Dimitri's Forbidden Submissive(24)
“You know how when you’re a kid you feel like the rules that apply to the rest of the world don’t apply to you? That you’re invincible? That even gravity wouldn’t dare interfere with your life?”
“Da.”
“Yeah, well invincible me decided that I could play on the partially frozen pond, that I would just stay near the edge where the ice was thick and slide around on my boots. I swear I was being careful, but it started to snow, really hard, and I kind of became lost in my own mind. I was imagining…”
She looked away and stiffened again, making him want to know what she wasn’t saying. “What were you thinking, zaika moya?”
Off in the distance a bird sang its last song before night firmly took hold, and somewhere across the lake, a frog began to croak. He relished the sense of isolation he had out here with Rya, as if they were the only people for a thousand miles. “I was pretending that I was a Snow Fairy, that I was the size of a snowflake and I was dancing through the air. Unfortunately, I was heavier than a snowflake and…and I fell through.”
Her last words came out in a whisper and a visible shudder ripped through her. Holding her closer, he tucked her head beneath his chin and enjoyed the way she clung to him, easily accepting the comfort he offered her. She smelled good, like vanilla and spices, and he grazed her soft hair with his lips. Touching her reassured him that she was alive, warm, and safe. He would protect her, care for her, and take the fear from her eyes.
“If I tell you something, do you promise you won’t laugh? Or think I’m lying?”
“I swear.”
“I died that day, Dimitri. I really did. I was trapped beneath the ice for close to twenty minutes without oxygen. When they pulled me out my heart wasn’t beating. I was blue with cold.”
He found himself holding her tighter, reassuring himself with her warmth that she did survive, that she was really here. “How did you survive?”
“Well, the doctors say that the hypothermia, where your body cools way down really quick, managed to somehow keep enough oxygen in my brain to keep me alive, kind of like putting my brain into hibernation.”
“What do you remember?”
“I remember going in the water, and how my clothing instantly got so damn heavy. I remember not being able to breathe.” She shivered hard and almost convulsively gulped in a big breath of air before letting it out in a shuddering sigh. “That’s why I hate breath play, hate not being able to breathe. But that’s not all I remember.”
“I promise, I will never strangle or choke you. Any collar you wear will not constrict you. I swear it.” He hated the pain in her voice. “Do not talk about if the memory is bad.”
“Thanks.” To his surprise she laughed softly. “Are you sure you want to hear the next part? You may think I’m crazy.”
“I know many crazy people, you are not one of them.”
“You might disagree after you hear what I have to say, but okay. I lost consciousness, was just nothing in a vast universe of darkness. I could have been there for a few seconds, or a million years, I had no sense of time passing at all, it was just…nothing. I was nothing. Then I saw a light.” She paused as if waiting for him to say something, but when he didn’t she continued with more confidence in her voice. “I know it sounds like all those cheesy movies about people seeing a light at the end of a tunnel, blah blah blah bullshit, but I swear to God, I did. It was beautiful, Dimitri, the most amazing thing I’ve ever felt. It was like I was moving through the essence of joy, of love, of happiness. But there was someone waiting for me, someone standing between me and the light.”
The hair on his arms stood up and even though he chided himself that her memories were probably just the dreams of a girl suffering oxygen deprivation, the awe in her voice held him spellbound.
“It was my Dad.” Her tone choked up and she cleared her throat. “He hugged me, I felt him just as real as you are, and he told me that it wasn’t time yet. That I needed to live, to enjoy everything the world has to offer. He made me promise that I would live every day of my life to the fullest because there were things I must do, people I must meet, before I passed. We all have a purpose on Earth, a calling, but we aren’t just put here to learn and work, we’re also put here to enjoy. That’s what I try to do, to enjoy everything that the world has to offer so when I see my father again, he’ll know that I lived, really, truly lived.”
Stunned, Dimitri looked out over the water with unseeing eyes. Had she really died? Was it possible that a heaven he’d stopped believing in, a God he stopped acknowledging years ago was real? And if there was a God, was there also a devil? And who did his soul belong to?