Page 21 of Vicious Games

I moaned as I clawed at his shirt. “Please don’t do this, not here.”

He pushed the hand around my throat higher, up against my jaw, tilting my head back as far as the rough tree trunk would allow. “You say you want the gentleman. Act like you despise being under my control, and it’s all a fucking lie. I just proved it. You don’t want the sweet and considerate gentleman, you want the beast.”

I shifted one of my hands to grip the wrist holding my throat as I whispered, “That’s not true.”

“If I forced you to your knees and ordered you to swallow my cock, right here, right now, you’d do it.”

Tears of shame sprang to my eyes. “I wouldn’t!”

Now I was definitely lying. Roman had a hold over me like no other. If he commanded me, I’d drop to the ground like his obedient little whore and we both knew it.

Fuck, I needed to get away from this man before he destroyed what little dignity I had left.

He pressed his palm against my already wet pussy to further humiliate me. “Let tonight be a lesson to you, little one. Don’t play games you can’t win. The next time you try starting something with me, I won’t be so accommodating.”

A tear ran down my cheek. Here I had thought I was being so sassy and defiant by wearing this dress and pushing his buttons and all along, he was just playing with me. I was still just a helpless butterfly caught in his killing jar.

CHAPTER 10

ROMAN

Hearing the soft knock, I opened the bedroom door. After placing my finger to my lips to signal quiet, I took the breakfast tray from the servant and used my foot to close the door. Crossing toward the bed, I set the tray on the bureau then sat near Aurora’s sleeping form.

I loved watching her sleep, especially after exhausting her with my sexual demands. There was just something so fascinating about observing the change from debauched seductress who begged me to fuck her hard to sweet innocent gently sleeping by my side. It was one of the many things that intrigued me about her. Despite her difficult childhood, she could be naïve and completely without guile one moment and an intelligent adversary taking me on the next.

She had come dangerously close to guessing my entire game last night. While she may have accepted my auxiliary role in the downfall of her mother and stepfather, she could never know the direct role I played. I wouldn’t apologize for it even if she found out. I had no regrets about the lengths I went to, to have this moment right here and now. However, it would make things difficult moving forward if she were to continually fight me over our past.

I needed her to move forward and think of our future together.

I placed a hand on her abdomen. It softly rose and fell with her breath. I imagined what it would feel like to feel the kick of my child beneath my hand. Soon.

Soon, Aurora would provide me with the loving and devoted family they had denied me as a child. Unlike before, this family would never leave me. They would be mine and mine alone. I would see to it. My children would want for nothing. They would never experience the cold, gnawing hunger for sustenance, both physical and emotional, that I’d had throughout my formative years.

I had long ago accepted that I was a man incapable of feeling love. That weak emotion had been beaten out of me. But my children would know love, and warmth, and comfort from their mother.

Aurora would be the glowing light in the center of their world. It was one reason why I had chosen her above all others. I wanted my children to know the wholehearted, pure love of a mother.

And what of their father, asked my traitorous soul?

I lifted my hand off her body as my fingers curled into a fist.

Their father would continue as he always had, alone.

Loving Aurora was not an option. It could never be an option.

I was no fool. I knew what I was capable of. If I felt this intensely about simply possessing her, I frightened even myself imagining what I would do if I loved her.

It would be the destruction of us both.

That didn’t mean I didn’t want her to love me. I wanted it above all else. I wanted her to open her eyes every morning and gaze at me with adoration. She and our children would have every luxury my extensive wealth could buy. That would have to be enough for her.

Aurora stirred.

I held my breath, waiting for the moment that with each passing day had become more and more important to my existence.

Her eyelids fluttered.

I waited.

---