Page 45 of Dmitri

“I’ve missed you,” he says in a softer tone. “Lately I’ve just…” He gently grazes my side with the backs of his fingers. Then they curl around my waist in a firm grip, and he brings me in, spreading his legs so I’ll stand between them. “I need you, Dae.”

My mask almost drops.

My strength nearly wavers.

But I can’t fall for his bullshit again. No matter how sincere he sounds, I refuse to allow myself to believe it’s the truth. Even if he’s never lied to me before, he’s manipulated me with his words, which is just as bad.

“If you need comfort, I’m sure Kayla or one of your other girls would be happy to fill that role, Kaleb.”

He’s got plenty of women begging to bounce on his dick. Trust me. I’ve seen it.

“They’re not you.”

I look away from him. He only wants me because he thinks someone else has me. And that someone is who Kaleb himself forced me to be with.

“No one else knows me like you do, Daelyn. I don’t want another woman. I wantyou.”

Funny, he said those exact words the day I walked in on him railing a girl named Savanah. He said he didn’t love her like he loved me. That she was nothing but a hole and I was his everything. He got mad when I wouldn’t listen to his bullshit, and he blamed his betrayal on me by saying I wasn’t around for him as much as I should be. That he had needs, and it’s not his fault that he had to turn to another woman.

Then he got on his knees, cried, and begged me for another chance.

He kissed me like I was his salvation.

He lifted me into his arms and carried me away, promising me a dozen and one things that he was going to do to make it up to me.

Only to cheat on me again a month later.

I was eighteen then. Finally free from the foster system, I’d come to live with Kaleb so we could have a beautiful life together. Instead, I caught him fucking other women in our bed, and I wastoo deeply involved in a dangerous life with the only guy I’d ever loved, and therefore couldn’t run as fast as I wanted away from all of it.

It was complicated then and is even worse now.

Kaleb has kept me on a short leash long after I kicked him out of my heart. And the worst part about it is, I don’t think I know how to be unleashed. The collar, invisible but snug, is a comfort to me.

Kaleb wraps his arms around my waist and rests his head against my chest. “You always smell so fucking good,” he says quietly. “Like a field of flowers.”

My eyes water.

“Remember when we went to that big garden with the orchid house?” His hands splay across my lower back. “Answer me.”

“Yes.”

“Remember how we fucked under the cherry blossom tree?”

I squeeze my eyes shut, letting a tear escape. “Yes.”

“You smell like that right now.” He breathes me in, his grip tightening. “Like sex and flowers.” He runs his hands over the band of my shorts until he reaches the fly.

I step back. “No.”

His eyes darken. “No?”

“I’m off limits.” He’s always respected this one and only boundary I’ve resurrected between us.

“Off limits,” he repeats, as if that’s a foreign concept he can’t grasp. Standing slowly, he keeps his gaze locked on me. I try to hold my ground even when he calmly grabs my wrist and holds it up. “This mark says you’re off limits to everyonebutme.”

Kaleb spins me around and pins my arm behind my back, bending me over the sink.

I don’t fight it.

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