After a long bath, a few hours of shopping therapy, and some bonding time with Nancy and her kids, I feel more like myself again. Me and Nancy have more in common than I anticipated. We attended the same college, loved some of the same nonfiction authors, adored shoe shopping, and we’re both into country music. Nancy is easy to talk to, and our time out shopping easily feels like being out with one of the girls.

We’ve been back home for less than an hour when the men return. Axe follows Kade right into his office to get on a conference call with Axe’s friend, Vincent. Apparently he’s got a secure phone, and can get a message to Axe’s Saints President, Silas Corrigan. Kade pops his head out to ask Nancy to order pizza, which is convenient, because Nancy has already ordered enough pizza to feed an army.

Axe does pass by the kitchen on the way to the powder room at one point, catching my gaze long enough to make my core clench. I have no question that we both have it bad for each other, and only wonder whether I have enough resistance to make him work for it next time we have any privacy. Nancy’s house is hardly the time or place, as the kids race around the house and have no issue walking into closed doors at every opportunity.

In time, the men emerge from their meeting. Nancy and Kade excuse themselves to take the kids to bed. I’m sure I hear Nancy set up Axe in the main floor bedroom next to Kade’s office, which is fine with me. The guest room arrangement gives me more room to stretch out and forget about sleeping with one eye open in a cramped, bullet-ridden truck the night before.

Getting up from the kitchen table, I get started on neatening up. I fill up the dishwasher, wipe down the counters, and get the kitchen back to how we met it earlier. I’m sure that Nancy doesn’t need to feel like a bed and breakfast host on top of raising two kids, doting on her husband, getting ready for kid number three, plus this unexpected reunion with Axe, and all the Los Diablos, Satan’s Saints, and Italian mob drama.

I rinse out the last of the plates at the sink before throwing them into the dishwasher, thinking about where Nancy might have a broom around, when Axe steps up behind me. It’s more like I sense him before I feel him. He didn’t made a sound either. That heat radiating off his chest and down the front of his body is what gives him away, drawing me in. I fumble to grip the edge of the sink until I can’t feel my palms. I sway backward just a few inches, and my head makes contact with his solid chest. All I see is Axe put down a half-filled beer bottle on the counter to my right, and then both his hands lace around my waist, pulling the rest of my body in close. I find the dishcloth to dry my hands, and a second later, they reach up and back, burying into Axe’s hair. Whatever I’ve been thinking about a night alone with a bed all to myself, well, that’s no longer what I want. God, I could get used to him roaming all over my skin.

The moan I let out betrays my thoughts, and probably steels up Axe’s resolve, among other things. His hands wander down to my hips, and his lips lower to my ear. His breath lingers along the nape of my neck and the side of my cheek. Goosebumps slide across my flesh with the closeness of his touch. As if to help me along, he tugs my hips backward until his erection presses hard against my lower back.

“I missed you today,” I hear myself admit before even thinking of saying something that weak.

He moans in my ear and slides a hand forward until it’s dangerously close to my lady bits. Definitely close enough to have wicked heat pooling between my legs, and possibly scorching my brand new lacy panties. Thank God I bought half a dozen of them. Axe stretches forward and shuts off the water.

“My room. Now,” he rumbles in my ear.

Axe takes my hand and leads me out of the kitchen, down the back hallway and into his guest room.

“You’re staying in here with me,” he announces.

“I don’t know if your sister would like that.”

“It’s not her call.” His hands slip up to the side of my face, and tilts my head up. “You’re not leaving this room for the rest of the night.”

“We’ve got some chemistry going on, but you don’t own me.” I try to pull away, but his hands move down to my shoulders, fixing me in the spot. He’s so strong, and standing so close, my body is weak with need. “Let me go,” I tell him halfheartedly. “If anyone’s calling the shots in the bedroom, it’s me.”

“You didn’t get the memo did you?” he asks.

“What are you talking about?”

“Your days as a dominant are done,” he informs me, leaning in close again. “Do you want to know why?”

He’s standing too close again, affecting my ability to think, or even breathe.

“No,” I say in a faint exhale.

“I’m telling you anyway. You. Are. Not. A. Mistress.”

“I am,” I breathe out.

“You’re not. That’s not who you really are. And before this night ends, I’ll make sure you agree with me. Now, get on that bed, and don’t move an inch unless I tell you to.”

When I don’t move from my spot, Axe turns me around and backs me up until my calves hit the mattress. I lift my head to look up at him. I’m trying to be angry, but Christ, the way he speaks to me has me soaking wet with need. I don’t even know why, but I take a seat on the side of the bed.

“Good.”

“Why are you being this way all of a sudden?”

He sits beside me and studies my face. “Because deep down, this is what you want.”

I roll my eyes at the cocky, arrogant, sexy man. I want to find that voice of authority inside of me and protest, or get angry and demanding, but I can barely speak.

“I’ll be right back,” he says coolly, getting to his feet.

I grip on to his arm before he can stand. Axe reaches over and pulls me into his lap as if I’m light as paper. He runs his hand through my hair, leaving me weak and off balance as he grazes the back of his hand along my neck, and across my collarbone. I hold my breath, stomach drawn in tight from the tingles along my skin. He moves his hand down and lightly brushes over my breast, sending another wave of heat through my body.

“Just say it,” Axe states in a low, raspy order. “You don’t have to belt out orders anymore…not with me.”

“I’ll stay.” I don’t recognize that timid, vulnerable voice.

Axe lets his hand drift down my body, stopping at my mound. “You couldn’t stay away if you tried. You should know that by now. I hope you understand that tonight, I’ll do anything I want with you. No limits. Tonight, I own you. And tomorrow, you can tell me whether or not you want to go back to being Mistress Angel.”

With Axe’s hands stroking my tender breasts and massaging my mound, my brain can hardly process a thing. Still, I do my best to weigh whether one night with Axe holding the reins can be such a horrible thing.

“Okay,” I utter, biting back the groan of pleasure his hands instigate.

He pulls his hands away, and I’m tempted to grab them and place them right back on my body. “Okay is not the word I want to hear. Let’s try ‘Yes, Axe’, or ‘please, Axe’, and when I’m buried deep inside of you, ‘oh my fucking God, Axe’. Are we clear?”

Jesus, he’s really going to make me pay, isn’t he?

“Yes, Axe,” I repeat, certain he’s doing this to make a point.

“Fine. I want you completely naked. I’ll be back.” He slides me off his lap and starts toward the door with a wicked, sexy grin on his smug face.

Yes, he gets his point across, all right.