Page 113 of Hidden Empire

Dmitri looks like he wants to touch me. Maybe to caress my cheekbone as he likes to do or to tuck a piece of hair behind my ear, but he holds back. I’m really starting to hate the fact that we’re a secret.

“You don’t want her to look at me, love?”

“Not like that,” I gripe, feeling my nails dig into my palms.

“What is she looking at me like?”

I scowl at the question. “Like she wants you.” I reach out, putting a possessive hand over his heart. To hell with secrecy. I’ll fend off any rumors if it means laying claim to him. Again. Clearly, this girl wasn’t at the party where I drew on him, but I'll be more than happy to give her a reminder if she was. “Like she has the right to gawk at you. Like she’s never been punched in the face before, and maybe she needs to be.”

“Fucking hell, you’re so pretty when you’re angry.”

I like that he doesn’t accuse me of being jealous. Being jealous means that she has something I want, and she very well fucking doesn’t. I’m not jealous, I’m livid.

How dare she look at him like she’s pulling off his shorts with her eyes!

“Have you slept with her before?” I ask hastily. “Is that why she thinks she can look at you like that?” I get to look at him like that. Nobody else.

Dmitri blinks but slowly grins. “What if I have? What would you do to her, baby?”

I hate this question because I know he’s teasing me. Makes me want to lick that stupid, gorgeous smirk right off of his face.

I don’t take my hand off of him. I tighten the pressure there instead, demonstrating how serious I am. “I’d probably do something crazy like find out what building she lives in and then kill her in her sleep.”

If he’s surprised by my bold words, he doesn’t show it. Instead, his hands surround my neck, and he peers down into my eyes.

“It’s a good thing that I’ve never even talked to that girl then, hm?”

“How do you know?” I demand. “You haven’t even looked at her.”

“Why would I move my eyes off of something glorious to glance at anything less?”

If I wasn’t throbbing for him already, I would be now.

“And I know, because I’ve never even wanted another girl on this campus. Not in any of the years before you, and sure as fuck not after I’ve got you.”

My heart warms, but the upset doesn’t dissolve entirely.

Only moderately appeased, I fold my arms over my chest. “I still don’t like her looking at you.”

“You want to do something about it?”

“Like poke her eyes out?” I ask bitterly.

His voice rumbles out of him like a purr. “Like showing her that she shouldn’t drool over your man. Like showing her I’m so wrapped around your little finger, she doesn't stand a chance.”

With his hands still wrapped around the sides of my neck, I drag my fingers up his forearms and grab them, pulling them down. He tilts his head, a question lingering in his eyes, but I don’t give him the chance to ask it.

“There are locker rooms here, aren’t there?”

He nods to the side, head pointing out the direction of them.

“Good,” I rasp, licking my lips. “Take me to one.”

With an aroused glint in his eye, he takes my hand, not even pausing to enact the order. I have to scramble to keep up with his long strides, my heart racing with excitement in my chest. As we approach his chosen door, he calls out to Ivan.

“No one goes in,” he demands, voice firm with warning.

Immediately, the two men sitting with Ivan stand, moving to guard the door. Ivan chuckles, turning to bark some orders in Russian that I don’t comprehend at all. But it doesn’t matter, Dmitri is already pulling me into the locker room.

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