Sasha: The Wallflower (The Wallflower Series Book 1) (7 page)

“Now, please eat the breakfast I made you.” He grinned at her.

Sasha returned his smiled. Stuffing her mouth with the delicious eggs and vegetables, she glanced across the table at him and felt warmth in her chest just watching him. Dmitri’s head was bowed as he ate, his messy hair falling across his forehead. The undiminishing desire she felt for him since first spotting him across the restaurant grew with each day she spent with him. She reveled in their intimacy that morning and hoped it would happen again even though she still held fears about giving him everything. It was more uncertainty than fear that he would hurt her, though.

Shrugging off the thought, she returned back to the satisfying breakfast he had prepared for her.

Sasha and Dmitri spent their time that afternoon lounging around in his apartment.  Following breakfast, he had volunteered to clean her clothes from the night before, noting through perceptive glances that she was not wearing underwear. After giving her his shirt once more, he placed her things in the washer. It also didn’t help that the dress she wore was ridiculously tight. Feeling possessive, he chastised her about wearing it in public when he wasn’t there.

Sasha was taken aback by his sudden jealousy. Hiding a grin, instead of arguing, she nodded her head in acquiescence even though she knew she wouldn’t really bother heeding his warning in the future.

“Of course, Dmitri.” She leaned into him as he stood next to the washer and dryer he had hidden in a spacious closet.

Dmitri saw the mischievous glint in her eye. One thing he immediately noticed about Sasha from their time spent together was that she was a bad liar. Her eyes would widen and her mouth would twitch slightly . It was adorable though because she seemed to be completely clueless of this fact.

“Sasha, I mean it. You are too tiny to be wearing this without me there.” He had images of her dancing at a club with multiple guys. He tried to control the rage that immediately coursed through him. Taking a deep breath, he continued, “I’m only saying this because I worry about you.”

She rolled her eyes. “Dmitri, I’ve been this size long enough to learn how to protect myself.”

“Oh, really?” he said, his left brow rose doubtfully.

“Yes. I took a defense class in college.”

“Hmm…interesting. Well, considering that I’m more than a foot taller than you, please demonstrate how you would defend yourself against my…advances.”

Noticing his suggestive tone, Sasha leaned closer to him with a grin, her arms circling his waist. “I wouldn’t want to hurt you so I forfeit.”

In the blink of an eye, she found herself sprung over his shoulder. Sasha squealed in delight as he tickled her sides. “Dmitri! Stop! I’m gonna fall,” she screamed through spouts of laughter. She slapped him on his lower back and bottom as he carried her out of the laundry closet into the living room, trying to simultaneously keep the large shirt she wore from exposing her bottom half completely. She kicked her legs up and down fruitlessly, her torso moving this way and that in order to escape his searching fingers. “Stop, you’re gonna drop me!” Sasha squealed.

Dmitri rolled his eyes at that. She weighed next to nothing. From the corner of his eye he caught a glimpse of her enticing ass but told himself to ignore going down that road. After the taste he had received of her that morning, it was increasingly difficult not to imagine being with her in a more complete sense. But he forced himself to remember her innocence to rid himself of some of the impatient desire.

Dmitri threw her down onto his couch and pounced on top of her in order to continue his playful torture. Sasha almost choked with laughter as she grabbed onto his thick wrists and tried to pull.

“I-I can’t breathe,” she gasped, still laughing.

Seeing her struggle for breath himself, Dmitri halted his finger movements on her torso but did not get up from his position. Though he did not put his weight on her, his knees rested against both sides of her hips.

She mockingly frowned, slapping him against his chest muscles. “You’re so mean!”

He gave her a boyish grin and leaned down to place a wet kiss against her cheek. “It’s not my fault you weren’t able to show me your repertoire of defensive skills. I rest my case; without me, you are not allowed to wear that dress or anything like it.”

Sasha refused to answer him, looking away with a slight pout. So, he grabbed her chin and turned her back to him. Dmitri placed a soft kiss on her lips and whispered, feeling a little guilty, “I just want you to only look sexy like that for me.”

Not giving her a chance to respond this time, he rolled off of her. Lying down with his head against the arm of the couch, he pulled her by the arm until she was between his spread legs and rested her head against the surface of his chest. Her hair tickled his shoulder as he reached down a hand and possessively cupped her bottom to bring her closer.

Sasha rubbed her cheek against his chest, her fingers playing with the slight dusking of hair that rested there.

“You know, you never really told me what happened last night.”

A frown slightly marred her face at the memory but she gave in. Dmitri had a right to know considering the fact he let her in at close to three in the morning. “I-I went out with a couple of friends.”

He looked down at the top of her head. He couldn’t see her features but he noticed the sudden tension in her body as she rested against him. “Which ones?”

“The ones from the restaurant and Dina from the diner. Dina invited me earlier in the week and I wanted to resolve some issues I had with Faye.”

“What issues?”

Sasha bit her bottom lip. This part would be hard to reveal because she could already predict Dmitri’s disappointment with her over forgiving Faye’s mistreatment the night she had left her at the bus stop. Deciding it was best to just come out with it as quickly as possible, she informed him, “Faye was the one who left me that night in front of the diner. But, she said she had a date and Teagan was the one who usually-” Sasha stopped. She had lifted her head to look up at him as she spoke but noted the sudden glare in his eyes as he returned her stare.

“Do not try to justify her actions, Sasha.  She had a duty to you as her friend but instead she left you alone in a potentially dangerous area for the sake of what probably only amounted to a one-night stand. Is this the friendship you were talking about earlier- the one you realized you were better off without?” There was a tick in his jaw which she normally would have found sexy but, in that moment, it only made her nervous.

As she nodded in the affirmative, the large hand that rested on her bottom pulled her even higher until her face was directly above his. Sasha gulped, staring into his hard dark eyes. They were like bottomless pits.

“Tell me what happened,” he demanded softly.

“Well, she was drunk and said…some things.”

He raised a brow, silently asking for her to continue.

Sasha reverted her gaze from his.               She unconsciously rung her hands which were stuffed between both their chests. “Umm…well…she said tha-that…basically she didn’t understand why you didn’t choose her. And, to be quite honest, it made me feel really insecure in our relationship which is why I rushed over here.”

Dmitri stroked her back soothingly. “I won’t ask you what she said exactly since it seems to be bothering you so much. But, you should know that she is completely wrong and obviously has an over-bloated sense of her own attractiveness. Yes, she is beautiful but in our conversations she was also obviously narcissistic to the extreme and one-dimensional. So, to answer your silent question, no I would never have dated her.”

Thinking about what else she said, he laughed. “It seems like we’re both pretty insecure about our relationship.” He cupped her cheeks between his large palms. “I guess that’s something we’ll have to work on together, huh?”

Sasha smiled down at him and, for the first time, initiated a kiss. After a slight make-out session, Sasha decided to pull back when she felt her body respond. Given that she was still without undergarments, she wanted to avoid embarrassing herself by wetting his lower abdomen. She reached out a hand to wipe the moisture from his lips.

“Thank you for waiting for me, Dmitri.”

He knew immediately what she referred to. “You’re special enough to me Sasha that I don’t mind waiting.” He added, jokingly, “Even though I’m in a constant state of hardness whenever I’m around you.”

Suddenly, Sasha sat up on his chest with a gasp. “We should order pizza for dinner to celebrate!” Her eyes were bright with excitement as she looked down at him.

Stunned at the sudden change in conversation, Dmitri burst into laughter. He pulled her back down and kissed the corner of her jaw. “You’re so fucking adorable!”

Sasha walked into the diner to see Dina immediately running over. She smiled at her co-worker as she made her way to the employees’ room, Dina following.

“So…” Dina asked anxiously as she watched Sasha put away her belongings. “What happened?”

Sasha grinned secretly to herself. “Why, what do you mean?” she teased. The serious look that crossed Dina’s face was enough reason for her to stop. She shrugged her shoulders and added nonchalantly, “Well, I spent Sunday with Dmitri. Nothing really happened though.”

“What do you mean nothing happened?” Dina placed her hands on her more than ample hips and cocked her left hip to the side with a disapproving frown. “I couldn’t get into contact with you and neither could Teagan. We were out of our minds with worry, Sasha!”

Sasha’s interested peaked at the word ‘we.’ She smiled inwardly, happy to see that Dina was becoming more of a friend than just a co-worker. “Well, thank you for being worried. But there was no reason. I was with Dmitri so I was perfectly okay.”

Dina didn’t know what to say to that. While she was tremendously happy for Sasha and her new relationship, she also felt somewhat protective of the younger woman. Ever since she saw Sasha’s interactions with Faye and Jaelynn at the club, she became shockingly aware of just how…innocent Sasha really was. While Dina was only a few months older, it might as well have been half a decade that separated them. Especially in regards to relationship experience.

It did surprise her later that Saturday night when Teagan had called her, frantic. Apparently, Sasha had not returned home after Dina had dropped her off at the Ritz. Dina, at that time, hadn’t known who Sasha was going to see but she had assumed that her co-worker would at least return home later. The guilt she had felt was potent and so she had apologized profusely to Teagan and promised to return to the Ritz. But, as soon as Teagan heard where Sasha was, the emergency in her tone of voice dissipated somewhat. This was when Dina found out that she had unintentionally dropped Sasha off at Dmitri’s condo. That didn’t help her guilt; it felt as if she had delivered Sasha right into the dangerous clutches of the dragon.

While, admittedly, she didn’t know much about Dmitri, it didn’t take a genius to realize he was much too experienced for Sasha. It was her newfound knowledge of Sasha’s inexperience that made her wary of their relationship. They seemed to be much too different to ever really work and she knew that when they finally broke it off, Sasha would probably be the one extremely distraught and in pain.

“Is it serious between you two, then?”

Sasha nodded her head enthusiastically. “Oh, Dina! It was amazing.”

Dina’s eyes widened. She emphatically shook her head and took a few steps back, “No, I really don’t need to hear any details about your sex life, thank you very much.” Remembering Faye’s cruel remarks about her virgin status, she added, “But I’m happy you lost it to someone you seem to really like.”

Sasha waved her hand at Dina and laughed. “No,
that
didn’t happen! Dmitri is very accepting of the fact that I don’t feel like I’m ready for that step in our relationship. Instead, we just…hung out. It was so sweet and fun!”

Dina’s eyes widened at this. “You mean you spent an entire day with that man after sleeping over his house and nothing happened? How is that even possible? The man emanates sex!”

Sasha laughed at the look of shock on her co-worker’s face. She shrugged her shoulders with an impish grin. “Yup. He says I’m special enough for him to wait. Isn’t that sweet?” She clutched her hands under her chin with a wide grin, looking at Dina anxiously for her agreement.

“Yeah, it really is. He seems…better for you than I had first assumed.” Dina felt a surge of excitement at the prospect of her newfound friend’s happiness. Sasha deserved the best and she suspected now that Dmitri just may be it. Dina wrapped a single arm around her short friend’s shoulders and they walked out of the employee’s dressing room together; Sasha still exuberantly continuing the conversation about her day with Dmitri.

Dmitri sat at his desk after hanging up with one of his firm’s most important clients. His mind was still overrun by the events of his day with Sasha even when faced with the magnitude of the work he had placed before him. A natural hard-worker, he was unaccustomed to such distractions and found it slightly embarrassing to be so obvious about it. Slade had commented more than once today that his eyes were glazed over through most of the morning board meeting and he had not gotten nearly as much work done as he had previously.

Admittedly, his work ethic had deflated somewhat given the changes in his relationship with Sasha. Ever since he had met her, it had taken him greater effort to stay focused on anything else but her. This was part of the reason he eventually gave in and simply asked her out. Who knew that one date would have flourished so quickly to the point where she was coming over almost every night to just spend time with him? Because of both of their busy schedules, it was the only time next to a handful of weekends that they ever spent together, completely alone.

His body was becoming increasingly aware of this fact, however. The lustful urges he had toward her were getting harder to control despite his promises to wait and he feared completely embarrassing himself with a blatant erection either in front of her or, worse, in public. He felt like a young boy again, incapable of distracting himself from his sexual passions.

Dmitri frowned. Sasha wasn’t doing much to help the situation either. Unknowingly, she would cuddle a little too close to him and end up rubbing her hip or bottom against his groin. The memory of their intimate acts against her apartment wall and in his bedroom served as a constant reminder to his body of how potentially pleasurable a night with her would turn out to be, despite her innocence. One thing he knew for certain, Sasha, though a virgin, was not frigid. She willingly and actively participated, which only made him want her even more.

He groaned and tried to turn back to the papers on his desk. He could already feel his cock hardening at the thought of her writhing beneath him as he fondled her pussy and the wonderful feel of her wetness drenching his erection. Fortunately, before his mind could delve any further, there was a knock at his door. Quickly, Dmitri readjusted himself and called for them to come in.

The head of his assistant popped in from the crack of the door. Jeremy was a young and flamboyant kid from New York. Despite their obvious personality differences, their common passion for advertising made them get along very well.

“Excuse me, sir. You have a visitor.”

Dmitri’s brow rose at this, silently asking him for more information.

“Your brother,” Jeremy supplied before stepping out of the way.

Dmitri felt his heart plummet to his feet as he watched his younger half-brother enter the room from behind Jeremy. With a cocky smile eerily similar to his own, Dominic strolled into his large office and planted himself in one of the black leather chairs. Stroking the arms, he nodded his head in silent approval.

“You seem to be doing quite well for yourself, Dmitri.”

Dmitri rolled his eyes and leaned back in his own chair. Crossing his arms, he stated, “Cut the bullshit, Dom. What do you want?”

Dominic laughed at this. Used to his brother’s less-than-warm attitude, he was unfazed by Dmitri’s direct question. Instead, he flipped his chin-length hair away from his face and said coolly, “Is it wrong for me to want to see my older brother who has avoided all family gatherings for the past couple of years?” Unable to keep a straight face at this, a slight grin broke out.

Staring into the eyes that were also similar to his own in their dark coloring, Dmitri rolled his shoulders to stave off the tension that was quickly surmounting. He did not reply, continuing to wait for the answer to his question instead.

Dominic’s smile quickly dissipated. He was annoyed that Dmitri wasn’t playing his game and showed his pleasure with a slight pout. “Fine.” He sighed heavily. “Father sent me. Nadia hasn’t been doing very well.”

At the mention of his sister, Dmitri’s interest was immediately peaked. He unfolded his shoulders and leaned closer, resting his elbows on his desk. There was immediate tension in his jaw as he asked stiltedly, “What happened? I thought…she was doing better, wasn’t she?”

Dominic’s mood turned sour at the thought of Nadia. If nothing else, the two brothers shared one thing in common and that was their unending love and worry for their younger sister. Only twenty years old to Dmitri’s thirty-three and Dominic’s twenty-eight, Nadia was their baby sister and they had always treated her as such.

Dominic cleared his throat as he felt himself beginning to become emotional. “The last couple of months have been hard for her; she took a turn for the worse the moment you stopped coming.”

“Don’t you dare!” Dmitri harshly yelled. “You know why I never came back to that godforsaken house and it wasn’t a choice I willingly made. Father forbade me from ever stepping foot in there again. God knows I would never have deserted her. And you know that, Dom!”

His younger brother tilted his head in acceptance. “Yeah, I know that. But that doesn’t change the fact that you never tried to resolve those issues so that you could come see her. You gave in and walked away.” He paused before saying, “From both of us.” Even as he said it, he silently cursed himself.

Dmitri was even more taken aback by Dominic’s statement. The two brothers had never been the best of friends; if he were truthful, Dmitri would even admit that he hardly ever gave his brother a second thought in the past couple of years. But Dom obviously had. The pained expression on his face was evidence of the inner turmoil he had been hiding from his older brother.

“What?”

Dominic shook his head and started to stand up from the chair. “You know what, never mind. I don’t want to hear your excuses. I only came to deliver a message. Father wants you to return and see Nadia. I think he has finally resolved himself to the fact that she needs you…I-I don’t know if she’ll make it and you’re our last hope.” Without waiting for Dmitri’s response, Dominic walked out of his brother’s office with his back stiff.

Dmitri watched him walk away. The tension increased in his shoulders and he slammed his fist on the surface of his desk in aggravation and despair. “Fuck!”

He turned his chair and strolled in front of the large windows featuring the Boston skylight. His mind was flooded with memories of his younger sister. Her sickness had truthfully torn the family apart. Or at least it had inadvertently torn him from his family.

Dmitri turned, feeling the presence of someone else in the room. He found Slade strolling in with a concerned expression on his handsome features. Dmitri could tell just from the look upon his face that his friend was aware of his recent visitor. Slade knew his history with his family, more so than anyone else. A closeted person by nature, it took much effort on Slade’s part for him to even reveal as much as he did.

“Are you okay? What was your brother doing here?”

Dmitri’s jaw tightened as he ground his teeth in frustration. “Nadia isn’t doing well.”

Slade took the seat that Dominic had vacated only a few minutes before. “Are you going to take time off to return home and settle things with your family?”

“You don’t seem too surprised.” Dmitri narrowed his eyes at Slade.

His friend only shrugged. “This was inevitable, Dmitri. While I am very sorry to hear the reason you are going back is because of your sister’s ill health, eventually something was going to pull you back.”

Dmitri said nothing to this for a few moments. He feared returning and completely upsetting the life he had created for himself in the city. And that included his newfound relationship with Sasha. “What about my life here?” he asked aloud.

“What’s so important it can’t wait?” Slade swept his hands before him, indicating the office building. “You’re an important enough aspect of this firm that I’m sure they’d wait for your return. You have devoted clients that only hired us because of your name, Dmitri.”

He couldn’t help but grin at this. “Are you done blowing smoke up my ass?”

Slade laughed and rolled his eyes. “Don’t flatter yourself.”

Dmitri pulled his car up to the curb and set it in park as he waited for Sasha to exit the diner. His mind was still reeling with the information he learned about his younger sister, debating on when he should leave. Slade was right, he figured; eventually, whether it was by his own choosing or not, he had been planning to return home. If not to at least settle his differences with his father, he had wanted to see Nadia again.

Thirteen years her senior, Dmitri had been the big brother who constantly looked after her and was always on her side. That had all changed very quickly the moment his father had banned him from the family. Of course, his relationship with his father had been on a steady decline for many years. If he were truthful with himself, he would admit that he had seen it coming. But foreseeing it hadn’t made it any less painful.

Dmitri was pulled from his thoughts at the sound of the passenger door opening. Automatically he put on a smile and leaned over to give Sasha a peck on her lips. He was shocked by her eager response; she wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him closer, leading the kiss into something more passionate.