“A-Achilles, n-not t-there… P-people are g-going to see…”
I panted heavily as he continued his assault on the sweet spot right above my neckline along my jaw. But he paid no mind as he continued to trail hot, open-mouthed kisses up along my neck until he finally captured my lips.
We had just gotten in the car taking us from the ceremony to the reception site. I knew that Achilles had gotten a bit restless with how many pictures his friends and family wanted to take at the chapel. He was quite happy with taking the first few photos with me and then with Liam in the frame too, but he started getting a bit fidgety when his mother started making him pose for different pictures with his family and friends.
I just didn’t realize how antsy he felt until now, now that we were finally alone.
His hand slid smoothly under the edge of my dress, slowly hiking it up my leg as he continued to distract me with his kisses. It was almost as if he was trying to devour me.
By the time he pulled away, I was left completely breathlessly, panting heavily as I desperately tried to catch my breath. But he seemed completely unaffected as he continued his attack, lovingly pressing a series of up along the side of my face.
Huffing heavily, all I could manage was a small plea. “A-Achi… S-slow down…”
Parting from his trance ever so slightly, his kisses obeyed my command as he lightened up on his hold and kissed me much more tenderly than before.
His hand rested calmly on my bare thigh as he nuzzled his face into the crook of my neck, keeping me firmly planted in his lap. A small hum in contentedness rumbled out of his chest as he brushed the tip of his nose against the most sensitive spots along my neck, muttering softly, “You’re actually all mine now… My wifey…”
I blushed at his words. I knew that he loved me, but it was still a bit embarrassing to hear just how much he adored me…
To think he could be so happy that he let all of his barriers down and turned into a giant kitten nuzzling up against me for affection.
I stroked his head softly and whispered in reply, “I’ll be yours for the rest of our lives… There is no need to rush, Achi…”
He hummed softly in thought as his nose brushed against the tip of my ear, making me squeeze my thighs together as he fanned the heat between my legs with such a simple action.
Taking no note of the effect he had on me, he continued on and grumbled, “I just wish we didn’t have to go to the reception… I just want to spend alone time with my new beautiful wife… Not entertain a bunch of pests…”
I giggled softly as he spat out his last word with such distaste. “Achi, we should at least stay until the cake is cut. Your parents put a lot of effort into it to celebrate our marriage.”
He sighed and muttered unhappily, “Fine… But I can’t promise anything if one of them decides to test my patience today…”
Even though I didn’t particularly want to step into a room where all the other girls would glare at me for marrying the man they wanted, I couldn’t let Achilles anger his business partners for ditching his own event.
Trying to lift his spirits ever so slightly, I offered, “What if for every ten minutes, you stay on your best behavior, I’ll give you a kiss?”
He let out an amused puff of air and questioned, “You’re going to make your husband work for his kisses?”
“Well…” I twiddled with my finger sheepishly, “Don’t you think it would work as a good motivator?”
He chuckled softly and nodded, “Of course, it would, as long as the kisses are coming from you. I’ll be sure to collect them on the dot.”
My eyes widened. “Wait, I didn’t mean during the reception. I meant that I would-”
He cut me off with a tut-tut-tut and replied with a smirk, “You never stipulated when I would be allowed to collect my kisses before I agreed, so it’s fair game to expect one right as every ten-minute period finishes.”
“But-”
He squeezed my thigh warningly. “Remember that the driver listens to me and not my parents. I could just tell him to turn around and bring us back to the house instead if that is what you would prefer. Because honestly, I would much rather be at home stripping that dress off of you and looking for the blue garter that is supposedly strapped to your thigh right now.”
Heat immediately pooled between my legs, throbbing painfully with his every word.
My fingers scrunched up the ruffles of my dress as I tried to keep the effects of his words hidden. My panties were so wet at this point that I feared that the driver might accidentally smell my arousal.
I nodded obediently, accepting his terms. If Achilles did any more, I was sure that I would end up gushing out and be left walking around with my juices dripping down the side of my leg all night.
Luckily, the car soon came to a halt at the entrance of one of his parents’ countryside estates. The driveway was already filled with all sorts of expensive cars ranging from Range Rovers to McLarens.
Achilles smoothly slipped his hand out from underneath my dress before the driver opened the door, smirking when he took note of my flustered expression.
Getting out of the car before me, he held his hand out for me as if he had never committed a single act of indecency the entire ride here. He flashed me an innocent smile and asked politely, “Are you ready, love?”
I shook my head softly in disbelief as I accepted his hand, carefully taking one step out of the car at a time. Looping my arm around his, I straightened my back and lifted my head up as we started to make our way to the front door.
Achilles was mine and only mine now. I needed to be confident in myself. He was my husband and the father of my child. There was no way I would ever be able to let him go for both my and Liam’s sake.
Achilles squeezed my hand reassuringly as one of the attendants opened the large double doors for us, revealing the grand banquet hall that Mrs. Cordova and Haraya had been telling me about all week.
Chandeliers hung from the ceilings, brilliantly lighting the gold linings decorating the walls and the glistening marble floors. There were tables of food on the crystalline plate, and towers lined up all along the walls as waiters weaved through the crowds, offering nibbles to anyone that was interested.
Every single person in the room was dressed in some of the most luxurious suits and intricate dresses that I had ever seen before. It only reminded me of how different of a world Achilles came from in comparison to me. A world of glamour and grandeur unlike mine.
As the crowd fell silent at our entrance, the attendants at the door announced, “I am happy to introduce, for the very first time, Mr. Rafael Achilles Cordova and Mrs. Danary Jane Cordova. Please welcome the newly wedded heads of the Cordova family.”
A round of applause rang through the room as we walked into the center of the room.
Although I was still not quite used to all the eyes on me, Achilles commanded their attention with ease. He accepted two glasses of champagne from one of the passing waiters and handed one of them to me. He kept his left arm around my waist as he raised his glass.
“Lady and gentlemen, thank you for joining me this evening in celebration of our wedding. It is the happiest day of my life to finally be able to introduce this woman by my side as my wife. I believe some of you already met her at the gala a few months ago, but for those who have not, this is Danary. She is honestly one of the strongest and kindest women I have ever met, and I will forever be grateful for being given the privilege to be her husband. She taught me how to enjoy life with the little things and showed me a world that I had never seen before. Not only that, she even brought one of the smartest and most clever little boys into my life.”
He paused momentarily, waving Liam over toward us.
Liam looked up with a slightly startled expression when his grandparents nudged him softly toward us. Realizing what they meant, he eventually set his cup down and hopped off his chair, scurrying over to us with a blank expression masking his face. But I could tell that he was highly confused by the way his eyes wavered and darted around the room warily.
I stroked his head comfortingly, silently reassuring him that everything would be alright.
Achilles smiled softly at Liam, also silently reassuring him with a warm hand on his shoulder. Looking back at the crowd, Achilles continued, “I would like to officially introduce our son, Markliam Ace Cordova. Although he may not be related to either of us by blood, we both love him like our own and hope that you will treat him well from now on.”
His grip tightened ever slightly on my waist as his eyes scanned over each person. With a mask of an amicable smile, Achilles indirectly but ever so politely warned, “Both Danary and Markliam will be a Cordova from this day forth. Any form of disrespect toward either of them will be taken as a declaration of war against the Cordova family. But I know that no one in the families would ever do such a thing. As such, I hope you will all enjoy your time here today, and do remember to be patient when coming up to us. My wife and son are still a bit skittish around strangers.”
Achilles wrapped his arm around my shoulder possessively as he affectionately placed a kiss on my temple. Even though I was too short to see his expression at the moment, I could tell from how tense his body was that he was most likely glaring at everybody from over my head, making me nudge his stomach ever so slightly with my elbow as a warning.
He leaned down to my height and pouted, “Please don’t be mad at me, love. I was on my best behavior already. All I did was make sure everyone knew that I wouldn’t stand by for anyone to hurt my two little angels.”
I rolled my eyes and replied in a hushed whisper, “Both you and I know you were threatening them.”
“If you say so, my love.” He kissed the corner of my eye as if to placate me. Guiding me off to the side of the room, he changed the topic and asked, “Would you like to eat something?”
I looked around us awkwardly as he ignored the people approaching us and continued to pass right by them, pushing me toward a table with some food.
“I know you haven’t eaten anything since this morning.” He leaned over my shoulder and glanced across the spread.
A man in a dark suit and someone who appeared to be his wife tried to come up to us at the table, but Achilles paid no mind.
Cutting them off before they could say anything, Achilles continued, “I could make you a plate for you and Liam if you would like. I’m sure it would a bit hard for Liam to reach some of the items by himself.”
I shot the couple an apologetic look and nudged Achilles in his stomach, making him pause mid-motion. I whispered lowly, “Achi, you can’t keep ignoring everyone like this.”
He furrowed his eyebrows, “Technically, I can. It’s what I’m doing right now.”
I elbowed him harder and whispered a bit more harshly, “No kisses if you keep ignoring them.”
He pursed his lips and reluctantly straightened back out, politely greeting the couple with a forced smile, “Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Bardot. How have you been doing?”
I patted his hand on my waist appreciatively before zoning out of the conversation and turning my attention back onto the display of food. There were so many things to choose from that I didn’t know what to start with.
Instead, I first helped Liam pick out a couple of dishes for his plate. A few roast veggies. A piece of chicken since he didn’t like seafood. A piece of a fluffy-looking bread roll. And a reminder not to take any dessert until he finished his dinner first.
Then I took an empty plate for myself and Achilles. I wasn’t sure what to start with but… I got some of the spicy tuna tartare… and then a pan-seared scallop… and some asparagus… and salmon…
Each item tasted so good by itself, melting instantly in my mouth. Even Achilles seemed to like the food when I fed him a few bites between each conversation.
However, my eyes lit up when I spotted a chocolate fountain. My mouth watered at the thought of drizzling a bit of chocolate on some of the dishes that I had tried.
The only problem was that Achilles’s grip on my waist was much too strong, and the chocolate fountain was much too far away for me to reach. I tried wriggling in his hold, but it only caused him to tighten his hold and look over at me in confusion in the middle of the conversation.
“Love, is something wrong?”
I glanced at the new elderly couple in front of us. Feeling a bit embarrassed, I waved at him to lean down to him and whispered in his ear, “I want to get a bit of melted chocolate for my scallops.”
He eyed me warily and asked, “Are you sure that’s going to… taste good?”
I nodded firmly, sure of my answer. Just think about it. Something sweet and savory together. Didn’t people put chocolate in curry? So this must also taste good.
He hesitantly agreed to my request without asking any more questions and slipped his hand off my waist. “Don’t take too long, okay?”
I nodded obediently before darting off in the direction of the chocolate fountain, leaving Achilles back to whoever he was talking to earlier. With a bit of effort, I eventually managed to find a tiny ladle and drizzled some of the melted chocolate over my seafood.
A few of the people around looked at me with highly confused expressions, but I didn’t pay much mind to it. Instead, I was more focused on how wonderful chocolate-covered asparagus tasted.
While I was in the middle of enjoying my food, I eventually wandered off the side of the room, entering some sort of hallway along the walls. I looked down the hall curiously when I heard a few voices whispering secretively.
My eyes rounded when I spotted Liam and some young man with dark brown hair in the middle of a heated argument. My body reflexively hid behind one of the marble pillars as I eavesdropped on their conversation.
I didn’t know why I was hiding, but it felt like I was seeing something that I wasn’t supposed to.
“What are you doing here, Markliam? You can’t let mother catch you by yourself.” The young man hissed lowly with his arms crossed.
Liam seemed completely shocked by the sight of the man. “B-Brother Ivan?”
Brother?!
“Who else do you think it is? But that’s not the point. You have no clue how mad mother was when she saw you up there with Mr. Cordova. She’ll blow a fuse if she finds you here.”
Fear immediately spread across Liam’s features as he darted his eyes side to side warily. “I didn’t mean to wander off alone… I just got lost…”
The man sighed heavily.
But before he could say anything, a sharp voice rang through the empty hallway, “Ivan!”
The man immediately bolted up and pushed Liam behind him as he turned to face the owner of the voice. Surprisingly, Mrs. Albedo strode out of the shadows in a burgundy dress and a sheer shawl resting over her shoulders with a scowl on her face, completely unlike the cold mask she had on at the tailor’s shop.
She walked up to Ivan, ruffling her hair in irritation but not noticing Liam when she came to a halt in front of Ivan. She yelled at him in a whisper, “What do you think you are doing hiding out here? Did you not see how that brat weaseled his way into the Cordova family? You should be out there conversing with the heads of the other families, not wasting your time-”
Her voice cut off when her gaze dropped down, narrowing her eyes onto Liam’s poorly hidden figure. A malicious smirk crept across her face as she stepped around her rigid son. “Oh, my, who have I found here?”
Liam’s entire body was trembling under her gaze, but his feet were completely glued to the ground in fear. He reflexively stuffed his hands behind his back, hiding the dessert that he was holding, and lowered his head. “M-mother…”
She really was his birth mother… It was just a hunch… But I was actually right…
“To think that I would find my worthless son here…” She chuckled lowly as she circled him. “But I guess I can’t really call you worthless anymore since you seemed to have somehow managed to worm your way into the Cordova household. To think that they would lower their standards so much as to accept you and that woman… the one you call “mom” now…” She lifted Liam’s head by his chin with a single manicured finger, forcing him to look up at him. “To think that you would just leech onto anyone around you… You truly are a parasite…”
She slid her hand up to cup his face, turning his head from side to side as if she was inspecting an item. “You’ve gotten fatter…”
Liam winced as her fingers dug into his cheeks, but he didn’t say anything.
Why wasn’t he saying anything? He was always the one to speak out first between the two of us whenever one of us got mistreated, so why wasn’t he saying anything to her?
I bit my lip worriedly as the lady harshly yanked his hands out from behind his back and scowled, “I see that you are still stealing sweets even though you don’t deserve them.”
Liam whimpered softly, “But I finished my dinner first like my mom told me to…”
The woman’s eyes darkened at his words. It looked as if she could murder him at any moment.
Unable to handle it anymore, I bolted out of my hiding spot and pretended to call out, “Liam? Where are you, honey?”
The woman immediately released Liam from her hold, making him stumble back a few steps as she stepped back to her older son’s side.
Acting as if I didn’t hear their previous conversation, I ran straight over to Liam’s side and exclaimed, “What are you doing here, honey?
I pulled his trembling figure into the ruffles of my dress, giving him a safe place to hide. I smiled politely at the pair and lied, “Thank you for finding my son. He seemed to have wandered off while my husband and I were talking.”
Mrs. Albedo flashed me a fake smile. “It’s no problem. Little kids are like that. I’m sure that he was just being too curious for his own good.”
Her aura sent shivers down my spine, but I held my place. I needed to be strong for Liam. I replied with a low warning and shot back, “I don’t think it hurts to have a good sense of curiosity, but we really must be going back to the main room soon before my husband sends a search after us. My husband is quite protective, you see.”
She nodded amicably, letting us leave without another word.
I hurriedly picked Liam off the ground, not caring whether or not my dress was getting ruined. It was the only choice since I wasn’t sure if he would be able to walk with his body trembling so terribly.
Even in my arms, he wasn’t able to stop shaking as he stared behind us, probably unable to tear his eyes away from that woman. I quickly lowered his head into the crook of my neck, not wanting him to look at that vile woman anymore.
I had never hated anyone in my life so much before, not even when those men tried to touch me without my consent.
It didn’t take much to tell that she had abused Liam at some point in his life, maybe even all his life, before throwing him out like trash one day.
To think that she would have to audacity to step back into his life when he was doing so well and try to tear him down again.
She may have been a long-standing business partner of Achilles’s company, but there was no way I would just stand by while she harmed my family.