I know he likes me. But…
“What if you get sick of me?” Axel’s just put the car in park when I blurt out my question.
Slowly, so slowly, he turns his head to face me. “Excuse me?”
My teeth clamp down on my lip, but I can’t back down now that I’ve started. “What if you-” his eyes narrow and I decide to change my wording. “What if this doesn’t work out? Between us? I mean, we barely know each other…” My eyes lower to his chin as I trail off, not wanting to look at him while I think about this.
“What do you want to know?”
My eyes move back up to meet his. “Huh?”
He turns in his seat to face me more, the hand on my thigh sliding higher. “What do you want to know about me, Maddie? Because I can promise you that the conversations we’ve had,” he dips his head towards me, “have covered more than I’ve shared with anyone in a long time.”
“Oh.”
The look he gives me saysYeah, Oh.
“I just…” I stop and start again. “This is a really big gift.” I hold up the bag, lamely.
Axel shakes his head, “It’s not.” I open my mouth and his palm slides higher. “It’s not. And I’m not arguing with you, Baby, I’m just telling you how it is.” His pinky finger traces along the bottom seam of the shorts I’m wearing under my dress. I watch as his eyes dart down to my lap, but he keeps talking. “I’m not saying this to sound like an asshole, but I have money. Plenty of money to buy you a little fucking phone. So if I want to, I’m going to. And if, for some reason,” he growls those last three words, “you decide you don’t want to go out with me again, the phone has nothing to do with it. It’s yours. You owe me nothing.” His hand moves a little higher, his ring finger brushing over my shorts now. “But you better have a damn good reason if you want to be done with me, because I’m not gonna go quietly.”
It’s getting hard to breathe.
Why is it so hard to breathe?
“What about Brian?” As long as I’m diving in, I might as well jump straight into the deep end.
“What about him?” Axel challenges. “You said it yourself that you two didn’t talk much.”
“Well, no,” I concede.
“And did you tell him anything personal? Share any of the stories that you told me with him?”
I shake my head.
“Did you tell him he was too nice?”
I bite my lip.
“Did you call him sweet?”
I shake my head again.
“Did you tell him he was handsome?”
“No,” I whisper.
“Then he’s not yours.”
He says it with such finality that it takes me a second to realize what he’s really saying.
Thathe’smine.
“And you sure as fuck didn’t show him your pretty little pussy, so I don’t see what the problem is.” Axel’s hand moves another inch higher, and he finally breaks eye contact to look down at my lap. “What the hell are you wearing?”
The pure confusion in his voice breaks the fragile bubble of my stunned state, and I burst into laughter.
Not waiting for a response, Axel pulls the skirt of my dress up, exposing the white spandex shorts underneath.