Chapter 24
Chapter twenty-four
Alisa
I surveyed the room, my stomach bottoming out when I realized there was only one bed. The only other furniture was a hard-backed chair near the fireplace.
“Any chance you’ll give me the bed?” I asked, not feeling the least bit hopeful about his response.
Dmitri sat down on the bed, his weight bringing the mattress down. “I warned you, I’m not a gentleman.”
With a sigh, I slumped onto the hardback chair, shifting my weight so the hard edge wasn’t digging into my back.
“So fucking stubborn, kotenok,” Dmitri said, lying back and leaning his sculpted arms behind his head.
Flutters erupted in my stomach as I stared at his muscular arms. I quickly glanced away, a flush spreading across my neck.
He chuckled deeply. That did nothing for the redness when I remembered it’d been that very sound that had set me off in the shower.
I curled my legs underneath me, but immediately set them back down when I realized how much skin my nightgown showed off. I shifted my position, and the wood frame of the chair dug even further into my back. This was going to be such a long night.
Unless…
I stared longingly at the empty spot to the side of Dmitri. The soft cotton sheets and the non-woodenness of the mattress taunted me. There was no way I’d fall asleep tonight if I stayed on this chair, and the alternative of a cold floor didn’t offer any respite.
I couldn't afford to be any less than one hundred percent alert tomorrow. I’d need to be on guard against Jayden, and figure out a way to take him down. Drowsiness was the last thing I needed.
Crossing my arms, I appraised the queen sized bed.
Maybe I could just separate it out and keep Dmitri on his side of the bed. Tentatively I stood up and moved to the foot of the bed.
“If I sleep here, you don’t cross my side of the bed,” I said, leaning forward to point at the section.
His eyes flashed to my chest now pressing forward from the movement. I immediately crossed my arms over my hardening nipples.
“Can you do that?” I asked, crossing my arms even tighter.
His gaze leisurely moved up my chest, along my neck, and finally landed on my face. Goosebumps pricked in their wake.
“Lie down, kotenok,” he said, his voice gravelly.
My knee nudged against the heavenly soft mattress. “This is my side of the bed,” I reminded him before crawling onto the bed.
His gaze found my exposed legs, and I knew exactly what he thought of the position I was in. I immediately regretted not walking around the bed and lying down like a normal person.
To make up for it, I burrowed underneath the sheets and tucked them just below my chin. His lips twitched at my attempt at modesty. Dmitri stretched out his arm and turned the light off.
Darkness engulfed us, only the cold moonlight portraying the outlines of his body. The heat of him was a constant reminder of his nearness, so I inched away.
When I reached the edge of the mattress, Dmitri rolled on his side. I tried to ignore the shadowy outline of his broad chest.
“Do I make you nervous?” Dmitri asked. I couldn’t see the smirk, but I could almost hear it in his voice.
“No,” I said automatically, unsure if it was a lie.
Dmitri laughed softly. “Then why are you about to fall off the bed?”
“Because I know you won’t respect the boundaries of the bed.”
He tsked. “Why do I get the feeling that respectful is the last thing you want me to be?”
Something fluttered in my lower belly. With the darkness settling over me like a blanket, I felt no guilt in rubbing my thighs together to try to ease the tension.
“What do you want, Alisa?” Dmitri asked, his voice gravelly.
I was silent for a moment. My body was telling me exactly what it wanted, but as if of its own volition, my mind began replaying Kiril’s last moments.
“You can’t give me what I want,” I breathed. “No one can.”
I expected a sarcastic comeback, but he must’ve sensed something in my voice because he nodded to himself.
“To have your brother back?” he guessed.
My throat became dry, and I couldn’t have uttered any words even if I could’ve found the right ones.
“Alisa, I can’t bring him back, but I can make you forget everything for a little while.”
In the marrow of my bones, I somehow knew he was the only person capable of following through with that promise.
Since that day I’d lost Kiril, it was like all the light in my life became as muted as this room. The disappointed look on my mother’s face when she glanced at me. The whispers in my mind that it should’ve been me that died instead of Kiril. The pain of my father’s fists.
All the pain of everyone around me had sunk deep inside me, and my guilt was drowning me.
Could I even escape that? I stared into the dark space where Dmitri’s huge hands were, and something shifted inside of me. Ironically, if anyone could make me forget the day I lost Kiril, it was the very person who’d started it all.
The idea of sinking into blissful nothingness had a magnetic effect. My body inched towards him.
This meant nothing.
When I could feel the heat of his body near the boundary I’d designated, I knew I was crossing a line that I’d never be able to take back.
But all I wanted was a respite.
Even if in the morning, I knew I’d hate myself.
The moment my hand skated against the muscled tendons of his arm, a moan slipped out of me.
He roughly grabbed me by the throat and yanked me against him. I opened my mouth to his dominating lips and allowed myself to succumb to the ferocious explorations of his tongue.
Dmitri kissed like he fought: with the firm knowledge that any resistance was futile.
My nails sliced into his muscular back, and his grip became bruising. I gasped around his kiss.
I came up for air, a silent surrender. And his mouth lowered towards my chest. Sparks burst in my vision as he bit down, marking his territory. But what surprised me was the mindless way I ground up against him.
“Such a needy little kitten,” Dmitri murmured in between bites, roughly pulling down my nightgown to expose my breasts to his hungry hands.
I opened my mouth, but when his tongue found my nipple, any retort was lost to the pleasure.
“You taste fucking perfect,” he growled.