He stays inside me for several moments with his forehead pressed against mine. Both of us are breathing hard, and I can feel his heart pounding against my chest. Eventually, he pulls out slowly and carefully lowers me until my feet touch the tile.
My legs almost give out and he steadies me with his hands on my waist.
"Oh, my God, that was… holy fuck…" I lean against the wall for support and press my eyes closed.
"Yeah." Dimitri kisses my forehead. "It was."
He reaches for the soap and quickly washes himself off. Then he hands it to me and steps under the spray to rinse. The water runs clear down his body, and I watch him, feeling my entire perspective begin to shift. I've had a few of these "awakening" moments with him, where I've seen him in a new light and my mind has changed about him, but never one this significant.
I'm falling in love.
And I don't want to stop.
"Rinse off," he says as he steps out of the shower and grabs a towel. "I have to go to work, but I'll be back with lunch later."
"You're leaving?" I take the soap and start washing quickly while trying not to sound disappointed. After that, I hoped we'd be able to lie in bed and talk a while. It doesn’t seem fair that we connect and then he has to rush off.
"I have meetings I can't reschedule." He dries himself as he looks up at me, and I can't hide my frown. "But I'll only be gone a few hours. Stay in the penthouse, and don't open the door for anyone except me or Gleb."
"I know the rules," I grumble, rinsing the soap off and turning off the water. "I'm not going to try running again."
"Good." He wraps a towel around his waist and hands me another one as I step out. "Because I'd hate to have to scrape you off the side of a building or some street somewhere."
He leaves the bathroom, and I hear him moving around the bedroom getting dressed. I dry myself off slowly while staring at my reflection in the steamed-up mirror. I feel like a stranger to myself. Since when do I let a man get me all boozed up and sweep me off my feet? But that's exactly what he did, isn't it?
And it makes me smile.
"I'm leaving." Dimitri appears in the doorway fully dressed. "There's food in the kitchen if you're hungry. And don't forget to lock the door behind me."
"I won't." I clutch the towel around myself. "Be safe."
Something flashes across his face when I say that, and he crosses the bathroom and kisses me.
"I'll see you in a few hours." He's gone before I can respond.
He leaves me standing there watching and wondering how my life will change now. With the upheaval of the past month, I’m not sure I need more change, but if it looks anything like the past twenty-four hours has been, I might not mind.
21
DIMITRI
My office is on the twelfth floor and the walk down from the penthouse gives me time to clear my head. The sex in the shower was incredible, but I can't afford to be distracted right now. I have a business to run and enemies to eliminate and keeping Tatiana safe requires constant vigilance.
I unlock my office door and settle behind my desk with my phone already in my hand. My first call is to check on the guard I sent to watch Arseniy at the hospital last night. I put Saveliy on night duty and Oleg on days. They're supposed to switch off at eight in the morning and it's already nine thirty, so I want to check that the handoff went smoothly before I get too far into my day.
The phone rings three times before the day guard answers. "Boss," he says, but I know it's not Saveliy as soon as I hear his voice. He should be home getting ready to catch a catnap before performing his other duties this afternoon, and someone has his phone?
"Why are you answering Saveliy's phone?" I lean back in my chair. "Where is he?"
"I don't know." The more he speaks, the more I recognize his voice. It's Oleg, sent to take over for him. "I showed up for my shift at eight and he wasn't here. The cousin's room is empty and there's blood on the floor."
Every muscle in my body tenses. "What do you mean, empty?"
"The patient is gone." He's talking fast now. "The nurses said he flatlined around six this morning. They tried to revive him but couldn't. By the time I got here, the body had already been moved to the morgue and Saveliy was nowhere."
"And you're just telling me this now?" I'm on my feet feeling my chest hammering. "Almost two fucking hours later?"
"I've been trying to piece together what happened," Oleg says, though he's right to have that anxious edge to his tone. This is no small thing. The man I promised to protect is dead now, and what will I tell Tatiana? "I was with the hospital security?—"
