Page 47 of Poisoned Vows

It would be so easy to let myself fall into it. To accept that this is my life now. This is my future. To try to find some form of happiness in it.

But that would be ceding the victory to him. And clinging to my refusal to enjoy anything he offers me is all I have left. Certainly not my own free will or choice.

“Lilliana.” I can hear the exasperation in his voice. “Come here.”

There’s a clear order in the words, and it makes me defiant all over again, but I go anyway. I step into the water, the warmth wrapping itself around me as it comes up around my waist, and I can feel Nikolai’s eyes on me.

“Feels nice, doesn’t it?” He steps towards me, the water swirling around his hips, and he reaches for me, pulling me closer.

“Yes,” I admit. There’s no point in lying. It’s probably one of the best things I’ve ever experienced—and he knows that.

Why? I ask myself all over again, as he draws me in and lowers his mouth to mine.Why seduce me like this? Why even try to be romantic? What’s the point?He’s gotten what he wanted. He has me—for as long as he wants me. I can fight him, but I can’t outright refuse.

Seduction, I always thought, was for men who couldn’t simply take. Nikolaihasalready taken me. So all of this feels so pointless.

Unless it’s simply because he wants me to give in and fall into his trap. He wants to catch his little rabbit.

I can’t stop him from kissing me. But I don’t kiss him back. I stand there in the water, his fingers pressing into my waist as his full, soft lips slant over mine, and I pretend that none of this is happening.

He can have some of what he wants. But not all of it.

Nikolai

Why am I doing this?

The question sticks in my mind as I kiss her, and feel her go wooden under my touch. Why am I even bothering?

If it’s pleasure I want, I can have it. I don’t have to seduce her to have her in my bed. I don’t have to do any of the bullshit I’ve done tonight just to fuck her.

But I want somethingmore.

I want her submission. I want her desire. I want her to admit what she can’t even admit to herself, that she wants me. That she wants what I can do to her, what I can give her.

You said you weren’t going to hurt her. Isn’t that the cruelest thing of all, to make her give in and then take it away?

I’m not taking anything away. She’ll still be my pampered wife. I’ll just be the one in control. The one who decides if and when she gets my attention. I won’t feel so—unhinged. Feral. Needy.

A man like me shouldn’t be needy. Not for anyone or anything. The world bends to me, not the other way around.

She’sgoing to bend to me.

“There’s a lot I want to do to you tonight,” I murmur against her mouth, my hands stroking along her waist. I want her to soften against me, to moan, to let me know that she’s enjoying this. “But we’ll start with this.”

I lift her up out of the steaming water, setting her on the edge of the pool. She lets out a small, involuntary gasp, her full lips parting, and there are so many fucking things I want from her. So many things I want her to do with that mouth, that I haven’t demanded yet.

My hands slide up her legs over wet skin, pushing them apart. She has the prettiest pussy I’ve ever seen, soft and pink and tight, and I want to taste her again. I want to show her just how much pleasure I can give her if she lets me.

I turn my head, pressing a kiss to her inner thigh. It’s more tender than I mean to be, but maybe that’s what she needs. A little tenderness to soften her.

It doesn’t work. If anything, she only stiffens more under my lips and hands, and I fight back a wave of frustration, and the urge to simply pull her back down into the water and onto my cock. I don’t have to be so patient with her. I don’t have to give her so much room. I could simply take what I want.

But if I do, I’ll never get what I really want in the end.

I lean in, brushing my lips over the soft outer folds of her pussy. Her hands clench against the sides of the pool, her body rigid with the effort of not reacting. She does her best not to let me know that it feels good, but she doesn’t understand that I already know. I knowexactlywhat I’m doing, and maybe it’s arrogant, but I don’t ever have any doubt that I can make a woman come.

Lilliana is going to come for me whether she wants to or not.

I slide my hands upwards, tracing my fingers over her soft folds, parting her for my tongue. She’s still rigid under my touch, but I ignore it, flicking my tongue out to stroke her clit, focusing right on the spot where I know it will please her the most.

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