Slowly, I reached for her dress, pausing to make sure she hadn’t drifted into that other mental place. When her eyes met mine, I peeled it off, noting the swelling on her ribs and the bruises peppering her pale skin.
Never again.
Chapter sixty-three
Alisa
My stomach twisted as Dmitri’s eyes dragged over my bare skin. While his eyes traced the darkening bruises, his expression remained as unreadable as slate.
I thought back to the nights after my father had beaten me bloody and swollen. Remembered men who’d once been addicted to the feel of my body that had stopped calling after they caught a glimpse of what my body looked like after my father’s fists had painted me black and blue.
Even though Dmitri had just beaten Roman to a pulp for hurting me, a familiar insecurity wormed its way under my skin. It felt far more insidious than any poison. As it entered my system, the desire to hide slithered through my veins.
Now naked with nowhere to hide from his focused gaze, I slid into the bathtub, feeling far more vulnerable than I’d like.
“What is it, Alisa?” Dmitri asked, an edge to his voice.
All of those worries danced in my throat, but I refused to let them control me.
“Will you join me?”
There was a pleading tone to my voice, but I didn’t care. I needed him to touch me, and vanquish all of my fears. Erase the reminders of Roman’s fists when I caught sight of my ribs. Dmitri’s touch had the power to make everything else disappear.
Wordlessly, Dmitri unbuttoned his shirt. I swallowed thickly as his nimble fingers slowly revealed his muscular chest. So many times he’d stripped the clothes from our skin, and my inhibitions along with it, but there was something different about this moment.
Something had shifted between us.
His fingers revealed the hard lines of his abdomen, and I bit down on my bottom lip.
Black ink covered his skin, and I wanted to hear the story behind each tattoo. When he shifted his position, the tattoos rippled across his huge form. Compulsively, I ran my wet fingers over his eight pack.
A deep groan sounded from the back of Dmitri’s throat.
“You like that, kitten?” he said, his voice gravelly.
My fingers trailing towards the waistband of his pants was the only answer he needed.
Dmitri’s eyes darkened as he grabbed my hand and pressed it against the rock-hard bulge straining against his pants.
“Do you feel that, Alisa?” he said, his voice a rumble. “That’s what you do to me. You make those cute little noises, and I want to make you scream my name until you’re unable to speak.”
His words triggered something in me. I squeezed my fingers around his thick girth.
Dmitri’s head fell backwards as I stroked him over his pants. Warmth danced across my skin as I listened to the appreciative sounds coming out of his mouth.
Suddenly his head snapped forward, his irises nearly invisible from the dilation of his pupils. “Is that what you want, Alisa?”
Panting, I reached for his belt, desperate to have him inside of me. Desperate to fill the space in between my legs that was aching for friction.
Dmitri stopped my hand, his eyes dark.
“No, kitten. If you want me to break you in half tonight, we do it my way.Tell me what you want.”
My legs tightened at the command in his voice. After fighting for my life and against my mind, all I wanted was to listen and allow someone else to make me feel good.
No, notjustsomeone else.
There was no man but him. When he’d stormed into that warehouse all the air had returned to my lungs. I’d been fighting against blacking out from the memories and pain, but warm peace had flowed through my body when I caught sight of his furious expression.
