Page 23 of Craving Dahlia

“And do you?” Evelyn presses gently, and I feel a strange wave of emotion wash over me.

Of course not,I think immediately, but I feel a small pang at the thought of ending the pregnancy.It’s just hormones,Itell myself.Or the fact that my own family is on the verge of rejecting me completely, so I’m tempted to start one of my own.A therapist could probably have a field day with all of the reasons I’m even a little bit on the fence about this, when I’m so completely unprepared to have a child at all right now, let alone as a single mother.

“I’ll support you no matter what you want to do,” Evelyn continues. “I know things are hard with your family right now, but you have me, Genevieve, and your other friends. I won’t let you go through this alone. If you need someone to go to any kind of doctor’s appointment with you, I’ll take you. If you need money, I’ll help you. A place to stay—” she trails off, biting her lip as she clearly thinks about something. “Actually?—”

“I don’t know what I want to do!” I blurt out, feeling tears burn at the corners of my eyes again. “It seemed obvious this morning, but now I just feel tired, and confused, and I know as soon as I turn my phone on I’ll have a hundred missed texts and calls from my mother. I still haven’t given my father an answer about the marriage, and?—”

“Are you sure you don’t want me to ask Dimitri about what you said this man looked like?” Evelyn asks. “Or give me his name, and I’ll ask Dimitri if there’s anyone working for him who matches the name and description? You said he had a Bratva tattoo, and Dimitri would want to know if one of his men?—”

She breaks off just before I can tell her no, absolutely not, that I under no circumstances want Dimitri dragged into this. I can just see the look of brotherly disappointment on Dimitri’s face, and I’m not up to dealing with it right now. But there’s the sound of footsteps just outside the door, and the words die on my lips as Evelyn twists around.

“Alek, what are you?—”

My stomach drops.It’s a coincidence,I tell myself, as my blood runs cold and I twist around too, my heart suddenlypounding in my ears. Whoever is walking in, he can’t be the same Alek I met in Hush, the one who gave me the most passionate night I’ve ever experienced, whose baby I’m?—

Dizziness washes over me as I see the man standing in the doorway, his face frozen in a mask of shock as he sees me, too, and I can’t hear anything over the sudden ringing in my ears. For a terrifying second, I think I’m going to pass out.

It is Alek. And I don’t know what the hell he’s doing here.

8

ALEK

“What the fuck are you doing here?”

The words come flying out of Dahlia’s mouth before I can even fully process that she’shere, in my brother’s house, sitting next to my sister-in-law like they’re old friends.

Maybe they are.It occurs to me as I stand there, frozen, that I know next to nothing about Dahlia. Maybe sheisfriends with Evelyn, which would make this one hell of a coincidence. There’s not nearly enough degrees of separation in my life right now for my peace of mind, if that’s the case.

“I’m Dimitri Yashkov’s brother,” I tell her icily, when I’ve recovered enough to speak. “That’swhat the fuck I’m doing here.”

“Alek,” Evelyn chides gently, her voice slightly strangled, and I wonder why. I look between the two women, one of whom is chalk-white and faintly green around the edges, and the other who looks like she’s piecing something together at long last. Evelyn is the latter, and her eyes widen slightly as she looks at me a moment longer, and then turns back to Dahlia. I can seean understanding dawning on her face, although I don’t have the faintest idea what’s going on.

“Oh, Dahlia,” Evelyn says softly. “He’s not?—”

Dahlia gives a small, frantic nod, and I frown. I can only imagine that Dahlia spilled some of the details about our night together, if she and Evelyn really are that close, but the look on Evelyn’s face is reminiscent of what she might look like if someone had died. Like that night was the worst thing that could have happened to Dahlia, and frankly, I can’t help but find it slightly insulting. I left quickly afterwards, yes, but based on Dahlia’s reactions in bed, she was more than satisfied. And it was only ever supposed to be one night.

My fingers curl against my palms. It had been a struggle to get her out of my head afterwards, just as I’d known it would be, but I’d managed. I’ve ended up with my hand around my cock remembering that night more than once, but it’s been days since even that has happened. And now, by some godforsaken coincidence, she’shere, in my brother’s house. I feel a jolt of anger ripple through me, one of the few emotions left to me. As if New York weren’t fucking big enough, I have to run into her againhere?

I wanted to leave her behind after that one night. But it doesn’t seem that I’m going to be so fortunate.

“What is he doing here?” Dahlia hisses, to Evelyn this time, and Evelyn frowns.

“He’s Dimitri’s brother,” she says softly, as if I didn’t just fucking say that.

“Dimitri’s brother is dead, isn’t he?” Dahlia stammers, reaching up to rub her hands over her face. “I remember you telling me?—”

Something tightens in my stomach at the thought of the two women talking about me. At the thought thatDimitrimust have talked to Evelyn about me, in order for her to know enough totell Dahlia. There’s so much about what happened that I still don’t know, that I decided to come back to the mansion to find out, and Dahlia’s presence here is an unwanted complication that makes me itch with the desire to tell her that she needs to leave.

But I don’t have any real power here. This is Dimitri’s house, and clearly she’s welcome here. It makes me feel like even more of an outsider in my old home than I already do, another reminder of how the world here moved on without me while I was gone, and that uncomfortable feeling in my stomach intensifies.

“It’s a long story,” Evelyn says softly. “One that we don’t know all of, yet. Alek just agreed to come back to stay with us for a little while. He got in last night, actually?—”

She trails off abruptly as Dahlia sucks in a shaky, ragged breath, swallowing hard as she shakes her head.

“No.” Her teeth sink into her lip. “Oh my god, this can’t be happening. You can’t be here. Youcan’t—” She sucks in another breath, and I frown at her, irritated at the dramatics.

“It was one night, Dahlia,” I snap. “If you’ve never had a one-night-stand before, let me assure you, this is awkward for us both, but?—”

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