Beautiful Revenge (A Good Wife #1) - Sienna Blake Page 0,3

by Billie Holiday. The slow jazz music blares out at full volume, Billie’s voice crooning through the air.

“Dimi! Our neighbours!”

“Let them dance too.” He grabs my hand, pulling me up to my feet. “Dance with me.”

“You lunatic,” I cry with a laugh, “it’s almost midnight.”

“An even better reason to dance, then. For if you dance well enough at midnight,” he says, repeating the beginning of an old folk tale for the hundredth time.

“…the fairies will grant you a wish,” I finish for him.

I wish…

For good food—enough food—and warm furs. For a desk and a working fireplace.

I squeeze my eyes shut. I wish with every cell of my being as the music turns us round and round.

After the song dies and there’s just a crackle, we’re still swaying in each other’s arms.

He lowers his forehead to mine. “I love you, Alena. I want to give you everything. Everything your heart desires. Everything you deserve.”

My heart clenches. He calls me the dreamer. I think, between the two of us, he is more of that than me. “I know,” I say quietly.

He crushes his lips to mine, kissing me long and deep, with the fire of a new-born sun, his tongue fighting with mine. My head keeps spinning even as we stop twirling. And I forget everything.

We are no longer two poor, pathetic wretches on the edge of starvation, uncared for and forgotten. We are stars and light tumbling between the moon and sun. We are wild and free.

3

____________

Dimitri

Alena and I tumble onto the bed, my body filling to bursting as I kiss her. I’m swollen with love and fire and the overwhelming need to protect her. If only I could wrap her up in cotton and keep her safe. If only I could hide her from the bitter unfairness of the world. If only I could give her everything her generous heart desires.

I want to see her radiating with happiness, to see her thin girlish figure fill out with healthy soft curves because she has enough to eat. She is skinny now. Too skinny. Every time my hands brush over her protruding hip bones, I feel the stab of failure. Despite that, she is still the most stunning creature in the world. I want her. I need her.

I stiffen as her soft tongue dances with mine, lust burning a trail through me. My hand slips under her shirt. I find her warm belly. She lets out a gasp but she doesn’t pull away. She presses closer to me, her kisses growing wilder, her fingers tugging at my hair. My hand trails up, up to brush the underside of her budding breasts.

Stop it, Dimi. She’s only fifteen.

I snatch my hand off her and tear my lips off hers. She groans, a mirror of my body crying out to touch her again.

“Why did you stop?” Alena pouts. It takes every fibre of my willpower not to take her bottom lip into my mouth and suck.

“You know why,” I say, my breathing heavy. I struggle to control myself—my breath, my hands, my need.

She sighs. “Because I’m not even sixteen yet.”

“And I’m nineteen.”

“I turn sixteen in seven days. Is seven days really going to make a difference?”

“Yes.”

“No one’s going to turn you in for taking a minor’s virginity.” Her face screws up. “My parents certainly don’t give a shit. They don’t care if I’m alive or dead.”

I let out a low curse. “It’s not about the law.”

She rolls her eyes. “I know. I know. It’s about your damn morals.” Despite being annoyed at me, she honours me with one of her half-smiles. “It’s one of the reasons I love you, you know? You’d never take advantage of me.” She stares at me through her long lashes, chewing on her full bottom lip. She looks almost shy when she does it. The shyness is a ruse.

I let out a groan as she presses her soft body against me, slipping one leg in between mine so her core presses right up against me. Fuck. I can feel her soft heat through our clothes. I grit my teeth. “You make it so hard for me to stick to my damn morals.”

She giggles. “I know.” She grinds herself against my thigh.

My dick throbs. I curse. My fingers grip onto her hips, unsure whether to stop her or urge her on. “You enjoy torturing me.”

“You torture me too,” she says in a breathless whisper, her breathing growing heavy as she continues to rock her core against me. “I’m so…wet. I want