Page 201 of Lessons in Cruelty

I look…so unlike myself that I’m forced to blink back a sudden hot rush of tears.

Is this who I’d be if I just submitted to Bastian and let him remake me into his plaything? Is this even something I’d want to be turned into?

Someone mature. Elegant. Ravishing?

He lets out a sound that’s part growl, part pained groan, and runs the back of his fingers up my arms. Then his fingertips skate down the dress’s open back, bumping over each vertebra in my spine.

“Now this is something worth ruining,” he says in a thick voice.

“You’re sick,” I whisper, a tear falling free as I begin to shudder under his intense stare.

“That’s what you find so compelling, isn’t it?” he murmurs right back, a soft smile on his mouth as his hands slide around my waist.

He drops his head next to mine, chases his lips up the side of my neck as our eyes stay locked on each other’s reflections.

“The dark in you craves the dark in me,” he whispers.

His hands move around to my stomach, slide up, headed for my breasts. I snatch at his wrists, stopping him.

Every inch of my pussy is tingling. There’s a hard, pulsating ache radiating into my core with every thump of my panicked heart.

I can’t let this happen. Not this. Not now.

I’ve got to be stronger than this, right?

“Feel that?” He grinds his dick against me. Once. Twice. “That’s what you do to me. What you’ve been doing since you walked into my classroom.”

“Bastian—”

He chuckles cruelly. “Don’t worry. Your sweet little cunt is safe for now.” His lips brush my ear. “I won’t fuck you yet, Haven. Not until you’re begging for it. Not until you’d do anything—absolutely anything—to have me ruin you.”

One hand slides down. Cups my pussy through the silk.

I’m so wet that his grip leaves a dark patch on the exquisite fabric. I immediately buck into his hand, my eyes fluttering closed at the delicious pressure of his⁠—

Bastian pulls his hand away, leaving me with nothing.

Fucking nothing.

I blink at him, clench my jaw, and shove a hand between my legs. I’ve barely touched myself before he grabs my wrist, ripping my hand away.

“Learn to control yourself, Haven,” he rasps.

I scoff. “Why bother when you’re so good at it already?”

His smile is anything but charming. “I am, aren’t I?”

Someone clears their throat on the other side of the curtain. “Everything alright in there, you two?”

“Perfect,” Bastian calls out, stepping back. Adjusting himself again. “We’ll take everything.”

“Everything?” I whisper.

“Yes, Haven.” His smile is as dark as his eyes. “I want it all.”

Chapter 50

Bastian