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“You sure you don’t wanna come with us?”
Her brother could be so nagging sometimes. “Yes Ae, I’m sure.”
“Aw, Lumi! You’re going to miss the best party of the summer!” Amber whined. Lumine didn’t give it a second thought, it wasn’t the first time her best friend exaggerated things.
“And it really sucks but… I don’t think that the crab that I ate for lunch was good…” Resorting to fake an illness was too desperate even for her, especially if she thought of the reason why she was lying to two of the most important people in her life. Still, Lumine knew she wouldn’t be missing anything important if she missed said beach party.
Whereas, if she didn’t stay at their bungalow…
“You’d think you would’ve noticed, you ate like 4 servings of it!” Aether remarked. “Or was it 5?”
Amber jabbed him on the side, prompting a groan from the male twin. “You should know better than to comment on what a woman eats!”
“She’s my sister!”
“As if that makes it any better!” Lumine interjected, grateful for her friend’s defense and sticking a finger to her brother’s side.
“Ow! Quit it with the assault guys!”
“You’re my brother,” Lumine returned his snarky remark, earning a glare from Aether in return.
As much fun as she was having when teasing Aether, time was ticking. Honestly… if only they could leave already!
“I promise I’ll be fine, I just need some rest. Please don’t worry about me!” She insisted as she took a couple of steps back inside to insist on her staying. Worry made itself present in Amber’s and Aether’s eyes for a quick moment. It was starting to become annoying. “Go and have fun please?!”
After a moment of hesitance, both of them shrugged.
“If you say so…” Amber gave in first, Aether was still looking unsure about leaving his twin behind.
“Please call me if you need anything. I can come back in 10 minutes tops.”
Lumine hoped that he was exaggerating. “I will, but you have nothing to be worried about. I’m sure it’ll pass soon enough!”
After what seemed like hours of convincing, Aether and Amber finally left. Lumine closed the door behind them and let a few seconds pass to make sure that they weren’t coming back to spring into action.
Her pajamas came off and she threw on a cute, cream tank top and a white pleated skirt. She looked at herself in the mirror. Maybe it was too much and she needed to change into shorts? Would makeup also be too much? Putting on a bit of lip gloss wouldn’t hurt…
A firm knock on the door startled her. She looked at the clock. It wasn’t that she wouldn’t have wanted more time to mentally prepare herself, but he was late.
Lumine took a deep breath and waited for a second knock. Archons forbid she seemed desperate…
Passing her hands through her soft blonde hair to make sure it looked well-kept but also a bit messy, she deemed herself ready. There was no lying to herself, she was eager, but she’d never admit it to anyone. Let alone him.
As she placed her hand on the doorknob, she promptly interrupted a third knock by opening the door. “You’re late, Morskaya.”
Deep blue eyes were set on her, attempting to feign indifference but not being able to hide the cheeky glint behind them. “You had me waiting at the door for a solid minute Yueliang— it’s not like you were ready either.”
Lumine rolled her eyes. Why did everything always have to be an argument with him?
Everything about Ajax Morskaya irritated Lumine Yueliang. The stupid smug grin he sported like a medal, the way he refused to tame his wild mane of hair despite being in the middle of obtaining a degree in law and politics, the egotistical attitude that made him feel like he was the best at everything. He was obviously in the wrong about that last one, something that Lumine had been more than happy to show him the moment they got their first partial grades.
“I don’t have to explain what I do in my own house to you, of all people,” she spat, crossing her arms in front of her.
A devilish smile tugged at the corners of his lips as he invited himself inside and closed the door behind him. Lumine took a couple of steps back to allow him to do so but still stood in his way. Ajax looked around the modest bungalow. “I didn’t know you owned this place.”
Lumine sighed in exasperation. “It’s a manner of speaking, jerk.”
He let out a carefree laugh, finding joy in her annoyance. Lumine’s stomach made a weird flip in her belly, a reaction she’d been having lately when they shared the same room. Not that she liked it, but she was growing to get used to it and that terrified her.
When he was done laughing, Ajax leaned closer to her. That was one detail Lumine had forgotten that she hated about him— how he was aggravatingly tall. And now that they came into view even in the scarce light of the common area, she reminded herself that she also hated those damned cute freckles that painted a set of constellations on his nose and cheeks. They kept distracting her repeatedly.
“Whatever you say girlie,” he breathed into her face. Lumine would’ve reminded him in a not-so-nice way how she hated it when he called her that, but she got really busy really fast when his lips crashed into hers.
Her hands jumped up in a fraction of a second. A third party would’ve thought that they were tasked with pushing the trespasser away, not with bringing him closer to her. That third party would’ve been more than confused at what they were watching, and Lumine wouldn’t have been able to explain why she was acting that way— she didn’t quite understand it herself.
It all had started the day she realized Ajax and his friends, like many other college students that attended the University of Liyue Harbor such as herself, her brother, and their friends, had decided to spend part of their summer break at the Yaoguang Coast, a popular, idyllic destination with white sanded beaches in northern Liyue. Its distance from the busy harbor city, along with the many resorts and clubs in the area, made it the perfect vacation spot for any college student on a budget.
Lumine had figured that it was too cheap for the great nepo baby, but obviously, she had underestimated how much Ajax wanted to spend time with his crew. At the first sight of him, she knew that he wouldn’t only be ruining her day, but he would probably be ruining her entire vacation.
As much as she tried to avoid him they kept running into each other at casual outings and beach parties. Glares were thrown with the odd snarky remark if they ever came near each other’s vicinity. She was starting to believe that if the summer went by like that it wouldn’t be so bad, but that had been before he started meddling into her business. Not meddling as in hanging out with her and her friends or voicing out opinions when he wasn’t asked. Meddling as in rudely driving hot guys away from her.
Lumine didn’t think herself to be “hot” and she knew she wasn’t anywhere close to being a “top model,” but she knew she had her assets and she knew how to use them. It just so happened that every time someone caught her attention and vice-versa, Ajax would coincidentally be nearby and would threaten whatever guy was hitting on her.
“What the hell is wrong with you?!” She’d irritatedly ask him, and Ajax would look at her intently, making her heart start racing and her hands start shaking.
Most of the time he’d laugh it off or would even walk away without saying anything else. Nevertheless, this one time when she’d been close enough to almost start kissing this tan-skinned, blue-haired guy, and Ajax had come to snake his arm around her to piss both of them off, he’d actually said something meaningful in response to her anger.
“You’re too beautiful and too smart to be wasting your time with someone who you’re only going to have a one-night stand with,” he said deadly serious, not one hint of his usual playfulness showing on his face. “Those guys aren’t worth your time.”
Lumine felt blood rush to her cheeks and was too stunned to say anything before he walked away. She swore to herself that it was the last time she allowed him to do such a thing. And it was… in a way.
After that incident, Lumine found herself scanning crowds wherever she went in search of him. More often than not, she’d find those blue eyes staring back at her, with the promise of a silent challenge to find out who would avert their gaze first. And more often than not, Ajax would win.
Lumine still had a vivid memory when she had been by herself at one of the clubs downtown. She’d known Ajax and his crew would be there, so she’d decided to wear a black, sleeveless fitted dress to spite him. She wanted a reaction out of him, in whichever form she could get. And man, had she gotten a reaction.
Since the place was big enough to fit a crowd in which one could get easily separated from their group, Lumine embraced the dim lights and the heavily energized atmosphere to truly shake her business. As usual, Ajax wasn’t too far off.
She felt his big hands on her waist first, coming from behind her. Lumine pretended to not notice for a few more moments while she shimmied her body closer to his, making him believe that she didn’t care who was dancing behind her. It wasn’t long until one of those hands forcefully grabbed her chin and turned her head to the side. Amidst the heavy smell of sweat, alcohol, and smoke around them, Lumine could smell the leftover scent of the ocean in him, along with a fragrance with tints of bergamot and glaze lilies.
Ajax held her face in place until he was sure that she knew it was him and that she wasn’t pushing him away. “The way you’re moving your body is like you’re asking for trouble,” he’d said against the shell of her ear loud enough so that only she could hear.
For a change, it was her wearing the devilish smirk on her face. Lumine turned her body around just enough so that she could get a clear view of him— as clear as it could be in the flashing lights of the speakeasy. “Maybe I am.”
A dangerous glint shined in his eyes. “Are you sure?”
A reserved, seductive smile was her only response.
The beat of the music reverberated on their bodies. They irradiated heat against each other. Ajax leaned in first, but it was Lumine who took the final leap. Their lips had clashed then as they were now, stealing each other’s breaths away from prying eyes. That intoxicating scent of his was more alluring to her now than ever before, the salt air of the nearby beach accentuating it tenfold.
Clandestine meetings and longing stares throughout the summer had let them there, to that moment in time in which they didn’t know exactly why, but they were entangled in each other. Lumine didn’t want to think too much about what she was feeling, yet she couldn’t deny that they were being drawn to each other by a strange magnetism— the kind of connection that you can’t help but give into. And even if she didn’t want to admit it to herself, she was certain that she didn’t want to be anywhere else that night.
If anyone had told her that she’d be kissing her college rival during their summer vacation she would’ve called them mad. Nevertheless, Ajax was clinging to her with a fierceness and desperation that she didn’t know where it came from. And she wasn’t sure where her own drive to kiss him back had originated.
His hands dug into her skin and her hair, bringing her closer to him and not giving her the option to flee from his clutches. A heat in her core that presented itself only when Ajax was this close to her made itself known, more intensely than Lumine had ever felt it before.
When they broke apart to catch their breaths, Ajax still didn’t let her go too far away from him. He held her head close to his, giving her a firsthand view of his flushed cheeks and his half-lidded eyes that were focused solely on her.
“What’s the matter, Yueliang?” He taunted her in a husky voice. “Is this too much for you to handle?”
Lumine scoffed. “Come on, Morskaya. We haven’t even gotten to the best part yet.”
Her voice was heavy with desire and roguishness, and she emphasized her point with a firm grope in between his legs. Ajax shuddered under her touch, but he tried to play it off.
“Careful what you wish for,” he said as he leaned into her touch.
Lumine smirked. “What’s the matter? Is this too much for you to handle?”
The rebuttal of his own words wasn’t lost to him, but he didn’t answer. Instead, Ajax picked Lumine up from the ground and pinned her body against a nearby wall as he kissed her again. With the wall’s support and her hands and legs snaking around him, Ajax’s hands were free to roam Lumine’s body. He pulled her tank top over her head, then cupped her tits with his hands. She let soft moans leave her lips in between her kisses as Ajax groped her.
“I’ll fuck you so good that your throat will surely get sore because of how much you’ll be screaming my name, Lumine,” he muttered as his free hand slithered up her thigh toward the lining of her panties. The skirt had definitely been the right choice that night.
Lumine wanted nothing but to give in to him and let him have his way around with her. But there was no way she was going to give in to him so easily.
She rolled her hips against his groin, her skirt sliding up easily. It was all he could do to not drop her on the spot. Lumine let out a sigh of victory when Ajax let out a shuddered groan.
“Who says it’ll be me screaming your name, Morskaya?”
The wall disappeared from behind her. Ajax carried her away toward the living room, kneeling in front of the coffee table. With one swift swipe of his arm, everything on top of it fell clattering on the floor, making way for him to sit her on its rim.
“Why the hell did you do that?!” She was quick to complain. “If something breaks, I—!”
One moment, Ajax clasped her mouth shut with one of his hands, and the next Lumine felt her bra fall limp on her lap, its fastener coming undone by the other one.
“Are you seriously complaining about the decor right now?” He whispered next to her ear. She squirmed under him as he pushed her somewhat gently to lay her down on the table.
Lumine shoved his hand away from her face with both of hers. “I just don’t want you to break anything! Aether and Amber would suspect—!”
Her words were cut off from her when he grabbed both her wrists and pinned them against the table over her head. Ajax tilted her chin up to look into her golden eyes. “You knew that was a risk when you invited me over, and you still did it. Does that thrill excite you?”
Speechless and with her breath caught in her lungs, Lumine could only look up at his ocean-blue eyes helplessly. Her brain was too sluggish to come back with a retort before he pressed a savage kiss into her lips and then climbed down her neck toward her bare chest.
Laying on her back and feeling the weight of him and his solid musculature on top of her, Lumine was certain that she wanted him more than anything she’d ever wanted before in her life.
Ajax took his time worshiping the dip between her breasts, the slight stubble of his cheeks rubbing against their tender skin. He groped her left breast and shoved it against his face, her nipple rolling between his thumb and index fingers. Lumine let out a loud moan as he stimulated her. His mouth found her other nipple, tugging and pinching the bud and driving her fucking insane.
She thrashed against his grasp, attempting to free herself and fight back, but he might as well have shackled her wrists in place, his hand as solid as iron.
“Ajax,” his first name finally left her lips in a mumble, and while his movements slowed down so that he could look up at her mess of a face, he didn’t stop completely.
“I’d say that’s a good start,” he complimented her, turning his attention back to the now damp fabric under her skirt.
When his assault stopped, Lumine cursed inwardly at herself. She had promised herself that she wasn’t going to grow attached to him, that this was just a meaningless summer fling. His first name slipping from her lips was a sign that she was failing at that very same thing.
“Let go of me!” She spat as she closed her legs and pulled against his grasp once more.
Ajax shook his head at her feistiness. “Are you going to behave if I do?”
The teasing in his words irritated her to no end, but the challenge issued between the lines only aroused her more.
It was only right that she challenged him back. “Would you want me to?”
A satisfied grin was spread on his face. As if her words had been the right combination for the safe, Ajax let go of her wrists instantly.
Lumine’s first instinct was to pull him down by the collar of his shirt, bringing his lips back to hers. One by one, the buttons of his burgundy shirt gave way until the toned muscles of his chest were uncovered and free for Lumine to roam about them. Was it her imagination, or had he let out a pleased grumble?
His lips made their way down to her neck once more, where they nibbled at her skin hard enough that Lumine was sure that he’d leave a mark or two. Before she was able to complain and berate him about that (there was no way she’d be able to hide that with makeup long enough so that nobody would notice it!), his fingers dove under her skirt and panties and touched her core so suddenly, that she was sure she could see stars for a brief second.
She moaned louder than she would’ve liked, but she hadn’t been able to help it.
“You’re so wet and ready for me, Lumine,” her name rolled off his tongue tauntingly and praisingly. How could she be so vexed by this guy at the same time she was so unequivocally attracted to him?
He nudged her clit to keep her moaning, and all of a sudden clenching onto his shirt wasn’t enough for her. She clawed at his back underneath his shirt, her spine arching into him by the stimuli.
“I wonder…” he teased as he pulled her hair so that her throat was helplessly exposed to him, his lips grazing her skin as he spoke. “How desperate are you for me?”
She wanted to argue with him so badly— to prove him wrong, to make sure he knew that he had no control over her or her desires. But when she tried, all that left her mouth was a stuttering mess of words.
“You— nev— no— gah!” What a pity. What an utter disappointment she was. All it took was a stroke of his fingers, a brush of his tongue, and a whisper with that velvet voice of his to completely undo her. To bring down the authoritative Lumine Yueliang from her pedestal and turn her into the wet mess on the table she currently was.
And Ajax knew it. He was relishing it. “Just as I thought.”
At a moment’s notice, everything stopped. His fingers, his lips, the heat irradiating from his body. As Lumine assessed what was happening, she saw Ajax reincorporating himself, nonchalantly enough that she felt somewhat insulted but keen enough by her disarrayed predicament that his eyes were shining with dark lust.
“Turn around for me, girlie. Will you?”
Turn around? As in… getting on all fours?!
The heat in her abdomen urged her to comply, but her stubborn temperament stopped her from doing so. Instead, she glared at him, frustrated.
“Whoever said you called the shots?”
That darkness behind his eyes grew because of her response. “You don’t want to play this game, Yueliang.”
His hands clenched at his sides, flexing all the muscles along his arm as he did. What did he know about what she wanted? Maybe, giving into his game was her way of gaining control of the situation. She knew she could ask him to be more gentle, to play nice.
But where was the fun in that?
Like the brat she was, Lumine dared him to force her. “Why? Because I will lose? Don’t make me laugh.”
Her taunting was more than enough. Despite the cool blue of his eyes, Lumine could’ve sworn that she saw fire dancing on them.
With a harsh yank, Ajax turned her body around hastily. Lumine let out a cry of protest before Ajax pulled on her hair and leaned over her to snarl against her ear. “Laugh? Girlie, I already told you. What I want is for you to scream my name.”
Her panties came off with a swift movement of his hand, and Lumine was brought to attention by the sound of his belt unbuckling behind her. Next thing she knew, Ajax was tubbing his length in between her legs, slowly savoring the slick feel of her against him.
Lumine shuddered at the feeling. Ajax took his sweet time teasing her entry, to the point where her hips thrust against him without her being able to help it. She whined at the utter lack of him.
“Ajax!” She moaned in protest.
She could almost see the triumphant grin on his expression. “Yes?”
“Just do it!”
“Do what?” the fake innocence in his voice made her want to punch him in the face. But that hardly was what he expected her to do if she wanted him to give him the filling she so desperately craved.
“Put it in!” she hissed.
He tutted. “And where are your manners? You need to ask nicely.”
Lumine clenched her teeth. Maybe she didn’t need him as desperately as she thought she did. Maybe all he deserved was a kick in the shins before she chased him out of the place.
Maybe she would’ve done that had he not started fondling her breast and giving a firm tug at her hair at the same time he kept rubbing himself on her.
Her voice only moaned when she wanted to bicker.
“I said, ask nicely,” he ordered her.
Blinded by her desire, Lumine spluttered out a “Please!”
He pressed a contrastingly tender kiss on her shoulder. “Good enough.”
Lumine waited in anticipation as he aligned himself with her. When he started penetrating her, her arms started to give in. Still, the grip he had on her hair didn’t let her fall forward, it only kept her in place despite her lack of support. Her head arched back in what Lumine could only describe as pleasurable pain.
His length was splitting her in two. Lumine let out a wail when he bottomed out inside of her.
“You’re taking me in so well, Lumine” Ajax praised her with what she thought was the most seductive voice she had heard thus far. She clenched around him as he spoke, enticing a grunt out of him.
He let go of her hair only to grab her by the neck. His hand didn’t constrict her, but it was still the only thing preventing her from collapsing over the table, so it wasn’t precisely a delicate grasp either. “You’re enjoying this too much, aren’t you, you little minx?”
Lumine hoped that the soft whimper she let out was enough of a response for him.
Ajax snickered at her inability to answer. Or was it perhaps at the satisfaction of having her at his mercy?
Pulling out slowly, he started to set the pace. His thrusts were short and temperate at first, but it wasn’t long before they became deeper and wilder. Lumine wasn’t sure when, but at some point, she started to move back against him, synchronizing the rocking of her hips with his.
Her defeat came unbidden. She tried her very best to not give in to his final goal, to at least keep him from having the last laugh. But his cock was too big, its plunging hitting her in just the right spot. She felt vulnerable under his touch, her body molding to his power and will. His teeth sank on the skin of her shoulder, goosebumps raising all around the area.
The final straw was the low grunt of her name as she began to reach her peak.
“Ajax!” She screamed his name over and over again, reason having abandoned every corner of her mind.
It was like fuel to the flames. He went harder, faster, stronger. His hand finally choked her.
“Archons, Lumine, you’re so good, you’re perfect,” he praised her.
She became undone on the spot, moaning his name as she did so. Ajax followed closely after her, the last thrusts as he emptied his load on her rougher than all others. It was as if he was ensuring that nothing would drip out from her, proud to have claimed her as his own. That thought danced dangerously in her mind, giving her the notion that he wanted to stay by her side, to keep her.
However, that couldn’t be further from the truth.
Lumine ultimately collapsed on the table, and for a second she thought that Ajax would collapse next to her at any moment. But she should’ve known better.
Pulling out of her, he zipped up his shorts and buckled his belt. She turned around to face him, taking a last glimpse at his torso as he buttoned his shirt again.
“Are you ok?” He asked as if he actually cared about her. “Do you need me to get you anything?”
She took deep breaths in as imperceptibly as she could. This was the way they had agreed to do things, nothing more and nothing less. She shouldn’t be taken aback by his behavior.
But if that was the case, why was she fighting back tears like her life depended on it?
“No thank you, you can head out if you need to,” Lumine sounded robotic to her own ears, every emotion shoved to the back of her mind.
Ajax did a double-take at her like he wanted to say something, but if he was cunning enough to discern her silent distress, he didn’t let her know. He merely offered his hand to help her get up, and Lumine wished that she had just ushered him away without looking at him because when she glanced up and met his gaze, her dam nearly broke.
Everything about Ajax Morskaya charmed Lumine Yueliang. The soft purse of his lips as he debated on whether or not to say something about their encounter, the way his hair had been left more disheveled than usual due to the strokes of her fingers, the concern etched into his ocean-blue eyes as he made sure that she was alright despite how roughly he had treated her. Lumine was obviously reading too much into that last detail, but it was nice to know that even if this unlabeled relationship between them wouldn’t amount to anything after their summer vacation, he at least was decent enough to ensure her well-being to the best of his ability.
Lumine took his hand and accepted his help to get up. He went to look for her tank top as she fixed her skirt in silence. She walked him to the door and they exchanged a simple goodbye.
As she watched his frame get further and further away, she mentally berated herself. How foolish had she been, thinking that she could keep a grip on herself and her feelings. Lumine had played herself, believing herself a machiavellian mastermind that had everything under control, lying to herself about not harboring feelings for her college rival.
Ajax wasn’t hers, he never had been and never would be. August would end, they’d go back to college and everything would be back to how it was before, just endless arguing and bickering and competing over who was best over the other. It would be as if their encounters over the summer had never happened at all.
Wanting him was enough for Lumine. Or at least, that was the lie she was trying to make herself believe as a silent tear rolled down her cheek.