Page 176 of The Devil We Crave
The second that nauseatingly cheesy line slips into my head, I roll my eyes at myself. At least, Iwantto, as I would normally do at anything with that level of Hallmark-card corniness.
But with the autumn sun shining down, the last of the gorgeous New England fall foliage of red, golds, and yellows all around, and still being able to feel Achilles’ hands around my throat and his huge cock deep inside me…not to mention literally still feeling him drippingoutof me?
Yeah.
Life is fucking great.
It’s been a few weeks since that night on Ya-ya’s rooftop, when I told Achilles everything that happened with Kyle. Since then, life has gotten even better.
The obvious one is that there’s no more worry about any drama with the Drakos family, since they’re now business partners with my dad. The new contract involving the building behindDimitra Drakos’ estate includes an “in perpetuity” clause that stipulates the building can never be expanded vertically. And the joint business venture involving my family and Achilles’ is considering buying two more buildings surrounding the properties, which would further guarantee no immediately adjacent skyscrapers blotting out the sun.
Which is great. Ya-ya’s rooftop has become one of my new favorite places to be, and I’ve now gone to have lunch with her and Neve without Achilles twice, which was lovely.
Here at school, I’ve pretty much moved into Kingsward. Damiano still has a chip on his shoulder about it, but he’s getting over himself. Wren is living at Laz’s seaside house on the outskirts of town, which she was initiallyconstantlycomplaining about. But in the last week or so, she’s slowly come around. We might not be sharing a bathroom anymore, but we still see each other literally every day. In fact, we had breakfast on campus just this morning, and notoncedid she groan about Laz's “Draconian rules” surrounding living at his house.
I still think there’s something going on with Galina, but she’s been completely tight-lipped about it, which issupersuspicious because she’s usually incapable of keeping a secret for longer than eight and a quarter seconds. Similarly, there’s something up with Arianna. She keeps disappearing without explanation. Galina says it especially happens at night. And yet our friend hasn’t saidshitabout it.
Meanwhile, Lucia has become my source of news for all things Morvaine Manor, since I’m barely there anymore. Butsheis, because she’s set to pledge The Order in the upcoming Initiation Trials, which is awesome.
Apparently, somethingbigis going on with Jude, who has been ramping up his Machiavellian plotting to new levels. But similar to Ari and Galina, no one seems to know what his plansare, except that they have something to do with a grudge against Kirill.
All I know is, I’m pretty sure I want nothing to do with…well, whatever it is.
But the juiciest piece of campus gossip right now is the implosion of Santoro Equities, and Kyle being officially declared a missing person.
Unfortunately, he really is missing, not “missing”. As in, Achilles didn’t “make him disappear”. The coward literally ran off once he heard that my father wanted his skin as a rug following the dissolution of our business relationship with his family.
But that's all background noise to me at this point. I’m way too focused on the realization that somehow in the last two months, I’ve gone from being caught in Achilles’ web to falling completely head over fucking heels for him.
There’s no other way to put it.
We spend every night in his bed together. During the day, I find myself impatiently waiting until our schedules overlap so we can meet up on campus or else waiting with bated breath for him to jump me—suddenly being right around the corner, or grabbing me from behind. Once he scared the shit out of me after a run when he slid into the showers in the women’s locker room…which wasn’t empty, by the way…and fucked me in the shower stall while I desperately tried to make sure no one else could hear.
Spoiler: everyone knew.
He’s the first thing I want to see in the morning. The last person I want to talk to before I fall asleep. He’s the reason I’ve been skipping through life like a freaking Disney princess these last few weeks.
Did I mention life is fuckinggreat?
I inhale the cool fall air, grinning as I head down the wooded path toward Morvaine. Occasionally, Idoneed to make a pit stop at my actual campus residence. For example, tonight, after his football practice, Achilles and I are going out to dinner at this cute little place on the water in town. And the ragtag collection of my hoodies and school uniforms that have taken up residence in his closet at Kingsward isn’t going to cut it.
I’m fishing around for my phone as I get to Morvaine Manor when a strong hand suddenly wraps around my wrist. I gasp as I’m spun and shoved abruptly against the wall next to the massive front door, and my eyes go wide as I look up into Jude's chiseled, livid face.
“Hello,cousin,” he hisses, his eyes piercing mine. “We need to have achat.”
“Jude,” I croak, my eyes dropping to where his hand is still wrapped tight around my forearm. Then I look back up into his furious face.
…And see black and blue swelling around his left eye.
My brow furrows. “What…”
His grip on my arm tightens even more.
“Jude, let go of me.”
His jaw clenches. He does drop his grip on my arm, but then he plants both of his hands on either side of my head, caging me in.
“What the hell is going on, Jude?”
