Mafia Princess by Kennedy Slope

Chapter Seventeen

The sound of a door clicking startled me awake. It had been difficult sleeping since the shooting, not just because of the pain, but also, because of the fear. Though Dom and I never talked about it, I had been having nightmares for the past few weeks.

Sometimes it was just my brain remembering what had happened, processing the trauma of it all, and other times, I swear that I saw my brother pulling the trigger on me.

I shivered at the thought and squinted my eyes to try and see who was walking into the bedroom.

“Dom?” I asked, clutching at the sheet. I felt a few beads of sweat break out across the back of my neck.

“Sorry,” he murmured. “I didn’t mean to wake you.”

“It’s fine,” I said. “I was having trouble sleeping.” It wasn’t a lie. The pain meds I was on tended to wear off at night as I rolled around to try and get comfortable.

I hadn’t expected that when we returned home, I would be staying in Dom’s room. He had insisted, and I found out from Giovanna that it was because he wanted to make sure that I was secure. Apparently, security had been upped. They were good because I hadn’t noticed the presence of anyone extra.

“I’m just going to sleep in the chair,” Dom said. “I wanted to make sure that you were okay.”

My heart twisted at his words. Dom might not have been the man that I would have chosen, but the past few weeks, he had been the husband I needed. His kindness made me feel extremely guilty at the things that I was keeping from him.

“You don’t need to sleep in the chair,” I said. “This bed is large enough for the two of us.”

Dom had never struck me as the type of man who would allow himself to be inconvenienced, especially for a woman. Prior to my injury, Dom had taken whatever he wanted from me, even when I had been hesitant to give it to him.

“Are you sure?” he asked. He was whispering as he spoke. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

“I’m fine,” I said. “I even managed to get myself in the tub.”

I left out the part where Giovanna had had to come and help me get out of the tub. I was still struggling to walk, and my core strength was nearly nonexistent. I will be starting rehab soon, and I hoped I would have full mobility by the end of the month.

Dom said nothing. He had started pulling his clothing off, and I inhaled sharply as his chest became visible in the little bit of moonlight that was streaming into the room.

“Did you manage to get all of your work done?” I asked. I wasn’t sure what else to do. I couldn’t move too much, and the view of Dom’s naked torso was making my head spin.

“Some,” he said, as he slid into the sheets.

I had been right, the bed was large enough that our bodies weren’t even touching. Still, I swore that I could feel the heat of his body even with the distance between us.

“Why aren’t you sleeping?” he asked. His voice was deep and husky. It reminded me of the times he had ordered me around in bed, and I could feel my nipples pebbling. Despite the pain I was feeling, my body seemed unable to resist being so close to Dom.

“Are you in pain? I can speak to the doctor about upping the dosage of your medication,” he said.

I smiled to myself. Dom and my doctors had built quite the relationship. “I’m fine,” I said.

“You aren’t getting enough rest,” Dom said. He turned so that he was laying on his side and looking at me. I was slightly propped up on my back, but I could still see his dark eyes.

“I’ve been resting for the past two weeks. I can’t stay in bed forever.” I was still struggling to get around, but I was ready to get back to my life. I had never had as much freedom as I did currently, and I prayed that Dom didn’t take it away from me. I was already woefully behind in school, but I was sure that I could catch up.

“Sasha?” Dom’s husky voice broke me away from my thoughts. “Tell me what you are thinking.” One of his hands was playing with a stray curl, and the action felt more intimate than any of the other things that we had ever done.

I swallowed as I turned to look at him. There was an intensity about him that took my breath away, and being swathed in darkness made me want to spill all my secrets.

“I’m worried that what happened to Nikolai is going to happen to me,” I whispered out before I could think about it.

Dom was quiet and motionless as I spoke, and I worried that my confession had somehow offended him. Dom was the don of the mafia. By voicing my fear, I was basically telling him that I didn’t trust that he would take care of me. That wasn’t how I felt, but I couldn’t stop the fear that kept me from getting a good night's sleep.

“I’m sorry,” Dom said finally.

“What? Why are you sorry?” Dom had done everything that he could when I got shot, and his actions had saved my life. I didn’t question his motivations. My mother suggested that he had saved me only to stave off war, but I knew that Dom wouldn’t just let me die. He was a calculated man, and I suspected that if I became inconvenient in any way, he wouldn’t hesitate to get rid of me. But I knew that he wouldn’t just let me die.

“I never should have taken us to that wedding…”

I snorted and shook my head slightly at his words. “I’m at risk no matter where I am,” I reminded him. “Not only am I a Petrov, but now I’m a Blanchi.” It felt odd to say that out loud, but it was the truth.

Dom was quiet for a while, and I worried that maybe I had said something wrong.

“I’m going to up security,” he said.

“Can you spare the men?” It already seemed like there was a lot of security around the house. I had only seen three men, but I suspected that there were many more that I hadn’t been able to see, stationed out of sight.

“It’ll be fine,” Dom said.

“I just don’t want to leave you unguarded. I’ll be fine…”

Dom reached out and placed a finger across my lips. I tried my best not to react to the feeling of his skin on my own, but it was difficult. Every day, my feelings for Dom grew more and more complex.

“Don’t worry about me,” he whispered. “I’m going to make sure that we are both fine.”

I believed Dom.

Sitting there in the dark, I wondered what the future held for the two of us. We weren’t in love, but Dom didn’t feel like my enemy any longer. Being shot had changed things, for the both of us.

I sighed deeply and slid further down into the bed. Before I could think too much about it, I reached out and wrapped my hand about Dom’s. I wanted to feel close to him, and I didn’t want to examine my feelings too much further.

“Get some sleep,” Dom said.

I nodded even though he couldn’t see me. There was nothing more for us to say to one another, at least for now.

* * *

There was a heavy pain across my abdomen, and as I woke up, I couldn’t help but groan. The room was still dark, but the fire in my stomach was spreading.

Looking down, I realized that the culprit was Dom’s arm. At some point, we had shifted in the middle of the night, and I was laying on my side with my butt snuggled up against him. This position was bad enough considering my stitches, but Dom’s protective arm was irritating the skin.

Reaching out, I tried to move Dom’s arm away from my stitches, but it was like trying to move a piece of marble.

“Shit,” I muttered. My position had ripped one of my stitches, which was where the intense pain in my abdomen came from. I tried my best to slip away from Dom, but I still had limited mobility.

“Sasha?” Dom questioned. His voice was heavy with sleep, and I could tell that he wasn’t fully himself, especially as he pulled me closer to this groin. I blushed as I felt his hardness against my backside.

“I’m bleeding,” I said. My mind was whirling as I felt him against me, but I couldn’t ignore the pain and the blood.

Those words penetrated, and Dom was on his feet in an instance. “What happened?” he asked. He had a gun in his hand and was scanning the room for any danger. I knew I shouldn’t be surprised, Dom was likely always ready for danger. But seeing the gun in his hand still made me filled with fear. It reminded me of the pain of the bullet slicing through me.

“There’s no one here,” I said. I struggled to sit up. “I think I just pulled a stitch.” I gestured to my stomach where blood was spreading across my nightgown.

“Shit,” Dom muttered. He dropped the gun on his bedside table before rushing towards me. He was on his knees on my side of the bed before I could even blink.

“It’s fine,” I said, even though things didn’t necessarily feel fine. “I think I just pulled a stitch. The doctor said this might happen.”

Dom wasn’t even paying attention to what I was saying. Dom quickly lifted the hem of my nightshirt to examine the dressing on my wounds.

“I’ve got a doctor on call,” Dom said. “I’ll have him come to check you out.”

“It’s fine,” I said, placing my hand on top of his. “The doctor said not to worry about it unless the bleeding continues. I just need to redress it.”

Dom looked like he wanted to argue.

“It’s two in the morning,” I said, looking over at the clock on the bedside table. “I’m tired, and I just want to go back to bed.”

“Fine,” Dom said. He walked towards the bathroom where Giovanna had dropped off my medical supplies.

When he walked back, he was carrying a box of gauze. “Are you sure that you don’t want me to be back in my own room?” I asked. “I can’t imagine that this is great for your sleep.”

Dom ignored me as he gently pulled the gauze away from my abdomen. I hissed as the tape came away from my skin.

“I’m going to have to clean this,” he said.

I nodded. I didn’t like looking at my stomach. It was vain, but I knew that the skin was going to be scarred and damaged from my wounds. What had once been smooth, flawless skin, was now angry and red. I hated that I even thought about stupid things like scars considering that I nearly died, but it was especially bad with Dom kneeling between my legs.

“You are good at this,” I said, in an attempt to break up some of the tension that had descended between the two of us.

Dom snorted. He gingerly pressed a cotton bolt to my wound. I hissed slightly as the cold liquid seeped into my wound. “Sorry,” Dom said. He immediately pursed his lips and blew on my skin in an effort to try and ease some of the stinging. I tried to remain still at the intimate actions, but I couldn’t stop the blush from spreading on my face as I realized that I was only in my underwear.

“There,” Dom said, “his voice husky. All fixed.”

Dom’s eyes were dark with lust, and I knew that if I wasn’t recovering, he would have had me on my back with his cock inside me in seconds. Embarrassingly, I would have welcomed the action. Despite my pain, I could feel myself starting to drip in desire for him.

“Don’t,” he whispered, his voice husky.

“Don’t what?” I licked my lips.

Dom groaned and got to his feet, much to my disappointment.

“Look at me like that.”

I wanted to ask him how I was looking, but I didn’t. I knew that my face was probably showing the desire that I had for him. Plus, I could feel my cheeks heating even further as he called me out on the obvious desire that I had for him.

I went to grab my shirt, but Dom’s hand reached out from across the bed and stopped me. “Leave it off,” he said.

I gulped, and for a moment, I wondered if I should put the shirt on as a barrier between us. We’d only had sex a handful of times, but my body remembered. And whatever my feelings were about Dom, my body craved him.

“Don’t worry,” he said. He was slipping back down into the sheets. “I’m not going to do anything. But you should let the wound breathe.”

I left the shirt on the bed as I did my best to get back into bed.

My eyes were heavy, but I felt a tension in my body that I couldn’t release.

I expected that Dom was going to roll over and go back to sleep. I wouldn’t blame him considering that it was the middle of the night, and I’m sure that he was exhausted.

But he didn’t. He came closer to me and wrapped one of his arms around the back of my head, tangling his fingers in my hair. The gesture was incredibly intimate, and for a brief moment, I closed my eyes and imagined that we were a normal married couple.

“You need to get some rest,” Dom told me. He pressed a kiss to the edge of my forehead, and I felt myself melting slightly at the gesture.

“Can I ask you something?”

“I should say no since you need your rest,” Dom told me. “But I guess.”

I rolled my eyes at his much suffering tone. If he was annoyed now, I couldn’t imagine how he would feel when I asked him the question that had been plaguing me. “Who do you think tried to kill me?”

Dom immediately stiffened, and the hand that had been in my hair stiffened.

I regretted the question instantly, but I couldn't stop it. The uncertainty of everything plagued me. I was fairly certain that my own family had been the ones to pull the trigger, but I had been wondering what Dom thought. We hadn’t talked about it at all.

“Why?” he asked.

“Why would I want to know who tried to kill me? Are you serious?”

Dom released a heavy breath and removed his body from mine. I immediately missed his presence, and I started regretting even bringing things up. I had enjoyed the peace and tranquility that had grown between the two of us over the past few weeks, and I worried that by digging, I might ruin that.

“I’m not sure who pulled the trigger yet,” he said.

I tried not to let my relief show on my face. If he wasn’t sure, that meant that he hadn’t made a move against my family, which was something that had concerned me. I didn’t know how I felt about the possibility that I was shot by someone from the Bratva, but what I did know was that I didn’t want the Bratva and the Mafia to be back at war.

“But I’m going to find out,” he said. His voice was sharp enough to cut glass. I turned slightly to be able to look at him, and I was shocked to see the hard look on his face.

I felt a tremor of fear, and before I could stop myself, I reached out and gripped his arm.

“Don’t do anything that puts you in danger,” I said. It was dumb considering Dom’s line of work. He was in danger all the time. Hell, so was I.

Dom’s face softened slightly, and before I spoke another word, Dom leaned down and pressed his lips against mine. The action is awkward considering our angle, and that he catches me off guard.

But soon I melted into him allowing him to deepen the kiss slightly. Dom had never kissed me unless we were having sex, and his lips on mine made the space between my legs pulse with desire.

The kiss ended just as quickly as it began, and I felt myself missing the feel of Dom almost immediately.

He cupped my face bringing her closer to me. “I told you before.” His voice was low and dangerous, and it reminded me of the time he had ordered me around in the back of his car. “I’m going to find whoever did all of this. You don’t have to worry.”

His dark eyes bored into mine, and I knew that he meant that. But it didn’t make me any less worried. My gut told me that what had happened to me was bigger than just the two of us. I worried that whatever was coming next was going to be too big and flatten us.

I didn’t say anything. I simply nodded, my throat too tight to say anything, and pressed a small kiss to Dom’s lips. I sent up a silent prayer praying that we would make it through this.