Page 51 of Hidden Empire
Dmitri continues to look at me like he’s waiting to hear anything else I have to say. “So, um, will you try it? I heard most people throw first-year’s food away, but?—”
Without a word, he somehow steals all of mine. The stoic but gorgeous man opens my dish, sticks his fork in it, and pulls a bite directly into his mouth. The carbonara slides between his lips, leaving them glistening as his tongue swipes away the sauce. He chews the bacon-ey pasta dish as my mouth falls open.
The courtyard comes to a halt, and so does the breath in my lungs. He’s eating my food! So many people are watching, and he’s eating my food! Holy crap, I might faint.
Should I pinch myself?
His thick throat bobs with a swallow, and I’m amazed that it isn’t being spit at my feet as some sort of message to stay the hell away from him. Logically, I didn’t think Dmitri would be mean to me, but illogically, I’m always expecting the worst to happen in the back of my mind. I’m so happy for that little doubtful voice to be proven wrong again. Once his mouth is empty, I scramble for what to say.
“Did you?—”
“It’s good,” he rumbles, interrupting. If the words weren’t enough to shock me, he takes another bite.
I bite back a squeak, my throat vibrating with a sound I refuse to let escape.
I hear whispers sounding all around us, but all I see is him. Without thinking, my arms shoot out, wrapping around his wide shoulders.
“Thank you!” I say into his neck, skin smelling freshly showered. Why do I have the sudden urge to lick him?
Dmitri tenses in my embrace but doesn’t throw me off of him. Awkwardly, I back away slowly, releasing him with a nervous smile.
“Thank you,” I repeat more softly, steadying myself. “I’m Jade, by the way. I didn’t mean to attack you just now.”
“I know who you are, Jade,” he tells me, making my face burn.
“Right, I told you before.” At the party where you wrote on his bare chest with lipstick and nearly kissed him.
“I knew before that,” he states bluntly. The man looks down at the remainder of his pasta dish. “I’m keeping the rest of this.”
“Of course!” I blurt, gesturing my thumb at the small backpack near my feet where the rest of it is packaged up. “I have more too, um, if you want it?”
There’s literally no way to make one portion of pasta at a time. Martha would tsk at me for even trying, so I made a lot. I planned to give some to Matteo, but Dmitri can have literally every last noddle if he asks.
“Eat with me.” It’s not a question or an offer, more of a command. Somehow a polite one.
“Oh?” I look around. “You’re not afraid to be seen with me?”
He chuckles under his breath so quietly I might be hallucinating it. “I am not afraid of anything, Jade. Eat with me.”
Compelled, I join him on the bench seat, pulling a smaller Tupperware from my bag and situating it on my lap. “If I see one of my brothers, I’ll just duck and hide,” I offer, smiling at him.
He shakes his head. “They’ll find out either way. May as well keep your uniform clean.”
I frown, not wanting them to ruin this for me so soon. “You think?”
“Definitely.” He shrugs. “It doesn’t matter. The sooner they know, the sooner they accept it.”
Huh? “It being us speaking to each other?”
“It being us,” he replies, twirling more pasta around his fork.
Actual tingles burst along my arms. “Us?” I ask hopefully. “Are we friends now or something? If I’d known being friends only took some homemade carbonara, I would have made it for you already.”
“You could call us friends,” he says with a lift of his shoulders. “You’d be wrong, though.”
My eyes widen. “Oh? What… what would you call us?”
He watches me like he’s looking for signs that I might flee. I don’t know that my legs would work even if I tried. And I definitely don’t want to try. I need to know what he’s thinking behind those beautiful eyes.