Page 24 of Bloody Lace

It only matters that I find a way to keep those desires in check.

I’m so caught up in her that I don’t see the woman walking towards us in time to warn Evelyn or head off the confrontation before it starts. I’m dragged out of my haze by the sound of Nicci’s voice, instead, cutting through the air like the crack of a whip.

“Dimitri, who thefuckis this?”

9

EVELYN

I’ve been lost in thought, looking over the crowd of people at the gala and trying to remind myself of all the reasons why I can’t give in to the way Dimitri is making me feel. From the moment I saw him waiting for me downstairs at my apartment, I knew that keeping him at arm’s length was going to be far more difficult than I anticipated.

Everything about him seems designed to tempt me. His looks, his accent, the way he fires back at me every time I throw some barbed comment at him, and yet the way he seems almost impressed by me at the same time. Iknowhe was impressed by how I handled his business associate earlier. And truthfully, I don’t know how I managed it. I just knew that if we slipped up, our deal—and therefore the future of my shop—might be in danger.

He’s a dangerous man, I know that—and yet he seems almost gentle with me at times. It’s an intriguing combination, and it makes me want to know more about him. But at the same time, I know that the less I get to know Dimitri, the better off I am.

We need to behave normally, which was why I suggested the dance, but the minute he touched my back, I realized it was aterrible idea. Just the feeling of his fingers sliding against the silk sent a wave of heat through me, desire prickling over my skin as my knees felt momentarily as if they might not hold me up.

My pulse is fluttering in my throat as I try not to think about how the warm juniper scent of his skin makes me feel, how I keep being seized by the desire to step closer to him, to find out how his firm, muscled body would feel pressed against mine. I keep trying to think about anything else, when an unfamiliar woman’s voice cuts through the air.

“Dimitri, who thefuckis this?”

I turn to see a woman dressed in a long, silvery gown with thin pearl straps and a slit up either side, her blonde hair piled artfully on her head, drop pearl earrings in her ears to match. She’s stunningly beautiful in a sharp, angular sort of way, with piercing green eyes and a delicacy to her figure that doesn’t match the steely look on her face.

“My fiance, Evelyn—” Dimitri starts to say, but the woman cuts him off, those green eyes sweeping over me in a brief and cutting appraisal.

“You have got to be fucking kidding me. I thought Colin was just trying to wind me up, but he was actually telling the truth?” Her eyes flick to my left hand, taking in the large engagement ring there. “Oh, this isdisgusting. I don’t even know who she is. You broke off our agreement for somenobody? If you wanted to slum it, Dimitri, I wouldn’t have stopped you, so long as?—”

“Enough!” Dimitri’s voice slices through the air, cutting her off. I’m speechless, everything I might have said caught in my throat as I stare at the woman who I now realize must have been Dimitri’s intended fiancee.

The woman he didn’t want to marry—the one he used me to escape from.

“Dimitri—” I start to speak, but he’s not listening, all of his focus is on the furious woman in front of him.

“And now she’s here with you, when youknew?—”

“Enough, Nicci!” he repeats, his jaw tightening. “Of course I brought her. She’s my fiance, and this is where she belongs. On my arm, with me, at one of themanyevents I’m supposed to show up to this season. So you might as well get used to seeing her.”

Nicci laughs, the sound cutting. “Sonowyou want to be at these things? Now that you can rub this in my face? I’ll make sure that everyone knows exactly how thoroughly you want to humiliate me then, Dimitri. We’ll see how things go when your associates find out how you keep your word?—”

“We weren’t formally engaged, Nicci,” Dimitri says tightly. “And that’s the end of it. Evelyn, let’s go.”

His hand touches the small of my back, steering me away from Nicci—who is practically trembling with rage—and the rest of the guests who have started to gather around in small pockets, whispering and looking. My face heats, and I follow Dimitri’s guidance blindly, embarrassment washing over me so thickly that I don’t even realize we’re leaving until Dimitri ushers me outside and the cold air knocks me out of my haze.

“What—why are we leaving?” I look at him, but he’s not looking back at me, his jaw tight as he marches us both forward to the car, inside as the driver opens the door for us. “We didn’t have to?—”

“I didn’t want to subject you to that any longer. They’ll be whispering about it all night,” Dimitri says tightly. “Take us to the Russian Tea Room,” he tells the driver as we slide into the car, his voice a sharp, crisp order.

“I—” I press my hands briefly to my face, trying to regain my composure. Too many feelings are sweeping through me all at once, and I draw in a breath, trying to sort through the emotions. “You didn’t warn me that she might be there.”

“I didn’t think to.” Dimitri pinches the bridge of his nose, and I can see that he’s frustrated, as well. “Truthfully, I didn’t think she’d make a scene. I’m sorry, Evelyn. I should have thought to mention that there was a possibility that?—”

“It’s fine.” I cut him off abruptly, feeling my chest tighten. Irrationally, I find myself wishing that he’d stood up to Nicci, that instead of whisking me out of there, he’d made a show of how happy he was to be there with me. That he’d?—

That he’d what?I ask myself, biting my lip as I look out of the window. This engagement isn’t real. We need to put on a united front in public, but Dimitri more than fulfilled that by telling Nicci to stop, and taking me out of the situation. Why should it matter that he wanted to leave, rather than making a show of our relationship in front of her? Why should I care that he didn’t come up with some elaborate story for her, the way I did for his business associate?

This man is making me foolish. He’s making me irrational. And that makes me angry, too, so I don’t say anything else, pressing my lips together as I watch the traffic slide by.

“We’ll go get dinner,” Dimtri says, clearly trying to smooth it over. “If you’d like, we can?—”

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