AXEL (The Beckett Boys, Book Eight) Page 4

  Fuck. Okay, that makes sense. Can’t really fault her for pretending not to know me, especially since good-old Charles is her father. That would make for an awkward situation. And she’s right—I fucking took off in the wee hours, not thinking I was ever going to see her again…and that was a shitty thing to do.

  But fate brought her here, regardless of the circumstances. And now that I’m looking into those compelling eyes, I can’t help but want to taste her mouth again. God, I jacked off twice today thinking about our sex last night.

  The fact that she let me take her virginity? Fucking incredible.

  Kendra is trouble, and God help me, I want another round.

  “I want to see you again,” I say.

  She stiffens and blinks her shock with wide eyes locked on mine. “What? No way. Forget it.”

  “What if I’ll talk with Butch about selling the house if you agree to see me again?” It’s the only bargaining chip I have.

  Her eyes roll hard. She knows I’m full of shit—that I’m using this opportunity as a shameless means to convince her to go out with me. But I can see her softening, despite the blatant attempt.

  “We can discuss it over dinner,” I tell her, stepping toward her. This close, I can smell the light vanilla of her scent, and I breathe in, not losing eye contact, letting her see how she affects me.

  Her gaze drops to my chest, and the appreciation she has for my body is clear in her eyes, which grow slightly hooded. “This is crazy,” she murmurs.

  “Kendra,” Charles shouts from the car, having rolled down the window. “We gotta go.”

  “One date,” I press. “And I won’t even tell you how badly I want to fuck you again or touch that beautiful pussy.” Her lips part at my bold words. Part of me thinks I should explain why I ran. But not here, not right now. I barely even know what to think about it myself. “Say yes.”

  She inhales harshly through her nose, then digs into her purse and gives me a business card. “Here’s my number. Call me—but only if you’re serious about selling. You can at least get something for the home.” I can see her trying to resist me, and the urge to touch her soft skin is making my cock throb in my jeans. If she looks down again, she’ll see how hard I am for her. “My father will make good on his promise to see this place condemned if you try to make things difficult. The mall will be happening, Axel. No two ways about it.”

  I stroke the card with purposeful intent, my thumb brushing the raised lettering. “I’ll keep that in mind, Kendra.” Then I lean in close and whisper in her ear, “I’ve thought about you all day, you know.”

  Her face is burning when she pulls back and steps away from me. But her nipples are hard; I can see that through her shirt. Not to mention her parted lips and the way she’s staring at me. She wants me too. “I…gotta go.”

  “I shouldn’t have left like that,” I finally tell her. I don’t really know what else to say, but I can offer that much.

  Her nod is slight, but I see tension leak from her shoulders. “Thank you.” She turns and gets into the car, and the Benz pulls away, sliding down the road and disappearing around the corner.

  A rap on my door lets me know Chris is here. I whip it open and give him a nod. “Ready?”

  “Let’s do this.” Chris has his baseball bat in hand, and I step out into the warm summer night as we stroll down the street.

  Not twenty minutes after Kendra and her father left, I got a text from a man in the neighborhood asking for my help. He’s being bullied by a couple of drug dealers who are pressing him to pay more. He already gave them what he owed, but they won’t quit harassing him, saying he didn’t pay interest and so on. Milking him for more than what is fair.

  Chris and I are gonna fuck them up.

  I know these idiots. They live two streets down; I’ve already had to pay them a visit because of bullshit they’ve pulled before on other neighbors. They’re two young punks with no sense of honor.

  “So,” I say casually to Chris, “did you get a visit today from those people wanting to tear down the neighborhood and build a mall?”

  He shakes his head. “No, I talked to them before. They already made me an offer.”

  I stop in place. “And you accepted?”

  Chris quirks a brow at me. “The amount of money they offered? I couldn’t resist. I can get a nicer place than that crap hole I’m living in.”

  “It’s not that bad,” I hedge, and he barks a laugh.

  “That place is a dump. I know it, and you know it. I haven’t cared enough to keep it up. Now I don’t have to.”

  Fuck. He makes it sound like the mall is a foregone conclusion. “How many other people in the neighborhood have sold out—” I stop myself from finishing the question, knowing it sounds harsh.

  “Sold out, huh?” he says with a light laugh. “Think what you want, bro. This neighborhood is barely hanging on with duct tape and thin hope. Can’t last much longer. I’d rather go out with my head held high and a pocketful of cash. On my terms.”

  “We don’t need another fucking mall in Rock Bridge,” I grouse. “And this neighborhood is fine. Nothing wrong with it.” There are good people in here, despite the occasional assholes.

  “Axel,” he says in an unusually gentle voice. We turn the corner, sidestepping two little kids who should be in bed, not out coloring on the sidewalk. “Take a good look around you. This place is bad. Falling apart. Rotting from the inside out. Even your brothers recognized it and got the fuck out while they could.”

  My cheeks burn with anger. “Yeah, they sure did.”

  “I’m not saying the way they dumped you is okay,” he says, swinging the bat to rest on his shoulder. Our boots continue to fall on the cracked sidewalk as we make another turn toward the offenders’ house. “But you can’t keep living in the past. The future will happen, whether you like it or not.”

  “I’m not fucking living in the past. I’m dealing with the present the best way I can. Keeping shit going. Someone’s gotta be here for these people.”

  Chris’s free hand claps my shoulder. “You’re good for trying, but you gotta let it go sometime. There’s only so much you can do. Ain’t no shame in moving on and letting this place go.”

  We continue the rest of the way in silence. I think about the issue, really think about it. Why am I so attached to this neighborhood? Why do I feel the need to defend it when so many others seem ready to leave it behind?

  I know the reason why. It’s the only genuine home I’ve ever known. I was bounced around from family member to member after my mom left me as a kid. It wasn’t until Butch took me in several years ago, integrated me into his family, treated me like one of his other sons, that I found a sense of belonging.

  At least, insofar as the bastard half-son of an emotionally distant man could find a sense of belonging.

  Still, he gave me a place to live, and I won’t let him down. He isn’t here to fight the fight, but I am.

  We clomp up the steps toward the drug dealers’ house. It’s a fucking blight in the neighborhood. If we could raze this one place and leave the other good houses intact, I wouldn’t complain. The police won’t come in our neighborhood, so it’s up to me to deal with it.

  “You ready to go teach some motherfuckers a lesson about messing with people we protect?” I tell Chris. I’m itching to pound some faces in. The frustration over the situation with Kendra and the mall is driving me mad. I gotta get it out somehow.

  His wide grin is infectious, and I find myself grinning in response. “It’s my favorite part of the day, yo. Let’s do this.”

  Kendra

  Dad pours himself a scotch and settles into his favorite easy chair in the family room, kicking his feet up on the leather ottoman. Given the size of the drink he poured, it’s easy to see he’s frustrated by today’s events.

  I pour one for myself and settle on the couch near him. The huge flat-screen TV is on, set to a music channel playing soft rock hits. The hidden speakers nestled around th
e room fill the space with ambient sound. I don’t say anything, just wait for him to speak. I could try pointing out that the rest of our meetings went well…amazingly so, more than I thought they would.

  But he’s festering over Axel. Daddy doesn’t like to lose. Not when he’s being shut down so harshly.

  “What a dick,” Daddy finally says, resting his head on his recliner. The glass rests on his thigh in a clenched hand, long fingers wrapped around it. “Sometimes we get bullheaded people who are resistant to positive change. It’s idiotic how some won’t wake up and see what a shitty place they’re stuck in.”

  “To be fair, it is his home,” I find myself saying. “I can see how someone would be hostile about us trying to demolish it.” Which is true. I’d be upset if someone was pushing me to move from the place I called home, whatever the reason. People have attachments to places for various reasons.

  My father looks up and over at me, both brows raised. “I can’t believe you’re defending anything about this.” His voice is even, but I can hear the displeasure seeping through his tone.

  “I’m just trying to think about it from their perspective,” I say generically. “It’s the best way to find how to approach them, if I can connect to them.”

  “Their homes are dumps,” he says baldly. “Utter waste of good space. They’re lucky we’re even willing to work with them at all.”

  “I’m sure we can get him to change his mind.” I sip my drink.

  Daddy eyes me for a long moment. “Kendra. Don’t get caught in the charms of common men like Axel Beckett.”

  I might be 21, out of college, but it’s going to be a while before he sees me as an adult woman. I smother a sigh I with another drink of scotch.

  “I don’t plan to,” I say, even though I’m reminded of last night with him, how he devoured me bite by bite. My body grows flushed at the memory, and I try to not shift in my seat. Daddy doesn’t know what happened between us, and that’s fine. He doesn’t need to know.

  “Good. Guys like that will bring you nothing but suffering and humiliation if you drop your guard and trust them for even a moment.” Having proclaimed his opinion, he settles back into his chair and grabs a book from the table beside him, flipping through the pages to get to where he left off.

  I love my father. But the fact that he seems to think I have no ability to judge character makes me burn with frustration. I rise and pour more scotch into my glass. “I’m heading to my suites,” I tell him.

  “Sleep well,” he says in a distracted tone as he sinks into the pages of the thriller on his lap.

  I mumble a goodnight to him and leave his den, heading to my wing. It’s just he and I living in the mansion, plus various help he’s hired over the years to maintain the mansion and its grounds, so the place offers me plenty of privacy. Daddy’s rooms are on the far end of the opposite wing. When I make it to my sitting room, I slump on the chaise and stare past the massive floor-to-ceiling French doors at the moon-filled night. I feel…restless. Maybe I should go take a walk in the gardens. Fresh air and flowers may offer solace and peace.

  What is wrong with me?

  I know what my problem is. A man. Someone who confuses me to hell, arouses me, irritates me. He’s unlike anyone I’ve ever known before. Certainly not the pampered douches at my college, or those in my social circles. They’re all dull, with no spark. Nothing interesting that makes me feel alive when I’m with them.

  Axel has a fire in his belly. Passion in his eyes. He’s magnetic, and wild, and damn it, I can’t stop thinking about him.

  I stand up and open the doors, stepping onto the balcony. The sounds of nature in the wooded areas beyond our grounds beckon me. What would it be like to be wild like him? To not give a fuck about what people think about you? Axel does what he wants. I have too many responsibilities, too many goals, to act like that.

  But God, it is compelling, refreshing in a strange way.

  My phone buzzes with an incoming call. I pull it out of my pants—I don’t recognize the number. “Hello?” It’s a little late for someone to be doing business, but Daddy told me people operate at all hours of the day in our industry and to get used to it. Business runs on its own hours.

  “Your voice is just as sexy on the phone as it is in person.” The words, delivered in a gravelly, familiar tone, send small shivers of pleasure across my skin.

  “Axel,” I say as evenly as I can. I don’t want him to know how he gets to me. Despite him admitting it was wrong to run out on me after our night together, I can’t let myself be vulnerable to this man. He could undo me if I dare to drop my guard. “Did you change your mind about selling? I’m happy to make an appointment during daytime to discuss it.”

  “I couldn’t stop thinking about you.”

  “What kind of game are you playing here?” I say, alarmed at the light breathlessness in my voice. Shit. So much for maintaining a professional cool. “Does this approach normally work on women?”

  “Not a game. I fucking want you again so much.” There’s a rawness in his voice that goes right to my pussy, tightening the muscles there as I remember how he felt against me. God, I want him too.

  I want to remind him he was only supposed to call me about business. But he and I both know I didn’t give him my cell phone number for just that. I was hoping he would reach out to me, despite not wanting to admit it out loud, or even to myself.

  I put my cards on the table and he called my bluff.

  “Tell me you’ve been thinking about last night like I have,” he says, the words demanding an answer from me.

  “I have,” I find myself admitting.

  “You were a virgin.” The words are out there, so bluntly, and I don’t know how to respond at first.

  My face, throat, and chest burst into an inferno of heat as I stare out into the darkness. “I… So?” I almost could laugh at the defensiveness in my response.

  “No one ever…gave me that before,” he says quietly. “It scared me, how quickly I connected with you. But it was shitty to run like that, to make you feel like that didn’t matter to me. If you give me another chance, I won’t do that again.”

  The sincerity in his tone undoes me. “Thank you for that.”

  But then I hear my father’s words of caution and wonder if maybe I am that naïve. Maybe I am getting played here.

  “I want to see you, now,” Axel says darkly. Now the bossiness is back, and fuck, I find myself growing wet at the insistent words. I love how dominant he is, how he takes what he wants. It’s so sexy. I’ve never known someone like him.

  “I’m at home right now,” I say with more than a little regret. “I had some scotch, so I can’t drive anywhere.”

  “I’ll come to you. Tell me where.”

  I gasp. “Are you crazy? My dad is here.”

  “Then I suggest you find a way to sneak me in,” he practically purrs, “because I need to lick that pussy again and taste your come on my mouth. And something tells me you need it too.”

  My lower belly tightens so much that I’m certain I could orgasm just from his words. “I…” I swallow, then rattle off the address before I can overthink it. “I’ll meet you at the gatehouse. Just turn your lights off as you approach.”

  “Done. See you soon, sweetness.” The phone clicks off, and I’m left staring at it, shocked at myself.

  I’m sneaking Axel into my father’s house. This is insane, and way outside of anything I’ve ever done. I don’t even recognize myself. And if I’m honest, I don’t want to. Since meeting Axel, I find myself having the urge to be more wild, like him.

  I want him inside me too. Need it.

  After a few minutes, I slip down the stairs, out the front door, and in my flats, pad my way down the smooth driveway toward the gatehouse. I can’t wait any longer. My whole body feels alive, vibrant with anticipation. I’m hungry again for Axel. Needing him. Last night, he awakened me, and I can’t seem to shut that off. My desire feels like a firehose that’s been put o
n full blast.

  I don’t want to shut it off.

  The moon casts a soft pale glow on the grass and plants dotting the landscape. As a kid, I loved running around on the grounds at night. It felt like a fairy tale place, where magic could happen. I haven’t had that feeling since then, but tonight, I’m getting that same sense of magic, as silly as it sounds.

  Keep your heart out of this, I warn myself. It’s all too easy to tangle up sex and love. This is the former, nothing else. I can enjoy it, and I should. But only if I keep myself emotionally protected. Axel isn’t the kind of guy I can settle down with. Nor should I even assume he’d want that.

  We both know what this is. And I’m okay with that.

  I hear the purr of a motorcycle coming down the drive, and the butterflies in my stomach kick into overdrive. This isn’t just a random pickup like last night was. This is purposeful. No drunken seduction needed. I might be warm from the scotch I had earlier, but I feel sober and alive and ready for what’s to come.

  True to his word, the headlight of his bike is flicked off as he approaches the gatehouse. I key the code, and the gates open, letting him in.

  “Um, you can leave your bike—” My words are cut off by the hard press of his mouth on mine, the way his hand possessively snaps around my waist to draw me closer to him, still perched on his bike. He drags my body against his, and I breathe him in.

  God. Yes.

  This man is sin incarnate, and I can’t help but want to give in.

  Axel’s mouth is searching mine, tasting, dipping and diving into me. It makes me crave that mouth everywhere. My body is in fire, tingling, my pussy clenched and soaked. I dig my hands into his hair and kiss him like he is my oxygen. Like I can’t draw another breath into my desperate lungs without him.