin against his. Instead, he satisfied himself with keeping her close, leaning down to whisper in her ear. “So eager to push me away, Allegra?”

She turned and surprised him when her hand slipped under the open edge of his coat to press against his chest, mimicking the way they’d touched in the cab. “No.” Her teeth bit into her lower lip and the pale lines beneath her teeth only made her lips flush red like a berry. And he was hungry. So very hungry for her. “I just don’t want to waste any more of your time.”

“Allegra?”

He watched her close her eyes and knew it was her habit to close herself off, but the way she’d turned to him, sought to touch him, said how much she felt the pull between them.

“Allegra, are you listening to me?”

She shuddered against him and he tucked her against his larger frame and fought off the urge to kiss her senseless, but he didn’t want to share that moment with the people pushing along the sidewalks.