Page 21 of Twisted Fate
Sophia leans in, the scent of her warm skin and the chlorine from the pool wafting towards me, mixed with the dry, grassy scent of the night air. And for a moment… just a single moment, I can’t help but wonder what it could hurt to let myself lean in too… and take what I’m dying to have.
6
VALENTINA
Ilean in closer to Konstantin, the warm night air caressing my skin as we stand by the pool. The water reflects the moonlight on his side, casting rippling shadows across his face. His blue eyes are dark in this light, but I can still see the desire in them—the same desire he's been fighting since we met.
"It's a beautiful night," I murmur, letting my hand brush against his arm. The touch is deliberate, calculated. I've been trained to read men, to know exactly what they want and how to use it against them. Konstantin Abramov is no different from any other target, no matter how badly he wants to be. It’s just a matter of how long it will take to get him to crack. “It would be a shame to waste it.”
I still can’t fully wrap my head around the fact that he got us separate roomson our honeymoon.If I were really his wife, I’d be seething. I threw a fit in the lobby for precisely that reason—because no wife in her right mind wouldn’t lose it upon finding out that her husband wanted separate bedrooms on their private, luxurious honeymoon, no matter how arranged the marriage.
It wasn’t even that difficult to fake, because of how fucking frustrating this entire situation has become.
I’ve never met a man so stubborn. His stubbornness rivals even mine, and that’s saying something. And if the challenge raises my pulse just a little, well?—
I arch toward him, tempting him. My lips part slightly, my eyes hooded, every part of my body radiating desire. I know if I were able to press myself against him right now, he’d be hard as a rock, throbbing with need against me. I can feel it wafting off of him.
All he needs to do is unlatch the gate, and pull me against him.
Instead, Konstantin steps back, putting distance between us. His expression is apologetic but firm. Shock ripples through me—I was so sure that I had him. That me so close to him, nearly naked, the moonlight and the privacy, the desire radiating off of him, would all be too much to resist.
That I could start weaving my web tonight and have him dead within the week.
“I said no, Sophia,” he says firmly, his voice chilly with resolve. “If I misled you at any point, I apologize, but I don’t think that I have. I’m not trying to lead you on. I think I’ve been clear about what I intend our relationship to be, and it isn’t this. Not right now. And even—” He takes another step back, running a hand through his hair, and it’s painfully clear to me how difficult it is for him to look only at my eyes and nowhere else. “Even once it’s time for us to have an heir, I intend to keep it all as businesslike as possible. There is no space for… passion, in this marriage. I’m sorry.”
He repeats it as if it makes it better somehow. As if that will make menotfeel rejected.
Rejection isn’t what I feel, truthfully. But that’s the emotion I paint across my face, the hurt of a wife who wants to connect with her husband and is being repeatedly rebuffed.
What I am, really, is thrown off balance, yet again. And I fucking hate it.
This isn’t how things go for me. I’m always prepared for my missions, always in control, have always executed them flawlessly. Since our wedding night, nothing has gone according to plan, and I feel as if I’m flailing.
It’s not a good feeling, especially when so much rides on my success.
This wasn't in the dossier. Men don't usually reject me, especially not men who look at me the way Konstantin does. Kane said that Konstantin was disciplined, not that he was a monk.
“It’s our honeymoon,” I breathe, allowing a hint of hurt to creep into my voice. "We're married. Can’t the rules be bent for this week, at least? We can live our proper lives when we go home, but I thought…" I let the words trail off, letting him think that I feel I’ve been betrayed, led on, given some hope of a marriage that isn’t coming to fruition.
Konstantin lets out a sharp sigh. “I’ve made my position clear, Sophia. This was a business deal. I’m sorry if that wasn’t made clear to you from the beginning—that’s your guardian’s failure, not mine. But I intend to treat it as a business deal, in every aspect.”
“So you’re only going to touch me when you want a child? And after we’re done having children?—”
His jaw tightens. “I think the answer to that is obvious, Sophia.”
“So you’re never going to have sex again, other than that?” I look at him petulantly. “Or were you planning to cheat on me?”
He gives me a cold look. “You have mafia ties, Sophia. You know how this world works.”
“But I won’t be allowed to have lovers of my own.”
His gaze narrows sharply. “You’re mine, Sophia. I don’t allow other men to touch what’s mine.”
What a fucking high-handed asshole.The emotions painted across my face are fake, but the anger in my voice is real. I almost can’t believe he’s so fucking egotistical that he thinks he can be unfaithful but still demand fidelity from me—except that I can, because I’ve been around enough powerful men to know how they think and behave.
Konstantin Abramov might like to think he’s different, but at his core, he’s the same as the rest of them. And he’s just proved it.
Which means he’s not impervious to me either, as much as he might like to think he is.
