“We don’t know for sure it was some Mafia guy,” I reminded him. “It could have been a random act of violence. Or an obsessed fan online that turned violent.” The thought made me shudder. “Maybe I’ve been reckless with my online business. Dangerous.”
He stilled, tilting my chin up to look at him. “Don’t you dare do that. Do not blame yourself. This isn’t on you, Dakota.”
“I’m not blaming myself. I’m wondering if there could have been unintended consequences with always trying to look picture-perfect online.”
“You’re allowed to be exactly who you want to be.”
I drew water over my arms, keeping my voice gentle. “Can we just pretend this whole attack thing didn’t happen for right now?” Because, God, I had dreamed of a moment like this for so long; I didn’t want whoever attacked me to steal even more from me than they already had.
It took him a second, but eventually, he nodded. He dipped the washcloth into the sudsy water, shut off the faucet so the tub didn’t overflow, and proceeded to gently wash my face, my neck, my collarbone. My shoulders. Anywhere that had a drop of crimson was scrubbed completely clean. The whole time, he kepthis eyes mostly fixed on mine, only letting them drift down when he absolutely needed to see what he was doing.
Every stroke of the cloth wound something tighter in my chest, a sweet ache that spread like honey through my limbs, and when I was completely clean of all my makeup, blood, and the grime of the evening, Axel didn’t stop washing my skin.
Instead, he dipped the washcloth beneath the sudsy water and drew it to the hollow of my throat. He moved lower, slowly, until it grazed delicately over my left breast.
My nipples pebbled.
His eyes locked with mine as he dropped the cloth and traced the bud between his fingers.
Every cell in my body stood at attention, begging for their turn to be touched by him. He cupped my breast firmly, causing me to suck in a sharp breath, and then he knelt next to the tub so he could kiss me.
With his mouth on mine, he massaged my breasts, one at a time, like he wanted to memorize how they felt, every curve of them. He played with my nipples gently, but soon, our kiss deepened, and I threaded my wet fingers through his hair.
His hand began its descent from my breast, each inch a deliberate torture. Rough fingertips traced the curve of my ribs, explored the dip of my waist, and then his palm flattened against my abs, my muscles fluttering beneath his touch.
Lower.
My breath caught.
Lower still.
The anticipation coiled tight in my belly. Without conscious thought, my legs parted. An invitation. A plea. My sex throbbed with a need so acute, it bordered on pain while every nerve ending seemed to pulse in time with my racing heart.
His fingers hovered just above where I ached for him. Close enough that I could feel the heat radiating from his skin. Not close enough. Never close enough.
Then …
His fingers slid over me with exquisite care, and my entire body trembled. The world narrowed to that single point of connection. To the way he touched me like I was precious. Like he had all the time in the world to learn every secret my body wanted to tell.
His mouth found my jaw. Teeth grazing. Lips soothing. He traced a path to my collarbone, tasting the water droplets that clung there. All the while, his fingers circled that bundle of nerves with maddening precision. Slow. Steady. Inevitable.
Something began to build inside me. Too fast. Too intense. Embarrassingly quickly, but I was past embarrassment. Past everything except the feel of Axel’s hands and mouth and the promise of what was to come.
“I want to taste you,” he said against my skin. Oh my God. “But you’d be cold out here.”
I licked my lower lip. “I’ll survive.”
I could feel his lips curve into a smile. And then, much quicker than I was expecting, Axel lifted my body out of the tub, placing me on the tub’s edge with a splash of water crashing against the floor’s tile.
I thought he was going to grab a towel, dry me off, maybe carry me to his bed. But instead, he stood up, kicked off his shoes, stepped into the tub between my legs, and sank to his knees.
Fully clothed, a fresh wave of water splashing outside the tub’s rim.
Holy crap. This is so hot.
Kissing my leg, he drew my right ankle up onto the side of the tub, followed by my left, until I was sitting there, spreadopen like an offering, my back pressed against the cool wall as he stared at my sex. Unbuttoning his shirt, he drew my nipple into his mouth, circling the bud with his tongue while that throb between my legs intensified. When he stripped his shirt off, it made me want him even more.
Axel Pierce was gorgeous. Covered in tattoos, his muscles flexed as he ran his hands over my abs, kissing a trail down them before pressing my thighs further apart.
