He blew up a giant canvas of me in a similar outfit before. What will he do now that I’m standing in front of him, wearing lingerie for him?
“Do a spin for me,” Gavriil commands, his accent heavier than ever before.
Oh yeah, he’s so turned on he can’t even think straight.
I clench my jaw to keep from smirking as I turn slowly, every inch of my skin buzzing as his gaze follows.
When I face back forward and meet his eyes again, I lose my breath at how intently he’s staring at me.
His jaw goes slack, his breath stalling like he’s forgotten how to glance away.
“Well, look at you,printsessa,” Gavriil says, his voice even more strained, more affected. “You’re stunning.”
Did he just call me…princess before his compliment?
Feeling even more confident, I place my hands on my hips, ignoring the way my heart skips. He can dress me up like a clown for all I care, but he won’t strip away all my dignity. In fact, it’s time to try and turn the tables, to make him feel vulnerable.
“Have you always gotten what you wanted, Gavriil?”
The corner of his mouth curls up but he doesn’t lift his eyes from my chest. “If I set my mind to it.”
I take a step toward him, noting the shift in his shoulders as he faintly tenses in surprise. “Since you were a child?”
Gavriil finally lifts his gaze. “Why?”
I shrug. “I don’t know much about you or Dominik besides what I’ve been told. I really don’t know anything about your past.”
“There’s nothing to tell.”
That means there’s a lot to say, but he just doesn’t want to say it.
“Well, you must’ve been nicer to Dominik back then than you are now. He wouldn’t have anything to do with you if you acted the same,” I state, prodding wherever I can to get some information that I can use as ammo.
“What do you want to hear? That I was a caring big brother?” Gavriil questions. His remark reminds me of Archer, causing my heart to squeeze painfully.
“I don’t want to hear lies,” I reply.
“You won’t hear lies, but you’ll hear things that you’re unfamiliar with,” Gavriil tells me as he pushes himself off the bars, gravitating closer to me. “An older sibling who puts his younger sibling first. An older sibling who actually sacrifices himself for his younger sibling.”
“Archer risked a lot for us,” I say firmly, knowing exactly what he’s doing.
“Us. Not you,” Gavriil points out. “If I had to bet, Archer only did what benefited himself as well. He wouldn’t dare inconvenience himself for you.”
I shake my head as an ache spreads throughout my chest, tightening it. “You don’t know what we survived together.”
“I could say the same,” Gavriil replies, keeping a few feet of space between us. “Your brother didn’t deserve you. He cared about himself more than you all the way to the end. If there was a way for him to sell your soul to save his own, he would’ve taken it.”
His words land low and vicious.
I don’t want them to be true, but Archer was selfish. He loved me, but his own survival meant the most to him.
“Rich coming from someone who locked his own brother up in a cell and took the woman he loves.” My words come out gritted. Dagger sharp.
“You had a chance to free Dominik with one letter, remember?” Gavriil says calmly like he truly believes his own delusional words. “He needs to learn a lesson and be reminded who he should remain loyal to, who he can trust.”
I step closer, eyes narrowing in curiosity. “You act like I’m such a threat to him.”
“You made him disobey me, and he was almost killed because of your loyalty to your backstabbing brother,” Gavriil tells me, his expression darkening.
