Chapter 20

CHAPTERTWENTY

Dom woke early and wrote Stella a note, telling her to come to his house when she woke for breakfast, and they could go and check out the third person on her list afterward.

After placing the note on the bedside table, he lingered only long enough for one last look at Stella. God, she was beautiful, her golden hair a tumble on her pillow.

When he found her gone the previous evening...he didn’t want to think about it. He had never been that afraid before.

Now, after everything else that had passed between them, he felt reluctant to let her out of his sight again, no matter how ridiculous the worry of losing her was.

Move before she wakes up with you staring at her.

Dom had pulled on his still-damp shirt and shifted. The room came alight with scents, of blood and paint and Stella.

He preened a little as he gave her one last look, her scent now drenched in his. Enough that any other shifter would know he had staked his claim, and there would be hell to pay if they tried to mess with her.

He had fought every base and violent instinct he had not to track Massimo down the previous evening and tear him apart for cutting her up.

The thought of anyone doing violence to her made him lose all reason.

God, he had never felt this way about a woman before.

Dom forced himself to leave, gliding around the building once to check that there were no suspicious individuals casing the palazzo before going home.

Dom had Council business he should take care of now if he was going to spend the day with her, and she needed the rest. If he stayed in bed with her, he would give her none. His self-control had limits, and it was already strained.

God only knew how he was going to focus before he saw her again.

* * *

Dom becameaware of Stella’s presence in the house when he went downstairs for a coffee refill and heard her moaning.

It was a sound remarkably like the one she had made the previous night right before she orgasmed.

"Oh, God, Antonio. I don’t know if I can take it anymore," Stella said. "Don’t let Dom see me like this."

"Don’t worry, my dear, it will be our little secret," his traitorous servant replied.

Dom shoved open the kitchen door and found Stella sitting at the counter, her cheeks bulging from the pastry she was eating with her hands.

"Oh no, he’s found us," Antonio said, trying to hold in his laughter.

Stella managed to swallow her food. "Oh my God, Dom, he’s managed to wrap scrambled eggs, cheese, and chives into a pastry. I think I’m going to—"

"Don’t finish that sentence, or he’ll never stop baking," Dom said, dropping a kiss on her cheek as he sat down beside her.

"I’m okay with that." Stella shrugged and started on her second one.

"Ah, so you two have progressed to sleepovers and cheek kissing now? Good to know," Antonio said and placed some of the pastries in front of Dom.

Stella grinned like an imp. "Worried I’ll corrupt him?"

"Not in the slightest. I think he might surprise you. I can’t wait to tell Carmella. She will be thrilled to know you’re interested in women, after all." Stella sniggered as she drank some orange juice.

"I’m right here," Dom said, waving at them both. He bit into his pastry, trying to hide how much he liked their banter. That Antonio approved of Stella made him absurdly happy. Antonio would be able to calm any objections Carmella might have to him courting her.

Is that what you are doing? Maybe you need to see how Stella feels about that. Just because she was willing to get intimate with him didn’t mean she wanted anything more than that. And Dom wanted much, much more.

Dom pushed all his anxiety away and focused on Stella laughing in his kitchen.

"I don’t know if I’ve ever seen you look so casual," Stella commented a short time later, as they stepped out into the grey weather. Dom looked down at his dark knit sweater, black jeans, and boots.

"What’s wrong with it?" he asked.

"Nothing." She must have liked it because she kept sneaking glances at him when she thought Dom wasn’t looking.

Stella was wearing another of her high collared, button-up shirts, but in an emerald green that made her eyes shine. She had her hair out of its usual braid and a glow about her cheeks.

She didn’t seem any worse for wear despite her ordeal the night before, and Dom made a note to find out the name of the med-mage who had such skill.

Stella was vivid and bright on the cloudy day, making him grin every time he looked at her. Dom took her hand and wrapped his fingers around hers.

"Are you sure you want to do that?" she asked. She looked at their hands with a small frown.

"Why wouldn’t I?"

"Gossip has more of a consequence for you than me. Rodrigo will lose his shit if we are caught by some tabloid together." She was actually serious. Dom halted, pulled her close, and pressed a quick kiss to her lips.

"Let them gossip as much as they like, and if Rodrigo finds out somehow, he can stick his opinion up his ass."

Stella barked out a surprised laugh. "Oh dear, I’m becoming a bad influence on you."

"The worst," Dom agreed with a wink.

They grabbed coffees from a small cafe and strolled through the tight streets on their way to the Rialto.

The third person on Clarissa’s list of clients was a gull shifter named Georgio, who had a farm on the mainland and would come every Sunday to sell at the produce market.

"That’s him there," Stella said, subtly pointing out the man bagging vegetables and handing them over to a customer.

"Are you sure?" Dom asked. Unlike the other two, Georgio seemed so normal, boring even.

"Positive. That’s his boat. What do you think his kink is?" Stella speculated. A sharp-faced woman joined Georgio on the boat and started berating him in low, harsh whispers every time there were no customers.

"Role-playing a happy marriage?" Dom said, and Stella laughed.

"No, it would have to be weirder than that. Though if he was giving it to his wife, maybe she wouldn’t be so sour."

"True. He also looks like he’s too busy to want to kidnap so many people."

Stella let go of his hand and took the full list of Clarissa’s clients out of her pocket. "Maybe there’s something we missed. I might have been completely wrong about them being from Swords."

"It was a good guess, Stella. Even if it’s a bust, at least I got you to come out for a walk with me. You know, it kind of feels a little like a date," he said, leaning over her shoulder to look at the list while subtly breathing in her scent.

Stella’s lips kicked up a little on one side. "Hmm, maybe a little, although if it was, we—"

"Domenico! I thought that was you," a woman’s voice called.

Dom turned to see Bianca Rossi striding towards them, leopard print cape jacket swaying and high heeled boots clicking on the stones.

She looked Stella over, her lips lifting in a sneer. "I didn’t know Carmella had started auctioning dates with you for her charities again." Stella stepped away from him quickly.

"I’m not a date. Thank you for the directions, signore. I got completely turned around," she said, too brightly, and then turned and walked away, leaving Dom staring after her.

"Oh, so you’re playing the Good Samaritan for the tourists?" Bianca asked, flicking her long glossy brown hair over her shoulder. "I hope she wasn’t offended."

Dom forced all his annoyance down and let his politician face come forward. "Like you would care if she was."

Bianca charged on, oblivious to his tone. "I have been wondering why you haven’t called me back in the last six months, Domenico. You know, I’ve never been told no by a man so much in my life," she said, giving him a flirtatious smile.

"I’m sorry if I offended you, Bianca, but I made it clear that I wasn’t interested in going out again," he said. He was doing his best to be polite, but she was spoiled and aggressive and that had always put him off.

"I thought you were playing hard to get. I don’t see why we can’t try again, Domenico. We just make sense together," she said, taking his hand.

"Not to me, and I’m already with someone else."

"Who? Do I know her?"

"No." Dom scanned the crowd for Stella’s blonde hair and realized she had abandoned him entirely.

"Then she’s not worth knowing, is she? Which means she’s not good enough for you," Bianca insisted.

"Have a nice day, Bianca," Dom replied, pulling his hand away. He headed back into the packed crowd before she said anything else.

Dom tried to find Stella’s scent, but everything was too muddled. There was no sign of her; she had utterly bailed on him.

What was worse, she had acted like they were total strangers, and that, he wouldn’t tolerate.

Dom caught her scent two streets over, and the predator in him rose to the surface. She wasn’t going to get away that easily. Not again.