It was soft. Tender. Filled with affection and love.
And I couldn’t help but melt against him, my hands finding his shoulder and the back of his neck, caressing the soft strands of hair at his nape, and sliding to the perfect but scarred skin of his chest, where the mark of his promise to me lay.
Dimitri brought my body closer to straddle his thighs and pulled his head back just enough for our noses to touch, sliding against each other affectionately. A soft smile tugged at the corners of his lips.
“I missed you,zhizn moya,” he said, fingers tracing slow patterns on my naked back. “During the decades we’ve been apart. During the tripI made right after we found each other again. During the days in that prison…I never stop missing you.”
A stuttering breath came out of my mouth, fanning over his lips. “I missed you too.” I paused, searching his eyes. He still looked tired. “What happened, Dimitri?”
He turned his head to the side, avoiding my gaze, his eyes haunted. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
He slid us lower into the tub and leaned over my shoulder to turn off the tap and grab a soap, sinking it into the water before rubbing my shoulders.
I waited. Waited for him to talk, to say anything. “You’re gonna have to talk about it at some point.”
“The only thing I can say is that I don’t want you there.”
My arms tensed under the water, hands freezing over his chest. He noticed and let out a sigh as he grabbed one of my hands to lather the soap along my arm.
“Look, there are thousands of prisoners, and about as many guards.”
“You know that with the amount of power you guys gave me, I could influence all of their emotions and turn them into whimpering, scared babies with just a look, right?”
One of his hands slipped behind my neck and forced me to look at him, bringing my face closer.
“Do you know what I’ll do if something happens to you?” he asked coldly. “Don’t you remember the three times I got you out of really dangerous situations?”
My throat bobbed.
“Peopledie. Cities turn to dust. Do you want your mate to end up buried beneath tons of rubble, never to be found again?”
My jaw dropped. It was the first time he acknowledged that Arc was indeed still in there.
“Don’t. Go. There.”
I didn’t push further, but my head fell between us in defeat. Arc was still there. Possibly hurt. If it took almost two weeks for Dimitri to get out, the people running that place must have been insanely powerful.
Dimitri sighed. “Give me a few days. I’ll figure something out. Butplease. Please, don’tgo.”
I looked into his eyes. His worried, terrified eyes. What was he scared of? Was it what was in there? The idea of me getting in danger? Or even just to go back?
He didn’t scare easily…And the thought made me uneasy.
“So…Tell me about you and angry bird. How didthathappen?” he asked, changing the subject and placing my ass back on the little seat to lift my leg and rub at the aching muscles.
I leaned back with a moan, my back resting against the tiled side of the tub.
“I’m not even sure,” I answered. “Something kinda snapped, and after a week of avoiding each other we were dry humping in the kitchen.”
Dimitri let out a chuckle. “Do you think that kitchen makes people horny?”
“I don’t think the kitchen is the issue,” I mused.
“True.”
He tilted his chin to the delicate chain hanging from my neck. “Have you told him yet?”
I shook my head, exhaling a shaky breath but enjoying the massage of my calf. “No, I haven’t.”
