Chapter 12 – Lukyan
The last candle burns itself out just as we step away from the table. Neither of us seems in a hurry to acknowledge that the evening is over.
For a few moments, we simply stand there beneath the balcony lights, the estate glittering below us and the remnants of dinner scattered between us like evidence of something neither of us quite understands yet.
Then I hold out my hand. Sofia looks at it. Then at me. A faint crease appears between her brows, but to my surprise, she places her hand in mine without arguing. The simple trust of it catches me off guard. Her fingers are warm. Small inside my palm.
I close my hand around hers and lead her back into the house. She follows quietly. No complaints. No attempts to pull away. The silence between us feels different from what it used to.
It’s not awkward. It’s not hostile. It’s very comfortable. This should concern me more than it does.
As we walk through the dimly lit hallway, my thoughts drift back over the evening. The conversation. The laughter. The way her eyes brightened when she talked about books. The way she nearly fell out of her chair laughing when I told her about breaking my arm as a teenager.
I shake my head slightly. I’d organized this dinner because I was tired of the distance and silence between us, but I got more than I expected. She totally relaxed with me.
Somewhere along the way, things changed. It happened gradually enough that I didn’t notice it at first. Now it’s impossible to ignore.
When Sofia first entered my life, every decision involving her had a purpose. A strategy. A goal. Even kindness had an objective behind it.
Now I’m not so sure. Tonight wasn’t strategy. At least not entirely. I wanted to spend time with her. The simplicity of that truth is unsettling. Because it creates a problem I don’t know how to solve.
I understand business. Power. Leverage. Those things make sense. People don’t. Especially not when emotions become involved. And Sofia has somehow become an emotion.
We reach the upstairs corridor. Her room waits at the far end.
The closer we get, the more aware I become of her beside me.
Of the warmth of her hand. Of the faint floral scent that always seems to follow her.
Of the fact that, for the first time in weeks, she isn’t looking at me like I’m the villain in her story.
This hit hard. Because I know things she doesn’t.
I know why she came into my life. I know what Karl was trying to accomplish.
I know the truth sitting silently between us.
And still, every day, it becomes harder to tell her.
Harder to risk losing whatever this is before I’ve fully understood it myself.
Sofia slows slightly when we reach her door. I stop with her. Neither of us immediately lets go. The hallway is quiet. The house asleep around us. For a moment, we simply stand there.
Her gaze lifts to mine. And something about the way she’s looking at me makes my chest tighten unexpectedly. The hostility is gone. The walls aren’t as high as they used to be. Tonight proved that.
I can see it in her eyes. She relaxes around me now. She smiles easily. She no longer seems constantly prepared for battle. And the worst part is that I like it. More than I should.
“Sofia.” My voice sounds rougher than usual.
She blinks. As though she’d been lost in thought. “Yeah?”
For a second, I don’t know what I intended to say. The words disappear the moment she looks at me. An unfamiliar problem. One I’m beginning to encounter far too often around her. Eventually, I settle for the truth.
“I had a good time tonight.”
The admission feels strangely vulnerable.
Her expression softens. “So did I.”
Simple words. Yet they affect me more than they should. A small smile appears on her face. And there it is again. That feeling. The one that has been steadily growing for weeks. It doesn’t involve logic. Just the increasingly dangerous realization that I care what happens to her.
More than that. I care what she thinks of me. The thought settles heavily in my chest. Because men like me don’t get many opportunities to reinvent ourselves. Our mistakes follow us. Our choices define us. And I’ve made more bad choices than most.
Yet standing here with Sofia, I find myself wanting something absurd. A chance. A chance to become someone she doesn’t regret trusting. The idea is so foreign that I almost laugh at myself.
Instead, I release her hand. Slowly. Reluctantly.
“Goodnight, Sofia.”
Her fingers linger against mine for a brief second before slipping away completely.
“Goodnight, Lukyan.”
She opens her door, steps inside, then pauses.
For a moment, she glances back over her shoulder. Our eyes meet one last time. Neither of us speaks for a moment.
Then she surprises me. “Will you come in for a moment?”
I stare at her. For half a second, I genuinely wonder if I’ve imagined it. The corner of her mouth twitches. And then she’s laughing at the expression on my face.
I recover quickly. Or at least I pretend to.
“Careful, Sofia. You’re starting to sound like you enjoy my company.”
She rolls her eyes. “Don’t ruin the moment.”
I step into the room before she can change her mind. The laugh she lets out follows me inside. The door closes behind us. The sound is soft.
Yet somehow it changes everything. The room suddenly feels more intimate. A warm lamp glows beside the bed. One of her books lies open on the blanket where she’d abandoned it earlier.
Everything about the space feels unmistakably hers now. I turn, and she’s staring at me. We just stare at each other for a heartbeat. I don’t even know who moves first, but suddenly all the space between us evaporates.
We’re in each other’s arms. Our tongues are down each other’s throats, and we’re kissing like we’ll literally die if we don’t taste each other right this second.
I’m ravenous, and I can feel myself completely losing control. I fist her hair and force myself to drag my mouth away from hers, breathing hard.
“Tell me to leave, Sofia,” I growl, my voice rough. “I’m no better than an animal right now. Please.”
A small, breathless smile touches her lips. “I don’t want you to leave.”
That’s it. My control completely snaps. I crash my mouth back down onto hers, and this time the kiss is hungrier, more intense. She lets out a soft whimper against my lips, and I swear I see red.
I gently push her backward until her knees hit the mattress and she falls back onto the bed.
Without breaking the kiss, I work the zipper of her dress and peel the fabric off her body.
She writhes beneath me, and I haven’t even truly touched her yet.
She is so incredibly sensitive to my touch that it makes my cock ache.
Fuck.
I finally break the kiss to look down at her. My cock throbs painfully against my pants. I take her in from head to toe—from her beautiful blue eyes to the swell of her breasts, her soft curves, and down to the heat between her legs.
Her skin pinks with heat, and she instinctively tries to bring her hands up to cover herself. But I catch her wrists, pinning them gently to the mattress as I stare down at her.
“You’re beautiful,” I murmur.
She opens her mouth to say something—probably to thank me—but I don’t give her the chance. I lean down and take one of her nipples straight into my mouth, sucking over the sensitive peak. Whatever words she is about to speak come out as a sharp, breathless gasp.
“Luk—”
Hearing my name on her lips is a total aphrodisiac, and I drink it right up.
I suck on her nipples, completely devouring her like she’s my last meal on earth.
She cries out, moaning and whimpering under me, and I hold her down with one arm resting heavy across her throat. She tastes absolutely incredible.
I slide my tongue over to her other nipple and start licking her there, making her fingers delve tight into my hair. Meanwhile, my other hand slowly slides down her flat stomach, moving past her hips until my fingers part her wet folds. She screams.
“Lukyan, please.”
I flick her clit while sucking her nipple, and she’s a complete mess beneath me. I pull my hand away from her core for a second just to taste her juices on my fingers, and the flavor almost drives me mad. I can’t take it anymore.
I kiss my way down her body, spread her legs wide, and bury my face between her thighs to devour her. Her loud, breathless screams ring right in my ears.
I use my tongue to trace her from top to bottom, making long, wet strokes that have her hips lifting right off the mattress. Every time I swirl my tongue over her sensitive skin, she lets out a broken sob, her hands anchoring tight into the bedsheets.
I don’t give her a second to breathe. I lock my hands around her thighs, holding her wide open for me as I press my mouth flat against her core and start to suck.
A loud, wet slurp echoes in the quiet bedroom, and Sofia completely loses it.
She arches her back, her head tossing from side to side on the pillows as a string of breathless gasps pours from her lips.
“Lukyan—oh my god, please, please—” she begs, but her fingers are digging into my shoulders, pulling me closer instead of pushing me away.
She tastes sweeter than anything I’ve ever had, and the fact that she’s my wife makes my blood boil with pure possessiveness.
I speed up, my tongue lapping at her wet folds, drinking her in while she writhes underneath me.
Every soft smack of my lips and every wet slide of my tongue against her skin sends a violent shudder straight through her legs.
She’s completely at my mercy, trembling and screaming my name into the empty room as I drive her closer and closer to the edge.
“Please, Lukyan… More, please,” Sofia begs, her voice completely broken as she arches against my mouth, practically chasing my tongue.