by River Ramsey
“I know what happened with your clothes,” he finally said, once he seemed to realize she wasn’t going to respond.
“Oh, really?” she challenged, finally coming to a stop to face him when she could no longer contain her irritation. The car crawled to a stop. “So you heard that your jealous ex trashed my room and destroyed every piece of clothing I own because you decided to use me to break up with her in front of the entire school? You heard about that?”
Axel gave a weary sigh, as if he was expecting the tirade. “You hate each other. Marissa has always treated you like shit. I thought you’d enjoy her getting put in her place for once.”
“So what, that was supposed to be a gift?” she asked, struggling to understand his logic.
No… On second thought, it wasn’t his logic she had a hard time following. It was his moral compass, or lack thereof.
He shrugged, further cementing his cluelessness.
Ella let out a growl of frustration and quickly walked away from him. If it wasn’t so damn windy that her skirt would’ve blown up and given him a show he didn’t deserve, she would have made a run for it.
Then again, knowing him, he probably would’ve run her over just to get his point across.
“Ella,” he called, his engine roaring to life as he pulled up alongside her. Ella was sure going less than sixty for any length of time was going to strain the car’s delicate insides. “I’m telling you, you don’t wanna go back there.”
“Why not?” she demanded without slowing her pace.
“Because Mom invited Marissa’s parents over.”
Ella froze in her tracks. She reluctantly turned to face him and found no hint that he was screwing with her on his face. Just a smug, lopsided grin she once would have found charming.
He leaned over to pop the passenger door open. “Get in. I’ll take you to the mall to get some new clothes. Your old stuff is shit anyway.”
Ella felt an all-too-familiar flame roaring back to life inside her. “Screw you.”
“If you meant that, this whole thing would go a lot more smoothly,” he quipped without missing a beat.
She gritted her teeth to smother another growl and after a moment of arguing with herself, she finally got in on the passenger’s side and slammed the door shut as hard as she wished she could slap him.
“You can drop me off at the mall, and if you piss me off, I’m getting an Uber back.”
She waited for him to argue, but instead, he just smirked and turned his attention back to the road. “Fair enough, Princess.”
“I’m not a princess,” she snapped, folding her arms. “But soon enough, you can start calling me Your Grace.”
He was the only person she’d ever be tempted to lord her status over, too, if only to keep him at arm’s length. Much safer that way.
He snorted a laugh, tearing down the hill at a high enough speed she felt the need to grip the chicken handle. “We’ll see.”
Ella decided her best course of action was just to stay silent for the rest of the ride. Axel had always enjoyed getting a rise out of her, even more so those days.
Of course, Axel had other plans.
“I heard you tried to choke Marissa to death,” he finally said in a casual tone, as if he were discussing the weather.
Ella looked at him out of the corner of her eye. “And yet, you continue to bother me.”
“Please. I wouldn’t even have to touch you to have you rolling on your back and mewling like a kitten.”
Heat rushed to her cheeks, as much from embarrassment as rage. She tried to ignore the heat building between her thighs, tugging her skirt down as if he’d somehow know the effect his words had on her already tenuous restraint.
Whomever had engineered heat suppressants, she was pretty sure they hadn’t accounted for Axel’s filthy mouth. Ella hated herself for finding it more arousing than repulsive.
“I didn’t try to choke her,” she muttered, even though she wasn’t quite sure that was the truth. “Anyway, she attacked me first.”
“You were in her room,” he countered.
She turned her head toward him sharply. “I just got through being interrogated by the Headmaster, and I don’t have to take it from you.”
“Hey, I wasn’t judging,” he said, lifting his hands off the wheel for longer than she was comfortable with. He looked over at her, his eyes gleaming with mischief as they traveled over her in that way that made her feel naked. “It’s kind of a hot mental image, the two of you rolling around on the floor clawing at each other. Wish I’d been there to see it.”
“Oh, fuck off,” she hissed. “And keep your eyes on the road.”
He threw his head back and laughed, but he complied, for the most part. “I’m just messing with you. But seriously, I’m glad you finally stood up for yourself.”
“Oh, really?” she challenged. “You didn’t seem to feel that way when I told you to go to hell.”
“I’m not the one who spent years bullying you.”
Ella turned to gape at him when she realized he was serious.
He finally glanced over and frowned. “What?”
“I’m just trying to figure out if it’s really possible for someone to have so little self-awareness.”
“You’re being dramatic.”
“Think whatever you want,” she said, shrugging it off. “Marissa might be a stone cold bitch, but she’s got nothing on you when it comes to cruelty.”
She expected him to argue, not the extended silence that followed. When she turned to look at him, the pensive look on his face was even more unexpected.
Could he seriously be that clueless? Did he really not know that he, more than Emily or Marissa or anyone else, was the one who’d made her life before the Academy so miserable?
She was about to say something when he pulled into a downtown parking garage and announced that they’d arrived. Ella reluctantly followed him into the mall, deciding that maybe the Uber back was a good idea, after all. She didn’t trust herself not to lose her temper with Axel, but getting real with him was far more of a concern.
“You can go do whatever,” she finally said, catching sight of the department store she usually went to on the rare occasion she went clothes shopping, since they always had sales. Emily had given her a card filled with her “allowance” for books and other supplies she’d need at the Academy. Ella was sure she was only doing it to save face, but it was nice to have some financial independence, however small it was.
“You’re not seriously thinking of going in there, are you?” Axel asked, his nose wrinkling in distaste as he looked up at the department store sign like it was oozing with filth.
“Why not?”
Axel gave her a judgmental once-over. “You really do need help,” he snorted, taking off in the other direction. “Come on,” he said without looking back.
Ella stood in indecision, torn between the instinct to follow him and the pride that made her want to march off in the opposite direction. Then again, he seemed to take defiance as foreplay, and for all his vices, a lack of fashionability wasn’t one of them. Maybe if her after-school wardrobe was a bit more posh, the other students would give her a break.
She reluctantly followed him, deciding it was the fastest way to get in and out. It was no surprise he led her to the most expensive clothing shop in the entire mall. It was one Ella would never have considered setting foot inside. The kind staffed with salespeople who made her feel like a shoplifter just by existing even though she’d never so much as stolen a button in her life. Axel just breezed in like he owned the place.
Just like everyone else, the sales staff immediately gravitated to him like satellites. “Welcome to Westaff’s,” said a young brunette woman, coming up to greet them. “How can I help you today?”
“You can start a dressing room,” Axel answered, directing her as authoritatively as he commanded the staff at home. He sifted through one of the racks before picking up a dress that didn’t earn a scowl o
f disgust and handed it to the saleswoman without so much as a glance.
“Right away,” she said, scurrying off.
“What’s wrong with you?” Ella hissed. “You can’t talk to people like that.”
Axel looked up as if he had no idea what she was talking about. There were already a few items of clothing draped over his arm, none of which Ella would’ve ever picked out for herself. She was beginning to think letting him help was a bad idea, even though she hadn’t exactly asked. Given his taste in women, she highly doubted he had any idea how to dress a body that wasn’t tall and model thin.
“Like what?”
“Like they exist to wait on you,” she answered, in disbelief that she even had to explain this to him. She’d always just assumed that his behavior was born of an intentional desire to be as much of an ass as possible in any given situation, but she was starting to entertain the possibility that it was cluelessness.
Considering the people he’d been raised by, maybe it was more than just a possibility.
“She’s a salesperson,” he said flatly. “She’s literally here to wait on us.”
Ella didn’t have a sufficient retort for that, but she wasn’t willing to back down. “Still. It wouldn’t kill you to say ‘please’ once in a while.”
He rolled his eyes. “I’ll keep that in mind in the future.”
Somehow, she doubted that, but she was more concerned with the amassing collection of clothes draped over his arm. “Do you even know what size I am?”
He looked her over unabashedly. “Twelve in dresses and skirts, medium in tops and bottoms, right?”
Ella’s cheeks grew red hot, and she found herself at a loss for how to respond to his uncomfortably accurate assessment. He walked over to the saleswoman before she had the chance.
“Put these in the dressing room,” he said, handing the stack of clothes over to the woman. He glanced Ella’s way and put on a forced smile as he added, “Please.”
Ella groaned inwardly. At least it was a start.
Before Axel could pick out anything else, she walked into the dressing room. She doubted anything was going to be passable, but the sooner they left, the better.
Why had she ever thought this was a good idea?
She shut the door and turned toward the rack, heavily laden with dresses and skirts she doubted would meet the after-hours dress code. She slipped out of her uniform and dropped it on the seat in the corner of the fitting room. It was the size of a generous walk-in closet, and the soft white overhead lighting was clearly meant to flatter. Even so, she felt the need to avoid her reflection until she was fully dressed. The modelesque beauties at the Academy had done nothing for her self-esteem, that was for sure.
The first dress she tried on fit surprisingly well, and she found herself wondering just how much Axel had studied her body to know its dimensions so well. The dress was a good deal snugger than anything she would have picked out, and it showed enough cleavage to be barely socially appropriate at colony gatherings. Of course, none of the girls she’d seen wearing similar attire had quite as many curves to worry about covering.
She changed out of the dress and cast it aside before searching for something she could actually wear on a daily basis. It became clear to her as she sifted through the clothing that Axel had a taste for three things: leather, lace and jeans so tight they might as well have been painted on.
At least they fit well enough, and when she tried on a matching tan turtleneck that was surprisingly modest, she felt like she might actually be able to attend colony functions without sticking out like a sore thumb. She’d never look as regal and classy as Natalia, but maybe upgrading her wardrobe a little wasn’t such a bad idea, after all.
“It doesn’t take that long to try on a dress,” Axel called impatiently from outside the room.
Ella scowled at him through the door. “I’ve tried on a few things already.”
“Come out and let me see.”
She was reluctant to reward his demands, but she could use a second opinion--and if there was one thing she trusted Axel to be, it was brutally honest. She had already decided on her current outfit, so she quickly changed into the one relatively formal dress she would’ve felt comfortable changing into. It was a breezy Parisian number with loose sleeves and a tapered waist that flattered her curves. The A-line skirt actually fell below the knee, and it was more like something Natalia would wear than Marissa, so Ella was surprised he’d picked it out.
Then again, maybe he’d accidentally grabbed it in his haste.
She finally opened the door, steeling herself for whatever cutting assessment Axel had to make of her appearance. “Well?” she asked, looking down to make sure she hadn’t accidentally tucked the hem of the skirt into her panties when she saw the blank look on Axel’s face. “What do you think?”
He blinked as if coming out of a trance, still leaning against the column on the other side of the dressing room. “It’s...nice.”
Ella stared at him for a few seconds. She had been prepared for him to say she looked ridiculous, or any myriad of unkind things, but that tempered response was somehow far more unsettling.
“Nice?” she echoed. “If it makes me look like a marshmallow, you can just tell me.”
He scoffed a laugh, but it wasn’t half as cocky as his usual. He pushed off the column and sauntered over to lean in the dressing room door. “You look beautiful,” he said, looking at her in a way he never had before. It was almost soft, save for the edge of some indefinable thing that made her legs feel weak and wobbly. Of far more concern was the heat it stirred in her belly, so captivating her in his gaze that she barely even noticed his arm slipping around her waist until he’d edged his way into the dressing room.
“Axel, what are you--?”
Before she could get the rest of the question out, he switched their positions and had her pushed up against the fitting room door. The memory of him doing the same against the bathroom wall, and the way she’d shamelessly returned his kiss, chose the worst time to resurface.
For a moment, he just gazed down at her with that foreign glint in his eyes that she only recognized instinctively as the same thing that sparked within her whenever he was close. She opened her mouth to speak before realizing she didn’t trust herself, even if she could remember how to breathe.
Before she had the chance, he captured her lips in a kiss that was just as passionate as the first, but a good deal gentler. The softness of it took her even more off-guard than his aggression, but she found herself returning this one just the same as his hands tangled in her white tresses and his hard body pushed hers back against the unforgiving plane of the door.
As his tongue swept into her mouth, claiming and overpowering hers, Ella felt the strength of the suppressants running through her bloodstream being tested more each moment that passed. And she was doing nothing to help, her fingers digging through his hair and her leg hitched up over his thigh. He pushed the hem of her dress up and slipped his hand underneath, his skin lighting hers on fire as it traveled up her smooth thigh.
“Axel,” she panted against his lips before he broke away to claim her neck between his teeth. The bite was hard enough to bruise, but not enough to pierce the skin, leaving a permanent mark that would give him the claim to royalty he so brazenly coveted. She knew she would have let him, too. She might have wanted to kill him the moment the ecstasy and lust wore off, but she would have turned her head and moaned in bliss as he bit her neck the way he had so many times in her fantasies, before taking her right there in a public dressing room.
Maybe her classmates were right. Maybe she really was everything they claimed. All she knew was that around Axel, she didn’t know herself. What she was capable of, or what she really felt. All she knew was that she craved his touch the way she craved air to breathe.
His mouth was still on her neck, sucking and nipping, and that alone had her aroused to the point of coming without him ever touching her down there. When he s
lipped his fingers underneath her panties and touched her, the full-body shudder that overtook her confirmed it.
Before the startled moan could escape her lips, Axel claimed them once more, swallowing down the desperate sound as she ground against his hand. She felt his smug smile against her lips, but it wasn’t enough to break the spell of his seduction, only to amplify it.
Just when her clit reached the point of oversensitivity, he pushed his fingers inside her, curling in until he found her spot. Ella gasped, her head falling back against the dressing room door as he fucked her with his fingers, each thrust perfectly aimed and unrelenting.
She was on the verge of coming a second time when reason won out over passion and she broke the kiss, pushing against his shoulders. “Stop,” she said breathlessly, surprised she’d been able to get the word out at all.
The disappointment on his face was clear, but he obeyed her command, and her body gave another involuntary shiver as he pulled his fingers out of her. His left forearm rested on the door above her, his eyes glazed with the same desire coursing through her even still as he looked down at her.
“What’s the matter?” he taunted knowingly. “Enjoying yourself too much?”
As much irritation burned within her as lust, but she wasn’t going to dignify that with a response. When he brought his fingers to his lips and made a point of drawing them into his mouth, seductively savoring the taste of her on his tongue, she lost all ability to form a coherent sentence.
“You taste good,” he purred, his hand still stroking her thigh. “Innocent.”
Ella’s cheeks grew even warmer and she pushed him away. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?” she muttered, reaching for the clothes she’d worn into the store.
Rather than answer, he just continued watching her with that devilish smirk as she tried to focus on separating the clothes she’d chosen from the castoffs.
“You should get that dress,” he remarked.