Page 73 of Vow to Corrupt You
“Perhaps I never knew what I truly desired, or maybe I just didn’t want to admit what I wanted because I was scared to accept that I was already broken, consumed by that darkness you’re talking about before I even met you.”
“What do you mean?” The way his voice carries a hint of hope makes my heart beat faster.
“I felt lost. Incomplete. Searching for a piece of myself my mother took with her the day she abandoned us. Foolishly believing I could find it in something safe. In something… normal. But the truth is—” I pause to force the air back into my lungs. “The truth is all I ever craved was a man like you. One who wouldn’t hesitate to do the most disturbing things for me. To be with me. Keep me. A man who would put me above all else, no matter the price. Not minding the consequences. Only with someone like you can I ever truly feel complete.”
He stares at me as if the things I said just shattered the walls he’s spent a lifetime building. “And now?” His hand lifts but stalls midair, hovering inches from my jaw, like he’s afraid I’m a mirage he’s terrified to lose if he dares to make contact. As though all of it is just an illusion. “What do you want now, wicked one?”
I want you, and I wanted you from the start.
From the very beginning. From the very first moment, his eyes met mine with the most intense possessiveness I’ve ever seen. With the kind of look that told me I was going to be his, that I would be wanted and lusted. In the kind of way that offered something I lacked…I found it all in his twistedness.
I don’t say a word. I grab him by his collar and pull him closer, kissing him with a hunger I’ve never felt before. With the rawest kind of desire.
The moment feels like a tale from Greek mythology, where I’m Persephone, given a choice to leave, and he’s Hades, whose darkness and allure I’m unable to resist. As the myth goes, she’d eaten the pomegranate seeds, binding her to him forever. And so I did. Only, it wasn’t by chance. I wanted to eat the seeds of my own accord. I wanted to be bound to Nikos forever, to become his queen, just like Persephone did with Hades. Their story is like ours, where Hades is painted as the villain, but I think Persephone knew the truth: the villain makes your life anything but ordinary—most likely dark, black—but he will also give you the world, even if he has to burn it to ashes first.
Now I understand why Nikos was so hellbent on making me match his darkness. If you don’t succumb to the darkness and make it your own—rule it—it’ll reign over your mind, drive you insane. But if you learn to embrace it, reign it, you become unbreakable. He’s learned to rule it because if he didn’t, it would consume him, eat him alive, and destroy what’s left of him. He knew the only way for me to endure all this was to become the darkness so that the darkness itself isn’t so scary anymore.
Perhaps what we do is toxic. Perhaps what we have is destructive. Perhaps our love is sick and twisted, but no one has ever loved me the way he loves me, in his corrupt, twisted way. He has killed for me. He would die for me. It’s sick, I know, but its depravity tastes so sweet.
“Does it mean you’re coming back home with me?” He breathes heavily against my mouth, and I inhale every word, every breath, every sound he makes like the sweetest poison.
“Yes,” I smile softly, “You’re my home.”
CHAPTER 39
Serena
We step back into the mansion, and it feels different. The cold walls of this house don’t suffocate me anymore. For the first time, they feel welcoming. For the first time, I don’t feel like a captive in a cage but like a child coming back to the safe embrace of their home. And him… Nikos, is the reason why.
He feels like home.
We don’t speak as we climb the stairs, only exchange meaningful glances and soft smiles. By the time we reach the bedroom, we kiss each other hungrily, ripping each other’s clothes off.
It’s not love we make. It never has been. Love is something tender, something gentle. What we have is raw. Consuming. I surrender to his will not because he wants it, but because I want it. I crave it. I love being dominated by him, kneeling before him, knowing that he’d throw the world to its knees for me. The power I feel in surrendering to him is unlike anything else. It’s intoxicating to see the way his eyes darken, to hear the way he growls in pleasure, to know that my submission controls him in ways he could never admit. I may kneel, but I hold the reins. And he knows it. I submit to him in the bedroom, but he submits to me outside it.
He owns me, but I own him equally.
By morning, I’m wrapped in sheets that smell of him, my body aching in the most pleasurable way. He dresses quietly as if he’s trying not to wake me. But when he leaves a kiss on my forehead before he leaves, it all feels so surreal. He’s never kissed me goodbye before.
After a long bath to wash away the remnants of the night, I head downstairs for breakfast. As I reach the dining room, I gaze at Dimitris, sitting at the far end of the table. His presence catches me off guard because he rarely dines here with us, and I was sure he’d left with Nikos this morning.
“Good morning, dear. I trust you slept well?” he says; the subtle edge to his tone makes me wary, but I nod.
“I did. But aren’t you with Nikos?”
His smile is faint. “Not this time. I thought I’d stay and have a word with you instead.”
“About what?” My head tilts, brows furrowing.
Dimitris sets his cup down, leaning back in his chair. “I heard you tried to leave my nephew.”
My body tenses, and I straighten in my seat. “That’s old news.”
He nods slowly, his gaze too piercing for my liking. “Indeed. Nikos wouldn’t have let you go, would he? You never truly had the chance to escape him.”
I frown, unsure of where this is going. “What’s your point?”
Dimitris leans forward, his lips pursing together. He wants to cup my hand in his, but I pull it away. “If you ever wanted to leave, I could help you.”
