“It means I would like us to date. I want you to be mine,” he repeated.
“For how long?” That was a pushy question, but she needed to know.
He shrugged. The king of noncommittal.
“But…I don’t…”I’m making too big a deal about this. Didn’t I want a valentine this year? Now it looks like I can have one.“Is this so I’ll sleep with you?” she blurted, not understanding the romantic gesture, especially coming from Axel. The man had a whole five weeks before Valentine’s Day.
“No. I mean,ja,I want that.” The look he shot her seared her to the bone. “But this is for you. For romance. Because you deserve it.”
“You sure say all the right things.”
He cocked his head. “I do not understand. You’re angry?”
“No! I’m…not sure how to feel. You make me like you a lot. But I don’t know why you did all this.”
He smiled, the expression kind, not calculating, and on Axel, the wordbeautifultotally fit. “Because you like romance, and you deserve flowers every day.” He left the chair to bring her to her feet. “I feel something for you, Rena Jackson. I have for a long time. I just do not want to ruin it.”
“Ruin what?” She stared up into his face, unaware she’d been tugging him down to meet her kiss until his lips pressed against her mouth. “Open, baby,” she murmured against his closed mouth.
Startled when he groaned and opened up for her, she suddenly found herself in his arms, his hands on her waist as the kiss grew more intense.
Her panties felt damp, and she sure as heck felt something massive in his pants against her belly. She ran her hands up his chest and cupped his cheeks, and he growled something at her.
She broke free, breathing hard, and realizedher feet weren’t touching the ground.“Axel?”
“I—I do not want—” He said something in German she didn’t understand, but she heard his frustration, feeling it all the same.
“You don’t want me?” She’d find that hard to believe.Hardbeing the key word.
“Nein.” He carried her to the couch and sat down, spreading her knees on either side of his lap. “Rena, I don’t want to scare you away. You are precious.”
Wow. He was good. “So you don’t want sex?”
He closed his eyes and grumbled under his breath. When he opened his eyes, they were so dark they looked black. “Do you?”
Looking down at his handsome features, the taut strain of need on his face, she wanted to sayhell yes,she wanted him. But she worried that then it would all be over, and to her surprise she wanted another date with the big guy. “I do, but—”
“Ja.See? You want, but you don’t want. It has to be perfect.”
“And this isn’t perfect?” she asked, knowing the answer.
“Not yet. But I can help you with theI dopart.”
“What?”
Then he was gripping her hips, the way she’d imagined him holding her in that big bed of his. “You tell me no if you want me to stop. Okay?” He looked concerned.
“Yes.”
“I mean it. Just say no.”
“I will.” Never, ever, not as long as those big hands kept creeping up her legs, pushing her skirt higher.
He stared into her eyes as he moved his hands over her bare thighs and cupped her ass. Over her panties, but still.
“Oh.”
“I love your ass,” he said, his voice thick. “And your legs, your belly, your arms, your breasts.” One hand left her leg to slide up her stomach and cup her breast.
