Silence falls back over us. I keep my gaze on the ground, hesitant to look up and see the intensity that always gleams in his eyes when he looks at me.
“So,” he starts, and I finally look up while holding my breath. He swallows, obviously nervous, before continuing. “I was wondering if you’d like to?—”
“Hey, dipshit!”
We turn to see who had interrupted us when Axl is suddenly pushed to the ground, a body lying on top of him. The brown hair and menthol scent tells me it’s Will, and Ihuff out a frustrated groan. I try to kick him off of Axl but myUggboot is too soft to make a dent.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Axl pushes him off and gets back to his feet, angling himself so he’s between me and our crazy ex-classmate. Will’s eyes are red with anger and his scent is almost burning, like a poison aggressively infecting our lungs.
“I’ve always been fucking sick and tired of you.Bothof you,” Will spits. “Always acting so high and mighty. Always believing you’re better than everyone.”
I can’t help but roll my eyes. “Your hang-ups are yours alone, Will. Don’t project that shit onto us. You don’t know anything about our lives, just as we don’t know everything about yours.”
His head whips to mine, a dark smile curling. “Don’t get me started on you, Princess. Perfect Stacey Hawthorne. Greenwood’s cheerleading prodigy. Daughter of the CEO who could live anywhere but chooses fucking Greenwood to grace hispresence.”
Spit flies out when he speaks, and I step back to avoid being hit. “Seek therapy, Will. Seriously.”
“Maybe I should show Greenwood they aren’t as untouchable as they think they are.”
A loud, vibrating sound comes from Axl’s lips as he stands taller between us, blocking me from view. “You don’t look at her, Will. You don’t look and you don’t fucking touch, I swear?—”
“Swear what?” Will sneers. “Or you’ll do something? You’ve been in Greenwood too long, dude. You’ve been sitting with the prim and proper despite not being one yourself, so I’d like to see you try.”
I knew Will held resentment for Greenwood, but I didn’t know he was this warped from it. He’s feeling bad for himself, angry that he is no longer part of the Greenwood elite and isstuck with people he deems lower than himself. He’s showing that insecurity through anger.
But I don’t care how he’s feeling, because this behavior isunacceptable, and Axl must agree because he pushes Will away when he steps closer, violence creeping in. We both feel it coming, the head of this horrible interaction hitting a climax, and we both brace ourselves for the impact of it.
“Get back,” Axl tries to bark at me before Will takes a swing at him. Even though the command doesn’t hold me hostage, I still take a step back, gasping when Will’s fist connects with Axl’s cheek. It looks like it hurts like a bitch, but Axl recovers in no time, and by the glare in his eye, he doesn’t look like he’s going to hold back.
When Will swings again, Axl dodges it and clocks his own fist into his stomach. Will lets out a cry, almost like a wounded wolf, before he tries to elbow him in the face again, but Axl is quicker. He dodges, lands every punch, all while Will is barking like a chihuahua, spewing bullshit between every hit. Axl’s knee collides with his stomach, trying to douse the fight in him, but it only sends more venom into his insults.
But I’m not focused on Will. I can’t take my eyes off the way Axl’s body moves, how his primal instincts have taken over and are now on the edge of control. I feel something fluttering low, my stomach a glutton for punishment as I realize a horrible truth.
I’m turned on by this, I realize in horror.I am turned on by Axl beating someone up for me.
Will sways on his feet, his eye swelling in a bruise. Axl steps back, barely hurt, just a soreness in his knuckles from defending himself. He starts to turn toward me, ready to be done with this charade, but Will steps forward, his chin twitching.
“You still think you have a chance with her, don’t you?” Will laughs between heaves from his bruised ribs. “A little advice,one freak to another, the bitch will never give it up. Not to the slum of?—”
He doesn’t get a chance to finish because Axl is there, sending an uppercut to his chin to shut him up. Will falls to the ground, his eyes rolling into the back of his skull. Axl leans over him, tilting his head as Will falls into unconsciousness.
I’m not sure what’s going on, but it’s like the trajectory of my feelings throughout the night is about to burst inside my body. Axl stands there, his knuckles cracked and bruising, his lips pulled in a mean snarl, and it’s like something snaps inside of me. He suddenly looks like a dark angel, hovering above me and offering me salvation after a long time stuck underground.
I step forward and take his hand in mine. His breathing is heavy, his gaze animalistic as he fights back the beast in his chest. It’s wild to see, because this man isn’t an alpha. He’s a beta, like me, but there is nothing calm about him in this moment. He’s as primal as any alpha I’ve ever seen, and it sends something hot steaming through my core.
“Ax…” I trail off as my hand moves to his chest, feeling the wild thrum of his heart. It seems to match my own, making every bit of logic and thought leave my body. He must feel it too, because his arm curves around me and he pulls me in, our lips meeting in a restless vigor.
Everything goes blank the second his skin hits mine, like a tidal wave taking me completely under. I know my hands are traveling over his arms and reaching under his shirt to feather over his stomach. I know this, but it’s like I’ve left my body and I’m standing to the side, watching. I have never been in someone’s arms like this, not even Brent’s, and besides a few pecks here and there, I’ve never been so completely devoured by someone else’s lips either.
He picks me up, my legs wrapping around his waist. We end up on the hood of my car, my coat protecting me from thecold metal underneath. We get lost in each other, so wrapped up that I don’t know where he ends and I begin. Then, one of his hands travels up my thigh, leaving goosebumps in its wake, and a desperate sound escapes my lips without permission.
He doesn’t say anything, just as wretched as I am, as he captures my lips once more. His fingers find my panties, guide them to the side, and then his index finger is there, feeling the evidence of arousal spilling from me at his touch. He groans deeply into my mouth, a tiny growl emitting as he nips my bottom lip and adds more pressure, his fingers massaging. My back arches, and I think I say something likepleaseormoreor maybe both, and then his fingers are entering me, filling me in a way that lights up every nerve ending, and I sigh with relief.
I didn’t know this was what I was missing. This… wholeness that is taking over my body and spinning me inside out.
“Fuck,” Axl whispers under his breath as his fingers move in and out of me. I can only focus on the intense pleasure that the movement wrings from my body, how it pulls it right to the center under a spotlight for both of us to witness. He nips at my neck, licks a line up to my ear, and then he hits something inside of me that makes me bellow with pleasure.
Holy—
