“It’s my favorite scent—helps me stay connected to the place I came from,” I admitted. Alois hummed thoughtfully as he stroked his nose against my neck. Goosebumps erupted on my bare skin as his lips skimmed the same path as his nose, leaving wetness that felt cold in the air.
“How do you feel, Ellowyn?” Alois husked as his hands left my shoulders to caress down my arms before jumping to my hips. He squeezed hard but not painfully before rubbing slow circles across my flesh with his palms.
“Fine,” I whispered.
“Not good enough. Let’s try again, wife. How do you feel?”
I paused and took stock of both my mental and physical state—my skin felt like it was on fire, the tiny hairs on my neck standing up as Alois lavished attention on my still-clothed body. As much as I hated my new husband and the situation I was forced into, I couldn’t help my body’s natural reaction. My arousal was ugly and twisted, and I felt completely betrayed by my body, though I couldn’t tell Alois that.
Lie. By any means necessary.I prayed that somehow the Last Truthsayer wouldn’t catch my duplicity.
“Ready to be your wife in body as well as soul,” I rasped instead, my mouth dry as I lied.
I tensed in apprehension when Alois paused his ministrations, only relaxing when he resumed stroking my skin.
“Has anyone touched you here?” His hand trailed across my hips to rest against the apex of my thighs.
I tried to shimmy out of his hold, but he only cupped me firmly by my cunt, pulling my body flush against his.
“I . . .” I stopped, thinking about the Dreamscape.
Was it real? If it wasn’t, did it even count? I still hadn’t told anyone—aside from Jarius—about the Dreamscape, and some niggling sensation in the back of my mind told me to keep it that way.
Alois’ hands paused, the one covering my mound twitched slightly at my non-answer.
I quickly shook my head. “No. No one’s touched me,” I lied.
He seemed to like that answer as his hips thrust involuntarily into my ass and I felt the hard length of him again, his trousers and my thin silk dress the only two barriers between us.
How did I lie to him?
“Then let me be the first,” he whispered reverently as he laved kisses up and down my neck, onto my collarbone and shoulder.
I shivered both in pleasure and disgust as my heart began thumping erratically for a different reason entirely.
The hand covering my pussy flexed slightly, Alois’ fingers rubbing gently over my dress. A small moan escaped me at the motion, and my hips bucked involuntarily.
I hated my body in that moment.
“Say you want this,” Alois panted, his other hand trailing to cup my left breast. He massaged the flesh with his thick fingers, drawing my nipple to a point before teasing it through my dress with his fingertip.
By any means necessary.
I nodded against him. “Yes, yes, I want this.”
The lie was ash on my tongue.
That simple phrase was all Alois needed before he became unleashed, unhinged even. With a growl that was more animal than man, he gripped the neckline of my wedding dress and pulled, rendering the fabric straight down the middle until I was exposed from neck to pussy.
I gasped at the sudden motion and at the sudden loss of Alois at my back. I clutched the couch beside me to steady myself as he prowled in front of me, his eyes flashing and still for once. Alois’ gaze was trained on my bare, flushed flesh and heaving chest, and I grew warmer under his scrutiny. A trickle of arousal soaked my underwear further and I rubbed my legs together to create friction.
“Needy, wife?” Alois growled, tracking my movements.
“Yes,” I whispered, embarrassedly, and watched as he stepped toward me, his chest nearly touching my own, before gently pushing the ruined dress down my arms so it puddled on the floor by my feet.
Naked now except for the barely there lace underclothes I wore, I shivered.
“Remove the rest,” Alois barked at me before taking a large step back, presumably so he could watch me as I stripped.
