Page 26 of Twisted Cage

I couldn’t sleep. Thoughts of Mama kept me awake. With Vlad always ready to torment me, I knew it was a risk to leave the safety of my room, but I couldn’t stay locked with her ghost anymore.

So I snuck down to the library and pulled out the book Mama used to read to me. Well, not the exact same one. She wasn’t allowed in this house. Our stepmother hated her.

I was staring out the window overlooking the pool a few feet below when he stepped out of the shadows in ONLY swim shorts and a towel over his broad shoulders. I hid behind the curtain, peeking out to get a better look without getting busted. That’s when he turned. Oh my God, his back… black angel wings rounded up over his shoulders, narrowing down on either side of his spine, the tips disappearing under his shorts.

My heart just about exploded out of my chest.

Nadia’s going to die when I tell her!

But I’m glad she’s not here to see him like this. That I can keep this just for me. Plus, she’d start talking about all the things she’d like to do to him, and then I’d be trying to not kill Nadia for crushing on my Kostya.

I already had a fascination with his arms. The bit of his arms I saw anyway. Thick, veiny forearms painted with ink. Was it any wonder the boys at school did nothing for me? With their skinny bodies, pale skin, and knobby elbows. Ick. Sure, some of them were good-looking and one day would probably be great-looking, but none of them could possibly compare to my Konstantin.

He dove in, his long arms cutting through the surface of the water, the angel wings disappearing beneath the surface. I held my breath, my heart pounding in my ears, waiting for him to come up. Finally, his fingers curled along the edge of the pool closest to the window and he hauled himself up just enough to put his full chest on display as he shook his head back, sending water spraying all around him.

And when his eyes opened, they seemed to focus right on me where I hid. Like he could see through the wall and curtain. With his elbows propped on the edge of the pool, his eyebrows slashed low over his eyes, like they did when I frustrated him. When his jaw clenched, tingles exploded through me from head to toe.

I froze there, unable to breathe with so many feelings coursing through me. I ached between my legs and clenched. Not that it helped.

Then he climbed out of the pool and OMG!!!

His shorts stuck to him like a second skin, showing everything. EVERYTHING.

How did women do it without feeling like they were being torn apart from the inside out? Or maybe it was a good feeling? I don’t know, but a part of me really wanted to find out.

But only with him.

I remember the day. I lived in my own house on the estate, but I occasionally used the pool in the early hours of the morning when I couldn’t sleep. That particular night, sleep eluded me entirely. Nastasya Vlasova, coveted only daughter of our Vlasova allies, had been delivered to her family’s estate in pieces as an example of just what would happen if anyone betrayed the Petrov family again.

The same Petrovs Nikoletta had eventually been promised to by Vlad.

Every time I closed my eyes that night, I saw her remains, but the lifeless eyes with blood dried in rivulets down her face peeking through the body parts weren't Nastasya’s… they were Nikoletta’s.

The image burned in my brain stole every bit of peace left in me.

Then there was the feeling of being watched, staring into the window, waiting for even a fraction of movement.

I felt something. I felt her.

She had just turned sixteen.

Fuck.

I flip through to find the next entry, but the pages fan out faster than I intend and I land on an entry that has me grinding my teeth together.

Hey, it’s me again…

I can’t stop.

Every room I step into, I look for him first. When he guides me into the car whenever we go somewhere, the hand at my back, perfectly innocent to him, has me so worked up I can’t breathe. More than once he’s asked if I feel okay.

No. No, Kostya. I don’t feel okay. I’m trapped in this car with you, with your spicy cologne teasing me. I can actually feel your body heat. All I can think of doing is climbing onto your lap and grinding myself against you until this ache goes away.

I’m wet.

Hot.

My skin is on fire all the time. My heart races whenever I even hear his name, let alone see him. All of a sudden the boys at school are looking more appealing. I could just keep my eyes closed. Picture him the entire time.

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