Twins for the Mafia Heir (The Warwicks #3)

31. Emma

Chapter 31

Emma

A chilles holds my hand to keep from completely outpacing me down the sidewalk, but I can tell he’d prefer to run. Sidony’s new presents, wrapped and ready for Christmas, are tucked under his other arm. My face hurts from smiling, my teeth ache from the cold air, but I just can’t stop. I’ve never seen such a carefree side of this man, and now that he’s shown it to me, I’m determined to hold it against my chest like a treasure.

When we finally stop, I look up at the place he’s brought me to- and my jaw drops open. It looks like an enormous stone palace sitting right here on the corner, every window lit up golden against the night. Achilles pulls me through the rotating door into a cavernous lobby, the ceiling hung with gigantic crystal chandeliers and tiled with black marble. We walk a red carpet to the reception desk, where Achilles only has to flash a sleek black card. The man behind the desk looks startled, but quickly collects himself and personally leads us to a private elevator that he has to unlock with his own keycard.

The attendant doesn’t follow us in, and thank god for that. Before the doors even close between us and the lobby, Achilles has his hands around my waist and his mouth on mine.

There’s something I should be telling him, but the taste of his lips washes it away.

His fingers tug open the buttons of my coat, untuck my scarf, muss my hair. It’s all I can do to keep breathing and kissing him while he tears off my clothes.

The elevator stops, and the door slides open on an enormous suite swathed in darkness. My coat is already in a puddle around my feet, my skirt sliding down to join it. Achilles walks me backwards out of the elevator as his fingers undo the buttons on my shirt, and our movement sets off the lights in the room, bathing us in gold. I don’t even pull away from Achilles to look- he’s the only thing I want to see.

My legs hit the edge of the bed, and I collapse into a sea of silk with Achilles on top of me. I grab the front of his shirt, dragging him down so that his heat surrounds me. I hike up my knees around his waist, and he reaches back without breaking our kiss to yank off my boots and socks. He unclasps the front of my bra and buries his face in my sternum, his hot tongue dragging over my bare skin. My pelvis rolls into his, the friction against his erection lighting me up from the inside out.

I’m gasping like I’ve run a mile, and Achilles isn’t even inside me yet. My fingers fumble over his clothes, but I manage to tear off his coat, suit and shirt one after the other until I reach his hot skin. His muscles ripple and shudder under my hands. He’s ready to pound me into the mattress, but he’s holding himself back, savoring me for as long as he can.

“I want you to ride me tonight,” he growls into my skin. His mouth closes over my breast, his teeth teasing my nipple and tugging until I cry out. “Use me, whatever way you’ve been wanting to.”

I bury my hands in his hair and tug on his lush curls. “I’ve never-”

“Do it,” he says, unyielding. “I know you can.”

His hands grip my waist, and he slides me effortlessly up the bed so he can climb fully onto it. He hovers over me, his eyes twin pools of molten chocolate. Then he rolls onto his side, and with no effort at all, pulls me over him. I lay flat against him, my body molding to fit his, our faces centimeters apart.

“Sit up,” he orders, and softens the demand with a kiss.

I do as he says, but before I can position his cock beneath me, he grips my thighs and pulls me up his body. I have to snatch the top of the headboard for balance, and then I have to hold onto it just to keep my grip on reality when he lowers me onto his ready mouth. He sucks at my clit, his tongue thrusts into my pussy, and it’s all I can do not to buck against his face.

This- oh, this . Achilles’s hands squeeze my thighs as he feasts on me, and I can’t help myself. I roll my pelvis into his mouth, deepening every last sensation. Achilles groans, and the vibration moving through my bones makes me want to scream. I cum into his mouth, sudden and violent, and I’m too breathless to make any sound at all as ecstasy tears up my spine. Achilles eagerly feasts, as one wave of pleasure breaks into another. I want to sob from the force of it, but it’s all I can do to just feel .

With one last long suck, Achilles shifts me off his face and down his body. His mouth is glistening with my slick, his eyes are heavy-lidded with lust. I release the headboard, my fingers aching, and plant my hands flat on his tanned chest instead. My back arches, and I groan as his cock drags between my legs, that delicious friction making my head spin. I lift myself up, my thighs trembling, and reach underneath myself to grip his cock and guide him beneath me. Achilles lifts his hips, edging against my hole.

Oh god, I could hang here forever, teasing us both to death. But if I don’t get Achilles inside me right now, I might lose my mind. Slowly, I lower myself onto his magnificent cock, crying out with every inch that goes into me. Achilles grabs my hips and bounces me off his cock once, twice, making us both moan. I follow his rhythm, rising up and dropping back down, until we’re thrusting together in delicious synchronicity with each other. With one hand, Achilles kneads the top of my thigh, and with the other, he presses his thumb into my clit and traces circles on the very center of me.

He wanted me to ride him, but I feel like I’m still the one at his mercy. And I couldn’t be happier.

“A-Achilles-” I gasp, and climax around him.

“ Fuck , keep saying my name when you cum,” he hisses, and thrusts up into me so hard and fast I scream.

I’m so loose and blissed out that I almost forget to move with him, but I manage to recover our pace. Emboldened, I lean close to him and kiss him, hard and deep.

“I need to tell you something,” Achilles moans into my mouth. His thrusts are slowing, deepening. He’s ready to cum, and every cell in my body is anticipating it.

“You can,” I pant. I roll my body in time with him, my fingernails dragging down his tanned abs, ready to carry him over the edge with me. “You can tell me anything, Achilles!”

His hands tighten on my hips, lifting me up and dropping me down. Our bodies slam together, and he groans as he empties himself into me. We cling to each other for dear life, riding out individual waves of pleasure together. Achilles is fighting for breath, but he still pulls me down onto his chest, his arms wrapping tight around me. His words tickle my earlobe as he breathes into it.

“Raleigh… I love-”

Cold reality spills over me. My heart jerks painfully in my chest. I tear myself out of Achilles’s arms and pull myself off of him, so suddenly I feel like one of my own organs has been ripped out. My brain is a broken record, skipping over the hideous words he just said.

Raleigh… I love- I love- I love-

“Raleigh?!” Achilles sits up, but I’m already stumbling off the bed. “What’s wrong? Are you-”

“Don’t call me that!” I gasp, clutching myself like I can’t hold my shattering body together. Every one of my nerves is a raw wound. I can’t catch my breath. I can’t escape the hollow forming in my own stomach. “That’s not my name!”

Achilles is on his feet, coming around the bed toward me, but those words stop him in his tracks. His face is twisted with confusion, but worse than that, he looks concerned. For me.

No, for Raleigh.

The woman that he loves.

“What are you talking about?” he asks. His tone is trying to decide between demanding and soothing, and instead just comes out wrong. Everything is wrong.

I feel the tears run down my cheeks before I even realize I’m crying. “That’s not my name,” I repeat. “It’s not- I’m not Raleigh!”

Achilles shakes his head, straightening. The line between his brows is deepening by the second. His eyes scan my face like he’s looking for something he can’t find. “This doesn’t make any sense.” I can see the day we met playing behind his chocolate eyes, see the moment I claimed to be Raleigh Warwick.

His gaze flickers to the door, back to me, and then back again, as if he's trying to find something to anchor himself in. “This isn’t... this isn’t happening.” He shakes his head again. Denying the doubt he’s beginning to feel? Denying the words that I’ve said?

“Who are you?” he finally demands.

My tears are coming too fast. Achilles is becoming nothing but a watery shape in front of me, but that’s almost a relief. I can’t see what I hear in his voice. The incredulity, the rising anger, the betrayal.

“I’m no one,” I sob. It’s never been more true than it is now, after he proclaimed his love to a woman he’s never met while inside me.

“Tell me your goddamn name!”

I choke on it, but I manage to force it out. “Emma Clarke. My name- is Emma Clarke.”

Achilles says nothing. He doesn’t know who that is, because Emma Clarke isn’t anyone important, and never has been.

“I-I told you the truth,” I gasp out. “The pregnancy was… going badly. We weren’t sure if she was going to m-make it, but… It wasn’t Thomas’s baby being born. It was Raleigh’s.”

Achilles’s shape turns away from me. Now that I’ve started speaking, I’m practically vomiting up the words. I don’t believe in excuses, I never have, but I have to explain. I have to make him understand.

“I’m the daughter of a nobody who worked in a mafia gang on the Warwick’s bad side. When my dad died I did the only thing I knew how to do. I lied and I stole and I tried to make enough money to get out. I- I ended up doing really bad by Raleigh, the real Raleigh, but she gave me a second chance. Thomas hired me, but- but even with the Warwicks I didn’t know where I belonged. I just knew that I had to make up for what I’d done!”

Achilles’s face is a storm. “Are you even twenty-five?” he asks, his voice hollow.

“T-Twenty-” I whisper.

“ Fuck .”

He turns his back on me, apparently with nothing else to say. I struggle to breathe as he moves around the room, collecting his clothes and dressing in silence cold enough to kill. “I-I never meant for this to happen!” I cry. “I never meant for things to get so confused, I-”

I never meant to feel so much for you, and for Sidony . I never meant to find the place I belong… with you .

Achilles hasn’t stopped moving. I try to wipe my eyes and see he’s already fully dressed.

“A-Achilles?” I plead. My voice is so small and shaky I don’t know if he even hears it. And if he did, he doesn’t respond.

Will he leave me here in this hotel room without saying a word? Can he turn his back on me so easily? I clasp my hands together, and the scratch of my wedding ring on the inside of my finger shocks me.

“Achilles, please -”

“Get dressed,” he orders gruffly. There is no affection in his voice, no mercy, only hollow rage. “You’re going back to where you came from.”