He was preparing himself for what was to come.
My heart cracked open and warmth poured out, giving my belly a fuzzy feeling.
He is killing himself. For me.
While I understood exactly why he’d done what he had, I couldn’t see myself fully going through with the plan I’d weaved myself. Touching someone else—touching someone at all—felt…wrong.
But another part of me knew that if I didn’t put Achilles’s promise to the test, I would forever live in fear of what he mightdo. He’d maimed, murdered, and abused every single man I’d tried to be with since he’d taken control over my life, over my future. He’d psychologically destroyed me and had taken away all of my decisions when it came to sexual partners. He exhibited complete lack of self-control where my freedom was concerned.
This was my emancipation.
And I knew, as sick as that sounded, that Achilles needed this as much as I did.
The confirmation that he had changed—that he was better.
“You wanna fuck me?” I dragged a nail along his neck, up to his mouth. He captured it in his hot, gorgeous mouth with a come-hither smirk.
“You know the answer to that question.” He spoke around my finger. “You’re Tierney Callaghan. Everyone wants to fuck you. You’ll be a gorgeous notch on my belt.”
I forced myself to laugh as Alex plucked a champagne flute from the bar next to us and handed it to me. I took a sip. “How long is the belt?”
His smoldering gaze slid down my body. “Almost as long as something else of mine.”
“Subtle.” I pushed more alcohol between my lips. “I’ll consider it, but only if he joins us.”
“You think your little boyfriend wants to see his girlfriend get railed by the man who is about to take over his business?”
The cockiness of this man was almost as breathtaking as his appearance.
“I didn’t say watch.” I smirked coolly. “I saidjoin.”
A pitiless sneer touched his mouth, and he reached to caress my jaw softly. “No man is ever going to fucking touch me.”
“He’ll be touching me only.”
“Hard pass.” He stepped back, eyes narrowing on my own.
“Temptation” by New Order reverberated against the walls of the bar, and I couldn’t think of a more perfect song.
Alex was calling my bluff, waiting for me to back down from my ultimatum, but that wasn’t going to happen.
Either I was including Achilles in this, or I wasn’t doing it at all.
I parked my elbows on the bar behind me. “Turn around and walk away, pretty boy. I’m not doing this without my fiancé.”
Alex did exactly that. His movement was swift and uncaring, as he spun on his heel and ambled off. I watched him take five steps before turning around and slicing through the crowd back to me.
“He isn’t going to touch me,” he warned through clenched teeth.
I grinned. “I know it might come as a shock to you, Lyosha, but not everyone wants to fuck you.”
“I’m only agreeing to this because I know you fucking need this to move on.”
“Hey.” I held up a hand. “I haven’t even agreed to do it yet. There’s one more piece we still haven’t talked about.”
“Enlighten me.” He was losing patience, and I couldn’t blame him. Achilles asked him for this, and while he agreed to the act, he never consented to my never-ending roasting.
“Tiernan won’t be happy,” I said.
