Axel’s lips curl at the tips in that obnoxious way they tend to do when he thinks he has the upper hand. His fingers curl around Strudel’s ear, and my goofy pooch proceeds to lick him over the back of hishand.
My mouth falls open at the sight. Damn traitor. Twice in onenight!
Raven snaps up the bottle. “All right, girly, let’s have it. The two of you need to pucker up so we can move this showalong.”
“Move it along.” I shoot a barbed look her way. “Move it or I’ll arrange to have those longravenlocks chopped off at the ears when you’re passed out drunk on my couchlater.”
Mer gasps. “My God, you’re amonster.”
I cut my eyes her way. “Isn’t that the wandering wife calling the kettle a beast in her ownhome?”
“All right, ladies.” Raven dares to tap me with her prehensile toes. “Keep it clean. Lex, if you’re not going to kiss him, he gets to ask you a question and you have to answer it no matterwhat.”
“Of course, I do,” I muse. “Who am I to protest the sacred rules of middle school games.” I channel all of my rage over at Axel and those pale gray eyes that keep vying for my attention like some annoying siren. Yes, Axel is drop-dead gorgeous. Yes, my pink parts have morphed into the wild rivers since he’s set foot in the house tonight, and yes, I still blush if I look at him too long, but as for now,rageis the emotion of choice, and I plan to wear it well. “Ask me anything. I dareyou.”
The room grows eerily silent. Raven turns down the music via her phone, and even the chanting of the protesters outside fades anotch.
Axel’s affect melts down to something just this side of serious. Gone is that obnoxious know-it-all grin, replaced with the timidity and ferocity of anger mingled with pain. Pain is a perfect emotion for Axel to feel. He should marinate in it until his bones and organs dissolve from the grief of losing me. I bet he’s going to ask if I still pine for him. I bet he’s going to try to invoke the tragic breakup card and dig up a skeleton or two about those crazy hazy days just after we ripped apart from one another. He still feels pain, and deep down he wants me to feel it, too. I know hedoes.
He tips his chin back enough. Smug move on his part. “When was the last time you slept withanyone?”
My heart stops beating and glares at him right along with the rest of me. Of all the mother-loving questions. The audacity. The pig-headed ego of itall.
Mer flicks a finger in the air. “Anyone? You mean she swings both ways? Ithoughtyou were smelling my hair.” Now it’s her glowering at me, and it’s almostcomical.
I hold up a hand in her direction, not even quantifying it with a reply. Instead, my eyes are dead set on Axel’s, so very laser-focused on my ex even Strudel starts in on a low-lying growl as if he senses a disturbance in the force. Good boy. Now bite his balls off and I’ll take you to the dog park and let you hump the living daylights out of that Springer Spaniel you’ve had your eye on with the long thicklashes.
“How very crass of you,” I growl out the words, and Low sucks in a breath because she obviously senses imminent danger. “How very tasteless.” I bite the air with my words. “So you want an answer—an accounting of my vaginal wanderings.” His eyes round out showing his discomfort. As much as Axel tries to pass himself off as an everyman, he’s an aristocratic snob through and through. I’m sure having his ex tout the wordvaginain front of his high-brow legal eagle friends is appalling to him on some level. Come to think of it, there are enough lawyers in this room that should a Molotov cocktail come crashing through the window, it would be doing a public service for delousing the world of four ofthem.
“I give.” I toss up my hands, and just as I’m about to spout off some random number, offer up some random name with enough random facts about an entire string of fictitious nights, I can’t seem to do it. Instead, my gaze remains sealed over his. “There was just you.” I try to swallow the truth back down, but it’s impossible. A part of me is hoping that the truth will sting far greater than a lie, but I can already feel this won’t be the case. “The last time I slept with someone was with you—your apartment just after Halloween, exactly six years ago. It was as you suggested, a memorablenight.”
The room stiffens as the air grows stale. The thick scent of tequila flirts with my senses, but I’m too paralyzed to move, think, or breathe. Axel’s wide-eyed reciprocation of what I’ve just uttered has him frozen, stone-faced as if it were all too difficult to take in. As if he didn’t want any part of the truth. Maybe the truth was the best route afterall.
Mer expels a cross between a groan and a belch. “I call bullshit. I saw the way you tackled Levi. Trust me, honey, you’re no novice. Moves like that are honed over time, not some distant memory from over half a decadeago.”
Levi shakes his head. “I think it’s real. Is it real, Lex?” he says it soft as if talking me down off a sexual ledge. The concern for me on the faces of those around me is almost comical. It’s as if the idea of not committing coitus with another person for six long years was something akin to afelony.
I press my lips tight as I look to Ax. “It’s real.” A thousand different emotions run through me all at once, embarrassment, anger, resentment because I know he can’t say the same, but the most surprising of them all is relief. It’s as if I’ve lanced a wound and let the pus gush out between us. If anyone should see all the ugly parts of me, it’shim.
Mer huffs as if we personally offended her. “So, you think you’ll hit that mattress with Axelagain?”
“No.” I don’t let a beat go by without answering. That’s how sure I am. But I never take my eyes off his. “We’re over and done. We crashed and burned with the best of them. We were adisaster.”
The muscles in Axel’s jaw pop in silent protest to my words. He knows I’m right, though. That’s why he’s not contestingit.
Raven unscrews the lid on that bottle and takes a quick swig. “How about we open somegifts?”
After everyone slowly gets back to an upright position and the coffee table is moved into place, the room breaks out into hushed conversations as Raven gets the music going again. Everyone is paired off in twos and threes, and it’s just Axel and me staring at one another from across the room as if we’re about to have a showdown at high noon. Believe you me, if there was a weapon in the house that required gunpowder, I would have lunged for it bynow.
Raven herds us all onto the sofas with Levi and Low sitting on the hearth to my left. Strudel sits dutifully at their feet as if vying for front rowseats.
Raven plucks at the tag attached to a white gift bag. “First gift of the night is from Brody Wolf.” She nods to him, amused. “Let’s see what Animal thinks is an appropriate engagementgift.”
Low plucks it from her and pulls out a beautiful silver frame with the wordsOur Weddinginscribed across thetop.
“Well done,” I muse. “A frame is a perfect gift for the happy couple.” I’m quick to laud him for his accomplishments because it was Brody who made up my first week’s schedule for me, thus issuing me all the juicy hours. I garnered so much green by the end of the week, I felt as if I was robbing the patrons atgunpoint.
“Next gift”—Raven reads the tag off another gift bag—“is from me.” Her cheeks pinch with color, and she bites down over that cherry lip of hers with a mischievous glint in her eye. “Enjoy!” She practically shoves it at the poorcouple.
