Dmitri

Chapter 5

*** A/N

Warning: This chapter has sex in it, so if you're not into that kind of thing, just stop reading once you're through with Dmitri's part :)

Other than that, hope you like it!

***

Elena

Watching as Luca led Ana to his car, I felt Dmitri come up behind me. It scared me a little, how attuned to him I'd become in the short amount of time I'd been here. I wasn't ignorant to the fact that I no longer simply thought of him as the man who had taken it upon himself to be my protector, to avenge my parents, there was something more there now. 

Feeling his heat at my back, I remembered how he'd hold me tight during the night, his arms wrapping me up in a safe cocoon that refused to allow the monsters of my nightmares in, shielding me even from my dreams. It was only when he wasn't with me that the nightmares came, that those hideous memories of finding my parents broken and butchered bodies seeped into my mind. 

Yes, Dmitri Volkov was not only my protector, he was working his way into my heart in a way I knew he would never be gone, and that terrified me. My father had always wanted to me to find love and happiness outside of the life, to live a clean and normal life with no involvement in his world other than being his daughter. I no longer saw that as an option, not because situation had made it so, but because somewhere along the way I'd made a concious decision that whatever this thing between me and Dmitri really was, I would regret it if I didn't at least attempt to find out where it might lead. 

"Princess Katya is requesting her auntie Elena's presence in the kitchen, it seems you promised her you would teach her to make fairytale cupcakes." Dmitri muttered from behind, his voice laced with the same fond amusement it always was when he spoke of his niece. Smiling, I turned to face him, having to tip my head back to catch his eyes, a hint of annoyance entering my mind at the fact he was so much taller than me. 

"I need to start wearing heels," I muttered on that thought, shaking my head at the questioning look he shot me after those words. 

"Well then, who am I to leave the princess waiting." I sighed dramatically, getting the pleasure of actually seeing those cold grey eyes alighting with humor as I did. Dmitri wasn't a man who smiled much, in any way one could smile, but I had the sudden startling realization that he would be undenieably gorgeous if he did.

In that moment, I had no concious control of my own actions as I put my palms flat on his chest, pushed up on my toes and kissed him. It was a very brief kiss, just a touch of the lips, but Dmitri went solid against me, his hands rising to clamp down hard on my waist. The amused look completely wiped from his face as he held my eyes. 

"This is not a good idea, Elena." I swallowed under the tightness of his voice, feeling his strong warm hands over the fabric of my shirt, remembering how those hands had a tendency to slip under my nightshirt to hold onto my bare skin during the night. I didn't know if he was aware that he did this in his sleep, but I wasn't going to tell him. 

"Maybe," I agreed quietly, aware that I might be making a huge mistake, and that I already had far too much to worry about. I didn't need the stress of a possible romantic entanglement with the head of the russian mafiya to add to it, but I was my mother's daughter and she'd told me many times about how when they first fell in love, my father had attempted to push her away so she'd get a better life, a clean life. I didn't know how I knew, but I knew that I wasn't the only one who felt this thing between us and Dmitri was so much like my father it wasn't hard to figure out he was doing the same thing. 

"Tell me you haven't thought about it," I whispered, reaching up to cup his tense jaw, "tell me you don't see me as anything more than Mikhail's daughter and I'll walk away right now and I won't bother you again. That's all you need to say Dmitri. I'll move back into the guestroom until this whole thing is taken care of, then I'll leave and you'll never have to see me again. Tell me that's what you want and I'll give it to you."