SCARLETT
He didn’t ask.
He walked into the ballroom, looked at me once, and decided.
Minutes later I was dragged out through a service exit, shoved into the back of a black car, and told I belonged to him. Not politely. Not gently. Like it was already done.
Nikolai Smirnov doesn’t waste words. He doesn’t explain. He takes control and expects you to adjust.
I fought him. I screamed. I clawed at his suit.
He liked it.
That’s what unsettled me. The harder I pushed, the closer he stepped. The more I resisted, the tighter his grip became. He didn’t want a quiet girl. He wanted me furious.
And when he touched me… rough, deliberate, claiming…my body reacted before my pride could stop it.
I should hate him.
Instead I lie awake at night replaying the way he said my name like it was already attached to his.
He thinks he owns me.
He has no idea what he just chained himself to.
NIKOLAI
She wasn’t supposed to get under my skin.
She was supposed to be controlled, contained, handled.
Instead she stood in front of me shaking with rage and still refused to bow.
I’ve dealt with men who cry. Men who beg. Men who break in seconds.
Scarlett doesn’t break.
She bites. She spits. She looks at me like she wants to stab me in the throat.
I want her exactly like that.
I want her fighting me while I hold her wrists down. I want her breath hitching when I get too close. I want to see the exact second her anger turns into heat.
She thinks this is about power.
It is.
But not the way she thinks.
Because every time I touch her and she doesn’t pull away fast enough… she’s the one losing control.
And I don’t let go of things that fight this hard.
This is the first book in The Dark Virtue series. Reading order:
Savage.
Toxic.
Sinful.
