I don’t allow her the chance to think before I consume her lips with a cruel kiss. Within seconds, her body softens and she yields, opening her mouth for me.
I kiss her with the same greed and hunger that’s driving me fucking insane. And she kisses me back.
This kiss is more potent and brazen than yesterday’s, awakening everything inside me, even the parts I keep locked away where not even I can find.
I want to consume her as badly as I need air, but she needs another rude awakening.
Pulling away from her lips I go to her ear. “This is what is happening to you, Anastasia. This. And you need to admit you want me.”
“No…” Her voice is but a whisper, tainted with denial.
“Yes you do. And I still want to fuck you.”
“Then do it.” She turns her face back to me, brushing her nose over mine. Her ice-blue eyes darken with desperation and a hint of madness that looks like the same thing that’s possessed me too. “Do it and get it out of your system.”
I should. I really should. My dick is hard again and ready to go, and everything in my body is singing to me, telling me I should.
Iwould, but it’s not going to work. Fucking her right now won’t get anything out of my system because we both have another problem.
I run my thumb along the smooth skin of her neck and she gazes at me with expectancy. “If it were as simple as that, I would have done it already. But we both know that. And we also know once won’t be enough. Not for me. And not for you.”
Her face turns to stone and she looks like someone siphoned some of her life away, but she doesn’t answer.
I step back, breaking the spell and I’m glad she’s made no attempt to deny what I’ve said.
“See you when I get back baby girl.”
Blinking rapidly, she stares at me for a few brief moments as if she has something to say, then she turns and walks out, her back ramrod straight and her legs shaking.
The door swings shut but her essence still lingers, haunting me once more.
I always knew Viktor and I would never get along because my father chose his life over mine. But my real problems with him were amplified because of Anastasia Sidorov.
Whether she loves him or not, he has a hold on something I can’t steal—her heart.
But if I could… I’d steal that too.
The same way I stole her.
ChapterTwenty-Two
Anastasia
I’m at Raventhorn University, sitting under the oak tree near the quad with Lorelai and our friends Willow and Eilish, who we met at the start of our freshman year.
We’ve just finished our classes for the day and are hanging out like we usually do until it’s time to leave.
With the radiant afternoon sun beaming down on us, this could be the perfect day.
Three weeks ago, I would have done anything for this oh-so-normal opportunity, with normal conversations like the latest campus gossip Lorelai is filling us in on. But I have so much going on in my life, my head could implode.
Everything has come at me in a vicious circle—Desmier, Dad, the crest, Viktor, and the wedding, which is now eleven days away.
In the sea of so much chaos, I’ve been thinking about Desmier more than anything. And I can’t get him out of my head.
He’s been gone now for twelve days. His trip ran over, and he’s expected to return in a few days’ time.
Instead of the break I thought I was going to get from him, every time I look at the gorgeous engagement ring on my finger I feel bad for liking, the things he said to me before he left, ravage my mind. They replay in my head like a movie stuck on repeat. Scene by scene, line by line.