Dimitri walked along the stretch of road, taking a hit off of the cigarette in his hand. The sun was barely beginning to rise from its overnight slumber and was stretching tendrils into the sky as he walked unhurried even against the bone chilling cold of the November morning. His thoughts were rather scattered today and he often took walks to clear his head and get away from the daily clatter that happened with the routine of the Manor. It was every year in November Dimitri was forced to face down different demons of his past. Sometimes he could let them go and sometimes he had to fight them to a standstill before jamming them forcibly back into the closet and padlocking the door.
Enova was Dimitri's betrothed, the woman his father had chosen for him to marry, and the biggest of the demons Dimitri had to slay. He had only been married to her for a month before her death. He still held himself responsible. She had haunted him since he left home. He had been able to put Enova slightly out of his mind with the white-haired eleven year old girl he had met in California and rescued from the prison of her foster home. This respite was short lived, however, as soon as Dimitri realized his little girl had grown into a beautiful woman. He had noticed she blossomed into a woman when he had caught her dressing after a shower. He shouldn't have been watching. He should have closed the door and went about his business, but he hadn't. He stood and watched her until she reached for the doorknob and was gone before the door opened. He had felt guilty about it for several months. It had taken him that long to forget the look of her porcelain skin, droplets of water clinging to her flesh as she shivered. He watched as she rubbed the towel over her body, shivering involuntarily as she reached her breasts. He could very nearly feel the texture of the towel against his fingers as he imagined she was allowing him to rub her dry. Her nipples stood erect against the slight chill and the touch of the terrycloth. His mouth watered as he imagined rolling her pink nubs between his fingers, pinching them gently between his fingers as be barely flicked the points of her nipples with the tips of his tongue. He very nearly moaned out loud when she rubbed her pussy, longing to feel her wetness against his fingers, his mouth, and his tongue. He had finally vowed to keep his hands off of her. Unfortunately his resolve wasn't as strong as he had hoped. He had allowed her to slip into bed with him one night even though it was against his better judgment.
Dimitri shook his head. His thoughts were running off with him again. He focused on the groves of trees ahead of him, the road as it stretched ahead, the lightening sky, the bark, growl and howl of the neighbor's dogs and the one single walnut tree that was on his right. Dimitri took another hit off the cigarette and held the warm smoke for a moment before exhaling in a name. "Winter." She smiled as she stepped out from behind the tree, toying for a moment with his heavy accent before walking over to him. She lifted his hand to her mouth and drew a long hit.
"Mmmm. Clove." Her eyes darted over his attire, and then she released the smoke, letting it curl slowly around her head like a crown.
"And how is my lovely ice queen this fine morning?" For some reason, the cunning girl always made him smile. She reminded him of… He gave a shiver and put the thought from his mind. Winter had started to answer with something typically smart-assed, but stopped when Dimitri's eyes closed. She furrowed her brow and jumped when he shivered suddenly. She waited for him to look back at her before speaking.
"Are you alright?"
He hadn't meant for her to catch on and some trace of it slipped across his face. He looked at the paved stone beneath his feet and sighed. "Yes. Must be the sunlight." He forced his gaze to lift toward the road ahead of him.
"You're full of shit, Dimitri. You don't fear the sun any more than I do." She eyed his cigarette. "That doesn't mean you have to tell me." She took his hand in hers, running her thumb across the back of his hand before drawing the cigarette to her lips. "But you can tell me if you want to." She then took a long hard pull, being sure to look into his eyes as she did so. She was genuinely interested, but telling him so would make him withdraw further into himself. That was the last thing she wanted when he had actually seemed to be opening up to her more recently.
"Perhaps I am an old fool." he said softly, suddenly. His voice faded off, blown by the fair wind that had picked up only this morning. He contemplated his thoughts and how much to let slip to this girl; how much she was ready for: how much he could suffer telling her. Expressing feeling of any sort was not Dimitri's strong suit, especially when the feelings were strong. This girl had made him feel more than he had felt in many, many years for anyone, let alone someone of the opposite sex. Winter looked up at him with an uncharacteristic look of compassion in her pale blue eyes.
