To say that the entire experience was nerve-wracking was to say the least. Achilles had stared at the packet of adoption papers in Liam's hands in silence for a good few minutes without a single word, movement, or even any sign of breath. It was almost as if he had been turned to stone. And it definitely didn't help that his lack of response only made Liam more nervous. Liam hesistantly glanced up at Achilles, still stretching his arms out with the papers in hand. When Achilles still made no move in response, Liam's face dropped as he started to slowly retract to packet. But it seemed like that was all that as needed to snap Achilles out of his trance. Achilles caught onto Liam's little hands before he could fully retract his present and sputtered out, "D-Do you really want me to be your dad?" Liam nodded timidly as he shyly peered up at the taller man through his lashes. "Do you not want to?" "No, no, no, I do want to be your dad, but I thought that I wouldn't be allowed to tak
"Rafael Achilles Cordova! It won't kill you to let go of Danary for just a moment to help your mother out." The little lady of the house stuck her head out through the kitchen window in a huff, glaring at the said man latched onto my shoulder. It was quite clear who Achilles inherited his fiery gaze from despite her old age. I smiled sheepishly as I tried to unlatch Achilles's arms around from my waist. "Love, your mother is calling for you." He made a disgruntled noise with his eyes still closed and his arms as unmoving as ever. "She'll be fine." A loud clang rang from the kitchen at his reply, making me smile nervously at the woman with the heavy frying pan in her hand. I turned my head around and leaned up with much difficulty to press a kiss on his cheek, trying to coax him to listen. "Just help her out a bit... For me, okay? I'll be alright by myself."He let out a discontented sigh before eventually, albeit reluctantly, releasing me from his grasp and walking off in the dir
I walked back into our shared bedroom after sending Liam to bed and spending quite a bit of effort to coax him out of keeping his new relic in bed. I loosened my tie and unbuttoned the top two buttons of my shirt as I closed the door behind me. Oddly enough, the room was completely silent with no sign of my lovely soon-to-be wifey. I meandered through the room in confusion until an unexpected yelp came out from the close bathroom door. I called out worriedly, "Love? Are you alright in there?" "I-I'm fine." Unconvinced by her shakey response, I walked closer to the door. "Are you sure? I can help you if you—""N-No!" My mouth immediately snapped shut, not expecting such a firm outburst."I-I mean, can you just wait for me on the bed? I-I'll be out in just a moment." "Okay..." I eyed the door warily before walking over to the bed and sitting down at the end of it. Jane had been all jittery ever since we got home from dinner at my parent's place. No matter how much I thought about
"Danary is still in a meeting right now." I turned around at the familiar voice, only to find Benedict standing behind me with a knowing smirk. He continued, "You were looking for her, weren't you?" I rolled my eyes at his unamusing antics but nodded anyway. "Liam's class ends in an hour, and I told her I would pick her up before then." "I see." He opened up the door to his office and gestured for me to enter. "She's running about half an hour behind schedule today. Why don't you wait in here until she's ready?" I raised an eyebrow in confusion but accepted his offer anyway. Sitting down in one of the free chairs in his office, I asked, "Did something go wrong? Jane isn't usually one to run behind schedule?" Benedict chuckled slyly as he rounded his desk. "I thought you, of all people, would know why she's late. After all, you are the one responsible for her limping, aren't you?" My cheeks heated up at the insinuation, making me divert my eyes out of the embarrassment of being
"Achilles? Is everything alright?" a soft voice called out from behind the bathroom door. Diverting my track, I walked over to the closed door and replied reassuringly, "Everything is fine, my love. Why do you ask?" I heard the water swish for a moment from behind the door before she quietly mumbled, "You were taking a while to put Liam to bed, so I was worried something was wrong." I chuckled softly. Though she had quite strong motherly instincts, she was still young and had quite an adorably innocent shyness to her. Leaning back against the wall, I told her, "Liam just wanted to ask me a few questions. He accidentally saw the marks peaking out of your sweater and thought someone was harassing you at work again." Plop!I raised an eyebrow at the sound of what I assumed was something dropping into the water. "Um... W-What did you tell him?" "The truth. That they are love marks from me." "A-Achilles! Y-You can't say those types of things to a five-year-old." A soft smile crept
I mindlessly trailed my finger along a sliver of Jane's bare leg sticking out of the blanket as I laid down with my head resting in her lap. Her free hand was nestled in the messy strands of my hair as she continued to rest her book next to the fireplace, taking no mind to my wandering hands. It was one of the rare moments in the week when neither of us had any work to do, and Liam was still out of the house, spending the day with the professor I had found for him to study under at Princeton. I skimmed my hand up along her calf and under the blanket, squeezing the mark on the inside of her thigh and earning a light hum from her in question. She pulled her fingers out my hair and gently brushed my hair out of my face, quietly asking me, "Is something wrong?" I shooked my head as I continued to run my hand back down her thigh, stopping at her knee right before it left the warmth of the fluffy blanket. "I was just thinking." She continued to stroke my head soothingly and asked, "Abo
"Are you sure you don't want to help your mom pick out her wedding dress instead?" I glanced down at Liam worriedly. I was going to spend the day running errands, so I wasn't sure if he would enjoy it all that much.But the little one only nodded in affirmation and chirped, "Mom said that I should go with dad because he doesn't notice when other girls hit on him." I sighed at his words. Was I really that bad? I had no problem noticing the golddiggers in the past who would try to come onto me with their suggestive touches and naked bodies sprawled out on my desks, but was I really oblivious to all other types of less extreme forms of flirtation?Holding my hand, Liam skipped along with my steps and continued, "Besides, I want to spend time with dad. We haven't gotten to spend much time together with just the two of us since I started taking classes from that professor." I smiled as I rounded the corner of the block. "Then, why don't we get breakfast together before we finish that to
I laced my fingers through Achilles's hair, twirling little strands here and there as I waited for him to finish the paperwork that he had brought to bed with him. He was dressed in only his sweatpants, as usual, but he normally tried not to bring work back with him and definitely never brought them straight into bed before. He had papers scattered across the bed as he laid stiffly in between my legs, sorting through the papers one at a time with deep crease lines etched into his forehead. I gently rubbed his frown lines away with my thumb and asked, "Did something happen at work?" He shook his head and set aside the papers with a heavy sigh. "I just got distracted thinking about something else at work today..." I carefully eased his reading glasses off and pulled his head back to rest against my stomach. Stroking his head soothingly, I asked, "Would you like to tell me about it? It's alright if you don't." He melted instantly under my touch, closing his eyes with a soft contentl
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