Through His Malachites - Chapter X
Edge of Reckless
I was parked outside her exam hall like some shameless chauffeur with a luxury car. Audi purring, me leaning against the low passenger door, pretending I wasn’t counting the minutes like a teenage lovesick puppy waiting outside during prom.
My phone buzzed. Bear. Of course.
“Don’t tell me you’re already drinking,” I answered.
“Don’t tell me you’re sitting outside a university exam like a stalker,” he fired back. Then his voice dropped, all gravel. “Your old man’s people want you in Greece next week. Meetings lined up with the Almas family.”
I went still. “Not happening.”
“You don’t get to choose,” he said. “They’re pulling you in whether you like it or not. You want to know the kind of business Almas runs.”
“I said I’m not going.” My jaw clicked with the bite of it.
Bear went quiet. Too quiet. “Then keep your eyes open. Death threats don’t come out of thin air.”
He hung up.
I stared at my phone, then shoved it face-down on the dash. Greece, Almas, shadows… none of it mattered. Not right now. The exam doors burst open, and there she was.
Running straight at me like I was the only thing keeping the earth spinning.
“Careful, Peach.” I started, but she launched herself into my arms, legs around my waist, face buried in my neck.
I laughed, dizzy with relief. “Didn’t peg ‘Transnational Organized Crime’ as a cuddle-worthy subject.”
Her muffled voice came against my throat. “Shut up. I deserve my twenty seconds.”
“You’ll have me for a lot more than twenty seconds,” I muttered, squeezing her tighter.
When she finally slid down, she looked up, triumphant. “I aced it.”
“Of course you did.” I kissed her forehead, resisting the urge to say what I wanted to…mine. Instead, I smirked. “Want me to get you a cape for graduation? Super-Ri, defender of humanity.”
She rolled her eyes, grinning despite herself. “Drive me home before I collapse, drama king.”
She tried to argue about grabbing her own overnight bag, but I plucked it out of her hand and slung it over my shoulder.
“You’re bossy,” she muttered.
“I’m efficient. There’s a difference.” I said, opening her door.
She climbed into the car, hair falling into her face. “No, there isn’t.”
I grinned. God, I’d missed this.
At my condo, I drew her a bath. Lavender and bergamot, her favourites, rose in waves of steam. She peeled off her clothes, calling her ratty pyjamas “student wear,” and I nearly fell to my knees right there.
“You’re staring,” she said, arching a brow.
“Observing,” I corrected. “Scientific purposes only.”
“Uh-huh. You’re ridiculous.” She tied her hair up, slid into the tub, and sighed like every muscle in her body finally unclenched.
I leaned against the doorframe, arms folded. “That sigh was almost as sexy as the moan you make when I…”
Her eyes snapped open. “Keep going, tiger.”
“What? I was going to say cook you pasta.”
She threw a wet loofah at me. I caught it, laughing, and stripped down.
Sliding in behind her, I pulled her back to my chest, hands drifting without thought. My fingers teased slow circles around her nipples, light enough to make her hum, teasing enough to make her breath hitch.
“Li.”
“Peach.”
She chuckled, then went quiet. Too quiet. “Are you in love with me?”
Earthquakes have rattled me less.
I pressed a kiss to her damp hair. “I don’t want to scare you away.” My fingers kept moving, praying distraction might soften the truth.
She turned, straddling me, water sloshing over the edge. Her slick heat pressed against me, grinding slow, deliberate.
“Peach, baby, you’re not ready.”
Her kiss cut me off. Deep. Claiming. The kind that made rational thought irrelevant.
Water splashed in rhythm, her body rolling against mine like waves.
“What do you need, baby?” My voice broke. “Tell me.”
“My nipples. I want your mouth, Li.”
I smiled, half feral. “Bossy,” I murmured, but obeyed. Closing over her peaks, tongue and teeth working her until she arched, moaning like I’d discovered some secret frequency.
Her hips pressed harder, desperate, reckless. I couldn’t take another second of water between us.
I lifted her from the bath, her body clinging to mine, and laid her dripping on the bed.
She spread her knees wide, vulnerable and brave all at once. My Peach.
“Baby,” I whispered, reaching for the drawer. “I need to get you ready for me.”
Her smile trembled, nervous and determined. “Show me what this feels like with you.”
The way she said you. It burned. She wasn’t asking for sex. She was asking for us.
And then she surprised me. Riya shifted, slow and sure, swinging a leg across my hips until she was straddling me. My carefree, confident Peach had me caged beneath her, hair damp and curling around her flushed face, eyes wide but unwavering.
I hadn’t expected tonight. Not this. But I had prepared, instinct telling me to stock the drawer beside my bed with more than her favourite bath oils. My hand found the warming lubricant, and when I spread it over my length, her breath caught. Half curiosity, half hunger.
Her fingers slid over mine, guiding. “There. Touch me there again, Liam.”
So I did. Circling her opening, teasing around the back, then gliding up to her clit before trailing down again. A deliberate rhythm… ring, up, nub, down. Over and over, until the lines of strain around her eyes softened into a smile that undid me.
That smile fuelled me more than her moans. Though when she whispered my name “Liam” like it was both plea and praise, my ego and my soul roared in unison.
Her body eased, her hips sinking lower, taking me in inch by inch. She was still tight, still wet and trembling, but determined. I tried to slow her with my hand, circling her clit again. She brushed me away, pressed herself further down with a sharp breath.
“Don’t, Li. I want to feel you. Just… kiss me.”
I rose to meet her, arm firm around her back, my hand buried in her hair. Our mouths collided. Sweet first, then feral. With each kiss, she relaxed more, slipped further onto me until I was half-buried inside her, fighting the edge of control I prided myself on.
“I need you to move, Li,” she whispered against my lips, voice breaking with need. “I can’t do this without you.”
God, she was leading, and I was following. And somehow, that made me feel more like a man than any conquest ever had.
I forced myself to go slow. My fingers slid inside her again, coaxing, stretching, teaching her body how to open for me. Every tight pull, every quiver, I met with patience. She clenched and loosened, little gasps spilling into my neck. My restraint was a battlefield.
When she finally sank lower, her slick body swallowing more of me, her breath hitched, caught, then eased. My chest split open. I’d never deserved this woman, but she was giving herself to me, anyway.
And then there was nothing but the rhythm we built together. Slow at first, then stronger as she matched me, learned me, demanded me. Her moans rose higher, a symphony I’d have played on repeat until the end of time. I kept my thrusts steady, precise, until her body bowed tight and came undone around me. I followed, guttural and shaking, buried in her warmth.
The words slipped out, raw and reckless.
“I love you so much, Riya.”
She stilled, chest heaving, eyes wide Then, soft.
“I love you too.”
It was ruin and salvation.
I kissed her until she smiled against my lips, until sleep tugged her under. I lay there, still inside her, forehead to hers, and let the weight of it all press down.
Through the love and reverence, the vows of protecting the vulnerable beauty beneath me, Bear’s voice rang through the haze. Death threats, family shadows, cages you don’t see yet.
I shoved it aside, but I’d bleed for that danger without a second thought.
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