Page 23 of His UnBearable Touch

“Ours,” he repeated, “but I will continue to remind you, until you realize that I mean what I say.”

She flushed and decided to tip toe around the issue for a little while until she found a little balance. “You have the out of doors indoors?”

Valerio shifted his hand, moving from her wrist, lower, linking their fingers together. “We have what I believe the Victorians called a Conservatory.”

Allegra took in a breath, filling her lungs. “It smells like heaven. My family liked camping in the mountains when I was a little girl, but I haven’t been up since I moved here to New York City. After I lost them, it didn’t seem to make sense. After I lost my sight, I didn’t think I could.”

They moved again, walking slowly side by side.

“What happened to your family?”

“It was just me and my parents as long as I can remember. And when I was in Juilliard,” she swallowed the lump of pain in her throat and struggled not to squeeze his hand in hers, “they died in a car accident. If it hadn’t been for-” She stopped short, tilting her ear down toward her shoulder as she struggled to understand what she heard. “Is that water?”

“Yes,” his voice held more than a hint of humor, and something that sounded like a rumble of laughter.

“It doesn’t sound like a fountain,” she reasoned, “and it wasn’t raining outside when we arrived.”

“No,” he agreed, “it’s not raining now, either.”

She tentatively bent down toward the floor.

Valerio didn’t stop her. He bent with her, sliding a hand up her arm to guide her gently to the ground.

“Oh wow.” She felt grass under her palm. A plush cover of grass that reminded her of long-forgotten hours of joy. A soft crunch of leaves that crumbled between her searching fingers. Smooth stones interspersed with grass, weeds too if she could trust her fingers and her memory.

Then water, rushing water licking at her fingers. She got up on her knees and leaned further out to see how wide the water was.

She felt a hand on her hip and one on her waist before she heard the rough growl of his voice. “Are you so sure I won’t let you fall in?”

Allegra didn’t even turn to speak over her shoulder, she plunged her hand into the rushing chill. “Yes. You wouldn’t let me fall in.”

He grumbled and yet he tightened his hands on her when the hand that she’d braced on the ground slipped the littlest bit. One of his hands slipped around to her stomach and a little lower. She froze, waiting to see what else might happen, but he didn’t let her go, even when she felt them trembling against her.

Backing up a little, she managed to settle herself on the bank and give herself some time to relax. She wanted to believe what he said about them, she wanted to act on it in some way, but being blind was a big disadvantage in some ways. Gauging his interest, his reactions, was harder without being able to see what he looked like, the expression in his eyes.

Then again, she remembered, she’d looked into Lance’s eyes for over two years and didn’t see the dark side of his nature. He’d hidden that way behind his smile and sweet words.

The water burbled along beside them as she sat in silence, her mind working over the thoughts in her head, trading one problem for another. Letting her fingers dip into the water again, she felt the pieces of one problem fall into place. “You have a river in a building,” it wasn’t so much a question as it was an observance with a hint of incredulity. “Wow. That’s something.”

“It’s more of a brook then a river, we don’t have enough land for that.”

She heard the earnest tone in his voice and a smile picked up the corners of her mouth. “Right. Of course. I completely understand.”

“You do?” Now it was his turn to sound… confused.

Her laugh was answered by birdsong and she lifted her hand and pressed her fingers against her lips. “What is it that you do,” she wondered, “beyond rescuing random damsels in the subway?”

“My brother Salvatore founded Orsino Security. We make sure people are safe.”

“So yesterday, in the subway, was that just… what you do.” She tried not to let her tone flatten out. She shook her head at herself and turned her head toward the soft sound of the running water. “Help people.”

“Allegra…”

His voice was a caress, at least in her imagination, and she turned her cheek into the sound hoping to prolong the feeling.

“We help people. Our family has done it for generations in Italy. We continue our work here.”

She swallowed and prepared to paste a cheery grin on her face.

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