Page 163 of Dance of Devils

She’s got a strange expression on her face as she lifts her eyes to mine. “Oh?”

My cock stirs in my trousers. “Go to the ladies room, take off your panties, and bring them to me.”

Just as I’m preparing to lean down and kiss her mouth or perhaps nuzzle the spot on her neck that I know drives her crazy, her expression changes.

It goes from unreadable tofearful, her face paling and drawing tight.

“What?” she chokes.

My brow furrows. “I said, go to the ladies room, take your?—”

“Please don’t,” she whispers in a cold, panicked little voice. “Kir,please?—”

“Hang on.” I stop and turn toward her, scowling as I put my hands on her arms. “What?—”

“Please don’t make me do that.”

“I—”

When it clicks into place, I’m not sure which emotion I feel most: horror and sadness, or pure fury.

Maybe both.

“Come with me,” I rumble, grabbing her hand and marching us through the ballroom.

Brooklyn stumbles after me, her hand cold in my palm as I lead her through a myriad of hallways. Finally, I open a door and peer inside to find a darkened library. I pull her into it and slam the door shut.

Brooklyn cowers, crumpling under my gaze as she looks down at her hands.

“What did you think I meant back there, babygirl?”

She shakes her head miserably. Fuck me, it breaks my heart.

“Do you honestly think I’m the sort of man who wouldgive youto another man, like some sort of fucking I.O.U. repayment?”

When her eyes lock with mine, I know that’sexactlywhat she thought.

You owe him quite the favor, don’t you?

And then some. But I brought something extra special for him tonight—something I’m sure a man of his particular tastes will appreciate.

Christ. And then I told Yuri that Brooklyn was “very much” a part of the surprise, right before I turned to her and told her to go take her fucking panties off before I introduced her to Viktor?—

“Babygirl…”

She flinches when I storm toward her. Then I’m wrapping her in my arms and pushing her back until she bumps into a bookcase behind her.

“Isthatwhat you thought? Truly?”

Her mouth twists as she looks up at me pitifully. “I—I just?—”

There’s my fury again. I start to think about her life, and the lowlifes she’s known—the kind whowouldoffer her up like some sort of fucking goody bag, or who viewed her as a possession to be “loaned out”.

It makes me want to burn the entire world down, as vengeance for what it’s put her through.

“First, I need to make one thingperfectlyfucking clear,” I breathe, my hands curling to fists against the bookshelf to either side of her head. “You. Are.Mine. No one else’s. Not now…not ever.”

I reach out, cupping her jaw and looking deep in her eyes.