Chapter 25
YELENA
I wake to dark, devil eyes peering into mine from inches away.
“Fuck!”
Achilles grunts, bringing a hand to the sudden rush of blood from his nose as my forehead slams into it.
“Shit!” I gasp as consciousness filters back. I scramble to my knees on the couch and cup his face instinctively. “I’m so sorry! Are you okay?!"
Achilles groans in pain, wiping the back of his hand across the flow of blood.
“I’m fine.”
I whirl, grabbing the first thing I see…his own t-shirt…before turning back to him. “Here, hold this to it.”
Achilles takes the shirt, holding it to his bleeding nose as he drops onto the couch next to me.
I blink, trying to shake away the last of the fog.
Then I look down and realize I’m naked.
So is he.
My face heats as my eyes dart to him again. He’s looking right at me, his eyes sweeping over my body as he gently pulls the shirt away from his nose. It's still bleeding from where my forehead hit it, but neither of us is focused on that.
My lip sucks between my teeth, and I quickly turn and reach for the blanket behind me. His hand lands on mine.
“Don’t,” he murmurs.
Before I realize what’s happened, he’s yanked me onto his lap and sat me astride it, facing him.
I blush fiercely when I feel a throbbing thickness hot against my pussy, and my neurons short-circuit when I realize it’s his erection pressed against me.
Heat blooms in my face, and I squirm as if to slide off his lap.
But his grip on my hip tightens, keeping me right where I am.
“I—may I get dressed?” I murmur.
“No, you may not.”
He peers closely at me as he brings a hand up and brushes a lock of dark hair back from my face. He cups my jaw, and I shiver when his thumb brushes lightly over my bottom lip.
“I like you like this,” he murmurs.
I roll my eyes. “What, naked? Wow, shocking revelation—”
“Exposed,” he growls.
My brows pinch together.
“Not just naked,” Achilles says, his lips curling at the corners. “Though I’m far from opposed to that.”
My core clenches.
“But exposed. This is new for you, being like this with someone.”
I swallow. “You know it is,” I murmur.
He nods his head slowly. “You’re not just without clothes right now. You’re without all that armor you usually wear.”
I snort, looking away. “I don’t wear—”
“Oh, yes,” he murmurs. “You do. But right now, it’s off, even though I can see you trying to put it back on.”
I smile curiously.
“This is what I like about you right now: you’re exposed and vulnerable, without your armor.
That you’re not sure what your next biting comment or deflective sarcastic remark is going to be.
” He lifts an amused brow. “And yes, the nakedness, too. I like the fact that my cum would be dripping out of your pussy right now if I hadn’t licked it out of you while you were sleeping. ”
Heat erupts across my face.
“You…” I gulp. “You didn’t really—”
“I did.”
Holy shit.
I want to be furious. I want to tell him how fucking wrong that is.
I also want to have a long discussion with myself about why that’s so hot.
“That’s…sick,” I mumble.
“If it’s so sick,” he growls, “then why do I know that if I were to slip my fingers into your pussy right now, I’d find it dripping wet? Does that make you sick as well? Or do the two sicknesses cancel each other out?”
I stare at him. “You…Achilles…you can’t just—” I shake my head, turning to let my eyes wander over the cabin.
I remember collapsing exhausted after he fucked me against the table. I have a vague memory of him lifting me in his arms and carrying me to the couch.
But that’s all I have before startling awake and bashing his nose with my head.
I frown. “How long was I asleep? What time is it?”
He cups my face and directs my focus back to him. His other hand slides over my ass, gripping it tightly and sending shivers rippling through my core as he keeps me right where I am, sitting astride his lap.
“Are you mad because I made your come all over my tongue?” he murmurs. “Or because you weren’t awake to experience it?”
I squirm a little on his lap, breathing a bit quicker.
“And it’s four-fourteen in the morning.”
“FOUR-FOURTEEN?! My friends must be—”
“Your friends are fine,” he growls. “I texted Arianna again and told her you were staying with me. She had some…imaginative suggestions for ways she’d be removing my dick from my body if you weren’t okay. But she said she’d pass the message on to Wren.”
I can’t help but grin a little. When I press my lips together, he smirks.
“I hope I wasn’t a dirty little secret.”
My teeth rake over my bottom lip. “No,” I mumble. When his eyes pierce into me, I shift uncomfortably. “Okay, you sort of were. Are. I mean…Ari and Wren know, but…” I frown. “Wait, do your friends know about me?”
He smiles. “My personal business is my own.”
I roll my eyes. “You mean my father and his business partner are potentially building condos that'll ruin the view from the house your great-grandmother has lived in for sixty-five years,” I say flatly.
“And most of your friends are as pissed about that as you are, and wouldn't like to see you with me.”
Achilles grins. “Or something like that.”
I shiver a little.
“How do you feel?”
“Sore,” I answer truthfully. “But…not in a bad way,” I add.
“You bring out a devil in me,” he growls, brushing my cheek with his knuckles.
I feel my face heat. “Don’t apologize for that.”
“I wasn’t planning on it.”
I grin.
“I also feel…” I clear my throat. “Uh, much less fucked up than earlier?”
He nods. “It’s been about five hours. The ecstasy’s leaving your system now.”
I chew on my lip, not sure if I want to voice the question lingering on my tongue.
I clear my throat. “Do you feel bad, or weird or, I don’t know, morally compromised, having sex with me while I was like that?”
He smiles quietly. “Should I?”
I blush. “I mean, you know…consent?”
Achilles shakes his head. “Do you feel like you were taken advantage of?”
I shake my head. “No,” I say truthfully. “But…I don’t know, I guess I…”
Fuck, was I really about to tell him to his face that I trust him?
That brings up the whole question of “what we are”.
But seriously… What is this? Are we dating? Hooking up? All of these concepts are new to me, and I try to make myself remember and focus on there being two separate boxes.
Love.
Sex.
So in terms of what “we” are, I guess we’re having really, really good sex. And maybe that’s all it is. Maybe that’s all it has to be. But… Is it?
“Would you have stopped if I asked you to?”
He cocks a brow. “Said the word stop, or the word that would actually stop me?”
“Same question for both,” I say hesitantly.
“No, and yes.”
I grin. “So… No to the word no, but yes to the word thunder.”
He lifts a dark brow. “I thought you were good with that arrangement.”
“No, I am. I just…” I sigh. “I’m just saying, how would you like it if you woke up to find me having sex with you or blowing you or something?”
He smirks. “Is that a real question?”
“Fuck you,” I laugh. “You know what I mean.”
He smiles. “Does it bother you that I do things to you while you’re asleep?”
I answer without having to think about it. “No.”
“Why?”
“Because…” I shrug and shake my head, then let out a sigh.
He cocks a brow expectantly. “Because…”
I sigh. “Just…because?”
I yelp when he reaches out and pinches a nipple.
“OW!”
“Well?”
“Because I trust you!” I blurt. “Against my better judgment,” I add softly.
His brows knit. “Why that second part?”
“Because… I don’t know if I should,” I finally say.
Achilles’ eyes search mine. “Have I ever given you any reason not to trust me? I’ve followed through on every single thing I’ve ever said to you.”
I shake my head and then sigh. “Just… I don’t know, how does this usually work for you?”
He frowns. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, when you’ve done this with other girls—”
“Why would you think I’ve done this with other girls?”
I sit back on his lap a little. “Because...I dunno…” My brows pinch together. “I mean, it’s your thing, and…”
I look away, but his hand cups my jaw again, dragging my gaze back to his.
“Have you ever once heard of me doing this with other girls?”
“Well, no, but it’s your private—”
“Do you really think it wouldn’t get out if I of all people here at Knightsblood were doing this sort of thing with other girls?”
I ponder that for a second.
“But… Have you always been into this sort of thing?”
He nods. “Yes.”
“You just...never acted on it?”
“Not until you,” he growls.
Have I ever given you any reason not to trust me? I’ve followed through on every single thing I’ve ever said to you.
He’s right. He’s been truthful with me. But I haven’t been truthful with him. At least, not completely.
It's also not lost on me that he didn't force me to tell him why I was planting Jane Doe’s underwear on Kyle before we crashed together. He let it go.
For a second, I want to tell him. Not because I feel like I owe it to him, but because I genuinely want to. I don’t know why, and I can’t explain it, but I do trust him…maybe even enough to tell him the whole story.
To peel off that last layer of armor.
But that…
My heart tightens.
That feels like something in the other box—the relationship and love box.
This is just a sex box. We are just a sex box.
Simple.
Clean.
Compartmentalized.
Because as real as it feels to be here on his lap, and as close as I am to him right now—closer than I’ve ever been to anyone else—this isn’t dating.
We’re not a we.
We’re…having fun. I’m his very willing plaything, his prey, and he’s…him.
Dark.
Possessive.
Dangerous.
Untouchable.
“You’ve really never done this with anyone else?” I murmur.
He shakes his head. “Nope. I’ve also never had sex without a condom, for the record.”
I blush.
I think I like that.
“I just…” My teeth rake over my bottom lip. “I can’t believe you went down on me while I was asleep,” I mumble. “Twice.”
“How does that make you feel?” A low growl rumbles in his chest as his hands roam possessively over me.
“I… I don’t know—”
I gasp as his hand slides over my ass and between my legs from behind, stroking my slick, eager pussy.
“Yes, you do,” he growls. “Tell me.”
I whimper as he sinks two fingers into me, his thumb teasing over my asshole.
“Hot,” I whisper breathlessly. “Really, really hot.”
I gasp again as he lifts me up, centering his thick head at my entrance.
“Show me how hot,” he growls, “by riding my cock like a good girl.”
I reach up, brushing the blood away from his upper lip with my fingers.
“How’s your nose?”
“What fucking nose,” he groans, pulling me onto him.
It’s fully light out by the time I sneak upstairs to bed at Morvaine, wearing Achilles’ oversized Privateers hoodie which goes halfway down to my knees.
Which is good, because there’s nothing else underneath it.
I can probably get a few hours of sleep before Wren comes looking for me. But even as I snuggle under the covers, utterly spent, my mind keeps spinning.
Two boxes.
There are two boxes.
Sex, and love.
The sex I have with Achilles is…incredible. Mind blowing. Like, woe betide any man who has to follow this.
But it's just sex.
So why does it feel like the divider between those two boxes is eroding faster than I can stop it?