Page 58 of Born in Depravity

Not warmth.

Not gentleness.

Not this reaction.

I was a stupid girl.

“Be a good girl for me, and this will be over before you know it,kotyonok,” he said cryptically. I frowned in confusion.

What will be over before I know it?

Before I could process enough to actually fear his cryptic words, he pushed me down on the bed and removed the towel, throwing it somewhere on the floor to his left and out of my reach.

I let out a small noise in protest, but that was quickly cut off when he placed his palm over my mouth. He moved down close to me, and I fisted my hands around the sheets on the bed beneath me.

“Be good,” he chided, as if I were a naughty child caught with her hand in the cookie jar. I shook my head and looked at him with wild eyes.

He moved off the bed and I was frozen in fear. Reaching underneath the bed for something I didn’t even know was there in the first place, he laid it on the bed beside me.

I shook my head, my eyes begging him when I saw the objects. A pair of handcuffs and some sort of silver rod with a black leather loop on either end.

He grabbed the handcuffs first.

I jumped and tried to move away from the bed.

If he was into some sort of tied-up kink, I wasn’t going to be a part of that. I didn’t know where I would fucking go, but I wasn’t going to lie there and let him do whatever the hell he wanted.

My feet barely touched the floor when his arm snaked around my waist and pulled me back on the bed.

I struggled in his hold, kicking my feet out in front of me, my blunt nails raking down the skin on his forearm. I wanted to hurt him.

In that moment, I wanted to hurt him more than I ever wanted anything, even my fucking freedom. I wanted him to feel an ounce of the fear I felt every single day of my entire life, wanted him to feel that hopelessness of being small and weak andwomanin this world.

I wanted to make him feel as helpless as he was fucking making me feel. Tears of anger slid down my cheeks. Mikhail didn’t say anything the whole time, though I did hear him let out a sigh, as if I was nothing more than an inconvenience to him.

That only fueled my anger.

I doubled my efforts to get away from him, but it was no use.

He was stronger than me, bigger than me.

I buried my face in the pillow when he got me back in the middle of the bed. I tried to pull my arms away when he grabbed them and shackled my wrists with one large hand.

Movements happened above my head, and before I knew what was happening, I was handcuffed to the metal headboard, unable to move.

“Do you know what this is?” he asked calmly, pointing to the silver rod.

No, I didn’t fucking know, and I didn’t want to fucking know, but I had a feeling he was going to tell me, no matter what.

My eyes moved down to his forearms. Streaks of crimson covered them. I did that. I drew blood, and it wasn’t enough, and when I looked back at him, he offered me a small smile, that little smirk as frightening as the man himself.

And here I had naively thought he was the lesser evil of the three.

He might be even more so, because I had felt secure in his arms for a brief moment in time. Shame burned my eyes and I closed them, turning my head away.

He promptly grabbed my chin and shook until I opened my eyes, turning me toward him.

“Answer me,kotyonok. I don’t like to repeat myself. I might be more patient than my brothers, but there is a limit and you’re getting close to it, little girl.”

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