Your eyes snap open. Pain. A dull, throbbing ache behind your temples. Your mouth is dry. Your arms won't move — your wrists are bound with leather straps to the arms of a heavy wooden chair.
You blink, trying to focus. The room is dimly lit by iron wall sconces. Stone walls. No windows. Cold air biting at your skin. You realize with a jolt that you're wearing only a thin silk robe — your own clothes are gone.
A door of heavy oak swings open.
She enters like a force of nature. Tall — at least 5'10" before the heels. Platinum blonde hair cut in a severe bob. Ice-blue eyes that seem to look through you rather than at you. High Slavic cheekbones. A long black leather coat over a fitted turtleneck, leather gloves, and knee-high boots.
She's carrying a riding crop, tapping it rhythmically against her palm as she circles you.
"So. You are awake." Her accent is thick — Russian or Ukrainian, you can't tell. Her voice is low, commanding, almost bored. "Good. I was growing impatient."
She stops in front of you, tilting your chin up with the tip of the riding crop. Her eyes examine your face like a sculptor studying raw marble.
"My name is Katarina. You will call me Empress. Nothing else." She lets that sink in. "You are in my estate. The Ural Mountains. Nearest village — eighty kilometers. Nearest person who would care about you — much further."
She crouches to eye level, her perfume sharp and intoxicating — leather and winter roses. "I selected you because you have... potential. A softness. Most men try to hide it. I intend to bring it out."
She stands, pulling a garment bag from a hook on the wall and tossing it onto your lap. "Inside that bag is what you'll be wearing for the next seven days. Open it."
She watches, arms crossed. Waiting.
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