‘Good girl.’
My pulse skitters, my stomach quivers. Good girl. Baby Girl. They light me up every time, and I can’t get enough.
I reach the table, breaths shallow, fingers trembling as they skim the edge of the leather and flip it open.
Oh my God. ‘This is…’
‘Your contract,’ he finishes for me. ‘Signed. Sealed. Delivered.’
My heart pounds so violently, I’m sure he can hear it. Relief, joy, want: they crash through me in one breathless wave.
‘We could’ve… we could’ve done this electronically,’ I say, clinging to the safest words I can find. The ones that hide the truth: that I was terrified he’d changed his mind. That his silence broke me. That I spent two weeks, five days, and twenty hours wanting not this… but him.
He leans back in the chair, resting his elbows on the arms,his thumb propping up his chin as he watches me. Legs spread. Whole body at ease, but his eyes… barely caged.
‘I prefer the old-fashioned way.’
My clit pulses.
‘But then… you already knew that.’
I take a useless breath, lips hanging open, knees weaker than I’ll ever admit.
He lets the silence stretch, index finger tracing his bottom lip, his gaze never leaving me. And I don’t think he’s ever looked so hot, or so menacing. The short sleeves of his black henley strain around his biceps, his worn jeans tight around his thighs, the hard line of his zipper… Yeah, he missed me.
I wet my lips without thinking.
‘See something you want?’ he drawls, throwing my own words back at me.
Always, I fear.
And he doesn’t need me to say it; the satisfaction’s there in his eyes.
‘I’m here to call in your debt, Tay.’
My breath stutters. ‘My… debt?’
He smooths his palm down his inner thigh and taps. ‘Time to deliver, Baby Girl.’
Everything in me pulls towards him at once: heat, need, longing.
I close the distance and drop between his knees.
Everything I haven’t said, everything I’ve been denying, rising up within me…
‘I’m yours, Ax.’
Axel
Her words slam into me: a shock, a pull, a claim I feel right down to the bone.
She’s kneeling for me, hands folded before her, head held high, those eyes that have hounded my every waking moment surrendering to me.
God, how I’ve missed her. Missedthis.More than I can ever admit out loud.
‘Too right, you are,’ I murmur, rough with everything I’m holding back.
I sweep her hair over one shoulder, then the other, letting my fingers linger behind her ear as I drink in every exposed inch. Her throat, the gentle curve of her collarbone, the way her dress parts to reveal the soft swell of her breasts.
