That would be the smart, safe thing to do.
His feet moved and he watched as his hand turned the knob.
Apparently, smart and safe was not the route he would be taking tonight.
The second the door swung open, he knew he’d made a mistake.
He was in big trouble.
Brynn stood in front of him dressed in cutoff sweats and a T-shirt. Her face was scrubbed clean and her eyes were wider than he’d ever seen them. She had an air of vulnerability and strength, combined with a complete lack of self-awareness that was turning out to be his Achilles heel.
Any other woman that looked like Brynn did, that had everything going for her the way she did, would be fully cognizant of it. But she honestly had no clue of her effect on him. And that was sexy as hell.
The energy between them crackled with unspoken tension as they stared at one another.
“Hey,” he managed to croak out, keeping his hands at his sides so he didn’t drag her into the apartment and kiss her until he forgot all the reasons why being with her was wrong.
“Hey.” She lifted her hand in a small wave as a nervous smile pulled up on her full, pouty lips. “Um…” He watched her eyes dart beside him as she swallowed hard. “Can I come in?”
“Of course.” He backed up, careful to leave a good three feet between them as she stepped inside.
When she shifted to shut the door behind her, he noticed that her hands were trembling just like they’d been when she’d tried to unlock her front door.
She was clearly nervous then and now. Of what, he couldn’t be sure. But he was sure that everything in him was screaming for him to fix it. To assure her. To pull her into his arms and hold her until all of her trepidation and anxiety were gone.
Instead, he crossed his arms.
Her eyes followed his movement and the look of unabashed appreciation made him remember he wasn’t wearing a shirt. He’d been so focused on Brynn that he forgot that the only clothes he had on was a pair of sweats.
Which meant that if he kept watching her watch him, the soft cotton that was covering his lower region was going to be in tent formation.
Not trusting himself to speak, he cleared his throat.
Her eyes jerked up to his and a pink tint flushed on her fair cheeks.
Damn. Axel loved how real and unfiltered Brynn was. It was as if her body rejected any kind of pretense. When she felt something, it showed.
“So, I was hoping we could talk. I feel like we need to clear the air.” Her hand waved between the two of them.
As much as he was trying to focus on what she was saying, his mind was preoccupied by how her lips moved when she spoke. He’d only barely felt them against his, but from that brief contact he knew they were soft. He knew that her breath was warm and minty and that her eyelids fluttered the moment before their lips touched.
“I um, I’m a little confused about what is or isn’t going on between us.”
I’m not. I just can’t do anything about it.
“I mean, tonight I thought…” She took a deep breath and blew it out as she shook out her hands. It was clear to him that she was building up courage in the most adorably endearing way. “You asked me to dance.”
He waited for more and when she didn’t continue he dipped his chin in a nod. “I did.”
“Right, you did. And I told myself that you were just being neighborly, but then we…I thought…” she stammered over her words and Axel fought back the urge to kiss her and show her exactly what was going on between them. “I thought you were going to kiss me.”
Don’t do it. Axel heard the voice of reason, he just wasn’t sure he wanted to listen to it.
* * *
What am I doing?
As soon as Brynn heard her words out loud, it was clear that coming up to Axel’s apartment was a huge mistake.
She wasn’t a heroine in one of her books. This was real life. In real life, no one shows up on someone’s door to say that they thought they were going to kiss them.
Panic replaced the bravado that had filled her moments ago as she stared into Axel’s deep brown eyes. His poker face hadn’t changed since he’d opened the door. Shirtless. His expression was one-hundred percent unreadable. And his body was one-hundred percent male perfection that she’d been caught gawking at.
Not that she blamed herself. How could any woman not. She felt like Emma Stone in Crazy, Stupid, Love when Ryan Gosling takes his shirt off. She couldn’t believe that Axel wasn’t photoshopped.
Brynn had almost reached out to touch his bionic abs, like Emma had actually done in the film, but he’d cleared his throat and snapped her out of the magnetic hotness that his naked upper body had sucked her into.
That should’ve been the moment that she aborted her mission. But, she didn’t. She’d doubled down and admitted that she wanted to know what was going on between them.
And now she was standing in front of a half-naked Axel, waiting for him to tell her…what?
She really hadn’t thought this plan through. What was the best-case scenario in this? He tells her why he didn’t kiss her? Or that he never planned on kissing her at all? Because either way, he hadn’t kissed her. Nothing he said now would change that. It would only clarify why.
Forget tomorrow morning, she was in full-blown regret now. Her chest ached with embarrassment as panic seized her.
Thankfully, to Brynn’s knowledge no one had ever died of humiliation, so as bad as this was, at least she wouldn’t be leaving her son motherless.
“I’m sorry.” A nervous chuckle bubbled out of her as she turned to leave. “This seemed like a much better idea a few minutes ago. Forget I said anything.”
When she grabbed the doorknob she felt Axel’s fingers wrap around her wrist. Her eyes shot down and locked on his grip. His large, stained, and work-roughened hands enveloping her china-doll wrist was erotic in its contrast. Goosebumps broke out over every inch of her exposed skin and the hairs on the back of her neck stood up as she waited to see what he was going to say. What he was going to do.
She didn’t have to wait long to find out. She sucked in a startled breath as he spun her around so that she was facing him once again. In what felt like somehow both the blink of an eye and slow motion, he tugged her so that her body slammed against his, holding her in place by pinning her arm behind her back.
They were even closer than they’d been during their slow dance. It took a moment for her brain to catch up to what she was feeling but when it did, she realized that his arousal was pressed up against her belly. There was no mistaking or misreading what his body wanted, now she just needed to make sure it was what he wanted.
Her neck bent as her eyes lifted to meet his. The moment that their gazes met, every question she had about what he wanted was answered. The desire and desperation that she saw in his whiskey stare ricocheted through her and lit up her body like a pinball machine.
Axel’s free hand lifted and his fingers speared through her hair. The tips of his fingers grazed her scalp and sent a jolt straight between her legs. Her brain was going haywire as she tried to process what was happening.
The strength of the magic she felt from the ravishing kiss had Brynn’s head spinning and sent a shockwave through her body. His lips were a heady combination of enticingly persuasive and masterfully demanding. As much as she wanted to meet his savage intensity, she was unable to resist the pleasure of being swept along for the ride. Instead of fighting against the impulse to let him have complete control, she leaned into it and surrendered completely.
She reveled in the seductive pulse that was throbbing in her core as she succumbed to the forceful domination of his mouth covering hers. A dizzying rush swept through her as he drugged her with tantalizing expertise, alternating between frenzied passion and deliberate possession.
And then, without any warning, Axel released her arm and broke their kiss. He didn’t abandon her completely, he rested his forehead against hers. Her freed arm immediat
ely joined the other and held onto his shoulders as her mouth searched for his. But instead of finding his kiss, she felt the pad of his thumb brush along her bottom lip, keeping her at bay as his hand cupped her jaw. She opened her eyes and saw his pained expression as his heavy breaths fanned across her face.
She didn’t move, didn’t blink, didn’t breath, for fear that she was dreaming and she would wake up to find herself back in her bed with Lucy and her romance novel resting on her chest. All she wanted was for this kiss to be real. For the rock-solid erection she felt between them to be real. And for the night between them to continue with both of those things.
CHAPTER 16
“Brynn, we need to talk.”
Brynn heard Axel speaking but she didn’t want to listen to him. Her entire body protested at his suggestion and her nails dug into his shoulders as she shook her head back and forth.
“I think we should—”
“No. No thinking. No talking. I don’t want to think. I don’t want to talk. Not tonight. Tonight can we just…” Brynn tried to think of something sexy to say, but her mind was too busy with all the endorphins and dopamine that were being released to come up with anything. She took a breath and spoke her greatest desire. “Can we just not think? Not talk? Please? Tonight, I just want to feel and tomorrow we can think and ta—”
She was cut off once more by Axel’s lips claiming her. She’d never been a bigger fan of being interrupted as she was right now. The needy grunt that worked its way up her throat gave a voice to the desperation she was experiencing.
Is this what kissing was always like?
It’d been awhile, but if her memory served her, she’d never felt this intense urgency before. If this was what kissing him was like then what would it be like to actually have sex with Axel? Would anything or anyone ever be able to compete with tonight or was this the pinnacle of pleasure that she’d never achieve again?
Stop, she ordered herself.
She’d just told Axel that she wanted a night with no talking and no thinking and that meant no overthinking. There’d be plenty of time to dissect this encounter later. This was a be present, YOLO, live-in-the-moment kinda night. For once, Brynn was going to lose herself in the moment and deal with the consequences later.
Acting purely on instinct, she indulged herself as her hand boldly roamed over the hard planes of Axel’s back. She did her best to memorize every inch of his sculptured frame. Her fingers gripped onto the wide expanse of his shoulders as his tongue explored her mouth. His sensual licks swept back and forth, searching, claiming, and branding her, sending toe-curling, ribbons of ecstasy spiraling through her.
Axel advanced forward, backing her up so she was sandwiched between a rock (the wall) and a hard place (his body).
She found herself writhing against him as his hand traveled over her hip and landed firmly on her outer thigh. His fingers flexed and he lifted her knee and stepped between her legs. The hard ridge of his arousal that had been nuzzled against her belly ground into her core.
He moved his hand once more, this time his fingers spread on her hip, holding her in place as his lower body rocked into her in a rhythm that had her sex pulsing with anticipation. His other hand wrapped around the base of her neck, tilting her head so he could have better access to her mouth. She relaxed, allowing him complete control of her. He was a sensual puppet master and she was his to manipulate.
As her whimpers increased in frequency, she felt the heat of Axel’s touch slip beneath the cotton of her shirt. It trailed up her torso, the material bunching as he traveled north. With only minimal interruption to their kissing, Axel had the garment over her head and falling to the ground in seconds.
Her breasts, now bare, were mashed against his chest. The skin-on-skin friction caused her nipples to grow hard and sensitive as they brushed against him. He hadn’t even touched her yet, at least not with his hands, and her nubs were tight with need begging for his attention.
She arched her back, offering her chest up to him, hoping to urge him to touch her with his hands or his mouth, she wasn’t picky. But he didn’t take the nipple bait. It seemed he was set on a much lazier pace, as he tried to slow the frenetic energy passing between them down. The kiss that was frantic moments before relaxed into a gentle, tender one. As swept up as she’d been in the crazed tornado of sensations, this new seductive pace caused her to float in a dreamy intimacy that she never wanted to wake from.
When his lips moved off hers, she began to protest until she felt his mouth on her neck. Her head naturally fell to the side as he devoured her like a vampire in one of her romance novels. He covered her entire neck and shoulders with open-mouth kisses, licking and sucking her skin as he rolled his hips, pressing his hard shaft against her pulsing core.
Brynn moved with him as tension that she’d only experienced at her own hand or with the help of her handy dandy lipstick vibrator, began to build in her belly.
As happy as she was that a climax was beginning to take shape, she didn’t want to come apart like this. Not without more contact. It amazed her that her body was so responsive to Axel when normally for her to even get wet took quite a bit of foreplay. But, she guessed it made sense, considering the first night they met he’d seen her naked and she’d grabbed his magic stick. From that point on, her body interpreted every interaction they’d had as foreplay.
Without wasting another minute, she reached down and started pushing her shorts down as Axel continued to lavish her neck and shoulders with sensual kisses. Her mission to get naked was impeded by the position Axel had her in. His hand had a tight grip on her hip, keeping her leg hitched up. There was no way to strip out of her clothes.
When she started to shift so he’d release her leg, he gripped her so tight she wondered if there might be marks on her fair skin the next day. The thought of him marking her gave her a secret thrill as his lips covered her nipple and his teeth nipped at her distended bud. The dual sensation caused her body to convulse in extreme pleasure.
Brynn abandoned the waistband of her cutoff sweats and her hands clasped Axel’s head. Her fingers threaded through his hair and gripped tightly. Her shoulders flexed and her chest jutted out, seeking to give him all of her body. His teeth bit down on her nipple as his tongue flicked across the beaded peak. The bristles from his five o’clock shadow were rough against her soft skin and she loved it. She couldn’t get enough of it.
With each lick, each roll of his hips, he was driving her closer and closer to the edge. Her nails raked through Axel’s soft, damp hair and she realized he must’ve just gotten out of the shower before she’d arrived. Thinking of him naked, water dripping down his magnificent body had her even more primed and ready for release. She was so lost in the oblivion that she was spiraling toward that she didn’t notice when he moved away from her breasts and headed south. It wasn’t until she felt his chin brush her stomach, causing her to giggle, that she opened her eyes.
“Sorry, I’m ticklish,” she explained as she looked down and saw that he was kneeling in front of her.
“Good to know.” A wolfish grin spread on his face while his fingers dipped beneath her waistband and panties as he tugged down.
She was now standing on both feet, which made it easy for him to slide the material over her hips and down her legs. After she lifted each foot so he could remove her sweat shorts and underwear, Axel rested back on his heels as his eyes traveled up and down her body in an unhurried fashion. His gaze was filled with appreciation, and although he wasn’t touching her, she could feel his stare.
Brynn’s breaths were shallow as she stood before him, naked as a jaybird. She’d never been particularly self-conscious when it came to her body, but she was in her twenties the last time a man had seen her naked. She was thirty now.
Also, it probably didn’t help that he looked like he was carved out of stone. The men that Brynn had been with had all been regular guys. Not one of them could be a superhero body double. Axel could be a stand-in for Thor
himself. And none of them had ever stared at her so intently. She suddenly felt acutely aware of her imperfections.
“I have some stretchmarks,” she pointed out the obvious. She had several faint lines on her hips. “And cellulite,” she added.
His eyes lifted to hers and her heart pounded so hard she was sure that he could hear it.
“It’s the back of my thighs,” she explained, figuring he’d probably see it eventually.
“You’re perfect,” he breathed before leaning forward and kissing first her left, then right hipbone.
He then showered attention across her stomach. She stared down at the top of his head and watched his lips press lightly against her skin as he covered her lower belly with love. When he reached the very top of her mound where a triangle of hair sat, he glanced up at her.
She thought he might make a joke about how the carpet matched the drapes, since every other man that she’d been with had a fascination over her being a natural redhead, but she should’ve known better. Axel wasn’t most men.
“I want to taste you. Spread your legs.” His explicit statement and rough command caused her knees to go weak.
He watched her as she did as directed. His hand traveled up one inner thigh and down the other, several times, skipping her wet center each time. He wasn’t even touching her there and she could feel herself get wetter with every pass.
Finally, when she wasn’t sure she could take anymore, he lifted one of her thighs and rested it on his shoulder as he leaned forward and covered her mound with his mouth. The first brush of his tongue across her clit had her back arching and her body barreling toward release. When he added a finger, her eyes shut as she shuddered with pleasure at the intrusion. He continued slow, suctioning curls of his tongue as he worked his digit inside of her, pulling out before pushing it back in.
“Fuck,” he hissed against her sex. “You’re so tight.”
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