Page 18 of Corruption

7

Nadia

Alik is already up and gone from our bedroom by the time I wake up the next morning. Likely downstairs in the kitchen making coffee, and if he’s already gotten that far into his typical morning routine, in his office. He does have plans to go visit Vaughn today, but he wouldn’t have left without letting me know.

I leisurely get out of bed, go through my morning hygiene, put on a casual long-sleeved, ankle-length body-con dress, and make my way to the kitchen while gathering my hair to clamp at the back of my head. I pass by the room we put Kiya in last night and decide to check on her.

I knock on the door, expecting her to still be asleep, but upon calling her name, she says, “Come in.”

I enter the room to find that she’s awake and has been for a while judging by the fact that her bed is straightened, she’s taken her hair out the braid from last night and pulled it back into a ponytail similar to the one she wore when she introduced herself at dinner, and is just sitting with the television on.

“How long have you been up?” I ask.

“Not long.”

Another vague answer. She gives a lot of those. I don’t know if it’s because she’s in an unfamiliar setting or if she’s been just raised to do that. Something to figure out while she’s here. However long she’s here. It might only be for today if Alik can get his brother to take her back. Frankly, I hope he fails at convincing Vaughn after the scratches and bruises I had to clean up last night.

“Well, you probably haven’t had breakfast. Neither have I. So why don’t you join me?” I ask. Then I take note of the sleep shirt she’s still wearing. “Let’s get you something to wear out my closet first.”

Kiya nods and gets up to follow me, much less hesitantly than she did last night and much less hesitantly than if my husband had come to get her. But Alik’s strength has never been in putting people at ease and getting them to open up. He’s the ostensibly dangerous one. The one that makes your heart race in your chest in anxious anticipation of what he can do to you. Of terror and harm to his enemies. Of pleasure and pain he can give during sex.

Kiya stands awkwardly to the side of my walk-in closet as I go through my things for something she can wear. She’s not short. She’s about average height for a woman. But I’m taller than her even if we seem to have mostly the same measurements otherwise. Finally, I find another body-con dress. It would stop mid-thigh for me, but will likely come right below her knees and cover up the marks on her thighs and legs until they finish healing.

I hand it to her and then leave the closet so she can put the dress on. It’s barely a minute before she comes out with the sleep shirt in her hand and the dress on. It fits just like I thought it would. Falling to her calves and hugging her body. In particular, it hugs her breasts much more than it hugs mine, showing not just an ample amount of cleavage but also showing the outline of her nipples.

I take the shirt from her to throw in the dirty clothes and manage to not look like I was practically gaping at her before we head to the kitchen.

When we get there, Alik is there pouring what I have to guess is a second cup of coffee. I walk over and kiss him good morning before going to the cabinet.

“We had a long night,” I say to Kiya. “How’s basic box cereal and milk this morning? Or is there something you can’t have that I need to be aware of?”

“Cereal is fine.”

I join Kiya where she’s sitting at the kitchen table when I have everything. While she’s pouring her cereal, I say to Alik, “Have a productive morning?”

“If that’s your way of asking if I’ve talked to my bastard brother, the answer to that is no. He’s avoiding my calls. Which means I’m going to have to go physically talk to him.”

“Alik, try not to shoot him.”

“I don’t plan to. I’m going to choke him with my bare hands.”

“You don’t have to do that for me,” Kiya says while looking down at her cereal. “It’s no big deal.”

“It’s a huge deal,” Alik argues back.

“It’s not,” Kiya says, looking up from her cereal. “I knew what I was getting into when I agreed to do this for A—my father and family. If he doesn’t want me there until the wedding because I won’t sleep with him, then I don’t want to be there.”

“Doesn’t matter. What he did to you put this entire deal at risk, and I’m going to deal with it how I see fit. How I see fit has nothing to do with you.”

“It has everything to do with me if I’m the reason for it all.”

“My brother is the reason for it all.”

“Your brother is the reason for it because he tried to rape me and then threw me out when I fought back and threatened to tell my dad. So, again, it has everything to do with me and I think I get a say in how it’s dealt with.”

The sudden change in her—the way she went from skittish and quiet to this—is enough to give me whiplash. It’s almost like she’s a completely different girl from this morning and last night when I cleaned and soothed her cuts. I see why Alik has taken to calling her Kitten of all things. Wary. Cautious. But with sharp claws when cornered.

It makes me wonder if this is how she’d be in other realms. If she’d be all shy and coy with me if I were to kiss her. If she’d blush prettily if I got her back down to her panties and then got rid of them totally. If she’d act like that until I put my mouth on her pussy, when she’d hold my head in place and demand that I finish her off if I tried to stop before—

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