Tempted by Deception (Deception Trilogy, #2)

by Rina Kent

Her lips are blood red and her earrings are long and dangle to her neck like tinsel at Christmas, which I celebrated with my father and his wife, Aunt Annika, this year. Mom spent the entire month after throwing things at me, but it was worth it. Mom hates Aunt Annika. She does and says stuff that hurts her, like how she can’t even have a baby.

wtf also ANNIKA that’s where her name comes from

You’re the most beautiful flower on earth, Duchess. You not only grew on the harsh pavement, but you also flourished. Keep growing. I’m proud of my little Duchess. Love, L. Luca. We might not see each other often, but my friendship with him will always be there.

🤭🤭🤭

To say I’m not scared of the gun in his hand would be a lie. I haven’t been this close to a weapon since I moved to New York and adopted a completely different lifestyle. However, that’s not what robs my breath and burns my lungs.

I was the prima ballerina in Romeo and Juliet, Swan Lake, and recently, The Nutcracker. But Giselle? Giselle will be the peak of my career. Something I will tell my grandchildren about someday.

“First of all, you need to stop addressing Giselle in third person. She’s you now. If you don’t live inside her, she won’t live inside you.” She places a hand on my chest. “If you don’t allow her to consume your heart and soul, you’ll only go down in history as another ballerina who portrayed Giselle well enough.”

That’s when I sense it. I’m about to jump when a sharp presence wrenches me from the confines of my fragile Giselle. For the first time during a rehearsal, I stare at the audience. The producers are there, animatedly chatting among each other. One isn’t a producer, though. Far from it. His dark gray eyes lock with mine and I lose my footing. But I save it at the last second, landing on my feet instead of on pointe as per the choreography. He’s here. The stranger has come back.

😱😱😱

Now, I can feel his intense cold eyes piercing into me and peering inside my head. In a way, it feels like everyone else has disappeared and he’s the only presence I can sense. The only person who’s watching me. Just like Albrecht was watching Giselle that day and became infatuated with her.

“Are you going to hurt me?” My voice is small, divulging my erratic heartbeat. “Depends.” “On what?” “On your ability to follow orders.” “W-what orders?” “Have dinner with me, Lia.” “What?” I mean to snap, but it comes out as a bewildered murmur. Did this killer/stranger/the one who threatened and continues to threaten my life just asked me to have dinner with him?

🤭🤭🤭🤭🤭

Besides, he awakened something inside me earlier by merely sitting in the audience. I chalked it up to coincidence, but now that he’s standing in front of me, my legs tingle with the need to move, to do something, anything. If I have to do this, I might as well find out why someone like him, a dangerous criminal, was able to draw that reaction out of me.

“So you would rather be the villain?” “A villain is the hero in his own story, so why not?” “The villain always loses.” “In Disney films. In your ballet performances, perhaps. In real life, however, the villain is the one who always wins.”

🤭🤭🤭🤭

actions. “I understand now.” I pour more wine to stop myself from ogling him. “Understand what?” “The loneliness in your eyes. You managed to transform it and translate it with your body language on the stage. That is very creative.”

“Why did you wait a week to find me?” I murmur. “I was busy.” “Busy gathering information about me?” “Probably. Why? Have you been thinking about me, Lenochka?” His voice drops with the last word.

The man kisses as confidently as he walks and talks, but there’s none of his calm behind it. Nothing to hold his stoic face in place. He gives as hard as he takes, tilting my head back so he can deepen the full invasion.

😍😍😍😍

A small sigh leaves her lips and I want to reach out to my guards, Kolya and Yan, and erase that sound from their heads. I don’t like that they can hear or see her like this. Though I shouldn’t particularly care, something has changed. I don’t know whether it started when I saw her that night or after her performance today, or if the deal was sealed when she moaned in my mouth as I devoured her lips.

When I watched her dance, shining under the spotlight, I didn’t see her ethereal beauty or angelic face. I didn’t see her elegance or her perfect technique. I saw darkness attempting to fester in light. I saw a person trying their hardest to escape who they truly are. And that’s what led to a chain of consecutive events.

This is her, uncensored. The real Lia Morelli, who ran from her past yet allows it to continue to haunt her. I touch her shoulder to wake her up and her hands shoot up and grab my wrist.

She said that I make her do things she doesn’t usually do. That makes two of us.

“The dinner was, as I said, to get to know you. The kiss was because I wanted to taste your lips. I didn’t touch you when you were drunk, because I need you present when I’m fucking you. As for your first question, I gave you time to let you cope with the fact that I’m coming for you.” “I thought you let me go.” “You’re smart enough to not believe that. During the entire week, you were jumpy, waiting, biding your time until I came back into your life again.” “You…you were watching me?” “Yes.” “Are you a stalker?” “I’m worse, Lenochka, but you already knew that when you touched yourself, showing me a side of you no one has seen.”

“But you wished for it, didn’t you? When they were handling you gently like a porcelain doll, you wished for the roughness, for the sting of pain.”

I remain there, motionless, my body and heart on high alert until I hear the soft click of the front door. Did he…leave? I stay still for a few minutes, thinking that it must be a distasteful joke. That he will come back and either finish what he started or tell me what the hell he’s planning. He doesn’t return.

😢😢😢😢

But that part isn’t keeping its sights on the reason why I’m doing this in the first place. I’m not getting under Lia’s skin to fuck her. I’m getting under her skin for information. In my dictionary, information is deadlier than any gun. It’s a weapon of mass destruction, and if there’s anything I learned from my psycho mother, it’s that I need to grab the bull by the horns.

FOR INFORMATION???

But that’s not all. It’s the way she moaned. The way she stared, dazed after she orgasmed. I want that sight in my brain, not as a spur-of-the-moment thing, but as a constant that I can revisit again and again until she’s completely out of my system.

My abnormal sleeping schedules started after that day—the day my own mother broke my arm because it would help her get my father to her side. I didn’t trust that she wouldn’t do it again, that to become Georgy Volkov’s wife, she wouldn’t use me, over and over, to get in his favor.

😢

If it were a few days ago, I would’ve told them all about Lia Morelli, but after today, she’ll remain locked between me and myself. She’s now my secret. Dirty. Dangerous. And entirely fucked-up.

While I respect him as a dancer for his flawless posture and technique, I loathe him as a human being.

Adrian is here. That thought isn’t fully implemented in my mind when the reality of what’s happening slams into me. I don’t even focus on the fact that my throbbing foot is free from Ryan’s shoe. The view in front of me is more shocking. More demanding of my attention.

“This is your first and final strike.” Adrian digs the sole of his shoe into Ryan’s calf, making him cry out. “Touch her again and I’ll make sure you’re paralyzed for life.” Ryan nods rapidly, frantically. I’m sure he can see the black halo surrounding Adrian like a second skin. Or maybe I’m the only one who can see his unmodified nature.

YUSSSS

“Threatening other people’s lives and dreams. You’re like a true villain.” His lips twitch in rare amusement. “You thought I was a fake villain?”

“What makes you think I want you to know me?” “Isn’t that how these things work?” “These things?” he repeats with an edge of mockery. “You know.” “I don’t know.” “Just you and me.” “Just you and me. I like that.” My head lifts at the satisfaction in his tone. He really does sound like he likes it, but why?

“You think I haven’t figured out what you’re doing, Lia?” My eyes must double in size as I try to look at him, but his unyielding grip prohibits me the slightest movement. “W-what?” “You’ve been waiting for this moment all night. Or…let’s say for part of the night. Did that busy brain of yours think you could get rid of me by being an obedient slut?” My molars grind together as I snap, “I’m not a slut.” “Then don’t fucking act like one.” His words are as scathing as his rare cursing. “I’m not.” “Yes, you are. Do you want to be treated like a slut, Lia? Is that it?”

I’ve always secretly liked the type of man who takes whatever he wants while flipping the world the middle finger. No clue what that says about me as a human being, and in my defense, I’ve been doing just fine hiding that guilty pleasure all these years. But before now, I didn’t have this mountain of a man in my life. I didn’t expect I’d meet someone who would put that fantasy into a literal application.

That’s how I’ve felt about everything to do with Adrian since I first met him. He has a way of making me abandon my inhibitions and just…fall.

It’s liberating as much as it is dangerous. Delicious as much as it is terrifying.

Still, I go the logical route. “I…I thought it was a one-time thing.” “You thought wrong, Lenochka.” His voice is as calm as the devil, and just as lethal. And I know, I just know that my life will never be the same again.

But that’s the thing. I lacked my steel-like control. I didn’t have the will to stop, not after what happened in the club. I was still fuming with pent-up frustration for not strangling that fucker who put his hands on her, who didn’t only touch her, but also did it intimately and then threatened her.

I’m not the type to see red. I’ve always believed anger was beneath me—it’s an emotion that will just cloud my vision and deter me from making the right decision. In fact, aside from when Aunt Annika died, I don’t think I’ve ever felt strong emotions. After that, all the anger and the irrationality that came with it seemed to vanish out of my system to be replaced by a cool head. Until that scene at the club. Until all I could see was fucking red. This woman hasn’t only been messing with my patterns, but she’s also provoking a part of me that I bid farewell when I was a child. A part that I will smother to death before it invades me again.

But being soft doesn’t mean she’s naive. Lia knows when to stand up for herself if need be, but she carefully picks her battles. Like a survivor would. Considering her background, the tactic makes perfect sense.

She’ll soon see my uncensored side. How soon, is the question. My gaze flits over the living room, noting the places where I’ll have Kolya and Yan install cameras when she’s out. There’s also a nook in her bedroom, right over her vanity, where it would be the perfect spot to insert a surveillance camera. She’s right. I am a stalker.

“No. Look at us.” “Don’t make me,” she begs between moans. “You called me a disaster, but this is the true disaster, Lia. You and me.” She complies, her lips parting, and a sparkle shines in the depths of her eyes, making them lighter, almost as if she’s on a high.

“You asked when I’d be done. The answer is never. I’ll never be done with you, Lenochka.”

“I’m sorry. I wasn’t feeling well.” And I really wasn’t until Adrian fucked me like a savage before he disappeared. Is he going to make this a habit and keep leaving after taking care of his sexual needs like I’m some sort of slut? Damn him. Why the hell am I so hung up on that part, anyway? After all, I allowed for everything to happen just so he would leave. He’s a killer, Lia. A fucking killer. I wait for the disgust to invade me at that reminder. I wait to feel nausea at allowing a murderer to touch me so intimately. Yet nothing comes. Am I that broken?

“You’re back,” he says without lifting his head from his task. There’s a frittata and a big bowl of salad as well as a few cut apples. “What are you doing?” I murmur, unable to make sense of the situation. “What does it look like I’m doing? Preparing you dinner.” He still hasn’t met my gaze. “Go wash your hands.”

😍😍😍😍

“Too late.” He stares at me with those unnerving eyes. “I already claimed you as mine and there’s no going back.”

Shooing that thought away, I ask. “What does that mean?” “What does what mean?” “Lenochka?” “Bright light.” My lips part, not believing he just called me that. Surely, it must be a play of my imagination. “You think I’m a bright light?”

“Just so you know, the prettiest roses have the deadliest thorns.”

“Here’s a fact for you, Lia. Deadly thorns thrill me.” I swallow. “But they injure you.” “It’s worth it.” He motions at my forgotten plate of food. “Are you finished?” “Yeah, why?” “Because I’m going to fuck you until you scream, my deadly thorn.” And with that, he picks me up and carries me in his arms toward the bedroom.

In the mornings, however, he leaves. Every fucking morning, he goes out like a thief. Like I’m his slut and he doesn’t want to be seen with me.

😭😭😭😭

“I’m not going to be your spy, Luca.” “Why not?”

“It’s Adrian. He’ll know.” “He won’t.” “How can you be so sure?” “He’s blinded by you.” My lips part. “Blinded by me? You must be kidding.” “I’m not. For the first time in his life, the meticulous Adrian Volkov is letting a woman close. If that’s not a weakness, I don’t know what is.”

“That’s not how it goes, Lia. Give me what I want and I’ll give you what you need.” With that, he turns and leaves. The meaning behind his words remains with me. I’ll give you what you need. Luca worded it perfectly. He, of all people, knows that uncovering the truth behind my parents’ deaths is what’s been haunting me since I was a small girl. It’s why I have those visceral nightmares and take those pills. It’s why I’m too scared to live and too scared to die. And to free myself, to choose a final destination, I need to spy on the devil himself.