Chapter 65: You wanted the Devil

She stepped closer. "Now I’m asking you for one thing. Just one thing. Give me all of you. Stop holding back. Stop protecting me from something I’ve been begging you for."

"It’s not about protection," Dimitri said roughly. "It’s about....."

"What? Making it perfect? Making sure I’m ready?" Eve laughed, and it was edged with frustration. "Dimitri, I’ve been taking a fourteen-inch replica of your cock for weeks. My body is ready. And emotionally? I told you I love you.

You told me you love me. We’re ready. The only person who doesn’t seem to accept that is you."

Dimitri’s hands clenched at his sides. "You think I don’t want to? You think I don’t lie awake every night fighting the urge to roll over and bury myself inside you until you can’t remember your own name?"

"Then why don’t you?"

"Because!" He exploded, the word torn from somewhere deep. "Because the second I do, the second I cross that line, there’s no going back Eve. You’ll be mine completely. Irrevocably. And everyone who wants to hurt me will know it.

They’ll use you. They’ll target you. They’ll..." His voice broke. "What if I can’t protect you? What if loving me gets you killed like it killed my mother?"

There it was.

The fear underneath everything.

Eve’s expression softened, and she closed the distance between them, taking his face in her hands.

"I’m not your mother," she said gently. "I’m not fragile. I’m not defenseless. 𝘧𝓇ℯℴ𝓂

And I’m not going into this blind. I know the risks, Dimitri. I’ve known them from the beginning. And I’m choosing you anyway."

"Eve...."

"I love you," she said fiercely. "And I want all of you. Not the careful version who treats me like I might break. Not the restrained version who’s so busy protecting me that he forgets I chose this. I want the Devil. The man who torture people who betray him. The man who fights for stress relief. The man who loves so intensely it terrifies him." She pulled his forehead down to hers.

"I want you to fuck me like you mean it. Like you’ve wanted me for seven years. Like I’m yours and you’re never letting me go."

Dimitri’s control was fracturing. She could see it in his eyes, in the tension in his shoulders, in the way his hands trembled slightly as they settled on her waist.

"If I start," he said, his voice raw, "I won’t be gentle. I won’t be careful. Seven weeks of wanting you, of holding back...it’s going to come out all at once."

"Good." Eve smiled, fierce and certain. "I don’t want gentle. I want real. I want you."

"This is because of Isabella," Dimitri said, one last attempt at reason. "She got in your head, made you doubt..."

"This is because I’m tired of waiting," Eve interrupted. "Isabella just made me realize that I’ve been letting you control something that should be my choice too. So I’m making it now. Tonight. Or I walk."

She meant it. He could see it in her eyes.

And God help him, he’d rather die than watch her walk away.

"Bedroom," he said, his voice gone dark and dangerous. "Now."

Eve’s breath caught. "Dimitri..."

"You wanted the Devil, cara mia?" His hands tightened on her waist, pulling her flush against him so she could feel exactly how much he wanted her.

"You’re about to get him."

***

POV: EVE

The bedroom door slammed shut behind them.

Eve barely had time to process before Dimitri’s mouth was on hers....brutal, claiming, seven weeks of restraint shattering in a single kiss. His hands were everywhere at once, sliding into her hair, gripping her waist, pulling her so tight against him she could feel every hard inch of him through their clothes.

She gasped into his mouth, and he swallowed the sound, his tongue sweeping in to claim her completely.

"Last chance," he growled against her lips, even as his hands were already pulling at her blouse. "Tell me to stop and I will. But if I start this, if I finally take you....there’s no going back, Eve. You’ll be mine in every way that matters."

"I’m already yours," she breathed. "I’ve been yours since that first night. Now stop talking and fuck me like you mean it."

Something snapped in him.

His control, his careful restraint, the iron will he’d been using to hold himself back for seven weeks.....it all shattered like glass.

He tore her blouse open, buttons scattering across the floor. His mouth was on her throat, her collarbone, the swell of her breasts above her bra. She felt his teeth, the scrape of stubble, the heat of his breath.

"Seven weeks," he growled against her skin. "Seven weeks of watching you come on my fingers, my tongue, those fucking toys. Seven weeks of hearing you beg and denying us both." His hands found her skirt, yanked it down her hips. "No more waiting, cara mia. No more denial."

Eve kicked off her heels, helped him strip away her clothes until she stood before him in nothing but the black lace lingerie he’d bought her weeks ago.

His eyes went molten silver as he looked at her.

"Fuck," he breathed. "You’re so beautiful it hurts to look at you."

Then his hands were on her again, unhooking her bra, sliding her panties down her legs. She stood naked before him while he was still fully dressed, and the inequality of it made her dizzy with want.

"Your turn," she said, reaching for his shirt.

He caught her wrists, pinned them above her head with one hand.

"No." His voice was dark velvet. "Tonight, you don’t touch unless I say you can. Tonight, after seven weeks of me worshiping you.....you’re going to take what I give you. Every. Fucking. Inch."

Heat flooded through her, pooling low in her belly.

"Yes," she whispered. "Yes, sir."

His eyes flared. "God, I love when you call me that."