The change in Natalya was terror-inducing. It didn’t come as a fabrication. It wasn’t fake fear. It was just plain terror.
Her scarlet eyes, so pained a moment ago, turned hungry. She smiled, and it was all teeth. All madness and unrestrained glee.
Evie was allowed an instant of doubt at having allowed this to happen before Natalya grabbed her top and yanked her close. She did it so hard that Evie nearly knocked into her. Even her weakness was deceptive. Her grip was steel.
“Mine.” Natalya said the word as a snarl. A low rumble of desire, need, and dark,darkpossessiveness that made Evie’s legs feel like they were made of cotton.
The word, an announcement of ownership, made Natalya’s red irises blaze like they were filled with fire, and they extended to fill out the whites in her eyes. She never stopped smiling. Never stopped flashing her teeth in a predator’s grin.
Evie was so frail and breakable against this fiendish thing Natalya had turned into. She had been idiotic. She had invited a demon to do what it pleased with her.
Still looking into Evie’s eyes, madly and manic, Natalya tore her top to shreds, then her pajama pants and underwear, leaving it as torn fabric hanging on her body.
As she ripped the clothes apart, her fingers brushed against Evie’s skin, and the sensation produced by the touch wasn’t pleasurable at all. It was pure intensity so strong it was like her nerves had been set ablaze. It increased when Natalya seized her by the arms.
Natalya had once said that her baseline felt like flames to other people. If these were the flames she meant, Evie understood why she hadn’t wanted to touch anyone.
Evie closed her eyes and focused on the knowledge that the feeling wasn’t real. That it was a conjured thing. A fabrication. Fake. She just needed to remind herself of that.
It worked only partially. Because while Natalya sending her nerves into extreme oversensitivity may be a summoned sensation, the feeling of her fingers digging painfully into her arms was not.
“Look at me,” Natalya said, her voice low and commanding. Evie obeyed, not daring to do otherwise, and she looked straight into Natalya’s flaming red gaze.
Her fingers dug into Evie’s skin, firm and possessive, pulling her near. The act pressed their bodies together, so close their lips almost touched.
“That’s it. Don’t close your eyes.”
Natalya moved one hand to press along the small of Evie’s back, the other went to her head. It stroked her scalp, then grabbed and fisted her hair. Natalya tilted her head back, making Evie look up at the terrifying devil Natalya had turned into.
If she wasn’t pushing against Natalya’s influence, she suspected her skull would feel like it was on fire. But Natalya’s strength and the control it gave her was still there. Evie couldn’t fight it. It was impossible. It was frightening enough to make her start panting.
Then Natalya leaned down to Evie’s throat, breathing so deeply that the exhale sounded like a moan, and the sound sparked through her like a lightning bolt made of passion.
“You’remine.” The tip of Natalya’s nose stroked against Evie’s neck. Her mouth was so near touching that her breath warmed her skin. “Allmine. Mine alone. No one else’s.”
She sounded possessed. Her voice was so dark and snarling it was barely recognizable. And even though Evie could feel none of the pleasure Natalya normally produced with her touch, it didn’t save her from being wildly turned on by what she was doing.
Evie was locked in place. Nails dug into her back, and fingers bunched painfully in her hair as Natalya’s mouth hovered over her throat. She kept sighing in such a deep, primal manner that it sounded more like a growl than a breath.
Evie started trembling, and it wasn’t just fear that caused it.
“Yes,” Evie managed, unable to say anything else.
She sounded rattled, which she was. She told herself this was still Natalya, despite how she sounded and moved. She knew what she was doing. She would stop if it went too far.
Evie didn’t quite believe it. She also didn’t care. She needed reason to care, and reason was easily forgotten when Natalya was brushing her lips along the pulsing veins on her throat.
“Yes,what?” Natalya’s voice was a rumble of aggressive want. A question that promised pain if answered incorrectly.
“Yes, Mistress.” Evie sounded almost out of breath. “I’m yours.”
A deep growl escaped Natalya just before she pressed her lips against Evie’s neck. She sucked at her skin, nipped with her teeth. It hurt. It hurtperfectly. It was beyond distracting.
Evie lost focus, and there was a searing sensation from Natalya’s fingers and lips pressing against her. She concentrated again, filling her thoughts with reminders that it was fake. It was conjuration.
Itisn’treal.Itisn’treal.
Natalya sought up, taking her mouth in a sudden, hard kiss. Demanding. Possessing and claiming. There was nothing Evie could do against it and though it lacked the flow of pleasure it usually created, it was still wildly effective. Natalya knew how to invoke desire, even without the trick of pleasurable sparks.
