I drew back, and bit down hard on his neck until I knew there’d be a mark tomorrow. He was mine as much as I was his. His presence inside my heart dug deeper than his fingertips.
Dmitri left fingerprints all over my soul, but I wanted him to leave more.
I wanted him to leave me completely unrecognizable.
Chapter fifty-nine
Alisa
The next morning I woke up so giddy I barely recognized myself. My cheeks hurt from how wide I was smiling. I curled into the rumpled sheets, enjoying the lingering scent of Dmitri. The frozen fragrance of newly fallen snow. When I stepped out of bed, the spot between my legs ached. But that physical reminder of last night just made me giddier.
Even when I padded into the living room, and found the apartment empty, not even that could dim the happiness flowing through my entire body. I spied a yellow note on the front door and read it.
“DO NOT leave the apartment, Alisa.”
Like I wanted to go anywhere else.
You’d have to drag me out kicking and screaming.
Humming to myself, I opened the refrigerator. My smile deepened impossibly wide when I realized Dmitri had replenished the stock, and I had all the ingredients to make another round of muffins.
This time, I’dmake surethey weren’t burnt.
I finished the batter with a flourish of chocolate chips, Dmitri’s favorite, and fished my phone out while secretly hoping for a text from him.
The smile dropped off my face when I saw it was from Gemma. Icy fingers caught on my intestines at the reminder of all the responsibilities that laid outside the front door.
Beyond this warm, cozy house was everything I’d been able to block out while underneath Dmitri’s dominating touch. No matter how hard Dmitri fucked me, Gemma remained in danger, the Pakhan’s competition still raged on, my father was sure to be pissed at me, and Roman…
Last night, I promised Dmitri that I’d tell him the name of the man who hurt me. But he’d awoken before me, and left before I could utter the name.
Thinking back to the raw anger on his face, maybe it was a good thing. First I needed to get Gemma outside of Roman’s clutches, because I doubted Dmitri would care about collateral damage.
After storing the mix in the fridge, I texted Gemma to come meet me here and instructed her not to mention it to anyone.
The response of ‘okayyyyyyyyyyyy’ told me she was weirded out by the tone of my text, but I didn’t care. Once she was in Dmitri’s house, she’d be safe. No one would be stupid enough to break into his apartment.
I shot Dmitri a text, giving him a heads-up Gemma was coming over.
He texted back immediately. ‘Fine. But don’t you dare leave the house.’
While I waited for Gemma to arrive, I settled under the fuzzy blanket and set the rest of my plan in motion. I contacted the men I’d previously arranged to get my mother into safetyifshe one day left my father. They agreed to do it for Gemma instead.
I would need to let Dmitri know before I gave them the okay to come to the apartment and pick up Gemma, but I needed to cross one bridge at a time. Already, there was going to be a hell of a lot of explaining to be had when Gemma arrived.
After receiving confirmation on the dollar amount, I opened the door to the room Dmitri had said the stuff from my apartment was stored.
When I flicked on the light in the room, I gasped. But it wasn’t because he’d thrown out all my ratty furniture.
No, it was because all of my books sat on a gorgeous white oak bookshelf. Dmitri hadn’t thrown a single dog-eared paperback away, and on the shelf below was…
A pristine first edition of the book Gemma mentioned I was dying to read. It was accompanied by every single book that author hadeverwritten. Even the out-of-print ones that went for thousands online. Tears welled in my eyes as I ran my fingers across the immaculate spines.
I couldn’t believe he’d paid such close attention, let alone doneall of this. I swallowed unsteadily as a tear tumbled down my cheek.
After I finished fondling the books, I turned my head and took in the shopping bags from Fifth Avenue. Underneath them were hangers full of designer dresses that cost more than a year’s rent at my old place.
My mouth dropped open when I realized that he’d followed through with his promise to replace the dress that he’d ripped in half while undressing me. Along withevery singleother color it came in.
