Chapter 16 Axel
SIXTEEN
AXEL
It had been three weeks. Three weeks since the fire, and nearly a month since Vince and I had gone to visit Doucet. There had been no new updates, but that asshole hadn’t come into the bakery either. The best part…there were no new letters.
“Did you talk to your boss about declined jobs?” Tex asked me through the phone. “I’m not trying to repeat myself, but as I mentioned last time, you know some clients can get pissed when you don’t take up their cases.”
Tex knew that scenario all too well. I didn’t think that made much sense for this case since Archer and Vince handled most of that. They weren’t getting threats, so it wasn’t likely, but I understood why Tex was asking.
“No,” I told him. “If we don’t take a case, Archer and Vince handle that personally. I am only told about something after we have already agreed to work with them, so they don’t think it’s a reason for concern.”
“Alright, man, I’ll keep digging,” Tex said, and then we said our goodbyes.
I knew this was frustrating him just as much as it was frustrating me. We both hated not being able to figure things out. It was just in our nature to keep digging until we solved a puzzle like this one.
The police had been to Doucet’s house twice now and claimed they didn’t have enough evidence to charge him with anything, especially since his alibi claimed they spent the whole night together at her house—which conveniently had no cameras.
In the meantime, I’d convinced Stella to stay with me, or let me stay with her, like I was now. I’d gotten off work an hour ago and swung by my place to shower and pack an overnight bag since I planned to stay at her place after we’d had dinner.
We’d either gone out to dinner or I’d cooked for her most nights over the past few weeks. She’d offered to cook multiple times, and I appreciated it, but she had a lot on her mind and I wanted to ease her burden however I could. We’d even gone back to her parents’ house for dinner last Sunday.
For tonight, though, she hadn’t backed down and had planned to cook for us.
“You got more cameras in there?” Milo’s voice called out as I walked from my car over to Stella’s door, carrying my black duffel bag.
Jack and Diego had installed three new cameras around her store to cover all the blind spots now, and Milo assumed that was what was in my bag.
“Just some overnight gear,” I answered, and he just nodded in response.
“Hey,” Stella’s voice called from her doorway as I walked up. I wasn’t sure if she was waiting for me or if it was just lucky timing on my part that she was there, but I would never tire of seeing that smile on her face when she greeted me.
“Hey ?lskling.” I leaned down to kiss her on the threshold before nudging her inside so I could close the door behind me.
I wasn’t sure if it was because we were still in the “honeymoon phase” as Ruthie had called it, or if it was just my natural pull to Stella, but anytime I was around her, I couldn’t keep my hands off her.
I dropped my bag on the floor of her entryway and maneuvered her up against the wall before I kissed her firmly. Her tongue slipped in, and I savored the taste of her.
Her hands instantly went to my hair, and she pulled the hair tie out and weaved her fingers through it while pulling me closer as I ravaged her mouth.
My hands were on her waist, and I slid them under the baggy sweatshirt she had on.
As I moved them up her sides, brushing against her perfectly soft skin, my thumbs brushed against the curve of her breasts, and I realized she wasn’t wearing anything under that sweatshirt.
“You’re not wearing a bra,” I growled as I moved my mouth from her plump lips to her jawline and down her neck.
“Fewer clothes means less hassle after dinner,” she said, her breathing heavy as she arched into me more.
“What about before dinner?” I suggested just as loud beeps sounded from deeper inside her place.
“Oh shoot! That’s the oven,” she exclaimed, removing her hands from my scalp, and I reluctantly pulled back.
“Hold that thought for later,” she said, smiling up at me, and then she turned to jog up her stairs.
I readjusted myself now that I was rock hard, grabbed my bag, and made sure to lock the door before I joined her upstairs.
We enjoyed a nice meal together as we caught each other up on our days.
After we finished, I carried our dishes into her kitchen to wash them while she cleaned up from cooking.
“So, I have an idea for tonight,” she said as she boxed up leftovers.
“Does your idea involve you being naked?” I asked, part teasing, part hoping I was right.
She chuckled as she closed the refrigerator and turned to me while I dried my hands.
“We haven’t really had much time lately to practice more of your English,” she said, walking up to me and wrapping her arms around my waist as I leaned my back up against her small kitchen island.
She was right. I’d scaled back on my shifts at the bar after the fire, and the two times she’d come to visit me on shift since then, she’d spent most of it filling out online forms for her insurance.
“I was thinking we could take Tammy’s suggestion about tutoring,” she explained.
My arms, which had been stretched out to my sides with my hands resting on the counter, now moved to wrap around her and pull her in even closer as I tried to recall what Tammy had said. “I don’t remember what her suggestion was.”
“She recommended we try strip poker.” Her mouth formed a sexy little grin as she looked up at me with lustful hope.
“Hmmm… I’m intrigued. How does it work?” I asked, even though I knew how strip poker was supposed to play out.
“I figure I can quiz you on some English words, and you can quiz me on some Swedish words,” she suggested.
This was definitely going to work in my favor since I knew a lot of English and she knew almost no Swedish, although she had been asking me lots of words over the past two weeks. Plus, I knew how to play dirty, and I fully intended to since it would result in her getting naked.
“Who asks first?” I was hoping it was me, but I would let her go if she wanted to.
“You have more clothes on than me, so I think I should go first.” She smiled up at me.
I took her hand in mine and pulled her into the bedroom. “I need a lot of practice since we have neglected to study.”
She giggled as we walked to her room, but the laughter was quickly replaced by a lusty sigh as we made our way to the edge of her bed.
“Ask away,” I told her.
“Hmmm…okay.” She put her pointer finger over her mouth, tilting her head as though deep in thought.
“What does it mean if I say I am ‘down bad’ for you?”
Excitement lit up inside me as my smile on my face grew to match the Grinch’s evil plotting smile. The perk of working with Ruthie was she taught me all sorts of phrases, and this was one of them.
“It means you want me and my body really badly or you will die.” I knew I was exaggerating with that response, but I didn’t care.
She laughed, which was my goal, before smiling and removing her sweatshirt slowly—too slowly.
Her beautiful breasts were on display in front of me—taunting me—just out of reach. I moved to rectify that, but she swatted my hand away.
“Nope. No touching yet. Your turn to ask.”
No touching yet? Yep, I was definitely going to play dirty and speed this up.
“Okay.” I paused. “What does fuck, vad sexig du ?r mean?”
“I heard fuck in there, but I don’t know what the rest means,” she replied, and I’d known she wouldn’t.
“I said, fuck, you are so sexy.”
I watched as her eyes widened in arousal, and I moved closer. “I win, but I am a gentleman so I will help you out of your only other piece of clothing left.”
She laughed but didn’t fight me as I put my hands on her waist and moved to slide her leggings off. Part of me wanted to move slowly and take my time, but I was still worked up from when I had first arrived, so now was not the time for slow.
I had to have her. I couldn’t wait. My control was shredded.
I kneeled to help her step out of her tight pants and then worked my hands back up her legs. When I got to her thighs, my hands circled around to the backs, and I lifted her up and carried her to the bed, placing her down on her back.
“What does apodyopsis mean?” she asked, her voice hitching as I feasted my way over her body, kissing, nibbling, and licking my way up her delicate skin, which was only covered in the small scrap of black fabric of her underwear.
“It’s when someone mentally undresses you with their eyes or imagines you without clothes on.
I’m doing that right now because you have too many clothes on. ”
I grinned naughtily at her.
“You need to catch up,” she said, trying to lift my shirt off while I hovered my mouth over her belly.
I caught up in record time, removing all my clothes in the same time it took her to wiggle out of her underwear.
I moved her legs open and positioned myself between them, looking down at the beautiful sight before me.
“Fuc,k vad sexig du ?r,” I repeated, and she giggled beneath me.
“I know what that means now, but you don’t have any more clothes to take off.” Her mouth formed a small pout that I knew I needed to kiss.
“I’ll reward you in another way,” I told her before crashing my mouth down on hers, craving her kiss as I slid inside her.
Her hands roamed over my arms, shoulders, and neck as I kissed her like a starving man, desperate for the taste of her.
I started with slow and methodical strokes, but just like with all the other times, once I was inside her, my body needed fast. It wasn’t frantic, but I pushed in and out of her in swift, long strides, relishing how good she felt wrapped around me.
She was plush in all the right places, and the noises she made triggered a possessiveness in me I had never felt before. I wanted to be the one to bring her pleasure. To bring her joy and satisfaction.
Her moans joined mine as her pussy tightened around me and pulses of ecstasy reverberated through my body.
I wasn’t sure if I had ever felt anything as good as being inside Stella. I realized there likely wasn’t ever going to be anyone who could top that feeling. She was it for me. My person.
I wasn’t some twenty-year-old lovesick guy.
I was in my forties and had dated enough women to know when I found the right one.
For me, it was the fact that when I pictured doing something in the future—a vacation, celebrating the holidays, whatever—I now always pictured her being a part of it.
I hadn’t done that with any other woman.
Stella was it for me, and I planned to keep her as long as she’d let me.