Page 111 of Devil's Vows

I need to gather myself. I don’t know how I managed to let go to such an extent that I touched myself in front of Ivan. It’s partly because I got so turned on watching him wash himself without any shame in front of me. It’s also his body, the ridges of his six-pack and the muscles on his thighs, his giant cock that made my mouth water—a cock that still hasn’t been inside me. A longing ache still hums in the background, one that isn’t going to go away…but it’s also because I could be at death’s door. That was no idle threat. At this rate, I might not see tomorrow…so why the fuck not?

Ivan’s hands might be perfect for making me come, but they would strangle me with just as much ease.

I get up, limp to my closet, find my clothes rearranged fromYuri going through all my things, and get dressed in a T-shirt and jeans.

When I walk into the corridor, Ivan is already there, in his usual shirt and pants, smelling like freshly showered man and totally…edible.

“Are the girls okay?”

“Yes,” he says curtly. “Lead the way, since you know where my office is.”

His tone says everything:I betyou’ve been trying to go snoop around like a spy ever since you got to see my office the first time. I walk down the corridor to the stairs where two guards are standing, now visible. They usually stick to the shadows, but I suppose those days are over now.

We make it to Ivan’s office in awful, tense silence, crossing paths with two more guards on the way. The office door is open, and Yuri is sitting in one of the chairs facing the desk, nursing a drink. A small laundry basket with my things takes center stage.

“Sit,” Ivan says as he indicates the other chair for me.

He pours two drinks as I sink into the chair, sitting on my hands, too fidgety and needing to keep some sort of composure.

He hands me a glass. “Drink up. It’ll help the words flow.”

“What is it?” I ask as I reach for it with a shaky hand.

“Vodka.”

It looks like water. I sniff. It’s strong. “I don’t?—”

“Just a sip. It’ll help.”

I do as he says because right now, I don’t want to piss him off, but as soon as the clear liquid hits my tongue, it’s too strong, and I start to cough.

Yuri leans in and takes the glass from me with a soulful slap to my back. “This will make her so drunk she won’t be able to talk at all, Pakhan. She isn’t used to drinking.”

“Good to know.”

This man…he istestingme.

Ivan leans back against the cupboard lining the one wall. He drinks deep, his gaze on me.

“The floor’s yours, Gabriella,” he says eventually.

“I don’t know where to start.”

“Easy. Think of this as confession. Start with why you have a piercing and who gave it to you.”

I cup my hands over my face, hiding. Yuri is in the room, for heaven’s sake, and to this day, only a handful of people know, most of them dead, and I would love to keep it that way. I can hear him shift in his seat next to me.

“What type of piercing?” he asks into the silence.

“Actually,” Ivan says as his glass clinks onto his desk. “I can show you.”

Please. Spare me.The last thing I need or want is to spread my legs for this old man who has the role of grandad of the family. But Ivan doesn’t reach for me—instead, electronic buttons beep, and I drop my hands, cheeks on fire, to watch what he’s doing.

He’s opened a safe and is pulling a small box from it. “This is Darya’s jewelry. They took everything off before they cremated her.”

He spills the box’s content into the lid and places it on the desk, then starts to fish.

Between heavy rings studded with diamonds twinkling in the overhead lights, more diamonds on hoop earrings, more things that look like they were stuck in flesh at some point, he picks out a platinum piercing, shaped like a slightly bent barbell.