“I manage,” I smile, glancing at Achilles and blushing.
She laughs. “Cool. Don't let me forget to ask you at some point about The Order. I’ll be at Knightsblood next year, and I’m thinking about pledging?—”
“Para Bellum, obviously,” Achilles grunts.
Iris rolls her eyes. “Or, you know,nota club where my big brother has a statue of himself in the front entryway,” she smirks, arching a brow at Achilles.
“Well, this is goinggreat,” Achilles grunts. “So, we’ll be leaving now?—”
“Come,” Ya-ya chuckles, snaking her arm through her great-grandson’s. “Let’s eat.”
We end up dining in the gorgeous gardens of the elegant home. It’s a little chilly, but the grapevine arbor over the outdoor dining area has plenty of heat lamps, plus a number of crackling fires dancing in little metal chalices.
Turns out the Drakos family islovely.
They’re insane in a good way, which reminds me of my own family and makes it even easier to click with them. But they’re also, like mine, full of genuinelove. They tease and needle each other, sure. But it’s the same in my family.
Why did Ieverworry these people would think of me as the enemy?
Later, we move inside for after-dinner drinks in the mansion’s library. Ares tells me flatly that he won’t be serving me any alcohol since I’m only nineteen.
“Call it professional fatherly courtesy,” he chuckles when Achilles rolls his eyes. “If Iris were over at the De Luca house, I know Nero would be saying the same to her.”
Iris frowns. “How could youpossiblyknow that?”
“Dad intuition,” Ares grins, glancing at me. “Sorry, Yelena.”
I assure him it’s not a problem. Then he steps out of the room to take a quick call, and Neve immediately tosses my soda water and splashes some white wine into the glass.
“I can’t imagine just one will cause your moral downfall,” she grins conspiratorially.
A little while later, I’m stepping out of the guest bathroom down the hall from the library when a dark presence swirls around me.
I gasp, turning and backing against the door as Achilles towers over me, placing his hands on either side of my head and caging me in.
“I apologize for them.”
I giggle. “For what? They’re great, and you know it.”
He smiles.
My brow furrows. “I’m done if you need to use the?—”
He suddenly reaches past me, opens the door, and pushes me back into the dimly lit powder room. My pulse spikes as he follows me inside, closing the door behind us.
“Achilles,” I breathe as he steps into me. “What?—”
“This.”
He cups my face and kisses me. It’s soft and slow at first, but then deepens, and suddenly it’s like we’re consumed by fire.
“Fuck,” I whimper as he growls into my mouth. My insides turn to jelly, heat pooling between my legs as he slams me against a floor-length mirror set into the white subway tile walls. I can feel his thick erection pulsing against my stomach.
“We can’t?—”
“Watch me,” he murmurs. Then a low, animalistic growl rumbles in his chest. “Actually, watchyou.”
He spins me around, pressing my face to the mirror. I moan, my breath fogging the glass as he pushes his hand under my skirt and slips his fingers into my panties. He drags them down my legs and off each foot, and before I know it, he’s shoving my dress up over my hips, grabbing my ass, and burying his mouth between my legs from behind.