Bound by lies, Trapped by Desire - Chapter 27: Chapter 27

Elena’s POV:
His hand cascaded down the length of my back, gliding over the soft satin fabric of my wedding dress. A shiver trembled up my spine, the weight of the evening crashing into me all at once.
To be honest?
I was exhausted. Bone-deep, soul-weary, emotionally-fried, exhausted. I didn’t want to think about what had happened earlier, about the looks I caught flashing across the sea of guests, about the whispers that would no doubt follow me into University come Monday. I didn’t want to relive the moment Dmitri stood up like some scene straight out of a telenovela and accused me of—God, everything.
I didn’t want to remember the look on his face. The betrayal. The bitterness. The raw, twisted hurt.
I wanted to forget everything.
And right now? This—this moment, this warmth, this man who kept pulling me into a world I hadn’t anticipated—this was a perfect distraction.
I felt the soft flutter of fabric as the veil slid off my styled hair. Loose waves curled around my shoulders, pins barely holding them in place. My breath hitched as I felt the slow descent of his fingers tugging at the zipper of my gown.
I jerked back slightly, placing my palms on his chest to hold him off. “W-wait. We should wait until we get home.”
He paused, his erection hard and unrelenting against my thigh. The heat between us felt heavy.
Nikolai let out a chuckle, but there was something frustrated in the sound. “The office was okay, but the car is not?” he asked, palming my ass and pulling me flush against him again.
“Nikolai!” I hissed, scandalized, but my protest died into a shaky moan as he bit down on my ear. My weak spot.\
“Shit—damn it. Not there~!”
The reprimand was supposed to be sharp, commanding. It wasn’t. It was breathless. Wobbly. Embarrassing.
He laughed under his breath, low and velvety, and then started trailing kisses down my neck, licking and biting until I felt the air completely vanish from my lungs.
I pressed both hands against his chest and pushed.
“Nikolai, please.”
He stilled. His dark eyes met mine and for a moment, the haze of desire in them lifted.
He nodded, brushing the backs of his fingers along my cheek. “Alright. We’ll stop. But you won’t stop me the second we enter my apartment.”
“Okay. Okay... Geez.” I sighed, slumping against him as he kept me firmly in his lap. I tried to move again, but he refused to let me go. My brows furrowed and I looked up at him.
He was smiling.
I tilted my head. “You know, it’s so strange seeing you smile like this.”
The smile immediately vanished.
I groaned inwardly. “I don’t mean that in a bad way. You look good when you smile. I’m just not used to it since you’ve always been poker-faced. Whether on TV or in person.”
His eyes narrowed slightly, then he let out a short laugh. “Yeah? You think I look good when I smile?”
I rolled my eyes. Of course, that was what he got stuck on.
Confidence was his second language. A little too fluent, maybe.
I sighed again. “How are you completely fine?”
His expression shifted. “Fine?”
“After what happened today. Your parents didn’t even stay for the ceremony. You’re not... upset?”
He was quiet for a moment.
“It did bother me,” he admitted. “Not in a sad way. Just... annoying. Like a stone in your shoe you didn’t notice until it stabbed you.”
His tone was calm, distant.
“I’m used to it,” he added. “My father’s always been like that. Giving Dmitri everything. Taking his side. I learned a long time ago not to expect much from him. Or my stepmother.”
I bit my lip, nodding slowly.
“You’re lucky,” he said, glancing at me. “Having a mother like yours.”
I looked down at my hands, a soft smile forming. “Yeah. I am.”
No matter how chaotic everything had been lately, at least I had my mother’s love—fierce, protective, and unrelenting. That was more than some people ever got. More than Nikolai had ever known. And it made my chest ache in a strange, guilty way.
We settled into an awkward silence after that, minutes passed even as I felt his erection go down he didn’t let me off of his lap. Keeping me in place.
Just then, a soft knock against the divider startled me out of my thoughts. The driver’s voice followed, muffled through the glass. “We’ve arrived, sir.”
I barely had a second to register that before Nikolai’s smirk deepened. He adjusted the back of my dress with practiced ease, smoothing out the fabric as if it was second nature. His fingers moved to the veil, carefully settling it back over my hair.
Then, before I could blink, he was out of the car and opening the door on my side.
I expected him to hold my hands.
"Wait—Nikolai!" I gasped as he leaned in suddenly and swept me into his arms.
In a full bridal carry.
“Put me down! What the hell are you doing?!” I shrieked, flailing slightly as I instinctively clutched at his shoulders, horrified. “This is so embarrassing!”
He didn’t flinch. “I want to show off a little,” he said with that infuriating calm, as though he hadn’t just lifted me like I weighed nothing. AGAIN!
“Show off?” I sputtered. “To who?! Those are your employees in there, aren’t they?! What on earth would you get out of showing off to them?!”
After all, he lived in the penthouse of his own office building. How that was legal or allowed, I had no idea. But at least it had its own private elevator from the basement. So why the hell was he going through the front entrance?!
His grin only widened, eyes glittering with a smugness I wanted to wipe clean off his face. “Believe me, malishka,” he said, voice low and confident, “there are eyes everywhere. You’ll understand once you wake up tomorrow.”
I groaned in mortification, already feeling the heat rising to my cheeks. I tried to hide my face in his shoulder as he carried me straight through the front doors of the sleek glass building. Sure enough, a handful of employees turned to watch—some curious, some startled, one or two outright smiling.
And me?
I buried my face deeper into the crook of his neck and wished the marble lobby floor would swallow me whole.
He held me like I was weightless, striding through the space without hesitation, straight into the other private elevator at the end of the hall.
The doors slid closed behind us with a quiet chime, sealing us off from the outside world as the lift began its slow, smooth ascent to the penthouse.