Page 31 of The Devil's Torment

“Cutting the cake.”

She shifts her weight, and her arse brushes my groin. I move closer. If she notices I’m hard, she makes no comment. When she picks up the knife, I cover her dainty hands with my large ones, and we slice through the bottom layer. A round of applause erupts. I scoop out a fingerful of the cake, making sure to get a decent dollop of cream and frosting. I turn her to face me and put my finger to her lips.

“Open up, beautiful.”

Her hazel eyes shimmer as she opens her mouth. I slip my finger inside. Her lips close around me, and I don’t even try to hide the groan that emerges.

“Say you want to leave. That you want to get out of here and go somewhere it’s just us.” I cup her face in my hands. “I want you. Tell me I can have you.”

She blinks, long, dark eyelashes brushing the apples of her cheeks which are paler than they were a few minutes ago.

“I wasn’t aware I had a choice.” Her voice is breathy, a slight tremble in her chin.

“You think I’dforceyou?” I’m not surprised that’s where her mind went. She’s never made any secret of what she thinks of my family. We’re far from perfect, and our choices may, at times, look to an outsider as morally deficient, but there isn’t a fucking chance in hell I’d force her into anything she wasn’t comfortable with.

I mean, Jesus Christ, my sister was raped and murdered. That horrific event left a scar on all our souls.

“Not force, exactly.” She bites her lip, a furrow appearing between her eyebrows.

I smooth it away. “If you say no, it’s no. That’s it.”

She juts out her chin, questions swirling in her eyes. I wonder how many of them she’ll voice.

“And if I do say no, what then? You take a mistress?”

“I don’t cheat, but nor do I expect to spend the rest of my life celibate.”

“If I refuse, that’s an oxymoron.”

I graze the back of my hand along her jaw, enjoying the way her skin flushes beneath my touch. She won’t say no. I’m no stranger to reading desire. Victoria wants this as much as I do. Unlike Elizabeth, I know Victoria isn’t a virgin, but she doesn’t strike me as a woman with much experience, either.

“I didn’t say I wouldn’t try to persuade you.”

Her breath hitches, her eyes luminous in the muted lights affixed to the walls. She gets what I’m saying. In the end, she’ll capitulate, not because I’m forcing her to, but because she won’t be able to resist this pull that’s come out of nowhere. It isn’t only me who feels it. She’s right there with me, in the moment.

“Okay, wife of mine. What’s it to be? Yes… or no?”

Say yes. Say yes. Say yes.

Her chest rises and falls with a deep inhale and exhale, but when her eyes meet mine, they’re swimming with curiosity and determination.

“Yes,” she whispers. “It’s a yes.”

ChapterTwelve

VICKY

The ground beneath my feet suddenly feels ethereal, as if I’m floating over an endless void. My stomach lurches, and for a split second I’m unsure which way is up. Guests whiz by in a blur as Nicholas leads me through the crowds, a man on a mission.

It’s me. I’m the mission.

I knew he’d want sex, but the way he broached the subject has me bewildered and off balance, as though the Earth suddenly tipped up and we’re all about to fall off into the endless void of space.

I want you. Tell me I can have you.

Nothing had prepared me for hearing those words from Nicholas’s mouth. From the moment he virtually shoulder barged Christian, then hauled me onto the dance floor, everything changed.

Everything.

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