Page 154 of Ivory Ashes

I tighten around him and he growls. He moves like he’s going to lay me down on the bed, but I hook my leg behind his knee. He stumbles back, barely managing to catch us from tumbling across the carpet.

“What the fuck, Viviana?” he snaps.

In answer, I plant my feet on the floor and grind down against him. I ride him into submission, pressing him onto his back.

He could have us both on the bed in an instant if he wanted, but he stays down. I plant my hands on his chest and let the frustration and anger and confusion that has been building in me for days funnel into this one act. Maybe, finally, I’ll be able to let him go. If I can fuck him into the floor and take what I want, maybe I can prove to myself that Mikhail isn’t special. I’ll ride him out of my system and be done with this toxic rollercoaster we’ve been on.

It’s hate fucking. Toxic, violent, turbulent hate sex, pure and simple.

“I’m close,” I murmur, my nails biting into his skin. I move faster, riding him until I’m panting.

I clench around him, wanting nothing more than to take him down with me. Mikhail must have the same idea. He grits his teeth and growls, “Come for me like my pretty little whore, Viviana.”

He grips my thighs and pulls me against him again and again. When I’m close enough, he sucks my nipple into his mouth and his teeth clamp down over sensitive skin, and I can’t fight it for another second. I need this.

“I’m coming,” I cry, leaning back to let him find a new angle in me. “Mikhail, I’m?—”

Falling.

I yelp as my back hits the floor. My body is convulsing around nothing, achingly hollow as Mikhail looms between my legs.

He’s stroking himself fast, his top lip curled back like he’s disgusted with himself.

“I’m doing what I should have done that night in the bridal suite,” he growls, pumping his cock with his own hand faster and faster.

I lie there in shock and he comes with a muted groan, coating my stomach with the hot, sticky splatter of his release.

Even dumped on the cold floor, I’m still riding my orgasm. My pussy pulses weakly around what should be Mikhail while my head is spinning.

What is he talking about?

Once Mikhail empties himself on me, he stands up like it’s a race to see who can get dressed first. He’s zipping his pants when I manage to get to my feet.

I grab his arm. “What the fuck was that?”

He jerks away from my touch. The force of it sends me back onto the bed. I bounce on the mattress. “What is this? What are you?—”

“I know what you did.”

I start to ask what he means, but when I look in his eyes, I realize I already know.

56

VIVIANA

He knows.

He knows I killed Trofim.

I have no idea how he knows, but he knows.

I knew this moment would come. I just didn’t think it would happen while I was still flushed from an orgasm and sticky with Mikhail’s cum on my abdomen.

“How did you find out?” I whisper.

He doesn’t answer. Maybe he can’t even hear me. Based on the scarlet flush creeping up his neck, he might not be hearing anything but the thundering of his own heart.

I can’t even blame him.

---