Chapter 74
CHAPTER SEVENTY-FOUR
After Axel leaves, I wash my hair thoroughly, thinking about all that has happened. For a minute, I thought Axel was going to get in the shower with me, and that thought had me more turned on than I wanted.
No. I’m with Gage. This is so wrong of me.
I wash off quickly, stepping into the steamy room. As I do, there’s a shape against the doorway.
I jump. It’s Axel. Or is it Gage? No, it’s Axel. He’s fully clothed in the same outfit he watched me fuck his brother in.
“Fuck! I thought you left.” My cheeks burn, and I grab for a towel.
“Would it change anything if you knew I killed your ex?”
“What?” I start to dry off, then Axel’s words register. I blink, looking up. “What?”
“Would it change anything,” Axel raises an eyebrow, face deadpan, “if you knew I took a bat to Max’s head last night?”
I’m stuck, staring at him. There’s no way he’s serious… right?
He looks fucking serious. A multitude of emotions rush through me. Axel killed someone? Killed Max?
No way. No fucking way?
Axel’s expression doesn’t change. He doesn’t say, ‘gotcha’ or ‘kidding.’ Just stares at me.
I laugh. And as I laugh, Axel just stares, which makes me laugh harder.
“That’s what I thought.” Axel turns away.
“Wait.” I take a step towards him, then stop.
This man says he killed someone. He’s dangerous.
That thought makes a forbidden thrill rush through me.
If what he’s saying isn’t a joke, it wasn’t just someone.
It was Max. Fear, shock, and disbelief roll through me, but there’s something else. It almost feels like… relief.
“A bat?” I ask.
Axel looks at me like he wasn’t expecting that response.
“My bat?” I ask.
“Yes.” There’s the tiniest eyebrow raise.
“Oh my god.” I’m trying to process the information. Max. Max is dead? He used my bat? A feeling of rightness fills me.
Axel turns to leave again, and I grab his arm this time. “Don’t go.”
Axel stares at me, his gaze conflicted. His eyes dance between mine, then drop down to my lips. He licks his. “Don’t make me say it.”
My heart is racing. “Say what?”
Axel steps into me. Just a tiny step, and I find myself sucking in a breath, heat rushing over me. Axel is hot, just like his brother, but it’s more than that. He’s an asshole. But I’ve seen under that mask. And now… he killed Max? For me? To… protect me?
I’m fucked, but among the conflicting emotions that brings me, it also makes me want to kiss him.
Axel takes another step, brushing my chest.
“What about Gage?” I ask breathlessly.
“Who do you think sent me in here?”
I’ve become a broken record of ‘no way.’ I’ve seen the way they bicker. No way Gage wants to just… share.
Then I remember the change in Gage. How the brothers seemed more at peace with each other.
Axel’s gaze is locked on me, and his entire body is tense. “I’m not a gentle person, Raven. I can’t be. I–” His voice locks up, then the mask falls back over his face. “That’s Gage. It’s not me.”
My heart is racing. This is crazy. Is this happening? Could I have both of them? What about my plan to run?
While I’m frozen, Axel drops his gaze and then turns back to the door. Oh my god. He’s going to leave, and this chance will be over. Axel is like me, and he’ll never offer twice.
“Wait,” I croak. “Wait.”
Axel freezes.
“I’m not gentle either.” I clear my throat.
In a terrifying moment, I think Axel’s going to walk away. But finally, slowly, he turns back around. His gaze is shrewd.
I narrow my eyes. I’m a little unstable but not gentle.
Axel takes a tiny step toward me like he’s stalking me. Tracking every move I make.
“So you don’t want me to lay you down and make sweet, sweet love to you?” His gaze never leaves me.
The idea makes me scared.
Axel must see something he likes ‘cause his eyes light up. “Do you want me to make you scared, Raven?”
A delicious fear rolls through me, and I realize that I do want that. I must be certifiably insane. This man kidnapped me and says he killed my ex. And I want to let him make me scared?
But he also never once hurt me. He hasn’t touched me against my will. He even kind of protected me.
It makes my heart race.
Axel takes another step closer. “That first time when you said you fucked Gage in the shower? Truth or lie.”
I swallow and take a step back.
Axel cocks his head, talking slowly. “Truth? Or lie?”
“Lie.” My back hits the shower door.
A slow grin creeps over Axel’s face. “Good girl.” Then, he pounces on me. His hard body slams into mine, and then his mouth is on my neck, biting so hard that pain explodes.
Fear also explodes. Deep, bone-gripping fear. Axel is all over me. He’s stronger than I am, and I couldn’t stop him if I wanted to. I shove back against him, only to realize I can barely move my arms.
Axel pushes into me again, slamming my body into the shower door. I tense, but there’s something soft behind my head. His hand.
My chest heaves.
Not safe. Not safe.
Then Axel stops. His whole body pressed against mine, frozen. All I can do is heave in breaths while my chest feels tight. No. I wanted to enjoy this. Why the hell can’t I enjoy this?
Then, Axel moves. I stiffen even more, but then he’s pressing something into my hand. It’s hard. He pulls away from me just enough so I can look at what it is.
A knife.
My knife. The one I pulled on him back in the library. And the blade is open.
“Breathe,” Axel’s voice is soft.
He just gave me a knife. I could stab him with it.
“I’ve had passionate, nail-dragging shower sex on my mind ever since you talked about it with Gage. And seeing as you’re already wet…” He ducks his head down, shoving the towel aside and nipping at my breast. I gasp, but his tongue is there soothing the sting.
He says nothing about the knife. Then, he yanks me toward him, and the shower door opens, and he lifts me inside.
“Axel–”
Then the water’s on, and I gasp as the spray turns cold. “Axel!”
“I love it when you say my name.” His head is in my neck, biting along the underside of my jaw.
The water gets warm quickly, and soon, I’m melting into his touch.
It’s rough and aggressive and so fucking needy.
For a second, I worry that he won’t stop if I ask him to.
But the hardness of the knife in my grip soothes me.
And with that, I realize I don’t want him to stop. I’m choosing this. I fucking want this.
I grab Axel’s torso with my free hand, yanking him back into me. “Your clothes,” I gasp.
He grins, and instead of pulling his shirt off, rips the soggy thing off with a loud tear. His glasses clatter to the shower floor.
Then I can see the water dripping down his sculpted torso, and it makes my mouth water. Shimmying out of the pants takes a little longer, and as soon as they’re around his ankles, he snaps a hand out, grabbing my neck and pinning me to the shower wall.
“See something you like, little bird?”
His grip makes me cough, but I grin. The power behind his grip should be terrifying. It is.
“Know why I call you that?” He’s on me, rubbing his hard dick against my pussy.
“Condom,” I gasp, dragging my fingers down his shoulders.
Axel laughs, and it’s a cruel sound. “Oh, but you didn’t say please.”
His grip doesn’t ease, and I have to cough out the word. Then he’s ducking down for an instant, and the pressure is gone.
I suck in a breath.
“It’s not because of your name.” Axel rips into a packet that he must have pulled from his pocket.
I narrow my gaze at him, and he makes a show of rolling the condom onto his throbbing length.
“It's ‘cause you remind me of Poe. With your pretty broken wings. And your ability to claw my soul straight from my body.” Then Axel’s on me again, this time lifting me up under my arms.
I squeal, kicking my feet, but then he’s there, pressing between my legs. He slows when he lines his dick up with my entrance, gaze meeting mine. His glasses are gone, and his pale eyes are blinking away the water. I tremble.
“Ready, little bird?”
I sneer at him, and then he’s shoving into me, stuffing me so full I gasp. It doesn’t hurt, the fucking from earlier readying me. But it’s sudden, and it’s full. I wrap my arms and legs around him to gain some stability, careful not to cut either of us.
“That’s a good girl. Cut me with those pretty little nails.” Then Axel pounds into me, groaning. “Make me bleed, vicious little thing.”
“Are you telling me what to do?” The stimulation of Axel’s dick quickly brings me right back to the arousal I had just an hour ago.
Axel grunts, “Be a good girl and hurt me.”
So I do. I rake the nails of my free hand down his back, which just results in him shuddering and pressing in closer to me. He grinds his pelvis into me, rubbing on my clit in the process and making me gasp.
“Harder,” Axel groans.
At first, I hesitate. Then, I dig my nails into him so hard there’s no way I’m not ripping his skin open. I feel the way he locks up in pleasure, and it makes a rush of pleasure fill me. Oh god, I want to see him bleed. For me.
“Vicious,” he pounds into me, “little thing.”
Then he’s slipping his hand between us, fingers pressing down to find my clit. I’m already so stimulated that when he brushes it, I tighten my legs around him.
“Ah, gonna come already? Couldn’t take it?” Axel’s voice is mocking. In response, I wrap tighter around him, bouncing on his dick. The movement just builds up my own orgasm, though.
Axel laughs. “Poor little Raven. Couldn’t handle five minutes with this dick before she needs to cream all over it.”
Tracing my hands up, I fist them in his hair and yank his head back, exposing his neck to me.
Then, I take the knife and put it to his throat.
Not close enough to touch it because I’m afraid I’ll actually cut him, but close enough to see if I can get his eyes to hood.
To see if he’ll submit to me. I say, “You like to run your mouth.”
Axel laughs into the spray, then turns his head to the side.
I yank it back. “What. Having a hard time breathing?”
Axel’s smiling wider than I’ve seen him smile before. It’s a crazy smile, and I know he has to be getting water in his mouth.
I hold him there till his body jerks, and then I let him go. Immediately, he drops his head to my face, and suddenly, a warm wash of water floods my mouth. I hack, but Axel chases me, warm lips sealing against mine. I breathe through my nose, then bite Axel’s lip. Hard.
He yanks away, hissing.
I grin at him.
“Fuck,” Axel licks his lip. “You’re the hottest thing I’ve ever touched.” Then he’s pumping into me again. Harder, but he keeps his hand on my clit, rolling and pinching and pulling. He’s good at it, working me up into a frenzy despite my trying not to come.
But finally, I can’t hold it back anymore, and I come.
I explode all over his dick, pulsing in rhythmic ecstasy.
The feeling rushes through my body as Axel laughs into my neck, muttering mocking things.
Then he works me up again and again and again.
Finally, he comes too, burying himself in my pussy and pinning me to the shower wall.
He bites my neck and kisses it. He kisses all up my neck, then back down.
While I’m coming down, he pulls out of me, washing me off, turning the water off, and wrapping me in a towel.
After both sessions, it’s all I can do but lean into him, relying on him to keep me up.
Carefully, I put the knife on the counter so I don’t cut either of us.
Axel holds me, carefully guiding me out of the shower and to the bedroom.
He hesitates when he lays me down on the bed, then lifts my hand to his mouth. I think he’s going to kiss me, but he just opens his mouth and gently nips at my fingers. Then, he leaves the room.