Chapter 21
I have to remind myself to breathe—almost to remind my heart to beat! - Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights
Emma
I flattened my back against the grimy hallway wall as the bouncers dragged the odious drunk away.
Sick relief twisted my stomach. Thank God Dimitri hadn’t killed him.
I didn’t think I could live with that on my conscience.
The man was bent in half, his head lowered so I couldn’t tell if there were any injuries.
Moments later, Dimitri appeared.
I scanned his appearance, looking for traces of blood or violence.
There was none.
Seeing me, his arms opened. I ran into them. That was when I finally felt safe and knew the worst was over, when his powerful embrace closed around me. He buried his hands in my hair as he whispered in Russian against the top of my head before cupping my jaw and tilting my head back.
His dark gaze pierced my own. Leaning down, he gave me a fierce kiss on the lips before trailing his mouth over my cheekbone to once again hug me close.
Mike cleared his throat. “I disabled the alarm on the emergency door. You can sneak out through the back.”
I didn’t look up but could feel Dimitri shift as he stuck out his arm to shake Mike’s hand. “Any issues?” With my ear pressed to his chest, his words were a low rumble.
“None. No one heard a thing.”
“And the staff?”
“They saw nothing,” Mike answered pointedly.
Shifting me to his side, with one arm still wrapped securely across my back, he reached into his pocket and pulled out his money clip. Tossing it to Mike, he said, “Count off three bills for each of you.”
Without arguing, Mike opened the clip and counted out the required number of hundred-dollar bills before handing it back to Dimitri. “Thanks, man.”
He nodded. “Thank you .”
Just then, Mary stroked my back. Her lips trembled. “I’m so sorry, Emma. I didn’t know.”
I moved to hug her, but Dimitri tightened his embrace. I sent him an entreating look. Slowly, he relented, but kept a hand on my lower back as I turned to hug Mary.
“It wasn’t your fault. I should have realized he followed me back here.”
“I’m going to clock out. We’ll go home. I’ll run you a bath and—”
Dimitri interrupted Mary. “She’s coming home with me.”
Mary lowered her head as she swiped at the tears and smeared mascara on her cheeks. “Of course. Yes, that would probably be best.”
“But—” I objected.
Dimitri placed a hand under my chin and tilted my head back. “You are in enough trouble as it is, моя крошка. Don’t push me on this. You are coming home with me.”
Trouble?
Uh oh.
In all the drama I’d forgotten I had misled Dimitri about my plans this evening, knowing in my gut he would disapprove.
Mary patted my upper arm. “It’s fine, Emma. You should go with Dimitri.”
Not only for Mary’s sake, but for my own. Suddenly not wanting to be alone with Dimitri, I grasped the lapels of his suit jacket. “Dimitri, Mary has had a scare too. I don’t want her to be alone right now.”
His jaw tightened. Without saying a word, he took out his phone and typed in a quick text one-handed, then placed the phone back in his inside jacket pocket.
“Mary, you remember my friend, Vaska Lukovich?”
She nodded.
“Good. He is on his way over here to escort you home. He will also stay as long as you need.”
Mary shook her head, her cheeks brightening. “That isn’t necessary. I’m fine getting home on my own. Really.”
“It’s done. I recommend you be here when he arrives. He doesn’t have my sweet demeanor and will be upset if he has to… track you down.”
Mary and I exchanged a wide-eyed glance. “Yes, sir,” she whispered.
Dimitri held me close as he ushered me through the kitchen and out a side door into the icy darkness.
Closing his warm hand over mine, he pulled me through the parked cars till we were in an open space in an upper corner of the lot.
There was the dull roar of an engine, then the wind kicked up, blowing my hair over my face.
Brushing it back with my forearm, I realized it was a red helicopter, hovering dangerously low just above us.
Dimitri motioned for it to lower further down.
“Are you crazy?” I shouted. “I’m not getting in that thing!”
Leaning over me, he said close to my ear so I could hear over the whirring blades, “You don’t have a choice.”
Snatching me around the waist, Dimitri ducked as he stepped up to the helicopter. Grabbing onto a dangling strap, he stepped onto the skids and vaulted through the gaping doorway with me in tow.
I clung to his neck with my head buried in his shoulder as I felt him wrap a restraint around the both of us. His arm shifted as he banged on the roof. Peeking from behind my now hopelessly tossed hair, I saw the pilot give him a thumbs up before the helicopter rose into the air.
My stomach flipped as I felt the g-force against my body.
Digging my fingernails into the fabric of his suit, I clung to him harder.
The roar of the helicopter drowned out my screams and prevented any conversation, not that I would have been capable of forming words.
The cabin of the helicopter bobbed and shifted as we headed downtown at a high speed, skirting over the tops of Chicago’s iconic skyscrapers.
Hazarding a peek, I could see the dark waters of Lake Michigan below us as whitecaps crashed onto the rocks.
Oh, God!
Dimitri held me tighter.
Our velocity slowed as we hovered for a moment and then dropped.
It suspended us over a residential rooftop.
I could see the cold fire pit and the lounge chairs surrounding it.
Sticking out from the roof to the right was a small brick building with an entire wall of French doors, which reflected the flashing white, yellow, and green lights of the helicopter.
Dimitri released my harness. “There’s no landing pad. Roof can’t take the weight. Need to jump!” he shouted.
Was he crazy?
As much as I was afraid to get in the helicopter, I was now more afraid to jump out of it.
As the helicopter hovered several feet from the rooftop, Dimitri hopped down first, then turned and held out his arms.
Clinging to the leather bucket seat, I shook my head. There was no way I was doing this.
Shouting over the commotion, Dimitri said, “Trust me, Emma.”
Prying my fingers off the seat back, I shimmied to the edge of the seat and gingerly put the toes of my boots on the landing skids.
“Push yourself away. I’ll catch you.”
Squeezing my eyes tight, I screamed as I pushed my hips against the seat and thrust out from my knees.
I was suspended in the air for one terrifying second before Dimitri’s muscular arms wrapped around me like steel bands.
Rounding his shoulders, he ducked and swooped around, moving us farther from the already rising helicopter.
The moment we were clear, Dimitri’s hand cradled my skull as he captured my mouth in a soul-searing kiss.
The wind from the propellers swept my curls around both of our shoulders as I lost myself in his taste and touch as his tongue swept in to take possession.
Moving his hands down, he clasped my jeans-clad bottom and pulled my hips close till the hard ridge of his arousal pressed against my middle.
Thank God he had arrived in time. I didn’t even want to think about what could have happened tonight if he hadn’t found me when he did.
I needed to push those horrifying thoughts from my head and focus on the feel of his arms, but it seemed impossible.
My mind wouldn’t relent with the terrifying images of what could have been.
The helicopter sped away. A strange stillness settled over the surrounding air. It sounded almost unnatural after so much chaos, noise, and light. As if that and the earlier events should have somehow left their scar on the quiet night.
Dimitri wrapped his hands around my jaw, warming my chilled cheeks. His voice matched the darkness that surrounded us. It was a deep, low growl. “Do you have any idea how angry I am with you?”
I blinked, trying to wrap my mind around the sudden dangerous shift in mood.
I surveyed his face. The shadows deepened the sharp planes of his brow and cheekbones giving him an almost sinister appearance. With a gasp, I tried to take a step back. His hands tightened around my jaw before moving to my throat.
“You lied to me.”
I wrapped my fingers around his wrists. “I didn’t mean to. It was a foolish thing to do.”
He nodded slowly, his gaze fixed on my mouth. “Yes, and I’m about to show you just how foolish.”
My heart hammered in my chest. “What are you going to do, Dimitri?”
His hard flinty gaze narrowed. Without saying a word, he took a step back and kept his eyes on me as he reached for his belt buckle.
A traitorous shock of arousal struck between my legs. It was wrong. Twisted.
He slipped the leather belt through his pants’ belt loops. Hooking his foot around the leg of a nearby square glass table, the metal legs screeched along the hard cement rooftop as he pulled it between us. “Lower your jeans and bend over.”
“Dimitri—”
“Now, Emma!”
I jumped at his barked command.
Lowering my head, I stared at the heavy glass surface of the table. I wasn’t seriously thinking about doing this, was I? Lowering my jeans and letting a man belt me like a naughty child?
This was insane.
Probably criminal, even.
“You have a decision to make, Emma. I warned you there would be rules I expected you to obey.”
“Yes, but you never said—”
“I didn’t think I had to mention explicitly that not lying to me was one of the fucking rules,” he growled. “Now you have two seconds to bend over and take your punishment. Trust me, you don’t want to know what happens if you defy me in this.”
My lower lip trembled. Towering over me with his brow lowered and dark eyes filled with anger, he looked terrifying. The angrier he got, the deeper his Russian accent became, which made him even scarier.
With a sob, my hands shook as I felt for the brass button fastening to my jeans.