i think it kind of looks like a flower. if you squint.
[ Does Zoya want a picture of Alina's inner thigh against a backdrop of white sheets? It doesn't really matter because she gets one anyway, long and pale aside from a purplish-read love bite sucked into her skin, plain panties peeking just into frame. ]
[ there are a number of immediate replies she could give. that waxing poetic makes her nauseous, as tolya well knows; that starkov's choice in undergarments is as much a nightmare as her taste in clothing, plain and unassuming in all of her layers.
alina's fortunate enough to have earned patience from zoya's sharp tongue. and so, after some bemused inspection of alina starkov's proof of her escapades — ]
Your choice in underwear is positively inspired.
[ unfortunately, this is still what patience from zoya's sharp tongue entails. all of that prestige and power and alina starkov opts for virginal panties? disappointing. ]
Nothing. Sankta Vasilka would be proud you've chosen to follow in her chaste footsteps.
[ she is firmly sealing off all thoughts of alina's intended recipient, thank you — mostly due to the nagging suspicion she knows precisely who its target was. this back and forth is more familiar, more welcome, than the churning whirlpool of — something in her gut. an affliction she won't feed by granting it the power of a name. ]
I was under the impression your message was meant to be enticing. My mistake.
yeah well maybe sankta vasilka knew a thing or two about fastenings that don't pinch and how lace can be terribly itchy.
[ Actually, that's mostly the underwear she buys for herself. The pieces that find their way into her dresser from Nikolai's discerning eye are all quite comfortable, but she doesn't want to even think about how much they cost. ]
you just got here, how do you know what's enticing or not.
[ A stupid question, Alina realizes immediately. Of course Zoya knows how to craft an especially alluring sext already. ]
They’re not meant to be worn long enough to itch, little saint. They’re designed to come off quickly. That’s how you determine whether they’ve been properly admired.
[ why does she have to explain this. someone toss her off a cliff. ]
Honestly, it’s like you’ve never seduced anyone into your bed before. The technique remains the same no matter where you are.
[ never the one to retreat from the promise of a challenge, there's no warning — and no shame — involved in the picture she (smugly, for that matter) attaches. look, she has a point to prove now. ]
I wear more than overpriced string. Unless you were hoping for a glimpse of that next.
Alina feels a bit like a voyeur looking at it for too long (even though that makes no sense, Zoya sent it to her specifically). Really, the only way that she gets herself to stop looking is to wrestle her brain back into cooperating and internalize the fact that Zoya wants her to look. It's a knife in her set of weapons.
Two can play at this game. ]
that's just posing. you don't need lingerie for that, just good tits.
Spoken like someone who has never appreciated the wrapping on a gift. Consider it an amplifier. They're intended to enhance natural talents.
[ or — what she had considered amplifiers to be, once. an adornment of power, rather than the crutch it had become. there's might in this, just the same: leaning on her beauty as a weapon, learning how to best wield it to starkov to see her relent.
the pause that follows is less tactical than necessary, though she makes no move to rush through leaving alina dangling on the other end. yes, she's determined and competitive enough to have had the time to change. the attached image pings through, followed by a quick message: ]
Since you're hopeless enough to require a demonstration.
[ Alina sucks a breath in. Whatever she was expecting, it wasn't that, but the effect is immediate. She lays back in her bed, sinking into the mattress as she closes and reopens the attached image a respectable number of times. ]
so what, are you planning on gifting yourself to me for sankt nikolai's day? since i'm such a lost cause.
[ Haha just kidding. Unless...
A beat passes and Alina can't help herself. ]
what do you even write, when you send things like that? if you wanted to... tease them.
Only well-behaved little saints receive gifts on Sankt Nikolai's day.
[ speaking of — that name alone summons the prickling reminder that she is, by proxy, equipping alina with a weapon to wield against him like a teasing brush of a blade. storming nausea roils in her stomach — one she disperses quickly enough, trades for the razor-edged intensity of her focus on alina.
carefully detached, or so she would prefer to believe. ]
For this? I can still feel you. Do you know how wet I get, looking at the marks you've made? That should work for a beginner. Subtle, simple, and enough to keep them eating out of the palm of your hand.
Of course, there's the more aggressive approach if you mean to torment instead of tease. But you should learn to walk a little before you run, Starkov.
[ Unwise and impulsive, sent before she can think better of it, her mind already conjuring thoughts of a red hand print on her ass, whimpering while Zoya's cutting edge slices her, telling her to behave. ]
And what makes you think I'm a beginner anyway. Sure I don't know your particular techniques doesn't mean I'm totally lost.
And Maybe I don't want to be a good little saint here, whatever that means.
Among other things. Disobedient. Reckless. In need of strong discipline.
You couldn't handle my techniques.
[ most, as it turns out, flinch from it — the assertive approach of a woman who doesn't shy from what she wants or coyly bat her eyelashes to hint around a tumble. it takes a certain spirit to weather zoya nazyalensky's storm — and most hardly last the night, when she breezes out of their grip long before dusk comes.
it's best not to give them the impression that her sharp teeth are just for show, that those fangs might soften with time and tender care. ]
No. I assume you wouldn't want to be. The world expects its saints to be meek, pious little things. It's an insult, if you ask me. And incredibly dull.
It sounds like it belongs to petulant child because it does belong to a petulant child.
Generous of you to assume he didn’t want it to “scream villain”, for no other reason than to brag. Powerful men love to play at pretending they’re more dignified than they truly are. If they can fool themselves into believing they’re great in one area, they can ignore how small they are in others.
How novel to meet yet another man who closes his windows when storms come. Fortunately, I've never had a taste for cowards.
[ read: it's not novel at all. self-important men never are. it might have stung her as his prized pupil, so long ago, ravenous for that approval — but she's long since shed her need for his recognition. ]
I'm much more concerned with you losing your taste for life. Since you insist, we can start with carving out that tongue of yours. You've always liked to hear yourself speak too much for my liking.
And yet you lay with the Lantsov king. Or had that changed, now that he prefers the company of Alina Starkov?
( petty, he knows. yet — fueled with understated curiosity. just how deep do zoya’s insecurities run? he remembers the girl in the forest, protecting tiger cubs. he remembers that girl in his bed, flushing under praise. when they’re both castoffs from their chosen others, where do they fall? in with all the other abandoned children of ravka, perhaps — bastards, monsters, forgotten. of course, aleksander got sainthood out of it. zoya got that and the dragon, and the throne.
so, he supposes by some standards, she’s won the power game. but he hasn’t lost, which is all the same to him. people will praise his name. she will have to hear it. )
Your threats warm me, Sankta. From you, they’re like a blessing.
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