41. Ilias
ILIAS
SEVERAL MONTHS LATER
T he sun was sinking slowly and syrupy over the jungles of Costa Rica, casting long golden beams across the leaves of the treehouse that we’d rented.
From where I sat on a lounge chair, a book in my lap and a cocktail at my side, close to Galena, who looked perfectly content, curled in a second lounge chair nearby.
Her hair tumbled in white silk curls down one shoulder, the light catching faint lines of charcoal on her fingers as she sketched in her notebook.
She’d taken to doodling everything from full scenes, people, flowers, to tiny creatures.
Already, she was on her second notebook.
We’d managed to bounce to various places based on our whims and people’s recommendations. Costa Rica was our latest stop, and here she seemed to find more joy in drawing animals and flowers than anywhere else.
She didn’t know I was watching her as her brow furrowed slightly, the way it always was when she was deep in thought, intent, focused.
So beautiful that it made my chest ache.
We had stayed in Greece for three weeks, tucked away in a borrowed house on the edge of the Aegean, healing in the quiet amid the lapping waves and rocks.
I took her to every place I had fallen in love with when I mapped my ancestral home, and we explored every restaurant we could find.
Then we jumped around: Italy, France, Scotland, Hungary, and then someone suggested South America, so we crossed the Atlantic to Costa Rica.
I was honest when I told her I loved being with her.
I wouldn’t change anything about our time together.
If I were even more truthful with myself, I probably wouldn’t go back to the position I held once we returned to New York.
Maybe my brothers and I could come up with a new arrangement that didn’t involve the work I used to do.
There was nothing in me that could imagine being cooped up at a desk again. This time with her had been freeing.
I rubbed the back of my neck and tried to keep my eyes on the novel I’d picked up at a bookshop. I’d been engrossed in it all morning, reading about an underwater sea diving hunt for gold treasure. But now I was struggling to focus.
Galena’s voice cut through the silence as she looked up from her sketchpad. “I’ve been watching you. You’ve been staring at the same paragraph for fifteen minutes.”
I grinned. “I’m contemplating the ploy dynamics between the two characters in this novel.” It was a lie, and Galena knew it immediately, her eyes crinkling with laughter. “Any second I’m going to have a breakthrough that will boggle the mind.”
“I call bullshit,” she laughed.
“You’re probably right about that,” I conceded.
She smirked, eyes twinkling. The breeze shifted the branches above us, and I stood, book forgotten, and walked to where she lay curled in her chair. She gave me a suspicious look when I bent and plucked the pencil from her hand, kneeling on the floor.
“Ilias…”
“You’ve been sketching for an hour,” I said, setting the sketchpad aside. I brushed her hair from her cheek and kissed the soft skin below her eye. “I have needs. ”
“Oh, do you?”
She giggled when I dipped my head and kissed her throat. Her hands slipped under my shirt, nails dragging over my stomach.
“Yes. A need to touch you.” It didn’t take much to encourage her. Her laughter softened. Her thighs parted a little when I reached down to slide my hand beneath the edge of her shorts, coaxing a soft breath from her lips.
“Ilias,” she said again, voice a little more breathless now, just the way I liked. I could tell she was warming to my idea.
“Shh,” I whispered, rocking my palm against her center slightly as I leaned in. “Let me take care of you.”
She was glowing when I finally helped her off the lounger and carried her to the bed.
Nothing made me happier than taking care of her in every way possible.
I loved burying my dick in her, the slow and steady glide of my flesh meeting hers.
I loved fucking her fast and hard and dirty, but I also loved this …
tenderly taking care of her needs. Everything about her presence drew me in.
Languidly, she pulled off the t-shirt that she’d thrown over her bikini before unhooking the top to set her breasts free and shimmying out of the bottoms. “I want you inside me right now.”
Mimicking her, I took off my shorts so my dick bobbed loose. “I could do that, sunshine. It’ll be a trial. You know that it’s hard for me.”
She laughed, “Something’s hard, alright.”
Running my hands up her inner thighs, I pressed kisses along the way to nirvana before giving her a low lick.
She’d come in five … I circled her clit with my tongue and then nipped at it.
Four, I flicked it steadily and then laved in a hard rhythm.
Three, sucking the hard little bud into my mouth in earnest, I pulled her to me as …
Two, I inserted two fingers into her and stroked as I sucked.
One, there was my good girl. She shuddered as she came, her sweetness hitting my tongue.
“That’s my beautiful wife.” I kissed her hard as I positioned the head of my dick at her entrance, my eyes nearly rolling back in my head as I slid inside her tight, wet heat. “How do you want it?”
“Hard. Fuck me hard.”
I wrapped my fingers in hers and smiled down at her.
Hell, yes. I angled up into her and set the pace as she wrapped her legs around my hips, rising to meet my thrusts.
She didn’t have to ask me twice for anything.
It felt so good that I had to start to count backward as the tingle began almost immediately at the back of my spine.
I watched as she crested each rise, getting closer and closer as I stroked into her and slammed back balls deep, scraping against her until she let out throaty moans. “That’s it, sunshine.” Levering myself up, I swiveled against her, rubbing her clit. “Do you feel that. You’re so close.”
Patiently, I stroked her higher and higher, ignoring how close I was and focused on watching how my dick disappeared between the lips of her pussy, the little moans she made, and each gasp until she came apart with her eyes squeezed shut and her pussy clamping on my dick.
Finally, I surged forward and let myself go, coming in spurts, my forehead pressed to hers as I panted, unable to stop my hips from pumping again and again into her sweet heat.
Rolling to our sides, I cradled her, ignoring the mess and letting myself savor the moment. “Are you ready to go back?” She whispered against my arm, turning her face to me.
I didn’t answer right away, pushing myself to think it through.
We’d told each other to be honest about our feelings with each other.
We both wanted a life partner who was willing to step up to the plate and compromise, but not cave in all the time to what someone else wanted.
I never wanted that for her, and I didn’t want that for me either.
Bitterness would follow too quickly if we became those people.
“I’m ready enough. It’ll be hard in a lot of ways to go back, but I do miss everyone.
” I stroked the curve of her side. “I’ve loved our vacation time, but I want to be back for the babies to be born. ”
It had been months since we last saw them all together.
Theo and Frankie were both about to deliver soon.
Conall and Angelo were both anxious and worried about it, and we missed the milestone of Vasily taking his first steps.
Polina had finished her research on cricket mating and was set to graduate in a few weeks, so we couldn’t miss that.
She said she was fine, but I wasn’t entirely sure.
I’d like to check on her and have a few heart-to-heart talks with her once and for all.
If I had my way, she’d come back home to live.
“I’m ready to go back. I’ve loved our time, but I don’t want to miss out on Theo and Frankie’s deliveries.”
She’d been keeping up with the girls in a text chat, so I knew she was in the loop and we’d been getting photos of everyone’s progress.
“It’s settled then.” Giving her one last kiss, I gathered her up before carrying her to the small bathroom to rinse off.
The thing about the treehouse rental was that there wasn’t any takeout like Manhattan or someone like Evgenia who cooked for you.
We had to rely on ourselves, which had its own appeal.
Together, we managed, and luckily, neither of us was picky, especially since it was hot. Simple food was best in this setting.
Later, squinting out over the jungle, I said, “I’m looking forward to being home, but I’ll miss the stillness we’ve found in these moments.”
She stepped behind me and fit her hands around my torso before kissing my spine. “We’ll just have to find those moments when we’re home and create them for ourselves, or maybe go on vacation more.”
“I love that thought.” I wrapped a hand around hers. I was looking forward to everything to come in our future.
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