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The heat radiating from his body did the trick in minutes, my eyelids growing heavy. Right as I was on the brink of sleep, Lukas’s hand snaked around to grab my bare leg, his palm grazing the skin of my inner thigh. He dragged me to his side, before sliding that hand across my waist.
My restraint snapped like a twig. My head shot up, ready to maul him, only to find him dead asleep. His brows relaxed, his mouth soft.
Too tired to care about the fact that he only allowed himself to touch me when his guard was down, I took the chance to nuzzle into his side, resting my head in the crook of his neck.
His arm banded around my back, securing me to him so that I wouldn’t escape.
I wouldn’t even try, I promised him silently. And then I fell asleep in his arms.
Chapter 22
Lukas
Daphne was the one with all the good ideas. And she was brilliant for agreeing to sleep in my bed. Because there was no single greater thing to wake up to than her wrapped around me.
This was far better than any other morning. Stress was stealing my sleep more and more these days, my mind running through solutions. I tried to hide the worst of it from Daphne—watching her face contort with guilt wasnothappening—but it was getting bad. Messing with people’s customs, who they prayed to, was one thing. But messing with their livelihood? Their ability to feed their families? Devastating.
Moral of the story, we needed Sebastian to get her that tonic fast.
I stayed still for as long as I could, holding Daphne against me while her breaths tickled my chest. It killed me to disturb her, but I wasn’t going to scare her off. And scare I would, if she saw how insistently hard I was at the feel of her.
I had to calm myself down. This urgency was all too familiar. I never had the chance to tell her. But if she hadn't run out on me moments after we'dfinallydone something about us, I might have been able to admit that I was hanging on by a thread in those finals weeks.
If she hadn't done something when she did, I would have snapped and finally dragged her over the line with me.
Slipping out from under her, I locked myself in the bathroom and turned on the shower. I couldn’t even wait for it to get hot before I had my hand wrapped around my cock, pumping in quick strokes.
Daphne jumped to mind, the sounds of those moans she made in the back of her throat in my ears. And when the memory of that talented little mouth resurfaced, I lost it. A bolt of pleasure shot down my spine and I came on a groan.
I had half the mind to be embarrassed by how quickly I’d finished, but Daphne had me that riled up.
I showered quickly, having to pump through another release just to calm my body down before I hopped out.
We had big plans today and Daphne didn’t need me lusting after her like an animal in heat. I wrapped a towel around my waist and left the bathroom.
“There you—for the love of Zeus, Lukas!” Daphne sputtered when she saw me.
I barked a laugh. “Morning, baby.” And just because I was addicted to that blush on her cheeks, I walked over and planted a kiss on the top of her head. If I was lucky, she wouldn’t notice the deep inhale I took of her hair while doing it.
Daphne stared at me with a wide-eyed expression when I pulled away, her jaw loose. I walked into my closet laughing.
Her answering laugh pulled all my focus to her, soothing any dread about the events of the day ahead.
Chapter 23
Daphne
Lukas was trying to kill me. Walking out of the shower looking likethat, pulling his hair back in a knot, and wearing a shirt that highlighted his tan skin. Absolutely criminal.
And we had a lot to do today.
Except most of the afternoon was spent fighting tooth and nail to gain back my control. Following Eleni’s advice about spending more time together, Lukas and I had breakfast together. We were seated so close I could barely make it through a conversation and ended up drinking three cups of coffee just to do something with my hands.
A mistake, because I’d almost dropped stuff off my desk four times. Lukas hauled his stuff into my office and dropped into the couch near the window without a word. He just sat there, reviewing the report about what caused the old mine to explode—rust combined with increased vibrations from activity on the coast, apparently. Every breath he took, every time he shifted in his seat felt like he was dragging his hands down my skin.
By the time Eleni came by to accompany us to the University of Athena, I was half considering diving straight through my window and out into the water just to get a break from Lukas’s presence.
“I’m sure this will work,” Eleni said as we prepared to step through a portal. It was the second time she’d assured us that spending time together was a good thing. When she’d said it earlier, Lukas had nearly choked on his coffee. “Oh, no I don’t thinkthatis necessary,” she’d clarified when both of our minds clearly went to the gutter.
