Chapter 14
Chapter Fourteen
Leah
I hated him. I hated him for the way he came bulldozing into my life and taking it over, and I hated him for acting the way he did, but more than that, I hated the way I reacted to him.
Every time I told myself that this was just a business arrangement and that I could handle it.
He went and did something that proved that I couldn’t.
Would it be so hard for him to treat me like an actual person with hopes and feelings?
I knew there was nothing romantic between us, but did that stop him from treating me with an ounce of kindness?
It was like he couldn’t, or wouldn’t, and maybe he was scared, but of what I didn’t know because there weren’t any feelings between us. We hadn’t known each other long enough for any to grow, and I already knew they wouldn’t.
Because I knew what this was.
So why did I crave even an ounce of niceness from him? Just a tiny amount of something other than this. Groaning, I flopped down on the bed face-first, burying my face into the thick quilted bedspread.
Why did he have to be so god damn cold all the time? It was like he wasn’t a human who had feelings. I didn’t want love, but a little affection? A little kindness? That would be nice right now.
The only time he had ever been nice to me was when he was buried deep inside my body, and as soon as it was over, he left. It made me feel like a cheap whore. Was I a cheap whore?
I rolled onto my back and stared at the ceiling. Was that exactly what I was? After all, I had agreed to his terms, and he was going to pay me handsomely. So, what did that make me?
A fool. That was what.
I was a fool, a fool who was expecting too much from him. He wasn’t acting cold. He was acting like this was a business arrangement, and I had to start doing the same.
Except—
What had happened at the gas station hadn’t been about business. He had been in a rage, and all because I had dared to go and speak to another man? Was that normal?
Oh fuck, rolling to my feet, I stared around me. I couldn’t stay here. It hadn’t even been a week yet, and I was losing myself. There was no way I could last a whole year.
Spying my sneakers in the corner of the room where I had kicked them this morning, I hurried to put them on and headed to the door. When I had checked it earlier, after Viktor had just left, it had been locked, but this time it opened.
“Can I get you anything, Mrs. Petrov?” Stephen stepped into view, blocking my path completely. His eyes darted down to my shoes even though one of his eyes was purple and swollen shut.
“Did—” I took a shaky step backwards. “Did Viktor do that to you?” Even as I said the words, I knew the truth. Viktor had beaten this man because he had taken me where I wanted to go.
That’s the kind of man Viktor was.
“It’s nothing.” Stephen’s lips thinned. “Can I get you anything, Mrs. Petrov?” He asked again.
“I was just— ”
“Going somewhere?” Again, he looked at my shoes with a shake of his head. “You know I can’t allow that to happen again.”
My shoulders slumped. Of course, he couldn’t. It wasn’t like Viktor was just going to let me walk out of his house and back to my old life. There was still the matter of the debt to settle, and the only way I could pay that off was if I stayed.
“So, I am a prisoner?”
Stephen didn’t look away, but he didn’t smile either. “You’re his wife, and your place is here. Shall I ask the cook to prepare you a meal and have it brought up?”
My eyebrows shot up. “Won’t I be eating downstairs?”
“Not tonight, no. I’ll have a tray made up.” He dismissed me by stepping back.
For five whole seconds, I stared at him. He’d always been nice to me, but I could tell that was over. Stephen might be friendly, but he was still Viktor’s man, and I had to remember that.
He wasn’t my friend, and he wouldn’t help me. No one here would.
Viktor had trapped me, and there was no way out. None. I was a prisoner. I might have beautiful clothes and delicious food, but this room, for all its grandeur, was still a jail cell.
“Don’t bother. I’m not hungry.” I kicked the door shut and headed back to my bed. It might not be Stephen’s fault, but I didn’t care.
I didn’t care if I was acting childish or if it seemed like I didn’t know my own mind anymore. I didn’t care about anything.
Yanking off my clothes, I crawled, shivering, under the heavy quilt and buried my head into it. There was something comforting about being in that dark cocoon. It helped me settle my raging thoughts at least a little.
What was I going to do?
Stay and be what Viktor wanted me to be, even if it meant losing who I really am, or find a way to escape and live the rest of my life on the run?
I had no doubt he would chase me and hunt me down like a wild animal.
Viktor didn’t care about me, but he did care about appearances, and his wife running away would be frowned upon .
Would he hurt my friends if I ran?
Yes, yes, yes.
He would do all of that and more, but—
Sleep took me, and for the first time since I had been brought here, I fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.
I don’t know how long had passed when my eyes fluttered open a crack, and at first, I didn’t know what had made me wake. The room was in almost complete darkness, and nothing moved.
The mattress next to me dipped again, and a waft of cold air floated against my thighs as someone slipped into the bed next to me.
Viktor.
My whole body tensed. Did he really think I would welcome him into my bed after what he had done today? That I would be a willing—
Crowding over me, he pressed a kiss between my naked breasts and moved downwards, trailing his lips over my stomach until he reached my mound. A moan escaped my lips when he pressed his hot mouth against my clit.
“Are you still mad at me?” He rumbled against my clit.
I didn’t answer him, and my hands clawed at the blankets as he licked into me with one powerful swipe of his tongue.
Chuckling, he did it again. “I thought that might be the case, but—” he screwed his tongue inside of me.
Licking me from the inside out and pulling another moan from my lips before I could stop it.
“I came to remind you that there are perks to being my woman.”
I wanted to ask him what those perks were, but he was showing me, and like the fool I was, my body reacted to his careful onslaught.
Lifting my thighs over his shoulders, he parted me, his tongue tracing every inch of my flesh until I was moaning his name and tangling my fingers into his thick hair. I rode against his face, against the fingers he thrust up into me and curled, so I came apart at the seams, screaming.
“You can have this every night,” he tossed the blankets from us, his eyes looking up at me from between my thighs.
“My tongue between your thighs, my hands in your body.” To prove his point, he reached up and cupped both of my breasts in his hands.
“You’d like that, wouldn’t you, Leah. Tell me you would like that? ”
Suctioning his lips over my clit, he sucked hard. His fingers were pistoning in and out of my body until my whole body turned to liquid, and I was screaming his name again. There was no way I could speak. All I could do was feel and hate myself for it.
“Taste yourself on me, Leah,” crawling up my body, he pressed his glistening lips to mine, his tongue demanding entrance as he reached between our bodies and guided himself to my entrance.
“Viktor, condoms—” the words were barely out of my mouth before he pushed himself home. My nails raked down his back at the intrusion and the feeling of absolute fullness it gave me.
Grabbing my wrists, he pushed them down on either side of my head, his movement increasing as he slammed into me again and again. And just like that, he seemed angry again. Like me mentioning birth control was a bad thing, when we both knew neither one of us wanted an unexpected pregnancy.
“No.” He ground out between his gritted teeth. His cheeks flushed as he struggled to maintain control.
“Viktor,” I struggled to move my hands, and he just pinned them down harder. His jaw set.
“No.” A groan ripped its way out of his throat as he emptied himself inside of me. “Condoms. Ever.” Completely spent, he fell to the side. Yanking me back against him. “Nothing is ever coming between the feel of your body around mine, Leah. Not ever,” he whispered. His breath tickled my skin.
I held my breath and waited for him to get up, but he didn’t move. He just lay there with his arm around my waist and his lips pressed against my shoulder. And it was nice, it felt almost normal.
“I hope I’ve put a baby in you tonight.” His breath moved the hair from my neck. “Maybe a baby will keep you in line.”
I stiffened, and his arms tightened around me, but only for a second before he pushed the blanket away and stood up. Completely unashamed, he stood there naked and stared down at me, and I stared right back up.
Why did he have to go and say things like that? A baby wasn’t what we agreed to. It would never be something I agreed to with a man like him.
“You should get some sleep.”
“Can you stay with me, Viktor?” I didn’t know what made me say it, but the words came out of my mouth in a jumbled mess. “I mean, I know we aren’t a real couple, but when you leave right after sex, it makes me feel cheap.”
Pausing for just a second, he sighed. “Get some sleep, Leah.” Pressing his lips to my forehead, he walked away without looking back. I watched him walk away naked. He didn’t reach for his clothes, almost like he didn’t care if anyone saw him leave my room nude.
But maybe when you were as rich and powerful as he was, you didn’t need to worry about being naked. It wasn’t like the staff or his men were going to say anything. They would have plenty to say if it were me, though.
The door closing behind him sounded like a nail in a coffin—my coffin—because this arrangement just might kill me. I knew it now.
I would never survive this, so I needed to find a way to escape. A sob ripped its way out of my throat. I’d have to escape or find a way of living with Viktor, not as his wife, but as his possession.
And I wasn’t sure I could do either.