Summer Breeze Kisses

by Addison Moore

  My teeth graze over my bottom lip because this is the part where I tell him that I love him back and that I want to forget about the past and start all over again.

  My phone buzzes in my purse, and I frown at it. “Just one second.”

  It’s a text from Marlin. You up for dinner at the Black Bear? I want to discuss Serena.

  I’ll get back to you. I hit Send.

  “It’s just Marlin.” No sooner do I dip my phone back into my purse than it buzzes again, and I glance down at it.

  “A text from Serena.” I hold it between Axel and me.

  Why does Marlin insist on making my life miserable? Can you tell him to buzz off and let me live my own life?

  Axel chuckles at the thought. “She’s in good company.” He gives my hip a slight squeeze. “But he’s a good big brother. I would have done the same thing and probably a lot worse to anyone I caught Teagan with.”

  “Then that’s what I’ll say.” I text back. He means well. He’s just being a good big brother. I’m a little busy at the moment, but you, me, and Sunday will hit Hallowed Grounds soon! We’ll have Rush join us. It will be f-u-n!

  “Sorry.” I slip my phone back into my bag and twist my hips against Axel’s.

  “Never apologize. One of the things I love about you most is the way you care for your family.” His finger brushes over my cheek. The sun hits him just right, and his eyes reflect the unblemished sky. “And I love how you’ve taken Teagan under your wing.” His lips twist. “Shep, not so much.”

  “What do you mean?” A laugh bubbles up my throat. I’ll admit I love this quasi-jealous side of him. “Shep is one of my favorite people. He has great hair”—my fingers dig into the thicket just above his neck—“gorgeous eyes and lips that make me want to do this.” Carefully, I sweep my mouth over his. “Oh, wait”—I pull back slowly—“that would be you.”

  “Very funny.” He moans as if it were the most delicious kiss in the world. “So are you up for taking it slow?”

  I can’t help but frown. It’s been my go-to response for so long it feels natural at this point. “How slow?” My mouth is watering to have him, and slow doesn’t quite fit into the equation. What happened between us a couple of nights ago was simply an overflow of built-up angst. It was angry sex. Hostile sexual territory that we both willingly explored and exploited.

  “I don’t know.” His hands ride up and down my body, careful and firm as if he were molding me. “I just can’t risk anything happening to us. I need this. I need you.” His eyes search my features, asking a question all their own. I know what he wants to hear, and I finally feel ready to say it.

  “I need you, too, Axel. I love you. I’ve never stopped loving you. But—” If I’m honest, there is always a but in there somewhere.

  He gives a single nod as if he already knows. “You’re terrified.”

  “Petrified.”

  “Don’t be.” He shakes his head, determined for me to believe it. “You and I work, Lex. I won’t hurt you. Trust me. Open your heart and let me in all the way this time. I promise you will not regret it.”

  “All the way.” I bite down on a naughty smile as my hand glides down his chest, my fingers hooking on the lip of his jeans. “Why are you denying me, Collins? I bet Shep would let me go all the way.”

  “That’s it.”

  In an instant, Axel picks me up and slings me over his shoulder. My hair hangs upside down, and I beat my fist over his rock-hard behind, laughing as he spins me.

  Axel lets out an enthusiastic howl before landing me back on my feet, dizzy with a hearty laugh streaming from me.

  The smile drips from his lips as the moment grows serious. “God, I’ve missed you.” There’s that pained look in his eyes once again, and my stomach cinches. Deep down, Axel doesn’t really believe I can pull this off. The new me is simply a bandage over the old me, and soon enough that will simply fall off. In the end, I’ll hurt us both. I’ve already damaged us. The proof is embedded in the last six years. But am I strong enough to repair us?

  My God, I hope so.

  Axel pulls me in tight, bounces his nose sweetly off mine before gazing into me with those serious eyes of his. “You’re way too deep in thought.”

  “I’m concerned.” I butt my forehead lightly to his.

  “How about we let go of all our concerns and busy ourselves with our newfound happiness?”

  Something enlivens in me when he says that word. “You’re happy?”

  His brows bounce as that naughty lewd smile percolates on his lips. “I’m ecstatic.”

  “Prove it.”

  Axel touches his fingers to my chin and gently lifts me to him. He leans in ever so slightly, holding my gaze, commanding that I look at him, and there’s something erotic about this ocular spell he’s put on me. “I’m going to kiss you, Lex. To the new us—may we be forever enamored, deeply in love from here on out on this spinning blue rock.”

  “Hear, hear,” I whisper as Axel closes his mouth over mine.

  There is something sweet and tender about the way his mouth moves carefully over mine—something protective, achingly delicious that has me craving him on a primal level. I open for him, and he loves me like that, slowly, carefully as if our love was fragile as blown glass. Deep down, Axel is convinced that I might stomp away on an angry whim and leave him alone in this world one more time.

  My hands float to his cheeks as I cup them, and our kisses grow with intensity, with hunger, with something dark and needy. Slow may be a four-letter word, but it sure has the power to stir a sweet ache in my belly for more. I think the six-year drought brought new meaning to the word slow. I’m pretty sure I have some say in how things should run in this new and improved version of us.

  I pull back, pinching his chin between my fingers. “Slow is smooth. Smooth is fast.” My tongue does a revolution over my lips as I give the old military quote. “And tonight, we will test the boundaries of both.”

  My hand slips down his chest and carefully touches over the zipper of his jeans, making it clear just what my intentions are.

  I don’t need slow with Axel.

  I need everything.

  Axel

  Six Years Earlier…

  Did I think Lex was serious about me? Her cutting words haunt me well into the week. She’s been avoiding me, darting past me when she sees me coming, not taking my calls, ignoring my texts. Her roommate asked me to please stop pounding on the door at all hours of the night. She said we were both psychotic—that we probably deserved one another. God, I hope she’s right about that second account. Unfortunately, she’s most likely right about the first. I realize pegging your girlfriend as psychotic isn’t anything to be proud of, but it’s Lex’s wild side that I love about her. Shep called her scary. So what? I like scary. It’s appropriate that we christened our relationship on Halloween night.

  My stomach grinds as I glance out at the parking lot. I’ve been at the Witch’s Cauldron for an hour now. It’s cold as, yes, a witch’s tit. It’s two nights till Christmas and not a sign of snow, but the storm coming tomorrow night promises to bring a flurry. It was right here just a few weeks ago that I proposed to Lex. It was the best night of our lives. She said yes, took my grandmother’s ring, and then everything fell to crap faster than a hammer falling on my head.

  I texted Lex earlier in the day, told her this was it. I needed to speak with her. I pleaded with the reasonable side of her, reminded her that we were adults. Okay, so I begged her to show up. I told her that every good breakup deserved a blowout, and if she had any heart she wouldn’t deny me ours. I thought she might get a kick out of that one. If I’ve learned anything about Lex over the past fifteen months, it’s that her love language bites with searing sarcasm. The truth is, I need us back together. I need a nice shiny bow on the two of us because I want us to work, and because I promised my parents a big announcement on Christmas Eve. I happened to get their hopes up for something significant just a day before Lex sliced me out
of her life.

  A pair of headlights turns into the lot. I hold my breath for a moment until it makes the turn and the moonlight exposes it for what it is—a white sedan.

  She’s here. A giant rush of relief washes through me. Adrenaline spikes through my bloodstream, and I resist the urge to pump my fist in the air and shout for joy. She showed. Lex is here. Everything is going to work out.

  My own cryptic words come back to bite me in the ass. Surely, she’s not here to offer up a blowout. Nobody in their right mind drives a half hour up the switchbacks to oblige someone they claim to hate with an argument of all things. That would be so very ludicrous. My heart sinks because that would also be so very us.

  The slam of the car door. The shuffle of shoes across the gravel. The moon hits her with a burst of light and her hair lights up like a flame. Lex is a walking birthday candle. Those sultry hips of hers slowly sashay toward me like a promise, and for a second I fully believe she’s here to offer up a mouthwatering proposition.

  “You came,” I say as the moon illuminates her features.

  Lex slices through me with a look that says hold onto your balls, and that knot I’ve been nursing in my belly cinches right back up.

  “Bet your bottom dollar. I showed up with bells on.” She strides forward with a dark smile curving on her lips, and any hope of a reconciliation flees from the scene. “I came to give you this.” She holds out a balled fist, and I’m slow to offer up my palm. I already know what happens next.

  Lex drops my grandmother’s wedding ring into my hand and I stare at it a moment too long. She didn’t give it back that night in Founder’s Square. I thought she might keep it—she might keep me. It looks like any prospect of regaling my family with an engagement on Christmas Eve just dwindled down to nothing.

  “I don’t want this.” I sniff hard at the sight of the lonely band. The gold grows cold so fast it burns its impression over my skin.

  “It belongs to your family,” she huffs incredulously as if I were a moron for not wanting it back. “You’ll find someone in New York to give it to.”

  “I won’t. I’m not going, Lex.”

  Her eyes hook to mine with a fire all their own. Her anger over the fact I refuse to head north has her irate all over again.

  “What don’t you get?” My voice shakes with a fury of my own. “I don’t need NYU. I need you.”

  “You want NYU. It’s been your dream.”

  “You’re my dream. I’ll sacrifice NYU for you. I’ll sacrifice everything for you, Lex.”

  “I don’t want you to sacrifice anything for me!” she bellows so loud her voice ricochets around us like a boomerang. “I refuse to be the reason you’re not happy. I refuse to be the one you can point the finger at when you start to contemplate why you stayed. We are not working. We are broken. We are over.” Her voice softens to just above a whisper. Her eyes though. I’m begging for a sign of life in this strangled relationship, something to gauge whether or not she means the words she’s throwing at me so convincingly. But there’s not a tear in sight. Not on her end anyway.

  “We’re not over.” I close my fingers over the ring as if maybe we are. “We’ll never be over, Lex.” I take a step in and caress her cheek with my finger. “I love you. You’re hurting, and I don’t want that for you. Whatever happens between us, Lex—I want you to know I’m putting you in power of where we go from here. What do you need from me, Lex? I’ll meet you there. I promise.”

  A single tear rolls down her cheek, and relief comes rushing back to the party. Lex cares. Lex is human. Lex loves me. This much I know for sure.

  In a brazen move, I wrap my arms around her waist and bring her close to me, warming her body with mine.

  She sniffs back her emotions, blinking hard as if disowning the tear that escaped without her permission. “I need you to go to New York,” she whispers while staring out into the dark just beyond the parking lot. “And then I need you to understand that we need to take a break.”

  “A break,” I repeat numbly. A break is simply a step up from a breakup, but at this point I’ll hang onto whatever she wants to give me.

  Her eyes meet with mine, a genuine disquiet about them. Lex’s eyes were always telling me something, hating me, loving me, openly laughing at me—with me. But at the moment, they are stone cold silent.

  She gives a single nod. “We’ll be friends.” Lex slips past me like an apparition. She’s in her car and barreling down the mountain before I can catch my next breath.

  Friends.

  My soul aches with the sting of grief.

  We both know Lex doesn’t believe in friends.

  Present Day…

  Axel

  Lex. She’s back in my life. I can breathe again. I can see the light, and it just so happens to be streaming from her beautiful eyes. I’m just about to step into The Sloppy Pelican when my phone rings. It’s Teagan, so of course I pick up. After Emilia passed, I never let a call slide from either Teagan or Shep. You learn to value family—especially when pieces of it are stripped from you.

  “What’s up, kiddo?” I head over to the old oak barrels set out near the valet parking that most people utilize for selfies. That and the pelican himself seated on the roof are the two fan faves when it comes to social media.

  “Dad just came out of a meeting with someone named Abby Wilcock.”

  “Wilcox.” I cringe at my sister’s innocent mistake. Pretty much anything of a sexual nature has me cringing when it comes to my baby sister. “She’s a—friend.” It’s probably best my dad see her as an acquaintance of mine rather than an employee. If I want to off this girl to Collins Enterprises, I need to market the crap out of her. I know for a fact Abby gets under Lex’s skin. And knowing that Abby has sent out a proposition my way more than once makes me that much more eager to give her the boot. I would have fired her if I didn’t think she were an opportunist who didn’t find a sexual harassment lawsuit against her employer something beneath her.

  “Dad wants to know if she’s a nutcase or if he should give her the keys to the kingdom.” I can practically see her sneering as she says it, and it strangely warms me. Teagan is still the cute little girl in pigtails in my mind’s eye, so listening to her strain my father’s eloquent speech through a childlike sieve makes me want to chuckle.

  “Give her the keys.” My father has spent the last year snapping up prospective entrepreneurial pursuits, and I’m guessing Abby has concocted one herself. “I’m sure whatever Abby presented him with is solid.” Aside from being a tad too flirtatious she’s got a good head on her shoulders and a degree to back it up.

  “You sure?” Teagan balks at the idea. “The girl looks like a serious ditz.”

  “She’s not. She’s a great person. Dad will be lucky to have her.” A brief visual of Abby linked arm in arm with my father flits through my mind. Crap. That’s the last developmental deal I want him to close with her. “I’m sure they’ll work great together.”

  “Whatevs. Tell Lex I said hi. I’m emailing her a few last minute changes. Oh, and if you’re wondering what to get me for my official Freedom Fest, give yourself a night off next Friday. There’s no way I want you around my friends and me. No offense, but having an overprotective big brother breathing down my neck will sort of cramp my style with the boys.”

  A laugh rumbles from me. “That won’t be a problem. Lex specializes in all-girl events. In fact, she’s working on a big no boys allowed sign as we speak.”

  “Very funny. I’m hanging up now. Love you!” And she does just that, hangs up.

  The Sloppy Pelican is the last place I want to be with Lex tonight, but as fate and my lousy scheduling would have it, The Sloppy Pelican demands our presence. There simply isn’t anyone to cover Lex’s shift. Abby called in and that stretched my already skeleton crew to beyond the grave. So here we are. Lex in that short skirt, that blouse that highlights her curves, those high heels that make her legs look as if they go on forever.

  A hand sw
ats me over the chest, and I look over to find Brody crossing his arms.

  “You’re drooling.”

  “You would be too if you spent half a minute staring at her. But don’t or I’ll have to beat you into tomorrow.”

  “Funny,” he grunts, giving a sullen glance around. “Man, I miss this place.”

  “It doesn’t miss you.” I bounce a dry smile on my lips. “What are you doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be in a corner somewhere counting beans?”

  He groans as he folds his arms over his chest. “I’m all numbered out. It’s time to outsource this crap. Hire a real accountant. Hell, hire an entire fleet of them. I’m tapped. I can’t make heads or tails out of anything. Just when I think I’m getting somewhere the asshole telling me what to do shoves it back in my face. It’s an exercise in futility. I’m done. I’m back. You can walk right out. I’ve got this, dude. I may not be able to solve the puzzle of the missing numbers, but I sure as hell can staff this place better than you can.”

  I glance over at Lex. She’s mine again, but that doesn’t mean I’m ready to give The Pelican the kiss-off and head back to the judicial world. Nope. Lex and I are still green. We need to be nurtured, and this place has played a huge part in getting us back on the right track.

  “How about you give it until after the wedding? Hell, make it the honeymoon sweetheart.” I wink while egging him on. “I’m not kidding. Levi is already pretty stressed out. He’ll freak if we announce we’re hiring a team of financial exterminators. You know they’ll hook a hose up to our checking account and we’ll go down fast. Not even Low can pull us out of that one. Once he gets back from his honeymoon, we’ll knock our heads together and see what we can come up with.”

  He scratches the back of his neck, looking unconvinced by the idea. “You know—I realize he’s getting married, but dude, all he has to do is rent a tux and walk down the aisle. He hasn’t been here in months.”