Page 8 of Sinister Engagement

"Why me?" I demanded. "I’m inexperienced. I’m boring. I’m not exceptionally pretty or smart. At best, I’m average. So, why? Why did you choose me? Did you think I’d be easier to control?”Or perhaps he hadn’t chosen me at all,I thought suddenly.What if I’d been forced upon him? No, that didn’t make sense.If my father was truly going to hand over the family to this man, wouldn’t he have gone with Jackie? She was far more agreeable and knowledgeable. No, this man had definitely chosen me. It was there in his heated gaze, in the way he stalked me with his eyes. The looks he gave me sent chills down my spine.

Gaven eyed me, his cool deep blue gaze analyzing me from my head down to where my lower half disappeared beneath the table. All at once, I felt pinned in place. As if a giant predator had found me and was debating on whether to devour me whole or piece by piece. That fear that had started only minutes earlier built, but instead of there only being the icy cold, a tiny whisper of thrill wove through my body. I swallowed nervously as he leaned forward, one elbow resting on the table as he lifted his hand toward my face.

I held perfectly still as that hand of his neared closer and closer. When his fingers touched my cheek, grazing down to my jawline, it felt like a bolt of electricity had shot through me. Awareness, keen and so very fucking there lifted me out of the fog of confusion and catapulted me straight into unfamiliar territory. The place between my legs throbbed. My thighs clenched, and I felt my chest swell as I unintentionally leaned into his touch.

“Normally, in a situation such as this, I’d simply tell you that the why doesn’t matter,” Gaven said, his voice low and deep. “The fact is, you are my fiancée, and you will be my wife.” His hand shifted as he stood, leaning more fully across the tiny table.Why is it so fucking small?He practically dwarfed it, hovering over both it and me. His hand clenched briefly before moving to grasp my throat and pull me forward until my face was tilted up to meet his impenetrable gaze. My heart thudded rapidly, my pulse speeding up under his palm.

“It doesn’t matter to me if you’re inexperienced,” he said, his voice dropping another octave. Whatever frequency he was speaking seemed to have a direct link to my core. The lower his voice went, the more I couldn’t help but feel a wetness forming inside of my panties. When I’d told him I was inexperienced, I meant that I was a virgin. I’d touched myself before, and I’d watched porn. But I’d never even been this close to a man who was looking at me as though he wanted to eat me alive, their focus had always been on my sister. I blended into the background, forgettable. Exactly where I’d hoped to stay until my wishes came crashing down. “In fact,” he continued, “that makes this easier.”

“E-easier?” I repeated, confused.

“Yes,” he said as his thumb stroked over my thumping pulse. “Because it means I can teach you, shape you, mold you to my specifications and my desires.”

That rankled. “What about my desires?” I snapped back.

His lips parted as his close-lipped smile became an open one and he leaned even closer until I could smell the mint on his breath. “Oh, I promise you, my soon-to-be wife, your desires will be well cared for, but if you’re worried, perhaps a demonstration is in order.”

Demonstration?I thought worriedly, but before I could protest or find the strength to move away, Gaven’s head descended until his lips were suddenly on mine.

My eyes widened as his mouth touched my own and his lips parted, his tongue sinking past my defenses. I’d kissed boys from school, but they didn’t hold a candle to this. They were boys, and Gaven was a man. He kissed like a man. There was no fumbling or sloppiness, no awkward angles or stunted movements of his lips and tongue. Every move was calculated and smooth. Gaven knew what he wanted from me and he was determined to take it through sheer skill and heated passion.

Slowly, my eyelids lowered until they closed completely, and I found myself leaning forward into his grasp as his hand remained on my throat. His tongue twined with mine, touching and teasing me. His teeth scraped against my bottom lip.

It was wet. It was hot. It was indescribably addictive. I lost all sense of myself in that moment, falling deeper and deeper under the spell he had woven over me.

When the kiss came to a slow, languid stop, I found that I was breathing unevenly, my chest rising and falling in rapid increments. My face felt heated beyond a simple blush, and beneath my clothes, my core was pulsing.

“You’re going to be mine, Angel,” Gaven said, pulling away completely. My neck felt cold without his hand on it, and I had to blink several times and take a few deep breaths before I felt even somewhat cognizant of my surroundings. The door to the private room opened, and the waiter appeared with a tray of food. Gaven looked toward it before smiling at me. “I suggest you get used to it sooner or later.”

Gaven is a dangerous man,I realized in that moment. Because with one simple kiss, I felt addicted. Conquered. Even if I were to be Persephone in this tale of ours, Gaven was no Hades. No, instead, he’d be the pomegranate seeds, and I was fucking starving down here in the underworld, trying to find a way out into the light again. I feared, though, that the second I said ‘I do’ I’d never seen it again.

4

Gaven

Ihad never been a good man, and I wasn’t going to start now. I liked the power I held over people’s lives, and my dinner with Angel had only proven that I was going to like it even more with my wife. She was more innocent than I’d expected. When the word “inexperienced” had come out of my mouth, I’d acknowledged two things: One, she was strangely more outspoken than I think even she realized, and two, when I spread her legs on our wedding night and sank into that soft pussy of hers, I’d likely find out just how inexperienced she was. If I were a betting man, I’d bet my entire life and all of the money I’d acquired throughout it on the fact that she was a virgin.

At the thought of our previous conversation, my thoughts drifted to ourdate. Dinner the night before had gone well, or at least I had thought so. Angel had taken over every thought, every waking moment, as soon as she’d been offered to me. My imagination continued to fill with all the ideas and urges I had. Ones I knew would soon come to pass. One simple kiss and I wanted so much more. Cravings that made me ache. To feel her soft curves under my hands, to hear the sounds that she would make as I fucked her, to watch her come all over my cock. I didn't want to shake the imagery, letting her consume me.

She was mine to own. Mine to corrupt. And I knew as I molded her with my wicked ways, I’d get to watch her fall from her innocence and grace until she wasexactlywhat I wanted her to be. The thought was enticing, and I had to force myself to not seek her out and taste even more of her.

Thankfully, the echoing sound of my shoes on the marble floor of the Price mansion grounded me. The rhythmic noise bounced off the lavish decor and empty space, accompanying my thoughts. But as I turned the corner, hush whispers sobered me. My senses sharpened, focusing on the private conversation only a small ways down the hall.

Cold callous laughter accompanied the soft words. Two of Raph’s guards gossiping which wasn’t abnormal, but while I had trusted Raph with his deal, his men were another matter. I was a stranger coming in to take over. Jealousy was an ugly trait, but a great motivator. I didn’t have to strain to hear their words, despite their attempts to keep it private.

“I can’t believe it, can you?” the first guard questioned.

“Hell no,” the other exclaimed softly, another burst of icy chuckling filled the hall. “But I guess we’re going to find out how that all works out soon enough.”

“Yeah, not sure it’ll go as smoothly as they’re hoping it will, but as long as my ass isn’t on the line, I don’t give two shits. Now come on, let’s head out and get this shit done before we get yelled at.”

A simple, meaningless conversation, and the two didn’t even bother to look in my direction as they left the room they had been in.Easy targets,I noted with a cruel smile, following behind them. This time, my steps were silent, the predatory hunger consuming me. There was no way to know from their initial conversation if it was about Angel and me, but I wasn’t willing to let the possibility slide.

Two weak men who would bend under my hand, it wouldn’t take more than a moment,I thought, relishing at the thought of hunting down any threat to me or my wife.

“Oh, Gaven!” a sickly sweet voice called out as I stalked the two men out onto the front steps of the mansion.

I stopped, glaring at Jacquelina briefly for interrupting my pursuit before turning my attention to the two men. They glanced back sharply, two surprised gazes focusing on me. Their faces paled, their jaws tensing as I smiled. Their clocks started to count down and they knew it. Their lives weremine.

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