Page 64 of Deadly Knight

“Hey, I need you to send the plane to Toronto. I’ll be home soon.”

We both will, I think, looking down at Katya.

I’m drifting,and I don’t quite know why. It reminds me of the hours I was in and out of consciousness in the hospital when I was eighteen and reconciling the recent horrors.

At one point, I’m on a date with Caleb, better than I’ve been in a long time, and then there was Ivan Volkov…and that’s the last thing I recall.

I think I’m still asleep, and I don’t know how to wake up.

Maybe I’m dead.

Maybe that’s why my life literally flashes through my eyes in a series of moments.

“Where are you going?”Papa stands guard at the bottom of the stairs, blocking my path to the door—and my first date with Dimitri Volkov.

“Out.” I leave details to a minimum, because I doubt my father would enjoy hearing I’m going out with someone likeDimitri. Someone who just screams danger, and for daughters to avoid.

I approach the bottom step, pushing myself between the railing and him despite the metal digging into my lower back. Papa watches, smirking, and only moves out of the way after I manage to pass him.

“Thanks,” I mutter dryly, turning for the front door. Maybe I’ll wait outside. Like, down the road so my parents won’t see him approaching.

“I wasn’t kidding, Katya. Where are you going at 5 p.m. on a Saturday?”

“Out with a friend.”

The knocking on the door has Mama all but running from the living room. Damn. He’s earlier than he said he’d be. Papa, with a pleased smile, steps by me to greet “my friend”.

Dimitri’s standing in the doorway, looking utterly delicious and forbidden all at the same time. It’s becoming harder every passing second to ignore the factmy parentsare right here, granting zero privacy—annoyingly.

Dimitri doesn’t look my way at first. Instead, his attention is entirely on my mama as he smiles and stretches a hand out for her to shake. “Mrs. Terasov.” Then he looks at my father. “Mr. Terasov. Sorry I’m early, but I wanted to meet you.”

Oh my god.

As my mother gushes over his politeness, his eyes briefly flick my way, sparkling with his wink.

By the time we finally leave for our date, my mother’s all smiles, my father is nodding his approval, and I’m halfway in adoration with Dimitri.

Dimitri wrapshis arm around my waist as we wander aimlessly through the hallways during the lunch break. Every once in a while, his head dips into my neck, and he breathes deeply.

“Is it weird to say I dream of your scent at night?” he whispers in my ear, his low breath tickling my skin. “It makes me so fucking hard. I want you in my arms always.”

“Then let me stay over,” I whine, yet again complaining about his rule. I’ve visited his mansion—his fucking mansion!—but never more for a few hours at a time, and never to sleep over.

“I wish,” he groans. “I’d give anything to be able to hold you all night.”

“Only if you do more than hold me.” Then I pull him into a nearby classroom to show him the kinds of things I’d want to do if I stayed over.

Dimitri said we had to “talk.”As I head towards our meeting place, my heart literally feels like it’s dropping from my chest, threatening to break before it shatters on the ground.

There’s only one “talk” guys ever have.

When I get there, Dimitri pulls me in for a deep kiss, like it’s the last he’ll ever give me. Then there are his eyes, normally so dark and honest, but are now lined with anxiety.

“Katya, I can’t lie to you anymore. Hell, I don’t want to. All those times when I constantly disappear, or the evenings I’m too busy?—”

He’s cheating on me. Of course, a guy like Dimitri got bored and he moved on. Don’t cry, don’t cry, don’t cry…

When Dimitri continues, he doesn’t tell me anything close to what I could have possibly guessed. Ever. Ever-ever.