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
I hesitantly knocked on Liam's closed bedroom door as Achilles stood by my side, giving me a supportive squeeze to my shoulder. Not wanting to accidentally wake him if he was still sleep, I called out softly, "Can we come inside, honey?" Surprisingly, even though it was still quite early in the morning at only 7 AM, a flurry of scrambles scurried about behind the closed doors. The sound of fluttering papers and dropping pencils floated out from the room until the door finally opened up was a messy little boy standing in front of us. Although he was in his pajamas, his hair was tousled every which way and his eyes had little bags hanging underneath them. His face was pale, almost as if it had been completed drained of life. Handing the bowl of fruits off to Achilles, I worriedly crouched down to Liam's height and cupped his little face between my hands, gently turning his head side to side in a panic. "Are you not feeling well? But you're not warm... Do you have a headache? A sore
I tapped briefly on my phone's screen, making it light up with a wallpaper picture of Achilles and Liam squatting side by side of each other in the garden with dirt littered all over themselves. I smiled at the picture, but what I was more curious about was the time. 11:53 AM. 7 more minutes before Achilles arrives with Liam at my office to have lunch together. He sent me a text half way through the morning, telling me about how Liam was doing on his first day at his office and asking to try out a new café down the street for lunch. And even though I was swamped at work with meetings, I didn't have the heart to tell them no after I saw how happy Liam looked sitting in Achilles's ginormous office chair in the picture that Achilles attached to his message. Thus, I ended up rushing through my morning meetings and pushed off a few of my afternoon meetings to make room for an hour long break for my boys. But, I was still running a bit late despite cutting my morning meetings short and I
"So... I heard that my son recently turned into an overprotective hulk." I looked up from the tailor who was helping me alter my wedding dress. Keeping as still as I could, I hesitantly asked Mrs. Cordova, "Are you talking about what happened last week?" She nodded as she thumbed the edge of her magazine. "Benedict told me about it. He's practically my third son and often whines to me about Rafael like a younger sibling who can't win with his brother." I bit my lip nervously. I had tried to apologize to Mr. Serman about Achilles's behavior and the new holes in the walls of my office, but he had insisted that it was nothing and waved it off. He simply stroked the damaged walls over and over again with heavy sighs, muttering something about how he was going to get Achilles to pay back the damage in double. And it definitely didn't help that Achilles refused to apologize to Benedict for damaging his office building, saying that Benedict deserved it for not keeping a better eye on hi
"Mom, why aren't you going to work today?""Um... Mr. Serman said that I should take a few extra days off this week for my wedding, but uh...." "Dad forced him to not let you go to office, right?"I nervously diverted my eyes with a silent prayer for a change in subject. Liam was honestly much to perceptive for me to handle sometimes. But he paid no mind to my awkward demeanor and simply continued to hop along the sidewalk, happily swinging our intertwined hands back and forth. "Dad made a good decision. I like spending time with mom." My heart practically melted at his innocent confession. "I like spending time with you too."He beamed with delight as we rounded the corner and finally arrived at a little shop tucked away in the middle of downtown.The bell rang as we opened up the door to Achilles's personal tailor's workshop. The wall were lined with all sorts of luxurious fabrics and several half-made suits hanging on mannequins all around the floor.An elderly man immediately h
To say that I was shocked by the sight was to say the least. I reflexively caught Jane in my arms before she collapsed on the ground. Her eyes were unfocused and fluttering about as she held Liam protectively to her chest. Her breath were so shallow that it sent my mind into overdrive. She said that she was only going to visit my tailor to get Liam a suit made. I even sent all of my most reliable guards with her and they didn't message me about anything happening, so what on earth happened to my two precious angels to leave them in such a state? I swiftly swept her off the ground and nodded for Watson to close the blind of my office for me as I made my way over to the decorative sofa sitting in the corner of my office. The door clicked shut when Watson finished his job and resigned himself to standing guard outside my office to give us some privacy. I pulled Jane's favorite knitted blanket— the one that she left here the last time she took a nap at my office with Liam— over the tw
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