Page 51 of Craving Dahlia

“What did he look like?”

“Bald. Light blue eyes, dressed all in black. He had a very thick Russian accent, thicker than you or Dimitri.” Dahlia hesitates, and those knots in my stomach tighten further. “Does he sound like someone you know?”

“What did he tell you?” I can hear the defensiveness creeping into my tone, can feel all of my muscles winding tight again, the urge to flee rippling through me. To leave this house, Dimitri, Dahlia,everything, and find some way to hide so that they can never find me again. Remembered pain sparks over my skin, like a thousand cuts grazing over my flesh, and I grit my teeth against the phantom sensation.

“He didn’t really tell me anything useful.” Dahlia bites her lip. “He knew that I’m pregnant. He said he wanted to talk to you. He—he made me an offer.”

My gaze sharpens. “An offer?” That sensation of needing to run intensifies, suspicion bleeding through me, an old wound reopening.I was right not to trust her. Not to tell her anything that she could use against me.I’m all too familiar with the sensation of betrayal, and even though she hasn’t done anything yet, I can feel myself getting angry, primed to unleash all of those emotions onto her as they start to bubble up again.

Fuck her for making me feel all of this again. For dragging up these old hurts. For?—

“He asked me to bring you to the bar tomorrow night. To go there with you, and then leave and go to the ladies’ room. He said someone would be waiting for me, and they’d pay me so I could bail after that.” She swallows hard. “He offered me five million dollars.”

“So why are you sitting here right now?” The words come out bitter, sarcastic, and I see a flash of hurt across Dahlia’s face as she looks up at me.

“You think I’d sell you out? I don’t know who this guy is, but he seemed dangerous. I got a bad feeling from him. You think I’d just trick you into going to meet someone like that? If what he wanted wasn’t something bad, then he’d come find you himself.”

I shrug, even as something starts to churn in my stomach, a sense of shock at everything she’s saying. “For five million dollars, most people would.”

Dahlia’s gaze holds mine. “Well, I guess I’m not most people, then.”

For a moment, neither of us speaks.She didn’t take the offer,a small voice in the back of my head whispers.She’s not the person you think she is. The person you think everyone is, now. Maybe she’s telling the truth about everything.

“Why didn’t you wait and go to Dimitri with this in the morning?” I ask tightly. “It’s not as if our conversations are ever pleasant.”

Dahlia raises an eyebrow. “You’re right about that,” she says dryly. “But I’ve seen that there’s problems between you and Dimitri, too. I don’t understand it any more than I understand what’s going on with you personally, since you won’t talk to anyone. But I didn’t want to cause more division between the two of you. You’ve been an ass to me, but you’re the father of my child. And this is clearly your problem.” She shrugs. “So I wanted to give you a chance to handle it.”

Something softens in me, when she says that. A pang in my chest, a feeling that I’m not even certain how to give a name to, because I haven’t felt it in so long. I try to shove it away, but it remains as I look at her, wondering if I’ve been wrong.

She came to me first. She was honest about it—about all of it. Have I just been an ass to her this whole time for no reason? If she told the truth about this…

I look down at her still-flat stomach, and for the first time, I consider—really consider—what it might mean if she really is pregnant with my child.

If I’m actually going to be a father.

I swallow hard, that pressure in my chest more painful than before, tight and making it feel hard to breathe. If she’s telling the truth, if she’snottrying to fuck me over in some way, then I haven’t been the kind of man I want to be. And they’ve ruined me more than I ever thought possible.

“Thank you,” I manage, and I see her eyes widen slightly. She clearly wasn’t expecting me to appreciate any of this, and that makes me feel even more like shit. “I’m glad you told me. I—don’t say anything to Dimitri, alright? I’ll deal with that. With all of this. Don’t say anything to Evelyn, either. Just…keep it between us.”

I wonder if she’ll refuse. If she won’t agree to keep my secrets, now that she’s told me. But she just nods, and the gesture startles me so much that it takes me a minute to realize that she’s willing to do just that.

“I won’t say anything,” she says quietly, getting to her feet. “Sorry I interrupted your night.”

“Dahlia—” I start to speak, but she’s already walking away, her steps quick, as if she can’t wait to put distance between the two of us. I watch her go, my hand rising to rub at the ache in my chest, as if it’s a physical thing that I can wipe away.

My stomach clenches, and something else washes over me, that possessive feeling that, strangely, she’s made me feel since the moment I met her.

She was in danger tonight. And now, everything has just become far more complicated.

18

DAHLIA

Ifeel heavy when I wake up the next morning, weighted down by what happened last night and the need to keep it to myself. I almost wish I hadn’t agreed to Alek’s request that I not tell Dimitri or Evelyn, but I did, and I won’t go back on it now. Despite the friction between us, I can’t bring myself to betray his fragile trust like that…in the same way that for some reason, I still haven’t taken my wedding ring off, even though he doesn’t wear his.

The feeling is compounded by the fact that I have my eight-week doctor’s appointment today. Evelyn went over how it would probably go—questions about the pregnancy, an ultrasound—but I’m still nervous, and I can barely pick at my breakfast as I try to take bites in between getting ready.

I throw on a pair of leggings and a draped black top with a pair of boots, tossing my hair up on top of my head rather than actually doing anything with it. Evelyn is the one taking me, and I have a feeling I might cry, so I don’t even bother putting on makeup. All I want is to get the appointment over with, so I can stop being anxious about it.

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