Page 8 of Deception

The dress barely conceals her slender curves. With every step she takes, the slit opens wider to her hip, exposing the fact she’s not wearing anything beneath it. My blood heats as it pounds through me with her fading floral scent whispering at my fraying edges.

“Son…?”

“No one,” I say, trying to clear my throat as I pry my hand free and place hers on her lap.

“Doesn’t look like no one.” Searching eyes peer from me to the girl being escorted towards the house.

Vanya shakes her head down at the ground as she mutters, “New day…new whore.”

“And what do you know about whores, nun?” The heated frustration already coursing through me inflames with rage at her jibe, and before she can make a move to save it, I flip her book over the edge of the balustrade.

She’s lucky it’s not her instead. I’m growing tired of her constant criticism and indignation of late. Our father is worried about subterfuge in our ranks, but his daughter isn’t exactly flying our flag.

“Have I taught you nothing?” Mother asks, patting one of the push handles over her shoulder.

The scarf on her head shifts, showing her bald scalp. It sickens me. The sight of her like this makes me want to tear these walls down. Instead, I suck in a deep breath and take her inside.

“You never bring your whore into your home…intomyhome.”

“She’s not a whore.”

My steps falter at my snapped words. The knot inside me that had loosened at Mama’s smile tightens again.

The girl is a snake, I quickly tell myself,one I’m going to pick apart.

“Not a whore?” she asks, looking over her shoulder with a wince, the slightest exertion paining her.

“Why is she dressed like one?” Vanya laughs, disgust dripping from every trill of her voice.

“You want to know what a whore really looks like?” I turn so fast that my sight blurs. It takes a moment and a couple of strides to clear and set on her. Tunnelling my hands into the blonde hair at her nape, I shake her up onto her toes. “Don’t fuck with me, or I’ll take you to the whore house and I’ll fucking leave you there for enlightenment.”

“Did you take her too?” The question comes out gritted and full of venom while her hands grapple at my chest and fear storms in her gaze. “Did you take her like the other girls?”

“Yeah, I did. I drugged her, I took her, and I’m going to fuck her. Until she cries. And for every time her father has fucked us over. In the end, I’ll kill her too. When I’m done.”

Throwing her down into her reading chair, I head for the door. If she says one more thing to me today, I’ll fucking make her watch me break the bitch waiting for me. I’ll fucking break them together.

Shutting the door behind me, I stride down the corridor leading to the opposite wing of the palace. Pyotr is just shutting the door behind him when I get to my apartment. Every muscle is coiled tight with the need to blow off steam. Rage is hazing all my senses as I push past him inside.

“Fuck off,” I spit at the security guy standing on the other side of the door, staring at Red in that fucking dress that leaves nothing to the imagination.

“Take it off.”

A beat of stillness follows my command. The click of the lock behind me echoes in the silence.

“Take it off!” The reverberating yell has no effect on her.

Without so much as the flutter of her dark-painted lashes, she holds me with her striking gaze, sullen pout puckered in defiance as I close the space between us.

We’re toe to toe, her gaze admiring the bite she left on my chest, along with the scrap of my shirt. The honeyed scent from the oil on her skin fills my lungs, and I want to scrub her clean of it all over again.

I don’t fuck whores. Never have and never will. Right now, Red reeks like one.

Lifting her eyes to mine, she licks her lips, exactly like she did at the club. Teasing and lewd. Expelling a deep breath, she states, “Make me.”

If this is the game she wants to play, I’m more than happy to oblige. I never lose, and it won’t be any different with her.

4

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