The shower door opened but she ignored Dimitri as he joined her. She grabbed a bar of soap from the shelf in the shower and turned away, pretending to wash herself.
He tried to take the soap from her but she jerked her hand away. “I’m almost done.”
“Rya? What is wrong?”
“Nothing.”
He tried to get her to turn around and face him, but she managed to push away. “Just let me rinse off and the shower is all yours.”
Frowning, he pulled her unwilling body against his. “What is wrong?”
“Nothing.” She refused to look at him, instead focusing on the tile wall of the shower.
“Did I hurt you?”
She wanted to scream yes, but instead she gave him a stiff, “No.”
“Do not lie.”
“Fine. I don’t want to talk about it.”
He made a frustrated growling noise. “Tell me what is wrong.”
“No.”
“I will spank it out of you.”
She shoved at his chest, but it was like trying to shove at a tree. “Just leave me alone, okay?”
“No, I will not leave you alone. You are mine, Rya. I will never leave you alone.”
She shouted in anger, “Why the fuck do you want me? You don’t love me. What’s the point?”
Taking in a deep breath, he then grasped her wet hair and forced her to look at him. “You think I do not love you?”
Trying to keep her lower lip from trembling she shook her head. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll be fine. Just…just leave me alone. I need time to think.”
He laughed. “You are foolish.”
She wanted so badly to knee him in the nuts right now it wasn’t even funny. “And you’re an asshole.”
That stopped his laughter and he glared at her. “You are not going anywhere. You are mine.”
“I don’t want to be yours,” she yelled and tried to jerk his hand out of her hair. “I want you to want me because you love me, not because you want to own me.”
“But I do want to own you. I want to keep every one of your smiles for myself, to be the source of all of your joy, to surround myself with you because you are my light, Rya. You are my warmth, my heart, my soul. I love you more than you can possibly imagine, foolish girl.”
She stopped struggling and peered up at him through the water. “You love me?”
“I’ve been in love with you from the moment we met.” He leaned down and placed a gentle kiss on her lips. “You are the first woman I have ever loved, and you will be the last. Why would you doubt that?”
“But you didn’t say it back,” she whispered against his mouth as her body melted into his.
He nipped her lips. “You do not remember me saying it back, but I did and I will as many times as you need to hear it to believe it. I love you, Rya DeLuca, and I will never let you go.”
Chapter Twenty Three
Rya took a deep breath and smiled at Dimitri as he helped her from the backseat of his navy blue Bentley three days later. She’d gained a nice tan from their time in South Carolina and sent a silent thank you to Gia for being such an awesome hostess. During the day she and Gia went shopping, or to a spa, then usually to a bar eating decadent appetizers and getting tipsy under the combined stares of their bodyguards. When they came home at night, the men would make them dinner, then take them down to the dungeon to play. It had been a very relaxing, indulgent few days and she was ever so grateful to Dimitri for giving them to her. Spending time with him like that, with his friends, was really, really nice. She could easily see herself being with Dimitri for the rest of her life and the notion didn’t scare her like it should. That was proof that Dimitri had a magic touch that could make everything wonderful.
Damn, he’d fucked her stupid.
Giving herself a little mental shake to clear her mind of the arousing image of Dimitri fucking her, she took a deep breath of the chilly air and tugged her fox fur jacket closer around her. She’d felt odd wearing such a luxurious jacket until she realized a lot of women wore fur because it was cold as fuck in Moscow at the moment. They were somewhere near the Embassy district in the massive city. They finally arrived at the location of her new home after driving through the heavy traffic for what seemed like hours. Rya hadn’t been sure what to expect, but this luxury high rise apartment building with a huge private park/garden wasn’t it. This building looked like it belonged in some movie about the rich and famous and she stared for a moment at all the glass windows before giving the gate they’d just passed through a curious look. High cement walls topped with pointed black wrought iron enclosed the building and surrounding court yard. Cameras watched them as well as men dressed in black uniforms and wearing long coats patrolling the area. There were even a few guard dogs and she gave one of the obviously armed, sharp-eyed passing men a curious look before stepping closer to Dimitri.