Chapter 23

"I love you, Ophelia."

Dimitri's words left me breathless, a surge of strange excitement flooding my senses. Staring at him steal my voice and leaving me struggling for a response.

I wanted to respond, to weave my own words into the tapestry of his, but the elation that had taken root within me was too powerful for me to articulate.

This wasn't the first time he confessed his feelings, but the intensity in his voice and the way his eyes held mine captive, made my mind and body in a mess.

He scooped me up, carrying me in a bridal style. He started walking out of the motel but I'm still left in awe.

His smile, catching the moonlight, banished any doubt. It wasn't a smile of frustration but one of pure satisfaction.

With a slow, deliberate move, Dimitri lowered me beside him in the driver's seat. He slid behind the wheel, his fingers brushing mine as he buckled me in.

The engine purred to life but instead of the familiar route to the mansion, winding roads carried us deeper into the countryside. My confusion grew with each passing mile, until the car slowed and pulled up to a grand, golden villa.

"This is...?" I began but Dimitri cut me off with a chuckle.

"Just a place where we can be alone," he said.

"When did you get this place?" I asked, glancing around the luxurios villa, a place that seemed too perfect to have been built in a matter of weeks.

Dimitri smiled, "This was my little secret, my way of preparing for our future." He took my hands and stared at me, "Before I proposed, I started building this place. A safe haven for us, a place where we could escape the world and be together, just the two of us. And, if ever things got complicated back at the mansion... this would be our sanctuary."

My smile felt like a sunshine breaking through the clouds. I squeezed Dimitri's hand gently. I couldn't believe he managed to make time for our villa, despite how busy he was.

We both rushed out of the car and into the villa. He opened the door for me and I stepped inside, my eyes drawn immediately to the framed pictures on the wall.

It was a gallery of my memories, from my teenage to now, carefully preserved within those frames.

I was about to look at Dimitri when I felt his warmth against my back. He wrapped his arms around me from behind, his embrace are like iron bars holding me in place.

He buried his head in my neck, and I felt his warm breath on my skin. He started kissing my neck and a strange warmth began to spread through my body.

But before I could get swept away by the sensation, my stomach rumbled again. It was as if it announced to the whole world that I was starving.

I sighed and clutched my stomach. I heard Dimitri groaned behind me.

"I'm sorry darling. I almost forgot how hungry you are. I'll cook, what do you want to eat?"

I smiled, "Anything you cook." I saw a hint of red creep up his neck as I said it.

Dimitri moved around the kitchen. He chopped vegetables with practiced precision, the scent of garlic and herbs filling the air.

I watched him, mesmerized by the way he handled the kitchen like a conductor leading an orchestra. It was hard not to notice the way his muscle flexed beneath his shirt. He was so focused, his brow furrowed slightly in concentration, yet his movements were effortless.

Then, my gaze fell on a red stain in his shirt. It was a splatter of blood that draw my attention. I couldn't help but stare at it.

Dimitri seemed to sense my gaze and turned, his eyes meeting mine. He followed my line of sight to the bloodstain. He then reached up to the collar of his shirt and started to pull it off.

His body was revealed beneath the shirt. The sight made me catch my breath.

He shrugged, a small smile playing on his lips as he rested his shirt on the chair beside him.

"You know, I never realized how good you are at cooking." I said after several minutes of eyeing his actions. My voice a bit hushed.

"Really?" he stared at me, "I just try to make something nice for my future wife." he added, a faint blush creeping up my neck.

I shook my head, a small smile forming on my lips.

"You're good at everything," I said impulsively.

"I can say yes to that, darling."

I had always known him as a brilliant businessman, a master of the boardroom, but now I realized there was so much more to him.

After dinner, Dimitri looked at me with a gentle smile.

"You should go take a shower, darling." he said, gesturing towards the bathroom.

I nodded.

The water cascaded over my body, washing away the anxieties that settled against my shoulders. I closed my eyes, letting the warm water caress my skin.

I lost track of time in the bathroom. The steam clung stubbornly to the mirror, blurring the reflection as I stepped out of the shower.

My gaze drifted to the figure lounging on the plush rug, bathed in the soft glow of the bedside lamp.

He sat with his back to me, his head bent as he ran a towel through his wet hair. The towel hugged his frame, barely containing the sculpted outline of his upper body, every muscle defined and toned.

"I'm sorry. I lost track of time in the bathroom."

Dimitri looked up, his eyes meeting mine. There was a glint of amusement in their depths, a knowing smile playing on his lips.

"No worries, darling," he replied, his voice husky. "The villa's got more than one bathroom, you know."

His words were a playful tease, but his gaze burned with a different kind of heat. He was slowly rising, the towel slipping a little, revealing more of his chest as he moved.

My heart thudded in my chest as I felt the temperature rising in the room. Suddenly, Dimitri was close, a chasm of space separating us shrinking to an almost imperceptible distance.

I could feel the warmth radiating off his skin, the scent of his cologne filling my senses.

His eyes were fixed on mine, then his hand cupped my cheek, his thumb tracing a gentle path across my skin. I felt a shiver run down my spine.

"Ophelia," he breathed, his voice a low rumble.

Dimitri's lips brushed against mine, soft and tentative at first, then deepening into a kiss that consumed me. The world around us faded, replaced by the pulsing thrum of our desires.

The sensation of his lips and his warmth against my skin was a wildfire. My hands flew to his chest, my fingers tracing the lines of his muscles. We held to each other.

Under the soft glow of the bedside lamp, we lost ourselves in the heat that we've contained for a while.

The heat we'd been holding back finally broke free. I knew with certainty that chilled me to the bone that we were about to cross a line tonight.