The Alpha Billionaire Club Trilogy (47 page)

A
bruptly
, Axel broke the kiss and stepped back, spreading his arms as if offering himself. “You want me?” he asked. “Take off my clothes.”

I hated being told what to do—unless it was Axel and we were getting naked. Then, all it took was his deep voice giving me an order and my panties were immediately soaked. Despite my anger and distrust, this time was no different. My hands trembling with the surge of lust, I went to work on the buttons of his shirt, avoiding his eyes.

Seconds later, I was peeling it off, baring his lean, muscled chest and his chiseled abs. His body didn’t just look good. I knew from experience that he was strong and fast. He had a few scars marring his sleek skin, but they did nothing to detract from his sheer male beauty. Axel half-naked was mouth-wateringly gorgeous. Fully naked would be even better. I had his pants open with my next breath, pushing them down his hips, trailing my fingers over his tight, perfect ass. At the thought of sinking my nails into that ass as he fucked me, a pulse of heat throbbed between my legs.

Axel hadn’t said a word since I’d begun stripping him. That meant I was to keep going until he gave me a new order. Dropping to my knees to finish removing his pants, I wondered if I could push him into letting me take the lead. I sat back on my heels and went to work, tugging his pants down his legs, deliberately ignoring his hard cock as it brushed my forehead.

He lifted one foot, then the other, allowing me to pull off the remainder of his clothes. When he was naked, I shifted to my knees and looked up, allowing my cheek to graze the silky, hot skin of his cock. Turning my face an inch to the right, my lips slid over his erection. I looked up and met his eyes, waiting to see what he would say.

His eyes burned into mine, so dark they were almost black. There was something unbearably erotic about being on my knees, fully clothed while he was naked and towering above me. His cock was so close to my mouth, I wasn’t sure who was teasing whom. I wanted to taste it, wanted the control, the power of taking him between my lips and giving him pleasure. He kept me needing him, all the time, his mastery over my body a form of control over me. I wanted that power back. I could tell he knew exactly what I was thinking.

“Stay there, and strip,” he ordered. I was more than happy to comply. I’d loved the outfit when I’d put it on, but now I was desperate to be as naked as Axel. I had to roll onto my back to squirm out of my jeans, pulling them off—along with my underwear, socks, and sneakers—in one quick shove. The sweater, t-shirt, and bra were gone a second later. Then I was back in position, kneeling at his feet, my breath ghosting over his straining cock, teasing him.

“What do you want?” Axel asked, his voice so low it caught in his throat.

“I want to suck your cock,” I said. “I want to make you come in my mouth.”

Axel groaned and shook his head. “Not this time. I have other plans.”

I barely had time to register my disappointment when he leaned down and scooped me up, striding to his bed with my body firmly tucked into his arms. I loved his strength, the way he could pick me up like I weighed nothing. He dropped me on the mattress and said, “Don’t move.”

I didn’t. He vanished to the end of the bed and I heard a creak and a thump. Curiosity bloomed. Was that the trunk? What was he getting? I didn’t have to wait long to find out. Axel came back into sight holding two straps.

I should have known he’d have sex toys in the trunk. Climbing on the bed behind me, he guided me to my knees, leaning me forward until my hands rested on the headboard of the massive bed. Loops at the end of the straps slid around my wrists. The straps fastened to the buckles on the headboard, holding me in place. The position made me feel trapped and vulnerable, but it wasn’t uncomfortable. I waited for Axel to move behind me.

I wasn’t expecting him to roll to his back and slide between my legs. He adjusted my hips over him, propping himself up on a pillow so he was half reclined, my bare breasts dangling just above his mouth, my pussy spread inches from his straining cock.

“I know you want to run from me, Emma,” he said, trailing his fingertips down my sides, tracing my body, his touch feather light, setting every nerve on fire. He looked up at me, his gaze capturing mine.

I wanted to look away, to shut him out and lose myself in his body. It seemed he wasn’t going to allow that. His fingers explored, gliding over my breasts, pinching my nipples, skating over my belly, all the while his eyes never leaving mine.

“You want to shut me out. I get it. But I’m not going to let you. You’re mine. All of you. You can try to lock away your soul, but you won’t keep me from your body.”

He cupped my breasts in his hands, squeezing and molding them, his hands big and hard, the calluses on his palms scraping my nipples with a delicious friction. Ducking his head, he took one nipple into his mouth and sucked, sending a blast of white hot pleasure between my legs.

Axel’s mouth on my breasts never failed to drive me crazy. One night he’d played with my nipples for over an hour, making me come that way, teasing me until I’d begged for him to fuck me. I’d come three times that night, the last time so hard I’d almost blacked out.

Dropping his head back to the pillow, he cupped my breasts again, letting them fill his hands. “I love your body, Emma. It was made for me. You’re lush. Gorgeous. I could spend all day on your breasts. They’re perfect.” Releasing my breasts, he slid his palms down my back and gripped my ass. “And this . . . fuck, Emma, your ass is phenomenal.”

His fingers dug into my skin, holding me tight, pulling me down so that the head of his cock grazed the slick folds between my legs. I couldn’t help it—I let out a whimper. He was so close.

“You want my cock, Emma?”

“Yes,” I whispered.
Want
didn’t begin to describe how I felt about his cock. “Please.”

“Not yet,” he said. “Open your eyes and look at me.”

I did, gasping when he tugged my hips down just a little further. The head of his cock settled into the gate of my pussy, a breath away from being inside. I squirmed, trying to take more of him, then I let out a wail as he hauled me up a few inches, taking his cock away.

“Axel,” I cried out, the game too much.

“No,” he said. “You only want me for sex? Fine. But the rules stay the same. I’m in charge when we fuck. If you don’t like it, go fuck someone else.”

The thought of touching another man scored through me. Never. I couldn’t imagine letting another man put his hands on me after being with Axel. He didn’t mean it. I knew he didn’t.

“Okay,” I said, giving in. I wanted him. In here, he was mine. He might have betrayed me out there in the real world, but in bed, he’d never let me down. All I had to do was follow his direction, and I’d get what I needed. “I promise I’ll do whatever you want.”

“That’s my good girl,” he said, sliding his hands to my lower back and leading me down until the head of his cock was once more barely pressing into me. The urge to move was unbearable, but I stayed still. This time, I wanted everything; his cock inside me, his mouth on my breasts, and my orgasm blinding me with pleasure, driving the rest of the world away. When his fingers dropped to stroke my clit, I almost screamed from the sharp, sweet sensation, from the need to move, to do something.

I forced myself to remain as I was, motionless, afraid that if I did anything, he’d stop. Again, he stroked my clit, his touch light, teasing. Another tug on my hips, and the head of his cock was inside, stretching me, giving me just a hint of how good it would be when he was all the way inside me.

In this position, so open to him, I was frozen in the moment of invasion, the slice of time when my body and his became one. It was unbearably intimate, not just about sex, about his cock and my pussy. This was more than sexual desire. It was our bodies bringing us together, making us one.

I would have cursed him for doing this to me, but I could barely breathe from the effort of holding still beneath his caresses. I fisted my hands, my body trembling from the strain. Circling a wet finger around my clit, he lifted his head and locked his lips around one hard nipple, sucking me, stroking with his tongue as he played with me. I teetered on the edge of orgasm, body shaking, tears filling my eyes.

“Please, Axel. I’m going to come. Please. Let me come, let me have you inside me.”

“Not yet.” His finger fell away as he pulled me down another inch. It wasn’t enough, but it was better.

“Please,” I begged, unable to form thought into words. With his mouth back on my nipple, he settled a finger on either side of my clit and squeezed, gently the first time, then harder. I gasped, the pressure exploding in a white-hot flare of ecstasy, shooting me straight into an orgasm. I forgot everything about holding still and letting Axel take control. He thrust up into me as I came, filling me with his cock, digging his fingers into my ass as he fucked me, drawing out the release until all I knew was Axel—his hands on me, my hips grinding down on his and taking all of him, over and over.

I came back to myself later, tears wet on my cheeks, my body draped over Axel’s, still trembling, my hands unbound. He left me for a moment to deal with the condom, then he slid into the bed and pulled me over to him, holding me close, stroking his hands over my bare back.

“Shh, it’s okay Emma. Everything’s okay.” A callused thumb came up to wipe a fresh tear from my cheek, and I realized I was crying. My emotions careened inside me, nothing making sense.

I’d had a plan for my life, and I’d been following it. Good job, great friends, shiny future. Then the FBI had burst in to turn it all upside down, and Axel had broken my heart.

So why, in this whole crazy mess, was he the only thing that seemed to make any sense?

I had no idea what I was doing anymore. I’d thought that if I tried to shut Axel out I could stay in control. But he’d proven me wrong. I didn’t want to shut him out. I wanted him, all of him. Lost and uncertain, I lay there and cried into Axel’s warm skin, letting the tension of the past twenty-four hours drain away in my tears.

T
hat began
the two most surreal days of my life. After my crying fit in bed, I’d fallen asleep. Axel had woken me a few hours later and fed me homemade pizza with a fabulous red wine, then curled up on the couch with me to watch old episodes of my favorite geeky cooking show. He’d cleared our dishes and led me to bed early, then made love to me, slow and sweet, his touch reverent, until I was close to tears once more. Before I could lose it again, I’d fallen asleep, tucked safely into Axel’s arms.

The next morning he’d cooked me breakfast, eggs Benedict with smoked salmon, and we’d settled in to binge watch a show the rest of the world had been obsessed with the year before but both of us had missed. We didn’t talk about the case or the FBI, not even when Evers called with an update. We did have sex three times: once on the couch—we’d had to restart that episode—once in the shower, and the last time was at the foot of the bed, with me on my back and strapped to the trunk like a virgin sacrifice.

The day after was the same. Good food—this time I cooked for Axel—more television, and a lot of sex. I stopped trying to push Axel away. It was a useless effort anyway. I didn’t have the emotional resources to keep a true distance from Axel. It wasn’t me.

I’d tried to tell myself I could use him for his body, but that had been a lie, me fooling myself so I could justify letting him back inside my defenses. Once I’d let him back in, I couldn’t muster the desire to push him out.

He’d hurt me. And I was on my guard. I couldn’t help it. His phone beeped with text messages every few minutes, and I wondered if any of them were from William Harper. A tiny part of me worried that I was a fool, and this was all part of a bigger plan that would make his earlier betrayal look like a little white lie. But that was my fear talking. I didn’t really believe he was lying to me. Every kiss, every shared laugh, convinced me he was telling me the truth, that this thing between us was real and it meant as much to him as it did to me.

On the evening of the second full day we’d spent secluded in Axel’s penthouse, he surprised me. We were curled up on the couch, mostly naked, kind of watching television. I was dozing, my head pillowed on Axel’s chest as he stroked my hair. It was heaven, if I forgot about everything waiting for us outside of the penthouse. Axel proved that not all of the world outside was a threat.

“Do you want to get out of here for a few hours?” he asked, his lips tracing the shell of my ear, sending a shiver down my spine. It was a little scary how easily this man could turn me on, especially considering how much sex we’d had in the past two days.

“Is it safe? I thought you said I couldn’t leave,” I said. As much as I loved this interlude with Axel, I knew I’d start going stir crazy soon. His penthouse was big, but when you can’t leave, even a big place is too small.

“I have a plan,” he said, nipping my earlobe with sharp teeth. I squirmed. I loved it when he used his teeth. “Do you want to meet my friends?”

“How?” I asked, suddenly intrigued. Axel’s friends had been a sore spot as our relationship developed. I’d never said anything, but I’d always been aware that not only had I never seen his home, but I'd also never met a single one of his friends.

“Dylan owns the Delecta. He has excellent security that I can augment with my own, and a private entrance to a private dining room. It’s not the same as taking you on a normal date, but it’s the best I can do under the circumstances.”

I rolled over on the couch and stared at Axel. He’d proven he could be an asshole. I’d been over that ground repeatedly. Now it seemed he was devoting himself to proving he could be sweet as well. The asshole part hadn’t been a big surprise, less so now that I knew what he did for a living. A man had to have some very sharp edges to thrive as a high-profile security specialist. But the sweet—
that
was a surprise. He’d spent the last forty-eight hours showing me all the ways he could make me happy. Now, in the midst of hiding me away, he wanted to take me on a date with his friends. I only had one answer for him.

“I’d love to.”

He was off the couch and lifting me into his arms a second later, carrying me back to the bedroom. He set me on my feet in the master bath and herded me into the shower, turning on the water until it steamed.

“Shower sex first,” he said, positioning me under the spray and drizzling apple scented soap over my breasts. His hands slipped over my skin, working the soap into a thick foam, teasing me with his touch. Two could play at this game. Before he got me so turned on that I forgot what I was doing, I grabbed the bottle and squirted some of the fragrant gel on his chest. I couldn’t get enough of touching his body. Hard where I was soft, the planes and ridges of muscles, so strong under his silky skin, were irresistible.

You’d think we hadn’t had sex in months with the way we shot right past the foreplay. Only a few minutes after we hit the shower, Axel was lifting me, bracing me against the tile wall, my legs wrapped around his hips. We’d decided to forget about condoms the day before. It meant a lot that Axel hadn’t argued about using them when we didn’t need to, but as we’d started having sex all over the penthouse, the condoms had just gotten in the way.

He filled me easily, aided by the slippery soap and my arousal. I didn’t know what it was—maybe pheromones—but my body was always ready when Axel was around. Even when my heart and mind weren’t sure, my body knew what it wanted: Axel. Only Axel.

Another explosive orgasm later, we got out of the shower and I followed Axel into his closet, looking for something to wear. Axel’s personal shopper had set me up with plenty of clothes for a few weeks, all carefully chosen to both fit my style and flatter my abundantly curvy figure. Whatever happened in the future, I had to meet this Lola. I loved to shop on my own, but she was a genius at finding outfits that were both comfortable and stylish while making me look like I had a perfect hourglass figure.

“How dressy is dinner?” I asked, flipping through hangers. Two more deliveries had arrived since we’d come to the penthouse, one each day. These had included more shoes and cocktail dresses as well as lingerie. A lot of lingerie. Not that I’d had a chance to wear much of it. Axel might like buying me lingerie, but he liked taking it off even more.

“I’m wearing a suit,” he said, shuffling through his own hangers, then pulling out a crisp blue shirt and a steel gray suit. “The girls will probably be in cocktail dresses.”

“The girls?” I asked, nervous all of a sudden.

“Leigha and Chloe, Dylan and Sam’s girlfriends. Fiancées, actually.”

“They’re both engaged?” I asked, pulling a dress from the hanger to study it more closely. A Carolina Herrera Doupioni silk shirtdress, it was a play on the classic little black dress—formal enough to be a cocktail dress, but with puffed sleeves and a wide belt, it had a vintage flair. The A-line cut and button-up bodice would show off my curves, and the deep black of the silk would look fantastic with my red hair and pale skin.

I avoided looking at the price tag as I carefully removed it. I’d window shopped for Carolina Herrera before, and I had an idea that the simple dress probably cost more than my mortgage. I wasn’t even going to look at the tag on the box of shoes I’d selected. The patent leather t-strap spike heels were crazy hot, but the distinctive red sole told me that the shoes cost about as much as the dress. I wasn’t going to worry about it. It wasn’t every day a girl got her dream wardrobe from Neiman Marcus. I had enough to fret about; the clothes didn’t even make the list.

“Both of them,” Axel said as I wiggled into a matching bra and panties and stepped into the dress, his dark eyes intent on the sight of my breasts swaying in the sheer red lace bra. At the heat in his eyes, I forgot what we’d been talking about. Oh, his friends’ engagement.

“When are they getting married?” I asked, half listening and half thinking about what to do with my hair. It would take forever to dry it. I was better off putting it up.

“I have a feeling Sam and Chloe are going to elope,” Axel said. “Dylan and Leigha are planning a huge wedding and it has them spooked. I’m sure you’ll hear about it at dinner. I think Leigha would have been fine with something small, but Dylan owns the Delecta. He doesn’t do anything small.”

The conversation finally penetrated my preoccupation with getting dressed. “Your friend Dylan is Dylan Kane?” I asked, shocked. Dylan Kane was practically a celebrity: ridiculously wealthy, powerful, and gorgeous, he was photographed all the time with supermodels, usually at some exclusive event. Taking in the sight of Axel in his perfectly cut suit, his sculpted cheekbones, and dark eyes, I shouldn’t have been surprised he was friends with someone like Dylan Kane. I wondered what kind of woman Dylan would be marrying.

Was she going to sit there through dinner pretending to eat and giving me sideways looks for being with a man like Axel when I wasn’t model material? I hated to admit that I cared, but I wanted his friends to like me, and that meant fitting in with their future wives.

I pushed my worries away and finished getting ready. My bruising had faded somewhat—not enough for the light makeup Lola had provided to cover the damage, but I was able to hide the worst of it. I emerged from the bedroom to find Axel on his phone again, typing out a message. It made me nervous when he did that. I didn’t really think he was going to sell me out, but his open line to Harper was unsettling. Needing to know, I asked,

“Work?”

The guilt in Axel’s eyes when he looked up made my heart sink. “Harper wants a meeting. He doesn’t come straight out and say it, but it sounds like he wants to send me after you again.”

“Well, that should be easy, since you already have me,” I said in a falsely bright tone. I was trying to hide my doubt. From the look in Axel’s eyes, I don’t think I did a very good job. He came forward and wound his arm through mine.

“Don’t even joke about that,” he growled. “Harper is never getting his hands on you again. I’ll have to take the meeting—go in with a wire and see what we can get him to admit—but he’s not getting anywhere near you, Emma. Never.”

“Okay,” I whispered, the conviction in his voice soothing most of my fears. I had to stop doubting him. I would. I just needed a little more time.

“You look gorgeous,” Axel said as he led me to the elevator and pressed the button for the garage. “I almost wish I didn’t know what you were wearing under that dress. I’ll be hard all through dinner.”

He turned to face me and tugged the sides of the bodice together, trying to fasten one more button. I had the top three undone, showing a fair amount of cleavage. Not too much, but more than I might have revealed during the day or at work. If I’d been built differently, Axel might have succeeded, but my breasts didn’t want to be contained by buttons up to my chin. With a sigh, he gave up and ran his finger along the line of the fabric, tracing over the skin of my breast.

“I’ve never been possessive about a woman before,” he admitted, sliding his finger to the first fastened button, then up the other side. “But I don’t want anyone else seeing how sexy you are.”

“I think you’re exaggerating my appeal,” I said. I knew I looked good in the dress, but not so good that every man in sight would be plotting to steal me away from Axel.

“I’m not. You’re luscious and beautiful. Thinking about some guy staring at you makes me want to cover you up. Or keep you home.”

“Such a caveman,” I said as the elevator doors opened.

“I
am
a caveman,” he said, “but only with you, Emma.”

Axel opened the car door and helped me into the rear seat. I didn’t have to ask why. The front window had a tint, but the back windows were so dark no one would be able to see me. I’d rather be sitting next to Axel, but the back seat was better than riding in the trunk. I couldn’t help but notice the two matching black SUV’s that followed us out of the parking garage. Axel wasn’t taking any chances.