A Beauty So Cruel Manuscript (2)

by Alone Eagle

  “Your lips are turning blue. I think you’re hypothermic.”

  I guess not.

  I didn’t say anything, instead I wrapped my arms around myself, hoping I would warm up quicker. My teeth were still chattering, and I was beyond shivering. The more time passed, the colder I became.

  “Come on. Let’s get you a warm shower,” Vlad ordered me sternly, reaching for me.

  He grabbed a hold of my numb hands and helped me to my feet. I couldn’t feel his hands much. The feeling in my own now gone. Then, he slowly squeezed my hands, and I met his cautious eyes. I felt that touch now.

  My breathing was rapid, and I couldn’t feel my nose. It felt so numb. I could tell that it was bright red.

  Rudolph.

  Soon, I was rushed inside.

  Vlad and the servants quickly helped take off my wool coat, my gloves, my soaked boots, and my socks.

  “My chambers are closer than your room,” Vlad said as he guided me down the hall. I could barely hear his words. My vision slowly going in and out of focus. I felt so sleepy, as if I would lose consciousness any second.

  I didn’t register when I had entered his bathroom. Every time I blinked, glimpses of gold and marble filled my vision.

  I’d never been in his room before, much less his bathroom.

  He shoved me inside the shower, stepping in after me.

  “I need to get you out of these clothes,” he insisted.

  His warm breath hit my frozen ear.

  I managed to turn around at his strange command.

  I could only nod. I didn’t care about my nakedness now.

  His hands reached up to pull my shirt off. Instead of unhooking my bra, he ripped the clasp, pulling it apart. Maybe that was faster. My hands went toward the front of my chest, holding onto my torn bra.

  But he pulled the cold fabric away from me.

  I couldn’t see his expression since he was behind me, and he reached lower and pulled my jeans and underwear down. He threw my wet clothes outside the shower and turned on the shower.

  I gasped when a blast of icy cold water hit us both. I scrambled back into the shower until my back hit Vlad’s chest, my voice coming out as barely a croak, “Shit, s-shit, it’s so c-cold.”

  I felt like I would die from the frigid chill. I wanted to close my eyes and let the darkness take me somewhere else entirely.

  I heard Vlad mutter a curse under his breath before he turned on the hot water. He pulled me toward him, under the hot shower now, and it hit me with a sudden rush. The intense, hot water against my icy body was a shock.

  I stayed still. Was I going onto shock?

  People could die because of this.

  This was dangerous.

  The sudden rush of the hot against the ice seemed to burn through my skin, and my mind seemed to lose focus. I could feel my eyes glazing over.

  Vlad must have realized his mistake again because he cursed under his breath, this time at himself. He rushed in movements. Maybe he was panicking. He wasn’t thinking rationally. He was moving too fast before thinking. A faint smile played against my cold lips, thinking he was losing his cool because of me.

  My brain felt frozen. I didn’t know why I was smiling.

  He blew out a breath. Then, he leaned over me to lower the intensity of the hot water, so it was milder now.

  I blinked slowly, snapping out of the trance.

  I was still cold and freezing, but the intensity of it was slowly lulling. Feeling was coming back into my body.

  The water poured down on Vlad too. His arms were wrapped around me, but when I leaned against his shirt, the chill hit me again and I instantly pulled away.

  He took a step backward from me and pulled his shirt over his head. I didn’t know what to make of this. My mind was all fuzzy as I glanced back at him.

  “It’s just my shirt,” he whispered under the water to me.

  His two pools of gray glistening. The water clung to his long eyelashes, dripping down his hair to his chin. He had left his jeans on.

  I only nodded at him.

  Wasn’t he freezing in his cold jeans too?

  My eyes darted back to his long eyelashes. Why were some men blessed with long lashes? They had no use for them. These strange thoughts kept coming into my mind now, and I recognized I wasn’t thinking right.

  I was traumatized, still hypothermic. Maybe that was it. It was messing with my mind too.

  Then, Vlad pulled me in close again and hugged me tighter to him. He was still cold, but he was getting warmer now.

  More people, more body heat.

  We stayed like this, him holding me for some time.

  He held me from behind, neither the side nor from the front. Was he creating a distance between us? His chest was pressed against my back, and his arms were wrapped around my waist, holding me close.

  I could feel his hard muscles against my back. A realization hit me as my mind became clearer. I was naked, completely naked this time compared to the strip search he had done a few days ago. He was half-naked with me for the first time too. I slowly blinked, trying to get my mind working again.

  My mind however dug deeper into this fact.

  It was strange. On all three occasions Vlad had seen me stripped of clothing, I didn’t know if it was because he wanted to.

  The first time with Enzo.

  The second being the strip search.

  And now this because I almost died.

  Now that I was warmer, calmer, thinking more normally, now I felt everything. All of him was pressed against all of me. I’d never shared a shower with a man before. It was too personal, too intimate, too private. And I’d done it now with Vlad.

  I couldn’t tell where his eyes faced. Was he looking at me? I didn’t think so because surely, I would have felt his stare on me, burning through me.

  “You okay?” he asked me after a moment.

  I closed my eyes shut at his words. It sounded like he cared.

  A sense of vulnerability hit me.

  Don’t think that he has a heart, don’t think that he has a heart. A beast is not a man, I repeated this mantra in my mind but then it burst when he spoke again.

  “For a second, I almost thought I’d lost you,” he whispered.

  I held my breath, fearing what he would say next.

  Was this true fear now?

  “Your lips were blue. You weren’t breathing right. If I had brought you inside even a few minutes later… I…” his voice trailed off.

  Never had I heard Vlad Vitalli speechless before.

  I didn’t want to turn around and stare at him. I didn’t want to know what his eyes looked like now. Maybe they were softer. His expression would have said too much. I wanted to crawl up in a ball in my bed and sleep for days. I didn’t answer him as I tried to calm my breathing. I hoped he couldn’t hear my heart pounding out of my chest. It was racing so hard.

  He was better off as a cold fish.

  “Doll,” he whispered again. I flinched at the nickname because I was beginning to like it too much. “You didn’t tell me if you’re okay now?”

  I exhaled slowly and opened my mouth to speak, “I’m okay.”

  It came out in a ragged whisper. My voice still hoarse in the aftermath of today’s events. I hoped he wouldn’t ask about my voice.

  Vlad sighed, and his arms tightened around my waist, possessively.

  Before my arms were wrapped around my front, not to cover myself, but to draw more body heat to myself. Now, they hung limp by my sides. I didn’t hold him as he held me. I was warm enough now. I should pull away from him, but for some reason, I just stayed like this. It was getting harder to talk, but I was glad he couldn’t see my face.

  “Why do you call me doll?” I asked him softly, thinking of a distraction. I wanted to remove the tension from the air now. I missed the snowball fight. We were having so much fun, and it made me sad knowing that good things never lasted.

  I heard him chuckle against my hair.

/>   “Because of your name Dahlia.”

  Oh. That wasn’t the answer I was expecting.

  He sounded like he was mocking me now.

  “What did you think?” he murmured against my hair.

  The water was hitting us slower now. Vlad had reached out and lowered the intensity, making it easier for us to talk. I was quiet momentarily before I answered, cringing.

  “That you thought of me as a doll… a toy that you wanted to break.”

  His body stilled. For a moment, I was afraid I had misspoken, accused him of something again, but then, he replied, “I stare into the eyes of broken women daily.” My breath hitched. “From being used, disregarded, unhappy. I see them at the whorehouse and when the shipments come.”

  I was astonished at his admission.

  I waited, eagerly, hungrily for more from him.

  “There’s nothing good about being broken,” he said at last. “It’s not something that I have imagined for you.”

  I was stunned by his words.

  Then, what did you imagine for me?

  The words were on the tip of my tongue, but I was struggling to form the words.

  “Why are you quiet? You seemed pretty fired up outside,” he said, teasingly against my hair. His voice held humor, and I was sure he was smiling.

  His arms shifted around my waist before he dropped his head onto my neck, pulling me in closer.

  “Are you scared now, Dahlia?”

  His voice was like a murmur against my cheek. My name from his mouth sounded like a purr. I wanted him to repeat it again. Never had my name sounded so poetic before.

  I felt something poking my lower back, his arousal clearly evident.

  Then he said, “You never told me why you were transferred in foster homes.”

  That snapped me out of the hypnotic trance I’d slipped into. At his words, my senses heightened, and my barriers came up.

  “You never told me about your mother,” I countered.

  He stiffened against me, and for a moment, I was afraid he was pulling away.

  Then I said softly, “The things you hide in your heart eat you alive.”

  He sighed behind me.

  “I was told, she died when I was a year old,” he murmured.

  My eyes widened.

  “I wasn’t ever told a date or when her funeral was. I lost my childhood at a young age.”

  I sucked in my breath and I asked, “How did she die?”

  He chuckled against my hair. I liked hearing him laugh.

  “That’s not fair. You’re supposed to answer my question now,” he countered.

  I pouted now.

  “What happened to you in foster care?”

  I pressed my lips together, wondering how much of my past I should reveal to him.

  “Bad experiences with my guardians, mainly the foster fathers.” I replied, hoping that answer would be sufficient.

  I glanced down at my wrinkled hands. We’d been in the water for too long, and my fingers were now resembling prunes.

  Then, I spoke again before he could ask me further questions, “How did your mother die?”

  “My father said he shot her and cut her head off,” Vlad admitted after a moment.

  A shudder ripped through me before I could prevent and of course he felt it. My heart was ready to burst out of my chest.

  “W-why?” I stammered out.

  “You don’t like to play fair,” he said lightly, even though I could tell his emotions were heavy at the serious topic. “He said, she betrayed his loyalty.”

  So many questions were churning in my stomach.

  I wanted to know everything about him. I wanted to know him. The real Vlad.

  Then he said, “We should get out of the shower. We’ve been in here for too long.”

  But I stayed still, unmoving.

  “Doll?” he said in a low voice.

  Keep calling me that, I wanted to say.

  My eyes dropped down to his lean muscled arms that were snaked around my waist. I wanted them to move up my body. I wanted him wrapped around me. I couldn’t blame hypothermia or shock for this anymore.

  I was still sleepy, but I was no longer traumatized.

  It was simple.

  I wanted him.

  I wanted Vlad Vitalli.

  My finger darted out and traced his deeply tanned arm that was wrapped around my waist. Vlad sucked in a breath behind me. My fingers had a movement of their own now. They were fascinated by him, his scent, his presence, and his body.

  “What are you doing?” he murmured against my ear.

  20

  Chapter 20

  My wet locks clung to our skin as if gluing us together.

  I tilted my head and glanced back at him.

  My warm eyes met his cool ones.

  Questions lay behind his gaze, but he didn’t speak, merely stared at me.

  Get closer to Vlad.

  Maybe it would be easier to accept this. It would happen one day. I knew the way Vlad looked at me, even when he wasn’t trying to look. I wasn’t blind or immune to his charm, far from it. I felt every look, every touch deep inside my bones.

  My back was still against him, leaning against his chest. He was really handsome, as if molded carefully by God himself. I didn’t want to admit it, but his beauty was terrifying with his rugged edges. If you took those away, he was haunting.

  Vlad Vitalli. Vladimir.

  Great power. Ruler of the world.

  A classic name for someone like him.

  I didn’t know if it was my hormones acting up because we were exposed to each other, but I knew I just wanted him closer to me. His eyes were hooded as they gazed down at me. His wet black hair getting in his eyes.

  I made the first move.

  I reached up and swept his hair behind his ears, accentuating his Italian features.

  I kept staring at him, dazed to see what he would do next.

  “You’re a cruel beauty,” he whispered. “I’m trying to be a good man.”

  Then, I smiled at him, at his words.

  He’s trying. I hadn’t looked at things from his perspective before. In a life full of violence and bloodshed, he was trying to choose a different path for himself.

  At my smile, a glint appeared in his narrowed eyes.

  His arousal was burning deep in his gaze and I felt that look, that chemistry between us, right down to my toes.

  My gaze dropped down to his wet, full lips.

  Then, I filled the distance between us, leaning up, I pressed my lips to his warm ones. It was a small movement, but then it was everything. I closed my eyes under him and then… he kissed me back.

  Vlad groaned into my mouth before pushing his lips further against mine, deepening the kiss while caressing my lips. He tasted so sweet, causing a bolt of electricity to shoot through my veins. Our mouths introduced themselves to each other. His tongue sneaked into my mouth, exploring it, taking what he wanted. He was hunting now. Hunting a way inside of me, in my mouth, my body, and I let him.

  Godamnit, I let him.

  He bit my lip, and a treacherous small moan left my mouth. I wanted him. I wanted more. He was the beast who I shouldn’t want, but I wanted to be consumed by him. I felt blissful, overwhelmed, and oblivious now.

  His arms still stayed at my waist, gripping tightly but refusing to move up or down to touch me anywhere else. My back pressed firmly against his chest. I lifted his hands from my waist and moved them up over my breasts. I wanted him to touch me there.

  When his hands landed on them, he paused in the kiss before his eyes snapped open. I stared directly into them. Then, he resumed kissing me, making me smile. He made a noise, before his hands wrapped tightly around me, touching me, squeezing my breasts. His grip was like iron now, holding onto my flesh leaving trails of fire behind. My wet nipples hardened under his touch and they ached, wanting his mouth on them again.

  He slid his mouth from my jaw, leaving small kisses until he landed on my n
eck. Then, he sucked on the sensitive spot behind my ear and licked the water from it until I gasped and squirmed in response. He continued to torment me as he nuzzled my neck. He tangled one hand in my wet hair, pulling it down roughly, exploring my neck while the other hand still stayed at my breast, cupping it, and kneading it.

  I burned with desire as I whimpered against him.

  My skin felt hot and tight under him.

  I was drowning with the warm shower still running.

  Drowning in fear and excitement.

  I was getting too attached.

  He was messing with my head now.

  He was rough yet gentle.

  He was brutal yet disciplined.

  He was intense yet passionate.

  I didn’t love him. It was just desire. Yes, maybe that was all this was. It could be just sexual, but why did it feel so much more than that? I felt if we moved forward into this, I would never come back from it.

  I turned around quickly, breaking the kiss, and my breasts pushed against his chest. They brushed against his small, black curls. I was facing him now, breathing hard. Vlad’s own breathing was hoarse as he stared down at me. Heat flickered within the icy depth of his eyes. There was something terrifying and memorizing about those deep eyes and the way they watched me. He didn’t touch me now. His hands hung by his sides. I waited a few seconds, but he only looked at me. Conflict flashed over his face. He was hesitating, waiting for me.

  It scared me so much.

  I leaned up, cradling his neck before I pulled his face down toward me with one hand and let the other settle onto his chest, feeling muscles that were well-defined. He had scars and markings that I’d never seen before. His tattoos etched out on his body filled my gaze. A lifetime of street violence inked on his skin.

  I caught one saying, My flesh will burn.

  My eyes narrowed at it. What did that mean? I caught another tattoo of a cross. Another tattoo had wings on it. I trailed my hands around the swirls and signs on his chest, and he shivered beneath me.

  I smiled to myself.

  I had kissed him first.

  His jaw hardened at me, and his eyes blazed with heat now.

  “What does this tattoo mean?” I asked him, tracing the one with wings.

  “That’s my title,” he replied after a moment. “I have one in the middle of my fingers too. It’s easier to tell rank.”