Page 67 of Trapped By the Bratva
How can I think that a man like him, a killer so stuck with the need to take someone’s life, could be my man? Could be the one I’d want to father my children and take me as his wife?
Because I’d already started the path to those daydreams. When I woke up in his arms, safe in his bed with him this morning, I began to fantasize about just that—uniting my life with his, for good.
Now, I mused whether it was all foolishness to want that future at all, regardless of how certain I felt about him in my heart.
22
DMITRI
Ivan left me to stew with my anger. He was one of the deadliest men in the Bratva, but his reaction to not killing Erik seemed too tame. While he wasn’t on board with handing over the rival Mafia lord to the Feds, he wasn’t as eager as I was to go after the elusive man himself.
“I trust Alek,” he’d said in parting. “With whatever he decides.”
I did too, dammit, but I had to have closure. I had to clear the pain and horror of the past by paying it back to the man who’d caused me to be so broken and weak.
I paced until that tired me out. All the while, I watched the time and counted down until Hannah would come to me.
I wished she’d come to me just to see me, because she wanted me as much as I lusted for her. But she was too proper. Too professional.
She’d be here any minute for my exercise session, and I wondered how much longer it would be until I could work out in the gym again. With real weights and equipment I was familiar with at a harder, heavier pace.
Five minutes later, she snuck into my room. I had been tempted to look for her in her guest room and demand to know why she was tardy, but I knew myself. I’d lash out. I’d lose my temper—not at her or because of her, but due to all that I was experiencing.
“Where the fuck were you?” I asked.
She shrugged. “Hanging out in my room. Why?”
I narrowed my eyes. She was acting aloof and distant, and I didn’t like it one bit. I knew how good it felt to have her pussy wrapped around my dick. I remembered the bliss of coming in her, the triumph of pushing her to an orgasm. In those moments, the rest of the world faded away. During that time we came together, all that mattered was the present, with her.
I wanted that utopia again.
“You ready?” she asked without her usual pep and cheer.
“What’s wrong?” I demanded as she moved toward the elastic bands to start my reps.
“Nothing.”
“Don’t fucking lie to me.”
She glanced at me, the challenge clear in her eyes. “I’m not that easy to read.”
“What’s wrong?” I asked again, seething that she was giving me a hard time tonight.
“Do you care?”
I narrowed my eyes as I began the stretches under her care. “What kind of a question is that? Of course I care. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t have asked.”
I was speaking harshly, being rough with her in my tone and with the glare I gave her. I couldn’t help but be a hard asshole like this when she was acting like something was bothering her but she wouldn’t tell me what. I didn’t deserve to be left in the dark. It already seemed like I was with the Erik Avilov situation, expected to sit aside.
“I care more than I should,” I ranted as she stood there with me and supervised me through my reps. “You’ve been a distraction since day one.”
“Gee, thanks,” she quipped. “You’ve really got a way of giving compliments.”
“I mean it,” I growled. “You’re a distraction I don’t need right now. I should be focused on getting my revenge. On recovering so I can be strong enough to go after the fucker who dared to torture me.”
She pursed her lips and frowned, seeming like she wanted to say something but wouldn’t risk it.
“But more often than not, I’m thinking aboutyou.” I stared at her, daring her to speak up. “You’re what I’m focused on. You’re who I think about. Nonstop.”
