Chapter 49
HE WENT FROM SPANKING ME TO KISSING EVERY INCH LIKE I’M MADE OF STARLIGHT. #SLOWBURNTOSLOWLOVE
DAKOTA
The walk to his bedroom wasn’t urgent or desperate. Something softer. Something that made my chest ache with tenderness.
Axel’s hand engulfed mine as he led me through the doorway, and moonlight spilled through the windows, painting silver streaks across his king-sized bed with its dark sheets.
He turned to face me, cupping my face in both hands. “You’re still trembling.”
I was. Not from cold or even from the aftermath of what we’d just shared. From the magnitude of what was happening between us. The walls we’d both demolished. The future stretching out before us, uncertain but somehow exactly right.
“Axel,” I whispered, searching his eyes, “earlier, when you … when you held my stomach, you looked at me like …” I trailed off, unable to finish the thought. Like you were imagining it swollen with your child.
His thumb traced my cheekbone with infinite gentleness. The tough, commanding man from earlier had melted into something softer. Vulnerable.
“Like what?” His voice was careful, waiting.
“Like you were seeing something. A future maybe.”
He was quiet for a long moment, his gaze holding mine. “I’ve never imagined my future the way I do when I think of you.” The admission fell between us like a stone into still water. His palm found my stomach again, resting there with deliberate tenderness. “Never thought I’d want … more.”
His expression shifted into raw emotion that he didn’t try to hide.
“And now?” The question barely made it past my lips.
His voice came out rough. Honest. “Now I see things I never let myself see before. A different life than the one I’d resigned myself to.” He leaned his forehead against mine. “With you, I want … God, Sunshine, I want everything. Things I was too scared to even name before.”
The weight of what he wasn’t quite saying, couldn’t quite say yet, hung between us. But I understood. In the way his hand spread protectively over my stomach, in the wonder in his eyes, I understood perfectly.
He was opening the door to possibility between us. The possibility of kids.
Tears pricked my eyes. Happy tears that I didn’t try to stop.
“Come here,” he murmured, pulling me toward the bed. But not with the desperate hunger from before. This was something else entirely. Something that made my heart feel too big for my chest.
He sat on the edge of the bed, pulling me to stand between his knees.
“I want to memorize you,” he said, his voice barely above a whisper. “Every inch. Every freckle. Every place that makes you sigh.”
He pressed his lips to my stomach. Soft. Barely there. A whisper of a kiss that somehow felt more intimate than everything we’d already done.
“So beautiful,” he murmured against my skin.
His hands skimmed down my sides. No grabbing or claiming this time. Just gentle exploration, like he had all the time in the world. Like nothing existed outside this room, this moment, this slow unraveling of our souls.
“Lie down for me, Sunshine.”
I crawled onto his bed, the sheets cool and soft against my skin. Smelling like his cologne. Like safety. Like home. The moonlight caught the edges of his tattoos, turning them into shadows and silver.
“You’re staring,” he said, the corner of his mouth lifting.
“You’re worth staring at.”
He joined me on the bed. But instead of covering me with his body, he lay beside me. Propped on one elbow. Looking down at me like I was some kind of miracle.
“What?” I whispered.
“Just thinking about how I almost lost this.” His fingers traced my collarbone. Light as butterfly wings. “Almost let you walk away because I was too stubborn to admit what you meant to me.”
“I’m here now.”
“You are.” He leaned down, pressing his lips to my shoulder. Then my collarbone. The hollow of my throat. Each kiss deliberate and tender. “And I’m going to spend the rest of my life making sure you know exactly how precious you are to me.”
His mouth traveled lower. Not rushed or demanding. He kissed the swell of my breast, The valley between them, and then my ribs, one by one, like he was counting them. Treasuring them.
When his lips found my nipple, it wasn’t the urgent sucking from before. He laved it gently with his tongue, worshipped it with soft pulls that sent lazy heat spiraling through me. Building slowly. Like honey warming in the sun.
“Axel …” His name came out as a sigh.
He switched to the other breast, giving it the same patient attention while his hand stroked my side. My hip. The curve of my waist. Learning me. Mapping me. Claiming me in an entirely different way than before.
He pressed his lips to my belly button. To the curve of my hip. He kissed my thighs. My knees. Even my ankles received his careful attention.
“Turn over,” he said softly.
I rolled onto my stomach, and he started again. Kissing up the backs of my legs. The sensitive spot behind my knees that made me shiver. My thighs. Higher.
When he kissed the small of my back, I felt tears slip down my cheeks. No one had ever touched me like this. Like I was precious. Sacred. Worth worshipping.
“Why are you crying, Sunshine?” He turned me gently onto my back again, concern etched across his features.
“Because you see me,” I whispered. “Really see me. And you still think I’m worth all this tenderness.”
“Oh, Sunshine.” He kissed my tears away. First one cheek, then the other. “You’re worth so much more than you know.”
He settled between my thighs, but didn’t push inside.
Instead he kissed me deeply. Slowly. Our tongues dancing together in a rhythm that had nothing to do with urgency and everything to do with connection.
I could taste myself on his lips from earlier.
Could taste our combined desire and something sweeter. Something that tasted like forever.
“I need you,” I whispered against his mouth.
“You have me.” He positioned himself at my entrance. “You’ve had me since the day you walked into my life and turned everything upside down.”
He pushed inside slowly, letting me feel every inch. Letting our bodies adjust to each other. When he was fully inside, he stopped and pressed his forehead to mine. We breathed together, hearts beating in sync.
“I love you,” he said, the words falling between us like a vow.
“I love you too.”
He began to move. Slow, deep strokes that built a different kind of fire. Not the inferno from before. This was molten gold. Thick and sweet and all-consuming in a way that went beyond physical.
Our bodies moved together like we’d found our rhythm not just in bed, but in life, and as his hands linked with mine, pressing them into the mattress beside my head, I couldn’t help but think how this position left me completely open to him. Vulnerable. Safe.
“Look at me,” he whispered.
I opened my eyes, finding his gaze in the darkness. I’d never seen him look so open. So completely unguarded.
“You’re mine,” he said, but it wasn’t a command this time. It was a promise. “And I’m yours. Completely. Whatever that means. Whatever you need.”
The wave built slowly this time. Starting in my toes and traveling up my body in increments. Axel must have felt it in the way my breathing changed, the way my body began to tighten around him.
“That’s it, Sunshine. Let go for me. Let me see you.”
He kept the same steady rhythm. The same deep strokes that hit every perfect spot. The same locked gaze that made me feel seen down to my soul. The wave crested gently. Powerfully. Rolling through me in pulses that seemed to go on forever.
“Axel!”
He followed me over the edge, groaning my name as he buried his face in my neck. His body shuddered against mine, and we stayed locked together, breathing hard, hearts gradually slowing.
“Don’t leave,” I whispered, not sure if I meant don’t pull out or don’t leave me or don’t leave this bed or maybe all of it at once.
“Never,” he promised, understanding perfectly. “I’m never leaving you, Sunshine. You’re stuck with me.”
He rolled off onto his back, and I shifted to my side, resting my head on his damp chest. His arm wrapped around me like armor against the world.
Listening to his heartbeat, feeling his arms around me, I thought about how, sometimes, love doesn’t arrive gently. Sometimes, it crashes into your life, disguised as conflict. Sometimes, it looks like a fake engagement that becomes the most real thing you’ve ever known.
“I love you,” I whispered into the darkness.
His arms tightened around me, and even in sleep, he murmured back, “Love you too, Sunshine. I love every version of you. Every version that you want to be. The polished one in designer dresses. The messy one in sweatpants. The fierce one who stands up for what’s right.
The girl bent over my desk while I fuck her from behind.
” He kissed the top of my head. “Every beautiful, complicated piece of you, Sunshine. All of it. Always.”
Tonight, in his bed, in his arms, with our bodies still connected and our hearts finally aligned, everything was perfect.
I was home.