Axton (Creed’s Lake MC #3)

Chapter Twenty-One

Belle

I was laughing as we played air hockey. It wasn’t a complicated game to learn, and I thought I was better at it than he expected. I whaled out in laughter when I saw his face as my puck disappeared into the machine. I couldn’t ever remember having so much fun.

“If you think that’s funny, then watch this!” He tried to make a move and missed, which had me doubling over in laughter.

We ended the game, and he asked about music. I didn’t know much about it, so he turned on his stereo and it came in through speakers located around the room. “It’s called surround sound.” He said.

I liked what I heard, it was upbeat, and nice. All I knew was hymns, but the song I was hearing spoke about friends and sharing laughs with drinks. I was never around alcohol because papa said it would defile my body and soul, and would lead to sin, that it may have even been a sin itself. It didn’t bother me that Michael was getting himself a beer as I listened closely to the music playing around me. He offered me a drink, but I declined.

“Do you like it? Its country music. It’s really all they played back home.” He asked as he set his beer on the bar.

“Yeah, it’s nice. The singer is speaking of friends and making memories.” I did like it, actually I liked it a lot.

“You’ll have fun at the first annual New Years Eve party. It’s being thrown by Creed and Morgan and there will be dancing.” He was looking down at his beer.

“I’ve never danced, not the way I saw in those movies.” It felt awkward, although it shouldn’t have, since I already did awkward things around him, and he didn’t seem to judge.

He shrugged. “There’s different kinds people do. I’m not much for it myself, but you might like it.”

I nodded. “I know, there’s formal dance, tap dancing, and some sort of free dance it seems.”

A new song came on and I smiled when I heard the man’s voice. “This sounds nice.” I was still standing at the air hockey table and spinned it.

“Yeah, he’s a new guy, pretty young I think. This is a newer kind of country music, and I like it better than what was coming out a few years ago. It’s kind of raspy like you may have heard in some more alternative music of the nineties.”

I shook my head. “I wouldn’t know what that is, I don’t think.”

He stepped closer. “It’s not the kind that you would free dance or maybe fast dance, but you could have a slow dance.” He stopped in front of me and held out his hand. “May I have this dance?

“I don’t know how to dance.” I wasn’t so sure about it.

He gave me the most adorable smile and wink, which sped up my heart and I knew I blushed. “Let me show you.” He took my hand then drew me in closer. “Put this hand on my shoulder and I’ll place mine on the small of your back.” He did and it gave me a chill up my spine. He took my other hand and pulled it up as he held on to it. “Follow my lead.”

He moved to the right, and I stepped with him, then took a step forward and I took a step back. We moved in a triangle as he looked down at me. “See, it’s simple, and it’s not unusual for more than one man to ask for a dance. Women can dance with any man they choose to accept one from. It’s not a sin, it's not normally sexual unless that’s the relationship you share with a man, and with the right person it’s kind of nice.”

I couldn’t take my eyes off his as he spoke. I had never felt as safe as being with him, but at the same time I felt that strange desire I always used to hide from.

“Sometimes, a man who wants to be romantic will spin you, like this.” He took both my hands in his and stepped back before he let go of one and lifted our hands so I could turn, but he had me spin into his arms and he was suddenly behind me. His front was behind me, so very close, and we once again took steps together. I felt his lips against my ear and shivered. “I like you, Belle.” He whispered.

My lips parted as he continued to move our bodies in sync together. “I like you, too.” I breathed out. I had some fears that he would think I was acting on my papa’s prophecies, but that wasn’t the reason I felt so drawn to Michael. It was the automatic trust, the pull I felt toward him, his smile, his soft voice, the way he could make my heart race and make me feel so alive, but at the same time his arms gave me comfort. All our matching birthmarks were to me was confirmation that told me it was okay to trust him, to accept his guidance and understand that he felt it too. It was a prophecy, and I may not have believed it if the way I felt when he was near didn’t exist. I was questioning too many things about papa for me to base anything on what he said, but I struggled not to believe his prophecy. Not because of his birthmark, but definitely because of the way I felt around him. The longer he held me that way, the more I felt that desire. I was aware of every inch of my body when he was holding me. I counted my more rapid breaths, noticed my chest rise and fall, my heart felt a rush of adrenaline and I was aware of every heartbeat. My skin reacted to his touch, it was like an electric charge that left behind a fire like heat. There was an almost uncontrollable need that I couldn’t satisfy between my legs. It pulsated as it screamed at me to get closer to Michael. I needed him to stimulate me, and make the unbearable need go away. It was screaming and fighting for me to beg Michael to touch every inch of me.

He let go of one hand then pulled the other away with mine in it, which spun me out and pulled me in so we could once again face one another. He kissed my forehead just before I laid my head against his chest and closed my eyes. I wanted to memorize everything about that dance. From the song, his touch, his scent, and the small kisses he would press to my head every now and again. I imagined how it would feel for those hands to cup my face and those lips to give me the softest kiss that ever existed. I remembered his voice praying over me, the first time I saw him in my room with that towel around his waist, laughing with him while watching the television, and the concern in his eyes when I was scared. I could see it in his eyes, he wanted to take all of my fears and rip them away from me. He had a huge influence over me, the man could tell me all pigs could fly, and I would believe him.

I pulled my head back and looked up at him. He flashed the cutest half smile down at me as we continued to dance, and I realized dancing with Michael was my new favorite thing. He rested his forehead against mine and I shut my eyes, once again taking all of him in and melting into his arms. My papa’s prophecies all came true, but I always wondered if he made them come true. He twisted things to make it seem like he was having a prophecy, but with Michael. No, he couldn’t have arranged that big of a coincidence. One song after another played, and I could have stayed in his arms that way for an eternity.

Axton

I lost track of time as I held her in my arms. She was dangerously taking me back in time and I was running straight toward something that scared me more than any mission. Why wasn’t there any alarms going off in my head to warn me of the dangers ahead? All I felt was total peace in those moments. Natalie never existed, my father didn’t almost kill me, I never found my best friend dead, never lost a friend on a mission, and my soul was never tainted. My body, mind, and soul felt new, and I was truly safe for the first time in my life. Then I had a need that came rushing at me. A needed to tell her how I was feeling, but it was too confusing. It was like I needed her to know how much I wanted her, and she was stirring things up inside me. She was making me want my old dreams again. To live more for happiness than success. All a sudden I had a renewed dream to learn how to pilot a plane, along with everything else I gave up on when I found Natalie the way I did. Every lie I spoke to the police and her family was catching up to me, but with Belle near, they faded away. I was so lost in her during those moments that I didn’t yet question my sanity.

My need to kiss her became too overwhelming. I had to hold it back because I wasn’t sure I could stop once I finally had her lips on mine. The thought of brushing my tongue against hers, only overwhelmed me more. How would she taste? Would letting her in cleanse my soul? Why did it feel like the satisfaction I was so restless to find would be found inside the delicate young woman in my arms?

“We should probably turn in for the night.” I suggested then kissed her cheek. Although my attraction to Belle was insane, I needed more from her than what a physical act could provide. Maybe what I spent my life searching for couldn’t be found in sex. Maybe it was one of the many things Natalie stole from me, and I lost track of myself and who I once was as a young man. The values I tried so hard to teach Kayla were stolen from me by my best friend.

We went upstairs and I made sure there were no lights on in the house to disturb her, then let her know I would leave my door open so I could hear her if she needed me.

When I made it to my room, it was late, and I would have been lucky to get a few hours’ sleep. I laid in bed and stared up at the ceiling. I liked her, damn I liked her. I was never the kind that asked many women to dance, I only did it when it was expected, or I wanted to get laid. With Belle, I savored every moment she was in my arms, and it felt like I connected with someone like I never had before in my life.

My mom taught me to dance, way back before my dad went to prison. Then once she started to drink too much she would sometimes wake me up at night to talk. She would tell me stories about how she met my dad. Religion was a big part of her life growing up, and her parents, who owned a furniture store, collaborated with the church to start a food drive for people that lived in impoverished areas of the state. My mom was with them when they delivered it, and they made a day of delivering the food to the very mountainside I hated. That was where my grandmother met my dad’s mom. To make a long story short, both of my grandmothers became friends. Mom’s mom wanted to help my dad’s mom rise from poverty and in the end, dad’s mom swindled a lot of money and free furniture from mom’s parents. My parents met on one of the many visits where my grandma truly believed she was helping a friend. On my mom’s eighteenth birthday my parents eloped without telling anyone. Six months later, I was born.

Drunk mom liked to torment me, while sober mom was always begging for forgiveness. When she would get drunk alone while at home, she would tell me how I took the love of her life away. The woman blamed me, the eight year old child who was critically injured by her husband, for her husband going to prison. Sometimes she would get angry and start tearing up the house if she could see through my lies and sense that I was happy dad was gone. When she wasn’t an angry drunk, she was a sloppy drunk that would wake me up in the middle of the night and make me hold her while she cried. She would turn music on, make me dance with her, and pretend I was my dad holding her. She was never sexually inappropriate, it was never that way, she just made me hold her so she could pretend I was the eighteen year old version of my father, and not the abusive drunk that abused us.

I was still staring up at the ceiling when I thought about Belle and her father. Our damn birthmarks, I didn’t know the prophecy when I first reacted to Belle. It wasn’t something that made me a believer, but it was something that made me question the sincerity of our attraction. She said several times that it wasn’t at all about the birthmark, that all the birthmark did was help her understand that she could trust me, but that didn’t sit well with me. What if the only good his supposed prophecy did was fool her into believing I was the man she was told about her entire life? I had known her for a matter of days. It wasn’t love at first sight, and it still wasn’t love. It was a deep attraction and interest that I hadn’t ever experienced. I could see how that attraction and interest could be a small seed that could grow into something more with time. I cared for her, about as well as a man could for only knowing her for a few days, that much could be admitted, but it was like the most insanely intense fascination a man could have with a woman. Jesus, she was eight years younger than me. Should I have even been referring to her as a woman and not a girl? Was that weird? It was all weird and foreign to me.

When she was near me, it felt right. Like I was finally on the right path, but when I was away from her none of it sat well with me at all. I questioned everything. Was she fooled into trusting me because of a crazy old man? Was it all the old stuff from back on that mountainside fucking with my head?

The only thing that was clear to me was how fucking stupid I was for the last fourteen years. I allowed the last words of a seventeen year old girl to make me do something that wasn’t just stupid, but dangerous. It wasn’t dangerous for me, but it was for others, and that needed to be corrected. It was time to face my past and do exactly what Natalie did to me. I had to betray her, because if I didn’t, I was allowing her to ruin my future. Not just my future, but the future of innocent people. Because of my loyalty to Natalie, there were probably other people that were hurting even more than me. That was one reason why I never let a woman that reminded me of Natalie close to me. I put my loyalty to her first instead of doing what was right. Fuck, Jesus, why didn’t I see it? She was why I didn’t want a damn thing to do with the DV cases. I didn’t feel like I was the person those people needed.

I was still awake when I heard she shuffling of light feet against the hardwood floor. It was dark and I’m not even sure how she could see, but I felt the smile on my face as she gently crawled into my bed then curled into me. I had to hold back a laugh when I heard a tiny sigh then a yawn. I was laying on my back, so her head was on my shoulder as I felt it grow heavier, and her breaths evened out. I didn’t think I ever witnessed something more adorable. I pulled the covers up and wrapped my arm around her to pull her body a little closer then fell right to sleep.

Neither one of us moved for the few hours we slept. I forgot to set my alarm, but I woke on my own. I squeezed her body a little tighter and kissed the top of her head. I heard a faint giggle and had to chuckle.

“I was supposed to sneak out before you woke and noticed me.”

I kissed the top of her head. “Stay.”

“I’m sorry.” She whimpered.

I chuckled. “Don’t be sorry. I like that you feel safe with me, but with time you’ll realize exactly how safe you are at Creed’s Lake.” Why did I not want her to figure that out though?

“You don’t sleep in pajamas.” She whispered and I chuckled again.

“Nope, just my underwear. I don’t think I’ve ever owned pajamas. Sweatpants yes, but not pajamas.” I liked how her hand felt on my bare chest and how relaxed she felt in my arms.

“I better go before Koty finds me here.” She tried lifting off me, but I gripped on to her and made her stay.

“Just stay for another few minutes.” Damn her body felt good laying up against mine. Her one leg was between my legs, and we were curled up together. “I like the way you feel.” I gently ran my fingers up and down her back, and I thought I heard a tiny little moan like maybe it felt good to her.

“I thought you might be mad because I think I’m clinging on to you. That’s not normal, is it?” She asked.

“I guess that depends on your intentions and your sincerity.” I let a little bit of insecurity come to the surface.

“All I know is that you make me smile, laugh, want to try new things, trust you, and I’m safe with you. I’ve never been this close to a man and it’s like instinct with you.”

I felt like she was honest, but I just needed to hear her say it again. “It has nothing to do with my birthmark?”

She laughed at me. “Not unless your birthmark is magical and can communicate with me while I’m waking up from a medically induced coma.”

I laughed. “Are you making a joke?” I flipped her around and started tickling her. Holy shit it felt good to laugh, and let everything else go.

“I…tried.” She was laughing too hard to answer me.

“What is going on in here?” I paused and looked down at Belle and we both burst out laughing when we heard Koty’s voice. He sounded pissed but it was like an angry mouse.

“Nothing is happening.” I answered and winked down at Belle. “Your sister just thinks she’s a comedian.”

Koty gasped. “The birthmark.”