Page 35 of Dmitri

“You take them often?”

“No.” She grabs the container before I do. “Not that it’s any of your business.”

With that, Daelyn marches out of her bedroom and slams the bathroom door shut.

Sitting up, I stretch my limbs and pin my morning wood against the waist of my jeans. I’m not touching myself for a while, so it’ll have to deflate on its own. I hear the toilet flush and faucet run. Eventually, Daelyn comes back into her bedroom and looks annoyed to find me still here.

It pisses me off.

Instead of saying something nice, I go for the jugular. “You have nightmares often?”

I don’t like it when someone asks about mine, because it’s a personal issue I don’t like sharing, but I’ve just spent the evening keeping her close and safe, and for her to act like me sticking around while she takes her morning piss is obnoxious, I’ll make sure she feels some kind of way too.

“No,” she says cautiously.

The pills are no longer in her hand, so I assume she put them somewhere in her bathroom.

“Do you take sleeping pills often?”

“Why are you so fucking nosy?”

“I’m just trying to figure you out.” I climb out of the bedand slowly prowl closer to her. “You called out for me in your sleep.”

She snorts. “Yeah right.”

“You did.” I get close enough to smell her minty breath. “I wouldn’t make that up, Daelyn. The question is… Why?”

Her cheeks turn crimson. “You’re delusional.”

“I know what I heard. You whimpered and cried and said my name. You held onto me all night, Firefly.”

Her brow furrows as she looks down at her hands. “Well, I don’t know why I would have done that,” she says defensively. “And I don’t know why you stayed here, either.”

“Like I said, you were having nightmares.”

“So?” She crosses her arms and won’t look at me. “That doesn’t mean you need to stick around.”

True. “Are you hungry?”

“No.” Her stomach growls, betraying her with perfect timing.

I tip her chin, forcing her to look up at me. Arching my brow, I hold her gaze for several heartbeats before saying, “Don’t ever lie to me, Daelyn.”

She swallows hard.

“This won’t work if you fucking lie to me.”

Her eyebrows knit together. “What won’t work?”

“Whatever this is.”

Daelyn’s stomach rumbles again and she clutches her belly and huffs about it.

“Come on.” I nod towards the door. “Let’s get you something to eat.”

“I—” Her stomach rumbles and she smacks it. “Oh my god, shut up!”

She’s adorable.

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