Before any of that, I needed painkillers. The wound was beginning to argue with me, trying to convince me Inna was right.
I looked down at her.
She was already gone, the furrow between her brows finally released again. I reached over and brushed a loose strand of hair from her cheek, letting my fingers move across her temple.
My gaze settled on her mouth. I was staring at her lips more than necessary. My thumb moved to her lower lip and brushed it over her. The softness sent a slow current of heat through me.
She pulled something in me I had no vocabulary for and no particular interest in developing one for. Naming it would mean examining it, and examining it would mean giving it weight. I didn’t extend that courtesy to things I intended to end.
The resolution was obvious. I wanted to fuck her so badly, and once I did, the wanting would fade on its own the way it always did. Whatever this was would become a memory. I would leave with that much.
Chapter Twenty-six
Inna Grace
The space beside me wascold. Either I overslept, or Dmitri operated on some internal system that had nothing to do with normal human rest. The cold told me he left long enough for his side of the bed to lose any trace of warmth.
I turned toward the window. The light coming through was too bright for the morning. It meant I overslept.
I pushed a hand through my hair and scanned the room for a moment as everything came back to me. Someone shot Dmitri. That information didn’t sit well with me.
Dmitri was powerful, meaning people would be after him, which explained how easily a man grabbed me from a dressing room in broad daylight. Danger was another way to describe his life.
I pushed the blanket off and stood. The basin from last night sat on the table where I left it. My eyes moved to it, expecting to see my phone, but I remembered Dmitri destroyed it. I went into the bathroom to check where I left it, but stopped in the doorway, shocked.
The bathroom was spotless. The blood I left at the sink was cleaned, and the towels stained with blood were gone. The room looked exactly as it had looked before last night.
Did he clean it? Or someone else did.
I stood there, staring at the clean sink while trying to decide whether to be impressed or unsettled. But I left the room to find him, to confirm he was still standing. I went downstairs, expecting to find him already gone, but his voice reached me, coming from the kitchen.
I slowed as I neared the kitchen.
“Monitor everything as we agreed,” Dmitri said.
I stepped in, expecting to find him on a phone call, but he was talking to Akim. Akim sat across from Dmitri at the kitchen island, both with laptops open.
I stepped in and cleared my throat. “Good morning.”
Dmitri looked up. “It’s noon, Darling.”
“Oh.” My eyes went to his shoulder. The black t-shirt covered everything, but I knew what sat underneath it. He sat on that stool, busy on his laptop, as though his body had no notes on the matter.
This man had an unreasonable relationship with his own pain threshold.
“Are you hungry? I can make something,” I said, looking between the two.
Dmitri’s eyes drifted to me again. In a second, his eyes dropped to my lips and stayed there long enough to make me shift. The memory of the kiss we shared arrived. Warmth spread through me before I could redirect it.
I looked away. “I’ll take that as a no.”
“Are you ignoring my wife?” Dmitri asked, his gaze fixed on Akim.
Akim glanced up from his screen. “I’m fine, miss.”
He just hated me, and the politeness was a performance for theroom.
“Is it because you’re fine or because you hate me?” I asked, reaching for a cup.
