CHAPTER
Dropping the shopping bags onto the bed, I look around the room at the amount of things Axel has bought me since we’ve been on the private island. Mountains of shopping bags spilled from the closet and in the bedroom from my latest shopping spree. Although most of the time we stay on the island, occasionally we go to the mainland. I’d been surprised that Axel knew how to use the private jetty.
I couldn’t believe tomorrow we would be leaving this paradise. I feel like I never want to go home. For almost two weeks, I’ve had the best time in my life and have fallen so deeply in love with my husband that it’s crazy. How could I not be when he is so thoughtful and considerate? Most of the time we stay on the island- our own private island. I could scarce believe it when we’d stepped onto the jetty that first day. The castle is something out of a fairytale. If anyone had told me this was the honeymoon I would have had, I would have laughed them to scorn.
It couldn’t get any better. For the past three days, we’d left the island and explored Avila and Salamanca, hence all the shopping bags. We had strolled the streets of Calle Serrano, which offers high-end shopping. I’d been hesitant at first buying items for so much but Axel had insisted for me not to look at prices. Once I saw something and expressed an interest, he bought it. I’d felt so guilty over the amount he had spent on me until he’d whispered in my ear he would have a way for me to make it up to him later. And I had, I remember now with a giggle. Except that sex that night when he’d tied me to the hotel bed and fucked me hard had been as much for me as for him. I enjoyed our lovemaking, from the gentle rocking of his staff inside me to the hard thrusts when he takes me hard and fast.
We had eaten at several restaurants including Makkila which is across from the United States embassy. We had snapped several pictures of each other and occasionally bothered locals to snap pictures of us. I had so many pictured in my phone I’d run out of memory. And as only in the fashion of Axel he’d bought me a new phone, the iPhone 7. I would have chosen something cheaper but he’d insisted the only thing I would get a say in was the phone case.
I dropped onto the bed, my smile reaching down to my soul. I had been so hesitant about marrying Axel but everything was absolutely perfect. I could not ask for a better husband. I feel pampered but that isn’t even why I am so happy. It’s the way he looks at me with love and tenderness. That look always made me forgive and forget when he says something bossy. I’ve to accept that’s the way Axel is. He would always be controlling and although I am not exactly thrilled with that, I am slowly coming to grips with it.
I’m so exhausted from all the travelling over the past three days and the sex. The sex is definitely tiring too. I fall asleep, thinking I need to help Axel with dinner but he probably prefers cooking on his own anyway since he knows I am a total klutz in the kitchen.
I’m not exactly sure how long I’ve been sleeping for but kisses and nibbles on my shoulder wake me. I stretch and turn to my husband. I never get tired of thinking of him this way. My husband. Mine. Axel Ash is all mine.
“Wake up sleepyhead,” he says softly. “Dinner is almost ready. I’ve run you a bath. Let’s get you all soaked.”
With a groan, I let him help me undress and then head to the luxury bathroom with the hot tub. I took a languid bath until Axel knocked on the door to report that dinner was served. Reluctantly, I get out of the bath, dry my body and return to the master bedroom to get dressed, wondering what I would put on for this, our last night. I want it to be memorable.
I smile when I enter the bedroom and find Axel had taken the choice out of my hands. Laid on the bed is a floor-length black lace robe, nothing else. The material is so sheer, when I shrug it on everything is still exposed. To top it off, I put on a new pair of black cut out stiletto heels and brush my hair over one shoulder.
Leaving the bedroom I am delighted to find rose petals leading me. I follow the petals and end up on one terrace where the scenic view of the sea by the moonlight is profound. But more so is the arrangement of LED candles on the terrace. I couldn’t count them all. A white table cloth covers the table with red napkins to match the red velvet cushioned chairs.
At my entrance on the balcony, Axel rose, his eyes going smoky with desire as he stares at me. He holds the chair out for me and I sit.
“You look ravishing,” he announces, taking his seat. “Now I’m not so sure I will make it through all three courses.”
We do make it through the three courses. I’m stunned Axel had all this prepared while I was sleeping and with me not being the wiser. I wonder what he would have done to keep me from seeing all this if I hadn’t fallen asleep.
The meal is delicious but we eat in an anticipation of what would come later. He keeps looking at my breasts and between his gaze and the cool sea breeze, my nipples are in a constant erect state. He serves us the meal he had prepared for us. I know he’s an excellent cook but he outdid himself this time. We feasted on spiced olives and cucumber caviar rounds followed by duck breast with pomegranate-citrus glaze and a side of stuffed eggplants. For dessert we had a slice of apple pie and ice cream.
“How did you pull this off?” I ask him, wrapping my tongue around the spoon to scoop every but of ice cream off.
“Let me see,” he says with a thoughtful expression. “First I ensured I wore you out last night with sex. Then this morning sex again before we left the hotel. I kept you on your feet all day so you’d be exhausted by the time we got back so you’d go to sleep. If that didn’t work, I’d have hoped the threat of a good spanking would make you entertain yourself without peeking at what I was doing.”
“Hmm, there’s still time enough for spanking,” I flirt with him.
“Why don’t you come here and sit on my lap?” he suggests, pushing his chair back some ways from the table.
I get up boldly and walk over to him, exaggerating the sway of my hips. When I reach over to him, I straddle his lap and just as suspected, his cock is already rock hard.
“Baby there’s something we need to talk about,” he says as I lick his ear lobe. I’m running my hands up under his loose shirt, teasing his flat nipples, wiggling my bum over his hard crotch.
“Hmm, can’t it wait until after?” I ask.
“I have to do this when I’m not hypnotized by the rhythm in your hips and the tight hold your pussy has over me.”
I am as red as a beet, thankful he can’t see my face at his neck. “You say the most outrageous thing, husband.”
“And I know you like it,” he returns with a chuckle that rumbles his chest, then groans. “You’re distracting me again from the talk we need to have. Now you see why we need to do this before I lay you on the table like a buffet and eat as much of you as I can.”
“Eating is good.”
He stills my hands wandering about his chest and his expression becomes serious. I frown at him. Our time here on the island has been playful and light. It doesn’t escape my attention that he’s getting serious the day before we go home. It places a damper on my mood, afraid that things will change between us as soon as we go back to our country. But I’d known we couldn’t be here forever.
“Tomorrow we return home,” he says, confirming my suspicion about what he wanted to talk about. “And there’s something you need to know. First and foremost, we discuss Jack Petersen.”
“Jack Petersen?” I repeated, the name sounding familiar bit not remembering where I’ve heard it before. “Who’s Jack Petersen?”
“He struck up a conversation with you last month at the mall. You were with Jessica.”
I look at him suspiciously, now remembering the strange man who had known about me though we’d never met before. How did he know about that?
“I never told you about that,” I murmured and push back from him. “How’d you know that? Did Jess tell you?”
“I wish I could lie to you and tell you yes. But the truth is I had a few bodyguards tail you during those days when I was away.”
I spring out of his lap becoming angry with him. “I knew it! I knew those two guys following me at the mall were suspicious as hell. How dare you have them follow me around and watch me?”
“I was doing it for your safety.”
“No, you were doing it for some sick twisted pleasure of wanting to know where I was every minute and you didn’t care once more that you were invading my privacy to do it!”
When I see his jaw clench I knew he isn’t going to back down but to stand by what he had done as if it was right.
“I did what I had to in order to protect you.”
“From whom? Who do I need protecting from?”
“A man who’s had success the way I do have a lot of enemies, Joyce,” he responds, his jaw clenched.
“And Jack Petersen is an enemy?”
“I’m just telling you to be cautious okay.”
“But you don’t want to tell me what for?”
“There’s nothing to worry about,” he insists.
“You’re being contradictory,” I say in frustration. “If it’s nothing for me to worry about then why did you have those men following me. I don’t like that you did that Axel. Don’t have anyone following me without my permission.”
“I won’t ever stop trying to protect you and keep you safe,” he argues defiantly. “If you’re going to be mad at that then so be it but I don’t regret it and as soon as we get back home, they’re still going to be around ensuring nothing happens to you. When you’ve made business big as I have, you occasionally step on some toes and I don’t trust people farther than I can throw them.”
“So what if I disagree with the idea of your men trailing me around? I don’t want some strange guys watching everything I do, Axel. That’s an invasion of my privacy. And you claim I have no say in it!”
“That’s right. None! This is one of those things I’m never going to back down on. Your safety comes first.”
I shake my head angrily at him. “Apparently this sharing information with each other thing is only one-sided. You’re just going to do what you want anyway whether or not I disagree with you.”
“For God’s sake Joyce!”
“For God’s sake nothing! You need to learn to respect my privacy.”
“Fucking hell woman! Will you stop giving me grief over wanting to protect you.”
“I didn’t ask for your protection!” I yell at him, my voice carried away by the wind to the sea.
“Too bad, you’re getting it whether or not you want it.”
“That’s not how a relationship works.”
“Fuck whatever relationship book you’ve been reading. I’m Axel Ash. There’s not a book written yet that can make you understand me.”
He pulls me to him and bends his head to kiss me but I turn my head.
“So, you’re not going to kiss me now?” he asks. “Now that’s very childish of you.”
“Call me what you want,” I reply petulantly and push away from him. “You’re not getting any tonight.”
“You’re not serious. It’s the last friggin’ night of our honeymoon.”
“Then it’ll make you think twice before you do something that invades my privacy without asking my permission,” I tell him and with a harrumph, make a sharp about face, which whipped my hair back and sauntered from the terrace.
“Joyce! Damn woman come back here!”
I keep walking and I don’t stop until I get to the bedroom. I need to get out of this robe and put on something less appealing before he corners me. I place my phone on the bed beside his on the bedside table and almost jump out of my skin when his starts to vibrate. We mostly keep our phones off or vibrate here, not wanting to be disturbed.
I don’t mean to pry but the phone is right there and it lights up. I notice two things at once. The name Jack Petersen which pops up from the call and his screensaver, a picture he’d taken of me two days ago when we were at Madrid. My heart melts at the same time I can’t help feeling worried. Who is this Jack Petersen and why did he know about me?
There’s something Axel isn’t telling me and I intend to find out what it is.