Page 27 of Kiss of Seduction (Court of Chains #1)

“What were you doing here alone? I saw Diana waiting for you downstairs.”

“I was just practicing,” Evie said, glad to be away from the previous topic. “I asked Diana if I could be on my own for a bit. I’m working on something.”

“Just for yourself?”

“For now. I’ve been missing dancing lately. Actually dancing.” Evie leaned against a pole. “Is that weird? It feels like it should be.”

“Not at all. What do you miss about it?”

“The stage stuff mostly. The energy of it. And the other girls too. We had a tight thing going at the club I worked at before I went to New Orleans.” Evie shrugged, and her tone turned sorrowful. “I’ve always liked dancing.”

There was a moment of quiet, then Natalya gave her a small smile.

“We can have something arranged.” Natalya’s smile widened when Evie furrowed her brows in confusion. “The public face of the Court of Chains is a nightclub, among other things. And we have a thing for steel. Wouldn’t be much of a stretch to have some poles installed on the dancefloor.”

“You’d do that for me?” The sorrow was gone from Evie’s voice, replaced by excitement.

Natalya raised an eyebrow, grinning. “If you ask nicely.”

Evie had danced at Varro’s estate, but that was different.

It was for him alone or for him and a few guests.

And always with that damned classical music in the background, like that would somehow make assaulting her more dignified.

The thought of dancing under the club lights again, with the smell of sweat and alcohol in the air, filled Evie with a strange, nostalgic joy.

Maybe Lily and Blake could come with her and cheer her on.

Evie beamed at Natalya. “Yes, please. I would really like that.”

“Then I’ll have it arranged.” Natalya started to go back towards the door. “I’ll leave you to it.”

Watching Natalya walk away, Evie felt guilty. Natalya couldn’t help that she felt Evie’s emotions. Evie had been scared before. Without context, and with what had happened last time Natalya sensed Evie’s fear, it made sense she’d come. And then Evie had just snapped at her. That wasn’t fair.

She hadn’t been fair. She’d distanced herself from Natalya for days, ever since the morning after they’d been together. She’d even lined salt at the bedroom door so Natalya couldn’t enter. All because Natalya asked questions she needed to ask, and Evie didn’t want to think about.

Evie wasn’t good at apologizing when it came to stuff like this, but she should at least try. Even if she wasn’t sure how to say the words, she wanted to do something .

There was also another reason for what Evie was feeling. A simpler one. She just didn’t want Natalya to leave.

“Wait!”

Natalya stopped and turned. Her long curls bounced slightly as she did.

She really was unbelievably beautiful. Radiant and strong, and then those slitted, violet eyes that made her look otherworldly.

“Yes?” Natalya smiled, and it pulled at something deep inside of Evie, making her sigh. She fidgeted, not knowing how to start and only certain that she wanted Natalya to stay.

“Would you like to see? The routine?”

“You’re offering a private dance?”

Evie crossed her arms, feigning an attitude of disinterest. “I guess you could call it that.”

Natalya regarded her for a moment, looking a little surprised. Then curious. “I would love to.”

Evie switched on the music, beginning the opening steps on the floor. She did turns, stretching out her limbs and pushing up into moves that relied on her arms more than her legs. The routine required strength and flexibility. She had both.

As she moved to the pole, ascending it with ease and confidence, she caught Natalya looking at her. Not just with the attentive gaze of someone impressed by the complex moves but with a deeper enjoyment. A darker one.

Evie skipped a beat of the song seeing it, hanging still for a breath before getting into the routine again.

She moved with another energy now. Before, she’d danced as though she was alone, performing for herself in the mirror.

This was different. She kept her eyes on Natalya as she spun slowly, holding on to the pole and pulling her legs into a split over her head.

When she’d first seen Natalya, she’d danced for her too. Stolen glances at her. Then it was out of fear. Now it was because of something else.

As Evie descended on the last few notes, she landed so she was leaning against the pole. Strands of hair had fallen into her face, and her breathing was heavy. Natalya looked at her in silence.

“What do you think?” Evie asked when Natalya stayed quiet.

Rather than answer, Natalya walked towards her, ending at the pole she had just been using. Natalya grabbed it, holding onto it so her hand was just above Evie’s.

“I think it was wonderful.” Her voice was low and sensual. Wanting . Evie’s breath caught in her throat. “I didn’t know you could dance like that.”

“There’s a lot you don’t know about me.” Evie sounded nothing like Natalya. Natalya’s voice was firm and confident. Hers was a panting mess, and it was only partly due to her dancing just before.

“Really?” Natalya’s eyes shined briefly. “Such as?”

Evie had no answer. How was she supposed to come up with anything clever when Natalya was looking at her like that? With such obvious desire? Desire that wasn’t there a moment before, and which had been produced because of her.

It should scare her. It did, a little. But fresh in her mind was the memory of Natalya’s kiss creating passionate electricity against her lips. Of her warm touch and then her holding Evie as she slept. Of Evie moaning against her mouth.

That she could make Natalya—gorgeous, powerful, remarkable Natalya —look at her with so much want made it feel like Evie’s heart was suddenly attached to a jackhammer.

Natalya raised her hand, moving it over Evie’s lips, then her chin and throat. Not quite touching.

“Do you remember the safe words I gave you?”

Evie nodded slowly.

“Speak up, Evie.” There was a hint of warning in her voice.

“Yes. I remember them.”

Evie only noticed she’d been backing up when she hit the wall mirror. Natalya followed her and put a hand next to her head.

She didn’t know what was going to happen. She knew where it was going, obviously, but the energy of this was unlike anything she’d ever experienced. Sensual, passionate, a little dangerous.

And she wanted it. It scared her that she wanted it.

“I know you’re nervous. I can tell.”

Natalya was reading her emotions. Or maybe just her face. Evie had a feeling it was beet red, which only made Natalya’s slow movements all the more tantalizing. She was so in control.

“I also know you’re dying for me to touch you right now. Aren’t you?”

Natalya was giving her an out. A way to end this conversation and stop it before it carried them into headier things.

The other night, Natalya was so careful with her. It had been a test. One where Evie was allowed to set the pace. This probably wouldn’t be like that.

“You’re right,” Evie said finally.

“Do you remember what I am?”

Evie let out a shuddering breath. “A fiend.”

“What kind of fiend?” Natalya flashed her teeth in a smile that was a bit too wide. “What is my Sin?”

It felt like everything inside Evie was trembling, including her heart.

“Lust.”

“Outside of it, I demand respect and civility. Within its domain, I demand submission. I rule the realm of pleasure, and those who wish to enter it must submit to my will and commands.” Natalya’s eyes glowed. “Do you want to submit to me, darling?”

Evie couldn’t quite explain the fluttering feeling she experienced whenever Natalya called her ‘darling.’ It almost distracted her from how frightening the question was. Though it was only so because of how easily it was answered.

She had never been very emotionally present with her previous partners, and it could make her appear tough and hard. Because she’d had confidence, they often assumed she preferred a more dominant role in the bedroom, a role she’d never been very comfortable taking.

No one had ever told her so directly what they wanted her role to be. They’d danced around it, nudged and hinted. They never just said it. And no one had ever asked her to submit before.

She should be more afraid of this. Should have thoughts in her head saying this was something she didn’t want. That it was wrong. That after what she’d been through, she shouldn’t want to submit to another like this. Not again.

But what she’d experienced wasn’t submission. It was enslavement. Her consent hadn’t been considered. Natalya was asking her. Evie only had one response.

“Yes. I want to submit to you.”

Natalya let out a deep sigh that turned into a slight growl by the end.

“You were quite rude to me when I first came here. Though not an official one, I consider politeness a virtue. You seem to be lacking it. Unfortunate, since I prefer my submissives virtuous. It makes it more fun to corrupt them.”

“Are you upset with me?” Evie’s voice was shaking. It wasn’t because she thought Natalya was going to hurt her. Rather, she feared Natalya would stop whatever this was before it even started.

Natalya’s smile was so teasing it bordered on being provoking.

“Would you like me to be upset with you?”

With someone else, that sentence would have been terrifying. The prospect of the horrible punishments that could be conjured up would have sent Evie into a panic. It didn’t with Natalya.

She was a demon. A fiend. She was both frightening and powerful, and Evie felt safer with her than she’d ever felt with anyone. Maybe she was about to meet the flipped side of that coin.

Natalya leaned an inch closer, eyes hard as steel. “You’re ignoring my question, darling. Would you like me to be upset with you?”

Evie swallowed, hoping the act would produce some courage in her. It didn’t really. “Yes.”

“Not polite enough.”

Evie took a deep breath, silently chiding herself for how quickly she caved. “Yes, please.”

“That’s better, Evie.”

Evie’s name said in such a sultry, commanding tone made it feel like someone had set fire to her insides. She wanted to kiss Natalya right then. Press their lips together, taste her mouth, breathe in the scent of her. She didn’t dare move.

“I’m going to let you know what I’ll be doing to you.

So you aren’t surprised.” Natalya still hadn’t touched her, and it was becoming increasingly frustrating.

“I found your breasts quite responsive the other night, so I’ll start there until I feel like moving further down.

And because you asked, so nicely, for me to be upset with you, I won’t let you come.

I’ll bring you to the brink, and then down again.

Over and over until you beg me to let you finish. And trust me. You will beg.”

The words were so full of desire and demand Evie forgot to breathe for a moment. Natalya chuckled darkly as though she’d seen a challenge in Evie’s eyes.

“But you won’t beg immediately. This is a punishment, after all. If you beg before I’m satisfied you’ve learned your lesson, I will get upset again. Very upset. You don’t want that.”

Natalya ran a finger over Evie’s shirt. Still not touching her skin. “Then I’m going to take you on the floor. Go between your legs and taste you until you’re shaking, and you forget we’re in a public place. I’ll make you turn your head towards the mirror, so you can watch yourself come apart.”

Natalya put her other hand next to Evie’s head, her arms blocking her in. The world fell away, and her only thought and focus was Natalya.

It would have reminded her of enthralling if it hadn’t been for the genuine anticipation building in her body. Desire produced by enthrallment always felt too sudden. This desire was a looming, growing feeling that had started the moment Natalya walked into the room.

“You have your safe words. You can stop this right now.” Natalya let her eyes slip to Evie’s mouth, a beyond seductive smile playing on her lips, before making eye contact again. “Or, you can say, ‘please fuck me, Mistress Natalya.’ It’s your choice.”