19. Elyssa
ELYSSA
M y heart was seconds away from bursting out of my chest. The sun was starting to set as we walked through the woods, or rather, as Konstantin strutted through them clutching my hand while I did my best to follow his pace.
My breathing was ragged and I was panting but, somehow, I still couldn’t talk. A mix of shock, fear, and excitement was churning in my stomach, it was hard trying to make sense of all these emotions.
When the Church came into view, just as scary in the daytime—or what was left of it—as it had been on the night I entered it for the first time, that’s when I suddenly came back to my senses.
Yelping, I tried to break free from Konstantin’s grasp on my hand, intending to run in the other direction, to hide in the comfort of my room. When the blond’s grip on me wouldn't budge, that’s when it dawned on me: I was alone in the woods with Konstantin Korolov and he was pissed at me for planting drugs in his stuff. Not only that, but I had also witnessed him killing a guy in cold blood.
Although for some reason, that part didn’t bother me as much as it should have. Blame it on my mother’s family, or on the fact that the guy he had killed had been seconds away from sexually assaulting me, but I was glad Konstantin had slit his throat.
Now, that thought bothered me. No matter how many aspects of my life involved death, I had never had any hand in it. I had never killed anyone, and until today, I had been lucky enough not to witness any murder either.
The sound of the wooden door being pushed open startled me, pulling me out of my thoughts.
“Konstantin, wait?—”
But he didn’t. He barged in and let the door shut behind us with a loud bang. We didn’t make it far after that because he had me pinned to them almost immediately. For the longest time, none of us spoke, we simply watched each other silently, both our chests heaving, me in fear and exhaustion, his in anger.
“You disobeyed me and went out of your room even though you knew the shit that’s been going on in the castle,” he stated, fuming. “You tricked me by planting drugs in the box you gave me. You had me taken to the Dean’s office like a fucking thug where they called my parents.” I gulped, suddenly feeling bad about my actions.
I had no idea what his parents were like but surely, their reputation preceded them. Plus, if they’d raised psychos like Mikhail, Dinara, Roman and Konstantin, they must’ve been pretty fucking lethal themselves. The thought of them hurting Konstantin because of what I did didn’t sit well with me for some reason.
“I had to lie to my mother to save your ass,” he growled, his head somehow getting closer to mine with each sentence.
“Save my ass?”
“Do you know what Adna Korolova would have done to you for that little trick you pulled?”
Shudders traveled down my back but I did my best not to show him how his proximity affected me. Not to mention, the thought of his crazy mother coming after me wasn’t pleasant either.
“Why did you lie to her then?” I whispered, willing my eyes to stop dropping to his lips every time they moved.
“Because, moshennik , I told you already. You’re mine to toy with as I please and I’m having too much fun for it to end now.”
“So that’s why you killed that guy in the woods, too?”
Why did I feel so breathless when his eyes darkened at the mention of what happened earlier? His hand suddenly clutched my neck, bringing my head closer to his. “I killed that son of a bitch because he touched something that didn’t belong to him. Something that is mine.”
“I’m not yours,” I managed to say despite his hand squeezing my throat.
“There’s not a single part of you that isn’t mine, moshennik .”
Heat, blazing fucking heat, was simmering in my stomach and slowly making its way down my legs. I had never seen him so angry and possessive before, so expressive. He was always so calm and collected from the outside, so measured. But for the first time, he was letting his true self out, and I couldn’t help but be fascinated by it.
“Do you know the first thing I thought when I heard you scream?” he whispered and I shook my head silently.
His eyes fell briefly to my lips before he went back to my eyes.
“I thought that who or whatever was causing you to scream like that was already dead. From now on, I’ll be the scariest motherfucking thing in your life, Elyssa. Only I get to make you scream, only I get to have you scared. You never have to fear anyone else.”
I hated myself for feeling his words with my whole body, for wanting to nod and agree so badly. God, why did it sound so good? A world where Konstantin Korolov was the only thing I needed to fear, some weird universe where his wickedness somehow shielded me from my fucked up family?
It was too good to be true.
I didn’t say anything, but my hands stopped scratching his wrist in hopes he would release my throat. Instead, I clutched it with both hands, the fingers on one of them slowly getting tangled with his around my neck.
Neither of us spoke, we just looked into each other’s eyes like we were having a silent conversation. I took in his face, thinking to myself that it wasn’t fair for someone to be so fucking attractive. I yearned to cup his jaw, to touch the light stubble on his cheeks and count the freckles under his eyes. His eyelashes were so long and gave his grey orbs even more depth.
The tension between us was simmering, so much it overflowed.
Before I could comprehend what was happening, Konstantin’s lips were on mine and I let my eyes shut down to savor the forbidden, stolen moment. I pushed harder against him, desperately wanting to taste him, to finally break the dam. His tongue licked at the seam of my lips and I opened my mouth, eager to let him in.
His body was flush against mine and I could feel every hard ridge of it, especially between his legs. There was no more doubt to me that Konstantin’s cock was huge; you weren’t this confident for no reason.
A needy whimper echoed around us and it took me a second to understand that it was mine. He tasted like sin and desire, like something sweet and forbidden and I knew I could easily get addicted to it, to him.
“Fuck, Elyssa,” he whispered against my lips, the hand that was against the door, next to my face moved down until he was gripping my waist. I had never been kissed that way before. Matter of fact, someone could argue that I had never been kissed, period. My first kiss had been back in Italy, a few months before my father’s death. I was too young to even remember it properly, it was only a light touch of the lips with my upstairs neighbor who was my age.
It didn’t come close to what Konstantin was doing to me.
What little I had of self-preservation was screaming at me to pull away, but the greed in me was stronger and I let my tongue dance with his until air started to lack.
“Fuck,” he muttered, pulling his mouth away from mine and letting our foreheads rest against one another.
I closed my eyes, silently willing my heart to stop beating so fast while regaining my breath slowly. His chest was heaving against mine too, the sound of his heartbeat lulling me back to reality. When I opened my eyes, I saw that his were still closed and he hadn’t moved, still regaining his breathing.
Slowly, I let my head fall back against the oak door and exhaled a long, defeated breath.
“Why did you do that?” I whispered, knowing there was no going back after that. There was no denying I was attracted to him, no avoiding the truth.
“I had to know,” was his only answer.
“Know what?”
“What you tasted like.”
I opened my eyes and almost got lost in a sea of grey. His hand on my throat left and went to tuck a loose strand of hair behind my ear, the other one still clutching my waist.
I gulped at his words, curiosity getting the best of me. “And what do I taste like?”
His response wasn’t immediate. Konstantin stared at me for a beat before leaning down and pecking my lips again, biting the bottom one and tearing a moan out of me.
“Like something I can’t have but so desperately crave.”