I glared at him as they dragged me past, but he merely smiled. Avery walked up and cuddled under his arm to watch as I was unceremoniously dumped on the floor in front of the bed. The guards acted like I was nothing and walked away as easily as if they’d just moved a piece of furniture for their boss.
“What’s this, now?” Maksim asked, seeming surprised. He was wearing tight clinging jeans, a lavender polo shirt, and a white cashmere sweater draped over his shoulders. He looked almost human again like he could be the son of an international diplomat or royalty from another nation. It was disconcerting how easily he could slip in and out of society unnoticed as the sociopathic murderer he clearly was. “Why are you misbehaving? You know what will happen if you misbehave.”
“Avery hurt me, and I couldn’t help it. I react when I’m under pressure,” I said, pushing myself off the floor. I stood at the end of the bed with my jaw thrust out, defying him to disagree with my version of events.
“You’ve been trained to fight, and I suppose we must expect this,” he said with a dismissive wave of his hand. Avery stepped back and away from him so he could stand alone. He liked to dole out affection in small doses. In so many ways, he was the complete opposite of my Kings. “We need to find a way for you two to get along. I tried confinement together, and I tried giving you space. Neither worked, so there’s only one way to handle it now.”
My eyes darted to Avery, and she looked just as clueless as I was. I wasn’t going to wait for him to extrapolate on his plan, though. I was over it all at that point.
“And how do you intend to handle it?” I asked.
“Avery must pleasure you,” he replied as if it was the most normal, regular, expected thing you could expect in this situation.
My brain couldn’t process what was said, and I didn’t quite get his meaning. Avery, however, understood immediately because she’d been party to his depravity long enough that she knew his intentions.
“What!” she shrieked and stepped away from him. She was wearing a Gucci exercise suit as if she’d just been running or expected to go at the drop of a hat. “She’s my sister!”
“That’s meaningless when it comes to the flesh,” he smirked. “You know that. How many cousins have you fucked so far, not including me? And you know what happens at the mountain cabin over the winter break with the rest of my family.”
She went a bright flaming red and sputtered, and at last, it occurred to me what he was talking about.
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” I spat. “No way is that going to happen. She’s my sister!”
“A sister you didn’t know about until days ago,” Maksim said and nudged his chin towards the bed. “Climb on. This is going to happen.”
“This is not gonna fucking happen,” I said through gritted teeth as I edged towards the door. “I didn’t have a Russian’s inbreeding fetish on my bingo card. I’m out.”
I turned to make yet another run for it when I heard the audible click that I knew so well. I whirled around to find Maksim pointing a handgun directly at me.
“You are going to fucking obey me, my bride,” he said, and he’d flipped a switch again. He’d gone from jovial preppy guy to dark, mercurial, and dangerous. He could snap my neck in an instant, and it would mean nothing to him. “You are going to doexactlywhat I tell you to do, or you will be eating a bullet.”
He crossed the room in a couple of long strides, his energy billowing around him like a thunderstorm gathering in distant clouds. He felt menacing and unpredictable as if he was going to explode on me at any moment over the slightest provocation.
He took me by the collar of my shirt, twisted it in his fist, and dragged me up onto the bed. The gun was pointed at my head the entire time.
I clutched at him and screamed as he brought the butt of the gun down on my temple, exploding lightning bolts of pain from the point of contact through the rest of my body.
“Remember this next time,” he growled into my ear. “And obey me immediately, so I don’t have to do this. I don’t want to hurt you, but youmakeme hurt you.”
He straightened himself, looked over at Avery, and casually waved the gun at her. “Get over here,” he grumbled. “I fucking gave you an order, and you should have been naked by now.”
My vision was blurry as she scrambled across the room, stripping her Gucci suit off as she went. She was soon down to her silk bra and panties in bright pink. Maksim didn’t make her take them off as she joined me on the bed.
Everything after that was a watercolor of overexposed images burned into my brain. He held the gun to my head and laid down beside me. He stroked my abdomen under my shirt and helped Avery pull down my pants and panties. He slid a finger across my clit, to determine my wetness, he said, and he licked off what he found there.
“She tastes strong,” he rasped in my ear as he sucked my scent off his flesh. “She’s ripe for the taking, and she’s ready for you, Ave, my love.”
Avery whined about it, she was as reluctant as I was, but he made her do it,
He dragged my legs apart and shoved Avery’s face between them.
She obeyed him, and I squeezed my eyes tight to disappear.
And at that moment, I would have done anything to have Reg at the wheel. To have him administer his drugs and knock me out because I found out something I wished I’d never known.
Being assaulted while you were awake was a million times worse than it happening while you were unconscious.
Because I would never be able to get this out of my head, I would never be clean again.