Chapter 33

“We’re here.”

“No fucking shit, Satan,” I mutter. The car has stopped and the cold light of day breaking offers enough illumination to show me we’re back on campus, despite the tinted windows.

It’s morning. Or almost morning. Or something. I have no idea what day it is or when I was taken, how long I’ve been gone…anything.

What will happen when The Gods return and find me gone?

Oh. Yeah. Hector. They’ll already know. I guess he’ll tell them to save them a wasted trip going to collect me.

My limbs feel heavy and sluggish and I’m sure I dozed off a little on the way back. I’ve probably got drool on my chin, but that’s the least of my worries right now.

“You’re coming back with me,” Axel announces suddenly.

“Like fuck I am,” I spit, taking my anger and exhaustion out on him without meaning to.

“Have you learnt nothing?” He seethes. “If you’d just listened to me at breakfast…”

“They would still have taken me. At some point. You can’t lock me in your lair forever.”

“Want to bet…” he mutters darkly, then surprises me by doing a complete 180. “Are you hungry? Can I feed you?”

“Erm…” He’s completely floored me and I have no idea what to say.

“Please? I want to take care of you. I’m sorry I wasn’t there when you woke up. I need to make sure you’re okay.”

I so rarely get to see this side of Axel – that concerned, gentle part of him – that I find myself nodding in agreement.

“Okay. But in my room please.”

A flicker of annoyance crosses his face but it’s quickly gone. “Okay. But after you’re fed and rested, I’m having a doctor look over your injuries. It’s non-negotiable.”

I wouldn’t dream of arguing but I do add a caveat. “A female doctor, please.”

He tenses and the sharp jerk of his head is the only response he gives.

“Come on then. I’m going to carry you in, if that’s okay, because you don’t have anything on your feet.”

I didn’t even notice. Why wasn’t he concerned with the welfare of my feet at the hotel? Maybe because the public pavements are probably still cleaner than the concrete surrounding the halls of residence. He makes a good point.

“Okay.”

As if on cue, the driver opens the door and I worry that he’s been listening in. Axel climbs out but turns and looks back at me expectantly. I clamber towards him with zero grace, completely forgetting that I’m naked but for another man’s T-shirt. And then when I think about Hector, I want to burn it. Axel holds his palm out with seemingly infinite patience – which just doesn’t suit him at all – and I place my hand in his.

He helps me from the car but my feet never even touch the ground. He cradles me to his chest in a honeymoon hold and with a gentle clearing of his throat, the driver then shrugs his jacket and drapes it over my lap and legs. Axel gives him a rare nod of thanks and then we stride away without a backwards glance.

“Can you reach my key?” Axel asks as we approach my building. “I don’t want to let you go.”

The way he says let you go and not put you down does funny things to my insides.

“Where is it?”

“My jeans pocket.”

“Which one?” I tut.

“The front.”

With a little wiggling I’m able to slide my hand into his front pocket, which for some reason makes me squirm with embarrassment.

“Got it.” I state the obvious as I pull it free and avoid his gaze.

“Unlock the door.”

He bends slightly so that I can, but honestly it would just be easier if he put me down. Once we’re into the main foyer, I expect him to, but he carries me over to the door to my flat and bends again. I huff a little, thinking he’s being a bit ridiculous. The hallway is carpeted and clean.

I unlock the second door and wonder how we’re actually going to open the door to my bedroom. A second later when he bends again, I curse under my breath.

“Arsehole.”

He chuckles.

“I knew your master key opened every door.”

“This is the first time I’ve used it.”

“Of course it is.” I shake my head, not believing his shit for a second.

The door swings open and he can finally put me down but the infuriating control freak just carries me to my bed and deposits me on the mattress. I cringe.

“What’s wrong?”

“I need a shower. I don’t want to make everything all dirty.”

“Okay.” He moves as though to pick me up again but I shake my head at him. “What?”

“Axel, it’s literally ten paces away. I don’t live in a penthouse, unlike you.”

“You could live in my penthouse.”

“You’re missing the point. I can walk.”

“Okay. What can I do while you shower?”

I shrug. “Order food. Make cocktails. Scratch your balls. Whatever.”

He smirks and it feels a little bit more normal between us.

I force myself to my feet, past all the stiffness and soreness and head to my pod bathroom. As soon as I’ve closed the door I peel off the T-shirt and start up the water. Within minutes the room is thick with steam, creating a comforting cocoon and an illusion of safety. I don’t look at my body, not in the mirror nor by glancing down. I don’t crave pain or blood to cleanse myself of this trauma, but I know that’s probably just the drugs still coursing through my system. The shame and regret and memories will surface later no doubt, and then I’ll be trying to carve them from my flesh.

I hope I’m alone when they do resurface. No one needs to relive those nightmares with me. The old ones were bad enough and these new hallucinations…I shudder and push it all away.

I step under the spray and let it cleanse me. Wash away my sins. I’m gentle with my body when I wash it, taking time to clean and condition my hair too. I work methodically, unemotionally, until a knock at the door distracts me.

“Are you almost done? No problem if not, I can put the pizza in the oven to warm.”

“No. No, I’m done. One minute,” I call back.

“Okay, I’ll be back in a second.”

God, he almost sounds human. I shake my head and shut off the water, then I wring out and wrap my hair, and cocoon my body in the largest, softest towel I have. I quickly brush my teeth. My mum once said brushing your teeth makes everything in life a little bit better, and I’ve always found it to be true.

I exit the bathroom, still managing to avoid the mirror. Even though it’s steamed up, the full length one opposite the en suite isn’t, so I avoid gazing at that one too by focusing on my bed. I don’t want to lie down but I’m so tired and my limbs feel so heavy. Instead though, I curl up in a ball, right in the corner by the headboard.

Axel walks in with a pizza box in one hand, my glass teapot in the other and my favourite mug hanging from his little finger. It’s such a domesticated sight, so alien on him, that a small laugh slips free.

“I thought making tea might be better than cocktails,” he says with a shrug, depositing the pizza box on my bed and moving to my desk to pour me a drink.

“So you managed tea and pizza while I was in the shower. How are your balls?”

“Freshly scratched and grateful.”

“I hope you washed your hands,” I snort.

“You’ll have to smell them and see.”

I gape at him.

“Did you just make a joke?”

“Yes. That’s disgusting. Who do you think I am, Kaiden?”

A smile tugs at my lips. It’s exactly the sort of thing Kaiden would have said – and done – when we were younger. Hell, he probably still would now.

“Where are they?” I ask quietly and Axel tenses.

“At the flat.”

“Do they know?”

“Yes,” his reply is terse. “Some of it. I’ve spared them the details for now.”

“Okay.” I let it go. I don’t have the energy to start a fight with Axel. “So, pizza? How did you get that here so quickly?”

“Quickly? You were in the shower for nearly an hour. You must be frozen.”

I don’t feel cold. Didn’t notice if the water was scalding or freezing. I blink.

“I’m just…hungry. And maybe kind of numb. Tired.” Still feeling the less palatable after effects of being drugged.

He nods his understanding.

“Okay, we’ll eat then sleep. Do you want some music in the background? TV?”

“Sure. Whatever.”

“I’ll put a film on your laptop. Get comfy.”

I do as he says, not batting an eyelid that Axel seems to know all of my passwords as he logs into my laptop and Netflix accounts. Fucking stalker. He selects The Goonies and I smile faintly. It’s nostalgic, and just what I need right now. He passes me a slice of pizza and his fingers brush mine, lingering a moment too long.

“Thanks.”

“Welcome.”

I sit back and let the film work its magic on me, transporting me back to my childhood and the first time I watched it with the guys. They’d seen it before, many times if their ability to quote it word for word was anything to go by, but I still loved every minute of it. Kaiden and Zie would bicker over what they’d spend the money on, and Axel would pick holes in everybody’s plans – both on screen and off. He keeps quiet this time, for a while, until he just can’t help himself.

“It’s stupid,” he mutters. I laugh.

“Well it is! You have to admit their plan is flawed.”

“That’s not the point. Just enjoy the ride.”

“You know, I never watched any of those films when I was with you. It’s a good thing I’d seen them all before.”

“What do you mean?” I frown.

We both reach for more pizza at the same time, hands brushing, and I laugh out of nervousness.

“Back off. This one’s mine.”

“Hush, there’s an equal number of slices.”

“But I’m hungry. Starved in fact,” I tease, deliberately trying too hard to keep the tone light.

“You can have all the pizza,” Axel replies.

“Tonight?”

“In the world.”

“What’s the catch?”

“There is none. I’ll give you the world if you’ll let me.”

“So long as it’s dough based and smothered in cheese?” I grin at him but he doesn’t return it.

He’s too serious, too intense and suddenly I’m all too aware of him on my tiny single bed, taking up all the energy in the room.

“Odi—”

I force myself to look away from his imploring gaze. It’s hard, nearly impossible, but I focus on the laptop instead.

“What did you mean when you said you never watched those films with me?” I steer the conversation to what I think will be safer ground.

“I was always too distracted, watching you. Your reactions were more mesmerising than the same old tired plots being played out on screen.”

“This plot is not tired!” I cry, ignoring the spike of my pulse and swallowing quickly. “How dare you. It’s a classic!”

“Peony—” he warns and my pulse flutters once more. Does he know what he’s doing, what that name does to me?

“Axel, don’t.”

“You asked. You can’t ask a question you don’t want the answer to. I was obsessed with you, back then,” he confesses. Do I imagine a silent still am hanging in the air when he pauses for a beat?

“You held my attention more than anything.”

The pizza is gone and he removes the safety barrier of the empty box from between us.

“I think about that night all the time – if your mum hadn’t come home…” He lets his what if settle in the air between us. It’s not like I haven’t thought about it myself. Obsessively, over the years.

If things had played out differently, would he still have abandoned me and made the others drop me? Or did he do that because things didn’t play out the way either of us had hoped? Was it a deliberate manoeuvre to distance the guys from me, so that he could make me his own, but then with some time and distance he changed his mind?

I have so many questions and zero energy to engage in an emotional battle of wills or the past with Axel.

“I’m tired,” I say softly.

“We should sleep,” he replies as I say, “You should go.”

He scoffs. “I’m not leaving.”

“Axel—” I aim for cajoling but it comes out reproachful.

“No, Odi,” he snaps, finally losing patience with me. It’s a miracle he lasted this long to be fair. Most out of character, but I knew he couldn’t keep up the ruse of being Mr. Nice Guy for long. My tea hasn’t even gone cold yet. “Let’s address the fucking elephant in the room. You’ve been through several major traumas in the last twenty-four hours alone. Don’t even get me started on the last few weeks—”

“Whose fault is that?” I mutter.

“So if you think I’m going to let you out of my sight for even a damn second, you’ll be fucking lucky. The only reason I let you shower alone is because I’m painfully aware of what you’ve been through and I didn’t want to trigger you—”

“Though you have no problem triggering me by being in bed with me—”

“And because I could keep an eye on you on the security feeds.”

“What?!”

He continues like I’ve not even spoken. “So settle the fuck down, princess, because I’m not going anywhere.”

“You watched me in the shower?” I demand, hotly.

“Of course not. I just checked you were still breathing when you didn’t come out for so long.”

“On camera? You have cameras in my bathroom? Where else?”

“Everywhere, of course. I take your safety very seriously.”

“Since. When?” I grind out.

“Since you were fucking abducted!”

“Which time? Yesterday? Or when you abducted me weeks ago?”

Axel doesn’t answer.

“Get out. Now,” I demand in a deadly tone.

His “no” is petulant and it makes my temper boil over.

“Get. Out. Axel!” I shout.

“No.” Gah! He’s stubborn as a mule. “You were drugged. You’re not safe to be alone.”

I get to my feet and point in his face, though there’s zero height advantage when I’m standing and he’s still lounging on my bed like he owns it.

“What’s not safe is for you to be around me right now,” I warn.

“It’s fine.” He waves a hand dismissively. “I had all of the knives removed from the room.” This just enrages me even more.

“You’re unbelievable!” I cry, throwing my arms up in the air. Axel’s gaze darkens and it takes a moment for me to figure out why. My towel has slipped. I clutch it and yank it back up from around my waist to make myself decent once more, refusing to look down and wonder if his gaze is dark with his desire for me or for the bloodshed of the ones who hurt me. Or maybe just seeing The Doe tattoo sprawled across my chest arouses him.

“Put some clothes on,” he says darkly, dragging his gaze away like it pains him. “I won’t have this conversation with you while you’re practically naked.”

“Fine.” I stomp over to my wardrobe and wrench open the doors. It feels good to be a little bit violent with them, to take out a modicum of the pent-up emotions that I’m feeling on something. I grab the first sleep shirt my hand lands on. He’ll hate this. I pull it over my head and slam the doors once more. “Better?” I smirk with my hands on my hips and his gaze blazes.

“You’re pushing it, Peony,” he warns. “I’m trying to be good—”

“Since when have you ever been good?” I snort.

“Exactly.” He scrubs his hands over his face but his gaze is like a magnet that keeps coming back to sweep across my bare legs and my torso which is barely concealed by the T-shirt he left behind in my bedroom on that fateful night which changed everything. “That’s why it’s so fucking hard. I swear you’d tempt the patience of a saint.”

“Good job you’re just The Father then,” I reply with vitriol and sarcasm.

Suddenly I know exactly what I need. Axel. I need him to replace the horrors of the last twenty-four hours with…anything. I don’t care if we argue, I have to push him. It’s a compulsion. I need to pick a fight with someone. I need to let my anger out somehow.

And I have plenty to be angry with Axel about. He might not be the object of my rage today, but he is deserving of it nonetheless for sins past.

He shakes his head but doesn’t rise to my bait. I need to push him. Provoke him somehow.

He’s always been a jealous, possessive arsehole. Maybe I should play on that.

“If you installed those cameras weeks ago, you’d know that Kaiden and I fucked. Right there on the bed where you’re lying. You’d have yourself a nice little sex tape to watch. You’d be able to play it back on repeat and watch over and over again how he made me come just by sucking at the cut on my neck that he made. How he made me scream my way through another three orgasms after tha— Oof!”

The air is slammed out of me as Axel pounces, sending me flying back against the window. Thankfully it’s only open a crack otherwise I’d have tumbled through it, but it still smarts.

I half expect Axel to kiss me, but of course he would never do anything so predictable. His teeth sink into my throat, not gently, right where Kaiden nicked me with his blade. There’s a tiny scar there but it still thrills me that Axel could find the spot so easily, like he’s memorised it and wants to claim it as his own.

I groan as his bite turns into sucking which makes my breath rasp. His fingers find the back of my neck, pinching in a bruising grip which would bring me to my knees if his hips didn’t have me pinned in place against the cold window pane.

“Axel—”

“What, Odi? I told you it was hard but you had to push and push. This is your fault.”

He tosses me onto the bed with ease but has me pinned before I can even bounce on the mattress. The position is reminiscent of that night and the memory heats my blood.

“I shouldn’t do this,” he mutters to himself.

“Why not?”

“You’ve still got Christ knows what in your system.”

“This isn’t the drugs’ doing. I want you, Axel. More than anything.”

“You’ve been through enough. Your heart stopped.”

“It’s fine. I’m fine.” Total lie, but I need this and I can fall apart later.

He hesitates, looking torn.

Axel Abbot, the most confident steadfast person I know, unshakeable to his very core, is torn right now. And I’ve done that to him. He’s on the edge, so close to caving and giving me what I need, I just have to push him off the cliff.

“Axel, please, it’s always been you—” I honestly mean to say that it’s always been the three of them, but somehow that’s not what comes out.

It’s the catalyst that snaps his restraint though.

He kisses me so hard I forget how to breathe and when he pulls away I’m putty in his hands.

“You think I don’t know he fucked you?” He whispers as his hands skim over my skin so lightly I wonder if I’m imagining it.

“That I couldn’t fucking smell you all over him the moment he entered the flat?”

He slips under my T-shirt and caresses the underside of my breasts, making me shiver.

“It took days to drive the scent of you out from under my nose.”

He ghosts a kiss across my lips, the softest ever.

“I’ve nearly driven myself insane thinking about it over and over.”

He pushes the shirt up to my throat and pulls the material taut, restricting my airway.

“Imagining… Fantasising…”

My nipples pebble in the cool air and he blows on them to tease them into hard, needy peaks.

“I’ve been wondering how he took you.”

He takes a nipple between his teeth and toys with it before biting down hard. I cry out and he soothes the sting with his tongue.

“How you screamed.”

Still sucking my nipple, his hand skims south, over my hips and between my legs.

“What you looked like when you came apart on his fucking dick.”

He pushes a single finger inside of me and my back arches as my eyes flutter closed and his dirty, possessive words wash over me in flames that lick at my skin.

“If you wished it was me instead.”

A keening cry falls from my lips and I can’t hide the gush of wetness between my legs from him. In the moment with Kaiden, I absolutely did not think of Axel, but now that he’s mentioned it, I’m transported back there and reliving it all with a filthy twist.

A sharp bite to my thigh brings me back to the present and then Axel roars, “What the fuck is this?!”

His fingers are gone and he’s wrenching my legs apart, sitting up and staring intently between my thighs. I squirm in embarrassment and try to clamp my legs closed but he pins them open.

“Odile—”

“It’s nothing, okay?”

“This isn’t nothing,” he growls. “What the fuck happened to my brand?”

I gape at him. Really? Is that what’s bothering him? That his precious handiwork from when we were kids was destroyed and fucked up beyond all recognition.

“Who did this?”

I choke on the words, can’t spit them out. I frantically shake my head. I can’t.

“Odi. Tell me. This isn’t new, it wasn’t done last night.”

I cringe.

“Odi!” he barks.

I cover my face and wish the ground would swallow me whole. There’s nowhere to run, no escape. Axel sees everything.

He curses under his breath.

“Fuck. I should get you to a doctor. We shouldn’t be doing this. You need to rest.” I mewl and reach for him, desperately pulling him closer so that he can’t humiliate me by leaving.

“Stay,” I plead.

“Tell me who did that to you and I will.”

“Axel—”

“Tell me, Odi, and I’ll make you scream. I’ll never mention it again. I promise.”

Fuck. Fuck, what do I do? If I tell him he’ll flip, if I don’t, he’ll leave. Either way neither of us are getting what we need right now.

“It’s old.”

“I gathered. Who?”

I hesitate.

“This is the last time I’ll ask Odi, tell me. Now.”

“The General,” I whisper.

“When?”

“You said—”

“Fucking when, Peony?!” he all but screams at me. I should be terrified but the only thing that scares me is the thought of him leaving.

“When you left.”

“When you’re better, you will tell me everything, do you hear me? This isn’t over.”

Before I can reply he slams his fingers back into me and steals my protests away. It fucking hurts, but I always knew anything with Axel would. He snarls into my neck, biting the already tender flesh, and pistons into me like a madman.

“I’ll. Just. Fucking. Brand. You. Again.” He grunts with each thrust. His palm slams against my clit with bruising force. “Every. Inch. Of. Your. Skin. Will. Be. Mine.”

Then he shifts his fingers and hits a spot that has my pained gasp turning to a cry of pleasure.

“Tell. The. World... Show. Them. All… Mine…. Fucking… Heaven… Odi—”

He loses his damn mind, finger fucking me into oblivion, chasing both our demons away. It’s all I can do to cling on for the ride, dragging my nails down his back hard enough to draw blood and trying to just breathe. My air comes in snatched pants, desperate gasps, and leaves me in a cacophony of sounds I didn’t know I could make.

“Stop denying me, Odi.”

“Huh?”

“Four. Fucking. Times. He made you come four times. And you won’t give me even one.”

“Not like this,” I confess. It’s too much, too intense, the pleasure can’t build…I’m just…overwhelmed.

I blink and his fingers are gone, and I suddenly feel bereft. Grabbing my hips, he rolls us over so that he’s flat on his back and I’m straddling him.

“Try this. Use me.”

“W-what?”

“Take what you need from me. Do your worst.”

What do I need from Axel?

Nothing he’s thinking of right now.

“Come on, Odi,” he groans. “You’re killing me, princess.”

He lifts me slightly so that I’m on my knees, which gives him room to lower his sweats down. I don’t dare look at what I’m dealing with. When he’s ready, he nods.

Tentatively, I lower myself down onto him. Maybe it’s the position, one I’ve never tried before, or just simply the fact that I’m taking my time, but he feels impossibly big. The stretch is nice, not as painful as it was with Kaiden, but when he’s fully seated in me, I hold my breath. He’s so deep it feels like he’s reaching somewhere behind my navel, as impossible as I know that to be. Axel’s watching me so closely, studying my every reaction, and it makes me blush.

I can’t do this. There’s nowhere to hide in this position.

I try to move off of him, but he clamps his hands on my hips, an iron vice locking me in place.

“No, you don’t,” he chastises. “You’re not going anywhere.”

“Axel, please.”

“Just give it a moment. Get used to it. Relax. When you start to move, it’ll feel good.”

The thought of moving absolutely mortifies me. How? How do I do it? He was thrusting into me forcefully with his fingers before, but I don’t have the stamina to move like that on his dick. Does he expect me to bounce around like a damn washing machine on a spin cycle? Who can do that? How do women do this? Sex has always been such a…passive act for me. How can I take control, take what I need?

“Like this, princess. Let me show you?” He’s so tender in the way he asks that I nod, even though I should be on fire with embarrassment. Still holding my hips but loosening his grip a little, he begins to roll them back and forth. I don’t fight it, letting him do all the work and showing me how to move in a way that feels good. Not to mention the slow pace is allowing me to catch my breath back. He’s right, when I relax enough to let him move me like a doll, it does start to feel good.

“Have you ever done it like this?” he asks. I shake my head no. Surely it’s obvious. He groans and I can feel his dick swell inside of me, pushing against my walls and filling me up. That in turn makes me groan and I close my eyes to enjoy the sensation.

“You like that?” he checks. I nod and bite my lip. “Don’t be quiet. If it feels good, let me know. Let me hear you. I’ve dreamed of it for so long.”

This time when he circles my hips, he gently thrusts upwards and I gasp, my hands planting firmly on his chest to keep me from collapsing.

“Like that?”

“God, yes.”

He repeats the action again, teasing me. “Touch yourself, princess. Come for me.”

I can’t do that. I’m already so…exposed. Internally I cringe, then decide to play Axel at his own game.

Shaking my head, I smirk down at him. “That wasn’t the deal. You said you’d make me scream, not that I had to do it myself. You made it sound like you wanted to compete with Kaiden, but I didn’t see him asking me to take care of myself.”

It works a little too well.

With a grunt of frustration, he sits and then picks me up. He’s still buried to the hilt inside of me, but he proves just how strong he really is by lifting me as though I weigh nothing. He slams me against the side of the wardrobe and spears me with a stern glare.

“Don’t move,” he warns.

Taking a half step back, he strips his shirt over his head and I drink in the sight of him like I’m parched. I’ve never been able to resist staring at Axel, he’s always fascinated me, but as he strips off his sweats and his boxers, leaving nothing to my imagination anymore, my brain overloads.

“My face is up here, Peony.” I don’t even need to look at his damn face to see his smirk. I hear it in his teasing baritone. I don’t even have my wits about me enough to be embarrassed.

How the fuck did I fit that inside me?

I’m sure my eyes are bulging almost as much as his angry-looking tip. I can see the veins pulsing in his shaft, which is glistening with my arousal. Like I’ve claimed it as mine.

I like that.

Axel curls a finger under my chin and raises my head to meet his. “Are you done? Like something you see?”

“It’s okay.” I shrug nonchalantly, totally bullshitting like my life depends on it and praying he ignores the wetness gleaming on my thighs.

“I’ll give you okay,” he threatens, hooking his arms under my legs and spreading me wide open for him. Over his shoulder I can just make out our reflection in the mirror. Axel”s muscles ripple with his movements, the ebony ink contrasting his pale skin seeming alive.

“Challenge accepted, princess. You better hold on.”

With quick, deep thrusts and the grind of his abs against my clit, he makes embarrassingly short work of stealing my first orgasm from my lips.

“Was that okay?” He throws me onto the bed and buries his face between my legs so that I can’t answer even if I could scramble my brains long enough to figure out what the fuck he’s on about.

His tongue down there…wow. I thought Kaiden had skills? While Kaiden moved with enthusiasm, Axel attacks with precision and catastrophic consequences. As with everything he sets his mind to, he easily conquers me. My second and third orgasms make dark spots dance at the edge of my vision.

I swear that his tongue might just be my new favourite thing in the world. I scream and come so hard that I squirt – and just as I’m dying of embarrassment, he scoops up the mess with his finger, and while staring into my eyes, pushes it gently back inside of me. It shouldn’t be hot, but it really is.

He then proceeds to suck it all back out again with his tongue. It’s so dirty and raw he has me half out of my mind with the need to release again.

“Get on your knees,” he demands once he’s made me turn to jelly once more. I honestly don’t think I can come again – four has to be my limit – but I know Axel won’t be outdone. He can’t even bear to draw. A draw just means there’s two losers in Axel’s mind. And he has to be the champion in all things – my pleasure included.

My throat is red raw from screaming, so I don’t have it in me to protest, but he still lands a stinging slap to my ass when I don’t move fast enough for his liking. I hiss at the contact, more because it was unexpected than actually painful.

“You love it,” he says with a smirk.

“Fuck you.”

“You did that already. It’s my turn. Again.”

He rubs the tip of his cock against my slit, back and forth teasing as he slides between my wet folds, but not entering me. Does he expect me to beg? I won’t give him the satisfaction.

Until he bumps against my clit and I moan. It’s already hypersensitive from the attention of his tongue, yet it still feels so good. I wriggle and push back a little, silently asking for more.

“What do you want, Peony? Tell me.”

“More.“

“More what?”

“Axel,” I complain.

“Tell me or I’ll keep you waiting all day and all night, little doe. I’m so fucking hard I don’t think my erection will ever go away, so I have the time.”

I don’t know how his words drive me higher, but they do. Maybe it’s because he’s always so careful, so deliberate in all that he does and says, that the thought of sending him over the edge is what makes me tremble.

He takes his cock away when I remain silent, and I sigh. But then his fingers take its place.

“I saw him you know,” he murmurs, stroking one finger along my slit and one hand down the length of my back. “Kaiden. At the fight. I couldn’t believe he had the audacity to touch you like that in a room full of people.” His fingers slip inside me. “I wanted to break out of the ring and fight him.”

I close my eyes and groan at the image of Kaiden and Axel stripped down and grappling in the ring, with only me to spectate. “But then I saw how you reacted. How the whole room seemed to melt away. The moment you stopped eye fucking me and lost yourself in his touch, and I just wanted the fight to be over so I could watch you come.”

He replaces his fingers with his cock, so gently I almost don’t notice. Almost.

“I wanted to join you.”

I lose myself in Axel’s words, the vivid picture he paints. My mouth opens on a gasp, and I’m so lost in his fantasy that I don’t think I close it again.

“Yeah like that, princess. Pretty little mouth open wide, begging to feed it my cock.”

Fuck. Suddenly that’s all I want. To taste him the way he tasted me, but Axel doesn’t let me pull away. I mewl in protest.

“Shh, there’s time for that later. But I’ve waited far too long to brand this pussy as mine, I can’t let you go yet. But later you can sleep, so that when you wake up I can make this gorgeous cunt nice and wet all over again.”

I whimper. Fucking whimper. And everything tightens.

“Axel, please—”

Holy fuck, I’m fucking begging. A few dirty words whispered in my ear and I’m gone.

“Yes, Peony?”

“Please fuck me.”

“I am.”

“No! Harder.”

“Harder?”

“Like this?” He slows his already leisurely pace to something that barely counts as movement, but each time he hits home, it is harder.

“No! I mean faster.”

“Oh like this?”

He grabs my hips and withdraws until just the tip is inside me, then proceeds to bounce me on his dick like it’s an erotic fucking pogo stick on speed.

“Noooooo,” I groan.

“Then what? What do you want?”

“All the things!” I cry nonsensically. “The hard and fast and deep and makeitfuckinghurtokay?!”

“Your wish is my command, princess.”

Be fucking careful what you wish for is the only thing I manage to think before my brain rattles so hard in my head that I swear the damage will be permanent. I’m fairly sure Axel growls sinful scenarios in my ear the entire time, but there’s no way I can hear him over my rasping, raw screams. The more I scream, the harder he seems to pound, pushing us both to an impossible limit. My cunt is gushing and squeezing his dick like that’s what it was made for and my arms have long since given out so that I’m face down, arse up on the mattress and open for business.

I’m going to be sore for weeks. But that doesn’t stop an earth-shattering release from exploding from my every pore in a dizzying array of sparks. It doesn’t stop Axel from continuing. Is he a fucking machine?

“One more,” he grunts.

“I can’t.” No way.

“You will.”

He pinches my clit and motherfucking christalmighty the bastard is always fucking right. Thank fuck the violence of what I’m sure will literally be La petite mort – though there’s fuck all petite about it – triggers his own roaring release. He fills me. Pumps and pumps and pumps me full of his cum like he’s trying to repopulate the planet in one sitting.

I stop breathing. I’m pretty sure I pass out.

I collapse into the mattress, my whole body liquefied, and Axel slams my legs closed.

“Wh-what?” I don’t have the energy.

“Making sure you keep every last drop in.”

“Why?”

“Because this cunt is mine and that’s my brand.”

Before I can even catch my breath the regret is seeping in.

What the fuck did I just do?

“…sorry,” Axel murmurs, nuzzling my neck. He’s still not gotten off me and his weight pressing into me, which was so delicious only moments ago, is beginning to feel stifling and oppressive.

Typical Axel.

Slowly his words filter through to my sex-scrambled brain. He’s sorry? Sorry for what? Does he regret this too? Why does that make a sharp spike of pain shoot through my chest? I can’t even rub the hurt away with him pinning me down.

“Why are you sorry?”

He pulls away from my neck, replacing his lips with his fingers so that he can continue stroking me while he peers down at me. I’m still on my front, my face crushed awkwardly to the side to try and look at him.

It’s weird that he won’t let me up.

“You misheard me. I said I’m not sorry.” Those words should reassure me, but the look on his face does nothing to soothe the panic rising up in me. He looks even more serious than normal.

“For what? Sleeping with me?”

He shakes his head, fingers still gently stroking. Then they’re gone for the longest second and I actually miss his touch.

“For this.”

There’s the briefest, sharpest scratch on my neck where his fingers had been stroking.

“W-what—”

“Shh, everything will all become clear later, little doe.”

I try to bring my hand up to my neck but I can’t because Axel’s still pinning me down. A hot sense of déjà vu prickles at my skin and a wave of panic begins to form deep in the pit of my belly.

“Ax—” my words won’t form. My tongue is clumsy.

The wave swells inside of me.

“Shh, for once in your life, don’t fight me, Peony.”

The careful way he caresses my hair and the loving look in his eyes betrays his actions. Dark spots dance across my vision, merging together and blurring the background until they’re all I can focus on.

That, and Axel. Whose lips are gently caressing mine. So soft. The only part of him that is.

“You can’t keep defying me,” he murmurs against my lips. “You had to know there would be consequences, princess.”

The wave crests. This is too much like before. Too similar to—

I blink and it lasts an eternity.

Axel’s words are coming so slowly, everything moves like I’m stuck in slow motion, even my breathing has slowed to a near halt. Yet my heart races so painfully fast that it feels like it’s going to tear itself from my chest.

This is terror unlike anything I’ve ever known before. Worse than anything The General ever did. The worst kind of betrayal.

I blink and it lasts an eternity.

Why did the devil wear the face of an angel?

The darkness takes over.

The wave breaks.

Crashes.

I’m caught in the rip curl and unwittingly dragged under.