Fuck, that ass.
That crease between her cheeks and thighs, the way it made a cross of the line that ran up from her thighs to her butt. Some people worshiped the holy cross. Not me. I fucking worshiped that cross above all others. Her sacred flesh was the only religion I needed.
Seeing her naked made me instantly hard. Nothing new there. But instead of picking up her robe, which lay draped over the fainting couch to her left, she picked up a different piece of clothing. I was so fucking surprised that it took me a second to realize what it was.
My shirt. She’d picked up my shirt.
She stood there with the collar hooked over her finger, staring at it. I couldn’t see her face; I couldn’t get a read on what she was thinking or feeling. From the slow deliberateness of her movements, I could tell she was still deep in thought, still seriously rattled by what I’d said and done. I figured there was a very real chance that she’d ask Maria for a pair of sewing sheers and cut the damned thing into shreds.
But she didn’t. Instead, she very slowly slipped one arm through each sleeve and pulled it tight across her chest, twirling on tiptoes to face herself in the mirror. She closed her eyes, and then drew the cuff to her nose and took a long, deep breath. Inhaling my scent.
Holy fucking shit.
If my dick was hard before, it was like a rod of forged iron now. She let my shirt fall open to expose that creamy valley between her breasts, just like I had dressed her in the woods. Still inhaling against the cuff, she pinched her nipple through the fabric with her other hand. It was all I could do to stop myself from groaning out loud.
I was going to lose my fucking mind if I didn’t get some relief. Slipping my hand into my pants, I took hold of my cock and worked it with long, purposeful strokes as I watched her.
“You are such an asshole,” she muttered into the sleeve. She mimicked the way I ran my fingertip down her collarbone, sternum, and stomach in the woods. But then she took it further, slowly sliding two sweet fingers down. “You have no idea how much I hate you.”
Jesus. I gripped myself harder, bracing my body with my forearm and elbow against the stone wall. In all the time I’d been watching her, I’d never seen her touch herself until now.
Her finger moved between her lips, the darker patch of red hair covered by her palm. She was unpracticed and unsure of herself. But she was getting the hang of it, and fast.
As she masturbated in front of me I did so in return, feeling a pulse in my balls as she arched her neck back in silent, almost painful pleasure. But when she lowered her face again, watching herself in the mirror, her eyes were misty—not with pleasure but with sadness. Whispering to herself in the mirror, she spoke to me without even fucking knowing it.
“But why can’t you like me, Maksim? Why can’t you love me?”
I love you more than anything in the entire fucking world.
The sight of her body, the sound of her talking to me, got me closer and closer. The first tidal wave of my orgasm hit me hard and fast. Closing my eyes, I imagined pressing into her. In our wedding bed. On our wedding night.
I was so fucking gone for her that I groaned, loud, as I splattered pulse after pulse of cum onto the passageway wall.
Chapter 4
Anika
I froze with my fingers between my legs. I had heard something. I was sure of it. It didn’t even sound human. It sounded like an animal. Like a male deer in the rut. That primal groan of desire.
It didn’t make any sense. I inhaled and shook my head at myself, scolding myself for being so ridiculous. I was alone here, in my private dressing room. Private was the key word. There were no animals for miles and miles.
Unless I counted my brother. That beast. And he wasn’t anywhere near me. I knew that for sure.
A knock at the door interrupted my thoughts. I couldn’t see past the screen, but I knew it was Maria. I’d have known her knock anywhere. And more than likely, whatever sound I heard was just her approaching the door. The hinges squeaked slightly to say the door was just partly open, not all the way; the windows creaked when there was a strong breeze.
There were all sorts of noises in the castle, the groaning I thought I heard surely just another of those.
“Bath is all ready for you,” Maria said. “Nice and hot, just like you like it.”
With a roll of my shoulders, I slipped out of Maksim’s shirt. I folded it carefully, sleeve to sleeve and cuff to cuff, and then tucked it under a large cabinet against the stone wall, where I kept things that were important to me. Then I grabbed a silk robe from the hook beside me and wrapped myself up, padding after Maria down the hallway into the bath chamber.