CHAPTER FOURTEEN
NICHOLAS
The need to protect herself must suddenly occur to Victoria because before I realize what she intends to do, she raises her leg and thrusts it hard into my shin. I step back and grab my aching leg.
“Bitch,” I growl, but she doesn’t hear me because she’s taken off fast down the corridor. She manages the steps down without any trouble, and I listen to her rapid breathing in the darkness. I chase after her with murderous intent. William is my flesh and blood — he’s my closest ally in this house, and I won’t see any harm come to him from anyone. Especially a stuck up girl who thinks that she’s better than her allotted place in life. She thinks I’m a coward. I’ll show her just what I can do. She reaches her room and kicks at a pile of books holding the door open and tries to shut it. She’s too late and too weak against my superior strength. I push the door open and stalk into her room. The lights are already on, and I can see that she’s like a frightened little rabbit, cowering backward into a corner.
“Big mistake,” I sneer.
“He came to me first,” she pleads.
“William doesn’t understand what he’s doing. He thinks he’s nice, but he doesn’t understand the trouble it’ll get him into with my father. You should have sent him away and certainly shouldn’t have followed him.” I prowl closer to her, closing the distance between us like a cheetah ready to pounce.
“You forget something. I’m not the monster in this house. I’m just as much of a victim as it seems your brother is. Both of us not allowed to leave and kept hidden away against our free will. If you want to look at who might hurt your brother, go look in a mirror,” she hisses back at me. “Your brother was just being nice and bringing me a present.”
I groan. Setting William up with an Amazon Prime account was the worst thing I’d ever done. I thought it would help alleviate the boredom he felt, but after he spent five thousand pounds on games consoles, books, and a massive television in the first month alone, I decided to limit his spending. He’s obviously been on it again and buying presents for people that he really shouldn’t.
“You have to promise me you won’t tell anyone you saw him.” She's in the corner, and I place both my hands on the wall either side of her. She’s trapped. The only way out is to kick me again, but I’m anticipating that.
“Why?” she asks with utter contempt for me.
“Please?”
“Let me go, and I won’t say a word. Let me walk out of this house, right now.”
“You know I can’t do that,” I reply, sick of the same argument. Doesn’t she realize that I could squash her like a fly?
“Why not?”
“For god’s sake, Victoria. Just accept that this is happening. You aren’t getting out of here anytime soon,” I snap.
“Tell me something — I know what happens if you choose me. I get to be the Duchess of Oakfield and put my own children through the heartbreak I’m experiencing. What happens if you don’t choose me?”
“I’m not talking about this. Just answer me. Will you keep quiet about William?”
“No, you answer me.” She stamps her foot. I brace myself just in case she’s about to kick out again.
“God, you're the most infuriating woman I’ve ever known. Fine, you want to know what happens. If you survive the task, if being the poignant factor, and you lose, then you’ll be taken by the other men and raped. You’ll then be executed —since you’ll know far too much. Face it. One way or another, your life’s over. Accept it. Save my brother in the process. Don’t drag him down with you.”
She gasps, and her legs give way. She sinks to the floor at my feet.
“How can you do this to me? You don’t even know me. How can you be so cruel?” Tears pool in her eyes, but they don’t fall. Despite her moment of weakness, she won’t allow me the indignity of seeing her cry.
“It’s not personal. If I could change things, then I would. I want this as much as you do.” The anger of moments ago dissipates between us. I crouch down on the balls of my feet in front of her. “I’ve told you I have no choice. It’s the only way to get rid of him.”
“Your father?”
I nod an affirmative.
“I don’t want to die.”
“I don’t want you to die. I don’t want Elizabeth and Amelia to die either, but I have to get rid of him. Once I’m Duke, William can be seen. I’ll be in charge. I’ll make the rules.”
“Will you change the rules of the society so that this doesn’t happen to other people?”
I swallow deeply.
“I’ll do what I can.”
“You mean no.” She pushes to her feet and walks past me to the bed. I follow her and wrap my arms around her. I don’t know why. It just seems the right thing to do. She’s distressed. She’s been told she could die within the year.
“I don’t know if that’s a battle too far for me. I won’t ever stop trying, though.” I lay my head on her shoulder and whisper my words into her ear.
“William’s safe. I won’t mention I’ve seen him. He told me about the cameras you have on us. You might want to get rid of any video that’s been recorded.” She sounds defeated.
“Thank you. I’ll choose you in return if I can. I’ll make you the Duchess.”
She spins in my arms and faces me. The tears she’s been holding in begin to fall. Her stunning emerald eyes meet mine, and there's sadness and defeat in them.
“No, don’t make a promise you can’t keep. I’m not protecting William so I can gain favor with you. I’m doing it because he’s as much a victim of this house as I am.” She looks down at the ground. “I think it would be better if you go.” With a wriggle, she attempts to pull out of my arms. I grip tighter. I don’t want to go. She looks back up at me. “Earl Lullington, please.”
I bow my head and bring my lips down on hers. She’s soft and tastes of strawberries. At first, she doesn’t respond. I pull back and see that tears still fall. She opens and closes her mouth like she wants to tell me off, to shout, scream, and rant at me, but nothing comes out. I let go of her waist with one hand and use my fingers to wipe away her tears. She turns her head and kisses the tears from my digits. My breath hitches, and I lean back in to kiss her again. This time, she responds, and before I know it, we’re bumping into the bed and falling on top of it.
She breaks the kiss and stares at me intently.
“Make me feel. If I’m to die, allow me this one thing.”
I slide down her body. She’s wearing the silk dressing gown and set of pajamas that I bought for all the girls. Tradition dictates that they should wear these horrendous Victorian nightdress things, but I’m afraid they did nothing for me. If I can’t see a woman naked, then I prefer her to look casual in low slung trousers and a tight t-shirt. I pull her pajama bottoms down and throw them on the floor. My face is inches from her pussy, and I can smell her arousal. It leaves a glistening coat on her neatly trimmed cleft. I shove my face in between her legs and start to sample her delights — like a man on death row consuming his last meal. I’ve eaten enough pussy to know a good one when I taste it, and this is the best ever. She’s succulent, sweet and wet, just for me.
“That feels amazing.” She squirms with pleasure under my exploration of her folds.
I pull my head up. “Has anyone ever given you oral sex before?”
She lifts her head up and raises an annoyed eyebrow at me.
“Err. You’re the only man I’ve ever been alone with, except my father and brother. I don’t know what other freaky things your family gets up to, but mine doesn’t go for incest.”
I chuckle and let it reverberate around her inner thighs. Even with my head in between her legs, she's still lippy. I like it.
“Believe me, neither my father or brother have attributes akin to yours, which entertain me in the slightest. I like the fact that I’m the first man to go down on you. I know once you’ve had me you won’t want anyone else.”
“Arrogant or what?” she snorts.
“It’s my middle name.”
I flex my index finger and tenderly sink it inside her. She clenches down on the intrusion — fuck, this is only a finger. I imagine sticking my cock inside her. She would grip me like a vice and milk the cum from my body in a violent explosion. But I mustn’t get ahead of myself. First, I’m going to give her, her first orgasm from being licked out.
I push another finger inside her, and she groans even louder.
“So full.”
“Wait until it’s my cock.”
I feel her entire body shiver under me. Dipping my head again, I devour her. It isn’t long before she starts to writhe and jerk on the bed in a climatic orgasm. She moans my name in a raspy breath.
“Nicholas.”
The way she says my name catches my breath and halts me in my exploits to send her high again. Fuck, what am I doing? I can’t do this. I can’t take her in this way. I can’t develop feelings for her. It’ll ruin everything. I jump from the bed. She sits up, her hair crazy with that ‘just come’ look.
“What’s wrong?” she asks with disappointment on her face. “Did I do something wrong?”
“I’m not the man who should make you feel. I’m the devil. You’ve called me that yourself.” I readjust my trousers, my cock is rock hard, and go to the door.
“What?” She slides from the bed on wobbly feet. Thankfully, her dressing gown covers her nakedness from me.
“Thank you for agreeing not to out William for his indiscretion. I’ll see to it that he doesn’t bother you again. You should get some sleep. We have a task tomorrow, and, as you’ve asked me not to, I won’t go easy on you.”
Her lips purse together, and her brow furrows. I know that she’s about to hit me with another outburst, but I don’t wait to hear it. I leave the room and take the steps to mine, two at a time. I can’t get to it fast enough. The house is still dark apart from a small slither of moonlight cascading through the windows not covered by curtains. On entering my room, I slam and lock the door behind me. I need to relieve the ache in my pants. Fuck, I would have taken her there and then if my brain hadn’t kicked in. I’m not here to fall in love with these girls. They’re a means to an end: stick a child in them, raise the next generation, and free William from the confines of his seclusion imposed by my father. I drop my trousers and pump hard at my cock. I fist it so fast that I come in an instant. My essence spills onto the floor, but I don’t care. I needed this release. I need to prove to her that I’m the devil who takes for himself. She’s a lamb to the slaughter — a means to an end. I won’t rest until I’m the next Duke of Oakfield.