Chapter 30
ACHILLES
I don’t love that the older motherfucker with the admittedly impressive physique and “daddy vibes” or whatever the fuck the BookTok crowd is calling it right now is talking so intimately with her.
Or that she leans her head on his shoulder, or that he fucking hugs her.
Not one. Fucking. Bit.
But I don’t follow him to the bathroom or someplace else out of sight to break his teeth because I do know who Laz Kislev is, and that he's basically Yelena's uncle.
I mean, not her actual uncle, which is why my hands curl to fists when I see them still talking when I get back from grabbing coffee.
But whatever. He’s enough of one to get a pass…this time.
When he glances at me and gets the memo—which I’m sure has nothing to do with the murderous glare I give him—he finally steps away from what’s mine.
Then, curiously and a little impressively, he walks right over to me.
“Achilles, right?”
“Laz, right?”
He smirks. “You don’t have to keep the hackles up, man. I’m not a threat.”
“Which is why I’m just standing here.”
Laz chuckles. “Fuck me, Freud would have a field day with you.”
My brows furrow. “Excuse me?”
“You, my friend,” he says, patting my chest, “are a lot like Nero when he was your age.” He chuckles. “Christ, the way he was when he met Yelena’s mother?” Laz whistles under his breath. “Touch her and die is putting it mildly.”
“Is there a point to this?”
He’s still smiling, but I don’t miss the glint in his eyes. I also know that Laz Kislev isn’t just a fucking family friend. He’s the head of the Kislev Bratva, which works under the umbrella of the Antonov Bratva, run by Wren’s father, Bane.
So, no: the various tattoos I can see on his arms where he’s rolled his sleeves up aren’t trendy hipster crap.
He’s legit.
“Not yet,” Laz says. “But I’ll save us both the time and get to it.”
His smile drops like a fucking stone.
“That girl is the daughter I never had,” he rumbles, his eyes black as they cut into mine.
“If you hurt her, abuse her trust, fuck around on her, or, hell, even just annoy her?” He lifts a shoulder.
“Then you and I will be getting to know each other very, very intimately while you hang from chains in a basement where no one will ever find you. I know you’re not stupid, and I know you know who I am.
Which means I know you know I’m not fucking around. ”
Honestly? He’s right on all counts.
“Duly noted,” I growl.
He nods. “Let me give you some advice then, Mr. Drakos.” He cocks a brow. “Before you meet her actual father, I would get my intentions regarding her real clear, real fast.” He frowns. “It wouldn’t hurt to be wearing Kevlar, either. Understand?”
“Vividly.”
He pats my shoulder with a strong hand. “Nice meeting you, kid.” He pauses next to me on his way past. “Don’t make me skin you alive.”
I hang back when Wren’s parents, Bane and Lark Antonov, arrive.
Not because Bane is another super intense buddy of the sociopathic Nero De Luca. It just isn’t my place.
I watch from a distance as Yelena and her friends all exchange hugs with Wren's parents and listen as they fill them in on what’s going on.
There are tears, then more hugging, then more tears.
And apparently I’m more of a fucking softy than I’d care to admit, because the sight of Wren’s mother breaking down in that hospital hallway after hearing her daughter could have died tonight makes me think how much it would crush my own mother to have to deal with something like that.
So, I end up saying fuck it to the whole “keeping my distance” thing and bring a box of tissues over and offer them to Lark.
…Who hugs me fiercely and thanks me for driving Wren to the hospital.
Bane does the same, shaking my hand firmly and looking me dead in the eye when he tells me he’s in my debt for saving his daughter’s life.
I tell him it’s no problem, and he says basically the same thing Laz just did: that he thinks I’m probably a decent guy, but that he’s got his eye on me as it pertains to Yelena.
Also, that he’s not going to tell Nero…although that seems out of genuine concern for his own safety more than anything.
So that’s fun.
It’s nearly dawn when I drive Yelena, Arianna, Lucia, and Galina back to campus. I drop Lucia off at her dorm first, then swing by The Atheneum for Arianna and Galina.
Yelena glances at me when I drive past the fork in the road that leads to Morvaine, but doesn’t say anything.
Instead, she reaches across the console to where my non-steering hand is resting and laces her fingers with mine.
Kingsward is quiet when we walk in. Yelena looks exhausted, so I scoop her up in my arms and carry her up to my room.
I strip her despite her sleepy protests and lay her down in my bed.
Tired or not, she doesn’t get to sleep quite yet.
“Achilles…” she gasps quietly, her breath catching as I start to nip, suck, nibble, and lick my way up between her legs. Then she reaches down and cups my face, pulling me up so that we’re eye-to-eye, her legs around my waist.
“There’s something I want to ask you,” she whispers in the still, predawn light. “But I’m scared.”
“What are you afraid of?”
Her throat bobs as she looks at me. “Popping the bubble,” she murmurs, her eyes searching my face. “Waking up from a dream.”
“What if I were to tell you there is no bubble, and you’re wide awake.”
She swallows again. “I…I just—”
I exhale quietly with a small smile. “You want definition.”
She bites her lip, shaking her head. “No, I—”
“You do. You want to know what we are. What this is.”
She looks so terrified, like a house of cards is about to come down around her.
She doesn’t know how wrong she is.
As if any wind, even a hurricane, would knock me away from her now.
“Achilles…”
“We’re a we, Yelena,” I murmur into her lips. “An us.”
Pink stains her cheeks, and even though she’s clearly trying to hold it back, her lips start to curl up at the corners.
“We don’t have to be public if you don’t want,” I frown. “Actually, no. I don’t know why the fuck I said that.” I lean down and nip at her bottom lip. “If we’re going to do this, I’m telling the goddamn world that you’re mine. Is that clear?”
She nods quickly. “Okay,” she breathes. Her brows knit. “Um…my dad—”
“Yeah, Laz and Bane gave me all the gory details of how he might react.”
She smiles wryly. “And I can’t change that, unfortunately.”
“Then don’t, and don’t worry about it.”
“Achilles, he’s really—”
“And what is it you think is lurking inside me?”
She smiles quietly as she bites her lip. “I don’t know. But I like whatever it is a whole lot.”
”Good,” I murmur as I ghost my lips across hers. “Now, would you like to be awake or asleep when I shove these legs apart and devour your fucking pussy.”
Her breath hitches. “I think awake this time.”
She whimpers as I kiss my way down her body, my lips memorizing every inch of her skin.
Every mole.
Every hair.
Every spot that makes her moan.
Her nipples instantly react to my tongue, tightening against my mouth as I wrap my lips around them. Her stomach caves under the scrape of my teeth, and she whimpers when I grip her thighs and push them wide.
I’ve been savage with her. I’ve been unbridled and unrestrained. I’ve let my full devil out to play with her, and she’s taken him so eagerly it takes my breath away.
But right now, I want her like this.
Melting into my bed. Marking it with her scent. Spread out for me like a dessert to savor.
Soft mewling sounds begin to fall from her mouth when I drag my tongue slowly up her lips. I spread them open and slide my tongue inside, curling it up and down her slit as her hips roll and her breath catches.
Yelena coos and moans when I wrap my lips around her swollen little clit and suck it, swirling my tongue back and forth as her soft cries fall like silk on my ears.
And then I eat her alive.
I push my tongue into her, fucking her slowly and shallowly with it before sliding it back to her clit. I push her legs up and apart, dragging my tongue from her clit down to her tight little asshole, making her squeal.
I groan, pushing my pants off to free my swollen cock as I tongue her ass, swirling the tip around her puckered ring as I wrap my fist around my dick and start to stroke.
Yelena’s shuddering on my bed and moaning my name when I drag my tongue back to her clit and take it between my lips.
Fuck, I love when she does that.
But not as much as I love the taste of her coming on my tongue, which is exactly what she does next, a broken cry rattling from her throat.
Yep. She really is my favorite meal.
She whimpers, cupping my face and kissing me, tasting herself on my tongue as I move between her legs. They eagerly wrap around my hips as I center my thick head at her slick opening and slide into her.
This morning, I take my time with her.
I have all the time in the world to hunt her, drag her to the ground, and fuck the shit out of her with a blade to her jugular and my fingers tangled in her hair.
Right now, this is what I want.
Her.
Me.
Nothing more.
Our eyes stay locked as I pin her to the bed and slowly fuck into her, over and over. Her back arches, her hips rising to meet my thrusts as her fingers play with the back of my hair.
“Achilles,” she moans softly as we rock together, moving a bit faster as my cock plunges into her needy hole a little harder.
She comes, choking out an adorable little squealed moan before she bites down on my earlobe. Fuck, I love that.
I keep fucking her.
Keep thrusting into her.
Keep possessing her, rocking her into a second orgasm, and then a third.
Then finally, as our bodies are sliding together, slick with sweat and her cum, I crush my mouth to hers, feeling her nipples glide across my chest as her moans of release hum against my lips.
I bury my swollen cock as deep as I can, conquering her tongue with mine as my balls twitch and my cum pours into her.
I fuck her again in the shower.
Then on all fours in my bed.
We’re tangled up, panting and gasping, when she glances over and groans at the clock on my nightstand.
“It’s officially morning,” she pouts.
“So? It’s Sunday.”
She grins a lazy smile at me, then rolls over and kisses my bare chest. “Text me when you wake up?”
“Yelena.”
She gasps quietly as I pull her body to mine and wrap my arms and legs around her. “We’re a we. We’re an us.”
Our foreheads touch and our eyes lock.
“I don’t need to text you when I wake up,” I growl, “because you’ll be right the fuck here where you belong, in my arms.”
Heat floods her beautiful face.
“Any problem with that?”
“None,” she breathes.
“Good girl.”