Doukas by Demetra Georgiou

Chapter 28

 

Unusually emotional, I take in the rolling hills outside my window. Doukas was right once again. Giorgos’s place gets a lot of snow during this time of year, but I never pictured it so majestically captivating.

Inching closer, I touch my reflection in the window, not quite familiar with the bride I see before me.

My wedding day. The day I promise to be with Doukas before God and people.

I’m in a tight, long-sleeved lace sheath dress that I fell in love with the first time I saw it. My hair is in a low bun, styled like the first time Doukas saw me in my graduation picture. Today, we’re completing a circle, and we can finally begin our life together.

The original plan was to marry on his birthday in June, but we couldn’t wait, and I decided to get married two days after New Year, in Giorgos’s winery. Doukas was with me in every step of the preparations, making sure I wouldn’t be stressed at all.

My phone on the side table shrills with one of my alarm clocks, and I turn it off. I wonder if Doukas is in his place. I haven’t seen him in a day, and I’m having a hard time knowing that he’s on the other side of the property. So near and yet so far.

I open the door to my suite to join my wedding party. Aside from a few aunts and distant cousins, I don’t have much family to speak of, but Aunt Artemis, my godmother, is one of the very few people I wanted to be here for me today. And she is.

“Oh, my beautiful child. You’re so beautiful. I wish your father was here to see you,” Aunt Artemis says in a slow voice, coming closer to me.

Tears brim into her eyes as she entwines me into her arms, and I barely restrain myself from losing my cool.

“Thank you.”

“Your aunt is right, Ria. You’re stunning,” Electra says softly.

Ever since my last run-in with Fanaris, Electra has become an indispensable part of my life. We’re still getting to know each other, surpassing the boss-employee relationship, but I feel that I’ve found a true friend in her. For a moment, I feared a family emergency would keep her away from my wedding, but I’m glad she made it.

I note movement from the corner of my eye, and I see Harmonia rushing toward us with two little girls.

“We’re ready,” she says when she catches her breath. Harmonia is looking so beautiful in her long blue ballgown. “Oh, you look amazing. Doukas is going to faint when he sees you.”

“My Doukas is not the fainting type, but thank you, anyway.” I smile at her before turning my attention to the girls. “Are you ready?” I ask, and they both nod.

When I straighten up, I clock the twins, Giorgos and Icarus, along with Rigas and Alexandros Pechlivanos, approaching us at a more leisure pace. 

What are they doing here?

“Congratulations, Ria. Doukas is a lucky man,” Rigas says. Immaculately dressed as always, he seems very formal in his tux.

“Thank you.”

“My brother Phaethon sends his regards. He apologizes for not being able to make it, but he had a little accident.”

“I’m sorry to hear that. Will he be all right?”

Rigas nods without elaborating. Well, if two of the Royals are here, Phaethon’s accident can’t have been that serious. “The reason I’m here, Ria, is because I wanted to ask if you’d allow me to walk you to Doukas. Knowing both your father and grandfather, I know they’d wanted me to do it.”

Trust a broody man like Rigas Pechlivanos to say the last thing you expect to. Back when I first met him, he told me that he knew them. This is strangely kind of him.

“I’d love that. Thank you,” I say as Harmonia hands me my bouquet.

“That’s it?” she asks, shaking her head. “I thought you’d tell her that if she’d changed her mind, you’d arrange for a car, or…I don’t know… that you have fifty people patrolling the grounds for her protection.”

Harmonia’s sass surprises a laugh out of me, and Rigas chuckles at her words. “It doesn’t look as if Ria wants to miss her own wedding, Harmonia. As for the security, I know that your brothers have taken all the necessary precautions. If it makes you feel better, though, I can have a getaway car or extra men patrolling the grounds at your wedding.”

“I’m so telling Doukas that you tried to make Ria leave him on his wedding day, Harmonia,” Icarus says with a mischievous gleam in his eyes. “It’s time.” Kissing my cheek, he presents his arm to Electra to walk her to the venue.

Holding Rigas’s arm, we walk in silence, and I relax a little. “Jokes aside, if you want to leave, I can arrange that,” he says for my ears alone. “Doukas would never want you to feel coerced or obliged.”

I shake my head. “I know that. It’s one of the reasons I love him. Next to him is where I belong.”

This is it, I think when we round the final corner before entering the church. Since it’s been snowing heavily, Doukas arranged for a tent to set up so I won’t have to walk in the snow from the winery’s guest houses to the church on the property.

Icarus and Electra walk out of my line of sight, followed by Alexandros Pechlivanos and Aunt Artemis. Giorgos shakes his head as he waits for his sister to finish setting up the girls holding my train, but before long, they’re heading for the church as well.

The moment I make out Doukas’s face out of all the people milling in the entrance, I zero in on him. His eyes sparkle when he takes me in all my wedding finery, and my stomach flips at his intense and hungry gaze.

“At last,” Doukas mutters and kisses my cheek as Rigas gives me away.

“Hi,” I say, reveling in the warmth of his arm—the only contact between us.

“Ready?”

“I can’t wait to be married to you, Doukas.”

 

 

“Come here,” Doukas instructs in a voice that makes me falter.

He’s standing by the window with one hand in his pocket and his other held towards me. Wordlessly, I obey, taking small steps, mindful of my dress.

“How do you feel?” he asks and lifts me to his arms, heading for the bed.

“I’m okay.”

Doukas sets me on my feet and makes quick work of my zipper, letting my wedding dress slide off my shoulders and pool on the floor.

“I’m not very fond of barriers between us,” he whispers and kisses my shoulder before unhooking my bra.

His touches are sparse, making me crave the next time his fingers will graze my naked flesh.

“You’re dressed,” I accuse as he lowers my panties, leaving me with just my garters and high heels.

“Not for long,” he assures me, picking me up and putting me in the middle of the bed.

Through hooded eyes, I watch him as he leisurely sheds off every garment of his tuxedo. Once he’s naked, he stays in place, and I try so hard not to squirm under his scorching gaze. He doesn’t touch me, but I feel ready to come.

“Doukas,” I plead, and that seems to drive him into gear.

He strides to the bed and bends down to take my mouth in a passionate kiss that makes it hard to keep up. Little by little, his lips move farther down my body, kissing my breasts, past my navel, and through my core.

“You’re all mine,” he says a moment before his mouth lands on my clit.

Doukas doesn’t believe in procrastinating or lingering, and he makes a point of proving that daily. Like the other day, when we first got here, that—

“Where does my wife’s mind wander?” Doukas asks as he works two fingers inside me.

I try to clench my thighs together as my back arches off the bed.

Doukas lets out a low, guttural moan in approval. “Perhaps there’s something I’m not doing right if you’re distracted,” he muses and sits up, spreading some of my wetness over my clit. “Let’s see if I can remedy that, shall we?”

Cupping my waist, he slams his cock into me, and I scream at the sudden—but always welcome—invasion. He’s so deep inside me that I feel him stretching me with every thrust. It’s a torturous pleasure that I want to experience for the rest of my life.

For hours now, he’s been making sure that his little touches and scorching kisses leave me powerless, and I might be fully aware of that, but at the same time, I’m unable to resist him.

Mission definitely accomplished!

I clutch chunks of the duvet beneath me, trying to hold onto something. My stomach coils at the suddenness of my orgasm, and I toss my head back, quivering from the intensity of my orgasm.

By now, I know that Doukas won’t take pity on my oversensitive body, and I’m looking forward to what he’s going to come up with next.

Taking my hands in his, he helps me sit up, fully impaling me with his manhood once more.

“Much better,” he groans and pulls out slowly before he pushes back in slowly.

Looking into his eyes as he makes love to me is not something I’ll ever get tired of.

Gone are my worries about the future and whether we rushed on things. As long as I get to look at Doukas’s beautiful eyes, every single thing will be in its rightful place.

“I love you, Doukas,” I say as I feel him shoot his release deep inside me.

And that’s the absolute truth.