Chapter 42
Chapter Forty-Two
Axel
New York hasn’t changed, really. Not that I was expecting it to.
It’s one of those places that seems eternal, as though this cluster of tightly packed buildings will always be here, always has been.
Sure, there’s a new restaurant around the corner and the local bodega has had a makeover.
But it’s still the same grimy, noisy streets, laced with the smell of the sea.
After Jade left the island I spent a week in my house, disappearing into my own pain.
Then Mish showed up, full of apologies. I stopped her before she could go any further.
I was the one who didn’t believe Jade. Who should have trusted her and had her back, despite what Mish had told me.
I understood why she misunderstood, though.
Why she was so quick to anger, to believing the worst in people.
Families can be difficult. The way we grow up shapes us and can create cracks that we paper over, rather than addressing why we’re broken in the first place.
Mish and I both carry our own damage, and I allowed mine to turn me against the one person who made me feel safe.
I don’t know that I’ll ever forgive myself for that.
So I told Mish that she didn’t need to apologise to me.
That we both screwed up. Then I offered to help her, the way she’s been asking me to since I came to the island.
We don’t get to choose our birth family, but we can choose the family we find along the way.
And maybe I do have space for another sister in my life.
I’m staying in a hotel near to my parents’ place, with Mish in her own room.
She’s here, not just to help me make things up to Jade, but also because she’s keen to reconnect with her father, if she can find him, or at least explore her American roots.
I should have been there for her more, I realise, a lost kid just like me.
It doesn’t excuse her bad behaviour, but it goes a way towards explaining it. I get it. Like I say, family is tough.
It took a lot for me to walk through the lobby of my parents’ building, nodding to the doorman, pressing the familiar elevator button taking me up to their penthouse.
Everything smelled the same, like flowers and money.
The elevator doors opened onto the same gleaming hallway, the long, polished table with its huge floral display where it always was, the mirrors reflecting the same thing they have for years.
But I’m different.
Otherwise, I would never have come back here. I’d have stayed hidden on my island, punishing myself forever for something that wasn’t my fault.
I shouldn’t have left Susie in the water. But we weren’t the only surfers out there that day. I had no way of knowing the storm would blow up, or that she’d get stuck out there. I tried to save her, just like I did Jade. What happened afterwards was nobody’s fault. Simply a tragic accident.
At least I succeeded with Jade. It was the least I could do, after she saved me. And it took me losing her to realise that there was nothing I could have done for Susie that day. That some things are simply beyond our control.
And now I’m here to try to make things right.
When I heard about the foundation event, I contacted my parents.
Said I was planning on attending, and would they be going as well.
My mother was so happy to hear from me she insisted on buying an entire table’s worth of tickets, as well as making a sizeable donation.
My father might take more time; he’s never liked losing.
But he’s here tonight, nonetheless, shaking hands with Myles, acting like the big man he can be. There are other islands, other places for him to build his hotels. He’ll get over it.
I doubt I’ll ever get over losing Jade.
It was a gamble, coming here tonight. I came because I believe in what Myles is doing, and want to support him.
But I also hoped Jade would be here. I don’t know where she went after she left me; she disappeared from her social media, apart from sponsored posts.
But this… I know how much this means to her.
My gamble paid off. And now she’s just a few feet from me.
Actually seeing her, in the flesh, has blown whatever I might have planned to say completely out of my mind.
I wouldn’t blame her if she told me to get lost, if she refused to speak to me.
I try to gather my thoughts, drinking her in, the smooth blonde hair pulled back from her beautiful face, her bare golden back.
For a few more moments I can pretend she’s still mine, her body mine to touch, her lips mine to kiss.
I swallow as Mish goes up to her, as she turns, frowning, storms gathering in those green eyes. Then her gaze comes to me.
Lightning strikes.
Or something like that. God, I knew she was beautiful, but seeing her again is as powerful as the first time. I can’t move, can’t speak, my heart racing.
She comes towards me, like a shimmering goddess striding through the crowd. I brace myself for whatever she might unleash. But I’m not prepared for her to walk straight into my embrace, pressing her lips against mine, her fingers in my hair.
I groan with relief, wrapping my arms around her, returning her kiss, remembering just in time that we need to keep it PG. I pull back, my hands either side of her face.
She’s crying, tears rolling down her cheeks. I kiss them away, one by one, and I swear there’s no one in the room but us.
“Axel,” she breathes, her frangipani scent intoxicating.
“Jade.” Saying her name feels like coming home.
“Shall we get the hell out of here?”
Jade
The hotel is a few blocks away. Axel, his warm hand wrapped around mine, pulls me through the elegant black and gold lobby towards the elevators, my heels clicking on the polished floor.
It’s the kind of hotel that screams luxury, small and intimate.
I wouldn’t have cared if it sold rooms by the hour.
All I know is that Axel is here, his lips on mine, and as the elevator takes us up, his hand inside the neckline of my dress.
God. The pull between us is as strong as ever.
When the elevator doors open, I stagger, slightly, as he drags me along the hallway towards his room, tapping the key card and opening the door, his jacket already half-off.
I pause, pulling my dress straps from my shoulders as the door closes behind me, letting it drop to the floor in a puddle of silk.
Axel’s gaze darkens as he takes in my sheer thong, the only thing I wore underneath it. I go to step out of my heels.
“Leave them on,” he growls, prowling towards me. His shirt is unbuttoned, revealing his muscular chest, his erection straining against his trousers. He pauses, a hand’s breadth from me. “Jade, I—”
“Talk later,” I breathe, almost squirming with desire.
I close the gap between us and his mouth descends on mine as he presses my back to the wall, his hands pulling at my thong.
I step out of it, reaching between us to unzip his trousers, releasing his cock into my hand, pumping it as he grinds against me.
Then I wrap my leg around his hips, opening myself to him.
“I missed you,” I gasp, as his cockhead teases my entrance, as I adjust myself so he slides inside me.
He groans, his hands cupping my hips, lifting me to him.
“So.” He thrusts. “Fucking.” Another thrust. My head goes back. “Much.”