47. CHAPTER 42
AXL
Priest and I don’t talk on the ride back. I don’t give a shit what her father said. Even if the fucking Council thinks they’ll keep me from making her my wife, they’re dead wrong.
And I’m pissed that I don’t have any answers to explain why Saylor is having these nightmares. I could be wrong, but every one of my instincts tells me that something happened to her.
The suite is dim when I walk in and the TV is off. There’s a blanket bunched on the couch and Kynlee’s gone. I saw them watching movies together when I checked in on my heathen earlier. I can hear the shower running behind the bathroom door.
I strip as I walk, kicking off my shoes and tossing my clothes to the floor. My knuckles are still bloodied from David’s face, and the skin pulls when I flex my hands.
Once I enter the bathroom, steam fills the room and fogs the shower door. I can make out Saylor standing under the water with her back to me. Her hands are flat against the tile, and her head is down.
I pull down my jeans and boxer briefs and kick them aside. I step in behind her. There are two shower heads and two body sprayers in my shower. They’re all on, and the water is so hot it burns my skin. Her skin is flushed red from how long she’s been standing in it.
“Baby, this is too hot.” I reach forward and turn on some of the cold water to make the temperature more tolerable.
She doesn’t react to the temperature change or to me being in the shower. She hasn’t moved.
I put my hand on her shoulder, and she flinches so hard she stumbles forward into the tile.
My girl has never flinched from me. Not once. Not when I’ve pinned her down or put my hand around her throat. Not when I’ve tattooed her body or made her crawl to me.
“Saylor.” I keep my voice low. “Hey, look at me.”
She turns around, and her eyes are red. She’s been crying. I can tell even with the water running over her face because her lips are swollen and her chin is trembling.
“What the fuck happened?”
She doesn’t answer me. She grabs my face with both hands and pulls my mouth down to hers. The kiss is hard and desperate. Her fingers are digging into my jaw, and she’s pressing her body against mine so tight I can feel her rapid heartbeat against my chest.
I kiss her back, because I’ll always kiss my girl. But something is off. Her hands are shaking, and she’s kissing me like I’m giving her the air she needs to breathe. That’s what being with her does for me. If something happened to her, I wouldn’t exist.
I pull back just enough to look at her. “Use your words, baby. What happened?”
“Nothing.” She says it too fast. Her hands slide from my jaw to my neck, and she pulls me back down. “I just need you. It’s the nightmares. Please, Axl.”
Fuck. I see red all over again because I don’t know what is causing this terror for her.
I’m tempted to talk to Dane about some time away.
I’ll take Saylor to some beach somewhere and see if the nightmares go away once she’s out of the bullshit of our world.
And if they stopped, I’d never bring her back.
“Fuck me, Axl.” She says it against my lips. “Be my fucking king.”
I growl and push her back against the tile. She wraps her arms around my neck and holds on tight. I reach down and grip her thighs, pulling her up so she can wrap her legs around my waist.
I lower her onto my already hard dick, and she buries her face in my neck. Her arms tighten around me, and she doesn’t let go. “Yours.” She whispers it into my wet skin. “I’m yours.”
“Fucking right, good girl.” I fuck her slow against the tile, because something in my chest is telling me she needs me to hold her just as much as she needs to be fucked.
Her fingers grip the back of my neck, and her thighs tighten around my waist. Every sound she makes is muffled against my throat. “I’ve got you, little heathen.”
I keep fucking her against the shower wall and turn my head so I can kiss her.
She kisses me back hard, sucking my tongue into her mouth. Her hand fists in my wet hair and she pulls, making me groan. Fuck, I can’t get enough of this girl.
I grip her thighs tighter and fuck her harder. The water is running over both of us, and she moans into my mouth. Her cunt squeezes my cock, and I can feel her getting close.
“Come for me, baby.” I press my forehead against hers. “I feel that cunt tightening. That’s a good girl.”
She comes with her mouth open against mine. Her whole body shakes, and her nails dig into the back of my neck hard enough to draw blood. I don’t give a fuck. She can mark my body the way I mark hers. I hold her through it while her thighs clamp around my waist. She gasps my name.
I bury myself as deep as I can and hold her against the wall while I come inside her. I grip the back of her head, and I press my mouth against her temple and stay there.
She doesn’t let go. Her arms are locked around my neck, and her breath is erratic on my skin.
“I’ve got you.” I say it again because it’s the truth. I will sit up every night and watch her. I didn’t sleep last night, and I won’t tonight. Fuck my assignments and fuck everything else if that’s what she needs. “I’m right fucking here.”
I turn the water off and carry her out of the shower. She doesn’t unwrap herself from me. I grab a towel off the rack and carry her into our room. I sit on the edge of the bed with her in my lap, pulling the towel around her shoulders.
Her face is still pressed into my neck. She’s trying to catch her breath.
I tilt her chin up, forcing her to look at me. Her eyes are dry now, but her jaw is tight and there’s a sadness there that I haven’t seen before. My girl isn’t hard to read. When she’s pissed, she shows it. When she’s turned on, I can see it across the room. But this is different.
“Saylor, I’m going to need you to tell me what the fuck is going on.”
“I told you. It’s just a nightmare.” She puts her hand on my chest, and her fingers trace the edge of one of my tattoos. She won’t look me in the eyes again. “They’re getting worse. And I just need you.”
She’s hiding something. I don’t believe that’s all it is, but I also know my girl well enough to know that I’m going to have to work it out of her.
I pull her tighter against my chest and press my lips to the top of her head. She curls into me, and she sniffs. “Do you have to work tonight? Can you stay here with me? I don’t want to be alone.”
That’s not even a question in my mind. I don’t have to think about it. There’s nothing more important in the world to me than the woman in my arms.
I’d never leave her like this. I fucking love her.
I’ve never said it to her, because it doesn’t even seem like a strong enough word for what Saylor Reign Carter is to me.
It didn’t matter to me which side of the line between obsession and love I was on, but she fucking changed me the first time I saw her.
I’ve been chasing the high I get from loving her every fucking day.
My girl loves me too. I know she does. I’ve never needed her to say it because we’re so much more than a single word. And I always know what she’s thinking, which is why I know something is going on with her.
“I’m not going anywhere.” I toss the towel to the floor and gather our blankets around our naked bodies and lean against the headboard, keeping her on my lap.
She nods against my chest. Her body is still tense, but her breathing is starting to even out. She grips my arms, holding me to her.
Everything I’ve done the last few years has been to get her, and now everything I do is to keep her. She has no idea how far I’ll go. She might hate me for some of it. But if it keeps her safe with me, I can live with that.
I kiss the top of my heathen’s head. I’ll tie my queen up and dominate her mind and her body.
I meant it when I said I own her, but once she realizes she owns me too, she’ll know what power she has.
All she has to do is tell me what she wants, and it’s hers.
There isn’t a thing in this world I won’t do or give for my girl.
And that’s where love overtakes the obsession.