My cheeks flame, and I clear my throat.
“Um… so about earlier,” I start.
“Yeah?” he says, turning to me. I nearly flinch at the attentiveness in his gaze. It makes me feel vulnerable, like there’s a buzzing under my skin as he watches me.
“What we did was a mistake.”
There’s a second of silence, and then Axl chuckles darkly. “So, we’re still doing this?”
I stammer. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“This little back and forth,” he supplies, motioning between us. “I mean, it’s almost ten years in the making now, why not go another ten? I can take it.”
My eyes widen. “You’re such an?—”
“Asshole? Freak? Not enough for Miss Second Avenue?” He gestures to my childhood home. “So I’ve heard. Just keep repeating the things you’ve been told about me. I know you’re curious about me, about the things you don’t know. You can admit it.”
I shake my head and lie. “I’m not curious. I am appalled.”
He laughs again. “Sure, Little Reckoning. Whatever you say.”
My face flushes pink at the nickname, my scent very much prevalent. I’m sure he can smell the arousal between my legsfrom our little indiscretion, especially now that we’re in such a small enclosed space.
I squeeze my legs together and give my best bitch face. “I don’t know where you get off on spewing absolute bullshit.”
“Was it not obvious when you had your tongue down my throat?” he asks, his voice turning into a dark husk. My skin prickles with sweat from the intensity in his brown eyes. “But, I didn’t mind. You can have your tongue wherever you want. Or, if you want me to putmytongue somewhere, I’m sure that can be arranged.”
A scared whimper travels up my throat, but I swallow it down before he can hear how his words affect me. I hiss at him, “I don’t want your tongueanywhere.”
“No?” he asks. “Because I certainly do. I’ve been dreaming about it for years… what it would be like to sink between your thighs.”
Red alert, red alert.We’re in dangerous territory now. I need to retreat and I need to do itimmediately. I need him to leave before my resolve caves in and my body betrays me.
But somehow, that thought is on the back burner as his gaze holds me captive. His stormy scent is strong, and I can’t help the way it pulls at every sensitive nerve ending, rendering every defense in my arsenal useless.
When the silence drags on, he sighs. “We are whatever you want to be. You just have to let me know what you decide.” Those words, combined with the sincerity in Axl’s tone, make something swoop in my stomach.
“We’re not anything,” I say, but my voice is shaky.
“Okay,” Axl says, no longer having the same fight in his eyes that he had moments before. He fiddles with one of his drumsticks in his hand, a tick that screams of his nervousness. “But… we have always wanted each other. Can you admit that at least?”
My first instinct is to shake my head. Deny, deny, deny. I’ve been pretending for so long, but the vulnerability in his features makes something in my heart crack. For some reason, I know I can’t lie again. “If we didn’t live in this stupid town?—”
“Hm… is that supposed to make me feel better? That if it wasn’t for this town, these people, you would be open about wanting me?” His head moves back to face the road. “Save it.”
“Axl—”
“I thought it wasfreak,” he spits with venom that I absolutely deserve. “For so long, I’ve pictured what it would be like to actually have you. To be able to hold your hand in the halls, to sit with you at the local bistro—” He cuts himself off, shaking his head. “And I was fine with this. Our secret looks. The hidden moments we were allowed to have.”
My brows raise at that. His version of events feels much more romantic. To me, it’s been torture. Every moment in this town has been one big acting lesson. I can’t be myself or people will stare, and I don’twantthat.
But it seems like while I was working overtime to stay out of everyone’s line of sight, Axl has had his right on me. Watching, waiting, until I’m ready to close the gap between us that I’ve kept open for so long.
“But I don’t want that anymore, Stacey.”
I freeze. “You don’t?”
“Not after tonight,” he whispers, a darkness shimmering in his gaze. “Not after discovering what you taste like. Not after knowing what you look like coming on my fingers.”
