Page 3 of Vicious Games

Diamonds were cold.

But this piano… was different. It vibrated with energy, life, and heat.

His home was a converted gothic church. The piano was positioned in an area where the pews had once been, directly in front of a rather graphic stained-glass window depicting a macabre version of the Sacred Heart. The crimson heart, bound by golden thorns and consumed by fire, cast an eerie, bloody glow over the piano keys. It did not help my already wild imagination.

I closed my eyes and pressed down on the keys.

I should be practicing my finger pedaling method.

I should be playing something from the Baroque period.

There were plenty of things I should be doing, starting with how I should be running as far away from Roman as possible.

Instead, I started the quiet melody of The Cure’s ’There Is No If.’

The somnolent piano notes washed over me like a frigid rain.

The lyrics crashed against my own dark memories as I played. “If you die,” you said, “So do I,” you said.

That night.

That terrible night.

The masquerade ball.

The horrible laughter.

The sight of that poor woman, Elizabeth, who looked so eerily similar to me, trapped in that gilded cage as it tumbled to the floor. Me ripping the diamonds Roman had given me off my throat as I ran past the bed where he had taken me too many times to count, straight to the balcony’s edge. The feel of Roman’s tight grip on my wrist as I dangled in mid-air, moments away from cold nothingness. The piercing knowledge that not even death would spare me from his obsession.

“I won’t let you go. Not ever. Jump and I’ll follow you down,” threatened Roman.

“Why me? Why did it have to be me?”

“It was always going to be you, my love. No matter what, even if I had to become the devil himself, you were always fated to be mine.”

“This isn’t love.”

Even though the music didn’t call for it, I pressed the toes of my right foot down on the sustain pedal, enjoying the haunting echo it gave the music as it rose in pitch. I pounded on the ivory keys, increasing the tempo. It was sacrilege to treat a treasure of a piano this way, but at that moment I didn’t care. I leaned over the keys, playing faster and faster. My fingers hurt, but still I played.

“Rachmaninoff?”

My eyes flew open.

Roman was standing over me. As always, his darkly handsome features struck me. He was like a fallen angel, or better yet, a demon. I knew by his smirk that he was teasing me. It was still early. He hadn’t left for the office yet and was still wearing a pair of black silk pajama bottoms. His matching black silk robe was open at the waist and displayed his criminally taut stomach and muscled chest. The faint outline of red scratches was the only thing that marred his skin. Taboo memories of my fingernails raking down his chest only to grab onto his dark chest hair while I screamed my release last night made my cheeks heat.

I lowered my gaze, flustered at the memory of last night and being caught playing a pop song instead of the Fantasia and Fugue in A minor by Bach he had requested over breakfast. I swallowed. “It’s just a finger warm-up.”

Roman placed his fingers under my chin and pulled my face up to his gaze. “I pursued you after hearing you play piano in the park. Please do not sully that memory by squandering your talent on nonsense.”

My stomach twisted at the backhanded compliment. It was hard to speak past my dry mouth. “Yes, Roman.”

He winked. “Good girl.”

My eyes fluttered closed for a moment. I hated how much I loved hearing him call me a good girl. It was patronizing and demeaning. It served constantly to remind me of our age difference and how he held all the power in our relationship. Which he also reminded me of by only saying it after I had capitulated to one of his many demands. The problem was his demands had given me the best, most all-consuming pleasure of my life. It was as if each time he fucked me, he drained my body of every drop of blood and replaced it with his own.

After those moments, his deep voice would pour ’good girl’ over me like dark honey, and I would dissolve into the dark sweetness of it all. The man was dangerous to both my life and my sanity.

I lifted my chin away from his grasp and focused my attention back on the piano keys.

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