The Killer’s Vow by Aria R. Blue

13

Simon

The hot tea tastes earthy. It’s strong, but there’s no bitterness to it.

She watches me expectantly.

“Do you trust me now?” I ask.

“Depends. Do you like the tea?”

“As long as it’s free of poisons, yes, I’m a tea person all day.”

“It wasn’t poisoned,” she scoffs. “I just added a little something extra to it.”

That something extra was sodium thiopental.

It’s a barbiturate used as an aesthetic at higher doses. But at a controlled smaller dose, it makes people feel uninhibited.

They spill all their secrets, and after the half-life of the drug is over, they forget what they were talking about in the first place.

I never had reason to use it in my line of work, but I know it’s useful to drag confessions out of someone before finishing them off.

That’sthe little something extra she added to my tea.

“I would expect nothing less from you,” I say softly, with something akin to admiration slipping through my voice.

Something shifts in her eyes.

I don’t think anybody had ever told her that she was doing a stellar job at protecting herself.

That’s why I’m here.

I can’t let her go through her life on her own.

And I don’t want to go through mine alone either. Not when she adds so much richness to it just by existing.

“It’s good,” I say, taking another sip of the red tea. “I don’t think I’ve had anything like it before.”

“I’m glad you like it,” she says, looking up at me and then away.

My fingers itch to tilt her chin up. A hollowness fills my chest every time she denies me her eyes.

Especially when I’ve spent the past week dreaming about her.

“So, how did you convince my father that you were a bodyguard?” she asks, looking at my lips as I take another sip of her brew.

“Pulled a few strings here and there,” I say. “I know some people in the business, and I got them to vouch for me.”

“Charming,” she says. “A hitman turned bodyguard.”

“I’m not your bodyguard, Vera,” I say. “Unless that’s what you want me to be.”

Her eyes grow wide.

I see something bright flicker there. Something akin to hope.

But it dims as soon as it appears.

She’s quelling her own hope, and she’s doing it fast.

“Then why lie to my father?” she asks.

“There are only two ways to get close to the sheltered Russian princess,” I say. “I either had to marry her or be her bodyguard.”

All light leaves her eyes when I say that.

“The former wasn’t something I would do behind your back, so I had to stick with the latter.”

“Poor you,” she says, moving away from me.

I think about reaching for her wrist but decide against it.

Vera needs her space. And I only want her when she comes to me of her own free will.

She doesn’t want to murder me anymore, but that doesn’t mean she’s completely comfortable around me.

She holds a watering can over some small potted herbs—basil, mint, and parsley.

“So you’re here because you want to be near me?” she asks as though that’s something unimaginable to her.

“Stop searching for ulterior motives,” I say. “I really don’t have any. Not with you.”

“Sorry if I have a tough time believing that,” she says, slamming the watering can down. “But you can’t fault me for it. You were about to kill me before you changed your mind.”

The last bit is done with air quotes.

Vera is kind of adorable.

She’s a messed-up psycho, but an adorable one.

The burning between us intensifies. She looks up at me, and her eyes soften and turn ecstatic at the same time.

“Stop making those eyes at me,” I hiss, my self-control slipping to the floor.

Trying to be a gentleman is boring.

All I want is to have her gathered in my arms again, my lips all over her skin.

“What eyes?” she asks, her gaze dropping to my shoulders.

I roll up the sleeves of my white dress shirt and inch closer to her. “Like you want me to fuck you until your throat is hoarse from screaming my name.”

She closes her eyes.

I know I haven’t gone too far. I’m being guided by the fire in her eyes.

“We should go,” she says, eyes still closed. “Finish the rest of the tour.”

“Why?”

“Papa knows that you’re in the greenhouse with me, Simon,” she says.

“He can’t see us, though.”

“He might get suspicious.”

I inch closer, studying her body language to make sure she’s still comfortable.

And then I pull the rug out from under her feet.

“Should we give him a reason to be suspicious, Vera?”

Her eyes open, and they’re blazing with open lust.

She remembers that night as clearly as I do. Even if she didn’t, she feels this obnoxious tension between us.

It’s a living, breathing thing.

And it’s demanding to be fed.

Her lips part, and I know it’s for me. I reach up and brush her lower lip with my thumb.

It’s softer than the underside of a petal.

She speaks right against my thumb, leaning in and wetting it. “There’s one last place I want you to see.”

“Yeah?” The word is a part-growl.

“Yeah.” Her softer voice is a complete contrast to mine. “Follow me.”

Finishing up the remaining tea, I clean the mug and walk behind her.

“You didn’t have to do that,” she says, staring at the clean mug on the dish drying rack.

“I know you work hard to keep things clean,” I say.

It’s evident in the way she grows hundreds of plants, but there’s not a single dead leaf on the ground.

She bites down on her bottom lip and nods.

We walk to a crystal staircase at the other end of the greenhouse. It’s almost hidden by all the plants, but once you see it, everything else around it fades away.

Crystals of deep blue, purple, and orange make up the railing.

Vera holds the newel cap and glances back at me.

“I never wanted to come to America,” she says, her eyes far away. “Russia was home, you know? I had to leave behind everything I knew and everyone I loved. So when I came here, the only thing I asked for was my own greenhouse. Like the one my babushka had in Russia.”

“Your grandmother taught you all this?” I ask, surprised that she’s even confessing parts of her life with me.

“You could say that,” she replies vaguely.

And maybe that’s why her father built her a lavish building like this.

It wasn’t just for his daughter. It also served as a memory of his mother and everything he had to leave behind.

The crystal staircase is a spiral one that seems to be never-ending.

“Haven’t you heard of elevators?” I ask, gazing up to see how far we have left to climb.

“Haven’t you heard of exercise?” she counters.

Touché.

At least the view I have is nice. Vera climbs right in front of me, her lush curls in my face.

After another minute, we reach a heavy wood door. She glances at me from behind her shoulder and pushes it open.

I step inside the room.

It’s only a fraction of the size of the greenhouse but still impressive in its own way.

I glance up to find the same ornate glass ceiling that was present in the greenhouse. But unlike the greenhouse, there’s a large oak tree outside that makes the sunlight fall in patterns as it filters through the branches.

“This is Inessa’s study,” Vera says.

It has a library feel to it.

Dark high-back chairs, luxurious carpet, floor-to-ceiling shelves filled with books. They’re arranged according to color.

“I see that OCD runs in the family,” I say, walking toward one of them.

“She used to spend her time here while I tended the plants.”

I look around. It’s a comfortable place for reading, with armchairs and ample natural lighting.

“She was a reader, then?” I ask.

“Kind of. She alternated between books and movies,” Vera whispers.

And then she grabs the back of my shirt.

I freeze.

She takes a step closer to me. And then two more tiny steps until her breasts are pressed up against my back.

“I still want you,” she says, breathless.

I turn to look into her eyes. She doesn’t need to ask me twice.

Holding her waist, I lift her and set her on one of the long reading tables. I push aside a few heavy volumes and spread her thighs.

I settle myself between them like it’s my God-given right.

She scoots closer, eager for friction.

I drag my hand up her thigh, relishing the heat of her skin.

“I’ve found the sluttiest virgin in the whole world, haven’t I?” I say, leaning in and pressing my nose against her neck.

I breathe her in like she’s water to a thirsty man who’s been walking in an Arabian desert for days.

Blyat. Her essence.

Like forests and fairies.

“You have no idea how deprived you made me,” I say, raking my teeth against the sensitive skin of her neck.

I can feel her pulse against my mouth.

With everybody else, I aim to end this pulse.

But with Vera, I’m compelled to protect it with my life. I need to keep the life in her and watch her flourish.

I make a silent vow to myself—nothing and nobody will ever make her feel helpless again. She wasn’t born to be a caged tigress.

“Are you going to touch me for real this time?” she asks shyly.

“Do you want me to?”

“Yes,” she whispers. “God, yes.”

My hands tighten on her thighs. I draw circles against her inner thighs before pulling them away.

She makes a sound of protest.

“Do you want me to be gentle, Vera?” I say.

All of my muscles are tense and locked. I don’t know what I’ll do if she says yes.

She wraps her arms around my neck and gives me full access to those fuck-me eyes.

“I want you to be you,” she says. “Don’t hold anything back.”

I snake my hands around her waist and reach lower.

I grip her lush ass and use that grip to tug her closer. My cock hurts to the point of pain when I see the way her round breasts bounce with the movement.

Her gray-blue eyes widen when she feels my erection against her core.

Her eyes flutter lower and then away.

I lean down to whisper dirty things in her ear. “No need to act shy, princess. I already know how dripping wet you are for this cock. I know you ache to be filled to the brim. Your tight pussy will take as much of it as it can, won’t it?”

Her head rolls back, and her limbs turn lax at my words. She turns into a pliant doll when she’s turned on.

“Can I drink from it, princess?” I ask.

Her eyes focus on my face, and she nods slowly.

I lean down and press my lips against her softer ones.

It catches her off guard.

Her hands are on my chest, pushing me away. But I capture both of her wrists and invade her mouth with my tongue.

“Let go for me, tigritsa moya,” I say, my free hand moving lower to cup her hot flesh.

Her moan matches my growl.

The slick sound of her arousal, along with her moaning, is the sexiest sound I’ve ever heard.

“Did you think I’d drink from your pussy before tasting your lips?” I say, smearing her honey all over my palms. “In time, I’ll have every part of you, baby girl. And you’ll learn to love all of it.”

“Simon,” she exclaims. “Fuck.”

It’s too much for her.

Especially since I’m giving it to her all at once.

“Keep screaming my name, Vera,” I say. “I want you to scream it endlessly when you’re being filled with my cock for the first time. This tight little pussy is going to strangle my dick, isn’t it? Even if you have to struggle to fit all of me, I won’t stop thrusting into this tight little mess for anything.”

I push a finger into her.

It’s snug.

Around a single finger.

She bites down on my lips and squeezes her eyes shut. I ease out of her gently before adding another finger inside her.

Her thighs start to shake.

I keep them open using force, drawing my fingers in and out of her while assaulting her clit at the same time.

Her head drops back.

I caress the back of her neck as I leave open-mouthed kisses all along her throat and collarbone.

“It’s going to bruise,” she says.

“Good,” I say, molding her soft tits in my hand. “I like knowing that I marked you.”

And with her thighs still spread wide open for me, I drop down to the floor. She’s beyond messy, dripping down her thighs and onto the table too.

I growl in approval. “We won’t need any lube with the amount of mess that you make.”

She gathers her hair on top of her head and leans back like a queen being serviced.

I press my nose on the skin above her clit, and inhale her intoxicating scent.

Just when I think it’s not possible to be more obsessed with this girl, she shows me another side of her.

I nip her inner thigh, making her jerk.

“What was that for?” she asks.

“For being so goddamn sexy,” I reply. “For driving me to insanity.”

“Not possible,” she says. “You’re already a hundred percent insane.”

“Then what does that make you?” I ask.

She opens her mouth to reply but chokes on her words when I flatten my tongue against her slit and drag it all the way up.

One of her hands reaches down to grip my hair.

And she gushes honey for me.

I drink up every drop, letting it drip down my chin.

She shimmies her hips while I eat her out, like she just discovered something she really likes.

We’re in broad daylight.

I thought she’d be shy, but she doesn’t hide a thing from me.

Her head is tilted up at the glass roof, catching the little winter sunlight. Her thighs are splayed open for my pleasure, and her back is arched.

She’s magnificent, and she knows it.

I reach up to palm a breast. My other hand is tight around her waist, fusing her core to my mouth.

I’m filled with a need to have her as close as possible.

I need Vera all over me.

“Your stubble,” she gasps. “It tickles.”

I press a cheek against a thigh before biting down on it.

I need to have her marked.

It’s a primal instinct that makes me want to make it clear to every other male that this woman belongs to me.

Her moans and little tugs on my hair drive me.

I read what she likes, and I give her more of it. Dirty talk happens to be one of her vices.

“We’ll have to do this all over again, Verochka,” I say. “But instead of my mouth, it’ll be my cock all over you. You’ll keep these pretty thighs spread for my cock as well, won’t you?”

She replies by clamping her thighs around my head.

“I wonder if you know how to use those muscles inside you as well,” I say, pushing a finger into her while I devote my tongue to her clit. “But even if you don’t, this hot little pussy will choke me anyway. Do you know how hard it was not to devour your sexy little body that night? I only held back because I knew this day would come. When I’d have you pliant and at my mercy.”

One of her feet digs into the space between my shoulders, urging me to keep going.

“And when I finally have you, I’ll have all of you, Vera,” I promise. “I’ll consume you until my name and my cock are all that you know.”

I increase the friction on the underside of her clit and growl at the profuse honey that keeps dripping out of her.

When I feel her start to clench on my finger, I suck her clit into my mouth and speak against it.

“Look at that,” I say, pushing in and out of her. “You do know how to use those pussy muscles. You better be using them when you’re milking my cock dry. I want you to squeeze out every last drop into your whip-tight channel.”

She shoots off like a rocket.

I hold her hips down as they lift off the table to grind against my mouth. She screams her pleasure, her voice broken and gasping.

I hold her tight the entire time, grounding her as I watch in awe.

If she makes that face and those sounds every time she comes, I’ll be spending the rest of my life fucking her into oblivion.

When she’s done, her gaze is soft as it rests on me.

Her hands move to cover her breasts, and her knees draw inward.

“I’m not done with you, tigritsa moya,” I say, keeping her open for my feasting. “I won’t ever be done with you.”

“Oh.” She licks her lips.

Standing up, I pull out my stone-hard cock and rest it against her thigh. Her lips part, and her muskiness increases threefold.

Her body knows what it wants, even if she’s still learning it.

“I can smell your arousal, Verochka,” I say. “You want to play with it, don’t you?”

She exhales. “It’s so….”

“So?” I press a kiss on the hollow of her neck. “I want you to get used to seeing and touching it. It’s the only cock your body will ever know.”

She pushes me away when I say that.

“What the hell, Simon?” she lashes out.

Gritting my teeth, I cup her saturated pussy and squeeze it possessively. “Don’t deny me this, Vera. All of this is for me.”

She jumps when she feels my cock twitch against her thigh.

“You’re so soft for me,” I growl, getting off on her lush curves. “Your body is designed for me. To drive me insane until I have you soaking in all my come.”

A dribble of precome hits her belly, gravity pulling it down to where I want it to be.

She doesn’t touch it, but she keeps staring at it like it’s an untamed animal.

It’s purple and thick and throbbing for her, hitting the juncture between her thighs as I kiss her neck.

I fist the hair at the back of Vera’s neck and lift her head.

I need her pillowy lips again.

If I don’t kiss her now, I’ll end up doing something I’ll regret in an hour.

Good thing her lips taste like a slice of heaven.

I have my fill of her essence as I slowly rock my hips into her. Sometimes, my cock hits her belly. Other times, I make it hit the flesh between her thighs.

She squirms as I drink her in.

I want her to fall into me. To trust me, not just with her body but with her heart as well.

Her hands are resting on my chest now, her long fingers curling around my neck.

I lean into her, almost flattening her against the table.

She craves this contact as much as I do.

As we touch, we unlock something greater. Something that has been left unexplored until now.

And it’s making us reckless.

Just as I trap her bottom lip between my teeth, we both hear it.

A door being opened.

Both of us halt.

She tries to scramble off the table, but I hold her in place.

“Vera?” Her name is called.

I didn’t know that her eyes could get that big. They look like twin tropical pools now, frightened but still aroused.

“That’s my father’s guard,” she says. “Konstantin. He’s not exactly my biggest fan.”

I nudge her opening with my cock, pushing the tip in.

“Simon,” she protests, even as she scoots closer, eager for more.

“It’s offensive, Vera,” I growl. “When you have your pretty pussy on display for me, the only name I want to hear is my own.”

“You’re fucking crazy,” she hisses.

She has no idea.

From our position here, we can hear the sound of footsteps down below. The guard must know that we’re somewhere in the greenhouse.

He’s searching for us.

Her thighs start to tremble.

I don’t like the look of fear or shame on her face. All she should know is pleasure.

I have an urge to erase every ugly emotion she ever felt.

The only pain she should know is the one I use for stimulating her body.

So holding her eyes, I thrust my fingers back into her opening.

She wiggles around, making herself even wetter in the process.

“Simon, what are you doing?”

“Good,” I say. “Keep saying my name as you cream all over my fingers.”

She wiggles again, but I stop her with a sharp slap on her ass.

Then we hear it.

The creaking of stairs. He’s on the staircase.

Vera’s pulse starts to pound, and I take it as a personal challenge.

“I bet I can make this horny pussy come for me in less than a minute,” I say, thrusting my fingers in and out of her.

Wet, squelching sounds fill the space.

The footsteps continue.

I press my mouth against her ear and press my palm against her mouth to trap her screams.

“I know you like being fingered, princess,” I say. “You act all high and mighty, but all you need is a big filthy cock inside you.”

Her body is shuddering now, belly clenching as I still have my fingers inside her.

I absently roll a nipple between my fingers before tugging on it.

She yelps, and I quickly cover it with my hand again.

“Hush, now,” I say, pumping furiously into her while stimulating her clit with my cock. “We can’t have everyone finding out about our little secret. I know it makes you feel good when I touch you. But your little moans and screams are for my ears only. Be my little fuck toy until nighttime, and I’ll reward you by filling up your pussy.”

Like clockwork, she comes undone.

Her teeth clamp down on my palm while she comes.

If the last time she came was luxurious, this time is violent.

Shudders wrack through her entire body, and her pussy is a soaking mess. I gather it all in my hands and lick it clean.

I dress her and make sure each strand of hair is in place before I put on my own clothes.

Her eyes are still dazed as I take her hand in mine.

“Do you trust me?” I ask.

“Today?” she asks. “Yes.”

The door of the study flies open just as we make our escape.