Fuck.
All I’d wanted was one night with no complications, and Dmitri was the definition of complicated. Certainly, the way Ifelt when I looked at him. My toes curled against the leather high heels I’d worn tonight. And that just reminded me of how my body had contorted as Dmitri brought me to orgasm so manyglorioustimes...
A soft, moist hand brushed against my shoulder, and I instinctively flinched away.
It felt like wrenching my head away from an incoming tsunami, but I turned my attention back to my target.
“What did you say?” I said with a polite smile.
“Is this your first time here? I’ve never seen you before,” Charles said. His gaze was still stuck on my chest like it had a magnet attached. Thankfully, he didn’t try to touch me again.
I shrugged. He actually noticed since my shoulders were within eyeline of my chest.
Charles didn’t actually care what I had to say. The mystery just added to the appeal. He could fill in the blanks so that I had the outlines of his fantasy.
The longer we sat here in silence, the closer I came to my goal.
My heart thudded when Dmitri’s eyes slid from the burly man he was speaking to and landed squarely on me.
It wasn’t directed at my chest, which Charles was still infatuated with. Dmitri’s gaze dug into my face, searching in a way that felt like he was seeing straight into my soul.
I squared my mind. There was no way he could know who I was.
I’d spent an hour carefully contouring my makeup, so that my eyes appeared closer together, and my nose slightly sharpened. Minute details that changed the overall image, so that even my own family wouldn’t have recognized me.
Still, the piercing look gave me pause, and my thudding heart didn’t stop for a moment. When I’d entered this room intent on quietly killing Charles, my heart rate hadn’t even increased. But one look from Dmitri and it was sailing closer to aFib.
I tore my gaze away from Dmitri and focused back on my full drink.
I wassafe, I reminded myself. I still had time to come to terms with my thoughts before I had to face Dmitri again. But when I glanced up from the marble bar, and over the shoulder of Charles’ leering expression, Dmitri wasn’t safely across the room.
No, he was purposely walking my way.
Suddenly, I felt like the one caught helplessly on a fishing line.
Maybe he just wanted a drink, I tried to reason. But that feeble hope shattered when he stepped right beside me, towering over me with a small smirk on his lips.
“Hello, kotenok.”
My heart thudded as I stared into Dmitri’s intense eyes. Eyesentirelyfocused on me. But it wasn’t just his eyes that had my heart ricocheting so hard that I was surprised Charles couldn't see the outlines of it with his gaze so intently focused on my chest.
No, it was what I felt when I stared back at Dmitri’s chiseled face. Or rather, what Ididn’tfeel.
Hate.
All the anger and hatred had fled my body. All those warring emotions were completely bereft, and I didn’t know how to feel about it. It’s why I’d fled that day after he fucked me in Jayden’s office. I’d spent the last week trying to convince myself it was just post-orgasm insanity.
But now I couldn’t deny it any longer.
“Do you know him?” Charles asked, extracting his gaze from my chest, and turning towards Dmitri.
I bit down on my lip as flashbacks of an orgasm swept my mind. His fingers roughly digging into my hips-
I swallowed, and tried to drown the flush threatening to build on my skin. Even if I could’ve formed the words, this wasn’t the time to articulate how I knew Dmitri.
So I just took another pretend sip of my drink. I stared pointedly ahead, hoping that Dmitri would realize that now wasnotthe time.
Of course, he didn’t move away. Instead, he settled into the seat right beside me.
