Page 5 of Emerald

“This feels like a date, Dimitri,” I say, staring out the window of the Michelin-star restaurant on top of the Eiffel Tower, the glittering lights of Paris beneath us. This would be the perfect spot for a proposal if I were a normal woman.

“Maybe it is,” he says with a grin as he reaches out, grabs my hand, and kisses it softly.

I raise an arched brow at this public display of affection between us. Usually, we keep what is happening with us between the sheets, and he is anything but gentle when we are together.

“What do you want?” I ask, confused by his sudden romantic gesture. We both know what this is, a bit of fun when we are together, a scratch of an itch, nothing more. Neither one of us are faithful to the other, he has a long line of women constantly around him, wanting him, and I seduce men to kill them, it’s a shame when I must kill one that knows how to fuck. They are hard to come by. Usually, I wait a little longer with them, we both might as well get something out of the short timewe have together. I don’t have sex with all the men I kill, but more often than not I do.

That’s why what Dimitri and I have together is nice. If he is going to get weird and demand more from me, it’s going to be a real shame to break up what is going on between us.

“I want nothing from you, Elena,” he says smoothly, his pale blue eyes sparkling with happiness.

A strange feeling inside my chest hits me so suddenly that it almost winds me.

“Are you okay?” Dimitri asks, his brows pulled together, looking over me as if he can find the ache currently filling my chest.

“Yes, I’m fine. I’m surprised, that’s all.”

“Surprised?” he asks.

“Yes, by all this,” I say, waving my hand around at the restaurant’s opulence.

“Do you not think you’re worth all this?”

“You know I’m worth it,” I joke with him, which makes him chuckle. “It’s not us, that’s all.”

“What if I want it to be us?” he asks seriously.

I still. Does Dimitri want more with me? He knows I can’t give him more. “Are you asking me to be your girlfriend?”

Dimitri chuckles. “Kind of.”

“Dimitri, you know I can’t offer you monogamy, not with my job.”

“It’s just a job.”

“Are you asking me to quit? You know they would never allow it.”

“I know, it’s just … I need to know that you’re mine,” he says in a rush, his words tumbling out quickly.

“You know the Bratva owns me. The life we live, Dimitri …”

Dimitri reaches out and touches my chest. “In here, I need to know in there I’m yours and no one else’s.”

Oh.

That is the sweetest thing anyone has ever said to me.

“You mean everything to me, Elena. And I know that what we have isn’t conventional, especially in this world. But when it’s just the two of us, I feel like we are living a different life together. There’s no threat of our enemies killing us or Interpol breathing down our necks. There’s no one trying to double-cross us to get further up the ranks. You give me peace. And I’ve never had peace before in my life.” Dimitri then turns over his wrist and shows me his new tattoo.

?????

My name is written in Russian across his wrist. It’s entwined in roses and guns. I’m shocked that he would do something like that.

“It’s beautiful,” I say, running my finger over his skin.

“I need to know that when it’s the two of us together, you’re mine.”

“Only when we are together?” I question him.

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