Chapter 248: We Are Going On A Vacation

POV: DIMITRI

The penthouse was dark when Dimitri walked in at 11:47 PM.

Quiet, which meant that meant Eve had already given up waiting.

He moved through the apartment without turning on lights. His eyes adjusted to the darkness easily enough. Muscle memory from years of moving through shadows.

The bedroom door was open.

Eve was in their bed....on her side, one hand tucked under her pillow, her breathing deep and even. She was wearing one of his shirts, the cream-colored linen one that she’d stolen months ago and never returned.

Dimitri stood in the doorway for a moment, just watching her sleep.

This. This was what he was fighting for. Not empire. Not power. Not dominance. Just this, the ability to come home to someone who loved him enough to wait, even when waiting was painful.

He unbuttoned his shirt slowly, carefully, trying not to make noise. Pulled it off. His pants followed. He stood naked for a moment, letting the cool air of the bedroom wash over him, letting the weight of the day settle and begin to dissipate.

Then he climbed into bed beside her.

The mattress shifted under his weight. Eve stirred, her hand moving from under her pillow, her body naturally seeking his warmth even through the fog of sleep.

He pulled her closer, letting her settle against him. Her back against his chest. Her ass fitting into the cradle of his hips. Her head tilting so her cheek rested against his shoulder.

Perfect.

This was what perfect felt like.

***

POV: EVE

Eve woke slowly, pulled gradually from sleep by warmth and the familiar scent of Dimitri. Cologne and soap and something underneath...something that was just Dimitri. Something she’d learned to recognize overtime.

She turned in his arms, her body moving automatically, no hesitation between sleep and consciousness.

"Hi," she murmured, her voice rough with sleep, her eyes still half-closed.

"Hi, yourself," Dimitri said, and his voice was soft in the darkness.

She tilted her head back to look at him. Even in the dark, she could make out the sharp lines of his face. The silver eyes that were barely visible but present nonetheless. The careful control in his expression that meant something had happened.

Something had always happened.

"How did it go?" she asked.

"Everything is okay," Dimitri said, his hand coming up to smooth her hair back from her face. "We just need to accelerate everything now."

Eve shifted closer, her hand moving to his chest, feeling his heartbeat beneath her palm.

"Before you continue," she said quietly, "I don’t want you to be scared that I’ll get hurt again. Because I will be prepared for anything that’s going to happen."

"I know you will," Dimitri said.

Eve moved closer to his chest, pressed her forehead against his shoulder, and let herself just exist in this moment. In the quiet. In the darkness. In the safety of his arms around her.

"Can’t we just have a moment of peace?" she asked, and her voice came out small. Vulnerable in a way she rarely allowed herself to be. "It’s been one war after another. I just want to breathe for a while, Dimitri."

She felt him go still beneath her.

Then his arms tightened, pulling her even closer, and she felt him press a kiss into her hair.

"Yes," he said against the top of her head. "Yes, we can have that."

Eve felt something tight in her chest begin to loosen.

"I’m going to have Marco make preparations," Dimitri continued. "We’re going away. Two weeks. Just us."

Eve pulled back just enough to look at him. "Away? Where?"

"An island," Dimitri said. "Mine. In Greece. Off the coast of Mykonos. The staff can handle everything here. We don’t exist for two weeks except to each other."

Eve’s breath caught.

"Really?" she whispered. "We’re really going on a vacation?"

"Really," Dimitri said, and she could hear the slight smile in his voice. "If you want to."

Eve felt something bloom in her chest. Something bright and hopeful and completely out of place in their world of darkness and war and survival.

"Yes," she breathed. "Yes, I want to."

Dimitri looked at her face, at the joy radiating through her despite everything, despite the wars and the threats and the constant pressure of survival....and felt something shift inside him. Felt guilt that he hadn’t done this sooner. Felt gratitude that she was here. Felt love so intense it almost hurt.

He pulled her even closer and said, "I’m sorry I haven’t taken you away before this."

"You’re taking me now," Eve said, and she leaned up to kiss him.

It was soft at first. A brush of lips. A promise.

But Dimitri didn’t let it stay soft.

His hand came up to the back of her head, his fingers threading through her hair, and he deepened the kiss. Pulled her mouth harder against his. Tasted her like he was trying to memorize the exact flavor of her, the exact texture of her lips, the exact way she fit against him.

Eve made a small sound...surprise and pleasure mixed together...and her hand on his chest curled into the muscle there, holding on.

When they broke apart, Dimitri’s eyes were dark with hunger.

"I want you," he said, his voice rough. "Right now. I want you."

***

POV: DIMITRI

Eve nodded, her breath coming faster, her eyes already darkening.

Dimitri rolled her onto her back in one smooth motion, pinning her beneath him.

She was wearing his shirt...nothing underneath it, he discovered immediately as his hand slid up her thigh.

"Tell me if anything is too much," he said, and it wasn’t a question. It was a statement of fact. A promise.

"I trust you," Eve said simply.

That almost broke him.

He kissed her again...harder this time, deeper, his tongue claiming her mouth the way his body was about to claim the rest of her body.

His hands moved with deliberate slowness, even as the hunger in him screamed to move faster. He wanted to savor this. Wanted to make it last. Wanted her to feel every second of how much he needed her.