Page 46 of Her UnBearable Protector

Uberto bent to pick up the taser from the floor, and tucked it in his pocket. Reaching out he grasped his eldest brother on the arm. “Looks like she made good use of it.” Nodding a look at the young woman prone and gasping on the floor, he gave a shrug. “I’ll take care of her, you take your woman to her show.”

Salvatore’s narrowed expression eased up a bit. “My woman?”

Nodding, Uberto gave his brother a rare smile. “She’s a tough woman, brother. You’ll have your hands full with that one.”

Natale looked up at Salvatore when he set his gaze on her face and she read the heat in his eyes. His anger and fear bled into need. She had a distinct feeling that Salvatore wanted his hands full of her and she couldn’t wait to return the favor. “Let’s go.”

Chapter Thirteen

From the moment that they arrived at the venue, Natale was swept up in the action, nearly tackled to the floor by Ericka before her friend dragged her off into the utter chaos of the backstage crush. Salvatore waded in behind them, managing to keep her within arm’s reach at every moment. He scanned the crowd and watched as Natale and Ericka directed the ever-shifting crowds behind the scenes at the show.

There were moments when he’d see her wince, or tug at her sleeve, but she never complained, and even when the noise rose up to a fevered pitch and he had trouble trying to pick out the individual conversations, she took it all in stride.

As the dressers finished their tasks, Ericka began to herd the models into their lineups., Salvatore took Natale by the shoulder and drew her to his side.

Before she could catch her breath, he leaned down and gave her a kiss on her cheek, and then her lips. “I love you.”

Her sigh caressed his neck and her hand settled over his heart, leaning into the wall of muscle to feel his rapid heartbeat beneath her palm. “I love you right back, Salvatore, and tonight,” she reminded him, “you promised me that you’d show me.”

He hesitated for a moment, but she didn’t seem to notice, tugging on his shirt until he leaned down and met her lips for another kiss.

“Okay, you can come with me to the monitor,” she told him, “but after the show if you want to follow me onto the catwalk, things are going to get interesting.”

Salvatore saw the cheeky humor in her eyes. “No,” he shook his head, “I think you’re safe now. I’m just here to see this for myself. To support you and your company.”

She smiled up at him, and gave his shoulder a gentle pat of her hand. “The ladies will be glad to hear that, they like having you around. Me too, if I’m telling the truth.”

Natale walked over to Ericka and gave the other woman a warm hug. They hooked their pinky fingers and leaned toward each other until they bumped their noses with a laugh. He couldn’t hear what they were whispering to each other over the din of the room, but he knew that Natale was happy and loved, and that’s all that mattered to him now.

Giovanni Durante entered from a side door and walked along the line up of models, his keen eye for fashion taking in the whole line as he moved to the front. He stopped there, took his daughter by the shoulders and pressed a reverent kiss on one cheek and then the other. Salvatore didn’t need to hear the words exchanged between the two. He could see the pride in her father’s eyes and saw the warm blush on Natale’s cheeks. With a quick word to Ericka, Giovanni took the microphone from her hand and stepped out onto the runway.

Even from the backstage area, he could see the overhead spotlights flare to life in front of the temporary wall and heard the excited round of applause from the assembled crowd.

Stepping up to Natale’s side, Salvatore watched as the silver-haired patriarch of Durante Fashion House walked onto the runway. With his elegant midnight blue suit and ivory pocket square, his presence brought the crowd to a silent anticipation that held everyone in its thrall.

“I would like to thank you all for coming to see our show. Durante Fashion House has had a long and storied history. From Italy to America, we have always given our heart and soul to fashion. It has been our goal to provide fine clothing to not only adorn but inspire our clients.

“Today, we enter a new era. Today, we begin a new journey. We will breathe new life, not only into the company, but the lives of our customers. We’ve set aside the notion that true fashion can only be made and worn by one kind of woman. We have a collection of clothing to make every woman feel as beautiful on the outside as they are on the inside. We give you Bellezza!”

The music began as Giovanni stepped off the runway and down a short flight of stairs to his seat on the end of the front row.

As Salvatore watched the monitor, Ericka and Natale guided the models onto the runway and when they returned, pointed them to their dressers for the second round of garments.

He worried for the first half of the show, but as they neared the end, he turned to look at Natale and saw the happy smile on her face and the silvery tears gathering on Ericka’s lashes. Reaching out her hand, Ericka took Natale’s hand and gave it a squeeze. Turning their attention to the models they directed them toward the stage once they were dressed in their second looks.

The remaining number of models ticked away until the last ran up to get in line, turning back to give Natale a kiss on her cheek. He remembered the woman from one of his days in the workroom, a woman named LaVonne. As she stepped up onto the runway for her second and final pass, Natale breathed a sigh of relief and looked over her shoulder at him. “We did it.” She mouthed the words, but he heard them in his ear and nodded. LaVonne made her way down the catwalk, stopped at the end to show off the garment to the photographers who were likely trying to blind the woman, before she turned around and headed back. The other models had taken their place and marched down the runway in single file, clapping as they went. LaVonne took Natale’s hand and led her onto the runway. At first, Natale balked at the gesture and then she followed along, walking beside the model.

When they reached the end of the runway, the crowd went wild. The number of camera flashes seemed to triple as Natale half-squinted into the maddening rhythm of light. Then she was heading back down the runway, her smile beaming at the crowd.

Just when she was a step away from the archway that led to the backstage area, Giovanni Durante met her on the runway.

Natale looked up into her father’s eyes, searching his intent gaze for his reaction. She didn’t have to wait long.

Giovanni Durante reached out and grabbed his daughter up in a tight embrace and pressed a series of kisses on her cheek that left nothing about his reaction to the show to anyone’s imagination. The crowd, it seemed, was in complete agreement and a second enthusiastic round of applause began, bringing Natale to grateful tears as her father led her backstage.

* * *

Valerio arrived with his medical bag in tow, but even before he set it down on the table he knew that there was only one thing in the bag that was going to do any good. Reaching into the side pocket, he withdrew the vial and syringe before he approached his brother. “What happened?”

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