Pageant (Pageant, #1)

by Lilith Vincent

I start to long for mornings and dread the weekends when I’m not needed. Sundays are the worst. They are cold and lonely, even when the sun is beating down. I’m never happier than on Monday mornings when I’m on my way to Ivan Kalashnik’s home, humming under my breath. I ring the bell and wait for Lilia to open the door and smile at me. She always smiles at me. Me. I’m fucking no one.

There’s an ache in my chest. If I were her husband, I could palm her belly, and then slide my hand down and cup her pussy. Whisper in her ear how much I love her and our unborn child. Swear to protect them forever.

She lets me hold her, her body against my bare skin. I haven’t crossed the line. We’re standing on it right now and we can both feel what’s on the other side. I’m living in this moment with her, and she’s going to imagine with me what it would be like if we were to cross it. When we cross it.

“Feel how much I want you,” I whisper along her throat. “I do not care you are married. I do not give a fuck that this could get me killed. I want you with every breath I take.”

“I wanted you the first time I saw you,” she confesses. “I tried not to look at you. Think about you. I could feel you before I ever touched you.” I grasp my cock and push it down her lips to her entrance. “I have not stopped thinking about you since the first night I saw you. I have ached for you, Lilia.”

“You don’t scare me, Elyah Morozov,” she wheezes, her expression burning with hatred. “My father is Aran Brazhensky. My husband was Ivan Kalashnik. Who are you? A little boy who likes to get his dirty hands on what’s not his. You were sent to prison for stealing. You tried to steal me. You’re nothing but a common thief.”

Fuck…. I love her

His lip curls back in a snarl. “Everything is game to you.” She lifts her arms and gestures around the room, at the desk Kirill and I are sitting behind. “Well, what the fuck is this?” Kirill lets out a shout of laughter and claps his hands, loud and slow. “Ten fucking points. Five stars. What’s our scoring system? I don’t know, but Number Eleven wins round one for me.”

Number Eleven flashes me a challenging look over her shoulder, one eyebrow arched. So, are you entertained?

“You’re perfect when you’re fast asleep, those dark gold lashes against your cheeks. Every time I picture your eyes flying open and catching me balls deep in your pussy…” He sinks his teeth into his lower lip and moans. “I get hard.”

I love the somnophilia kink with all my heart but it’s ruined when there’s no consent beforehand 😭

“What the fuck are you waiting for?” I snarl, glaring from him to the gun. “Shoot me.” Kirill flinches in anger and pulls the trigger. I brace for the worst because the worst is what I’ve learned to expect— There’s a muted click, and then nothing. The chamber was empty.

This whole scene was insane wtfffff

He wanted a gun held to my head to test my bravery. I played Russian roulette with my pussy. I think he’s got his answer.

I’m in love

“I aim to please,” I say sarcastically. He gives me a sleek smile and dips his head toward me. Those gray eyes of his sparkle like a frozen lake, and the pitch of his voice is low and rich as he murmurs, “Apparently, you do. Good girl.”

I blink, and hot tears spill down my cheeks. Konstantin draws closer, his face filled with sympathy but his eyes shining with malice. With reverence, he lowers his head and kisses the wet tracks on my cheeks. It’s a gesture that should feel loving or even pitying, but he brands me with his hot lips. This pain? Mine. Delicious.

“I have already told you that you having sex with Lilia is terrible idea.” There’s a long, crackling pause, and he says in a roughened voice, “So terrible I cannot stop thinking about watching you push her down over that desk and fucking her hard.” A hot pulse shoots through me at the heat and longing in Elyah’s voice.

He shoots a heated glance at Konstantin. “Fuck, how do you do it? This hellcat is now a soft little kitten.” Konstantin spreads his hands and gives his friend a sleek, self-satisfied smile. “Did you ever get her to behave like this?” Kirill asks, turning to Elyah.

“I thought I would go mad with jealousy watching any man touch Lilia, but watching her with Kirill yesterday…” Elyah trails off with a slow breath. “I have never seen anything sexier in all my life. Perhaps until now.”

The dark-haired man sits heavily on the table, grumbling, “I never get anything I want unless I take it for myself.”

Said the rapist… 😅

I’m sobbing, but from happiness, not despair. He’s not my tormentor. He’s my savior.

He puts his lips against my ears and murmurs, “You are perfect, Lilia Aranova. You are my angel. My precious.”

His deep, gentle words glow golden in my soul. Tears of gratitude run down my cheeks. Within this tight cocoon of our bodies, everything is pure bliss. I’m perfect? I’ve never been anyone’s perfect anything. I’ve only ever been a problem. Ungrateful. A disappointment. A temptress and a whore. My past is a wasteland of pain.

It’s not just that she’s beautiful and whip-smart. I’ve never known a woman with such strength of character that she could bewitch three killers at the same time. None of us could tear our eyes away from her. Watching her writhe against Kirill’s tongue while he fucked her with a gun and then demanded he pull the trigger… That’s going to live rent-free in my head long after Number Eleven is dead.

Dude, same

What fun he had, fucking me and humiliating me. I think that must have been the highlight of his week. Stupid Number Eleven laid her clothes across his desk as she undressed for him, and after, when the Pakhan had broken her, she bundled her clothes up in her arms and hurried out. Taking her passport with her.

Girl bossing the shit out of those fuckers

You taught me well, Babulya. She turned her heart cold to get what she wanted, while I made mine daring for Kirill, needy for Konstantin, and fiery hot for Elyah. Every day, I watched those men and learned what I could about them. I discovered what they needed to make them feel like they were getting the better of me. While Number Eleven was getting everything she wanted.

Every electric shock they gave us. Every beating. Poor dead Valentina, the first Number Eleven. The terror. The cold. The cages. Their hands on me. Their mouths on me. Their lust. Their cruelty. These men are going to pay.

Why am I wishing this wasn’t a romance and she killed them instead? 🤣

Konstantin, Elyah, and Kirill are somewhere in there, and so is the prize that I plan on snatching from under their noses. I’m taking all of Konstantin’s jewels from him. Every last one of them.

The Number Eleven he knew wasn’t real. I haven’t been real for a long time. Lilia Brazhensky was a scared, defiant little girl. Lilia Kalashnik tried to force herself to be a living doll, not a person. Lilia Aranova thought she found freedom in the arms of a dangerous man. Yulia Petrova was a terrified fugitive. Now, at long last, I’m me. Just Lilia. And Lilia is more than enough.

😍 feminine rage, my favorite

“You, crowned with that tiara. You’re all I want. You’re all I’ve ever needed.”

Fuck off asshole

“Don’t you get it yet? If I’m going to die, then it’s going to be on my terms. Who knows? Maybe I’ll live. I’ve survived crueler men than you.”

💪🏻💪🏻

I cast one final look at Konstantin. “I will burn like acid in your heart every time you think of me.”

Ohhhhhhh shit. Oh man. I’m so in love with this woman. WHAT

A bitter taste fills my mouth as I realize I grossly underestimated Lilia Aranova. Is she an innocent woman, or the deceitful bitch Elyah claimed she was all along? A femme fatale who doesn’t blink at playing Russian roulette with her pussy, or a woman who’s never known pleasure in a man’s arms? A fiercely proud woman, or just a good actor? Is she all those things? Or none of them?

“I will find you, milaya. I will discover who you really are, and you will pay for this. You will regret the day you crossed me.”