Page 27 of Bloody Lace

“He can sleep on your couch. He can sleep on the floor, if need be. Gus is ex-special forces, I don’t think he particularly cares. He’ll order food on the work credit card he’s been given, and he will be within earshot of you twenty-four hours a day, yes. Here in your apartment, or?—”

I start to shut the door in Dimitri’s face. It’s not the appropriate, adult reaction, I know, but just at that moment, I don’t care. I’m too shocked and overwhelmed to think about what I’m doing, and all I know is that I don’t want a strange man living in my apartment, and I want this conversation to end.

But it doesn’t matter, because Dimitri steps forward before the door can shut, wedging his foot into it and planting his forearm against the door, his blue eyes narrowing. “Evelyn?—”

There’s a warning in his voice, but I ignore it. I shove at the door, trying to push him out of the space that’s left, but he just pushes back, shoving it further open and pushing into my apartment as I let out a yelp and he slams the door behind him.

Gus stays outside.

“Get out!” I yell, and Buttons starts barking from the bedroom, but Dimitri surprisingly doesn’t take notice of it. Either he thinks the sound is coming from somewhere else, or he’s too focused on me, his eyes narrowed in on mine as I turn and grab the doorknob to wrench it open and force him out.

His hand closes around my wrist, pulling it away, and before I know it he’s spun me around with my back to the door, my wrist clasped in his hand as he looms over me.

Oh god.Heat races through me, venomous words rising to my lips at the same moment that my heart starts to pound in my chest, my gaze locked onto Dimitri’s as he glares down at me.

I’m furious, I’m ready to bite his head off for forcing his way into my apartment—and I’m so turned on that I can barely think. And that makes me even angrier.

“See how easy that was?” Dimitri asks, his voice deceptively calm. “This is why you need Gus here, Evelyn. I got into your apartment that easily. I could be anyone.”

But you aren’t, I want to say, the barbed words that I’d wanted to throw at him dying on my tongue as the scent of his cologne and skin fill my senses, the pressure of his fingers around my wrist making my heart beat in a strange rhythm, making me think about things that I’ve never thought to want before. He’s so close, closer than any man has been to me in a long time, and everything that I wanted to yell at him dissolves as I try to keep myself from drowning under a sudden, overwhelming tide of lust.

“You can let Gus stay,” Dimitri says, his voice hard and unrelenting. “Or you can come stay at my penthouse with me, where my building security can keep an eye on you. But you’ll still have Gus with you wherever you go. This is not negotiable, Evelyn.”

“And if I say no?” I fling back at him, the words choked in my throat. I feel like I can’t breathe.

“There is no saying no.” His voice drops to a growl, his eyes narrowing. “I said I would protect you, Evelyn. This is me protecting you?—”

“I don’t want a stranger in my apartment!” I snap, my anger surfacing again. “I don’t want someone watching everything I do, constantly hounding me?—”

“You won’t even know Gus is here?—”

“Yes I will! My apartment is the size of a postage stamp?—”

“Then come stay with me.” Dimitri is unrelenting. His eyes never leave mine for even a moment, and I can feel the tension running through him, a taut wire on the verge of snapping. I wonder if he’s feeling this same heat licking through his veins, the same desire crashing over him, demanding things that I’m not supposed to allow. “Pack up and come back with me to my penthouse.”

“No.” I shake my head firmly. “I’m not doing that.”

“Why?” Dimitri challenges, and I suck in a breath, because I canseethe heat in his eyes. He knows why. He knowsexactlywhy I’m not willing to share a roof with him one day sooner than I have to.

“Evelyn—” This time, when he says my name, his voice sounds strangled. His fingers loosen around my wrist, and tighten again, his eyes dropping to my lips. The look on his face ishungry, suddenly, like he’s been starving all his life and he’s suddenly seen something he can’t wait to taste.

And then, before I can say a word, his mouth comes crashing down onto mine.

10

DIMITRI

WHAT THE FUCK AM I DOING?

The last thing in the world that I should do is kiss Evelyn. But with her so close, so warm, her wrist trapped in my fingers and her sweet voice flinging barbs at me, the only thing I can think as I watch her argue is that I need those lips against mine.

It’s not even that I want her quiet. For some reason, I feel sure that I could listen to this woman yell at me all day, even though I’ve never tolerated anything like it before. I just fuckingneedto kiss her.

I need to find out what she tastes like. I need?—

I surge forward as my mouth captures hers, the only thought in my head is how goddamnsofther lips are as I press her back against the door, my body tight with need and my cock rock-hard against her thigh. The sound she makes when I kiss her, half-protest and half-desire, inflames me.

She feels so fucking good against me. Soft and lush, her wrist fragile in my fingers, her full breasts pressed up against my chest, and I swear I can feel every inch of her even through the layers of clothes between us. I sweep my tongue over her lips, tasting her, tugging her wrist up above her head as I pin heragainst the wood, and I don’t even fucking care that Gus is still standing right on the other side.

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