11. Axel
11
AXEL
I wake to the sight of Kelsey at the writing desk in my room, a blanket wrapped around her waist. She’s naked from the waist up, her tits hanging freely as she furiously types. I moved that writing desk into my bedroom over a week ago, when she started getting up in the middle of the night to write.
I don’t dare interrupt her until she’s finished.
But I push aside the covers and fist a hand around my cock, slowly stroking myself as I watch her.
It’s been like this nearly every day for two weeks. I wake up to Kelsey writing. After she finishes the scene she’s on, I find another way to pamper my princess. After we’ve both come, I shower and head into the shop, and she hangs out at Daisy’s Diner or The Library Card —the coffee shop we never did get a chance to explore together after our first date—and writes.
Every evening, my Moleskin notebook is fuller with ideas for the shop, my schedule booked further and further out, and Kelsey’s back in my bed.
She hasn’t talked about Hawaii in several days. I haven’t brought it up.
Maybe, just maybe, she’s accepted that what’s between us is real. That she doesn’t need to move away to chase inspiration. Either way, I think I might be able to convince her to stay a little longer.
“Done!” Kelsey announces, throwing her hands up in the air at the same time she spins her chair around to face me.
God she’s beautiful.
“That’s great, Princess.”
“No, I’m done,” she says, her smile growing. “With the book!”
“Fuck yeah!”
“Well, except the epilogue. But I’ll knock that out later.”
“I think we should celebrate,” I insist, enjoying the way she watches me stroke my cock. “Finishing a book is a big deal.”
“I think you’re right.” She stands and the blanket falls away, revealing her body in its entirety. She sways her hips as she walks back toward the bed, and dammit if I don’t nearly come just at the sight of her. I fucking love this woman. I want to do this every day. Forever .
Tonight, I’m going to lay it all out on the line.
Before I can ask if she’s free later, she straddles my hips and sinks down onto my cock. All coherent thoughts leave my brain as I watch my princess ride my cock. She leans forward, and I eagerly take a nipple into my mouth. My hands grip her hips, encouraging the frenzied pace.
When she’s close to the edge, I pull her off.
“What the?—”
“Get on your knees,” I demand.
She flashes me that sexy I like it when you’re bossy smile and obeys.
I spread her legs apart. She arches her back in invitation, and I plunge into her from behind. I reach around her waist and finger her clit like it’s my life’s mission. I don’t show an ounce of mercy with my finger or my cock until she comes apart.
I thrust harder and deeper, until I explode inside her depths.
“Fuck me,” I growl, bending forward to press a kiss to the back of her neck.
“I already did,” she teases.
“You free tonight, Princess?” It’s a silly question, considering she’s been staying the night with me every night since our first and only date. But tonight, I don’t want her only in my bed. I’m taking her out to celebrate her finishing her book, and I’m taking her to Lavelle’s —in town. I’m going to lay everything out on the line.
“I won’t be back tonight,” she says, rolling on her back and then off the bed.
“Big plans?”
She slips into the bathroom, leaving the door open. “I have to pack.”
My entire body stiffens. “Pack?”
“My flight leaves tomorrow.”
“You’re still going.”
She reappears in the doorway, this time dressed. Her amber eyes are filled with stubbornness. “Axel, I was always leaving. I never tried to hide that.”
“You could stay.”
“No, I can’t.” She closes her laptop and starts packing up her things. “You know why.”
It’s as though she’s plunged an ice pick right into my heart. “Because of some damn superstition about your writing?” I sound like an angry prick, but I don’t care. I’m frustrated as hell by her flippant attitude. Have the last two weeks really meant nothing to her?
“It’s not a superstition.”
“Sure as hell sounds like one to me,” I fire back.
She returns my fury with a chilling gaze. “I know what works, and I honor that.”
I sense the lie behind her resolve, and suddenly it hits me. “You’re running.”
“From what?”
The finger that was just pleasuring slices the air between us, back and forth on repeat, as if the action can erase the growing chasm. “From this.”
“There is no this .”
“The fuck there’s not, Princess.”
She stuffs the last of her clothes into a backpack and slings it over her shoulder. “You don’t have to call me that anymore.”
I block the doorway out of the bedroom. “Look me in the eyes and tell me you feel nothing for me.”
“You going to hold me prisoner until then?” she asks, staring at my chest.
“If you can look me dead in the eyes and tell me you don’t love me, I’ll step aside and never bother you again.”
Her body visibly jolts backward, and I feel the first ounce of hope that I’m finally getting through to her. Because I know damn well there are feelings here—strong feelings. I’ve been in love with her for days—hell probably since she first walked into Get Inked and asked for that sunflower tattoo. What I’ve been feeling isn’t one-sided. I’d bet my shop on it.
She’s scared.
“Axel, I can’t do this.”
“I love you, Kelsey. Does that mean nothing to you?”
She closes her eyes, holding them shut for several beats. “I have to go.” Her voice lowers to merely a whisper, and this time, I hear the sympathy in it. “I was always going to go. So please let me.”