Chapter 12: Natalia

My heart leaps into my throat, and I summon all the strength I can gather to run away from him. But Mikhail is only paces behind me, cursing me in English and Russian.

I dash through the door as fast as I can and bolt down the hallway without knowing where I’m going or what the fuck I’m doing.

God, I fucked up.

I fucked everything up, and now I don’t know what the hell Mikhail is going to do to me when he catches me.

I reach a dead end and it’s game over. It would have been anyway, because who am I kidding? Did I really think I was going to run away from him in his own house?

One strong arm secures my middle and lifts me off the ground while I’m mid-flight.

My screams and pleas to let me go ricochet off the walls and carry down the hall. It’s to no avail, but I do notice that no one comes to my aid. Not even to check what the commotion is about.

I know the maids at the very least can hear me, but all I hear is myself whimpering.

“I’m going to teach you a lesson you will never forget,” Mikhail growls, flipping me around so he can toss me over his shoulder caveman style.

I’m little more than a rag doll to him, or maybe less than that.

Uncaring and more than the monstrous man he was yesterday, he carries me kicking and screaming back down the hall and into a room with double wooden doors. It’s one of the libraries.

The lights pop on, one at a time, as we enter.

That stifling dominance ripples off him in waves as he marches me over to the table with a stack of encyclopedias and sets me down.

“What are you going to do to me?”

I get my answer when he bends me over the table and lands a hard slap across my ass. My body jolts like it’s being attacked by an explosion of electricity, and I cry out from the impact.

That hurt like hell. He’s not done with me yet, though. He yanks down my skirt and panties at the same time, exposing my bare ass.

I attempt to protest, but he grabs the back of my neck and pushes me down on the flat of the table.

Three hard slaps come down on my ass so hard stars speckle my vision and tears blind me.

“I told you what would happen to you if you defied me,” Mikhail reminds, giving me another three slaps.

My skin stings like it’s on fire, and as the pain rushes over my body I see stars.

“Stop, please!”

“No, you fucking stop asking me about José. Or maybe it would be better for both of us if I killed his fucking ass.”

“No! Please no.” My God, he is crazy, and I’ve truly fucked up. I can’t let José die because of me. I can’t. “Please don’t kill him.”

“Then stop pushing me.”

Two more slaps make me feel like I might vomit, and another makes me scream out loud.

“Stop it, Mikhail. You’re hurting me.” I sound so foolish to say such a thing. He knows he’s hurting me. That’s the purpose of punishment.

Hurt me so I’ll feel, break me down so I’ll obey and bend to his will.

Be a thing.

Or nothing.

But he stops. He stops at my anguished cry, and I almost think I imagine it. I question myself when I feel his thick fingers running over my burning skin in soft strokes. The strokes smooth right down to my pussy, and I couldn’t be more appalled at myself when my body reacts to the flutter of his fingers.

He strokes my clit, and the cacophony of pleasure and pain rushing over my body is a complete juxtaposition. I don’t understand what the hell is wrong with me, or why I’d be so turned on by him after what he just did.

“Bad girl, you like this,” he taunts.

“No,” I choke out on the edge of a moan.

“Liar.”

He turns me around to face him, and I gasp when he picks me up again, setting me on the table this time. That’s when I feel the intensity of my pain.

And how wet I am.

Shit. What the hell?

“Open your legs,” he orders.

I open my legs, but my brain is so twisted I can’t wrap my head around whether I’m doing what I’m told because he terrifies me or because I want more of what he’s giving to me.

I spread my thighs, and he holds them apart so he can bury his face in my pussy, and Jesus Christ, I’m seeing stars for a whole other reason.

I don’t even feel the pain rushing over my ass anymore. All I feel is him and his tongue as he pushes into my passage.

No one but him has ever touched me here before, and right now, I don’t care that he’s a monstrous villain. Every thrust of his tongue over my clit pushes me higher into the arms of pleasure and over the edge of reason into madness.

I find myself writhing against his face, allowing the scruff of his beard to scratch my skin, and I squeeze his shoulders again when I come.

I come differently to the last time. Most likely because he’s giving me his tongue and not using his fingers. Last time was nothing in comparison to this, and all I can think of as the waves of pleasure crash through me is what his cock will feel like when he’s inside me.

For a moment, I lose myself and give in to it, give in to him.

I allow myself to be the prey and let the predator take me over.

Mikhail eats out my pussy, drinking every last drop of my arousal, and when he’s done, he straightens and catches my face, shattering the moment.

“Malyshka,” he whispers the exotic endearment he’s christened me and leans close to my ear. “I told you not to fuck with me. If you hope to survive being married to me and want to keep certain people alive, you’ll do what you need to, to please me and not piss me off.”

A menacing smile taints any beauty in his features, reminding me Mikhail Dmitriyev hasn’t stopped being my enemy and never will. And on top of that, he just threatened José’s life.

What have I done?

Now I really have something to worry about.

“We will finish this later,” he promises.

I watch the monster bend down to retrieve my panties. He shocks me further by sniffing them. He then pockets my panties and walks away, leaving me again.

Shaking from the inside out.