Page 20 of The Way You Hurt Me

Because his ring finger is bare.

Were he anyone else, I’d say he was hiding his marital status to pull something behind his wife’s back, but he’s Dimitri Volkov. No one he marries would expect exclusivity from him. He’s the kind of man you’d see hosting orgies.

Why isn’t he wearing a ring?

None of your business, that’s why.

“I work for Eros Corps,” Lucy is explaining when I can bring my attention back into the present. “And tonight came with a plus-one ticket.”

“So, Willow’s your date?” Dimitri gleans. “Lucky you.”

I feel my skin catch fire. Just like that, I’m reduced to a bumbling sixteen-year-old.

My fingers tighten around the long stem of the glass. “Excuse me,” I croak. “Bathroom break.”

I’m not exactly running away. One doesn’t run in four inches heels. But there’s no denying that I’m legging it out of there as fast as the Jimmy Choo can carry me.

Fuck, fuck, fuck. What thehellis he doing here?

Then again, I’m at the fancy New Year’s gala of a company belonging to a hot, young thirty-something CEO. Is it that shocking that an equally young, equally attractive thirty-year-old would attend?

I should have seen it. But then again, I don’t spend all my time asking myself where Dimitri Volkov is going to be. Not anymore.

In the bathroom, I lean over the sink, eyes on the mirror, and force steadying breaths.

He’s here. Oh god, he’s here, and every inch as delectable as I recalled. It’s unfair. No man should be this hot.

I can do this. I can get out of there and act like it’s all normal. Hell, he might be gone by the time I come back. He would have gone back to Caleb Cole, or someone else. Right?

With shaking hands, I touch up my lip gloss. I don’t dare attempt anything else, unsteady as I am, but to my relief, I look mostly okay, if shaken.

I practice a winning smile in the mirror. It’s so natural here. I’m good at performing in front of a mirror or a camera. In front of most people, too.

But this is Dimitri Volkov, the most beautiful, sexy man in the entire fucking world. Like, officially. They voted him Mr. Universe two years running. If he ever loses the position, it’s likely because he declined it to make room for someone else.

“I can do this,” I tell the mirror confidently.

Then, I pee, because I did have seven drinks, wash my hands and make my way back into the hall with determined strides.

“It’s not like you to hide,” Dimitri calls from the wall he’s leaning against.

Fuck!

I trip, and would have fallen on my ass, if not twisted my ankle, if a strong hand didn’t wrap around my middle, steadying me.

The moment he touches me, a jolt of energy zaps my entire body, freezing me in place.

Words, Willow. You can do it.

I force my jaw to unlocks. “It’s not like you to lurk outside the girls’ bathroom.”

Yay! I managed a full, logical sentence. It’s even on the sassy side.

Dimitri grins. “Oh, petal. I did miss that sass.”

Without asking, as though it’s the most natural thing, he slides the arm around my waist to my back, and leads me back toward my friend.

“I’m glad to have run into you. I meant to reach out soon.”

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