Page 94 of The Cute Psycho

His mouth leaves my lips as he starts trailing small kisses down my neck, sucking on the skin at the junction between my neck and my collarbone, his teeth scraping the surface.

"I'm here," I repeat as I see him slowly come down from his crisis, his pupils dilated, his entire body full of unreleased tension.

"God, Sisi," he groans, holding me closer to his chest as he nuzzles his head over my heart. "Thank you," he breathes deeply—in and out. "Thank you," he repeats.

A smile pulls at my lips as I see the color come back into his cheeks.

"I think I know my purpose," I say cheekily, almost lost in those black eyes of his.

"Do you?" he asks, his voice dangerously sinful.

"I ground you," I reply, pleased with the discovery. Because if I do, then he'll never discard me. He'llalwaysneed me.

A sad smile plays at his lips as he shakes his head. "You don't just ground me, Sisi. You make me fucking human."

I soak in the praise, incredibly happy at the prospect of being indispensable to him.

Once Vlad is under control, we turn our attention back to the stage as more and more weird bids take place. A pair of conjoined twins and some people with incredibly rare disorders are rushed to the stage, paraded in front of everyone and sold for millions.

It's all incredibly eye-opening, and a pattern soon emerges.

Power. Control.

All these people are weaker and therefore easier to control. And they are merely used for sick bastards to get their daily ego boost.

Just as I think I've seen it all, a man holding a monkey on a leash struts onto the stage presenting it to the world.

"Is that..." My mouth is hanging open in shock.

The monkey is completely hairless, wearing a two-piece bikini and a wig, her entire face rouged up in a grotesque painting.

"Why would a monkey..." I trail off, simply speechless.

"It's an ape," Vlad corrects, looking quite uncomfortable, "an orangutan specifically. And it seems that someone around here is into non-human partners," he adds drily.

"You mean someone wants to fuck an orangutan?" I ask, stupefied.

"Don't be surprised, Sisi. Humans are degenerate beings. And sadly, what you've seen tonight is only the tip of the iceberg. As long as you have money, you can afford anything... and anyone."

"Have you ever..." I inquire tentatively, afraid of the answer.

"Hell no!" His answer is immediate and vehement. "Don't get me wrong, I cater to a different type of vice, but after what happened to my sisters, I could never stomach human trafficking. I'll be honest, it'sone of the most lucrative industries, since humans have an almost unlimited capacity for labor and diversity of use. It's really the best resource out there if you want to get rich," he explains, and I sigh in relief.

This is exactly what I love about him.

He's an unapologetic bad guy, but his moral compass is just uniquely skewed. There's no right or wrong for him. But there is fair and unfair.

"You surprise me sometimes."

"Why? Because I don't deal in humans?" he jokes. "Don't worry, I do a lot of other stuff that might be equally as badorworse. Let's not forget that murder is my capital sin." He gives me his signature devilish smile, a small dimple forming in his right cheek.

"You can murder me anytime," I murmur, peering at him seductively from beneath my lashes.

"Hell Girl, you knowjustthe way to a man's heart." He smiles, amused, kissing the top of my head and bringing me closer to him.

More people are brought to the stage, with Mauro listing what makes them special, and I soon start tuning everything out. Vlad seems incredibly bored too as he taps his foot, glancing at his watch every now and then. Seth, on the other hand, has just stayed in the background, already taking his job as Vlad's bodyguard seriously.

Every time someone approached a little too closely, he would put a hand up and guide people to keep a distance. Vlad, of course, could not help but beam at Seth's actions, repeating that he'd made the right call.

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