He tilted my head back with his finger, capturing me with his nearly black eyes. “You can’t save me, Molly. Don’t try. You’ll be disappointed.”
“I know. I know it’s too late,” I said, hoping he couldn’t hear the lie on my lips. I didn’t believe it, in my heart of hearts.
His mouth quirked as if he could see through me so easily. Maybe he could. If anyone had ever known me, it was this man. “I won’t go easy on you because you’ve surrendered to me, Princess.”
“I don’t expect you to. Do your worst,” I muttered.
His hand slid along my jaw into my hair, gripping a handful and twisting it like a rope. He tilted my head back and stepped closer, forcing me to look back to keep him in my sight.
“You no longer know what my worst is, Molly. But I won’t hurt you. Not in any way you don’t beg me to.” His eyes almost looked apologetic, but I couldn’t fall for it.
If I wanted to reach Kirill, I needed to play along and get to him when his guard was lowered.Tonight, he was looking for my surrender. He wanted to make sure I knew he was in control. I’d give that to him. For tonight, at least.
“Bring it on, weird boy.” The words escaped me before I could hold them back.
We were transported to Black Hall Prep hallway. Kirill was seventeen again, already a giant to little me, and he hadn’t even reached half his potential. I saw it all so clearly. His bleeding nose and red dots on white cotton. His hazel eyes clear in the afternoon light as he gave me a lopsided grin.
“How about you watch my back, and I’ll watch yours, weird boy?”
From the look in Kirill’s eyes, I wasn’t the only one reliving memories of our past selves. He looked haunted for a striking second. Then, his eyes flashed darkly. I thought he was going to kiss me, and it was going to hurt, but he stepped back reluctantly.
A blistering challenge replaced the flash of uncertainty in his eyes.“Get on your knees,” he rasped, “and show me you mean it.”
His hands went for his belt, and I steeled myself to comply. I sank slowly to the floor. It was a testament to how fucked up I was for this man that I felt a thrill of desire tug low in my belly, and warmth blossomed between my thighs.
He pulled his belt free and held it like a coiled snake in one hand. “Show me your surrender, Princess,” he murmured.
I shuffled forward and reached for his zipper.He was hard, pressing against his suit slacks and making it difficult to open his fly. I finally managed as he watched me without comment.
When he was freed, the tug of desire in my belly became a full-blown fire as he slid the end of his belt around my neck and slowly tightened it. I stared up at him, unable to break his gaze as he pulled my willing mouth down on his stiff length. The belt tightened around my throat, choking me a little as I struggled to fit him between my lips. One of his hands held the belt, and the other fisted in my hair. He started to move, pushing in and out my mouth and halfway down my throat.
“You think you can embrace my darkness and give yourself to me, and it’ll fix everything? There’s no fixing me, Princess. There’s no healing me or saving me. The Kirill you knew is gone, and you’re going to find out the hard way. But the time you do, my darkness will live inside you, too deep to root out, and you’ll belong to me, soul deep.”
He was moving fast now, holding me where he wanted me, and I struggled to keep up. It should have been debasing, having my mouth used like that, but it wasn’t. It was turning me on, making me wet. I’d die if he realized.
He came abruptly, spilling down my throat. The belt squeezed tighter until spots danced before my eyes. “Take some evil inside you, Molly,” he muttered.
He watched me until he was empty before he pulled back, leaving me to cough as the belt unraveled from my neck. He pulled me up and kissed me deeply until I was trembling in his arms, uncaring that his spend still coated my mouth.
Then he returned to the bar, slugged back the rest of his drink, and tucked himself away. “Come on. I’ll show you your room.”
My sentence had begun.
* * *
He wokeme in the night, unlocking the door and entering quietly. He was keeping me in the spare room next to his. The bed was just as huge, but it was empty without him. I guessed sleeping next to him wasn’t part of his plans.
I rolled toward him, my eyes searching for his in the moonlight flooding in the window, but he turned me roughly so I was lying prone on the mattress. He bound my hands at the small of my back with silky rope, leaving me trapped. Being tied up in this context was a first and sent a shiver of heat across me. So far, sex between us had been restrained in a way I wasn’t experienced enough to understand. Now, as he pushed my shorts down my legs and spread them open, I sensed the difference in his touch.
He wasn’t gentle as he slid his fingers between my legs and stroked me. Those blunt-tipped fingers pushed inside me, stretching me in a way that edged into pain. Why did it feel so good? His thumb found my clit, and he circled it slowly as I moved my hips against his hand.
I was getting wetter by the second. It seemed like those invisible walls between us had finally fallen, and though his blistering gaze might mean to bruise me, it was honest. This was Kirill in all his brutal glory, and my body knew it.
I rose until I hovered on the edge of a cliff only he had ever brought me to. Just as I reached for it, he pulled his hand from me.
“Hey!”
My protest was cut off by the smack of his wet hand on my behind. The sound of flesh meeting flesh sent my outraged thoughts flying from my head.Holy hell.