I looked out the window in awe as the plane started to descend below the clouds. As it flew toward the center of the city, rows and rows of bright lights illuminated the tall buildings as snow floated beautifully down from the sky. The classic architecture with red-brick roofs and white walls.
I squealed when I caught sight of a red flag with a single white cross in the center and exclaimed excitedly, “We’re in Switzerland!”
Achilles had insisted on keeping our honeymoon destination a secret from me. All he did was usher me onto his private jet and assure me that I would like it.
Even Liam knew about it before me, so I had spent the entire plane ride feeling incredibly restless by myself. But now that we were here, I couldn’t help feeling blown away by his surprise.
He squeezed my hand softly, drawing my attention back to him, and asked, “Do you like it?”
I nodded eagerly. “How did you know? I’ve always wanted to come here!”
He chuckled softly and shared a knowing glance with our son, who was sitting in his lap. He explained, “I planned the trip with Liam’s help, and he said that you once mentioned wanting to retire to Switzerland even though you had never been before. So I thought that I might as well take the opportunity to fulfill one of your dreams.”
Tears brimmed in the corner of my eyes, feeling oddly overwhelmed with joy.
Achilles instantly became flustered at the sight of my tears and started fretting about in a panic. “I… What… I-I thought this was a happy thing…”
I laughed softly between my sniffles as I tried to wipe my tears with the back of my sleeves. “I am happy. I don’t know why I’m crying…”
He glanced at me worriedly but eventually nodded reluctantly in understanding.
Liam patted his hand reassuringly, “It’s okay. I don’t understand why Mom cries randomly either.”
I shook my head at their antics with a small smile.
My boys…
Soon enough, the plane landed safely onto a private runaway at the back of the international airport. And once it was safe to move about again, the flight attendant came over to help us out of the airplane.
It was still a bit hard for me to get used to being treated practically like royalty, but I guessed that was what it meant to be a Cordova. I knew that Achilles held a lot of powerful and more wealth than any single person could ever use in their life, but this was still more than I could ever imagine.
Even so, he never acted full of himself. Now that I thought about it, it actually quite a miracle that he grew up to be such a gentleman despite being born with a silver spoon in his mouth.
Although it may have been part of his overprotective nature, he had politely declined the attendants help and opted to helping us out of the plane by himself. He effortlessly held Liam in one arm and used his other arm to escort me down the wobbly stairs and onto the thinly covered runaway.
His mother truly did raise him well…
I could only hope that I could raise Liam half as good, but maybe with Achilles around, it wouldn’t be as impossible as I once thought.
To have such a reliable husband…
I smiled at the thought, happily swinging our intertwined hands back and forth as I hopped along the snow covered pavement.
Achilles chuckled softly in amusement, but made no comment about my childish behavior.
Several tall men dressed in a dark uniform walked out of the building, directing us through the maze of airplanes in storage. The tallest one greeted, “Good evening, Mr. And Mrs. Cordova. How was your flight?”
He looked a bit intimidating with the scar across his left eye and the way his bulky figure towered over me like almost all other men in the world, but Achilles seemed to be quite familiar with him, curtly replying, “It was fine, King. Is the car ready?”
King nodded amicably, gesturing toward a sleek black car outside of the terminal before slipping a set of car keys into Achilles’s hand. “We had already inspected the car and nothing appears to amiss.”
Achilles hummed quietly in understanding as he slipped this keys into his pocket before reaching out for my hand again. His tone softened as he turned his attention back to me, asking, “Are you ready, love?”
I nodded. I gave King a meek wave in goodbye before obediently tailing after Achilles as he made his way out of the building.
King seemed like a nice man, but I was still having trouble getting over my fear of men. Although I was more than just comfortable with Achilles, I still couldn’t help tensing up ever so slightly by all the guards surrounding us and ended up shuffling closer to him.
I knew that Achilles need to have many guards around him all the time. He had many enemies in the business world and I understood that. I knew that I would be surrounded by guards quite often from now on, but I still couldn’t seem to get over my irrational fear.
Achilles brushed his thumb over the back of my hand soothingly when I accidently squeezed his fingers. He eased me in the passenger seat of the car and planted a soft kiss to the top of my head, gently reassuring me, “No one’s going to hurt you, Jane. My guards have been with me since I was little, swearing loyalty to no one but the Cordova family. They would lay their lives down for you, so there’s no need to be afraid.”
I nodded quietly as the tension in my body eased up ever so slightly.
He carefully made sure I was securely tucked into the car before closing the door and worked on settling Liam into the backseat. Once he was ready, he started the car and rolled his way onto the highway, heading straight out of Bern and toward the mountains.
I looked out of the window in awe, watching as the bright city lights faded away into the darkness and the snow-covered caps started to come into view.
It was so dark outside that the only forms of light leftover was from the tailing cars containing our guards and the stars in the sky.
I watched as he smoothly turned off into a smaller road with a sign saying ‘Gstaad’ that wove through the mountains and slowly climbed higher and higher. I asked out of curiosity, “Have you been here before?”
He shook his head. “I haven’t. Why do you ask?”
I hummed softly as I looked back out the window, “You just seem quite familiar with all the roads… That’s all…”
His grip tightened ever so slightly around my hand, making me look back at him again. He confessed, “When I found out that you wanted to retire to Switzerland, I spent quite a bit of time online searching for the best location to stay at. I wanted to make sure you would like the place, so I guess I must’ve ended up memorizing most of the roads from staring at the map for so long.”
The tips of his ears seemed to have turned a slight pink hue, but I wasn’t sure if that was true or if I was just imagining it in the dark. Either way, it is much too adorable to imagine him hunched over his desk at work fretting about such a thing.
When I giggled softly to myself at the image, he defensively added, “I didn’t mean to memorize it on purpose. It just happened.”
Trying to stifle my giggles, I eventually managed to reply, reassuring him, “I’m not laughing at you, honey. It’s just a bit funny to imagine what your employees would think if they knew what their ‘scary boss’ was actually doing at his desk at work.”
He huffed softly as he pulled onto an off-road driveway with rows and rows of trees framing either side of the car. He explained, “I spent that much time searching for this place because I wanted to gift it to you as a wedding present.”
My eyes widened as we neared a snow-cover wooden cabin. It was not where near the size of the castle back at home, but it was still already quite big with a single story and a yard that stretched for miles in either direction into the forest without any neighbors. It had more of a cozy feeling with the classic design of stacked logs framing the exterior and a cute little chimney sticking out at the top.
He continued, “I already placed an offer for the house. I told the property manager that I’ll close the offer if you decided that you liked it at the end of our honeymoon.”
“Achi…” I gaped at his nonchalant words, “Y-You can’t just keep gifting me houses like this… I didn’t marry you for that… A-and it’s also your wedding. You can’t just-”
He cut me off with a rushed kiss, stealing my words from me. He calmly explained, “It’s also a present for me… I don’t really have any dreams, but you do. You dreamed of retiring to Switzerland so it’s now a part of my dreams. That’s why I searched for this house. It’s a place where we could grow old together.”
I slumped against his chest in defeat. He was honestly too good at being persuasive.
“… If you don’t like it, I can retract the offer and find a different place instead?”
I shook my head, “I do like it… Just tell me next time… I don’t want to feel like I’m using you…”
“You are much too kind to ever do such a thing, my love. ” He kissed the top of my head lovingly and continued, “Why don’t we check out the inside of the house together? I can get Liam from the car, but do you mind helping me open the door? The pin is 7981.”
I nodded obediently, glancing back briefly at our son, who was completely passed out in the backseat.
Opening the heavy car door, I hopped out onto the fluffy snow and darted up the dirt driveway, typing the pin into the temporary lock on the front door as instructed.
A low chuckle sounded behind me when a burst of comforting warmth hit my body, making my body tremble like a delighted little puppy. I looked up and found Achilles looking down at me lovingly with our son safely tucked away inside his coat.
“I’ll be right back, love. I’m just going to quickly put him to bed first.”
I nodded understanding as I watched him disappear down the hallway. Turning my attention back to the interior of the house, my eyes sparkled in awe.
Although it didn’t look very big on the outside, the house actually had very high ceilings in the main room that extended all the way to the roof. The front door opened up into a warm living room filled with all sorts of fluffy blankets, pillows, and sofas in various shades of brown, beige, and white, and a roaring fireplace placed at its center. The room was connected to the dining room and kitchen with an open space concept, which were both decorated in a similar theme.
Simple, cozy, and warm.
A pair of heavy arms wrapped around my shoulders, pulling me back into a strong chest. “What do you think of it, Jane?”
“It is quite beautiful…” I glanced up at him worriedly, “But how much was the asking price?”
He hummed softly in thought for a moment, “I think I offered about six million US dollars to guarantee it.”
“Achi! That’s too much!”
He shrugged nonchalantly. “It’s a piece of property not too far from Gstaad’s main village. Compared to some of the other houses, it’s actually quite a good deal.”
I sighed heavily, knowing that there was no arguing with this man.
He nuzzled up against my cheek as if to soothe my nerves. “Don’t you think it’s a nice place? We’re far enough from the village to have our own space but still close enough to reach it within a 20-minute drive. We could even take Liam to the ski resort nearby and see if he likes it.”
“Skiing? You know how to ski, Achi?”
“Mhm, my mother wanted my brother and me to be more active, and it was a hobby of my grandparents before they passed away.”
I nodded mutely. There really was still so much about Achilles that I didn’t know yet.
“Have you never tried it before?”
I shook my head. My brother and I didn’t have that much money before he passed, and I was too busy after I started working for Mr. Serman. Plus… “I’m not very coordinated, Achi. You’ve seen me trip over nothing before.”
He chuckled softly at the memory. “Well, I think it would still be nice if you got to at least try it once in your life, and if you really don’t like it, we can forget about it afterwards.”
I nodded quietly. It didn’t seem like all that bad of an idea…
I knew that he liked to work out, but that was more a health thing than anything. Besides that, he had always insisted on doing what I wanted to do, so I really didn’t know much about what he liked to do in his free time. It would be the first time I could try one of his hobbies.
With how dark it was getting, I unconsciously let out a yawn.
Achilles nudged me toward the bedrooms out of habit, softly urging me, “Let’s go to bed now, Jane.”
I hummed quietly, giving in to his nudges. I leaned into his arms as he walked to the master bedroom. Interlacing our fingers together, I smiled at how warm he felt against my skin.
Achilles made me feel so safe around him… The way he just took care of everything without a word… How he could calm all my restless thoughts and nerves with a few words…
I felt like I could just melt into the little bubble that he made for me at any moment. But at the same time, I didn’t want to just rely on him for everything.
I wanted our relationship to be a two-way street.
Hopefully, with time, I’ll be able to show him that I can be a pillar of his strength as well.