I’m still staring, chewing on my lip, and pressing my hands between my knees when Axel stops next to my door and pulls it open.
“What’s wrong?” he crouches down, laying one of his big hands over my entwined ones. “If you really don’t want to be here, I’ll take you home.”
I shift my hands until his are clasped between mine, “It’s not that.”
His other hand reaches up to grab a lock of my hair, dragging it between his fingers. “Then what is it?”
My shoulders sag as I exhale, “That’s Brian’s spot, isn’t it?” I nod my head towards the blank space of concrete.
Axel’s nod is slow. “It is.”
“How are we gonna do this?” My grip on his hand tightens, as if he might disappear and leave me to face the absent Brian on my own.
“Baby, when I introduce you to him, it’s gonna be fine.”
“But what if it isn’t? What if… I dunno. What if it goes bad?”
Axel runs his fingers through my hair again, “It’s not gonna go bad.” I open my mouth to argue, but he stops me with a gentle tug on my hair. “Brian might be a jackass some of the time, but he’s a good kid. A good person. He’s not gonna cause us trouble.”
I search his eyes, but I only find honesty in his gaze.
I chew on my lip, “What if it’s weird?”
Axel gifts me with one of his rare grins, “Oh, it’s gonna be weird. For him. You know how much shit his friends are gonna give him for his dad stealing his girl?”
“I was not his girl!”
The hand in my hair slides around to the back of my head, pulling me forward until our noses are nearly touching. “No. You’ve only ever been my girl. Isn’t that right?”
I give him a tiny nod. “That’s right.”
“Good.” Axel pulls me forward the last inch, pressing his lips to mine. “And we don’t need to worry about any of that tonight, because Brian texted me earlier to say he’d be staying at his friend’s house tonight.”
I give him my best incredulous look. “You could’ve started with that.”
He shrugs, “Could’ve, but didn’t. Now come on, let’s go inside.”
Chapter56
Maddie
As carefully as I can,I disentangle myself from Axel and slide out of the bed.
When my feet hit the floor, I clamp my mouth shut on the yelp that wants to come out. The coolness of his hardwood floors is a shock on my bare feet.
Thankfully, we were too busy tearing our clothes off earlier to close all the blinds, so the room is lit by the moonlight streaming through the windows. I shuffle my way across the room to the attached bathroom and close the door with a quiet click.
There’s a window in here too, and the view from this second-story vantage is just as beautiful at night.
The soreness between my legs makes me grin a little as I go about my business.
I should’ve known Axel would make the prolonged wait worth it. And worth it, it was.
Thinking about his talented fingers is going to get me all worked up, so I force my mind past that memory. I don’t know how long we’ve been asleep, but Axel expended a lot of energy earlier and I don’t want to wake him. Yet.
As I accept that I won’t be crawling on top of him anytime soon, my stomach lets out a loud grumble.
I slap a hand over my belly and sigh.