Dimitri liked it as well, but for some reason, the thought of Alex seeing Rya naked before he did made Dimitri strangely uncomfortable, possessive even, and he was never possessive of a woman with his brother. They’d shared women easily in the past, but he wanted Rya all to himself. Every fucking inch of her amazing body belonged to him. Across the room, Rya smiled at an older silver haired woman dressed in a royal blue velvet dress who looked vaguely familiar. When he saw the four men with the older woman he recognized Mistress Angelique, an infamous Parisian Domme and her harem of men. While he didn’t know Angelique personally, he knew one of her men in passing and watched with growing jealousy as they openly checked out Rya.
He wondered if Rya would be going to Boston with Mistress Angelique, but instead of heading for the fleet of waiting helicopters they moved in the direction of the dining room. His heart sank as he realized Rya would be staying behind. The sight of her lush hips swaying beneath the purple silk of her dress as she walked away was unbearable. Without thinking, he went to follow her, but Alex grabbed his arm.
“What are you doing?”
“I’ve decided to stay.”
Looking in the direction Rya went, Dimitri turned back and gave him a concerned look. “Don’t.”
He jerked his arm away. “Don’t what?”
“Come with us, Dimitri. Don’t torture yourself like that.”
Gritting his teeth, he kept his face as blank as possible. “What? I just want to fuck her and I haven’t had a chance yet. We’re leaving in a few days so I’m not going to miss this opportunity. You worry too much.”
Alex stepped closer and said in a low voice, “Lie to others, even lie to yourself, but do not lie to me. I saw the way you looked at her. It is dangerous.”
Anger filled Dimitri and he whispered back, “It is nothing.”
“You look at her the way I looked at my Jessica.”
Startled, Dimitri stared at his brother. Alex rarely, if ever, said the name of his dead wife. “Alex…”
His brother closed his eyes and the pain radiated off of him in almost visible waves before he regained control of himself and looked at Dimitri again, his gaze totally devoid of emotion. He shared the same deep grey eyes ringed with black that his father and brother did. Looking at Alex was like looking at himself in many ways, and his brother’s pain was his pain. Dimitri had held his brother together when Alex completely lost his mind to grief for a year or so before he finally began to make peace with his wife, Jessica’s, death. It had been…not good. Alex had been feral with anger and ended up staying at the family’s compound in Siberia of all fucking places, isolating himself from the world as he mourned the loss of a beautiful, gentle woman who had loved him more than anything in the world.
When Alex was sure Dimitri was paying attention, he said in a low, deadly voice, “You cannot have her.”
“You’re overreacting.” He lifted his chin. “Go, Ilyena is waiting for you.”
“Come with us,” Alex said with an edge of desperation in his voice.
He wanted to give in to Alex’s heartfelt demand, but now that he’d seen Rya again he knew he had to have her. He said in English, “I will see you in two days. We will celebrate our last night in the United States together, then we will return home to Russia. Maybe we will get lucky and father will die, yes?”
Shaking his head, Alex didn’t smile like he usually did at the mention of their father’s ill health. He gripped Dimitri’s head and pulled him close before whispering, “Protect her, Dimitri. Protect her by leaving her alone or she will be taken from you forever.”
Without another word Alex turned and left, giving Dimitri a glimpse of a very worried Ilyena. Dimitri took off after Rya, and as he moved through the lodge to the dining area, he tried to tell himself that he just wanted to avoid the crowd that would be in Boston, that he wanted some time to himself with the lodge half empty. Those excuses vanished like smoke in the wind as he heard the sound of Rya’s laughter, and his heart thumped hard in his chest. He stepped into the dining room and found her almost immediately, as though they had some kind of connection between them that drew his gaze instantly to her.
She was sitting with Mistress Angelique at a large, round table and eating dinner, her head tilted back as she laughed at something one of Angelique’s men said, exposing the perfect line of her throat. Once again his heart lurched in his chest, but he remained frozen in the doorway, unsure of how to approach her or if he still had time to turn back. She’d somehow woven a spell around him, his dark-haired siren, and when she turned around and looked at him like she could feel him watching her, he knew he was lost as his gaze met her beautiful golden hazel eyes. Her long, thick lashes framed her remarkable eyes perfectly, but he was distracted by her lips. They were warm and pink, begging for his kiss.