Page 35 of Kiss of Seduction (Court of Chains #1)

Seeing the salt line broken felt like the floor had dropped out from under Natalya. It was such a small thing. Just a line of minerals treated with herbs and incantations. For her, it may as well have been an ocean during a storm. Impossible to cross, impossible to influence.

Evie had broken it. And by the expression on her face, she knew what that act meant. She knew what she was inviting.

“Are you sure?” Natalya said, not quite believing what she was seeing.

“I’m sure. It’s real. I felt it. I tried to push against it, and it didn’t lessen. It just…”

Her voice trailed off as Natalya stepped closer to her. She still stood on the other side of the threshold, but they were close enough now that they were sharing air.

Evie struggled with maintaining eye contact.

Natalya couldn’t do anything else. She couldn’t help but stare at Evie.

At this woman who was breaking all the rules.

Who wanted Natalya but didn’t want to possess her.

Who had been so relieved to see her outside the bedroom door while at the same time being angry at her.

Who had seen Natalya’s marks, and her first thought hadn’t been how to use them for her own benefit but rather about the risk Natalya would face.

And now, she’d pushed against the desire she felt. Tried to undo the fabrication of yearning Natalya could instill in others with a look or a touch. And she felt the same as before.

Genuine emotion. Genuine desire. Not an ounce of enforced Lust. Not a shred of possessiveness.

Natalya curled a finger around a lock of Evie’s long hair. Vibrant and full. Healthy. She looked so different than she had when Natalya first saw her. Then she’d been a frightened, frail woman Natalya feared was broken beyond repair.

But she had fought. She’d survived. The strength it took to do that after everything she’d been through was incredible. That she’d then dared face Natalya’s wrath in her own domain was beyond courageous. It was unheard of.

This woman was a treasure. She was so certain Natalya wouldn’t hurt her. Natalya , a fiend and a monster. After her time with Varro, she shouldn’t be able to trust anyone like this. And never so genuinely.

“You amaze me,” Natalya said, her voice sounding as astonished as she felt. She tugged on Evie’s hair ever so slightly. It was soft between her fingers. “Kiss me.”

A small request Natalya had never made. For her, a kiss was something to be taken or given. It wasn’t something she asked for.

She was asking Evie. And Evie didn’t hesitate.

Evie threw her arms around Natalya and kissed her.

She did it with all her weight, and had Natalya not been as strong as she was, the act would have knocked her backward.

Instead, she caught Evie as she pressed soft lips against Natalya’s and sighed so deeply it sounded like she’d been holding back a breath.

Though its start was desperate, the rest of the kiss was not. It was soft. Gentle and confirming. Filled with want and relief both. It surged through Natalya like a flame along an oiled wick.

Embracing Evie back, Natalya crossed the threshold to the bedroom.

Natalya entered the room with a confidence that was pure seduction. Evie could feel the change in her. How each step signaled command and control, how it grew to take over her entire being, as she pushed Evie through the door and turned her, so Natalya could press her against the wall.

Despite Natalya being naked, Evie felt more exposed than her. More out of bounds and less in control. It was like Natalya had sucked the command out of the room, taking it all into herself. It made her even more glorious than before.

Natalya kissed her deeply, sighing and breathing heavily. Evie’s breath, in turn, was shallow and uneven. She didn’t want this to end. She wanted Natalya to do whatever she wanted.

As though reading her mind, Natalya pulled her lips from Evie’s and started trailing hard, demanding kisses along her jaw and throat. Natalya sucked at her skin hard enough it would leave hickeys.

“The things I could do to you,” Natalya murmured between kisses. “The pleasures I could create.”

“Do it all.” Evie’s breathing was already ragged. “I want it all. I want you to do all of it. Everything.”

The words produced a low laugh from Natalya. She leaned back and smiled, the expression full of dark satisfaction. It promised pleasures untold. Pleasures unending.

“That is a risky ask. If I’m free to do what I want, I may not want to stop.”

“I don’t want you to stop.”

“Maybe not now.” She tugged at Evie by bunching up her shirt. “The night isn’t over. And unlike you, I don’t get tired.”

Seeing her teasing, commanding smile, Evie breathed a little heavier. Anxious anticipation rose in her at the thought of what Natalya was suggesting.

“Is this ‘Mistress Natalya’ talking again?” Evie asked with a grin. It vanished when Natalya’s grip on her shirt tightened.

“Would you like it to be?”

Evie wanted nothing more. The energy had been completely different in the studio than their first time.

Natalya had been commanding and confident in both, but the second time was transcendent.

Letting her have control hadn’t felt like Evie was giving away part of herself.

It was like a trust fall, where she wasn’t only confident but knew Natalya would catch her.

“Yes. Please. I would like that.”

Natalya grabbed her chin, holding her in place.

“‘Please, Mistress ,’” she instructed.

Evie’s heart set off at a gallop. How could the prospect of saying just a single word affect her so much?

There was a game to this that was intoxicating.

Speaking the title was a willing surrender of power.

Consenting submission to the will of another.

To Natalya. It would let her do whatever she wanted.

“Please, Mistress.” Evie tried to keep her voice firm and confident, like Natalya’s. She failed miserably.

Natalya smiled, and it was lethally beautiful. The kind of smile that promised sweet destruction. She tugged at Evie’s shirt.

“Off.”

Evie quickly stripped, and her clothes were haphazardly thrown on the floor. When she stood naked in front of Natalya, Evie was panting.

“Eager, aren’t you?” She ran a cursedly light fingertip down Evie’s waist, ending at her hip, then trailed it up again. “After what happened last time, I’m surprised. If you thought that was excessive, you won’t like what’s coming.”

“It wasn’t excessive.”

“It wasn’t?” Natalya smiled like Evie had walked into a trap. “That makes me very happy to hear.”

She pushed Evie down on the bed, her eyes glowing bright violet.

“I’m going to have fun playing with you.” Natalya straddled Evie’s hips, grabbing her wrists and pinning them above her head. “When I’m done, you won’t even be able to walk.”

The words were a delightful threat. Feeling and seeing Natalya on top of her was already making her breath tremble. Natalya grinned, her eyes glittering with faint violet light.

“I’m going to make you come apart. It’ll be beautiful to see, darling. It’ll be stunning. You have no idea what awaits you.”

Evie immediately tensed up. “So you’re not going to tell me?”

Part of why the previous times had worked was because she’d known what would happen next. If she couldn’t prepare for it… If she didn’t know…

“I’ll tell you some of it. Not all of it.” Natalya ran her hands up from Evie’s wrists, intertwining their fingers. “Do you trust me?”

The question made the fear a negligible thing. She was still nervous. But she knew Natalya wouldn’t hurt her. She would stop if Evie needed her to. And she would respect Evie’s decision to stop. She’d already proven that.

“I trust you,” Evie whispered. Natalya’s eyes glinted.

“I like that answer.”

The words summoned blissful, radiant warmth. Knowing she’d pleased Natalya made Evie feel a strange, childish joy. Like a teenager who’d been noticed by her crush.

Luckily, Natalya spoke before the thought could settle.

“I’m going to get something. You’re going to lie still until I get back.” She leaned down until her lips were hovering over Evie’s. “You’re going to obey me because that’s what good girls do. And you are a very good girl. Aren’t you?”

Evie nodded so quickly her teeth clattered. “Yes, Mistress.”

A look of delight played in Natalya’s eyes when Evie said her title.

“You say that word beautifully. And I appreciate that you’ll be a good girl. Good girls are so fun to see writhe.” She pushed off slowly and exited the bedroom.

She was gone for what felt like an eternity, leaving Evie tense and panting. When she returned, Evie was surprised to see her holding four long silk scarves.

“Have you ever been tied to a bed before?” Natalya asked.

Evie had been convinced to do it to a girlfriend once and found it awkward. She’d never experienced it herself. “I haven’t.”

Natalya tied two of the scarves into big loops, throwing them over the headboard bedposts.

“Then I want to give you a taste,” Natalya said. “Because I want your hands out of the way. And you’ll need to hold onto something.”

Natalya put Evie’s hands through the loops, instructing her to rest her hand against the fabric and then clasp down on it. As she did, the scarf tightened around her wrist, restraining it against the silk. If Evie let go, the restraint would be undone immediately.

Her hands weren’t really tied. But it felt like they were.

Using the remaining two silk scarves, Natalya tied Evie’s ankles so her legs were stretched out toward the corners of the bed. The silk was soft against her skin.

“I’m only giving you one rule for now,” Natalya said. “Keep your hands in the loops until I’m done with you. Understand?”

Evie was splayed out on the bed, legs apart and arms out to the side. It was exposing, and it felt even more so when Natalya started running her hands over Evie’s body. A persistent touch she couldn’t ignore or affect in her current position.

There was nothing awkward about this. It was just obscenely arousing.