Chapter 13 - The Touch in the Dark|
"What do you mean, I don't?" I stood up from the bed, wearing a simple silk robe Irina had given me, stepping right up to him. "You can't keep me here forever, Dimitri! I have a life!"
"You had a life, Elena," he corrected, his voice dropping into a low, intense register. "A life where you worked eighteen hours a day for men who didn't know your name. A life where you starved in a two-room apartment while your landlord threatened you."
"It was my life!" I shouted, tears of frustration burning my eyes. "It was honest! It was safe!"
"Safe?" Dimitri let out a dark, bitter laugh, stepping closer until his chest almost touched mine. "You almost took a high-caliber round through your chest four nights ago because you sat in a booth next to me! Nothing about your life was safe!"
"Because of you!" I yelled, striking his chest with my fist. "Because I saved you!"
Dmitri caught my wrist mid-air.
His grip was firm, but he didn't hurt me. He pulled my hand flat against his chest, right over his beating heart.
"Yes," he whispered, his storm-gray eyes locking onto mine with a fierce, suffocating intensity. "Because of me. Because you touched me, Elena. And in my world, once something belongs to me, I never let it go."
The air in the room turned white-hot.
My breath caught in my throat. I stared up at his sharp jawline, his dark eyelashes, his parted lips. The sheer, overwhelming presence of him swept away every fear, every doubt, every voice of reason in my head.
I didn't pull my hand away.
I slid my fingers up his broad chest, over his scarred collarbone, until my fingers touched the soft hair at the nape of his neck.
"I don't belong to you," I whispered raspy.
Dimitri’s eyes darkened into pure hunger.
May you like
"Prove it," he growled.
Then he leaned down and pulled my mouth into his.
