Consumed by Deception (Deception Trilogy, #3)

by Rina Kent

She’s my wife. My son’s mother. Fucking mine. And I’ll go through hell itself if it means keeping her there.

She’s still the fragile rose I want to shield from the world, lure her into mine, and swallow her in my darkness.

“You might have forgotten a few things, so let me remind you, Lia. You are my wife. Fucking mine. That means you don’t protect another man in my damn presence. No matter how much you try to shield him, I’ll find the bastard and kill him. Then, I’ll keep my promise and fuck you in his blood.”

“No. You’re not just my wife, the mother of my son, and completely and utterly mine, but you’re also the only woman I’ve wanted since the first time you begged me to fuck you when you were drunk.”

But there’s one thing my dear wife seems to forget. She once labeled me her villain, and that’s the most accurate label she’s ever given me. As is true with any villain, right or wrong is never black or white. It’s always gray.

“If something happens to you, it won’t push me away. If anything, it’ll bring me closer, Lenochka. Sex plays a part of who we are, and I love how you submit to my dominance, but it’s not the reason why I’ve been married to you for six years.” “What is then?” “You.” “Just me?” “Just you.”

If it were up to me, she’d have no contact with them at all. A certain dark obsession takes hold of me whenever she talks, let alone smiles, at other men—even if they’re my own guards. It provokes the beast inside me who’s ready to come out and slaughter any man in her vicinity so that I’m the only one she ever gives her attention to.

“I love you,” she whispers against my mouth, her breath stuttering. “I love you so much, Adrian.”

“I trusted you, Lia, even more than I trusted myself. You were the light I wasn’t allowed to have and I did everything I could to protect it and not let it burn out. You were the only purity I saw in the world and I did my hardest not to tarnish it. In my own fucked-up way, I wanted to preserve you, to go against my nature and keep you, but I should’ve known it was only a pipe dream.”

I guess this is what it means to love. It’s to feel the pain of the one you love in spite of what he’s plotting for you.

I do love you, Lia. I always have. But my form of love isn’t sweetness or softness. It’s nothing noble or delicate. My love is selfish and villainous. My love is the type where I will kill people to protect you and erase others to avenge you. My love is possessive, obsessive, and knows no boundaries, not when I first met you and certainly not now.”

“Then don’t say you’ll leave me again. You’re my last stop and I plan to stay, not move on.” “You’re my last stop, too.”

I’m done treating my wife like a stranger when she’s always been the only person who mattered in a room full of people. The only person I see.

“I’m sorry for making you feel bad when I should’ve done the opposite. I lost the ability to feel love when I was a boy, but you’ve slowly but surely yanked those feelings out of me. You didn’t only yank them out, you also held tight to a part of me I thought was long gone.

I told you how different my love is, how dark it can get, but I do love you, more than I’ve ever loved anyone in my life. I don’t only need you; I also genuinely cannot live without you and the light you bring to my darkness. I know you deserve better, but I’m unable to let you go, so I’ll try my best to be worthy of you, Lenochka.”