Page 39 of Poisoned Vows

“Fuck,” he breathes as he pulls back, the last drops of his cum dripping from his cockhead onto my pussy. “You look fucking gorgeous like that.”

I don’t feel gorgeous. I feel tired and haggard, with my cum-covered skin and tangled hair. I want to shower and go back to sleep, and as Nikolai slides off of the bed, I glance toward the room service cart and wonder if I’m even going to be able to eat when I feel like this.

He looks at me, and something about the expression on my face must be apparent to him, because he shrugs. “Go ahead and shower if you want,” he says carelessly. “We’ll be going home after this.”

“Where is home?” I ask tentatively. “Back to the mansion?”

Nikolai smirks. “No. I’m taking you to my penthouse in the city. And after that—”

He trails off, and I swallow hard, wondering what he means. What comes after? I don’t like the silence that hangs in the air after he says it.

“We’ll talk about it later,” he says finally. “Go shower.”

I don’t give him a chance to change his mind. I slide off of the bed, and as I start to walk past him, he grabs my arm, his gaze raking over me again.

“Don’t get so in your head about it,” he says, and I narrow my eyes at him.

“I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.”

“Of course you do.” He lets go of my arm. “You’re pissed that you came. You’re mad at me for making you come, but you’re also mad at yourself for coming, even though you couldn’t have helped it. Not when I was eating your pussy like that.”

“You arrogant—” I can feel my cheeks flushing hot and red.

He laughs, cutting me off. “You’re my wife now, Lilliana. You belong to me. When I want you, I’ll have you. But I want you to want it too. That’s why I didn’t make you take my cock again this morning. You were sore, and I wanted to make you feel good.”

“You didn’t.” I turn away from him, wrapping my arms around my waist and feeling my sticky flesh brush against my arms. “Nothing about you feels good.”

“If that makes it easier for you to live with this, then tell yourself that. But you can’t lie to yourself forever.”

Nikolai turns away from me, going back to the bed. I can’t bring myself to look at him, and I hurry towards the bathroom before he can decide that he wants something else from me and keeps me from showering.

All I want is him off of me. I don’t want any trace of what we’ve done since last night. I want to forget this is happening for a little while.

But I’m not sure even a hot shower is enough to wash away the feeling of Nikolai’s tongue on me.

Nikolai

“Ihave some things I need to do before I take you home,” I tell Lilliana as we leave the hotel, once the sheet on the bed has been stripped away and tucked into my bag to be taken to my father. “I’ll leave you at the mansion for a little while and then come back and fetch you.”

“Like a dog with his toy,” she mutters under her breath, and I choose to ignore it. It feels like the wiser choice.

The breakfast had been cold by the time she got out of the shower, but she’d eaten anyway, choking down some dry toast and a little fruit. I’d given her as much space as I could, trying to ignore the way she looked at me, like I was a monster that might pounce on her at any moment.

After I’d made a point of not forcing myself on her earlier, it felt like an insult.

Taking her away for a little while will make a difference,I tell myself as we ride the elevator down to the lobby. Lilliana is on the other side of the elevator car, dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, her arms wrapped around her slender waist. She looks exhausted, and I resolve to give her a night to rest at the penthouse before I take her on our honeymoon.I can keep my hands off of her for one night.

I feel a flicker of desire even as I think it, though, just looking at her leaning against the opposite wall, and it unsettles me. I’ve never met a woman who makes me feel like this, almost unhinged with need. I’ve never met anyone who makes me feel less than in control of myself.

I want it—her—out of my system.

She’s silent all the way to the mansion, sitting as far away from me as she can in the backseat of the car. I can feel the anger radiating off of her, and it frustrates me to no end. I haven’t hurt her. If she’d been given to my father, things would be much worse for her. And yet, she’s treating me like the enemy.

“I’ll be back in a few hours,” I tell her as I escort her up the stairs and back into the mansion. “You can do what you like, but I recommend staying out of the way of my father, unless you want to have an uncomfortable conversation.”

Her cheeks pinken, and I know she’s thinking about the sheets. “I’ll just go up to my old room,” she says stiffly, and I smirk at her.

“If you’re going to hide away, I’ll take you to my room. I like the idea of you waiting there for me when I get back.”

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