24. Rand
RAND
Mine. Finally. After all these years.
Karolina is mine.
I should’ve lasted longer. I should’ve given her more pleasure.
But her tight cunt milked my cock, and I couldn’t bear anymore. Losing my virginity to her was more painfully perfect than I ever could’ve imagined.
“That was amazing,” she says on a long exhale before I can worry that I didn’t satisfy her.
“I’m glad.” My voice is strangely hoarse. “I wanted it to be good for you.”
“It was better than good.” She sighs happily.
I take a moment to drink her in: her lithe body is stretched out beneath me, creamy skin flushed and nipples swollen from my bite.
Faint pink rings mar her delicate wrists. She must’ve pulled against the cuffs while I was fucking her.
I quickly unlock them. “Are you hurt?”
“No. I’ve never felt better.”
She reaches up to remove the blindfold, but I capture her hand in mine, stopping her just in time.
“Not yet,” I murmur. “I just want to hold you for a while.”
She relaxes instantly, still in a sweetly submissive headspace. “Okay.”
At some point, I’ll have to get dressed before I give her permission to take it off, but I’m not ready to break contact yet.
I lay on my back and pull her atop me, arranging her body over mine. The weight of her on my chest feels better than anything I’ve ever experienced.
Other than fucking her.
She tucks her head beneath my chin and breathes me in. Her hand roves over me, exploring the contours of my body. My abs flex beneath her slender fingers, the soft sensation almost unbearably tender.
No one has ever touched me like this.
Not even her.
“I love you.”
The truth slips out of me.
She tenses.
Fuck fuck fuck!
I try to stroke her hair with shaking fingers, but she flinches.
Before I can stop her, she rips off the blindfold.
Her lovely green eyes fly wide, and she shoves herself off me. She scoots away, stumbling off the bed in revulsion.
“What…?” She can’t seem to find the words to ask what’s happening.
She’s staring at my body. At her name tattooed over my heart. Her face has been inked into both of my arms, sleeves of her perfect features indelibly etched into my skin.
“Karolina…” My voice is too rough. Too deep.
And my English accent drops away, forgotten in the awful moment.
“Bones?” She barely breathes the name she’s called me for the last four years.
I can’t speak. I don’t know what to say that will erase the betrayal in her eyes.
“Oh, my god,” she groans. She looks like she might be sick.
“All this time? You’ve been…him?” Her accusation shreds me.
“I can explain…”
I reach for her, and she recoils.
“Stay away from me!” Her demand shakes with fear.
“Don’t be afraid,” I beg.
I can’t bear it.
“Don’t follow me,” she chokes out and turns on her heel.
She darts out of the bedroom.
Before I make it off the bed, her shriek pierces my chest, robbing my breath.
She’s running from me screaming.
I storm after her. I can’t let her leave.
I can’t let her go.
Not ever.
When I step into the hall, I stop in my tracks.
A nightmare awaits me.
She didn’t scream in fear of me; a black-clad man holds her from behind, and his knife gleams wickedly at her throat.
I recognize his scarred face instantly, and despite my changed appearance, he seems to recognize me too.
“Ragnarok,” he seethes in Russian. “It’s time for you to pay for what you took from me.”
Karolina’s eyes are tight with panic and confusion. She stares at me in pure horror, and fresh terror grips me.
Does she truly see me at last? Does she know that I’m the foster brother she left for dead in the burning stables all those years ago?
My heart stops beating.
She can’t find out that I’m Brandon Harcourt.
She can’t know how I survived by taking the lives of others, building a fortune from their blood so that I could one day come back to her. The new, reconstructed face I bought was meant to appeal to her. The shotgun blast left me monstrous, twisted.
Unworthy of her beauty.
But I’m still unworthy of her.
I’m the reason there’s a knife at her throat, one of my enemies at her back.
My whole life is crumbling around me, but none of it will matter if I lose Karolina.
Thank you for reading Duplicitous!
I hope you loved this first installment in Rand and Karolina’s story. Their dark romance continues in Depraved!