Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 91149 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 456(@200wpm)___ 365(@250wpm)___ 304(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91149 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 456(@200wpm)___ 365(@250wpm)___ 304(@300wpm)
But with one command, Nikolai changed everything. If I were to return to my father’s, Dante would no longer want me. I’d be considered damaged goods. Impure and tainted. And the question that stays hidden in the darkest recesses of my mind is what would become of me then.
Nikolai removes a lighter from his pocket, the unlit cigarette dangling from his lips. “I think you know if you went home, things would not be the same.”
He throws out his careless observation while he lights his cigarette, and there isn’t a sympathetic bone in his body for the plight he has caused. “Dante will not marry you after you’ve been with me.”
His words ignite a storm of images in my mind. Naked. Groaning. Inside me. My thighs clench, and a flush creeps over my skin.
“I haven’t been with you.”
“Not yet,” Nikolai concedes. “But Dante doesn’t know that. And would he ever believe you anyway?”
Not yet. That seems to be the only part of his statement I focus on. It should disgust me. Nikolai is a casual lover who desecrates the idea of intimacy between partners. The act means nothing to him. And even though I am too jaded to believe in love, I always thought that Dante would at the very least be an attentive lover. In the fantasy my mind had conjured up, I liked to believe he would only want me once we married. But with Nikolai, I would be nothing more than a few fleeting moments of entertainment he would soon forget.
“You will never take my body,” I tell him. “I am engaged to Dante. Nothing has changed.”
“Except you aren’t.” He flashes a cold smile. “You never were. But don’t trouble yourself with half-hearted lies, princess. You are too bony for me. I like my women soft. Feminine. So, for now, you are safe from my affections.”
Heat rises up the base of my neck and burns my face while my lips spew venom. “And I wouldn’t want your filthy, well-used cock. So don’t trouble yourself, Mr. Kozlov, you are safe from my seductions as well.”
Nikolai’s lips tilt at the corners, but flames blaze in his eyes. I find it difficult not to react to his verbal jousting, and I don’t know why. My upbringing trained me to be docile, and I know when to pick my battles, but with him, I simply can’t control it.
He releases a deep exhalation from his lungs, clouding the air with the scent of cloves from his black cigarette. “Do you believe Dante would treat you like a princess?”
“Italian men treasure their women. Dante is no different.”
“And when he chose his mistresses over you, it would not bother you?”
My fingernails bite into my palms, but I make every effort not to let the irritation seep into my voice. “I am not delusional. Men have needs. He might sate them outside of the home on occasion, but he would always come back to me.”
“And such behavior in your mind is not filthy?”
I don’t answer. He’s made his point, and I can’t argue it, as much as I’d like to.
“What you can’t seem to grasp, zvezda, is that your judgments have clouded your own vision. I may wet my cock as I please because I am unwed. But I can assure you that there is nothing more sacred to a Vor than his wife. Our code forbids adultery while yours simply expect it.”
“You know nothing of my family or the values we uphold.”
“No?” He laughs. “I know that your father took many mistresses outside of the home. He dipped his cock in whatever filth would have him. All while he kept your mother under lock and key, disfigured from his jealous rages.”
“Do not speak of my mother!” I snarl. “You know nothing of her.”
It’s a rare display of emotion for me to get so choked up, but it seems to be the reaction Nikolai wanted.
“My father will come for me,” I repeat. “He loves me. He will find a way to pay his debt and collect me.”
Neither of us are convinced, but Nikolai’s silence allows the subject to stay dead for now. Resolving to move on from our sparring and focus on the future, I meet his eyes.
“I would like to make a phone call to the director of my company.”
“The doctor believes it in your best interest to see a therapist,” he replies. “She also recommended a nutritionist.”
And we are back to this again.
“I don’t need those things. The company has a nutritionist I can speak to if I want. And therapy is a waste of time.”
Nikolai shrugs, stubbing out his cigarette before he rises to his full height of well over six feet. “Dr. Shtein tells me that you would like to be free of this bed. Of this tube. Perhaps, she was mistaken?”