12. Dimitri
PRESENT DAY
One look. That’s all it took.
Her laid out on that bed, cuffed and gagged. Beautiful beyond any woman I had ever seen, despite her terror and captivity. Or, perhaps, in some sick way, because of it.
Like Perseus flying high and looking down to see a chained Andromeda, I’ve fallen down a hole so deep, I don’t think I’ll ever climb out.
It’s not love. I know that. I’ve only just met this woman. It’s something new, though, and fierce.
One look, and I’m burning for her.
One look, and I want to possess her.
One look, and I’d kill to protect her.
To keep her.
To devour her and consume her.
To make her mine and only mine.
I never wanted to have a woman beside me. To chain her to my fate as the heir to my stepfather’s Bratva throne. They would be nothing but collateral, and I’ve never wanted anyone enough to risk that. Now though? Now I see a future flashing before me where I enter rooms with this stunning woman by my side, every single gaze on me in jealousy because she’s that fucking gorgeous.
Being the queen of all we own would be a gift worthy of her beauty. If one day I became king, she’d be a fitting wife by my side, and someone I’d go to war to protect.
Fuck.
Have I gone insane?
Or … have I woken up after a long, slow sleep where I felt dead inside.
I’m not sure, but whichever it is, I have no choice in this.
As she stares up at me, with the most bewitching eyes I’ve ever seen, her pupils expanding, her breathing slowing, I know instinctively I’m not alone in this screwed up, heady magic.
If I have no choice in whatever is happening here, my only comfort is … neither does she.