title: Protected by His Shadow
author: Cortese, M.J.
description: A year ago Izabella Van Strauss (Bella) thought her life was perfect, ambitious and energetic; living carefree from the ties of a husband or significant other to bind her of her single life. As she glances over the dining room table, she sees him; Nicholas De Basilone (Niko) and wonders how he changed it all. The power he enforced upon her was stronger than anything she had ever encountered. He offered her everything she needed but didn't want. He gave himself solely to her as his confidence told him that she was definitely the one. She was an old girlfriend from his past, she has become his present and now he will have to secure her emotions to keep her in his future. He is very careful not to do anything that might endanger their new life. Their time together is valuable and she is very precious to him. There is a calmness about her that settles him into her sweet serenity. All the years before him seem to fade into a distant memory of someone else's past. The tenderness of this new life with him annihilated her control.