Chapter 535: A Special Gift for Edward

"How could such a pathetic man be my master?"

Natalia hung up the receiver, her expression turning mocking as she shook her head decisively.

The years she had spent with Edward returned to her all at once, and the longer she looked at them, the smaller he became.

Edward Steele could barely be counted as a man. He needed his own wife in another man’s arms before he could even get hard. He had always dressed that weakness as taste, as trust, as some private arrangement between husband and wife.

’Pathetic.’

The thought did not come from hatred. She did not despise those years. She had needed them. A succubus needed a man who would open the door, sit aside, and let her feed. Edward had given her that freedom without even understanding what he was offering, and she had used it well. The house, the name, the quiet permission to take other men... she had loved that part of her life here.

What she had never given him was respect.

How could she? How could a woman like her look at a husband who grew hard only when another man was inside her and call him her master?

She could enjoy the arrangement. She could even be grateful for it. Respect was something else, and Edward had never earned it.

Alex was the opposite of him in every way that mattered.

He did not sit aside and watch. He took what he wanted. He had taken her so thoroughly that a woman like her, a succubus, had been left helpless enough to beg him not to stop.

And after meeting him, she no longer needed the other mediocre men who had never been able to satisfy her. Alex was enough for every hunger she had. His essence had become her lifeline.

An unconscious smile bloomed on her face as those memories returned. They were humiliating. They were filthy. They were also the most honest hours of her life.

"But your usefulness has not ended yet, Edward," she whispered. "You are still very important to me. Important to my goal."

Natalia turned back to the mirror. The mocking look was gone, in its place sat a sweet, almost innocent smile.

She needed this family. Not as a cage, and not as a thing she planned to abandon now that she had found her master. She needed it as ground to stand on. Beside Alex, she refused to arrive as an unknown woman with nothing to offer but her body.

The Steele name, the Steele wealth, the Steele reach... those would give her a proper foothold at his side.

She would not throw this house away. She would make it grow as far as it could go, and then she would use every part of it to help him. Edward would remain the husband the world could see. The family would remain the tool she had already spent years sharpening.

That smile in the glass looked gentle.

The decision behind it was not.

***

Natalia was still standing in front of the mirror, planning her next move, when the intercom rang again.

She did not need to pick it up. She already knew what the maid would say. Edward was here.

She dressed the way she always had in this house, only now every movement felt sharper. The black slip settled over her body like a second skin, following the heavy line of her breasts and the curve of her hips before the silk robe closed loosely over it. She let her hair fall over one shoulder, touched perfume to her throat, and only then looked back at the glass.

The woman staring at her was dangerous. Even she could see it. There was a warmth under her skin that had not been there before, a quiet pull that would make most men forget why they had walked into the room.

She wanted Alex to be the first to see her like this. She wondered whether he would be able to stop himself, or whether he would pull her in the moment he looked at her.

She was lost in that thought when a loud knock suddenly interrupted her.

"Natalia," Edward called from the other side. "Natalia."

He had come straight from his trip. She could tell he had not even changed his clothes, and the anger in his voice was clear enough that she no longer had to guess why he was here.

He must have already heard about Marcus.

Natalia kept the smile on her face and answered in a sweet voice.

"You can come in. It’s open."

Edward came rushing inside before the door had even finished swinging open.

"What have you been doing here, Natalia?" he demanded. "How could you let this happen?"

The words were already leaving his mouth when he actually looked at her. Whatever he had prepared on the way here broke apart at once. The anger drained from his face and left something closer to shock behind it.

He stood there staring at his wife as if he had walked into the wrong room, his mouth slightly open, the rest of the accusation forgotten for a moment because he could not take his eyes off her.

Natalia smiled when she saw the change on his face, and then she laughed, softly, as if his shock pleased her more than it surprised her.

Edward recovered a little, though his eyes had not left her.

"What?" he asked. "What happened to you, Natalia?"

"What happened?" she asked, teasing him as she drew closer, one unhurried step at a time.

The nearer she came, the faster his heart beat. She could feel it. A man who had walked in ready to accuse her was already losing the ground under his feet, and she did not rush the last few steps. She let him watch her come to him.

When she was close enough, Natalia lifted her hand and set one finger against his chest, directly over his heart. She looked into his eyes and smiled the way she smiled when she wanted a man to stop thinking.

"What is that dreamy look in your eyes, Edward?" she asked, still smiling as her finger rested over his heart.

Edward swallowed. He did not know what to answer. He had come in ready to demand answers, but seeing her standing there like this made it impossible to keep his thoughts from straying.

He took a deep breath and tried to compose himself.

"You look stunning, Natalia," he said at last. "What happened to you?"

Natalia laughed at his answer, a light sound that filled the room like a bell. The mockery in it was soft enough to pass as affection.

"So that was it?" she said, still wearing that charming smile as she turned away from him.

"Tch. What a disappointment."

Edward watched her turn and felt the ground slip again. Even the dismissal looked beautiful on her. The robe moved with her, the line of her back and the fall of her hair pulling his eyes after her whether he wanted them to or not. He had come home to confront his wife, and instead he was standing there like a man who had already lost the argument.

Natalia turned back to him.

"Or were you so taken by this new look that you started imagining things you should not be thinking about your own wife?"

She stepped even closer, close enough that he could catch the new scent on her skin. It was familiar and not familiar at the same time, richer than the perfume she had always worn, and it settled in his chest before he could stop it.

"Tell me what you are thinking, Edward," she whispered.

Her lips were near enough that he felt the words more than he heard them.

"Are you imagining me in this same dress, lying on that bed while another man fucks me so well I cannot keep my voice down? Do you want to hear me scream in this same voice? Do you want to watch me beg while you stand right here and see how helpless I look in that man’s arms?"

Edward’s eyes widened. The shock on his face made it obvious she had caught him too cleanly. He cleared his throat and tried to hide the embarrassment rising in his neck, but Natalia did not give him room to recover.

"You do not need to be embarrassed about it," she said gently. "It is my job to make my husband happy, is it not?"

Natalia looked up at his face with that same innocent, sweet smile, as if she were only being a good wife.

"I understand you, Edward. I understand your desires better than you think. And I have already prepared someone for that special work. A man who can fulfill every hidden desire you have never been able to satisfy until now."

Edward’s face went blank with shock. The suggestion landed so cleanly that he stood there with nothing to say, staring at the woman who had just offered him another man as if it were a gift prepared for his return.