Page 61 of Pageant

Slowly, I raise my eyes to his. “I’ve never enjoyed having sex.”

“You seemed to enjoy yourself yesterday,” he points out.

I wrinkle my nose and shake my head. “That? A cruel game in which I was frightened for my life? I want to experience sex like lovers would do it, not have a gun shoved inside me while I wonder if I’m about to have my insides pulverized.”

“Sorry, but I haven’t got time to delay this pageant while Lilia Aranova goes out into this world and experiences falling in love.”

I give him a meaningful look. “That’s not what I meant. I would like to go to bed with a man once in my life and enjoy it before Elyah kills me.”

Konstantin gazes at me for a long time. “You have never liked it, and yet you want it. Why?”

“I think I might like it if I was with the right man.”

“You’ve never met the right man?”

Out of the corner of my eye, I see Elyah shift on his feet. If he had been the right man, it would have happened between us. “I don’t want to screw my killer, obviously.”

Kirill opens his mouth.

“Or a pervert,” I add. With a shrug, I explain, “I want someone…normal.”

Konstantin laughs, a genuinely amused laugh. I think this is the first time I’ve seen a real smile from him. “You think I’m normal?”

“God, no. But you’re the closest thing to normal in this room.”

Konstantin runs a finger over his lower lip, his gaze speculative. He must know he’s handsome. Even that scar can’t hide his brutal good looks. The scar even accentuates his attraction, depending on your tastes. I can imagine my fingers brushing over the shiny, gnarled tissue and sweeping back his dark hair. His mouth on mine a moment ago showed me that my body reacts to his kisses and his touch. He seemed to know how to handle me as he held me close to him and refused to let go. That kind of total possession…

It’s alluring.

It shouldn’t be, but it is.

“I could give you to Kirill to punish you for saying that,” Konstantin points out.

“If you were going to, you just would. You wouldn’t bother threatening me.”

Konstantin chuckles. “Are you too clever for your own good, Number Eleven?”

I return his smile with one of my own. “Of course, or I wouldn’t be here right now. I’d be sitting on a beach somewhere with my rich old husband while he snores and I flirt with a hot waiter.”

“Somehow I think you would be bored if that was your life, Lilia Aranova.” Konstantin spreads his hands. “Not Elyah. Not Kirill. I could call my guards in here and you could have your pick of them. I’m sure they’d be happy to screw you. How does that sound?”

He knows who I want, but he needs to hear me say it.

“You smell good. You look good,” I whisper, gazing at him from beneath my lashes. “I liked the way you kissed me. Please don’t make me beg. If you’re not interested, just say so.”

His gaze travels down over my body, and this time he really looks. Not like a man surveying merchandise, but the way a man looks at a woman. This is what he’s wanted all along, for Number Eleven to be brought to heel. Well, here I am.

All his.

“Take off your clothes.”

Heart pounding, I pull the dress I’m wearing up over my head and lay it on his desk. Then I hook my fingers into my underwear, drag them down my legs, and step out of them. I lay them on top of my dress and stand before Konstantin, naked and vulnerable. My nipples pebble in the cool air. I’m not looking at his men, but I can feel Elyah and Kirill are both staring at me, one cold and stony, the other amused and fascinated.

Konstantin pats the desk in front of him. “Up. Kneel here.”

I do as I’m told, climbing up on the desk and settling back on my heels. Konstantin is lounging back in his chair two feet away. Too far for me to reach.

Slowly, he stands up, looming over me. His eyes glitter and his breathing deepens as he traces his forefinger around my lips. I oblige him by parting them, staring up at him like he holds my life in his hands.

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