When I was left alone again, I let myself fall back on the bed, my arms outstretched as I stared at the ceiling. I could hear deep, indistinct murmurs coming from the other side of the door. I closed my eyes as I pictured Dmitry out in the living room, still leaning against the wall, a glass of hard liquor in his hand.
He looked at me as if I were a fly on the wall. Inconsequential. Invisible. I groaned and covered my face with my hands. Of course he did. What exactly did I want? A grown man to look at me with anything more than indifference? I should be glad he wasn’t a pervert.
I didn’t know what it was about him. He was far too old for me to even be thinking about him in any way other than my sister’s brother-in-law, yet I was drawn to him.
I kept thinking about how he protected me. No one had done that before except Gio and Amara.
What I needed to do was put Dmitry in the back of my mind. He was no good for me. He was too dangerous. That should have been enough to have me blocking out anything and everything that had to do with him.
Yet I felt even more curiously drawn to the big Russian.
Chapter 9
Claudia
I wasn’t sure what woke me up first, but I rolled over in bed and stared out the window, the curtains partially pulled, the fading light of the night seeping in.
And this high up, with the soundproof windows, all I heard was silence.
I could make out the rising sun off in the horizon, oranges and pinks painting the sky. It was too early for me to be up for the day, especially with the time change.
I was about to close my eyes and see if I could get some more sleep when I heard a strange sound coming from behind the closed bedroom door.
I pushed myself up and stared at the door, hearing what sounded like heavy breathing, and then a whine, followed by scratching.
The hell?
After pushing off the blanket and padding over to it, I gripped the handle and cracked the door.
But it suddenly shoved open, and I stumbled back from the unexpected force. I fell on my ass and stared in shock as a big damn dog strode in.
I scrambled backward until the frame of the bed stopped my retreat, but the Doberman kept coming forward.
I opened my mouth to cry out for help. My throat felt tight and dry, frozen from fear. And so I squeezed my eyes shut and turned my head, expecting to be mauled.
But then I heard a deep rumble of words in Russian, and as the seconds ticked by and nothing happened, I cracked an eye open and looked back toward the open doorway.
The Doberman sat in front of me with its head cocked and its ears twitching. And behind her, standing in the doorway and leaning against the frame, a coffee cup in hand, was Dmitry.
He had an eyebrow cocked as he stared down at me. And then he clicked his tongue, and the dog whined before rising.
She took a step toward me and I tensed, but when she just butted her head against my hand, I darted a glance toward Dmitry.
“You’re scaring her, Sasha. Show her how gentle you are.”
I looked between him and the dog, then back to him again, pretty sure I’d been holding my breath this entire time.
“She wants you to pet her,” he said with an amused tone, the corner of his lips twitching as he brought the coffee cup to his mouth and took a pull from it.
I glanced back at the dog, and she whined again, rubbing her head against my hand until I tentatively lifted my fingers and ran them over the silky fur along her head.
She let me pet her for a few seconds before she turned and trotted back to Dmitry, sitting on her haunches beside him.
While still watching me, Dmitry ran his hand over her head, stroking the dog behind the ear. “She’s a gentle giant.”
I found that hard to believe. I could see her being vicious at the drop of a hat, maybe on her master’s command.
But right now, as she stared at me with clearly intelligent eyes, I felt some of the tension and fear leave me.
“I just…” My throat closed up as I pushed myself up, smoothing my hands down my sleep pants. “Dogs scare me. I was nearly bitten by one when I was a child. I guess it left a lasting impression on me.”
“I’m sorry to hear that. I can see how that would fuck with someone’s mental well-being.”
I… wasn’t expecting him to say that, to sound genuine in that response.
“You’re an early riser.”
He spoke again before I could respond, but it was better that way, seeing as I’d probably put my foot in my mouth.