I should have never given her a minute of myself, not a damned minute.

Now she thinks she knows. And now she’ll try to play on that. No, that can’t happen. I won’t let it happen. I’ve lived too long being the only thing I have. I have women, they respect my boundaries—mostly. I have my men and my missions. There is only one goal in my life, one thing that I keep breathing for—revenge. Nothing will come in the way of that.

And yet it did. For just a second I forgot what it was I wanted so badly.

Never again.

Jess

Another week later.

You’ve got to be kidding me. No way. No freaking way. Why would she choose this exact moment to show up? I mean seriously. I sit on the bed, staring at the door and then back at my hands. I can’t tell Dimitri. He doesn’t even look at me right now, let alone help me when I need him. Since the night I caught him with Malibu, he’s barely acknowledged me.

He even lets me roam the ship now.

My stomach cramps and I bring myself back to now. She’s here—Aunt Flo, otherwise known as the Red Sea, Doomsday, the rag, Aunt Cherrie, surfin’ the crimson wave, the Red Dragon, Shark Week, or to those of us who are of a more simple mind—period.

Yes, my period is here.

I cup my face in my hands and groan. The two girls that actually came on this ship with us are snotty, rude, and are here for nothing more than to serve Dimitri. They’re not going to help me. The best I’d get from them is hurled over the side of the ship to make good of the name “Shark Week.” The only chance I have is to go to either Luke or Dimitri. I don’t have any kind of protection, being that I was captured and taken against my will. So I have to ask someone.

Luke would laugh at me, he’s that kind of evil.

That leaves Dimitri. I don’t know any of the other twenty men on this ship, and they’ve been given strict instructions not to know me. Though one of them gives me a smile that really, really makes me want to go and talk to him. It helps that he’s handsome and has the sweetest face I’ve ever seen.

Back to now, though.

I have to approach Dimitri. Not only that, but I have to ask him for tampons and pads. I groan loudly and rub my cheeks, feeling utterly horrified that my life has resorted to this. Maybe I should throw myself off the ship—it would make for a far more interesting ending than having to ask a man who despises me for womanly protection.

It has to be done, though.

I get to my feet and squirm uncomfortably as my stomach gives me another dull ache. Taking a deep, steadying breath, I walk out of the room and toward the massive dining area. Dimitri spends a lot of his time there, plotting against Hendrix. He’s not asked me a lot, which surprises me considering he took me to lure him in. I suppose in the scheme of things, he doesn’t need anything from me to do that. Just having me here is enough to get Hendrix out of hiding.

It takes me a solid five minutes to convince myself to enter the dining room. By the time I do, everyone is staring at me. Yes, I’m standing in an open doorway. I look over the men until I see Dimitri, sitting at the end of a long table. He’s got Malibu on his lap, and the fact that I can’t see his hand and she’s making strange faces tells me he’s not just talking to her. Great. Just great.

I put my head down and walk over, hating that I am being forced to do this. I clear my throat when I reach him and he slowly raises his eyes until he’s staring up at me. “What?” he mutters.

“I . . . I need to speak with you, it’s important.”

“I’m busy,” he says, running his hand up Malibu’s thigh.

She’s smirking at me, and it’s taking all my strength not to let my PMS free and bitchslap her upside the head.

“It’s important,” I grind out.

“So is what I’m doing right now,” he says, bored.

Asshole.

“I don’t care what you’re doing right now,” I snap. “I need to talk to you.”

“Later.”

“Now would be good.”

He stares at me, his expression still bored. “I said . . . later.”

“It’s important,” I force out through gritted teeth.

He leans forward, causing Malibu to squeak. “I said fuckin’ later.”

I throw my hands on my hips and get up in his face. “What is wrong with you? Did your mother drop you on your head when you were a baby? No, scratch that—she would have had to do it numerous times for it to have created something like you.”

I can nearly hear his teeth grinding together.

“You’re walking a very fine line.”

“What are you going to do?” I scoff. “Sit there in your chair like a tough wiseass? You’re pathetic, Dimitri.”

“You know nothing about me,” he growls, throwing Malibu off his lap and standing.

“I know everything about you. You feel sorry for yourself because of a life you had that was bad. Instead of changing it, you dwell on it until you become this.” I shove my finger at his chest.

“You know nothing about the man I am, or why I do the things I do. If you want to hate someone for this situation, hate Hendrix.”

“Hendrix is three times the man you are!”

I hear a few gasps, and Dimitri lashes out, taking my shoulders and hurling me forward.

“Hendrix is a lowlife scumbag who puts his crew before his family. He will bleed and I will make it slow and painful. If you’re lucky, I might let you watch.”