Page 131 of Bratva Butcher

It fell quiet between us, but not an awkward kind of quiet. A more peaceful, tranquil kind of quiet that I rather enjoyed.

I knew the peace couldn’t last forever, though. There was so much we needed to talk about. So much I still needed to tell himabout his father. But I was hesitant to ruin the moment. That nice, loving moment between us.

I wasn’t sure how long we lay there together in each other’s embrace. It could have been hours. It could have been minutes. What I was sure of, though, was that Dimitri had somehow fallen asleep, and I knew that because he did something so un-Dimitri-like.

He. Snuggled. Into. Me.

That shocked me for a multitude of reasons, the main one being I never would have envisioned a man like Dimitri—rugged, hard, emotionally unavailable—doing something as mundane as snuggle. Withmeof all people.

The sex must have really worn him out. So much so that his guard had dropped, allowing a little bit of vulnerability to come through.

What we had to talk about could wait. There was still a week left on Sergei’s ultimatum. I didn’t want to ruin the peaceful moment for him. For us.

Slowly, quietly, I slipped out from underneath him and hopped off the bed. He groaned again and readjusted, moving to his back, but he didn’t wake. Staying on the tips of my toes, I made my way over to the en suite to clean myself up.

When I got a look at myself in the mirror, I winced. I looked like I’d just fought for my life, my hair in complete disarray, blood smeared across my face and neck. Desire pulsed low in my belly.Fuck, I want him again.Already.

God, help me.

Shaking my head, I wet a hand towel and cleaned in between my thighs. The blood though… I should have cleaned it, but there was a part of me that didn’t want to.

You can’t go out in public looking like this,a voice tried to reason.

An idea popped into my head. I grabbed my phone from inside my pants and took a photo of me through the mirror—one with nothing but my motorcycle jacket on—and another standing completely naked, covered in Dimitri’s blood.

That way, I would always have a memento from the moment.

When I was completely dressed and clean, I went back into the bedroom. Dimitri was still in the same spot, breathing softly. He was out like a light, and this time, I knew he wasn’t faking it because he didn’t move an inch when I began to wipe away the blood on his chest. His eyes didn’t flutter when I applied antiseptic cream to the cuts. In fact, he started to snore just a little. Not the annoying kind, more the adorable kind that made a smile curl on my lips.

During our entire time incarcerated on Talon’s island, I’d never seen him sleep so peacefully. It made me wonder if it could have been me. CouldIhave been the reason for it?

After I was done, I began to gather my things to leave when I noticed a notepad and pen on the bedside table.

Why the fuck not?

I wrote my number on it. I didn’t write “Call me” or “This was fun, let’s do it again sometime”. Just ten digits. There would be no pressure that way. If he wanted to reach out and talk to me, he could.

The ball was in his court.

I quickly gathered up my shoes and backed out of the room without one last look at Dimitri’s sleeping form. I feared if I were to lay eyes on him again, I wouldn’t leave. And I had to. The moment had been perfect, in part because he had fallen asleep afterwards. He didn’t have the chance to push me away like last time. If I stayed, if I fell asleep next to him, it gave him the opportunity to do exactly what he did last time when morning came.

I didn’t want that.

I could pretend, remaining in complete denial that this time, he didn’t regret the sex.

Shutting the door as quietly as possible with a wince on my face, I backed away from it one agonisingly slow step at a time. When it didn’t immediately open with Dimitri bursting out, I released a deep breath, my shoulders dropping with relief.

I turned to head back down the stairs and—

“Oh, Jesus fucking Christ,” I hissed under my breath.

Standing in front of me was Lukyan and Aleksandr, Lukyan with his mouth open and eyes wide in surprise, and Aleksandr with his arms crossed over his chest, face hard. An awkward silence passed between us as they stared at me and I stared at them. It was painfully obvious that I’d just been caught doing the walk of shame. My hair was a mess, I had my shoes in my hands, the zip for my leather jacket was still half way down. There was no denying it.

Say something!

I opened my mouth, snapped it shut. I had no idea what the fuck to say.

Then, Lukyan surprised the fuck out of me when he whipped around and slapped the back of his hand on Aleksandr’s chest.

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