06| I Never Touched Her.

I am awoken by the sound of something sizzling in the background; shortly thereafter, the aroma of greasy fried food floods my senses, and my mouth immediately begins to water.

Mmm, bacon...

I roll over, cradling the pillow to my chest as I let out a relaxed sigh. Slowly opening my eyes, the illuminating rays of the sun dance upon the bed and it caresses my bare face. 

Flexing my arms, I let out a light yawn before I pull myself up into a sitting position, and place my hand against my groggy head. 

I raise my eyes while patiently waiting for my vision to clear, then slam them shut once it does.

I must have slept the whole night away and Dmitri is still hanging about like a bad smell. 

As I stand up, I remove the warm, snug blanket, swing my legs over the edge of the bed, and hiss as my feet strike the chilly floor.

I dip my head and look down at my bare feet then check the rest of my body. 

A silent sigh of gratitude leaves my mouth the second I realise Dmitri had only removed my socks and shoes.

"Oh, goodie... You're up." His velvet-like voice sweeps through the studio as he busies himself in the kitchen. "Since you were in a deep slumber for more than twelve hours, I was debating with myself about whether or not to test the hypothesis of one's true love kiss." 

"I guess I woke up just in time then," I reply as I comb my fingers through my freshly dyed hair, and openly eye fuck him from behind. 

He abruptly spins around with two plates in his hands and I drop my gaze to the ground, "Ready for breakfast?" 

"I'm not really a breakfast person. A strong cup of coffee usually sees me through to lunchtime."

I truly need to stop lying.

But it's a bit hard to do so when the words effortlessly roll off the tip of my tongue where he is concerned. 

I get cranky as fuck when I skip a meal, especially breakfast and it smells ridiculously good.

He sets the plates down on the tabletop and pulls out a chair, "But I cooked?" He says with a cocky smile on his face. 

The same cocky smile that used to make my panties wet every time he directed that very smile at me. 

Such a fool I was.

"I said no." 

His smile falters, "You haven't eaten for over twenty-four hours."

"I'll survive," I say bitterly.

The longer I stare at him the quicker my feelings of animosity return toward him. Even after all these years, the pain hasn't dampened. 

If anything, it has heightened and I refuse to let those feelings from my past consume me.

As I turn away from him, the sound of the table being overturned fills the room. I spin back around to face him.

The breakfast he had cooked is now all over the ground, seeping through the threads of the carpet. 

I raise my gaze to meet his metal gun irises that are full of rage, impatience and irritation.

Folding my arms across my chest, I arch a single brow.

"Do you feel better now?" I ask him in a scolding tone. 

He snorts and runs his hands through his short hair in frustration. "Are you seriously asking me that right now? How daft do you have to be, printsessa? Our parents are dead, and the one person I can tolerate on this god-forsaken planet doesn't want a bar of me!" 

He begins to pace the room in nothing but a pair of grey track pants, his muscles tensing with each stride, and a savage growl echoes from the back of his throat.

When he mentions the death of our parents, my heart stops for a moment or two. 

It brings yesterday's events rushing back to me with a raw and deep sense that I fight against so I do not collapse into a pit of misery and despair.

"You need to ask yourself why I can't stand to be in your presence, Dmitri!"

I swallow thickly, trying to rein my temper and unease. 

After a few heartbeats, he stops pacing and he looks back at me with a frown on his face.

"Okay, I'm sorry."

"Are you sorry that I'm still hurt and mad? Or sorry you did it?"

"Sorry, you're mad."

Ofcourse he is the son of a bitch. Why would he regret the shit he does? Even to me. 

I shake my head as a psychotic giggle exits my lips. "Of course you are." 

"I don't know what you want me to say, Zee. You have me by the fucking balls and you don't even know it." He snarls darkly as he brushes his hand over his bare chest. 

As my stomach twists with jealousy and animosity, it strikes me that he truly doesn't know what I am talking about. 

Dmitri has never been one to shy away from conflict and as much as it's going to hurt me to bring up the past.

I will. 

Because I deserve an explanation; closure.

"On my eighteenth birthday, you invited me to your hotel room so we could celebrate it together-" 

"Da, I remember." He interjects.

I grind my teeth together as I swallow the lump forming in the back of my throat, "Then you will also remember me walking in on you and Tessa going at it like a pair of wild fucking bunnies?"

 I run the tip of my tongue across my upper teeth, and a bad taste contaminates my mouth as the words leave my lips.

 He crosses the room devouring the distance between us, "I can explain." He says gently as he stands in front of me. 

"Explain?" I look at him incredulously. "She was my best friend, off-limits. There's nothing to explain unless you tripped and somehow your dick managed to get a hole in one?"

He rubs the back of his nape, masking the slight smirk that creeps across his mouth. 

"I'm leaving," I say flatly, stepping around him to use the bathroom first. 

He catches my arm, "You know I will only follow you if you run from me?" 

I look down at his hand that's wrapped around my upper arm, "I don't consider that running if I warned you." 

He pulls me closer to him as he dips his head with his lips a whisper away from searing the heated flesh across my cheek.

"Warning me is supposed to excuse you when you become insanely ridiculous and lash out over something that happened years ago?"

He was chillingly relaxed, his voice low and firm. No one looking from the outside would pick up on the tension that entrapped us, but it was there igniting in his eyes. 

Burning with lust and dampened by fury. 

He has mastered the technique of infusing the two together and it only pisses me off even more.

"I wasn't in the room that night. I wouldn't have touched that bitch with a fucking stick either. I messaged you, telling you that there was a slight change of plans, but you never showed up." 

Abruptly, he catches me by the waist and he lifts me off the ground, crushing me against him. "You need to be fucked, right now," He hisses in my ear as he grazes his teeth against my earlobe. "I never should have made us wait this long!"