Page 52 of His UnBearable Touch

When Essa started to explain the event, Allegra could barely keep her focus on his voice, so she struggled to put a look on her face that said she was paying attention, but in fact, she hadn’t heard a word of it.

It was, she decided, a merciful gift when Essa called a break. She started to move and heard someone clearing their throat. “It’s Zane. Let me take that for you.”

“Thanks,” she felt him draw her cello from her hand and heard him set it into her stand, “that’s really sweet of you.”

He laughed. “Not really,” she thought she heard him shrug and wondered how much starch he’d put into his shirt, “I’m kind of tired of everyone else getting to talk to you.”

“You can always talk to me,” she shook her head.

“Sure, sure,” he didn’t sound convinced, “I already had my horn in the case when I thought Essa was going to call I break. That way I could be the first one out of my chair.”

She laughed, feeling a little bit of her stress melting away. “You make it sound like such a competitive thing.”

A breath wooshed from his lungs. “It was. I had to elbow Mr. Connolly out of the way to get here first.”

“Mr. Connolly?” Allegra didn’t immediately place the name. “Thomas Connolly, the trumpet player?”

“Yep, that’s him,” Zane whispered to her in a voice made for the stage rather than secrets. “That sneaky bastard. I think he’s got a thing for you.”

That had her laughing out loud. “He’s a total gentleman and isn’t he in his sixties?”

Another laugh, this time from behind Zack. “I’m seventy-two. God bless you, Allegra.”

She shrugged. “You sound so young for your age, Thomas.”

“Seriously though,” Zack sighed, “are you going to your dressing room? I’d be happy to help you.”

Allegra was about to refuse, but he kind of sounded a little eager and she didn’t mind the company. It beat moving slowly around the room, just in case. The others were really helpful in keeping their instruments in their cases and keeping the cases in their designated area so that she wouldn’t trip.

It was just being nice. Some of the instruments in the group cost a pretty penny. Her own cello was worth a few hundred thousand dollars. The criminal judge hadn’t given Lance much of a jail sentence, but the civil judge had certainly enjoyed levying a huge financial price tag on Lance and his family during the civil trial. Part of the judgment was to replace her cello; which Lance had destroyed along with her sight.

As they walked around the room, Zack kept up a stream of conversation all on his own. She was actually glad he did. Since the early morning visit from the NYPD, Allegra had been running on empty.

At first, she hadn’t questioned their appearance more than on its surface. The two officers had peppered her with questions about whether or not she wanted to be with Valerio at his home. It had all been shock at the beginning, but after a while she got angry. One of the officers was pretty nice about it all, but the other one seemed to think that she couldn’t very well be trusted to make a decision about where she should live.

And when he started to question whether or not Valerio had done enough to make his home ‘safe’ enough for her, she’d nearly lost her temper. Okay, so she’d lost her temper when he’d all but insinuated that she was no more capable to care for herself than a baby.

It hadn’t ended up all that bad. Angry sex was everything she’d never expected and pretty breathtaking in its power.

As Zack pushed open her dressing room door, Allegra yawned again.

“I’m sorry, Zack.”

He chuckled and remained in her doorway as she moved into her dressing room, her hand reaching out for the arm to her couch. Once she touched it she settled back into the soft cushions to relax.

“It’s okay, Allegra. I just wanted to say I really enjoyed your performance at the zoo.”

She smiled and picked up a throw pillow to hold. “Thanks, that’s really nice of you to say.”

“It’s not nice if it’s the truth,” he told her and then went silent for a moment. “Hey, I was wondering-”

“Hmm?” She was fighting off the ZZZs.

“Are you really serious about that guy?”

“That guy?” She shook herself a little, struggling to stay awake. “Valerio?”

“Yeah,” he cleared his throat, “the big guy that looks like he could bench press a Buick. He’s been dropping you off and picking you up. And yeah, he’s like one of those guys on those Romance book covers, not that I read them, ‘cause I don’t, but you know the type… tall, dark, broodingly handsome.”

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