Page 34 of Kiss of Seduction (Court of Chains #1)

Evie nodded, though she didn’t feel very confident.

She wasn’t sure how to push against it at all.

In the Second Circle, she had realized the manipulation and, in doing that, was able to make the fear dissipate.

She did the same now, concentrating on the singular thought that whatever sensation Natalya produced was a constructed thing, and it couldn’t affect her.

She kept readying herself for something to happen. When over a minute had passed, she glanced up at Natalya.

“Are you going to start soon?”

Natalya frowned. “I’m doing it, Evie.”

“Really?” She looked at their joined hands. “I don’t feel anything.”

Natalya squeezed her a little harder. A few seconds later, there was a pinching sensation in her hand. It was uncomfortable but not painful.

“Now it’s there. Like a pins-and-needles feeling.”

Natalya let her go, looking so shocked that Evie couldn’t help but smile. It was funny seeing someone as gorgeous as Natalya look off-kilter.

“That touch was stronger than the one I used on Stefano at Varro’s estate. You barely felt it. How?”

“I don’t know. I just reminded myself it wasn’t real.

” It felt like a stupid answer. It made Evie want to go on the offensive again.

“Was it the same strength as when you tried to scare me in the Second Circle? Doing that was messed up, Natalya. You didn’t want to talk, so you just decided to scare me off instead. ”

“I know.” Natalya looked down, ashamed. “I thought it would be best if you weren’t near me. That way, I couldn’t manipulate you. I couldn’t use you again.”

“You didn’t use me,” Evie said, sneering through the sentence.

“It feels like it to me. I went too far with you. In the studio, I demanded too much. Would you still have wanted it if I had given you time to think?”

Evie took a moment to consider. She’d thought about their time in the dance studio nearly every hour since it happened. She’d had so many thoughts about it and just as many confused feelings.

The only regret she felt was of the unplaced, guilt-ridden variety because she wasn’t sure if she’d done something to hurt Natalya. It was never about actually doing it.

“I would,” Evie said, though she couldn’t quite keep eye contact. “I didn’t plan to want it. I was mad at you. Still am, honestly. Though now it’s for different reasons.”

“What reasons?”

“Before, it was like I was being surveilled. With you sensing everything I’m feeling.

And then your questions the morning after we—” Evie bit her lip.

“But the first, you can’t help. And the second, you did to try to keep me safe.

But ignoring me and then trying to scare me… That was something else.”

“I’m sorry I did that. I can’t take it back, but I promise I won’t try to influence you like that again.”

The words made the anger vanish. She had always kept her promises. Natalya had never lied to her.

“I felt guilty. In the studio, after you left,” Evie admitted. When Natalya stayed silent, she continued. “You flinched when I touched your dress. I thought I did something wrong.”

Natalya looked a little impressed that Evie had noticed. Then her face fell. She seemed to be considering something difficult. Like she was struggling with a major decision, though Evie had no idea what it could be.

Evie didn’t like seeing her that way. Her face pained, and her posture stiff.

This wasn’t the regal woman who had knocked on the bedroom door.

This was someone who had held a great weight on her shoulders for too many years, and wondered if whatever she was carrying would break if she gave it to someone else.

“You don’t have to tell me,” Evie said. “I don’t need to know. If you don’t want me to touch you, I won’t. I just don’t want to do something you don’t like. That’s why I mentioned it.”

Natalya’s posture relaxed as she sighed and put a hand on Evie’s cheek. It brought the comforting sensation of flowing, humming warmth she’d become so used to. She didn’t push against it. She’d always liked it.

“You are a marvel, Evie.” There were no flirtatious undertones. It was just pure, honest appreciation. Evie couldn’t recall ever being given such a genuine compliment before, not even from Amanda. It made it feel like something inside her was melting.

Evie laughed nervously to mask the fuzziness she felt hearing the words.

“Right. Sure.”

“You are. I know it was cruel circumstances that caused our paths to cross, but I’m grateful they did. I’m grateful I got to meet you.”

Fluttering joy started in Evie’s chest at the statement. She didn’t know what to do with those words. She didn’t know how to return their effect. How would she even begin? Where? Natalya had done too many things Evie was thankful for, too many things that created butterflies in her stomach.

Natalya saved her from having to come up with a response. Her face grew serious, and she took a step back.

“There’s a reason I flinched when you touched me in the studio. I thought you wanted to do what I did to you. Just like I told you before that I don’t kiss people, I don’t take my clothes off in front of others. Not ever. I haven’t trusted anyone enough to do it.”

Natalya’s hands went to the back of her dress and pulled down the zipper.

“Natalya, you don’t need to,” Evie said, but Natalya shook her head.

“I know. I’m doing it anyway.”

She let the dress fall to the floor, standing in just her underwear. It was a stunning sight that momentarily made Evie forget to breathe.

Her skin was golden-brown, smooth, and flawless. Her breasts were round and firm, held by a bra, seemingly there just for decoration. She looked lustrous and strong, with a narrow waist and wide hips that gave her the figure of an hourglass.

The form was accentuated by two black lines, one on either side of her body. The lines ran down the sides of her waist, over her hipbones, and then disappeared into her underwear. They were comprised of several strange symbols, each with a golden outline.

When Evie moved around Natalya, she noticed the lines continued from her waist to end at the bottom of her shoulder blades and that the symbols in the two lines were slightly different from each other.

“What are these?” Evie asked.

“My name. My true name, as much as unpronounceable symbols can be that. Natalya is just the name I picked for myself.”

Natalya looked to her right side. “One to summon.” She looked to her left.

“And one to bind. When a greater fiend is first summoned to this world, its name is burned into its skin. I am not meant to be free. These marks make it harder to stray from that fate. If someone has both names, and I’m not bound by anyone already, they can call me into service. They can enslave me.”

Evie felt horrified looking at the symbols, knowing that information. The meaning of Natalya’s words hit her like a freight train.

“By showing me… Natalya, you shouldn’t do that.” Evie turned so she wasn’t looking at Natalya anymore. “I didn’t see it all. I don’t even remember it. Just put your clothes back on.”

It was too risky. She was trusting Evie with information that could rob her of her freedom if shared. That was too much.

Evie wasn’t worthy of that. She wasn’t anyone important. She was just a traumatized stripper who’d been saved from a life filled with horror and pain. She owed Natalya something as big as this, not the other way around.

“Evie, look at me.” Natalya’s hand gently pulled on hers. It still took her a long moment to turn around.

Natalya had taken off her bra and underwear, and seeing her naked made Evie’s breath hitch. Her skin was the same shade all over. Her breasts were full and high, her nipples dark.

She looked unreal, like an artwork dedicated to beauty. The lines of her infernal marks were fully visible, ending in sharp points by her mound.

Evie closed her eyes.

“It’s not safe. I could memorize them. Or photograph them. I could wait until you wouldn’t notice and sketch them out. Varro’s still trying to get me back. If I know and he takes me again—”

“That won’t happen.” Natalya took Evie’s hands in hers. She put them on the marks by her hips and then directed them upward along the lines until they were on her shoulder blades. She stood so close her breasts pressed against Evie’s shirt.

“You trusted me, Evie. So many times, and when you didn’t have to. It’s my turn. Open your eyes.”

She obeyed. And stared right into Natalya’s beautiful violet gaze.

“You’ve seen me now. As I have seen you,” Natalya said. “You know what I can do, and I know that you can stop me. The next step is yours, whatever it is.”

She let go of Evie’s hands. They hung a moment, touching her skin, before she lowered them and Natalya stepped away.

Evie felt heavier, as though she’d been given a responsibility, which she had in a way. Natalya had put her freedom in Evie’s hands and then trusted her to be careful with it.

Thinking about it, it strangely wasn’t too different from what Natalya had done for Evie.

She’d fought to get Evie her freedom. Literally against Stefano and Austin, but also against Varro and the many problems Evie’s liberation had caused for the Court of Chains.

She trusted Natalya with her life and her safety.

By taking this step, Natalya showed that she trusted Evie just as much.

That realization was awe-inducing. As were the final words Natalya had said. A step that needed to be taken.

She knew what she wanted to do. She’d wanted it in the Second Circle. She’d wanted it for weeks. She wanted it still.

Evie paused at the thought, remembering what Natalya had said just a few hours earlier. About how feeling desire for her was an enforced emotion. She didn’t know how she’d react if she found out Natalya had been right all along. That this attraction she felt was a summoned feeling and not genuine.

Concentrating again, she pushed against the desire. If it really was Natalya’s influence making her feel like this, she needed to know. So she focused and pushed against the want building in her chest, telling herself it was just a simple conjuration. That it wasn’t real. That it was fake.

Nothing happened. Nothing lessened.

Her body still ached from the prospect of being touched by Natalya.

Natalya’s purpose may be to summon sexual passion in others, but Evie's desire for her wasn’t a manufactured thing.

It came from the certain knowledge that Natalya would never hurt her.

That she would do everything in her power to keep Evie safe, even if that meant never seeing her again.

The first time they’d been together, it was an experiment. The next time, an invitation from Natalya. Evie took a deep breath, knowing how she wanted to take this next step.

“Natalya?”

Natalya was picking up her clothes from the floor, her movements graceful and elegant.

She turned, her face calm and at ease, and when she smiled, it summoned a similar feeling as when Evie let herself slip from the top of a pole only to halt her descent right before hitting the floor.

A sudden surge that made her stomach drop.

Without taking her eyes off Natalya, Evie kicked aside the line of salt she’d drawn in front of the door.