Doukas by Demetra Georgiou

Chapter 11

 

“Doukas hasn’t changed much,” I observe as I’m looking at yet another picture of my Lord as he was growing up. “Even in his teens, he was very handsome.”

“And you’re not at all partial, are you?” Harmonia giggles next to me.

Passing me the remote, I move to the next photo. When we came down here for a movie, I noted the number of pictures on the walls. Naturally, Harmonia picked up on that and asked me if I wanted to see some more of Doukas’s.

When I said yes, I expected a photo album, maybe two, certainly not a hard drive with what seems like millions of photos.

“Giorgos has a keen eye for detail,” I say, noting how artistic some of these shots are.

“He had to have a hobby, unsociable as he is. It’s strange how he and Icarus are twins.”

I laugh. “They’re different, I grant you that, but I wouldn’t call him unsociable.”

Brooding perhaps, taciturn, not that much interested in us mere humans.

Harmonia smiles but doesn’t comment. She’s so perceptive I wouldn’t put it past her to know my thoughts. The photo changes, and I can barely stop myself from drooling at the sight of a bare-chested Doukas on the beach. Since Harmonia is blissfully playing in the sand, barely reaching Victoras’ knees, it can’t be a recent snap, but even then, his rippling muscles must’ve been a thing to behold.

“How old are you there?”

Harmonia frowns in concentration. “I’d say four. Look at me—practically glued to Victoras. God, how annoying that must have been!”

“I thought you were closer to Alcaeus,” I say perplexed.

“I’m close to all my brothers, but Victoras has been a brother, parent, friend, and confidante. Everything. He’s so caring and compassionate you wouldn’t believe. Look at him. He’s slightly distanced from the rest. Back then, he was still apprehensive, I guess.”

“What do you mean?”

“Victoras is our half-brother and came to live with us when I was just a baby. Despite being older than Alcaeus, he cannot be the head of our family because he’s illegitimate.”

“I didn’t know that.”

“That’s because we don’t think him as less of our brother. But it took the buttheads a while to show him that.”

The fondness with which she calls her brothers buttheads surprises a laugh out of me. As the photos roll around one after the other, I watch my Doukas grow up and become the man I know today. He seems relaxed and at ease, surrounded by friends and family, but his eyes are nowhere as soft as when he looks at me.

Silly, I know, and it might totally be in my head, but I can’t help it. If my heart quickens from just looking at him in a suit at eighteen, I’m past the infatuation stage.

It’s not only how he’s with me, though.

I really admire the way he’s with his family. Granted, most of my feedback is newly acquired from a bunch of photos that are supposed to make him look nice, but my gut feeling agrees.

Doukas is helping a four-year-old Harmonia clap during Victoras’s High School graduation. Then at Alcaeus’s graduation, Doukas’s smile is broader as he stands next to his brother.

Little by little, many facets of my man’s life unravel on the screen of their vast media room.

“Those were my parents, Nicholaos and Ellie,” Harmonia whispers, and I glance at her before focusing on the screen.

Nicholaos Tremes was as imposing as his sons. They all share the same level of fierceness, but the hard and weathered lines of Nicholaos’s face are a sign of his experience in life. There’s something familiar in the way he turns his body towards Ellie. That’s how Doukas envelopes me in his arms. Ellie Tremes was petite, like Harmonia, with long brown hair and a smile so wide that if I close my eyes, it can almost reach my ears. They seem so happy.

“You all have the same blue eyes as your father, but you look more like your mother.”

“Really? Thank you, Ria.”

Something about her tone makes me look at her. Harmonia lowers her head, but not before I see the sadness in her eyes.

I want to say something, but I refrain. I might have only resentment for my mother, but there was a time when I waited for her to visit, wearing my best dress, and holding a picture I’ve drawn. She never showed, and after a while, she stopped calling, but I’ve come to terms with this long ago. There’s a certain number of let-downs a person can take.

Doukas told me his mother died when he was eleven, so that would make Harmonia two. That woman certainly had love inside her. It exudes from the way she smiles at Harmonia or straightens Victoras’ hair. In another photo, the twins kiss her on each cheek. Alcaeus sits at the kitchen island as she feeds him something. My much younger Doukas rests his head in her lap as she reads to him.

“You all seem so… I don’t know,” I start, without a clue how to go about next.

It’s hard to connect the moments of the people in the pictures with what I know of the Lords and what they’re involved in.

“Normal?” Harmonia suggests, arching a brow, and I nod. “Who says we can’t be, Ria?”

“No one. I was only wondering how you feel about that.”

“I don’t believe that violence is the answer, but sometimes a person might not have another choice. Time and again, what we call legal system has failed my family, but it’s not in our nature to bow our head and take things as they are.”

The passion behind her words is startling.

“Yes, but aren’t you afraid? What they do is dangerous.”

Harmonia nods solemnly. “This is my greatest fear. I know they’re perfectly capable of protecting themselves, but I worry about them all the time. Icarus is accident-prone, and every time I don’t see him with the others, my heart lurches in my chest. But I know that this is what they’ve chosen. As for me, I’ll always stand by my brothers’ side.”

 

 

Strong arms lift me, jolting me awake.

“Shh, it’s me. Go back to sleep.”

“Doukas?”

“Yes, you fell asleep.”

I open my eyes, and Doukas is looking down at me, with a frown forming on his solemn face. I settle in the crook of his neck and note that he’s wearing a T-shirt. A noise draws my attention. I watch as Harmonia springs up from the sofa next to mine.

“Is everyone OK?”

“We’re all fine,” Giorgos tries to cover her with a throw blanket, but she won’t have it. “Only Icarus—”

“Don’t you dare finish that sentence, Giorgos! God help me, but if he’s injured again because he didn’t wear a Kevlar, I’ll kill him.”

Woah! Harmonia is furious as she grabs her brother’s hand and drags him out of the media room. Her earlier words come to mind, and something tightens in my chest. It could have been Doukas. I note that Giorgos is dressed in a T-shirt and a pair of athletic pants while I distinctly remember them all leaving the house in expensive suits.

Doukas takes the stairs to his rooms on the third floor.

“I can walk,” I mumble but bury my face deeper into his chest.

“But I like holding you, Ria.”

“Is Icarus hurt?” Perhaps I should help. After all, I’ve taken first-aid classes.

“Nothing serious. Of course, when Harmonia gets her hands on him, all bets are off.”

I laugh at his words and kiss his throat. That sweet girl won’t do anything.

“Where’s your suit?” I ask him as soon as he puts me on the bed.

“Discarded,” is all he offers. I decide that I don’t need to know the details. “Did you have a good time?”

“I like your sister, but she didn’t let me lift a finger.”

“As you shouldn’t,” he says, removing his shirt.

His athletic pants are extremely low, and I decide to help him out of them. With sleep being the last thing on my mind, I lift my T-shirt, baring my naked chest to him, and open my legs wide, scooting closer to the edge of the bed.

“What are you doing, Ria?”

I grin at him but don’t respond. In a minute, everything will be clear. I want to feel him. Lifting my hands to his toned chest, I trace every crevice and line of this male perfection, trying not to linger on the faint or prominent scars. I don’t want a reminder that, at any time, he could be taken away from me.

The moment my fingers trace the elastic of his pants, he inhales sharply. Placing a kiss on his taut stomach, I slowly free his cock. He’s…endowed. Very much so. Before I make another move, he picks me up by the elbows and brings me to his waiting mouth. He caresses my body, and it’s not long before I feel him lowering the pair of pants he’s lent me.

“Take them off. Please,” he says in a low, husky voice, and I’m more than glad to obey.

“Can I please continue?” I feign exasperation.

Doukas’s mouth crushes down on my lips, his tongue mating sensuously with mine. I’m fairly sure that if he didn’t hold me, I’d be swaying by now.

“You can, but keep your legs open, baby.”

That’s an order I’m eager to obey.

Resuming my previous position, I lean forward and kiss Doukas’s stomach while my fingers trace his cock, marveling at its length. My hand hardly fits around him, and I can feel the veins as his member engorges. Good things do come to those who wait after all, and Doukas is the best thing that happened to me in forever.

I kiss the tip and put my tongue out, licking the precum that has formed on the crown. I linger a bit on the spot, and use my other hand to pay attention to his balls. A sharp breath intake and a small groan tell me that I’m doing something right.

For a person who hasn’t done this in over two years, I feel pretty confident.

Ever so slowly, I take him into my mouth, working him an inch at a time. It’s not easy trying to accommodate the girth, but I’m determined. Doukas lifts a strand of my hair, and I look up at his devastating eyes.

“Don’t look away, baby. Are you wet?” he asks in a husky voice, and I hum. Doukas’s breath hitches as he lets out a small, unintelligible curse. “Touch yourself.”

Empowered by the command and without losing my rhythm, I reach between my thighs and touch my clit. I’m wetter than I anticipated, and that makes me intensify my onslaught on his cock, relishing in his groans.

His breathing becomes even more labored, and his sky-blue eyes are rolling back in his head. And I couldn’t be happier. “Ria, if you don’t stop now, I’ll come in your mouth.”

“That’s the whole point,” I say, deciding to pay some more attention to the crown.

When I take him in my mouth again, I try to go all the way, but soon his member hits the back of my throat. I feel Doukas’s fingers on my cheek and look up.

“Fuck, I’m coming,” he growls just as I feel the first thick spurt of come in my throat.

I don’t need to think, I try to swallow every drop, but it’s too much and seeps out of the sides of my mouth. Doukas doesn’t seem to notice. He’s heaving while his eyes are hooded with a ferociousness I can’t decipher yet.

“Fuck, Ria, I blacked out for a moment,” he says, breathing heavily. Without waiting for my answer, he picks me up, devouring my lips once more. I strive to keep up with the kiss, but he doesn’t make it easy. “It’s my fucking turn now,” he growls and promptly throws me on the bed.

When he kneels between my open legs, I know what he’s going to do, but nothing could have prepared me for the small tingles I feel all over my body when his hot mouth attacks my clit. He’s lapping my core like a man dying of thirst, and I shake, the ambush of the sensations consuming me.

“You’re perfect,” he murmurs. Somehow, I hear him above my moans and beyond the white noise in my ears. “Come for me, baby. Give me that.”

His intoxicating timbre is enough to tip me over the edge. Usually, it takes me a while before I orgasm, and it’s nowhere near this magnitude. As his mouth tries to find its way up, I feel his hard cock grazing my thighs, and I try to open my legs, but Doukas takes his sweet time.

He bites my stomach and licks his way up but never gives me what I want. I cup his cheek and bring his mouth to mine, where it belongs, and he obliges with a growl. Those sounds he’s making drive me wild, knowing I’m the one causing them.

He finally comes to me, and I cradle his beautiful face in my hands.

“Those eyes,” he whispers against my mouth, and I feel the tip of his cock brushing up my opening. “Black like the night, but luminous like the evening star, lighting everything in the darkest of hours.”

His cock slides into me as his whole body envelopes mine.

“Doukas,” I call out because I want to make sure he’s real. I can’t stop touching him. I really need to hold him to me.

Never before had I felt such a potent need to be close to somebody.

“No tears, Ria,” he says and kisses my cheek.

I haven’t even realized that I’m tearing up. I’m too far gone to pay attention to anything else, but Doukas inside me and his hands all around. I didn’t know that this type of gentle lovemaking could be so potent. I can’t keep up much longer. He completely consumes me. The way he cradles my nape in one hand while his other rests possessively on my breast heightens every last sensation. My insides clench, and I whimper.

“Let it go, baby. Lose yourself as you feel me.”

As if that was the only thing I needed, I start coming around his cock. I try to lift my torso, but he holds me fast, both of his hands on my nape.

“Once more,” Doukas orders and skims his fingers down my navel until he finds my nub.

“I…c—can’t,” I protest, not quite recovered from the intensity of my orgasm.

“For me?” He pleads, and I know that deep down, I would never deny him something. “Feel me, Ria, and come with me,” he moans, biting my ear.

Small shivers rake my entire body, and I scream, feeling his cock twitching inside me. He seizes every movement and claims my mouth as he empties himself inside me.

Doukas continues kissing me long after we’ve both calmed down from our high. He doesn’t seem to be in any hurry to stop. Even when the need to breathe makes us break off, he keeps kissing my face and throat.

It takes us a while, but we manage to settle on his humongous bed. I’m already falling asleep, lulled by his steady breath, thinking that it’s too soon.

Too soon to be entertaining thoughts of being in love.