by Anders, S.
Liv heard another incensed growl from Axel as they stopped by the passenger door of his car. Liv could understand Kiki’s dilemma ... she’d take Axel over Andrew too.
Axel stood with one hand braced on the top edge of the car’s roof, while his other hand cupped the far side of her waist. Liv gazed at him as he stared down at the pavement. She knew he couldn’t see Kiki’s headlong sprint towards him, but he must have known it was coming. Then Kiki was in his space, and Liv backed away as he released his hold on her waist. Kiki practically climbed up Axel’s broad, sturdy chest.
Liv felt more pain catching her throat and she looked away.
“Please, baby,” she heard Kiki pleading. “He made me. Let me tell you.”
The most satisfaction Liv received from what was happening was seeing Andrew’s face. The bastard was crushed, but of course he was too arrogant to grovel. He just stalked to his roadster and got in, slamming the door shut. Seconds later he sped away. She lifted her gaze and she saw a couple getting out of a cab, in front of the restaurant.
At that same moment, she heard Axel saying, “Tell me how he forced you.”
Painfully, Liv closed her eyes, then she scooted toward the cab.
“Take me home, Axel! It’s a long story, baby,” Kiki cried.
Liv heard Kiki’s cried words just as she made it to rap on the cabbies window. She knew there was like only two cabs in town, and she wondered about fate letting there be one right in front of her, in her time of need.
“Liv!” Axel called. But she ignored his call, hurrying around the cab to pull open the back door. When she looked up over the roof of the cab, Kiki was still hanging off Axel, but he looked anguished and torn. “Liv!”
She shook her head and got into the cab.
Chapter Eleven
Axel tried to unhook Kiki’s arms from him and step back. She followed him with tears. “I know you’re doing him,” he uttered, pressing one hand into her collarbone to keep her a step away from him, as he watched the cab carrying Liv, drive away.
Damn. He’d not wanted that to happen.
“He said he would close us down if I didn’t, Axel!”
Axel jerked his head around to Kiki, his eyes narrowing on her pleading and hurt gaze. She was decked out in the sexiest outfit he’d ever seen her wear. “How the hell would Darwin ...” He jerked his head in the direction Darwin left. “Have the power to shut us down?” he demanded.
Her bottom lip quivered. Hell, he’d never seen Kiki so meek. Maybe something was wrong. She looked to the side. That’s when he knew.
“He’s on the council. He can do it.”
She was lying to him. He knew that sideways glance like the back of his hand. But what he couldn’t figure out was why? Did Kiki really want him back and was she that desperate.
He played along. He’d already ruin things with Liv. Badly.
“So he told you that you had to go to bed with him or he would shut us down?”
She nodded vigorously, dabbing at fake tears that had disappeared from her eyes.
“How long?” he asked. Lowering his hand carefully, in case she moved and he had to raise it again.
“Umm ...” She looked to the side again. “Twice,” she finally said. Then she added dramatically, “It was terrible, baby.”
Ah huh. His fist clenched at his side. “Not sure I can get over it,” he stated bluntly.
“It wasn’t my fault,” she gasped. “But if you divorced me, it wouldn’t be my fault either!” she exclaimed.
Her reasoning finally started to show. “He make you come out and eat dinner with him,” Axel tossed out.
Kiki looked startled, then at the restaurant, then back at him. “H-He did,” she said, uncertainly.
“Make you laugh in there and put your tongue in his mouth?” Axel asked, without raising his voice.
She shuffled on her high heels. “I had to make it good, to save your business,” she declared. “I did it for you. Now you’re giving me the third degree!”
“Have you ever thought about divorce?” he asked abruptly.
“Yes!” she blurted, then she looked surprised. “I didn’t mean that,” she stammered.
“I guess with you being forced to cheat, that any divorce would go in your favor. I’d lose it all to you,” he stated.
“Axel ... baby, that would be so bad.”
Axel guessed Kiki didn’t know there were no-contest divorces anymore, so the division of money didn’t hinge on blame or maybe she just didn’t want to look like the villain. But as he looked down on her, he marveled at how someone who had been so close to him could seem so alien. Had he ever known her?
After that he played it close. Telling Kiki he was having a hard time accepting she’d slept with another man ... even if she had too (her lies.) However, he was stuck taking her home.
Once in the car she turned to him, and asked, “Have you slept with her?”
The second the question hit him, he had a hard time figuring out what she meant, then it dawned on him. “Mrs. Darwin? No way.” He shook his head.
“But you kissed her, Axel.”
He’d been keeping it pretty cool up until that point. He wanted to be smart about how he dealt with Kiki and her cheating. He still had plans to blow it up in her lying face. But Kiki’s accusation, and about Liv, put him on slow simmer again.
“That was for your and Darwin’s benefit,” he said, purposely answering vaguely.
“But how do you know her?” she demanded.
No way was he going to be on the questioning block with his lying, cheating, and now scheming wife.
“Known her since high school,” he declared, pulling in their driveway, thank god.
“But ...” Kiki started.
Which he overrode. “Not now, Kiki. I’m barely keeping it together as it is.”
“You should come inside and get in bed with me, baby. I’ll make you forget her.”
“Get out. We will talk later,” he growled.
“I’ll be here, naked in our bed,” she whispered, before she opened her door. Then on the way out, she gave him a good look up her legs and up to a sexy thong she had on.
Once her door was shut, he slammed the car into reverse, and he left fast. He was reeling, because it seemed this newest act Kiki was playing was about her not wanting another woman on him! Could that be it? I’m not screwing him, but you're not either.
“Hell,” he swore, gripping the steering wheel.
He wanted to go home ... talk to Liv. But that was messed up and he needed to think. Every damn thing was confusing.
Liv had the taxi take her to her car in the park, then she drove her car to Axel’s aunt’s house. The entire drive she’d planned to go inside, grab her things, and hightail it to the dark, cold house at the rose farm. It felt as if Axel had chosen Kiki over her. It felt as if her husband didn’t give a damn about her and it felt like Kiki could get them both under her spell.
She fumbled with the keys trying to get into the house. It was dark and she forgot where the light was. Then she took one step inside and her heel caught on something. She nearly fell but caught the wall, and then she felt the light switch.
“There you are,” she muttered.
Right then her cell rang and she thought about ignoring it, but she pulled it out to see who she’d be ignoring. It was Axel. A text. Well a text was better than talking and she couldn’t help being curious, so she took the text.
“Sorry, baby.”
She nearly whined at the words. God, texts were so impersonal. Did he really mean it, and where was he? Was he still with her? Liv didn’t answer the text, instead she closed her cell and put it back into her purse. Then she went to her room where she was going to pack.
“And Kiki can have them both,” she uttered through gritted teeth.
Only an hour later, she’d packed but she hadn’t left. Instead, she’d wandered out into the living room and sat on the couch dragging a couch pillow to her chest as she curled her legs under her. Stari
ng out into the room, she just sat there thinking. She didn’t give a damn anymore about losing her bastard husband. Andrew who couldn’t get away from her quick enough. But she really cared about losing Axel. That hurt deeply.
“I don’t want to lose him.” She took a steadying breath, trying not to cry. They were starting something and it looked beautiful. Maybe she was regretting not going to bed with him. The chance to have that ripped masculine body over her or below her. Her hands on him.
“God.” She closed her fingers, gripping them into a fist, and bringing it to her mouth. “I could have had that. Idiot.”
Well, she wasn’t going to let it go so easy, by just running away. Maybe it was hopeless ... his ex-wife had much more history with him. But she had to wait to see what happened, how it played out. Maybe she’d missed something and had reacted too soon.
Axel had kissed her very hot, deep, and hard right before it had all gone to hell. That kiss meant something.
Liv just wished Axel would come home because the longer she sat waiting the more worried she became that he’d gone home, and then to bed with his wife.
A couple hours passed, before she heard a car door closing out front. Her head lifted at the sound and she thought she might have dozed off. Then she heard the front door opening and before she could get up she saw Axel shuffling in beside Jax. Axel didn’t appear to be holding himself up.
She knew it was Jax, because of his beautiful hair, even though she’d only seen him from a distance. It was long, trailing in a ponytail down his back in dark browns and reds with honey-toned highlights.
“Hey,” he said, nodding to her, but he kept shuffling Axel, whose head was down, to the back of the house.
“Hey,” Liv said.
Axel’s head rose partway, then fell again. “My fault,” Axel muttered.
Ah oh. Obviously, Axel was drunk. She just stared, until they disappeared down the hall. Then she finally stood and walked to the hall, watching Jax maneuver Axel into the bedroom he’d been using. She stood there for a moment not sure what to think. But then it came to her ... did Axel have enough time to go out and get drunk and go to bed with his wife?
“I don’t think so,” Liv whispered, and happily a smile followed.
Jax didn’t communicate much with her after he put Axel to bed. He basically just uttered, “He’s a good man.” Then he left.
She lingered outside Axel’s closed bedroom door wanting to go in, yet finally deciding she better not, so she went to bed. But sleep didn’t come easily. Waking in the morning she felt groggy and grumpy. She felt like a teenager with a crush and the crush wasn’t going well.
“How stupid is that,” she muttered, rolling out of bed to look for her silky robe. Grabbing the black and gold robe off a hook on the bedroom closet door, she pulled it on over the camisole and nightie short, shorts she’d slept in. There was only one bathroom in the house and she had to wear a robe to get to it.
But she lingered by the bed, thinking about her earlier thoughts. Why was she even thinking about getting involved with Axel, while her marriage was dissolving? Because he was hot, was the first thing that popped into her mind.
“God ... he is too,” she moaned.
He was built and with a brown-eyed, sexy gaze that just dug into her and made her wet on the spot. Plus his mouth was amazing when they were kissing. She’d never been kissed like Axel kissed her. So it was as if she was in high school, mooning over the hot jock. But she was a woman, not a kid, and she knew the pitfalls. It could end up just being a fling. That was if he wasn’t going back to his wife after the night before.
She growled with that thought, knowing she shouldn’t secretly hope she made it into bed with Axel ... and beyond. How could she find someone like him now ... at this time in her life? All the indecisive thinking going back and forth just made her grumpier so she called it all off. “I’m just going to let happen what happens, damn it.”
She stomped to the door and tugged it open. The minute the door swept past her, the most delicious smell overtook her. It smelled like vanilla and cinnamon and ... She went the opposite way of the bathroom.
“Coffee,” she sighed with longing. Without really thinking about what she was wearing or where she was going the yummy smells drew her into the kitchen and in view of Axel’s broad back at the stove.
He had on brown silk pajama bottoms that hugged his tight ass and a white, wife beater tee shirt on that emphasized the muscles in his shoulders. Her eyes traced over the taut muscular bulges in his upper arms. Oh. God. Her silky camisole top slid over her now hard nipples as she watched the hanks of Axel’s ass move as he did something at the stove.
She must of made a longing sound, because she knew she was l o n g i n g.
“Liv, I’m sorry ... and I have French toast,” Axel said, before turning to look at her.
It was interesting, he started to swing around with a spatula held up and suddenly he stalled. She drug her gaze from his ripped body to see his brown eyes looking at her bare legs, up to her hips, higher to her chest, over her face, and then back down with an intensely hot look at her hard nipples. She felt it too her bones and she immediately got wet with arousal.
The spatula clattered onto the stove and he stalked forward. “What are you wearing?” His voice was rasped and husky as his gaze ignited fire into hers. His reaction to what little she was wearing was intense and amazing.
“Silk robe,” she managed to scratch out of her throat. Then his heat was warming the front of her.
“Jesus, if this is what's on top. Not sure I can handle what's underneath.” His hand cupped on the side of her breast with his thumb brushing the outline of her tight nipple. She gasped, arching toward him. “I can see these clear through that silk,” he muttered.
Then he began tugging her robe open. She caught his upper arms, but not to stop him. “I thought you couldn’t see what's beneath.” She’d never had a man react this way to her before.
“Forget that,” he growled. “Got to see.”
It made her flush with pleasure and more. Then he had her unwrapped with her robe gliding down her legs, to pool around her bare feet. Axel’s gaze darkened into molten browns as he looked at her belly button peeking out, then down at her tiny nightie shorts. His hand stiffened at the side of her breast with his thumb centered and unmoving on her twanging nipple.
Suddenly, his hand moved from her breast and he used both hands to grasp her shoulders twirling her around, then stopping her with her back to him. “Jesus,” he uttered. She blushed clear to her roots. He had to be looking at her bottom. “So many things I was going to do about us this morning,” he muttered behind her. “But this. Hell.”
His hand grasped the back of her thigh, caressing up to her lower buttocks, then it dragged the material of her nightie shorts upward, until his big hand swept to the other side of her bottom. He stroked down and her butt undulated in his wide hand.
“God, Axel,” she whispered.
He rubbed her butt again and she rolled her bottom against his hand. “Hell, baby,” he uttered.
Then he turned her to him like a whirlwind again, grabbing the back of her head through her hair and lifting, until their lips collided. His strong arm bracketed the back of her waist and pulled her tight into his body.
She moaned in his mouth with her hands stroking all that muscle she’d eyed earlier. His erection was hard against her belly like a thick, heavy column. She mewled deep into his mouth as they tongued each other. He was more sizable than she’d ever felt and thrills quivered through her, while her center ached more intensely for him, getting wetter.
He tugged her head to the other side, and tilted his head to take her mouth deeper as her leg crept up over his hip and she ground her pelvis against him. He growled in his throat at this, clamping a hand over her ass to help her.
His tongue lashed her mouth deeper, then left her unfocused with dazed passion. “I want this. Do you want this?” he uttered. Her pelvis continued to gri
nd against him.
“Yes,” she panted.
“Look at me.” He jerked, lifting her up and her legs automatically circled his waist. Her center split over the ridge of his shaft. And she mewled with deep longing. “Look.” His hand in her hair tugged her face towards his. “Look, Liv,” he demanded again.
“Axel,” she whined, opening her unfocused eyes. She squinted hard and saw the intense blaze of his irises. He was walking, then she felt the cold counter on her bottom.
“Tell me,” he said, shaking her head lightly by his hold to her hair.
“Want you,” she moaned. “Want. You.”
She heard slapping beside her and she looked over to see him turning off the burners. She limply put a hand to the effort, managing to turn one off. Their lips attacked each other again, only this time it was better because she was open for him with her legs on either side of his hips.
Her breasts were smashed into his chest and her center was crushed into his erection as his big hands groped her butt. “I can feel your wet on me,” he rumbled huskily against her mouth.
She moaned, humping against him. His big hands lifted her and she grabbed his neck as he began walking, while she kissed his throat and hung on. He got to her bedroom and threw her down on the bed, tore off his tee as she ripped her top up over her head. Then her eyes greedily took in every point on his spectacular chest as he bent, swelling those muscles, then he pulled her nightie shorts off her hips and down her legs.
He pulled them off her feet, kissing her ankle as he went, then he suddenly stiffened and swore, “Damn it.”
She was panting for him so she wasn’t certain if he was angry or hyped up hot and horny. “What?” she exclaimed.
His gaze jerked from looking at her slit, which was pretty exposed with her legs up against his chest. “No condoms!” he practically shouted.
“Oh!” she careened, she was so disappointed. She hadn’t had to use condoms in years. His gaze was so hot and intense she was surprised she didn’t see smoke coming out of it as he looked at her bare breasts, then down to her bare belly and hips, then her slit, then her legs.
