Page 46 of Ensnared
Turning onto his side, Dimitri propped his head up and stared at her. Asleep or awake it didn’t matter, the woman captured all of his attention. Minutes ticked by as he watched her steady breathing. His eyes traced every detail of her soft features, committing them to memory. There was something so refreshingly honest about this woman. There were no secrets with her, no calculations, and no ulterior motives. There couldn’t be, not with a face like hers. Not when every emotion she felt was projected on her face for all to see.
Dimitri silently laughed. She would make an awful poker player.
His smile faded at his next thought. A woman this honest wouldn't survive in his world either. Like a snake slipping into a nest, a memory surfaced in his mind. Angrily, he stopped the thought, pushing it back. Lately, he experienced slips in his mental defenses more and more, painful memories slipping past his blockades and confronting him. Like a fool, he allowed it to happen earlier that night at dinner.
Recalling the scene, Dimitri laid back onto his pillow with an annoyed grunt.
The dinner had been going well. For the first time in a few days, Eve had pushed aside her anger and allowed herself to talk to him. With each passing moment, he could feel her defenses falling little by little revealing the woman who preferred to be held rather than fight. And holding onto her was exactly what he planned to do—after a few hours of unimaginable fucking, of course. But he fucked up.
When she had described her feelings about the library it had felt like he was there, standing beside her in that quiet, cozy safe place. He imagined her as a little girl enamored by the place and feeling a sense of belonging, a feeling he experienced only once before it was ripped from his hands. Dimitri remembered her beautiful face shuttering when his mood had turned, but it was too late for either of them. He could not salvage the moment; he had been too lost in that old anger.
Frustrated, he looked back at her and moved closer until his body was pressed against hers. He nearly let out a hiss at the searing heat pouring off her soft body. Fuck. Just touching her made him hard. Gathering her in his arms, he smiled as she sleepily groaned in protest. Nuzzling her, he placed kisses at the tender spot on her neck until he felt her stir awake. Bleary eyed and confused, she turned and squinted up at him.
Something in his chest tightened with hundreds of different emotions and he kissed her soft lips before speaking. "You won't get pregnant," he relented with an angry growl.
For a whole minute, she just stared at him in confusion and he waited patiently for his words to sink in.
Finally, she turned onto her side to better face him. "What do you mean? How can you be sure?" Her voice was still rough from sleep.
Dimitri couldn't help but touch her even as the answer to that question stoked old anger. Bringing his hand from her hip to her face, he cupped her plump cheek and ran his thumb over her lips. He wanted to taste them. He wanted to see them wrapped around his cock again, but more than anything he wanted her to smile at him.
"Because when my grandparents were killed in front of me, I was made a slave to their killer. The bastard took sick pleasure in making me suffer. And one of my many serious injuries resulted in me being sterile," he explained evenly.
He could see the shock pass through her eyes, clearing away the rest of the sleep from her mind. Uncertain, she reached up and covered his hand with her own. Such a soft yet powerful gesture that only made the hunger inside of him want more.
"How did you figure it out? Were you trying for one?" She whispered hesitantly.
Something small and pathetically hopeful ignited to life inside of him at the tightness in her voice. He pulled her face forward as he shook his head and kissed her on the lips. Closer now, they stared at each other as he spoke.
"There was a woman a few years ago that I regularly…met with," he explained carefully. "From the beginning, we had a very upfront arrangement."
Eve frowned and he couldn't help but smile. She tried to wriggle away, pushing at his chest but he tightened his hold on her and kept her in position.
"Was it anything like this arrangement? Was her family held hostage too?" She asked acidly.
Ignoring her scowl, Dimitri kissed the crease between her brows and down her face and neck stopping at the center of her chest where her oversized t-shirt began. "There has never been anything like this, and no one like you, my sweet Eve," he assured her, licking secret words into the center of her chest. "The arrangement with her was very traditional," he mumbled into her skin. "I gave her money and she let me-"
Eve covered his mouth with her hands. "Please," she whispered, her silver-gray eyes looking painfully away. "Don't say it."
He kissed the smooth delicate skin of her palms and reached up to capture her hands in his. He held both of her wrists in one of his hands, easily resisting her tugs to free herself. "But somewhere along the way she wanted more to our arrangement…a more permanent tie."
Eve froze. "She tried to get pregnant?"
Dimitri couldn't hold back his smile at the innocent question. Alana and Eve were two entirely different women, playing in two different leagues. Looking at Eve beneath him, it almost seemed laughable he could have ever gone after anyone else.
"Yes," he answered.
Frustrated, Eve rolled her eyes and tugged at her wrists. "Why did she think that would work? There are countless women who try that and it makes no-"
He grabbed her chin, cutting her words off. Leaning forward until they were only inches apart, he spoke slowly and evenly as he stared into her wide eyes. "It would work on me and I think she knew it," he told her meaningfully. "We would be linked together side by side until the day I die if you carried our child." Seeing the fear in her eyes, he gave her a mean smile. "Lucky for you, you won't have to worry about that," he informed her even if the words tasted bitter on his tongue.
He vividly remembered the day he got tested. Call it curiosity or maybe just intuition, he went to the doctor himself after the incident with the woman just to check. The doctor's prognosis was grim. An ability he never really gave much thought about, one he took for granted, was suddenly just gone.
Eve pulled back from his loosened grip and gave him a suspicious look. "Was she upset?"
"Furious would be a better word, especially after I rescinded our littlearrangement." He almost laughed but stopped himself when he saw the horror in her eyes.
She was thinking of her own family. He knew her well enough now to know without a shadow of a doubt that he was right.
