Chapter 8

Chapter

Eight

April 15 th

11:52 P.M.

She was the picture of angelic perfection.

Sweet, beautiful, and peaceful.

Axe couldn't take his eyes off his sleeping wife.

He never ceased to be amazed by Beth's strength. Growing up in a home where she had been abused basically twenty-four-seven. Never allowed to go to school, she had no friends, was rarely fed, was dirty, and given only ripped and filthy used clothes to wear. Forced to cook and clean before she was old enough to do those chores, and abused physically, sexually, emotionally, psychologically, and verbally.

Her life had been hell on Earth.

Yet she survived it, got up each morning, kept putting one foot before the other as though a part of her knew one day, if she could make it through all the bad, there would be so much good waiting for her on the other side.

Then she was sold, endured an even worse hell, and yet again, somehow, she managed to endure it all with a strength that was rarely seen and possessed by few.

Now as he held her, lying in their bed, her cheek pillowed on his chest, her hair a tangled mess of golden brown, her dark lashes fanned out against her pale cheeks, he realized how very lucky he was to have her at all. So many times he could have lost her. All it would have taken was for one of her family members or Baranov to take things one step too far and he would have lost her before he even had her.

As much as he hated her childhood, he had to admit that it was the only thing that had kept her alive until he found her.

This sweet, beautiful, strong woman had been through so much, and all he wanted to do was make sure she never suffered so much as a stubbed toe ever again.

But he couldn't.

Because Baranov was still out there.

Still a threat.

With his money, Baranov had the means to stay off the grid possibly for the rest of his life.

Love for his wife and fury for the trafficker flooded his system.

No.

Baranov didn't get to get away with his crimes.

Prey was owned and run by a billionaire family, and although Beth didn't remember it yet, Axe himself came from a very wealthy family. While he had given up a lot of that money when he refused to go into the family real estate business and instead joined the military, he had a trust fund worth several hundred million. A chunk of that money had been spent buying this property and building all the cabins, the main building, and the training courses. The rest would be spent tracking down Baranov and spoiling the woman he loved.

Shifting slightly in her sleep, Beth nuzzled closer. Unsure if she was having bad dreams or more memories, Axe smoothed his hand up and down her spine.

He was so damn proud of her.

Like the trooper that she was, she had pulled herself together to relive the horror she had survived and told them what she remembered. When she'd first been debriefed after being rescued, their focus had been on what she knew about where Baranov might have gone. Did she know of any other properties? Did he speak to her about his plans? Did he talk about interests that might help them narrow down a location?

No one had thought to focus on the whys of what Baranov did what he did.

He was a sadistic psychopath. He bought and tortured people because he had the money to do so, and it brought him pleasure.

While her comments that she was alive only because Baranov had yet to break her were in her original statements, none of them had thought to wonder why Sarah Sanders was still alive if Baranov already considered her to be broken.

After telling them what she knew, Beth had been exhausted. He had taken her upstairs, run her a hot bath, and once she was settled, he'd gone back down to check in with his team. They were going through Sarah's statements from when she had first been rescued, seeing if there were any clues to indicate why she hadn't been killed like all the other toys Baranov had broken and discarded.

There were none.

But given that they knew someone had gone after Sarah even after she should have been safe with her new identity, had killed her daughter, and since she was nowhere to be found likely taken her, too, they had a theory.

Tomas Butcher, Baranov's second in command.

They had spotted him with a woman a few months back. After tracking him to a yacht, they'd arrived moments before the man climbed onto a helicopter and the yacht exploded. The woman with him could have been Sarah Sanders.

Was Butcher obsessed with the woman?

Had she been given to him as some sort of reward for his loyalty to Baranov?

From what they could gather, Butcher served as Baranov's personal bodyguard, as his head of security, and as the man who organized their constant travel to remain off the radar of various country's law enforcement departments. It was completely plausible that Butcher had taken a liking to Sarah and asked if he could have her .

It seemed to be the only logical explanation as to both why Sarah's life had been spared and why she had disappeared.

Whatever the reasons, Axe was trusting his team to handle it. His priority had to be his wife. Beth had been through so much, and there were still painful memories that she would have to relive. She now remembered her life up until he and his team rescued her, and while there were the wonderful memories of her time with him and the life they had been building for her to unlock, there were also the memories of whatever happened to cause her to have amnesia in the first place.

Baranov's house of horrors hadn't done that.

Her family hadn't done that.

It terrified him to know what had happened to her in the eight months she had been missing that had been so horrific her mind had completely shut down.

Axe was unable to shake the feeling that something bad was coming.

Baranov was still out there, had taken Beth once already, might have Sarah Sanders back in his clutches, and had almost killed Bravo Team in the warehouse explosion. If Baranov really was cleaning house, then he needed Beth, Axe, and the rest of Bravo Team dead. They'd gotten close to him once already and they could do it again.

They wouldn't stop until they had done it again.

Until Leonid Baranov was dead.

That was the end game as far as Axe was concerned. He didn't want Baranov living in a prison, he wanted the man dead. That was the only thing that could really give Beth peace.

"Axel?" Beth's sleepy voice called his name and she lifted her head, blinking up at him.

"Go back to sleep, honey," he urged. It had taken a lot out of her getting so many traumatic memories back at the one time. What she needed was rest and reassurance, which he was happy to give her and had been trying to give her all afternoon before they climbed into bed early.

Instead of putting her head back down, she smiled at him. "I was dreaming about you, about us."

His entire body went still. Was she saying what he thought she was saying? Not wanting to get his hopes up too high, he asked, "Memories?"

"All of them. I remember how gentle you were with me when you first found me. I remember you sitting by my bed holding my hand so I could fall asleep every night those first few months. I remember you making my first Christmas the most amazing one ever with so many decorations there was practically no inch of the cabin left bare. I remember you giving me my first birthday party, my first cake, and so many more presents than anyone needed. I remember you proposing to me on a hot summer night when we were sitting on the pier with the moon shining down and the stars twinkling and fireflies dancing about. I remember the first time you made love to me. It was so special, so amazing, that we both cried and held each other afterward."

Tears burned the backs of his eyes.

Every single thing she'd said was true.

All beautiful memories he had treasured over the last year when his wife had no idea who he was, and he didn't know if she ever would.

"My man," Beth whispered.

"My woman."

"My heart."

"My life."

Without this woman, he didn't want to go on. She was the beating of his heart, the oxygen in his lungs, she was his purpose for living. She was his everything.

"I love you so much, my sweet wisp."

Tears trickled down her cheeks. "I love you just as much. More than anything. More now that I remember everything, and I know how much you must have been hurting this last year. I've survived so much, but the one thing I couldn't survive is losing you. I love you, Axel, and I don't ever want to be apart from you again. Make love to me."

April 16 th

12:22 A.M .

Shock passed over Axel's face as she asked him to make love to her.

"Are you sure?" he asked.

There was the man she loved, always worried he might be taking advantage of her. Now that she had gotten her memories back of their lives together, she remembered that it had taken months to convince him she was ready the first time they made love. He'd been so concerned that he might have unintentionally pressured her. Or she felt it was something she had to do rather than wanted to do. Or she was convinced she would be kicked off the compound if she didn't.

None of those things had been true.

She'd just been ready for a sexual relationship with Axel.

Ready to embrace her future rather than her past.

Just like she was ready now.

"I'm sure," she told him.

"Because I'll wait as long as you need."

"I know."

"Just because you've gotten more memories back doesn't mean I expect sex."

"I know."

"We've spent the last year living as virtual strangers, that distance will fade on its own, we don't need to jump right into this."

Exasperated but also filled with affection, she pressed her mouth to his. It took all of half a second for him to respond. His arms came around her and he shifted her so she was draped across his front, chest to chest, his hands on her hips as he ravished her mouth.

"I'm sure, Axel. I love you, I remember everything, there's no barrier between us anymore. Nothing between us at all. Just us, our love, our commitment to one another. Do you know how much it means to me that you never gave up on me? I was so worried I couldn't be your Beth anymore, the woman you remembered, that you fell in love with. I knew I was hurting you, I didn't feel like I deserved everyone's constant reassurance. I was hurting you and that hurt me."

"Nobody blamed you for having amnesia, wisp. Nobody expected you to jump back into being the Beth we all knew. Nobody was angry with you or disappointed in you. We all just loved you and wanted you to know you weren't alone. "

"Never alone," she whispered, knowing with a certainty deep down inside that she would never be alone again, had never been alone since Axel came into her life.

"Never alone," he agreed.

"Make love to your wife, Axel," she murmured, framing his face between her hands and feathering kisses across his lips. Her body was burning for her husband's touch, she was already wet for him, aching for him. Not that she would force Axel. If he wasn't ready yet, she would wait, wait patiently like he had been for her for months.

"I can't resist you, wisp."

"I don't want you to because there is no way I could resist you."

Flipping them over in one smooth motion so she was spread out against the mattress beneath him, Beth looked up at this man who had saved her in so many ways and thanked her lucky stars that she was there now. The worst was behind them, it had to be. From here on out, she and Axel were going to get the happy ending they deserved.

"Clothes have to go," Axel said, gripping the hem of his old T-shirt that she was wearing to sleep in and stripped it up and off, tossing it aside. Once he had shoved off his pajama pants, leaving him gloriously naked, he climbed back onto the bed, stretching out above her.

So many wonderful memories flooded her mind. How soft and gentle Axel's touch was, how he paid close attention to what she liked, what made her feel good, how he lavished attention on every single part of her body.

This man was a gift from God.

No other way to describe it.

"Do you know how amazing you are?" Axel asked before his lips touched a soft kiss to a pale scar on her neck just below her right ear.

To her, it didn't matter if she was amazing or not, it only mattered that Axel thought she was. She had survived, but Axel had taught her how to live, and she would forever be grateful to him for that.

A swipe of his tongue along the sensitive spot behind her ear made her shiver in delightful anticipation, and then his tongue swept down her neck and Axel paused to press a kiss to where her pulse was fluttering in the hollow of her neck.

They had quickly learned that while his fingers touching her could sometimes spike panic, tossing her mind back in time to the abuse she had suffered, Axel's tongue didn't do the same. Probably because nobody in her family had ever taken the time to make love to her with their mouth, they had just thrown her down, shoved inside her, and used her to get themselves off. Leonid Baranov was the same, he used her as a toy who was there for his own needs.

The feel of Axel's mouth on her body always kept her locked in the moment.

Like it was doing right now.

Trailing a line down one of her breasts, Axel drew her already pebbled nipple between his lips and began to suckle on it. The sensations were so familiar that tears sprang to her eyes. How had she not been able to remember this?

How had she forgotten the man she loved for even a second let alone almost a year?

When he released her nipple Axel blew a breath against the wet skin, making delightful little shivers rocket through her. Moving on to her other breast, he circled it with his tongue, repeating the circular motion as he inched closer to her needy nipple. By the time he finally drew it into the heat of his mouth, Beth was about ready to grab his hair and force him to lavish the same attention he'd shown her other breast on this one.

Allowing herself to get lost in the moment, to feel and not think, Beth focused on absorbing the featherlight caresses Axel's fingers made as he moved down her body. He was always careful to make sure his weight was never too heavy against her because he didn't want to trigger any bad memories of being held down.

"You are the most perfect thing God ever created," Axel whispered as he settled between her spread legs.

While she absolutely didn't believe that to be true, Beth loved that her husband thought it. And it was exactly the same thing she thought about him. Even if she had a genie in a bottle and three wishes to go with it, there wasn't a single thing about Axel that she would change.

He was just perfect.

Perfect for her. Everything she needed. He was more than she could have dreamed of .

It might have been twenty months since they last made love, but when Axel's tongue swiped across her center it felt like no time had passed at all.

There was no hesitation on his part, he knew what she liked, and he didn't make her whimper and beg for it. Covering his fingers with the evidence of her desire, he slipped one inside her, slowly pumping it in and out, preparing her for him to add a second. While he did so, his mouth found her throbbing bundle of nerves and began to suck on it, flicking it with the tip of his tongue.

Once he added a second finger, he spread her open so his tongue could delve inside. Keeping her stretched open, he alternated between burying his tongue inside her, and suckling on her bud until her body began to writhe as pleasure built.

So long had passed since she had felt pleasure like this, and it just kept building, and building, and building until Beth was sure she was going to explode.

When her orgasm finally did hit, she cried out her husband's name as her entire body went taut and then began to shake with the force of the pleasure flying through it. Her hips rocked, seeking more of what Axel continued to offer as she rode the wave for as long as he could keep her on it.

"Are you ready for me, wisp?" Axel asked. He never entered her body without making sure she was there with him, aware of who he was and where she was, safe in the knowledge that she was with someone who loved her.

"Can't wait," she managed to murmur, aftershocks of pleasure continuing to send tingles through her body.

"Watch me, wisp. Watch your husband make love to you."

Although the orgasm had left her sated and sleepy, Beth locked her gaze on her husband as he entered her in one thrust. There was no condom, never anything between them. Since condoms had set off a panic attack the first time he used one, Axel had gotten a vasectomy so she didn't have to worry about taking birth control, and they didn't have to use protection.

Now, as he began to thrust in and out, she wanted for the first time ever to be pregnant with his baby. Children had never been on her mind before, she'd just been happy to have a man who loved her, and cherished every second they spent together, but now she'd love to be carrying the baby of the man she loved inside her.

Axel's lips rained kisses down on her face before finally finding her lips. Tangling her fingers in his hair, she kissed him back as her legs lifted, hooking around his hips to pull him deeper inside her.

Like they were two halves of the same soul, they both found release at the same time. Pleasure tied them to one another as they rode the wave together this time.

As that pleasure began to fade, Axel didn't pull out of her, just held her close and rolled them so she was lying on top of him, his length still buried inside her. His love for her felt like a tangible thing. Alive. Perfect. Filling the holes inside of her and making her whole.

Snuggling deeper into his hold, Beth prayed that wherever he was, Leonid Baranov never got a chance to take this feeling away from her.

She'd been through so much, but in Axel's arms none of it mattered.

Leonid Baranov didn't get to ruin that for her.