Page 39 of Vow to Corrupt You (Gods of Corruption #1)

Serena

My heartbeat pulses in my throat as Nikos leads me into one of the rooms at Olympus, every move feeling like a step into a hell I can’t escape.

The room is vast, with mirrors covering every wall, stretching high, reflecting an endless sheet of glass, twisting and warping my image into a distorted version of myself.

The reflections multiply, surrounding me with a dozen versions of who I am.

But it’s a throne made of gold at the end of the hall that catches my attention.

It stands there alone like a regal altar designed only for him.

It’s beautiful, in a way, but also laced with something dark, something that makes my skin crawl.

“What is this room?” I turn to Nikos.

“I designed it to remind me that I’m the one on the throne.

No one else. As the head of the Mafia, the leader of this society, my own empire,” he says, looking into my eyes with such coldness that it freezes my body, “I have to do things others wouldn’t dare to.

And sometimes, I come here to remind myself of who I really am.

If I want to be the king, I have to know it’s a lonely place.

I can count on no one but myself.” He brushes my cheek with his gloved hand, murmuring darkly, “It is lonely on the throne, wicked one . I must remember that.”

A chill runs down my spine as I feel the weight of his gaze, as if he’s waiting for me to understand something I’m not sure I want to. “Why did you bring me here?”

His lips twist into something that resembles a smile.

“I wanted you to sit on that throne next to me one day. I wanted you to become my queen.” The dangerous smirk on his face fades, replaced by a colder, harder look.

“But today…” His voice hardens, features darkening.

“Today, you betrayed me. You showed me that I can’t trust you, that I will always be alone on that throne. ”

He says it with towering wrath and hatred, which normally would scare me to death, but today, something in me has changed. Perhaps it’s because I know this is my life now, a life I can’t escape, so instead, I must embrace it. Or maybe because I looked death in its eyes, and it wasn’t so scary.

“What about me?” I look at him, the words breaking out of me before I can stop them. “What about me, Nikos? Can I trust you?”

His head cocks slightly as if he’s surprised by the confrontation. Suppose this is not how he assumed this conversation would go.

“Have you thought of me?” I continue, letting the frustration that’s been building for days out. “Have you wondered, for one second, that I live every day in fear that one day you might even kill me?”

“Why would I do that?” His tone is as numb as his expression.

I swallow hard, my voice trembling despite myself. “Because I heard the rumors. I heard the whispers about you… about how you’re obsessed with breaking innocence. How you… kill your prey once you’ve shattered them.”

A flicker of anger crosses his face, but it’s gone in an instant, replaced by something more dangerous.

He steps closer, his gaze burning into mine.

“Rumors,” he says sharply. “That’s all they are.

People whisper things about me because they’re scared.

Because some of them hate me. But none of them know me.

” He hovers over me, radiating tension like heat.

“How disappointing you actually believed the rumors of the frightened to death or filled with hatred people.”

“But you vowed to break me,” I shriek. “You vowed to corrupt my innocence. To mold me to fit your own darkness. And after we had sex… after you fucked me last time, you’ve become so cold, so distant toward me.

So tell me, Nikos, tell me I had any reason not to believe these things said about you while you pushed me away the moment you got what you wanted!

” I break. I shout and cry, unleashing all the emotions I caged inside for far too long.

“You think I’ve changed because of that?” His gaze sharpens like the edge of a knife we’re balancing on. “I changed because I heard your conversation with Salvatore. I heard you say you wouldn’t have married a monster like me.”

I freeze. For a moment, I don’t know what he’s talking about. Then it hits me—the conversation I had with Salvatore the other day, except… this wasn’t the whole part. This isn’t what I said.

“Since you were eavesdropping on our private conversation, did you happen to hear what I said after that? Did you hear the full sentence?” I challenge him. I can’t believe this is what hurt him, that this is what caused all the misunderstanding between us. Does it mean he actually has feelings?

He angles his head, furrowing his brows as if trying to understand. “Full sentence?”

I nod, my brows raising slightly. “I said I wouldn’t have married that monster, as Salvatore keeps calling you—which you’re not—but that was before I got to know you.

I defended you, Nikos,” I add with bitterness, the anger rising as I think about how he keeps stalking me, listening to my conversations, not even fully, and then letting it create a rift between us.

As if our marriage wasn’t hard enough already.

“I said I see good in you. Perhaps if you weren’t so obsessively possessive, if you hadn’t treated me like a plaything, like some object to be controlled, if you could’ve trusted me, at least a little, maybe things would’ve been different now. ”

His hands turn into fists, jaw tightening, “Perhaps if you could’ve trusted me, if you hadn’t listened to the rumors and made-up stories in your head, things would’ve been different now.”

His words are like a slap to my face. Suppose he’s right, and we’re both to blame.

We’re both broken creatures, unable to handle their own demons.

I couldn’t trust him. I didn’t know how because I couldn’t believe he might actually, in his own twisted way, care for me.

I couldn’t trust him because after my mother abandoned me like I meant nothing, I didn’t know how to trust.

I mean, if the person who’s supposed to love you unconditionally leaves you without batting an eye like you meant nothing, how are you supposed to feel?

I remember my heart breaking in two, then in four, in eight until it was broken into millions of pieces—pieces I could never glue back together.

I remember watching my mother walking away from us, leaving me shattered in the middle of the street, and she didn’t even look back.

Ever since that day, I have been lost and damaged.

I didn’t want to believe Nikos could care about me because I was scared.

I tried to protect myself from enduring this pain again, as I was sure I wouldn’t have enough strength to go through such heartbreak again.

The heartbreak of losing the person you love.

I guess I am as broken as he is, just on a different level, a different kind. I just didn’t want to admit it. I kept masking my pain, my fractures, and scars, but the truth is… I am no different than he is. We’re both damaged beyond repair, each in their own way.

“I wanted to break you,” Nikos’s murmur snaps me back from my thoughts, “so you could embrace the darkness before it drowns you. It’s the only way to survive in this world.

” He moves behind me, his presence looming.

Our reflections stare back at us from the mirrors, twisted and warped.

He wraps his hand around my throat, his fingers tightening just enough to remind me of his power and dominance.

His breath is hot against my ear, and when he speaks, it’s a growl that sends shivers down my spine.

“You have to reign the darkness… or it will reign over you.” His grip tightens, and I can’t breathe.

His eyes lock onto mine in the reflection, and I see the madness there—the darkness he’s so willing to share.

“You still don’t understand, wicked one .

I want to own you like you’re my possession because I’m one twisted bastard.

I want to fuck you like you’re my plaything because that’s the only way I know how to love—broken, damaged, and consumed by darkness.

You don’t want to know how far I’ll go to make you mine,” his lips brush against my ear.

“But I’ve made you my queen. I’ll give you anything you want.

I’ll bring the world to its knees for you.

I want you to become so powerful no one will dare to hurt you.

I want you to be my ride or die in the most twisted kind of way, something only we would understand and have. ”

He turns me around and kisses me hard, letting me breathe his air. His hands pull me against him, possessive like he owns me and desperate like he needs me, his anger and lust blending.

I barely have time to take it all in before he pulls away, and the look he gives me locks me in place like a command I dare not disobey.

Slowly, he slides off his gloves, one finger at a time, letting each fall to the floor without care.

“I want you to feel my touch,” he murmurs, “I want to imprint it on your skin, in your mind, so you never forget again that you’re mine. ”

I’m taken aback by this move because he’s never done that before. Yes, he would take off his gloves to touch me intimately, my private areas, but not to touch me. All of me. To imprint his touch on my skin , as he said.

With a firm grip, he leads me toward a chair that looks like a king’s throne made of gold, easing me onto it.

He lowers himself, kneeling before me as his eyes hold me captive.

The raw hunger flickering in his intense gaze sends a chill down my spine.

I can barely breathe when he rids himself of his black shirt, feeling a pull, as if he’s luring me deeper and deeper under his dark spell.

His hands glide up my thighs, parting my legs before lifting them over his shoulders.

One of my heels digs into his collarbone, and he leans in, pressing his lips to my ankle, his gaze never leaving mine.

The sight steals my breath—him, bare-chested and on his knees before me on the throne, worshiping me as if I’m his goddess. As if I’m the one in control.

A soft moan escapes my lips as his mouth trails upward, leaving a hot path along my calf.

Each kiss ignites my skin until he reaches the apex of my thigh, and his breath against me makes me shudder.

Every move he makes, I can see in the mirrors—my face flushed, his hands claiming every inch of me, his tongue tasting me, working me with a fierce, possessive intensity that leaves me trembling.

He’s relentless, drinking in every sound I make, and when I’m nearly undone, he stops, lifting his head just enough to look directly into my eyes.

“Tell me you don’t want this, and I’ll stop,” he growls, daring me to deny the pleasure only he can give me, and I crave it like someone who’s tasted forbidden poison and can’t resist another sip. Like I’m the sinner drawn back to their sweetest sin.

That’s the thing. He is my poison, my sin, my sickening desire I can’t resist.

“I crave this more than anything,” I breathe out.

A dark smile crosses his face as he rises to his feet, positioning me on all fours so I’m facing my reflection.

I grip the throne’s backrest, my knees on its seat, while his hand presses firmly against my back, arching me toward him.

I meet his commanding gaze in the mirror.

He slowly licks his lower lip before sucking on the sensitive skin of my neck, leaving a hickey like the very first time we met.

He then grabs my hips and enters me with one strong thrust, filling me. Claiming me.

“Now, look at me. Look what you’ve done to me,” he growls, his voice rough with a hunger that borders on madness.

“Do you see that? You’ve ruined me. You’ve turned me into a man who can’t think, can’t breathe without you.

I need you like this, beneath me, losing yourself in me, because it’s the only time I feel alive.

You’ve made me your prisoner as much as I’ve made you mine. ”

His grip tightens, and his gaze burns into mine through the reflection, aflame with all the feelings he denies. “You’ve become my obsession, my salvation, and my damnation all at once. You own me, whether you realize it or not.”

Now, I see it. He owns me as much as I, him.

If not more…

“You’re mine.” He thrusts deep, his voice rough and gaze smoldering with the darkest of intent.

“No one else can have you.” He pushes deeper, each word a vow that seeps into my bones, imprinting his touch, his claim, his dominance into my very core like he wanted to, and leaving a mark that nothing can ever erase.

I know this level of desire is dangerous.

I know it borders on a sick kind of obsession and is driven by depravity.

But I wouldn’t have had it any other way because all I see is the man consumed by fierce, almost forbidden passion that is so intoxicating that he can’t (and doesn’t want to) control it.

And only now do I realize that that’s all I’ve ever wanted too.