He breathes heavily but says nothing. Leaning down, he nips my neck before getting off me and silently walking out. Laying on my stomach, I catch my breath, ignoring the sticky cum sliding down my thighs.
I hear the door click shut and feel a strange sense of loss. Bringing my hand over, I grab my phone and squint against the backlit screen as I pull up the tracking app. I tell myself I want to make sure he actually goes back to his room, but a small part of me wants to just hold on to him longer. My eyes narrow on the screen as I find Sin’s tracker, frowning as I see it’s in his room already.
I quickly pan out and scan around, my eyes widening as I watch Kris’s dot walk down the hall away from my room.
Chapter 27
Ginger
I’ll needto put a deadbolt on my door before I even consider trying to sleep.
My mind and body war with one another. I won’t deny I felt pleasure, but the feeling of violation, of broken trust, is strong. Though the stickiness on my thighs is unwelcome, I make no move to clean myself, lost in thought.
So many small things about Krystof are clicking together in my mind, but I can’t quite make sense of the entire picture. The sense of unease follows me into sleep but when I dream, it’s of Dmitri, not my oldest brother, Krystof.
My eyes widen in understanding,a flush of unwanted heat rising to my core as I realize what Dmitri is suggesting.
“You’re my….”
“It doesn’t matter,” he whispers against my lips. “Wouldn’t you rather give it to me than have it ripped away byhim? Your birthday is only days away.”
His eyes bore into mine as he says this, and in them shines back the love he’s always given me. Where Maxim would say I wasn’t even his sister at all because we don’t share the same father, that’s never mattered to Dmitri. He’s always taken care of me, loved me, even though it caused him grief with his brothers and Father because of it.
And now he’d risk his own life to save my innocence. To at least give me some semblance of choice, at least this once.
“Don’t you…” His voice cracks, disclosing the boy beneath the man’s body. “Don’t you love me, too?”
My eyesopen and stare up at the ceiling as the dream, the memory of that day and the consequences of it, waltz through my mind.
If Dmitri hadn’t taken my virginity so Father wouldn’t sell it, he wouldn’t have been killed, and maybe, just maybe, it would be a different brother standing beside me today. Or maybe I would have been sold to a Russian husband, or as a whore like my Father always planned.
I do my best to push the past out of my mind.
Krystof and his unwelcome intrusion will have to be dealt with, but I can’t for the life of me force myself out of bed to deal with anything, much less that.
How long has he wanted me like that? Was this just spurred by some kind of strange jealousy because of the attention I’ve been giving Sin? Does he know Sin visited me in the night in a similar fashion?
I frown as the years flutter through my mind like a movie. It was Krystof who ultimately saved me from Father, after Dmitri was ripped apart by dogs due to my actions. If not for him, my fate would have been even worse than that.
Though when you turned Krystof down and left him after everyone was dead, it was only a day later you got picked up by those traffickers, a voice in my head reminds me. My chest heaves as my breathing picks up.
It’s been so long now, and I rarely think about that time in my life anymore. I was taken by two men when I was only sixteen, days after I set out on my own. I never questioned it before, but the way I was taken just doesn’t add up, now that I know how that all works. My eyes close as I think back to that day.
“They’re all dead, Galina,”Krystof says as he stands over me. The hot sun beats down on my back, one of the few hot days of the year here. I look over toward the bushes where Dmitri was attacked. The dogs already ran off, so I start to rise, but a hand on my shoulder stops me.
“You don’t need to see him,” he urges with a frown. “It’ll only make it hurt more.”
My jaw clenches, pain shooting to my temple. Thanks to Krystof and Dmitri, I didn’t get killed or sold, but I’m not walking away unscathed either.
“Come on,” he implores, his voice soft as he tries to pull me into his arms. “I’ll keep you safe, Galya. I’ll take care of you.”
My arms remain tight at my sides, even as my brother pets my hair and tries to hush me. My entire body shakes with emotion.
Father. Dmitri. Anya. Maxim.
All dead.
“No!” I shout, suddenly pushing away from him. “I won’t go with you.”