Vow of Deception (Deception Trilogy, #1)

by Rina Kent

If I expected sympathy from Adrian, he shows none. His expression remains the same. “What was the favor she asked of you?” “What?” “You said she asked you for a favor. What was it?” “Why do you want to know?” “Tell me.” “N-no.” He narrows his eyes. “Why not?” “Because I’m not proud of it.” “You said it didn’t succeed.” “I wanted it to. I guess that’s what counts for me.”

“Get on the table, Lia.” Any hope I had for him to call me by my name shatters and disperses in the background. It hurts worse than anything he’s done to me. Worse than the lashes of his belt and the slap of his hands. Worse than him depriving me of alcohol.

Because at this moment, I realize that he’ll never see me. That, just like in the ballet, I’m only a shadow of someone else. An insignificant nobody.

😢😢😢

Actually, no. It’s not the alcohol that goes to my head. It’s a different taste altogether. Adrian’s. He sucks on my tongue in an open-mouthed kiss, imploring, exploring, and robbing all of my common sense. It’s tender but harsh. Passionate but demanding. Just like the way he ate me out not even a minute ago.

I’m breathing heavily, my teeth and lips still wrapped around his arm, when he asks quietly, “Are you ever going to let me hear your voice?” I release his arm to stare up at him, at the slight furrow in his brow, at the disappointment I can taste off his posture. “Are you ever going to call me Winter?” I murmur back. He shakes his head once.

“Do you need Mommy too, Papa?” Adrian pauses before he says calmly, assertively, “I do.”

“All right, Papa.” Jeremy grins at me. “We’ll share Mommy then.” “Thank you, Malysh.” Adrian smiles at his son, and I’m once again caught off guard by it. What right does he have to smile like that?

🥹🥹🥹🥹

Adrian’s lips pull in a small smile. Holy hell. I’m glad he doesn’t smile too often because I’d go into cardiac arrest or something. He seems to be in an awfully good mood right now and I wonder what triggered it. Was it inflicting my punishment in his office or simply being here with me and Jeremy? Knowing his controlling, dominant character, it’s probably the first reason.

“Yay, Papa!” Jeremy kisses his father on the cheek, joy sparkling in his wide eyes. Adrian faces me. “I think your mom should show appreciation, too, shouldn’t she, Malysh?”

“Yes, Mommy! Kiss Papa.” I glare at Adrian for the way he’s manipulating a kid, but I don’t make a problem out of it as I lean in and press my lips to the stubble on his cheek.

was too much. It still is. I don’t want him to care for me that way. I don’t like being cared for. It makes me feel weak—weaker than the situation I’ve been thrown in. And I sure as hell don’t want Adrian to do it. Because he’s not genuine. Or maybe he is, but not toward me. It’s toward his wife.

Adrian stands up once he’s finished and positions himself behind me, grabbing the blow-dryer. The slow humming of the machine fills the room as he removes the towel from around my head and dries my hair. I shiver for a reason completely different from my wet hair meeting my neck. I keep my eyes downcast because I don’t want to look in the mirror to see him caring for me and blow-drying my hair. I don’t want to get caught up in these moments that aren’t meant for me. Lia was one lucky woman. Or maybe it was the opposite, considering the savage ways he touches me—her.

🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹

“There’s an unofficial version?” He’s preoccupied with my hair as he speaks, “Correct.” “What is it?” “It’s a secret between Lia and me.” “I thought I was Lia.”

This time, she doesn’t resist as I tuck her under the covers. She willingly closes her eyes and whispers, “I wish I’d never met you.” My lips brush against her forehead. “I’ll meet you over and over again if I have to.”

He still spoons me from behind every night, but his touch feels mechanical and distant. He’s been so distant that I think I might never be able to reach him. That should delight me. After all, I want him to leave me alone. But do I? The answer is no. Ever since he’s withdrawn, I’ve been baffled by how much I’ve gotten used to him, to his punishments. To his…closeness.

“You asked me to help you escape, and then I learn you returned to Adrian’s side as if nothing had happened. Do you know how confused I was?” Wait. What? Lia asked Rai to help her escape Adrian? When the hell was that?

😱😱😱😱

wonder why she tried to escape him. It couldn’t be because she was feeling invisible like me. For some reason, the knowledge that their marriage wasn’t as solid as I thought relaxes me a little. I’m such a horrible person.

Unknown Number You have one mission. Pull the fucking trigger.

😱😱😱😱

In the six years I’ve been married to Lia, I’ve treated her like a stranger in public. Everyone in the brotherhood thinks she means nothing to me, and that the only reason I have a sickly doll-faced woman by my side is because of an unplanned pregnancy.

“Lia’s been kidnapped.”

whatttt????

“Why are you so calm?” Adrian’s guard asks me, sweat trickling down his temples. I stare at my steady hands. Even my breathing is calm. I didn’t panic, not even when Yan was shot. My immediate thought was to get him safe and sound from that predicament. It still is.

“Who am I is an interesting way of putting it. Who are you, Duchess? What’s your mission?” “I have no mission.” “Yes, you do.” He twirls the gun in his hand, his forefinger pressing on the trigger. “You know it. I know it. If you don’t make it happen, you’ll pay the price.”

Who is this guy???

“Lia.” “What?” I answer absentmindedly, still watching Yan’s lifeless body. “Lia!” “What?” I snap at Adrian. He’s wiping under my eyes. I taste salt and that’s when I realize I’ve been crying. For how

She answered to Lia?? I’m starting to think this is a multiple personality thing or something and she is actually Lia

I’m crying, but it’s not only about Yan. I’m also crying because I think I know that man, the shadow, the one who said I had a mission. And something tells me this mission is more dangerous than I could ever imagine.

He doesn’t, but I do. Even as I wrap my arms around his neck, I try to keep the gloves away. I don’t want to get blood on him. There shouldn’t be any blood near him.

🥹🥹🥹🥹

His white tuxedo shirt has smudges of blood on it. There’s some on his forehead, too. I don’t like it. I don’t want it on him and I hate that I’m the reason it’s there. There really shouldn’t be blood on him.

“Do you have any idea how worried I was?” He rubs his chin against the side of my head as his fingers undo the clips holding my hair. The strands fall to my back and he nuzzles his nose against it, inhaling me in. “I thought I’d lost you again, Lia.”

🥹🥹🥹🥹

“I’m so proud of what you did to help Yan, Lenochka,” he murmurs against my face as he hooks his fingers around the edge of my panties. “You’re proud of me?” I grab the sides of his shirt for balance. “I’ve always been proud of you.” He pauses. “Let’s change that to mostly.”

AWWW🤭🤭🤭🤭

A throaty moan fills the air and I realize it’s mine. Adrian pauses and a pleased groan spills from his lips. “Fuck, Lenochka… Do you know how many times I’ve thought about hearing your sexy throaty voice?”

“You’re so beautiful,” he rasps, rolling his hips until his cock is all the way inside me. “You’re fucking home.” I gasp at both his words and the way he’s filling me to the point of stretching me in the most delicious way possible. Home. He called me home.

Since he started kissing me, I haven’t longed for air. He’s my oxygen now. The reason I’m fighting tooth and nail to hold on to life.

Thank you for being my home, I’m about to whisper in response, but his head falls into the space between my neck and shoulder and he kisses the skin there. “Fuck, I missed you, Lia.”

He doesn’t see me. He’s only seeing Lia. That thought cuts me open so deep, a tear slides down my cheek, mixing with the water and falling down the drain. Because I know, I just know that he’ll never see me as Winter. I’ll always be Lia.

😭😭😭😭

a clusterfuck of problems. This woman is intoxicating. She crept under my skin and injected her black magic into my bones. Now, she’s the reason I breathe. I feel like if I stop touching her, if I let her go, she’ll disappear again. I’ll never have her again.

At the same time, when I saw her struggling to hold Yan upright and knowing she’d probably carried him for a long time, judging by the scratches on her feet, I felt a deep sense of pride. Because even though Yan was supposed to protect her, they found themselves in a reversed position and she didn’t leave a man behind. This tiny fucking woman carried a large man on her back as if that were normal.

But most of all, I need to know who the fuck dared to kidnap my wife. My. Wife. It didn’t even happen on the streets or in an insignificant place. They dared to take her from an event held by Sergei in his own house. They have balls, I’ll give them that, but I’ll enjoy every second of cutting them.

take a second to suck in a breath. As much as the fucker has been getting on my nerves, I don’t like entertaining the idea of Yan’s death. Kolya always used to joke that he’s like our kid with how much we’ve doted on him, and he is, in a way. Seeing him shot was equivalent to seeing Jeremy choke a few months ago.

Possibly. After all, monsters can only birth monsters.

She’s wearing a white nightgown like in the nightmare, her dark hair splaying all over the pillow and her skin is pasty white. The woolen sheet covers her to the breasts and her hands are crossed on her stomach as if she’s in a casket. Lia Volkov. The real Lia Volkov. I thought she was dead. How could she be…? Why is she…? My thoughts tumble over each other with no clear direction as a sickening feeling settles over my stomach, demanding I throw up my breakfast. Her eyes snap open, their blue clashing with mine. I stumble backward as my mouth opens in a shriek.

😱😱😱😱😱

I wouldn’t care that he calls her by my name or that he only brought her as a replacement. She’s not me. It’s cheating. It’s fucking wrong. I might have stayed quiet about it before, but now that I know, I can’t go on like this. I’m not as sick as Adrian. I’m not a homewrecker. The other woman.

“What do I smell like?” “Like roses and fucking addictions.” “How do you know what addictions smell like?” “I didn’t. Until you.”

The fact that she’s muting herself should be a turn-off, but I’m too far gone for this woman to register that.

That’s why I keep her away from the brotherhood. That’s why I’d rather we don’t go out in public. I’m always tempted to go on a killing spree if anyone so much as looks in her direction, let alone talks to her. I’m always tempted to lock us both in a place no one can find us.

🤭🤭🤭🤭

“Adrian…” she moans, her voice the sweetest, most erotic, throaty sound I’ve ever heard. She doesn’t bite her lip, doesn’t even attempt to look away from me.

While I’m not sure about the extent of what happens, patterns don’t lie, and she’s developing one.

I love making her happy. I love how she melts in my arms and I intend to show her how much I love it all night long.

😍😍😍😍😍

I wish there was a way to stop myself from having this reaction whenever Adrian is involved. I wish I wasn’t lusting after a married man. Fuck. It’s not only lust. It’s something more, and that’s what brought tears to my eyes this morning in the shower. It doesn’t matter, though. He’s not mine and never will be. That’s why I need to leave.

😭😭😭😭

“You’re already having a date with Jeremy. Why not with me?” “Are you jealous of your own son?” “Sometimes. What do you say?” “About what?” “The date.”

🤭🤭🤭🤭

standing in the middle of a church, murmuring “I do” as I stare up at Adrian. He’s in a tux that makes him tenfold more handsome while I’m wearing a white wedding dress. His strong hand wraps around my nape as he pulls me against his chest. “You’re mine now, Mrs. Volkov.”

😱😱😱😱😱 okay I was right

His lips meet mine in all consuming kiss that robs my breaths. I don’t kiss him back. All I think about is how to finish his life.