Only silence came from the front lounge. Her heart thudding loudly, she looked up.
Dmitri prowled into the room and leaned against the wall, the movement pulling one lapel of his unbuttoned shirt higher, exposing a rope of leanly sculpted muscle. A gauze pad near his abdomen stood out white against his olive skin.
One of his brows lifted, a sardonic smile twisting his mouth.
Sinuous heat bloomed low in her belly, the sight of his naked torso a temptation like she had never imagined.
The luxurious black satin scrunched in her fingers painted a picture of her writhing beneath that leanly coiled frame, all of that simmering intensity unleashed on her, while he worshipped her with the mouth that had pierced her so much...
“Jasmine?”
His frown prompted her out of her fantasies, her skin heating up.
She was used to attention of the most extreme kind, knew lust in all its forms. And yet, when Dmitri looked at her, even innocently as he was doing now, as if he could see into her head and soul, she was extremely aware of it.
Of all the men in the world, something inside her reacted with a violent energy to Dmitri. Maybe it was because she had known him as a kid. Maybe because, for the first time in years, she was with a man and she didn’t have to worry about whether he was motivated by lust or some other inferior motive.
That was it.
Dmitri, for all his crushing words, was safe.
For years, she had wondered if the life she had adapted to to survive had somehow corrupted her ability to feel this kind of need, if her body would ever feel like it was anything but an instrument she had honed to make a living...if she would feel free enough...wondered if there was anything pure left in her thoughts except for the technicality of it...
Yet that it was Dmitri that incited her like this... It left her shaking to her very bones.
Didn’t her body know that she was supposed to hate him even if he looked like a Greek god? That he was a man who turned his back on friends because they didn’t fit into his new life?
* * *
She was like a deer planning her escape route, Dmitri decided, leaning against the door. Not that he didn’t think it was for the best.
The moment he saw her on the bed, his bed, in his robe, even if it fell to her ankles, his blood had vanished south.
She had looked so lovely for a second there, claws withdrawn. Like a lioness who wanted to be petted for a little while. Before she most likely ate you.
“You look as if you have a fever.”
She nodded. “I don’t feel... I’m just achy all over.”
Her words emerged as a rough croak. The soft admission from her was as strange as the feverish look in those dark black eyes. Scrubbed of sleep and any lingering softness that he had ruthlessly pushed away, they glowed with determination. And regret punched him in the gut even as he knew that it was better this way.
He didn’t want her all soft and melting. He wanted her to fight him and hate him.
Had she been hurt in their tussle? he thought then, the very idea horrifying him. Frowning, he took a step forward and clasped her cheek.
She flinched away from him. A silent roar burst into life inside of him, and he forced himself to take multiple breaths.
Theos, he hated when she flinched at his nearness like that...
Which was a thousand kinds of insanity because he had practically yelled at her to not come near him.
Stavros had taught him well. It took all of his willpower to control that wild thing inside him that wanted her hands on him. All of her on him. Reminded himself that all he offered a woman was sex. And Jasmine deserved a lot more.
Clenching his jaw, he fought for composure. “Did I hurt you when I tackled you?”
“No. I just... I pulled a muscle the other day and it’s still bothering me.”
“Let me see it.”
“No.” Jasmine drew in a deep breath and forced the words to come out evenly. “Thanks for coming so promptly today, Dmitri. For literally coming to my rescue.”
“You almost choked on that, ne?”
She shrugged, refusing to take the bait.
He entered the bedroom and went to the wardrobe.
Panic blooming in her gut, she looked around the bedroom she had run into.
It was his bedroom, of course.
She tried to slide off the silky sheets. And lost the little dignity she had in the process when he turned around, his brows raised.
Sleeping in Dmitri’s bed was the last thing she needed. It was far too intimate for the little peace that she needed for her overactive mind.
She dangled her legs on the side of the bed. “I didn’t realize this was your bedroom. I will just...”