My hands shake as I turn towards him. He tips his head up, and I can see his face under the mask. My heart threatens to leap out of my chest when my eyes meet his icy blue gaze.
“Dimitri,” I manage to squeak out.
“Hello, Savina,” he says, his voice deep and gravelly.
Trying to calm my nerves so that he doesn’t notice that I’m completely and utterly shocked, and a little turned on — okay,a lotturned on — by his costume, I pick up my rum and coke and take a long drink.
“I see you received my gift,” he says, confirming my suspicions.
I hate to admit it but the fact that Dimitri sent it and not his brother fills me with a sick sense of satisfaction and longing. “I did,” I say quietly.
His hand moves towards my hair, and I watch as he runs the thick braid through his fingers. “I couldn’t be the Big Bad Wolf without having my Little Red Riding Hood by my side tonight.”
I swallow hard. “My stepmother almost killed me when she saw I wasn’t wearing the costume she picked out for me.”
“I’m glad you chose wisely,” he remarks with a smirk.
“Well, it’s not like I had much of a choice anyway. The dress she sent was too small,” I mutter miserably. “In fact, the moment I walked in here, she told me I need to go on another diet,” I huff out with a laugh. Maybe it’s the alcohol doing the talking right now, but I decide that I don’t care.
Dimitri is quiet, and I look over to see his serious face shrouded by shadows. “You don’t need to go on a diet, Savina. You are perfect just the way you are,” he assures me. I’m so taken aback by Dimitri’s words that they manage to render me speechless. “Maybe I should pour more of her fucking alcohol down the drain,” he mutters then.
“So thatwasyou!” I exclaim with a giggle. “I knew it!”
The corner of his mouth pulls up. “Cosette better watch out. I know where she hides thegood stuff.”
“I can’t believe you did that,” I say to myself more than to him. Once again, Dimitri has surprised me in definitely a good way. I nurse my drink, not wanting to lose my head, because I already have an overwhelming urge to kiss him right now. Sure, he’s done some horrendous things to me in the past, like making up rumors about me in high school and beating up my boyfriend. But maybe he’s outgrown those juvenile tendencies. Maybe now he just wants to protect me. He’s been proving that fact almost every single day by his actions. And, hey, people can change, right? I just never thought Dimitri was capable of it. Until now. It’s just unfortunate that I didn’t know this side of him untilafterthe contract was changed. Because knowing what I know now, I would have protested in my father’s office that night, and I never would have signed the new one.
“Want to go for a walk?” Dimitri suggests, pulling me from my reverie.
“Sure,” I say softly.
We walk side by side through the ballroom, looking very much like a couple in our matching costumes. With the masks covering most of our faces, I don’t feel as shy or worried about who could see us like this together and wonder if there’s more to our friendship. And when Dimitri puts his hand on my lower back to guide me through a congested part of the crowd, I don’t shrink away from his touch. I embrace it.
He guides me outside into the cool, night air, which smells like fresh cut grass and roses. “Where are we going?” I question.
“You’ll see,” he says cryptically.
Feeling nervous but trying to play it cool, I follow him towards the huge maze my stepmother had been bragging about at the wedding cake tasting.
“They spent three million dollars creating this maze,” Dimitri says. “And they spend fifty thousand a year maintaining it. There is only one point of entry and one exit but five different ways you can navigate it to escape.”
“You sure know a lot about this maze,” I say dryly.
“I spent hours researching it. I know every twist and turn. I know how to get in and out. I know where a person could hide, because I know every nook and cranny of that fucking maze,” he says confidently.
“W-w-why would you want to know all of that?” I stammer in a whisper as my façade slowly crumbles and my anxiety shines through.
“Because I’m going to chase you through it,privighetoarea mea mica.”
I swallow hard at his words. He can’t be serious.Can he?
“I want you to run, Savina. Run for your life,” he demands. “Because if I catch you, I’m going to fucking eat your pussy until you beg me to stop,” he warns in a deep growl before bearing his long and sharp incisors.
In the moonlight, I can see that he has prosthetic fangs that I didn’t notice earlier. They look absolutely terrifying. My thighs clench together as I stare up at this…beast. This is one of my dirtiest fantasies that I’ve hidden away in the back of my mind for a long time. He couldn’t possibly know that unless he somehow burrowed his way inside my brain…or read my private diary. The latter option seems like the most probable conclusion. But I can’t even say I’m mad about him invading my privacy. Not when he’s going to help me create a fantasy I never thought I would get to experience. Maybe it’s the liquid courage coursing through my veins or maybe it’s the fact that I’m so turned on right now that I can’t even string together a single, sane thought, but I turn and run through the entrance of the maze. I run as fast as I can as my heart threatens to beat its way out of my chest.
Let this sick and twisted game begin.
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
