Axe never cashed the check that Elise’s father sent him.

Nope. He just put it on the mantelpiece above the fire, knowing that at some point, he was going to throw it into the flames. Just not tonight. And not last night, either. Or the one before that.

It kind of felt like his last tie to Elise, and yes, it was pathetic, but that was one bene of living alone—no one else knew the weaknesses of your thoughts, your heart, your little rituals. It was like singing in the shower off-key—nothing you had to share with anybody else.

Sitting in front of the hearth, he was naked and the back side of him was cold, but he didn’t care. He hadn’t cared about much since Elise had laid down the hammer—

The knock on his front door drew his attention from the flames. “Open,” he called out, not giving a shit who it was, and knowing that he could get to his gun if he—

Axe jumped to his feet. Then remembered he was naked, and grabbed a pillow off the old sofa. “Elise?” he said to the closed door. “What the hell are you doing here?”

Her voice was muffled. “Do you, ah … do you mind if I come in?”

He shrugged. Mostly because his brain had traffic-jammed and rendered him too stoopid to talk.

Then he remembered she couldn’t see him. “Yeah. I mean, sure.”

Next thing he knew, she was stepping inside, closing the door and walking forward slowly, like she was thinking he might change his mind at any moment.

God … she looked good. Then again, she always looked good. Even when she hated him.

“Look, I don’t know.…” She cleared her throat. “I don’t know how to say this, so …”

“G’head. Whatever it is, I’m fine with it.”

She’d already dropped a bomb in the center of his chest. So what if she took his arms and legs off as well? And, yeah, yeah, yeah, he should yell at her and get all righteous and shit over the fact that she’d gotten him wrong. But honestly, he didn’t have the energy for it.

“I’m sorry.”

Axe recoiled. “What?”

“I’m … listen, I’m really sorry. I might have misjudged you I think.…”

“Wait, what?”

She started talking and he didn’t really follow. Something about Peyton and Novo coming over to her father’s house. The key thing. Membership. Not talking. No sex.

“What?” he repeated.

“Like I said, they came over because Peyton wasn’t feeling right about it all. He thought that you were being unfairly maligned by me.”

Axe blinked. Then just shrugged. “So …?”

“So, yeah, um …” She shook her head. “Can you just tell me why … you didn’t explain to me about the key?”

“And you’ll believe me now?”

“Yes, I think I will.”

He dragged a hand through his hair and relived himself standing in that closet of a dead female he didn’t know, Elise holding that piece of metal out to him. “I thought … I thought you wouldn’t understand. You know, that you’d write me off or something. I don’t know. I gave up the drugs, but in a lot of ways, I was still self-medicating with sex, you know? Just trying to get out of my head.”

“Did you ever hurt anyone? At, the, ah … club?”

“Like Anslam, you mean? No. Never. And I was never with Allishon. I didn’t even know her, to be honest. A lot of people go there.” He threw up his hands. “Whatever, I just wanted you to believe in me, okay? I wanted to be the male that I saw you thought I was. And a sex addict was not part of that picture.”

“Do you feel any need to … go back there?”

“Not since I met you. When I took Novo to The Keys, none of it interested me anymore. I just didn’t get juiced like I used to. I wanted to be with you and only you.”

“Is that still true?” she whispered.

Axe crossed his arms over his chest. “What do you want from me, Elise? Why did you come here?”

“I’m just … I’m so sorry. I jumped to conclusions and I leveled a lot of things at you. And I’m really sorry. My emotions got the best of me, I guess.”

“It’s okay,” he muttered. “I mean, it’s cool.”

“It’s really not.” She seemed so sad. “I guess the truth is … well, as you said, I’m a better professor than I am a student. I decided everything, and you’re right, I didn’t let you even defend yourself.”

As a silence stretched out, Axe wanted to pace around, but, hello. Ass naked.

“I’ll ask you again,” he said. “Why are you here?”

“Because … I love you. That’s why.”

It took a while for the words to sink in. And what do you know, he went good and speechless when they did. In his most pathetic fantasies, he had wanted—hell, prayed for—this turnaround on her part. Had hoped against hope it would be the one miracle he would ever receive. Was this even real?

Overcome, and highly emotional, all Axe could do was … well, he leaned to the side and got something off the sofa cushions.

Elise came forward as he held out his hand. “What is …”

As he gave her the wooden object, he muttered, “It was supposed to be a bird. I don’t know what it really turned out to be. Anyway, I love you, too.”

Her head snapped up, her eyes popping wide.

Axe just shrugged. And then started to smile. “What? Do you want me to get on your case for wronging me? You’re clearly already doing that yourself—and as someone who can beat himself up a lot, we’ll always be harder on ourselves than we will be on anyone else. And come on, I’ve bonded with you. So you could pretty much run me over with a car, light me on fire, and pitch me off a bridge, and I’ll still take you back. Not that I’m recommending that approach to reconciliation—”

Elise threw herself at him and hung on to his neck so hard, he couldn’t breathe. But he was good with that. Just having her against him and smelling her hair and her skin … feeling her close, not just physically, but right in his heart?

Who the hell needed oxygen, anyway.

“I love you,” he said again as he began to shake. “God, I love you.…”

It was not at all how Elise thought it was going to go. Not even close.

She had braced herself for all kinds of recriminations. Was pretty sure that she was going to be kicked out of the cottage on her butt, and how could she blame him? She had jumped to a whole lot of conclusions because she’d been hurting and feeling so paranoid and betrayed. Heck, she had hit him where it counted, reducing him to a grief strategy.

And yes, that might have been where things had started on her side, but it certainly had evolved into so much more: If Axe had only been a psychological crutch, she wouldn’t have missed him as much as she had. As in every second, each heartbeat, and all the breaths in between.

“I love you,” she said. “I love you so much, and I almost blew it, and—”

“Shh … we don’t need to think like that.”

“But I have to make amends, and I have to re-earn your trust, and I need to—”

He put her down on her two feet—um, okay, wow. He was oh, so naked and, yes, responding to her presence. And … yup, she was responding to his.

“Elise.” He brushed her hair back out of her face. “Listen, I’m not going to condemn you for protecting yourself. The truth is, we don’t really know each other very well, and trust … it comes with time. You were emotional. I was emotional. And … shit happens. I don’t know about you, but I’d much rather focus on the future than a couple of crossed wires that are really just part of the process.”

“Except what if Peyton hadn’t said anything?”

“He did, though.”

“What if you hadn’t let me in the door?”

“I did, though.”

“But what if you didn’t believe me—”

He put his forefinger gently on her lips, stopping her ramble. “So I’m thinking right now about something Rhage said to me a while ago.”

“Was it about professors being idiots in their own subject matter?”

“You’re not an idiot. And no, it was about … well, that night I saved him in the alley? Afterward? I was freaking out just like you are now. I was all, like, what if I didn’t make it in time, or what if this, or that … and he said something about there being no reason to beat yourself up over something that was fated to occur. On that theory? Even if Peyton hadn’t said something, we would have ended up back together because that just is what’s supposed to happen.”

“But … but …”

“Elise. Don’t you understand? My door was always going to be open to you. It is always going to be open to you.”

And then he was kissing her, and laying her out in front of the fire.

Elise was soaring with him even before she was naked, her heart free, the tangle untangled, the path astray now back on course.

Just before they were joined, she inched back. “So your door is always open, huh?”

“Always.”

“Really …” She smiled at him, thinking if she were any happier, her heart would burst. “Because I happen to be moving out of my house.”

His brows lifted. “You are? You don’t say.…”

“It makes me sad, but it’s just not the right place for me.”

“You know … I could use a roommate. In fact, I was just thinking I was looking for a beautiful, intelligent female who’s good with a comeback and a gun.”

Elise started to nod. “And I’m looking for a place to stay that’s safe, secure, private … heated by an open hearth—and that has fireworks every night thanks to a guy who has tattooed half of himself and doesn’t mind females who jump to conclusions.”

“I’d say we’re a perfect match, then.”

On that note, he arched his back and filled her deeply. And as she gasped, he gave the knowing smile of a male was who well aware of the effect he had on his female.

“We are a perfect match,” she moaned. “But there’s just one thing.”

“What’s that?”

“I don’t …” She glanced at the hunk of wood he’d given her. “I don’t think you’re much of an artist.”

Axe started to laugh. “I know, right? What the hell is that? I tried to give my dad’s thing a shot and I sucked at it—”

“You’re sure it’s a bird—”

“I don’t know—”

As they talked over each other, midnight came and went, a new year beginning, a fresh start happening for both of them.

A fresh start … that was going to last two lifetimes.