Soapy water sloshes over the rim of the bucket and soaks into the carpet. I stare at the blood-stained hallway, hands on my hips.
“Time to tackle this fucking monstrosity,” I say to nobody.
I’m armed with more cleaning supplies than a five-star hotel. I’m wearing a mask, rubber gloves, and a suit that’s one step below straight-up hazmat. I’ve never dealt with biological stuff like this before, but I’ve cleaned my mom’s blood out of her clothes more than once.
How hard could this be?
As I spray, scrub, and disinfect, I think about Arsen. I think about the man behind the horror. The big, strong, powerful mafia ruler, the leader of his family, under immense pressure and fighting a war against people he cares about. I’m still pretty freaked out about finding all this, but at least I’m starting to understand why a guy like him might keep a weirdo murder-shrine.
Or maybe I’m just as broken as he is.
Hard to say.
I’m on my hands and knees when Maud appears behind me. I look up at her and she frowns down at me before grabbing her own gloves and joining. We work together in silence for a little while, and even though the blood’s old and the stains are deep, we start to make progress.
“Arsen wants me to apologize,” Maud says.
“But you don’t want to?”
“I just don’t think I’ve got anything to apologize for. You were making a damn racket and if you kept it up, half the staff would’ve come looking. Imagine the trouble if anyone else saw that room?”
I laugh lightly to myself. “Right, good point. You don’t want the world to know about Arsen’s murder-shrine.”
“I don’t like that you’re making light of it, but I suppose joking’s better than screaming.”
“Arsen told me you were a poisoner.”
“In another life, dear.” Maud wipes her forehead and frowns at me. “I’ve been with the Brotherhood for a very long time. I’ve seen how the world has changed, and I’m telling you, Arsen’s the only man capable of navigating this mess. He’s a good man.”
“You keep saying.”
“I mean it.” She bends down and scrubs some more. White foam turns pink with blood. “But I promised him I wouldn’t drug you again, and I keep my promises.”
“That’s something, I guess.”
She presses her lips together and studies me. “You’re really going to clean all this yourself?”
“I’m going to try.” I climb to my feet, wring out the brush, and start on the wall. “He needs someone to start it, so why not me?”
“You don’t owe him that.”
“Probably not.”
“But you care about him.” She’s looking at me carefully and I definitely don’t like the scrutiny.
I keep waiting for a little prick in the neck followed by a very uncomfortable death.
“He’s a crazy person. We’re scrubbing old blood off his wall.”
“True, but you care about him anyway.”
I sigh and look away. She’s got a point, even if I don’t like it. I’ve been slowly falling for Arsen ever since coming here, against my better judgment.
Any normal person would’ve turned around and gone running the second they found those skeletons.
But me? All it did was make me wonder why.
It’s that curiosity-disease again.
“He’s going to need you,” Maud says, climbing to her feet with a grunt. She wipes her hands on her apron. “This war he’s fighting, it’s going to hurt him. And I don’t just mean the violence and the money. He’s going to have to kill members of his family, and that goes against everything he believes.”
“I know that.” I pause my scrubbing and look back at her. “I want to be here for him.”
“Good. You’re a good woman too, Lena. Maybe he got lucky, marrying you.”
“Doesn’t feel that way. He started a war.”
“All for that baby you’re carrying. Speaking of which, you probably shouldn’t be breathing in all these cleaning fumes.”
“I want to do this for him.” I touch my stomach lightly. “Just a little bit more, anyway.”
“I’ll let him know where you are.” She gives me one more look and smiles. “By the way—you shouldn’t eat my eggs anymore if you don’t want to be drugged at all.”
My eyes go wide and I nearly drop my brush. “What are you putting in your eggs?!”
She cackles as she walks away. “Just kidding!”
“That’s not funny!” I groan and lean my head against the wall. Then I realize there’s a big blood stain an inch from my face, nearly gag, and get back to cleaning.
The hallway looks almost presentable by the time I’m finished. My wrists and knees ache and my back’s a knotty mess from bending over. But the walls are clean and there’s only a vague outline of blood still seeped into the carpet.
“Maud told me you were in here.” Arsen’s leaning against the wall and watching me.
I toss my rubber gloves onto the floor beside the bucket. “She was helping out earlier.”
“You didn’t have to do this.”
“I wanted to.”
He comes to me. A thrill runs into my stomach. He’s beautiful, and somehow, knowing that there’s a deep, terrible wound festering inside of him only makes me like him even more. I lean forward as he bends down to kiss me.
His lips are soft and his smell is earthy and fresh.
“It’s time for you to take a break,” he says softly, hands on my hips.
I nearly purr under his touch. How’s this man still have this effect on me? Even knowing what he is? I still want him anyway.
“I was done for the day.”
“That’s good.” He brushes my hair aside and kisses my neck.
“Careful. I’m kind of sweaty and gross.”
“You are far from gross, baby.”
“I don’t know. I’ve been kneeling in bloody mop water for the last few hours.”
“Then let’s get you undressed and cleaned up.” He tugs me from the forbidden wing of the house and only pauses to lock the door behind us. Once we reach our bedroom, he takes me into the shower and gets the water nice and hot.
“Strip,” he commands.
And honestly? There’s something perfect about a man like Arsen telling me to take off my clothes.
He’s very hard to deny.
I get naked. My nipples are stiff and my muscles ache pleasantly from a few hours of hard work. He comes into the shower with me, cock long and thick and half hard, all for me. But instead of kissing me, he lathers his hands and begins to clean me off.
Slowly and carefully, he focuses on each part of my body. My hands, my wrists, my arms. My breasts and stomach and back. He washes me with an odd, loving devotion.
It’s the hottest foreplay I’ve ever experienced in my life.
“You’re beautiful,” he murmurs as his hands run up my legs. “Every inch of you is perfect.”
“Even though I broke into your murder room?”
“Even though you can’t help but cause trouble.” He kisses one nipple and pats my ass. “Even though you’re a pain sometimes.”
He washes my hair. I’ve never let anyone do that for me, but it comes naturally from him. I sigh with bliss as the warm water runs down my naked body and his hands caress my skin.
“I love looking at you. I can’t help myself. I stare at you all the time, baby.”
“Yeah? When?”
“When you’re not even aware. I’m always watching.” His hands cup my breasts from behind. His cock presses against my ass, stiffening as his mouth kisses my neck. “I can’t help it. I’m something of a freak.”
“Yeah, that’s putting it mildly.” I moan when he bites my shoulder. “Hey, easy.”
“You liked that.” He reaches down between my legs and teases my pussy nice and slow. “You’re clean now, baby. Do you want me to get you dirty again?”
“No,” I whimper, biting my lip. “Well, maybe a little.”
“I thought so.” He pushes me against the wall. The whole bathroom’s heated with an under-tile system. Steam rises in the air from the water spray. “I want to worship this fucking body. I want you to know how obsessed I am with you and our future baby.” He pins my wrists above my head and I’m breathing hard as he kisses down my chest, licking my nipples and sucking them, before dropping to his knees.
“What are you going to do down there, huh? You really are worshipping me.”
“That’s right.” He spreads my legs and licks my pussy nice and slow. “Tasting you. Drinking you down. Eating you until you’re consumed by me.” His mouth devours my lips, his tongue stiffening and gliding up and down. He focuses on my clit and I grip his hair, pushing his mouth tighter.
“Fuck, that’s good.”
“You taste like heaven.” He grabs my ass tightly. “Your moans fuck me up. Every inch of your body infects my dreams. You don’t understand how badly I need you.”
“Keep going and prove it.” I moan his name, pulling his mouth tighter against my pussy. I’m needy and pathetic as I grind against him and I don’t care. The orgasm builds in my core and his tongue does miraculous, horrible things to my body as I press tighter into him.
“Let me taste you, baby,” he urges, licking faster. “Come for me, darling. Come on my face.”
I gasp, arching, and shatter on his tongue. He growls like a hungry bear, and it drives me wild. I’m blinking away black spots when he stands and kisses me, burying my mouth with his, shoving my taste against my tongue.
“That’s my girl,” he says, stroking my cheek before cupping my throat. “Now, I want to fuck your pretty mouth.”
“Ask nicely.”
“Please, Lena, get down on your knees and let me fuck your mouth.”
“Since you’re so polite.”
I sink down, hands up above my head again. He moans as I lick him, teasing a little bit before I gobble his cock up. He thrusts his hips, and I let my spit roll down onto the shower floor, not afraid to get a little messy. Honestly, I think he likes it when I’m just a bit gross.
He moans as I gag and suck and lick him. He praises me, tells me how beautiful I am and how good my mouth feels, and it makes me feel oddly good about myself. Like I’m a sexual goddess with the skills to please this gorgeous beast.
When really, I’m just letting his big dick fuck my face.
I still feel powerful. I never thought I was the kind of woman that could please a man like Arsen, and yet he’s obsessed with me. It’s almost unhealthy, but I like it, so that works. He groans and shoves his dick into the back of my throat, and he comes in a thick spurt as I gag and struggle to swallow every drop. When he’s done, I pull back, gasping for air, a long line of spit and cum connecting my tongue and the head of his dick.
“Good girl,” he says and drags me to my feet. He kisses me, not caring about what’s still on my lips. “Good fucking girl.”
“You really know how to make a girl feel special,” I say, grinning like a maniac. He’s very good at the crazy thing, I’m finding out.
“That’s because you are special to me, Lena. You’re everything.”
“You’re just saying that because you like fucking my mouth.”
“I love fucking your mouth, but you’re much more than that.”
“Yeah? What am I then?”
“My wife. The future. The mother of my child.” He gently strokes my cheek. “The only woman that could possibly see my darkest horrors and end up trying to clean them away instead of trying to escape.”
I shrug a little, glowing with pride and trying not to let him see it.
“No big deal. It was just some cleaning solvent.”
He laughs and kisses me. We stay like that in the shower for a little while longer, and I’m not in a rush to go anywhere else.
