Chapter 20
Axel
“Where is she?”I push past Twyler and enter the Teal House, eyes scanning the small living room.
“In her room.” Twyler’s little legs follow behind me. “I can’t get her to come out.”
I rap on the bedroom door. “T, it’s me.” I try the knob, but it’s locked. “Can I come in?”
“No.” Her voice is muffled, but I can tell she’s crying. “Go away. And tell Twyler to go away too.”
Ouch.
“What the hell happened?” I ask Twyler. I’d been sitting in my tattooist’s chair, getting a few new pieces of ink, when Twyler texted telling me to get over to her house right away. After a few more back and forths and all I knew was Nadia was upset and locked in her room.
“She came home from work early, obviously freaked out about something, and ran into her room. She won’t talk to me or let me in.” She wraps her arms around her upper body. “I’m scared, Ax, this isn’t like her.”
I run my hand through my hair, agitated and trying to figure out what to do. I’d already tried texting her and now I’m locked out. Logic tells me to give her some space and let her come to me when she’s ready.
I’m not really one for logic.
“Did she look hurt?” A million different scenarios ran through my mind on the way over. But one lingered the most and I ask through a clenched jaw, “Drugged or anything?”
“No.” Then she reconsiders. “I don’t know. She didn’t give me much time to notice anything other than her crying.” Decision made, I spin and start toward the front door. “You’re leaving?”
“No. Just using an alternate entrance.” I give her a look that I know I’ll pay for later. “Stay here.”
I walk around the side of the house, taking the same route I have several times now. I always feel like a creeper coming and going this way but she’s the one that kicked me out after our first night together. Her curtains are drawn and part of me hopes the window is locked because my girl needs to stay safe, but when I nudge at the glass, it opens. Not great, but I’ll take it.
I climb in and throw my leg over the window sill, knocking something with my foot. “Ow!”
Craning my neck, I see that she’s sitting under the window in the small space between the bed and the wall. She’s also rubbing her head. “Shit, sorry, T.” I come the rest of the way in, taking care not to land on her. “What’s going on?”
Without looking at me she says, “She shouldn’t have called you.”
“She should always call me when you’re upset. You should too.” I squat down in the narrow space. “Talk to me.”
“There’s nothing to say.” She takes a deep breath and pulls her knees up, wrapping her arms around them. “You should go.”
“Yeah, that’s not going to happen.” I sit, or try to. The space is small and my body doesn’t want to cooperate, but I wedge myself with my back to the wall, and shove my feet under the bed. “Did I do something? Because sometimes I do stupid shit–”
“It’s not you.” She shakes her head and tightens her grip around her legs.
“Then talk to me, because I’m about to walk out of here and start breaking jaws until someone tells me why you’re so upset.”
She exhales, sounding tired. “I saw Brent.”
Oh yeah, first jaw on the list.
“Did he touch you?” I touch her chin, focused on her eyes. I look for enlarged pupils–anything out of place. Her eyes are red from crying but otherwise they look clear.
“No. Not really.” She turns away. “He just told me the truth.”
I can’t even imagine the bullshit that guy is spewing. With trepidation, I ask, “What’s the truth?”
“That I’m the kind of girl men like him want, but can’t have. Not in any official capacity.“ She looks down, eyelashes wet. “I’m a side-piece. A mistress at best. Used for pleasure and because we’re weak. Apparently, I’m not the kind of girl that they want to marry or have babies with, I’m just there to be used.”
That fucker hit her square in her insecurities. The stuff we’d spent so much time working through. In the steadiest voice I can muster, I say, “You know Reynold’s is an asshole who gets off on being a dick and you shouldn’t listen to a fucking word he says.” Then a thought strikes me and a painful sensation spreads through my chest. “Is that what you want from him? Marriage and babies? Do you still want him?”
“God no.” She shifts away, closing her eyes and leaning her head against the bed. “It’s not that…”
“Then what is this about?” I spread my hand over my chest and rub against the ache. I don’t like how this makes me feel. How talking about this sets me on edge, feeling out of control. “Because yeah, hearing him say that has to hurt, but if you’re not with him, why the fuck does it matter?”
“He said it’s what all men like him want.” Her eyes open, pained brown meeting mine. “Men like you. Athletes. Leaders.”
I understand it now. Brent Reynolds has a death wish.
“Darlin’, Reynolds is a selfish prick. He doesn’t know shit about me and what I want.” I reach for her, sliding my arms around her waist, and pulling her onto my lap. She struggles, but it’s weak, and wrap my arms tight around her body, holding her against my chest. Inhaling her scent, I just know I want her close. I want her to feel me, to understand that I’m not letting her go. “He’s a bully and it’s probably driving him fucking crazy that he can’t have you.”
“He told me it didn’t matter if you go to the NHL or go back home to work for your father. I won’t be accepted by either.”
I’m going to kill him. I may actually do it, but not until I make it perfectly clear to my girl, that I’m not going anywhere.
“If there’s one thing you should know about me by now, is that I don’t give a shit about what other people say or think about me. Not outside of my coach, teammates, my sister, and you–but mostly you.”
I don’t know how to tell her about the war inside of me about my future. Following my dream or fulfilling my obligation to my family. “I don’t feel right dragging anyone into the complicated decision I have to make in the next few months, which is why I’ve been wary to commit longer than the next few months. It’s not something either of us should take lightly.” I lift her chin, looking her in the eye. “But I need you to understand, that whatever happens in my future, I want you with me.”
“Yeah?” A small smile tugs at her lips. “I want to be with you, too.”
My heart pounds, harder than skating sprints across the ice. So hard, that it feels like it’s lodged in my throat. I push past it and tell her, “I love you.”
Her back straightens and she meets me eye to eye. “I love you too, Axel.”
I kiss her, more gentle than I want, but I don’t want to scare this girl away with how much I want her. Thankfully, Nadia meets me with the same intensity and it’s not long before we’re both squirming against one another and breathing hard.
“I don’t know what the future holds, not yet, but we’ll figure it out together, okay?”
“Okay.”
I shift her so that I can stand, but then pull her with me up to the bed, lying her flat on her back. I hover over her, skimming my fingers down her face. “And if I haven’t made it clear, any man would be goddamn lucky to have you walk down that aisle, gorgeous and ready to take their name.” I run my hand down her body, flattening it over her belly. “To have you carry their babies.”
I’m talking about myself, but I don’t want to scare her off. Not yet. But one day I’m going convince her to marry me and give me a boat load of babies. One day. When we figure this all out. Tonight, I strip her down, pulling off her shirt and leggings. She’s splayed before me, a goddamn vision.
“Jesus, you’re beautiful,” I tell her, grazing my finger over the lacey edge of her bra. She greedily pushes at the hem of my shirt. Lifting it over my head, her hands rake down my chest, stopping when she gets to the plastic bandage.
“This new?” she asks, fingering the edge. “Can I?”
I nod, nose wrinkling as she tugs the tape off my skin. “I was at the tattoo parlor when Twyler texted.”
Her fingers carefully remove the adhesive, revealing the fresh tattoo. It’s nothing major. Just another moment in time I want to preserve.
“Seriously?” she asks, staring at the ink. It’s the number one-ten. “You commemorated the first blow job I gave you?”
“I want to remember every single moment with you.” I pull aside the cup of her bra, revealing her nipple and tease it into a taut pebble. “Seeing you on your knees, taking me like that. All of me.” I swallow back the emotion. “It was a big moment. That’s the moment I knew you trusted me.”
Her eyes shine up at me and I know what I see in them. Love. I know it because I feel it coursing through every pump of blood in my heart. I don’t waste any more time, getting both of us fully naked, and slotting my cock against the warm, slick, heat between her legs. There’s no time for teasing or any kind of foreplay. I just want to be inside. To feel her tighten around me. Thank god she’s wet and ready. Rocking my hips back, I’m about to thrust my way home when there’s a knock on the door.
“Nadia,” Twyler’s voice carries through the door, “is everything okay?”
“Son of a bitch,” I mutter, dropping my head to the crook of her shoulder and laugh darkly.
“I’m fine, Twy.” Nadia clears her throat. “Axel’s here.”
My cock expands, nudging into her sweet pussy. It takes every ounce of control that I possess not to claim her when she says that. Unfortunately, Twyler is still outside to ruin the moment.
“Okay,” her voice hesitates, then lifts an octave higher. “Tell Axel I’m not okay with him using our windows as an entrance and egress.”
Nadia smiles up at me, aware that I’m about to lose my mind and blow my shot all at once.
“Never again,” I call out, pushing in an inch deeper. I grunt. “Promise.”
“Okay, thanks.”
We both wait a beat longer, until it’s clear that Twyler has moved away from the door. My cock throbs, and I can’t hold back any longer, bringing us closer together by hiking her leg up over my hip and burying myself deep inside.
Perfection.
“Hey,” I say, allowing her body a chance to adapt to the feel of me inside, “I love you.”
Her fingers push through my hair, and she pulls my face down to hers. “I love you, too.”
Takingone last look into the bedroom to confirm that Nadia is asleep, I carefully shut the door.
“Sneaking out?”
The voice is soft but deep. Familiar. None of that stops my heart from threatening to jump through my ribcage.
“Jesus Christ, Cap.” I exhale slowly, trying to regain my wits as I take in Reese sprawled on the couch. “Scared the fuck out of me.”
“Sorry,” Reese says, but the smirk tugging at his mouth says otherwise.
“I didn’t even know you were here.”
“Not surprised,” he says, rolling his eyes. “You two sounded… occupied.”
It’s my turn to smirk. “Jealous?”
“Not in the slightest.” His laptop open and a notebook next to him. “I got here an hour or so ago, but I’ve got a final paper I haven’t finished. Once Twy fell asleep, I figured I’d get it down.”
I shrug my arms into the jacket I’m carrying. “Hey, next to last semester. We’re almost done.”
“Well, we’ve got classes to pass and a championship to win, so we’re not done yet.” He nods to the jacket. “What’s going on?”
“Eh, just something I need to go deal with.”
“At two AM?”
I tug up the zipper. “Actually, yeah. Can’t wait.”
He shuts the laptop, turning his full attention on me. Fuck. Reese is the last one that needs to get nosy about what I’m planning. I should’ve gone back out the window. “Does this have something to do with why Nadia was so upset earlier?”
I don’t like lying to Reese. He’s my friend and he’s had my back through so much of the shit I’ve gone through recently. But there’s a reason we jokingly call him Captain America. He’s a good guy, and what I’m about to go do doesn’t fall under his code.
“Brent’s still messing with her,” I say casually, “and I think it’s time someone put a stop to it, once and for all.”
“How?” he asks. “By going over to the quarterback’s house and picking a fight?”
“You think I shouldn’t?” I ask, feeling anger prick under my skin. “Why the hell not?”
“Because your ass just got off probation and he’ll waste no time reporting you.” His jaw tics. “You’ve worked too hard to fuck up now.”
“Let him tell Coach. Or the cops or the NCAA. I don’t give a shit. It’ll be worth it to let him know that I’m not going to let him harass my girl.” I shake my head. “Ever again.”
He sighs and runs both hands through his hair. “I understand the urge, man. I really do, but this isn’t your fight, Axel.”
I can’t believe him. “You’re saying you wouldn’t do the same for Twyler?”
“Remember what happened when her ex was fucking with her at the bar that night?”
I do remember Reese cornering the pretentious little prick in the back hall of the bar, but I also know he left without laying a finger on him, instead going to find Twyler. The team escorted him out.
“So you’re a better man than I am. That’s not a surprise.”
“I’m not better,” he says, his tone darker than I’ve ever heard it. “I wanted to break his fingers off one by one. The shit he said to her that night was nothing compared to what he’d already done. But what Twyler needed, what she needs,” he jerks his chin toward Nadia’s bedroom door, “is you to be with her. Not kicking some prick’s ass.”
The two options war in my chest. The urge to show Brent Reynolds what it means to mess with the woman that I love. Or to do like Reese suggests, and get back into bed with her and keep her safe.
“Fuck man,” I throw my hands in the air, “when the hell did you get so smart?”
“The day I realized what was really important.” He stands, picking up the laptop and tucking it against his side. He walks over to Twyler’s bedroom door. “These women don’t need a hothead throwing punches. We do that every time we get on the ice–it’s literally our job. But keeping calm, showing them we’re using our brains instead of our impulses. It’s fucking hard. But it’s worth it.”
He enters Twyler’s room, leaving me alone. The move is intentional. He’s letting me make the decision, because he knows that if I want to go out and chase Reynolds down, I will.
I also know that he’s right.
Unzipping my jacket, I toss it on the back of the chair before going back into Nadia’s room and climbing in her bed. Dragging her against my body, I breathe in her sweet scent. She’s warm, soft.
But most of all, she’s mine.