Chapter 89: Chapter Thirty-Four

Alice

“What if I’m hungry?” I asked innocently, still fully exposed to Andrei with his swollen, wet mouth, his smug as hell mouth.

He smirked. “I’ll make you dinner.”

“Not that kind of food.”

“I’m spicier than you,” he fired back with an amused laugh.

“What? And I’m cake?”

“I didn’t get a good enough taste test. I’ll come back to you on that, once I feed you. The only rule is you have to sit on my face. Otherwise… no deal.”

I almost hid behind my own hands. “You…” I had nothing.

“Me.” He shrugged. “You like stir fry?”

I almost smacked him. “You can’t just say things like that out loud and then offer stir fry!”

“Fine.” He leaned in; his lips moved up my neck. “Steak?”

“Meat. I could do meat.” I reached for him.

He dodged me.

“When are we going to talk about the fact that this isn’t an even playing field?” I asked out loud while he moved around the kitchen island, still so obviously aroused I had trouble not staring.

The man was… incredible.

And he still had pants on.

Unbelievable.

I wasn’t attracted.

Was that the lie I was telling myself?

“It’s cute that you think there’s a chance things will ever be fair between you and me.” He seemed so amused I wanted to smack him.

“You can’t just do things like that to people and then just offer stir fry and then walk around so aroused you’ll probably poke your own eye out in the next five minutes!”

He barked out a laugh. “First off, if I was that hung, I’d be a horse. Second, I’m still in possession of both eyes, but it’s good to know you’re concerned.”

“I’m not.” I gritted my teeth, pulled up my leggings, and jumped off the counter in a final tug to get them to the right spot. “You’re avoiding this discussion.”

“I’m trying to feed you.” He moved around the kitchen, opened the fridge.

I slammed the door closed. “I’m not leaving.”

He sighed. “You think after that I’d let you?”

“What was your plan? Barring the door and chaining me to your bed?”

He leaned against the fridge, his eyes scanning me from head to toe. “Close. I was planning on chaining you to your bed and then feeding on you whenever I got edgy…”

“So, like every five minutes?”

He leaned in and whispered, “Three.”

“If I agree to that, will you at least take off your gloves when you’re around me?”

He’d touched me intimately without gloves on.

And it hadn’t seemed hard.

Yet I knew it was. I knew it was painful.

I knew because Phoenix said it was.

Before I lost the nerve, I reached for his right hand and clutched it in mine.

He bit back a curse.

His entire body went stiff.

When he was in control, it didn’t hurt him—that’s what I’d noticed—but when it was forced on him, he reacted.

I almost gave up then.

Because I knew that there was no way I could let him take control during sex, could I?

Being at Andrei’s mercy.

I gulped.

And yet, the only way this was happening.

Was if I submitted to a man.

When I swore never again.

Andrei stared down at me.

He was so beautiful. With his fierce blue eyes, chiseled jaw, perfect complexion. My fallen angel.

I wondered what it would be like to just drop to my knees.

“You should eat.” He broke the staredown, his jaw flexing as he gripped my hand tighter and then very slowly brought it to his lips and kissed the back of it.

I almost swooned all over the floor. “I like it when you kiss me.”

His face softened. “You’re impossible not to kiss.”

“My dad said I was too tempting, my lips too big, my eyes too wide, he said I tempted men and—”

Andrei gripped my chin with his left hand, still holding my right. “Listen very carefully to what I’m about to say.”

His eyes flashed with so much anger I was actually afraid. “Okay.”

“It’s. Not. Your. Fault.”

Tears filled my line of vision until finally spilling over onto my cheeks. “It is, they say—”

“Alice, if you hear nothing else, believe nothing else, believe this. You are precious, and they will burn in Hell for hurting you, for telling you lies.

“The value you have, your life, your soul, your beauty, your intelligence—never let them make you think it’s worthless. That’s their shame talking, their anger, their bitterness, their jealousy.”

“The truly ugly of this world have one thing in common and one thing only… they want the truly pure and beautiful things to believe they are less than. Don’t let them win.”

My throat felt tight.

My tears too hot for my cheeks.

“Now…” He released my hand and pulled me against his chest, hugging me so tight that I wanted to cry more because it felt so right, so good.

Devil mine.

I instantly relaxed.

“Let me make you food,” he whispered against my hair.

“As long as it’s not that weird fish with the sharp fin. He was really pretty.”

He barked out a laugh, his body shaking against mine. “We won’t kill Speedy.”

“Stop.” I jerked away with a smile, wiping my tears from my cheeks. “Please tell me you don’t name all your torturous animals.”

He just shrugged and said, “The jellyfish’s name is Bob.”

And just like that, I, Alice De Lange.

Fell in love with Andrei Petrov.