Dominic

Chapter 54 (Just revised)

(Third Person POV)

Camille arrived at the shop, with Cassie and Dino, around nine-thirty.  Her stomach was in knots because she didn't know what she would find.  Her and Cassie had loaded up on cleaning supplies, brooms, gloves and boxes.  She didn't even want to think about what her apartment upstairs looked like; she just prayed that she could salvage some items from up there.  

From the back, everything looked normal and even when you first walked into the kitchen but all you had to do was look up at the ceiling and parts of the walls to see the scorch marks.  As she walked further into the shop, her heart just dropped to the floor. 

 "Oh my God" she cried softly.  She felt Cassie come up from behind her putting her hands on her shoulders. 

 "Oh Camille" she said.  "I'm so sorry honey."  The shop was totally gone; the pictures, tables, front counter, everything.  You could tell by some of the blobbed masses on the walls that they were once pictures; metals were fused, plastics melted and ash covered everything.  Camille looked to her right to assess the office where Cassie spent most of her time; it was a loss as well.  It was a good thing that she worked off a laptop and all of their business documents were stored on a cloud which meant they could be accessed from anywhere, any time. 

 She wasn't sure how, but by some miracle the stairs leading to her apartment looked intact.  She started to go up when Dino stopped her.

  "Let me go first" he stated.  She nodded as he gingerly put his weight on the first step; if it could hold his huge frame, her's shouldn't be a problem.  They groaned some with each step he took but they seemed to hold.  She could hear the rafters above her groaning as well but her apartment was more to the right of the shop and not directly above or it would have been a loss as well.

Dino came back down and informed her that she could go up and that she would be happy with what she found.  Camille grabbed some boxes and headed up the stairs, with Cassie right behind her.  It was intact!  Just like Dino said.

  "Cassie, do you think my clothes survived?" Camille asked as she walked to her closet.  "Do they smell like smoke?" she asked. 

 "They seem to be fine" Cassie yelled from inside.  She didn't care about the bed, it was just a second hand thrift store item, so was the rest of the furniture up here.  She just wanted the rest of her clothes, pictures and personal items.  Cassie had brought garment bags and was able to get the stuff from the closet into those and then they both worked on getting the other items into boxes; thankfully it only took about thirty minutes or so to complete this project. 

 "I'm gonna go let Dino know we need some help bringing this stuff down" she told Cassie, walking down the wooden steps.  When she reached the bottom, her heart stopped.

It was Dominic; he actually showed up.  Her heart was pounding in her chest as she walked off that last step, there was nothing between them now. 

 "Hi" she said, blushing and not knowing why.

  "Hi back" he said smirking at her blushing face.  Well at least that hadn't changed, he was still arrogant.  

He lost the carefree look to his face for a moment when he said "I'm so sorry about the shop.  It must have been hard walking in here and seeing it like this."  She nodded. 

 "It was but the main thing is, Cassie has our laptop and so nothing as far as business documents, that sort of thing, were lost; my apartment was still intact.  Dino checked it out before we went up there, so that's good and most of my kitchen items are salvageable and what's not, well I'll replace it when I re-open" she answered honestly.  God she wanted him so badly; she'd never seen him look so casual and it looked great on him.

"Can we talk for a minute?" he asked, nodding his head towards the kitchen. 

 "Sure" she said as she walked that way.  He followed her, taking in her petite form in blue jean cut-offs, tight little grey tee, lacy socks and tennis shoes, her hair in a high pony tail; God she looked like she was fifteen.  

She stopped in front of the table he'd kissed her at once and turned to him saying softly "I'm here.  Talk."  He took a few steps closer and closing the distance between them, making her body heat up in his proximity.

  "Camille, I..." he started but she moved even closer to him, grabbed his biceps, turned his body and backed him up to the table, now standing between his legs, she reached up to his chin with her index finger, running it softly along the underneath and kissed him; he just stood there for a moment, shocked at her boldness, but soon fell into the rhythm of her kiss.  They both slowly pulled away from each other, their lips tingling from the passion of it.  

"That was, uh" he started. 

 "Yeah, it was" she finished as she laid her forehead to his.

Neither one of them noticed Dante in the doorway but heard him when he mumbled "It's about damn time."  She blushed as he smirked. 

 "Have dinner with me" he breathed as he placed kisses on her cheek.  Now it was her turn to smirk.

  "I seem to be having a little deja vu right now and if memory serves me correctly this is where it all started; you kissing me, here on this table and then asking me to dinner" she answered him back. 

 "You're right but I am going to alter the history a little bit and do things differently" he said. 

 "And what would that be, Mr. Giossi?" she asked, toying with him a bit as he started to nibble on her neck. 

 "This time I won't let you walk away" he said adamantly.