Reclaimed By My Alpha (Natalia and Andrei) novel Chapter 256

Chapter 256

Natalia

“Oh. Thank you.” I sat up a little as the maid scurried across the room and set the tray on the small side table next to the bathtub. It smelled sweet and fragrant, like hibiscus flowers. “What kind of tea is it?”

The maid hesitated. With her back already turned to me, I couldn’t see her expression–just the sudden tension

in her shoulders.

“Rose hip,” she finally said. “With chamomile. To calm the nerves.”

“That sounds lovely. Thank you.” By the time I had finished speaking, the maid had already left the room. I frowned at her sudden departure, but then shrugged to myself and poured a cup of the tea, figuring the maid was just surprised to walk in on me in the bath.

As soon as I took a sip of the tea, I felt some more of the tension slip away from my body like the tide gently pulling away from the shore. I let out a sigh of contentment and sank back into the water, shutting my eyes briefly.

The tea had a faint aftertaste to it that I couldn’t quite put my finger on, but whatever it was tasted sweet and tantalizing. It was truly delicious, and I went for another sip.

Before I knew it, I had finished my entire cup and was already pouring another.

That was when it happened.

It started as a warmth in my low belly, like swallowing hot honey sweetened with wildflowers. That heat emanated outwards until it was radiating across my chest, making my heart beat a little faster.

Unexpectedly, my nipples began to peak under the warm water. My breasts tightened, and I arched my back faintly, releasing a small moan of pleasure at the sudden sensation of pleasure.

Then, the warmth began to move downward. Down until it was flowing through my hips, my legs, my ass, then up again… Around the slit between my thighs and even curling through the sensitive bud there.

Without thinking, I bit my lip and lowered my hand into the water. My fingers found my folds easily, discovering that they were already slick with want.

Shutting my eyes again, I began to tease my entrance with my fingertips. I worked my way up and down the lips of my labia, then over and around my clit, my breaths becoming more ragged with each inhale.

“Natalia…”

Andrei’s voice was just a whisper in my mind, and yet it felt so real, so utterly perfect. All pretense I’d had before of resentment toward him washed away, replaced by a yearning so intense that my hand sped up its movements, becoming almost frantic in search of a release.

“Andrei…”

“Come for me, Natalia.” I squeezed my eyes shut harder, imagining Andrei moving above me, our limbs tangled together in bed. I wasn’t angry at him anymore–how could I be when he was here with me, bringing me to my edge in a matter of moments? Marked or not, he knew me like the back of his hand, knew exactly how to make

1/3

me tick. No one could take that from as

My fingers continued working in quick, methodical circles until I could feel my peak being reached already. I arched my back away from the porcelain of the tub once more, eyes fluttering open just as the pleasure began to crest and expand.

“You’re… You’re here,” I gasped when I realized that Andrei was standing over me.

His smile was radiant, face blurring from the effects of the tea as he bent down over me–but it was him. “I’m here,” he whispered, voice low and husky. He reached out to brush my hair back from my forehead. “You’re feeling good, aren’t you?”

I nodded and dragged my lower lip through my teeth. “Yes, I… I think I’m gonna…”

“Go ahead.” He reached into his pocket and dropped to his knees beside the tub. “You can die in pleasure instead of pain this way.”

The glint of a knife in his hand snapped me out of it.

I didn’t realize I had begun to move until I found myself out of the tub and scrambling across the room. A shriek ripped from my throat as I grabbed a nearby vase and hurled it at my attacker. It hit him in the shoulder, making him grunt, but he advanced on me with a menacing sneer.

“Get back here!” he growled in a voice that wasn’t Andrei’s–never Andrei’s. I didn’t have time to look, but I knew it wasn’t him. Whatever was in that tea… It had addled my mind. Was still addling it, making the room spin and tilt around me like a carnival ride.

I knew this feeling all too well; the aphrodisiac. It was too similar to the one that I’d been given the night Andrei and I had sex for the first time after all these years, only this was even more intense and clearly designed to make me complacent.

Whoever had arranged this tea… They’d done so with the intention of killing me under its effects.

“Help!” I screamed, sprinting across the bathroom toward the exit. “Someone help!”

Before I reached the door, I slipped in a puddle of bathwater and crashed. White–hot pain shot through reality, splintering my vision as my head slammed against the tiles. Even in my dizzying state, I scrambled to get up, but then he was on me. Rough hands grabbed me and flipped me over to reveal the grotesque face of a man with a jagged scar mangling one eye.

“I’ve got you now,” he grunted, wrestling my flailing limbs down. The tiles were so cold against my bare skin, but all I could think about was the feeling of his body pressing me to the floor. His palms were rough and hot to the touch. “This would have been so much easier if you’d just gone quietly.”

The knife hovered above my face. I screamed again, jerking my head this way and that to avoid it, but it was useless. He had me pinned, his heavy weight sitting directly on my chest so that I could hardly even breath.

Somehow, though, tapping into the training David had given me, I managed to wriggle my hands free and catch

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify