"There's danger everywhere," he answers me sternly.
I scoff and raise an eyebrow up at him. I've never been one to live in fear of what ifs, and I'm not going to start now. "Paranoid much?" I shake my head. "I'll be fine." I try to push at his chest again, and huff when again he doesn't budge.
"Sophie," he warns, and I finally snap, frustrated at the way he makes me feel so helpless.
"What makes you think you have the right to tell me what to do? You don't get to have an opinion on anything I do."
He moves quickly, pressing his body so it's flush against mine. I feel the hard ridge of his cock in between us and the hardness of his entire body as it molds against mine.
His hand reaches out to cup my cheek and turn my head up so he can look directly into my eyes.
"Because you’re mine, little ruby." His gunmetal eyes are gleaming down at me intensely, and I swallow again.
My body is flushed, and I feel heat pool between my legs. Dammit. Why does he have this effect on me? I try to remember every reason why getting involved with him is a bad idea.
I finally latch onto one and lift my chin. "What about your girlfriend?"
His brow furrows in confusion. "I don't have a girlfriend," he rumbles down at me.
"Wife?" I question.
He laughs like the notion of him having a wife is funny. "No wife either." His eyes flick down to me meaningfully before he adds, "Yet."
Oh my God. My heart is pounding a mile a minute in my chest at his implication when a feminine voice suddenly purrs his name in delighted surprise.
We both look over to find a stunning blonde standing at almost the same height as him. My stomach drops. She's tall and thin and looks like a model.
She saunters up to him like he doesn't currently have a woman pressed against the wall with just his body and runs her fingers along the arm of his suit jacket. "I missed you at the club last night." Her voice drips with insinuation, reminding me of exactly why it's not a good idea for me to give Axe the time of day. The man is a playboy. Gorgeous and dangerous to all women, and I'm not looking to get my heart broken.
I take the opportunity while he's distracted to slip from between him and the wall. He curses when he realizes I've escaped his clutches.
"Sophie!" he calls after me, but I'm already gone. Good thing too because for a moment there I was feeling things that my body has no right to be feeling.
I'm glad that woman walked up and reminded me just what he is.
And you can bet your ass I'm going on that beach vacation.
Nothing in this world could stop me now.
* * *
Axe
She's a spitfire. I should have known that the surest way to ensure my little ruby agreed to go to the beach was for her to find out that I'm totally against the idea. No sooner did I agree with her than she defiantly agreed to go.
And damn it, my past keeps coming back to haunt me every time I'm in Sophie's presence. I don't even remember the name of the woman who interrupted us at the restaurant—only that I wanted to strangle her. I'd had Sophie in my grasp. I'd been so close to finally tasting those sweet lips. Every cell in my body burns for her. It's like there's a raging inferno inside me, and the only thing that will quench it is her. Sophie. My little ruby.
I followed her over to the damned beach as soon as I could. I had a couple of business meetings to attend to, though I can't tell you much of what we talked about. I might as well have not gone to them. I was completely distracted, constantly checking the tracking app on my phone, my chest squeezing painfully the farther Sophie's little dot got away from me.
I'm watching her now and fighting every instinct inside me that's telling me to barge over there and throw my shirt over her bikini-clad body. She's wearing a little white bikini. Half of her ass cheeks are hanging out of the motherfucking thing, and I want to blow holes in the chest of every man on this beach who looks at her because I know what they're all thinking.
They want a taste of her, and what hot-blooded man wouldn't?
But they'll never have her because she's mine.
I scowl. I hate the fucking beach. There's sand in my toes. It's hotter than Satan's ball sack. I feel salt from the sea air sticking to my skin.
But worst of all is the torture of watching Sophie prancing around in that goddamned bikini that ought to be illegal.