Chasing Stars - A Midnight Mafia Novel

Chapter Twenty-One

                A soft and moist tongue found my cheek, not once, not twice, but three times. I groaned still half asleep and pushed Alessio away. When he came back for more I pushed him again with a groan. "Alessio! Knock it off. God your breath reeks" One more time and I opened my eyes and sat up quickly ready to yell but stopped in my tracks.

The pooch in front of me stepped on my lap and jumped to try to continue showering me with kisses, he bumps his cold and wet nose against my chin and then my cheek as he tried to kiss me more. I absent mindedly ran my hands through soft fur and look past the still bouncing puppy to Alessio.

"What is this?"

He chuckles at my from the doorway he's leaning in. "A dog Katherine, you can't tell me you've never seen one before."

I look back to the puppy who is now successfully climbing up my chest and giving me endless showers of love. "I figured that much out." I huffed.

"Then why did you ask?" He teased and took a few steps forward. He whistled and the puppy stopped abruptly, his head jolted upright and he turned quickly to face Alessio.

"I meant what is it doing here in my bed!"

He whistled again and it lunged off of me, it made big, clumsy, puppy jumps across the bed and in its attempt to jump off the bed practically fell. I looked over the side of the bed, watched it roll back to it's feet, try to run several times but it's feet slipped along the hardwood floor and then finally bolted over to Alessio who picked it up and held it with one arm. It stretched as far as puppily possible to lick his cheek twice and then both looked back to me as if in some kind of conspiracy.

"Didn't you read it?"

"Read what?" I demanded.

He sighed heavily and came across the room. He sat down on the bed and sat the black and light brown pooch back on the bed. It took three cheeky jumps back to me and I caught it.

I watched Alessio cautiously for a few moments and then back to the dog. I examined him a little more carefully as he sat before me watching me with his tongue hanging out and panting warm puppy breath on me. He was black, but his paws, the back of his legs, his belly, part way up his chest, his cheeks, and right above his eyes as if they were his eyebrows were a light brown. He was easily a German Sheperd, knowing Alessio probably pure bred. I pet him a few times before noticing the tag on his collar.

I gave Alessio another weary look before pulling the tag off, as if on command the puppy bounded back across the bed happily to Alessio.

I watched the two clearly conspiring against me and then read the tag. Katherine, Non voglio perderti. Sei la mia vita. Perdonami amore mio. "Alessio I can't read Italian." I reminded him.

He set the puppy down and leaned across the bed to kiss me softly on the cheek and I didn't pull back. He pointed to the tag and brought his finger along each word as he read it to me. "I don't want to lose you. You are my life. Forgive me my love."

I dropped the tag. "You bought me a puppy to try to win my love?" I said in disbelief.

"You didn't want any of my other gifts." He said simply.

He had been showering me senseless with expensive gifts lately. First it was flowers, then it was jewelry, then expensive clothes, I insisted I needed nothing, that I wanted nothing, that I chose to come back and be with him no matter what, that I simply wanted to move on from that hellish night, and he insisted he just hadn't found the perfect gift to win my love I promised he had not lost. After a few days of nothing I thought he had finally given up and accepted the fact that I was fine. And then he gave me a dirty books and a cȯck ring.