I woke up in the morning, immediately feeling like I was missing something. I reached out with my arm, pushing the blanket on top of me aside, and realized what it was. Daniel. Where was he?

“Daniel?” I said, keeping my voice down to avoid being overheard. I opened my eyes and looked around, trying not to be sad but failing when I found that I was alone.

Had it all been a dream, a morphing of my nightmare into a fantasy? I closed my eyes and knew by the pleasant ache down below that it couldn't have been. Even the smell in the air of the small room wasn't that of a wet dream or a masturbatory fantasy. There was the distinct smell of male sweat and sex in the air, and I knew it had all been real. The kiss, the tasting, the mind blowing sex, all of it.

Getting out of bed, I found my pajamas still lying where I'd left them, except for my t-shirt, of course, and I picked everything up and put it in my laundry bag. The motion must have created some noise outside the door, because seconds later, I heard a knock. “Adriana?”

It was Daniel. “Daniel?”

“Are you dressed?” he asked, his voice professional and lacking any of the passion or tenderness he'd shown me last night. Swallowing my sudden tears, I grabbed my bathrobe off the hook next to the door and pulled it on, belting it quickly. “I am now. Come in.”

He opened the door, looking in with the friendly but not enamored look that he'd had the night before. “Hey, glad you're up. We're running a bit late this morning, so I asked one of the other guys to take you to breakfast while I run and grab a shower and change. I'll see you in the car.”

“Dan . . .” I started, but his eyes silenced me, and he gave me a shake of his head that could have been measured in millimeters. “Later.”

“At school,” he said and turned, leaving. Julius waited for me in the hallway, looking tired but not overly concerned. He'd been on outdoor patrol and probably had a very boring night.

“Good morning, Julius. Shouldn't you be heading home now?”

“Eh, I'll do that in about a half-hour or so. Just going to take you to breakfast, then grab my things and go. How'd you sleep?”

“It was . . . different,” I said, sighing. There was no other way to describe it without giving myself away. “Anyway, let me grab my shower and then you can take me to breakfast. Give me ten minutes?”

“No problem.”

The entire drive to school, Daniel was reluctant to talk, at least about what I wanted to talk about. Instead, he insisted on talking about the weather, the people driving by, the song on the radio, the normal chit-chat that I thought we'd worked past. When we pulled into the parking lot at school, I didn't even give him a chance to open my door before I was out and slamming it, nearly catching his fingers in the process.

“Can we talk now?” I seethed, angry but not really knowing why. “Or do you want to discuss if Icon for Hire is going to be putting out another new single in the next few weeks or not?”

Daniel glanced at his watch, a cheap little G-shock knockoff that he'd picked up from the campus bookstore, then pointed at the student union. “Study booth,” he said, his voice both soft and hard at the same time. He could tell I was pissed, but there was no room for argument in his voice. It wasn't a request. It was a command. “We've got ten, fifteen minutes at most.”

Thankfully, the early morning meant few people were using the booths, and as Daniel closed the door and locked it behind him, I turned, trying not to yell. “What the hell? I knew you were the type for casual sex, but I hoped after what you said last night . . . I didn't think that's all it was. I hoped . . .”

Daniel cut my words off, pulling me to him and kissing me hard, his hands crushing our bodies together as he pushed me against the wall. His tongue was electric, leaving my lips to trace around my ear again, lighting me up in ways that, until the night before, I didn't even know existed. In fewer than ten seconds, I'd gone from pissed to so aroused that I'd have had sex with him right there, regardless of the fact that I knew the booths were monitored by security cameras for preventing that exact thing.

“Dan . . .” I sighed, wrapping my arms around his neck and holding him gently as he let me go, his hands still resting on my hips, his eyes full of tenderness. “Why?”

“Why did I kiss you right now, or why did I leave you this morning to wake up alone?” he asked softly, his eyes warm and his voice tender.

“How about both?” I replied, enjoying the feeling of being forehead to forehead like this, like a couple dancing without moving. “You pissed me off.”

“I know, and I'm sorry about that. It wasn't my intention,” he said, his fingers tracing patterns on my lower back. “But I kissed you because I didn't want you going off in a rant that I knew I could explain if you just gave me a chance. I kissed you because for the past two hours, it's been the only thing I've wanted to do, ever since opening the door to your room and seeing you in that bathrobe, looking lost and scared. I wanted to tell you that you're different, that I don't want this to be only one night. But that's also why I didn't say anything at the house, and why I had to leave your room at the same time.”

“Uncle Carlo,” I said, realizing. “The rules.”

Daniel nodded, sadness in his eyes. “Ade, last night I wrote my own death warrant, and I don't regret it. Even though I was nearly caught sneaking out of your room, I don't regret it. The only regret I have is that the chances of us having real happiness, the future that I can see in your eyes and in the way you talked last night . . . the odds of that are slim to none. I'm Neiman, no man, an orphan with no family. No name, nothing but my wits, a decent gun, and what Carlo Bertoli has given me. You're his niece, the only child of his murdered brother. You're more precious to him than a daughter, Adriana. And Carlo has told me twice now, if I ever did what happened this morning, I was a dead man. Do you know your uncle to be a man who’s willing to compromise?”

I blinked, tears in my eyes. “No,” I whispered. “But Daniel . . . maybe it can still happen. Mom said she'd talk to him. Her and I together, maybe?”

He kissed me again, his lips soft and silencing. When we parted, he smiled. “I doubt it. It's okay though. You're worth it. You know, my only worry as I sat out there in the hallway was that I know if we keep doing this, doing what I have so wanted to do for years, that I'd be breaking your heart? Not because I'll leave you on my own, but because you're going to have to bury me.”

“Not going to happen,” I replied, my anger coming back but not directed at him. “You've spent weeks protecting me, and I know you'll give Vincent what he deserves. I need you to put some faith in me, too.”

“How so?” he asked, a smile on his face even as uncertainty flashed in his eyes.

“Let me protect you. You keep me safe from Drake, and I'll keep you safe from Uncle Carlo.”

Daniel's eyes were still concerned, but he nodded. “Okay. But we do have to have rules. Rule one is, no expressions of affection or our new situation in public. Not even here at the university.”

“And this study room?” I asked, pulling him closer this time. “Please tell me I can spend at least my study time in this sort of room with you, kissing those bewitching, seductive lips if nothing else?”

He took his hand off my hip long enough to glance at his watch, then nodded. “For another two minutes at least. Then we might have to take a break until after your second class of the day. You've got that meeting with your Renaissance professor at three this afternoon. That's a gap of nearly two hours.”

I pulled his head down, my lips hungry and eager for one last kiss. “Two hours . . . I can make do with that.”

* * *

Getting home that night, I was happier than I'd ever been before. The two hours with Daniel hadn't happened in a study booth. Those had all been taken up when we got back to the student union after my second class, but instead, in a little used section of the library, where we kissed and made out like teenagers in between stacks of musty books that I doubted had been taken off the shelves in years. I'd actually been two minutes late for my meeting with my professor, apologizing but not overly concerned. Artists normally have a reputation for not being on time anyway.

At dinner, even Uncle Carlo noticed my newfound happiness. “You look better than you have in weeks, Bella,” he remarked as he sipped at his wine. “What's going on?”

“Just classes went well, Uncle,” I said, not liking lying to him but knowing how important it was. “And I had a good meeting with a professor. Besides, the weather today was great, and just before dinner, I had a nice session in the pool. How could I not feel better?”

He nodded and took another drink. “I understand. I'm glad to see that you are adapting well. You know, I had a period, before you were born, when I had to go everywhere with a bodyguard as well.”

“Really?” I asked, intrigued. “What happened?”

“Eh, this was back in the late eighties, when the Japanese were trying to buy up Seattle,” Carlo said, reminiscing. “Your father was in charge then, but I was the one in charge of talking with some Japanese who came in from Osaka, wanting to muscle in on our turf. They thought they could go through the port without cooperating with the local groups. In negotiations between us and them, things quickly broke down as they thought they could bring in some Yakuza muscle and just take what they wanted without providing the proper respect. Things got quite heated for a little while, and there was a month or so in the middle when Johnny and I both went around with bodyguards.”

It was rare that he talked about my father, and even less often that he used Dad's name. Gianni “Johnny” Bertoli had been his closest friend and protector growing up, and it was nice to hear Uncle Carlo talk about him. “How'd it get resolved?”

“In ways that are not for the dinner table discussion,” Uncle Carlo said with a cryptic smile.

* * *

After dinner, I worked on my painting for the night. Daniel woke from his nap in time to watch me finish. “It's changing,” he remarked. “It's not as dark as it was before.”

“I've got reasons to feel more positive about the world,” I said, carefully avoiding saying what I meant. “Still, it is pretty dark for me.”

I washed up, changing into my pajamas and going to my bedroom, where Daniel's chair and new side table for his computer were already waiting for him. I paused at the door, turning around. “Come tuck me in?” I whispered, leaning in close. “Or maybe check under my bed for monsters?”

“If I do that, the only monster will be in your bed,” he growled sexily in reply, his breath tickling my ear. “Are you sure you want that?”

“More than anything,” I replied. Disregarding the risk, I leaned in and kissed him on the cheek. “Maybe later, when everyone is asleep.”

I heard footsteps in the hallway and pulled back just as Kathy walked by, her clogs squeaking on the hallway tile. “Well, good night, Daniel. I hope you can get your work done,” I said, maybe a touch too loudly. Kathy disappeared around the corner, and I blushed. “Sorry.”

“My fault,” Daniel whispered, his eyes flicking left and right before focusing on me, their icy blueness softening to angelic warmth. “Good night, beautiful lady.”