Dmitry's Closet Nelson, S. (best reads TXT) 📖

Dmitry cleared his throat and shifted a little, trying to ignore the pain. He wanted her to say something, anything that would let him know that she would stay. He raised his eyebrow and sighed.

“I don’t want you to leave.” His voice was just above a whisper.

“At least you know what you want,”Royal crossed her arms. “You’ve been lying to me for months now, Dmitry. Why should I stay? I don’t even know who you really are.”

“I never lied to you,” he growled.

“Bullshit. You lied!” Royal snapped.

“You’ll never know everything about me, Royal. It doesn’t work that way.”

“If it can’t work that way, then I don’t want to be here.”

“I’m not a child. I don’t do ultimatums. You won’t be able to stomp your feet and get your way. I know that I have spoiled you, but there has to be still some resemblance of common sense inside of your head. Look at the life you lead. Go on, look around.” His voice rose. “What did you think that I did for a living?”

“What you told me that you did! I trusted you enough to believe your lies,” Royal responded, livid.

“I never lied to you.”

“Fuck you,” Royal said, grabbing her purse. Tears started to form at the corners of her eyes again. “You’re so full of it. I don’t have to stay here and take this.”

“You’re not leaving until I’m finished!” Dmitry stood in front of the door. He breathed heavily and grabbed his arm. “Then…go if you must,” he shook his head.

His words deflated her. She did not want to go, but she did want the truth, to be able to trust him.

“My life is very complicated, and I don’t ever plan to tell everything that I’ve done. I will not confess my sins at your feet. Neither younor I could take it.” His eyes watered from the pain. “But I will tell you that I love you, and since the day that you said that you’d be mine; I’ve made plans to spend a quiet, safe life with you. It’s just going to take time. I am what I am, Royal. I’ve kept that away from you for your own good. My kindness to you has been genuine; my love for you has been the same, but there is another side of me.”

“Which side reigns supreme?”

“My desire to be rid of this, to live a life with you.”

“Can you just walk away from all of this?”

“Yes. It’s just going to take time.”

“How much time, Dmitry? Am I going to have to wait until you’re seventy to really have you? I won’t kiss the ring, man. I didn’t sign up for this.” She turned away.

Dmitry tamped his anger. “When have I ever asked you to wait on me to do anything? I asked you to marry me, because I want to be with you. But it’s good really that you know now. You have sometime to truly make your decision – now that you know. I just want to ensure that my son is left a legacy that is truly worth somethingregardless of your decision. Believe it or not, other people’s lives are at stake here.”

“You want Anatoly to live likethis?” she asked angrily, turning back around.

“What I want is not important. The point is that he’s doing it. He’s a man, and I have to make sure that he is taken care of before I go. I owe him that.”

“How do I know that you won’t go back to living the way that you did before?” She sobbed. “It’s not like I would ever really know. I wouldn’t know now if the FBI hadn’t held me at gun point in the,” she kicked the side of the bed in frustration. “…freaking tub. I had lasers on my body for no damned reason at all, like I was a criminal!”

“I give you my word, woman.” He walked to her slow-ly. “Give me a chance to clean things up. All I need is a little time, and we can leave. You told me that you wanted to go to Prague, eh. Remember? Well, let’s go. Let’s open a restaurant and boutique on a cobblestone street in Prague and grow old together chasing our little children around.”

The idea rang in her ears. Happiness. A new start.

“Don’t sell me lies, Dmitry. I can’t take it,” she cried, as he walked closer. She held herself and let the tears fall down her face. “I can’t take it. Damn you.”

“I know, baby. I would never do that to you.” He walked up to her and held her close. Kissing the top of her head, he whispered. “I love you. I love you. I love you.”

She cried as she buried her face in his large chest. In pain, he wrapped his arms around her.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered. “For everything that I did, I’m sorry.”

Royal wiped her face off and tried to stop crying after a minute. Breaking his embrace, she walked to the door and opened it.

“Get out,” she said, pointing out the door.

“My first night on the couch?” Dmitry asked.

“You’ve got like sixother bedrooms in this house. I’m sure you’ll fit in one.”

Dmitry walked to the door where she stood and kissed her on the forehead one more time. “So, you’ll stay?”

“I need to think about it,” she said, looking up at him.

“Dah, that’s fair. You think. I’ll go stitch up my arm.” Dmitry tried to be understanding of everything that she had gone through, plus he knew that she would forgive him. If he didn’t know her that well by now, she would have not been in his home. “You want me to have maid come up and unpack for you?”

“No, I’m not sure that there will be a need to,” she said, closing the door behind her.

∞♥∞

While trying to tend to his arm, Dmitry drank a six pack of Foster’s beer and looked out of the window above the sink at the backyard. Anatoly walked back into the kitchen from the