Page 144 of Beautiful Cruelty

"No, it fucking isn't. You took all my choices away." Even as I say it, I know it's a lie.

"I gave you the choice to leave after Paris." Vadim slams into me with bruising force. But even as his control balances on a knife's edge, I can feel his restraint. "You chose to stay."

He's right. I did choose this. All of it. But I can't admit that. If I admit it, he'll stop fucking me like this. He'll sweep me up into his arms, he'll kiss away my tears and tell me just how much I matter to him.

It'll be everything my heart wants to hear, but everything that my guilty conscience is unable to bear.

"Fuck you," I say instead. "I never chose. You chose for me. You took me from my life and my family. You made me play your games only to put blood on my hands. And now you're taking this final choice from me too."

"And what choice is that?"

"The choice to get hurt!” I shout. “It's the only choice I have left in this place and you won't even let me have that. I gave you what you wanted. The least you can do is give me what I deserve.

“You think this is what you want? What you deserve?”

“Isn’t it?”

“You want me to hurt you? I will. But remember,zvyozdochka, you asked for it."

“Shut the fuck up.” I shake my head. “Shut the fuck up and fuck me like you mean it.”

My words finally break through his iron control. His hips snap forward with bruising force, giving me exactly what I've been begging for.

His cock stretches me impossibly wide as he pounds into me. The marble floor scrapes my knees raw with each savage thrust, but the pain only heightens my arousal.

My body trembles, caught between pleasure and agony. The sensations war within me—the burning stretch, the delicious fullness, the sharp bite of his fingers digging into my hips hard enough to leave marks. Each brutal thrust drives me closer to the high I've been desperately chasing.

His pace turns punishing. The sound of flesh striking flesh echoes through the halls of Pankration. I can feel him losing himself to his rage, to his need.

My inner walls clench around him greedily, drawing him deeper. The angle changes slightly and I cry out as he hits that perfect spot inside me.

Lightning races up my spine with every slam of his hips. My arms struggle to brace against the cold floor. Sweat drips down my back despite the chill. Pain blurs with pleasure until I can no longer tell them apart.

This is what I need—to be used, to be punished, to atone through suffering—and only he can deliver it.

His rhythm grows erratic, primal. The force of his thrusts has me sliding across the polished marble. Only his iron grip on my hips keeps me in place as he claims me with savage intensity. My mind fragments, splintering under the onslaught of a panoply of sensations.

Nothing exists beyond this moment—the stretch of him inside me, the bruising grip of his hands, and the sweet agony of getting exactly what I asked for.

"Is that all you got?" I taunt him as he drives the air from my lungs with every thrust. "Fuck me, you bastard! Stop treating me like a queen and start fucking me like a cheap whore."

My breath catches as Vadim suddenly withdraws. The loss of him leaves me aching, empty. A whimper rises in my throat but I swallow it down, refusing to beg. Before I can react, he flips me onto my back, the cold marble shocking against my heated skin.

Looking up at him, my heart clenches. The raw anguish etched across his face makes me want to reach for him, to take back every cruel word I said.

I can see how much this hurts him to treat me this way. Tears well up in my eyes unbidden, but I blink them back furiously. I've come too far to stop now. The guilt churning inside me demands this punishment.

His voice comes out rough and dangerous. "You want me to fuck you like you're a cheap whore? Like you'remycheap whore?"

The tenderness hidden beneath his harsh words nearly breaks me. But I can't let him be gentle. Not now. Not after everything.

"Did I fucking stutter?" I spit the words at him like venom.

Something dark flashes in his eyes. His hand wraps around my throat. "Then shut the fuck up and take that cock like a good fucking whore."

His cock drives into me again and I shriek at how exquisite it feels. My eyes flutter closed as waves of ecstasy wash over me.

A sharp sting across my cheek makes my eyes fly open.

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