Page 33 of Vienna Betrayal

He looked around the dungeon, caught Lillian’s attention, and nodded to her. She inclined her head and hustled out.

“We’re playing now?” Alena asked softly.

“Not officially. Not until I have your list.”

“Then I’m going to keep talking to you. Keep asking you what’s wrong. Why you think I should be scared and run away.”

He stroked her stomach with the back of his fingers. “If you ran, I would chase you.” It sound like a threat.

“I chased you,” she reminded him.

“True. But if you ran from me, when I caught you I would punish you.”

The mention of punishment made her breath catch.

“You should be afraid, because every time I find myself distracted by thoughts of you, my plans become harsher.”

Alena felt a stirring of true fear, the words more impactful while she was mostly naked and trapped by his legs. He was larger than her, stronger than her. In a pure physical contest, she would lose.

“Scared?”

“Should I be?” she countered.

Alexander reached out and cupped her neck, running his thumb up and down her throat, from the notch where collarbones met sternum, to the underside of her jaw.

“If you knew the things I’d imagined, you would be.”

“Tell me what you imagined.”

His thumb shifted, pressing against the pulse point on the right side of her neck.

“If I do, you’ll run.”

“I won’t. And even if I did, you’d chase me.”

“Don’t run, then. Use your safeword. Walk away.”

“Who are you trying to scare, Alexander? Me? Or yourself?”

“Scare myself?”

“Do you scare yourself?”

He frowned, his thumb once more idly running up and down the front of her neck. “Perhaps I do. No man wants to admit they’re the beast rather than the knight.”

The mention of “knight” made her wince internally, since she’d dubbed him the black knight in the game she was currently playing.

She met men who reveled in being “the beast.” She’d suffered at their hands.

Alexander wasn’t like them. “You are most definitely a knight.”

“I’m not.”

“You are. Your armor is tarnished, and you might ignore the rules of courtly love…” Alena put her palms on his chest, the first time she’d dared to touch him like this, though she’d been snuggled against him last night in aftercare.

Alexander stared at her with an expression she couldn’t quite decipher. It was both remote and hopeful. As if he were simultaneously distancing himself from what she was saying, while also hanging on each word.

“And when you rescue the virgin princess…” Alena smiled “You drop her off at the nearest castle.”

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