AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Valentyn had set me up with enough pillows to make me as comfortable as possible and the ice pack on my face was slowly draining the ache in my cheek. Dmitri, however, was holding his side, continuing to pace through the small space, wincing every few steps.
Gianni and Valentyn wrangled him into the armchair at the edge of the living room, the Frenchman letting out a deep sigh before settling.
“Sit the fuck down before you pull your stitches. We can’t afford another hospital run.” Valentyn stated, a tender hand on Dmitri’s neck reminding him to stay put.
I stared on, an ache in my chest growing. Gianni moved closer and patted my thigh, trying to get my attention but for some reason, I felt like I wasn’t actively touching Dmitri or looking at him, that he’d disappear. I didn’t even knowwhyI was feeling like this. It just… was.
As if Valentyn knew, he peeled the kids from me, both of them clinging to him and promising them that everything would be okay. I could see that this was the closest Paval had ever been to danger, had ever truly seen the pain his fathers were in. Tia knew nothing of this world but everything had been ripped away from her in a second.
“I’ve got them,” Valentyn whispered as he bent down to kiss my forehead before moving to the bedroom left of the living area and past the bathroom. I waited until the door closed before I scrambled off the couch as best I could, ignoring the pain, and then climbed onto Dmitri’s lap. He huffed in surprise and then drew me closer, my entire body sagging with relief.
He’s here.
He’s alive.
“Fucking hell. Sweetheart, he’s going to be okay,” Gianni said.
“I know,” I muttered, my bottom lip trembling, “But I just… I can’t believe it.” I reached up, cupping his cheek in my hand, loving the feel of his stubble against my fingers. Dmitri leaned forward and stole a kiss and I melted into it, trying to memorize his taste just in case I lost him again.
The embrace grew heated as I shifted against him, needing more than what he was offering, a firm hand on my hip doing nothing to stop the moan that fell from my lips. I was touch-starved, in pain, and terrified of losing everything I had gained over the past couple of weeks. That hand traveled between us,slowly undoing the buttons of my pants as he continued to kiss me, draping his chest over mine.
My legs dangled over the other side of the armchair as his fingers wrapped around my cock, slowly pumping me until I was meeting his movements with every thrust.
“Focus only on me, Love. Just me,” He whispered against my lips. I knew that it wasn’t conducive to either of our healing to be doing this right but I couldn’t fucking stop. I needed this, his hand on me, reminding me that we had both made it out of that place alive – that the fight wasn’t over. I cried out as my hips stuttered and I came in his fist, my entire body shot from the adrenaline and chaos of the ordeal.
When the orgasmic haze began to dissipate, I didn’t feel better for what we had done, my body locking up. It was a temporary release of endorphins and now I just couldn’t separate fact from fiction – that blurry image in my head of Dmitri passed out on the floor, blood pouring from a wound I couldn’t fix.
He had died.
“Love, heybreathe, no one died. We’re all right here. And then all of this will be over and it’ll just be us.”
I opened my eyes just enough to see the sincerity in his expression. “Just us?” I murmured.
“Yes, just us.”
Chapter thirty-two
VALENTYN
Tia and Paval were curled up with each other on the mattress, their fingers intertwined as they gave each other comfort. There would be so much fucking explaining to do in the next coming days and months as they asked questions, trying to wrap their heads around all of this chaos.
Already thinking about forever…
I glanced toward the living room again, listening for the slow drag of Rhys’ breathing. Satisfied, I turned back to ruffling through one of the bags I had dragged in here until the pang of not being able to see Rhys hit a little too hard. I marched over to the room before laying my eyes on him cuddled into Gianni’s chest in an armchair opposite Dmitri. It had taken Rhys almost an hour to fall asleep before we were able to extract him from Dmitri’s arms.
All of that healing we had promised him we’d be doing – well, it was a fucking lie. We needed to nip everything else in the budbefore it festered and got worse. I just didn’t know where this was going to put us with him. Rhys was so fucking strong but this shit…
I grunted and moved to the bags at the door, slipping out a gun before furiously checking the clip and the extra rack of bullets, Dmitri chuckling from his seat in the corner. “What the fuck is so funny?” I growled out.
Dmitri shifted forward, “You. The way you get all fussy when you don’t have control over everything. Rhys is safe. We’re safe. And once we get the fuck out of whatever this is, we’ll be able to disappear to an island where you can fuck us all into oblivion. How’s that sound?”
An undignified grunt fell from my lips as I reached down to adjust myself. It sounded like fucking heaven but we were a long way away from that.
Right now, we needed to be ready at a moment’s notice for things to go wrong – and they would go wrong – which is why I had told Gianni to have his shit packed and ready to go – including the motherfucking plane in the lot.
I caught Dmitri up on what we had found and told him that he was coming with me rather than staying in the house. Rhys needed to have someone next to him at all fucking times, even if he was going to the bathroom and Dmitri wasn’t as mobile as I’d like.
“I’m the getaway driver?” Dmitri chuckled. “Fair. Do I at least get to hold a gun?” He wiggled his brows as he pushed to his feet, a grimace on his lips.
