His brows knit but then he curls a hand around my waist and rolls them so his body covers mine, and a mischievous smirk tugs at his lips. He slams into me, driving deep, and a moan slides from me at the sudden intensity of it.
He thrusts again, rolling his hips against me as I curl my legs around his hips, inviting him deeper still. Pulse racing, I arch from the bed and rake my nails down his back, groaning his name.
The heat between us is everything, and I give in to it as he draws my pleasure to the surface in all-encompassing waves. Release teases against my mind, playing about the edges of my nerves, and my entire body tenses with the scintillating heat.
Dimitri thrusts into me again, grazing his teeth along the line of my jaw, and he murmurs a low, reverent, “Vera,” as his thumb finds my clit.
I come apart beneath him and he catches my cry with his mouth. When he follows me over the edge moments later, he buries his face in my neck and holds me so tightly I can barely breathe.
When I at last come down from my high with my breathing rapid and my heart wild, I gaze at him as he lifts his head and lose myself in the depth of his dark eyes.
A slow smile spreads across his face, lighting his eyes and he draws me into a long, indolent kiss. Every part of me stirs in response, my heart beating a wholly different rhythm when he withdraws himself and settles at my side. He pulls me against his chest, one arm banded around my waist, the other hand stroking my hair with surprising gentleness.
“Sleep,” he murmurs against my temple. “You’re exhausted.”
I am. The emotional toll of the last few days crashes over me all at once. My eyelids grow heavy. My body melts into his warmth.
“Don’t leave me,” I murmur, feeling so warm and soft and cozy.
“I won’t,” he promises, running his fingers through my hair.
Just before I drift off, I feel him press a kiss to the top of my head and his arms tighten around me like he’s afraid I might disappear.
The last thing I think before sleep claims me is that this feels right in a way nothing with Alexei ever did.
I wake to dampness between my legs and confusion fogging my brain.
For a mortifying moment, I think I’ve wet myself. Heat floods my face even though I’m alone (Dimitri’s side of the bed is empty and the sheets cool. He must have gone back to his room at some point).
But then I shift and feel the wetness spread. Too much to be...that. And something feels wrong. Off. There’s a heaviness low in my pelvis that wasn’t there before.
Dread creeps up my spine and I throw back the covers and my heart stops.
Red. Dark red, almost black in the weak late fall morning light. It’s smeared across my nightgown and staining the white sheets beneath me. There’s so much blood it looks like a crime scene.
For a moment, I’m annoyed. I started my period. Dammit.
But then it hits me. I can’t have started my period because I’m pregnant?—
No.
No, no, no, no,no.
My hands fly to my stomach. I’m bleeding. I’m bleeding and I’m pregnant and this can’t be happening. This can’t?—
“Dimitri!” My voice comes out strangled. Panicked.
Silence.
I touch the blood with trembling fingers, as if my eyes might be lying to me. As if maybe it’s not real, maybe I’m still asleep and this is just a nightmare.
But my fingers come away sticky and red and very,veryreal.
“DIMITRI!”
I have to get to him. I need to find help. The baby?—
I swing my legs over the side of the bed and try to stand. The moment my feet hit the floor, a sharp and vicious cramp knifes through my lower abdomen. It hurts so bad it steals my breath and I double over with a cry.
