Page 25 of Craving Dahlia

Dahlia is shaking her head, and Evelyn looks shocked. “Dimitri, I don’t think that’s the way we need to go about this,” she says softly, reaching out to touch the back of his hand, and Dimitri narrows his eyes.

“He needs to take responsibility for this. If he got her pregnant, then he needs to provide for her and the child, and?—”

“I agree,” Evelyn says hastily. “But marriage is a little unnecessary. Financially, yes, he needs to provide, but?—”

“I’m sitting right here!” Dahlia exclaims, her eyes wide. “I’m not marrying him. You’re my best friend’s husband, Dimitri, and I love you like a brother, but you’re not in charge ofme, even if you might be in charge ofhim.” She looks sideways at me, for a brief second, her gaze cutting away and back to Dimitri almost immediately, as if she can’t stand to look at me for long.

“Once again, we’re in agreement.” My jaw tightens. “Are we done here?”

“No.” Dimitri’s voice rings out, a sharp finality in it. “Iamthepakhan, Alek, and I say youwillmarry her. I am the head of this family, and you?—”

“You can’t tell Dahlia what to do,” Evelyn cuts in, her hand still gently on Dimitri’s. “I know you’re upset with Alek, and I know things are tense between you, but this isn’t just about him?—”

“I won’t allow?—”

“I don’t care what you’llallow!” Dahlia’s voice rises, and she shoves herself off of the couch, her entire body trembling. She looks at Evelyn, her teeth sinking into her lower lip, and I have tofight off the urge to go to her.I don’t want her, I remind myself.I don’t wanther, I only wanted the one night. But the sight of her standing there, slender and shaking, makes me feel a long-forgotten twinge of an emotion that I don’t want to remember.

“Thank you for coming to get me,” Dahlia says to Evelyn, not looking at Dimitri. “And thanks for listening, and taking care of me. But I need to get back to my own apartment and think. I wasn’t expecting—” She swallows hard. “This is a lot. But I’m not going to be told for the second time in two days who I’m going to marry. And like you said, Dimitri can’t tellmewhat to do.”

She gives Evelyn an apologetic look. Evelyn casts a pointed glance at her husband, and stands up too, her hand going to Dahlia’s back as she starts to follow her out of the room. “We’ll talk about this later,” she casts over her shoulder to Dimitri, who looks as if he’s about to explode. “I’ll get you a ride back to your apartment,” she adds to Dahlia, and the two women walk out of the room, disappearing around the corner.

Leaving my brother and I, alone in the room together.

“I’m immeasurably disappointed in you.” Dimitri’s voice is heavy as he looks at me, and I narrow my eyes at him.

“Didn’t you get your wife pregnant by accident, too?” The words come out sharp, cutting, flinging back what he told me last night in an effort to begin to bring me back into the family. He’d confirmed my suspicion that I’d had when we met in the graveyard, that Evelyn is pregnant, and admitted that it was unexpected. Now, as I throw that knowledge back like a weapon, I see his face tighten.

“I married her,” he says flatly. “Which is what you should be more than happy to do right now, to make things right with Dahlia.”

“She doesn’t want to marry me. Which makes the situation completely different.”

“She’d come around.” A muscle ticks in Dimitri’s jaw, though, and I can see that he doesn’t quite believe that. I get the impression that he’s known her for a while.

“I doubt it.” I press my lips together, looking in the direction that the two women walked away. “I’m not in the business of forcing women to do things they don’t want to, either. If she wants to go it alone, that’s fine with me.”

Dimitri looks at me as if I’ve grown another head. “She’s going to have yourchild, Alek. Doesn’t that mean anything to you?”

“She says she is.” My jaw tightens. “Doesn’t make it true.”

“You’re calling her a liar?”

“I’m calling her a woman I knew for less than fifteen minutes before I had her in the back of a cab with my cock down her throat.” I see my brother wince, but I don’t really give a shit right now. I’m not going to be walked into another trap based on a woman’s word.

“Alek—”

“If she wants something from me, she can prove it’s my child. If not, then I have no interest in getting involved.” Without another word, I stalk past Dimitri towards the doorway. If he wants to try to stop me, he can, but more than anything else, I want this conversation to be over.

But with every step, as I stride out of the room and towards the stairs that will take me up to my own bedroom, I feel a weight pressing down on my shoulders.What if she’s telling the truth?

I pulled out, but only just in time. And that’s no guarantee, I’m smart enough to know that.I should have used a fucking condom.I was weak, desperate for that pleasure, for the feeling of skin on skin, warm heat enveloping me and pulling me in for the first time in years. I forgot my better sense, and acted on instinct. Out of desire and emotion, as if I didn’t learn my fucking lesson over the last five years.

If Dahlia is carrying my child—my stomach clenches, my jaw locking, and I slam the door of my bedroom hard behind me as I walk in, long-buried emotion struggling to rear up. There’s so much that I’ve locked away, so much that I can’t begin to let myself think about it, or I’ll drown in it. And this threatens to bring it all back, to break open the lock and let the floodgates open.

I suck in a sharp, ragged breath through my teeth. No decent man would abandon a woman pregnant with his child. I know it, and Dimitri knows it, which is why he’s so fucking disappointed with me. Clearly, he believes Dahlia. And that disappointment stings, prickling over my skin and threatening to reawaken those lost feelings of wanting my big brother to be proud of me.

I thought I was past feeling anything at all, anymore. But I can feel cracks forming, old emotions threatening to slip through. And right now, I think I’d do just about anything to keep from having to face all of that.

Including pretending like the conversation downstairs never happened at all.

---