Page 104 of Sinful Lies

“No!” I cry out, doing my best to fight against him, but he’s too strong. He pins my wrists above my head with one hand as the other manages to rip my panties away, leaving me bare.

“I’ll make this good for you, Zara.”

“Stop.” I sob, my entire body trembling as Giovanni thrusts his hips?—

I jerk awake, bolting upright as my hand flies to my throat. I can’t breathe, my chest tight as my lungs try to fill with air, but I’m sobbing so hard that I can’t.

I can’tbreathe?—

Strong arms are around me, and I cry out, my heart racing even harder.

“Please, stop… Please.” I sob, my arms lashing out as I try to fight him off.

“Zara,sladkaya, it was just a dream.” Dimitri wraps his arms around me, pulling me back against his chest.

“No, no, no.” My head falls back against his shoulder as tears continue to stream down my face.

“Shh…” Dimitri gently rocks me. “It was just a dream.”

My body is drenched in sweat, and I can’t stop shaking as Dimitri holds me, whispering in my ear to try and calm me down.

Focusing on the soft thud of his heart and the warm feeling of his hands on my arms, I try to fight the demons in my head.

I thought I was past the days of waking up in a panic, convinced that I was reliving my nightmare. Ever since Dimitri has been sleeping beside me, I’ve fallen into dreamless sleeps, content to be wrapped up in his arms, knowing that I’m safe.

But I knew the bubble was going to burst eventually. Giovanni will want revenge against Dimitri, and he’ll take it out on me.

“Dimitri.” I sob, turning my head so that I can bury my face against his neck.

“Shh…” He maneuvers me onto his lap, holding me against his chest. “I’m right here.”

“I-I’m so scared.”

“I know,zhizn’ moya, I know.” He kisses my forehead.

“He…he hurt me, Dimitri.”

“Who did, Zara?Zhizn’, tell me.”

I screw my eyes shut, andhe’s right there. “Giovanni..”

Dimitri curses, his arms tightening around me as he rocks me back and forth.

“I was just an intern, working a summer job during my sophomore year of college and Giovanni was one of the most powerful men at the firm.”

My body is shaking as my mind goes back. “I was the perfect prey. He knew I would be too scared to speak out against him, and he was right. After all, who would believe a naive twenty-year-old? It was his word against mine, and I knew if it came down to picking sides, I would be the one to suffer the consequences.”

“Did you tell anyone there?”

I shake my head. “It would have followed me around for the rest of my career. I would be a walking HR nightmare, so I had to make a choice. And for a while I could convince myself I made the right one. I was almost to a point where my past was starting to feel exactly that, the past.”

Dimitri squeezes me tight against him.

I laugh, an almost maniac sound. “But that would be too good, so, of course, Giovanni Saccone had to walk into the boardroom a few months ago to be announced as one of the new senior partners ofSpencer & Meyers,and my new boss.” I shiver. “One look at his face, and I almost vomited right on the conference table.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Everything I worked so hard to leave behind, thefeelings I spent hours journaling through, trying to work out what I did wrong, came flooding back in an instant. And he fucking knew it too. Even told me having me working there was what tipped the scale as the perfect bonus.”

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