Liam's voice grew louder as I stalked toward the crowd. Even if I couldn't make out his words, I could already tell how upset he was by just the tone of his voice."How dare you hurt Ms. Jane?!"The crowd immediately parted for me as I strode passed them with two guards trailing behind me.My mood was already bad after dealing that unconscious idiot upstairs and only dropped several degrees lower with this new fiasco. As such, most of the guests diverted their eyes, instinctively knowing not to test my temper in my current state.Some random woman's voice rang out from the center of the crowd."Who do you think you are accusing? You're clearly mistaken, young man. I am an elite woman who would never do such a lowly thing, so please take your tantrum elsewhere.""I'm not mistaken. I saw you do it!""Look here now, kid. There's no need to try to blame your embarrassment on me. Your mother is just not fit for upper society and tripped over her own two feet."Once I broke into the circle'
"Jane, I just finished putting Liam to bed," I called out softly from outside her bedroom door.We had just gotten back to Jane's house from the gala. It was pitch dark outside when we left, so I wasn't too surprised when Liam fell asleep in Jane's arms just minutes after we started driving.She didn't talk much on the entire way back, which made me worry that she might have regretted her original plan to marry me.The silence felt deafening.But that worry didn't last too long when she tiredly leaned against my arm halfway through the drive and mumbled in a half-awake state, "Thank you for standing up for me, Achilles."My heart warmed as she snuggled deeper into my chest in her half-conscious state, like how an exhausted kitten would curl up. I had carefully wrapped my arm around her shoulders, keeping her pressed firmly against my side until we got back to her house.By the time we arrived, she was already partially dozed off in my arms. I told my driver to wait outside for me as I
"Mr. Cordova, the board is ready for you in conference room 1."I nodded as I handed Joseph a folder of private paperwork and grabbed my phone. "Did my father decide to intrude on today's meeting as I expected?""Yes, he just messaged me an hour ago and told me to bring him a dark roast coffee with 1 creamer and 2 sugars."Of course, he did."That's fine. Just tell the baristas downstairs to bring one up for him and to leave it outside if we are in the middle of the meeting." I closed my laptop and handed it to Joseph. "Join me in the meeting room after you finish making a copy of those papers and leaving the original copy in my office."He raised an eyebrow in confusion but nodded in agreement anyway.After he left my office, I started to make my way to conference room 1 on the other side of the floor from my office.I planned to reorganize the hierarchy of the outer families at today's board meeting as I had announced at the gala, and it seems that my father had found out about my p
I stared at the empty office in confusion and glanced at my watch to double-check the time. It was just a few minutes past 6 PM, the time that I always made sure to reach her office by, especially after I completely missed it last week.Usually, every time I came to pick her up, Jane would always wait for me at her office in Benedict's building before our agreed-upon time; something about how I would make too much of a scene if I picked her up from the lobby. But she had never been late before, not even once.Her bags and coat were still here, so I knew that she was probably still somewhere in the building.Maybe one of her meetings was running overtime, or she simply forgot to tell me that she had something scheduled at this time.Nevertheless, I decided to wait inside her office, reasoning that it would be too early to panic about her absence yet and make a scene against her wishes. I plopped down the white bag of pastries and dessert that I picked up for my two sweet tooth darlings
Since the night of the gala, I've been spending the nights with Jane and was practically living at her house full time. Picking her up after work. Going home to greet Liam together. Cooking with each other side by side. Sharing the same bed. Waking up to her beautiful face every day.It was a life that I never wanted to give up after getting a taste of it. Never would I ever want to go back to living in my cold and empty apartment, void of any signs of life. A place that lacked the comforting scent of warm fruity spices and the joyous laughter of my two angels.I gently brushed Jane's hair out of her face as she nuzzled up closer to me in her sleep. How could I ever give up a sight like this?Her hair was fanned out on the pillow behind her as she curled up against my chest like a little kitten. She buried her nose into the crook of my neck before letting out a soft hum in contentment and falling back into a deep sleep.The top of her head rested just below my nose, filling my senses
"What's wrong with you today?"Huh? I looked up from the mixing bowl of pancake batter in confusion. "What do you mean, Liam?"He shrugged half-heartedly and replied as he continued dropping chocolate chips into the pancake batter, "Normally, you're always clinging onto Ms. Jane and asking for kisses whenever you think I'm not looking, but you've barely been within a ten feet radius of her all morning."Embarrassment immediately rose inside of me.It was already bad enough that I could barely get close to Jane today without dirty thoughts popping up. The mere sight of her reminds me of how alluring she looked underneath me earlier before I accidentally went too far. How sinfully lovely her moans sounded against my ear. How smooth her bare skin felt under my touch.Even though I just came back from the humiliation of driving back to my apartment in the cold with a boner and spending more than 30 minutes in an icy cold shower in the middle of the winter to get it down, my body still wou
"Ah, you're finally here! What took you so long? Everyone's here already. Ugh, never mind. I don't actually care now that you're here. Now, where's my grandbaby?""Hello to you too, mother," I replied sarcastically as I handed off the pie that Jane baked for today's family dinner and my heavy coat to one of my parent's butlers.Turning back around, I opened the front door wider for my two treasures. I grabbed Jane's hand as I helped her step over the ledge into the house with Liam trailing right behind her, holding onto the edge of her dress for dear life.Jane gave my mother a soft smile and greeted, "Good evening, Mrs. Cordova. I'm sorry for being late. The seminar for Liam's class at the lecture hall downtown ran a bit over time.""It's alright, sweetheart. There's no need to apologize." My mother eagerly pulled her into the warmth of the house, offering her a small towel to dry her hair from the melting snowfall. "Besides, didn't I tell you to call me mom already? You don't need t
With much compromise, Benedict eventually received his phone back in an undamaged state but at the price of being forced to sit on the far end of the table to be placed "as far away from Ms. Jane as possible," as per Liam's request.Liam and I sat on either side of Jane on the other end of the table. But then my mother insisted on sitting close to her "grandbaby" and plopped down next to Liam before he could even protest, leading to the rest of my family sitting to the right of Liam while Cassy's family made do with the leftover seats next to me.To say the least, the assignments of seats caused much more hassle than it really needed to. But at least everything seemed to calm down once dinner started.Between my mother and her friend, Mellisa, there was no issue with any awkward silences as they quickly filled up the room with their lively chatter, even pulling in Benedict's preppy personality once he stopped sulking and started asking Jane random questions here or there.Not giving m
Ten years later"Brother Liam! What are you doing out there?!" I tore my gaze away from the light fluttering of snowflakes and glanced back at our house curiously. A fiery little girl came flying out the back door with a flurry of blankets.And before I even knew what had happened, I was bombarded with a pile of soft wool and pulled down to her height by the blanket hooked over my head. A familiar head of warm hazelnut curls and bright silver eyes popped up into my view with a big pout gracing her lips. Not caring for the fact that I was a full ten years older than her, she harshly scolded, "It's too cold out here! Are you trying to make Mom and Dad worry?" I chuckled softly at her antics. Though she was a tad overprotective, I had to admit that it was getting a bit too cold for me to handle, but I honestly liked the snow too much to give it all up. After all, it was my favorite season. It was the time of year when all the best things in my life happened. Getting saved by Mom
"Now, now, Mellisa... Don't you think you are rushing things a bit too much?" I tensed up as a tall, lanky brunette walked up to our table. He was dressed messily, with his buttons done in every which way, similar to his wild hair. But the thing that caught my eyes more was the gun that he was haphazardly twirling in his hand. Ms. Mellisa's expression dropped at the appearance of this man, making no indications of releasing Liam. She unamusedly replied, "Stop acting so condescending, Albert. I'm the one holding what you need. Personally, I would've preferred getting rid of this annoying child from my sight, but you and Margarett still need him for your plans, don't you?" The atmosphere dropped 10 degrees colder as the man stalked closer to the pair. Stopping abruptly in front of Ms. Mellisa, he lowly questioned, "Who do you think you are to threaten me?" Roughly pushing her aside, he grabbed hold of my son. Liam's eyes grew two times wider as he took in the sight of the man before
"Danary, are you ready to go?" I perked up in recognition of Haraya's voice and the familiar clamoring of the visitors entering through the front door. It must've been why Achilles darted out the backdoor in such a hurry. He truly was such an antisocial man when it came to anyone besides Liam or myself, but it was still something I found quite adorable in my giant of a husband. I helped Liam down from the island top and walked out in hand with him to greet our visitors. Even though it was still only morning, Mrs. Cordova was already spiritedly chatting away with her friend, pointing out all the details and ornaments along the walls as Ms. Mellisa stared at the interior of our house in awe. I guess it was the first time Ms. Mellisa had visited our home due to Achilles's overprotectiveness, but I figured that Ms. Mellisa was a safe person. She had apparently been friends with the Mrs. Cordova for decades, even before Mrs. Cordova married Achilles's father, and generally acted as a g
"Achi?" "Yes, love?" "Um... W-Would it be alright if I went o-out today?" I paused mid-twirl, making her loose strand of hair slip out from between my fingers. With my head still propped up against my arm as I laid next to my little wife on the bed, I glanced down at her, noting her fiddling fingers. Looking up at me hopefully, Jane continued, "I-It's just I haven't left the estate for several weeks a-already a-and your mother invited Liam and me on an o-outing for today s-so I thought it would be nice to do something d-different for once..."I pursued, hesitating on agreeing outright. The people who wanted to kill her were still out there, and I didn't want to risk the possibility of losing her so soon after getting her back. Noting my hesitation, her face immediately fell. "I-I g-guess it's still too much to ask for right now... I-It's probably still too d-dangerous, and I know that you're still working very hard to find the people w-who tried to hurt me... I'll just tell them
I knocked on the doorframe, signaling my entrance as I walked into the main office of our private warehouse. It was pitch dark with not a single light on in the room. Only the bright glow of several monitors kept the room litReegan looked up from his computer with his usual sunken eye bags and tiredly asked, "Did you bring the goods?" I rolled my eyes at his poor attempt at a joke and placed the bag of his favorite take-out meal on the desk next to him. A large grin spread across his face as he eagerly tore into the bag, fishing out his usual order of extra spicy ramen with a cup of quadruple-shot espresso coffee. I leaned over his head, taking no mind of his messy habits as I glanced at his work. There was a jumble of numbers spread across the screen, with one of the panels seemingly tracking an IP address bouncing between several towers across the globe. I hummed softly in thought for a moment before noting, "I'm guessing you're having trouble pinning down the owner of the phon
After I had spent the rest of the evening with my family, thoroughly reminding my wife how much I loved her, I decided to take the next day off to explain to her what I had been doing these last couple of weeks. I had originally wanted to keep it hidden from her in fear of stressing her out more than necessary, but it seemed that my secretive nature only caused more harm than good. I told her I had been working with my father and brother to find the people who were targeting her. Explaining how we had found the woman who pushed her down the stairs the first time I ran out of the house in the rush. How we had been trying to get more information out of her ever since to find the other people supporting her from behind. To quell her worries, I had to tell her about the dark side of our family that I had tried so hard to hide. Although I didn't go into detail about it, I had to explain how we couldn't do everything to the book due to the number of enemies that came with holding one of t
My eyes widened in surprise at her outburst. A picture of me kissing another woman?Since when did I kiss someone else...Tears fell from the corner of Jane's eyes as she looked at me brokenly. She whispered lifelessly, "I saw the picture of you kissing Cassy... I knew she had feelings for you and never wanted to tell you for fear that you might someday realize she was better than me... But it seems like you finally realized it all by yourself..."Cassy?When did I...Oh god... That time she came into my office on the day of..."I knew that I should've expected it... She had devoted her entire life to you... There was no way someone as kind as Achilles could ever overlook such devotion... It's selfish of me to say this, but I was hoping you would overlook her efforts... That's why I never said anything..." She roughly yanked her hand out of my grasp and pulled her hands closed to her chest. Lowering her eyes, she muttered, "I knew that I was the outsider, but I couldn't bring myself
"Are you going to head back to the madam now, sir?"I handed my bloodied shirt to Watson and graciously accepted the clean towel from him. I nodded quietly in response as I carefully wiped the rest of the blood off of my body, making sure not the miss any of the specks littered around my collar or splatters dripping from my hands. I didn't want to freak Jane out by coming home covered in blood. She had no clue about the dark side of my world. She only knew of my clean image as the infamous head of the long-standing and powerful Cordova Industries, but there was no company in the world that could have stayed this strong for so many generations without any bloodshed. I had enemies lurking in every shadow of my life. I was greedy and brought her into my life even though I knew it would be dangerous. And she had gotten hurt because of me. It was something that I would never be able to forgive myself for, but I was much too selfish to let her go. I had already gotten a taste of how
"Achi, you know that I'm not going anywhere, right?" He nodded his head in acknowledgment but made no move to release me from his grasp. "You've been holding me since you came back last night... Are you sure you don't want to do something else?" He gave a soft shake of his head as he silently buried his face even further against my stomach. I sighed and set my book aside. He really wasn't budging in the slightest. I leaned back against the headboard of our shared bed and laced my fingers through his hair, gently taking my fingertips against his scalp. I tried to reassure him, "You know that I won't disappear if you let me go, right?" He pressed his lips into a thin line. Eyebrows furrowed in silent discontentment. Sighing again, I decided to continue stroking his head comfortingly in hopes of easing his nerves. Just like the night before, he ended up spending the entire morning lying in bed with his head nuzzled deeply in my abdomen, only lifting his head briefly to call his g