Page 15 of Deceptive Vows

I, however, was so worried about Raul identifying me, I forgot the act.

This man is no fool, and what scares me is how he might kill me if he finds out I’m not who he thinks I am.

What do I do now?

Does he suspect I’m a fake?

I have to think fast and say something plausible that might explain my shock.

“That’s not true. It all happened so fast,” I lie. “You killed my father so fast. I barely had time to process what you were doing. You just killed him. You killed him right there in front of me.”

My lips tremble on their own. I don’t have to instill grief into my body. Neither do I have to pretend to cry. The tears are never far off. My soul is always weeping.

So, the tears I summon now are real, just not for what he thinks they’re for.

“José is all I have left,” I add. “He’s been my bodyguard since I was a baby.” That’s true.

“You better hope that’s all it is, Malyshka, or he’s dead.”

“So, he’s alive?” I’m so eager for the prospect that I don’t fully take in what he’s saying to me.

“Are you screwing the old man? The answer better be no, and better not be a fucking lie either, because I want the cherry between your legs to be mine.”

My body heats up again, and I’m appalled when I feel moisture beading between my thighs. Perhaps it’s due to relief on some level that José is safe, because the wild images flooding my mind of this man fucking me against this wall are completely inappropriate.

Briefly, he presses his forehead to mine before he backs away.

“Answer the question, Malyshka.”

“He’s just my bodyguard,” I reply. “That’s all.”

“Good, and lucky for you, I seem to believe you. Next question. Are you the virgin I’ve heard you are?”

A shudder runs through me when I detect the shimmer of greed in his eyes.

“Yes.”

His smile widens. “I like virgins. I like being the first man to break them and train them to please me.”

Them. I wonder how many of them he’s had. He sounds like the virgin Pied Piper, and I’m just going to be another statistic in his catalogue of women.

“Were you serious about the wedding?” I risk asking and changing the subject.

A slow, easy grin brightens his face, and I know straightaway that I’m going to be some plaything to him. Another person who will think of me as a thing. A non-human being they can toy with.

“Yes. I was serious as fuck about the wedding.” He cups my blood-stained face and presses his thumb into my neck. “Any objections, princess? You look like you have plenty to say. I’m interested in hearing it.”

“We don’t know each other. How can we get married? We just met.”

“Shit like that doesn’t matter to me, and definitely not when you were going to marry Felipe Naveed. I’ll take you for myself and break you just for that.”

Break me?

I could almost laugh.

I’m already broken. I just hide the pieces of my soul well.

I suppose, though, that’s just a part of me. Something inside keeps me going. It’s something stronger than hope. It exists deep within my core, right in the essence of what makes me, me. It forces me to keep surviving even when there seems to be nothing left to live for.