CHAPTER 21
The only sound Axel heard as he walked into the darkened theater was his own breathing.
“Brynn?” he called out as his eyesight adjusted, but other than his voice echoing back to him he was met with silence.
He knew that she was in there. He’d followed her when she left her house. As much as he was telling himself that he was checking on her in an official capacity, the truth was that he just wanted to see her.
He missed her. Which he knew was ridiculous since he saw her several times a day, every day. He’d been standing in her living room just hours before.
After the kids left, Brynn and her friends had some wine out on her deck. They stayed for about an hour. It was exactly the night that she’d talked about wanting to have the first night he’d arrived in town. It had only been a couple months, but it felt like years. He didn’t remember what his world looked like without Brynn Daniels in it. And the scariest part of that was, he didn’t want to.
Tonight had been the first night that they’d been alone since Izzy showed up. It had taken every shred of discipline he had not to march down the steps once Jess and Ali left and tell her everything. Why he was really there. What she meant to him. How he felt about her.
But, somehow, he’d managed to keep his ass in the apartment. That is, until he saw her leaving at close to midnight. He’d followed her, which technically was his job. He was to have eyes on her as much as possible. Even if it meant tailing her to a booty call.
He’d told himself that it was none of his business. And had done his best to brace himself for the impact of seeing her meeting up with Liam or Keaton or Sam, or any one of her many other admirers. He knew that it was going to feel worse than a punch in the gut. It was going to be a kick to his balls.
When she’d pulled into the high school parking lot, he’d let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. He figured that she must’ve forgotten something and ran over to get it. But she’d gone into the theater over two hours ago, and she still hadn’t come out.
At the one-hour mark, he’d almost gone in, and he would’ve if he’d been able to think of an excuse for showing up. But he couldn’t. An hour later, he still didn’t have one, but he was past the point of caring.
It was two in the morning. He was checking on her.
“Brynn?” he called out again.
Still nothing.
He looked around for any sign of her as he made his way down the center aisle and when he was near the stage he called again, this time a little louder. He didn’t want to scare her, “Brynn, it’s Axel.”
A distressed, muffled sound followed by a crash came from backstage. Axel’s stomach plummeted to the ground as adrenaline rushed through him. His first instinct was to go back to the car to get his weapon, but he immediately dismissed that idea. He’d made his presence known. Whoever had Brynn knew that he was there.
As quickly and quietly as he could manage he rounded the stage, entering the backstage area from stage left. From there he’d have a sightline of the entire area and no one could sneak up behind him. Within seconds he was in position, primed, and ready to kill anyone and everyone who stood in his way of getting to Brynn and getting her out of here.
Several possible scenarios had played out in his mind in the seconds it took him to get into position, but he could honestly say the one that he was faced with was not one of them.
Brynn was alone, in the middle of the room. It looked like she was taking a dress off, the material started at her belly and went over head and was wound tightly around her arms that were extended up. She had white underwear with a red bow in the center and no shoes on.
Still on high alert, his eyes scanned the room. He didn’t see anything. Didn’t sense anything.
“Ashel?!” He heard her more clearly now, but it sounded more like she was saying asshole than Axel.
“I’m here.” Adrenaline surged through him as he crossed to her in two large steps. As he moved, his eyes searched the room looking for anything out of place, anything to cause alarm. Still nothing. “Are you okay?”
She wobbled from side to side. “Mmm shuck.”
“What?”
“Mmm shuck.”
“You’re stuck?”
“Yesh.” She began to move back and forth like a bobblehead doll as if to demonstrate her statement.
He reached out and tugged on the material. It didn’t budge.
She grunted and wiggled and he pulled again, using significantly more force than before. It didn’t shift at all.
Since up wasn’t working he tried pulling it down instead, but he got the same results. It was as if the sucker was superglued to her.
He really hoped that wasn’t the case or he would have to call the paramedics like he’d had to do when Izzy superglued on her favorite shirt so that their mom couldn’t make her take it off to wash it and she could wear it to preschool every day. Looking back, it was a pretty ingenious plan for a preschooler, but she still had faint scars on her shoulders from the toxic adhesive.
He tried different angles, including wrapping one arm around her waist to keep her in place and yanking the material. It was not going anywhere.
“If I pull any harder, I’ll rip it.”
“Riff it. Camp breaff.”
He wrapped his fingers around the edge of the material that was up by her hands and tore it apart and down, not stopping until the offending dress was pooled at her feet.
The second she was free, she gasped for air and he pulled her into his arms. Every muscle in his body was tense. He still had no idea what was going on, but he was just so happy she was safe.
He ran his hands through her hair and pressed a kiss to the top of her head. That’s when his body realized that he was holding a half-naked Brynn and it started to respond accordingly. Maybe he should care that his reaction was about to be noticeable as his pants grew snug, but he didn’t. Right now all he cared about was holding Brynn. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” she assured him, nodding against his chest. “Just embarrassed.”
He leaned back so he could look down at her. “What happened?”
Her eyes lifted to him beneath dark, thick lashes. “I couldn’t sleep because I’ve been staying up every night working on the kids’ costumes, so I figured I might as well come here and work on the costumes for the play since I’ve fallen behind.”
“The costumes were amazing by the way.” Axel was blown away by Brynn’s talents and was wondering if there was anything this woman couldn’t do.
“Thanks.” She dipped her head shyly and pulled her bottom lip between her teeth, causing his dick to jump beneath his zipper. “Anyway,” she reached up and tucked a stray hair behind her ear. “I had to do some alterations on Juliet’s dress and saw that Emmy is broken.”
“Emmy?”
“The dress form.”
Those were three words he understood, but put together in a sentence and she may as well have been speaking in French.
“It’s a mannequin that you use to make alterations.” She motioned to the left and he saw two halves of what looked like a cloth woman’s torso. “I named her Emmy after the movie,” She paused for a moment. “Mannequin.”
Axel smiled remembering picking that movie to rent from the video store because the cover was a guy leaning against a motorcycle, and he’d thought it looked cool. “That’s the one with the guy from Weekend at Bernie’s?”
“I would say that’s the one with Samantha from Sex and the City, but whatever.” She smiled and warmth spread through his chest. Totally clueless to what her smile did to him, she continued, “Anyway, I thought I could do the alterations while the dress was on me but I was wrong. I think I might be delirious from lack of sleep, because that was a horrible idea, but I thought it was genius. I was trying to get it off and I kept shimmying and it only made it worse. It was like one of those mesh finger traps. The more I fought it, the more stuck I got.”
“But you’re okay?” He felt himself tearing up as it sank in that she wasn’t in any danger, she was really fine and the adrenaline and shock of what he’d thought he was going to face started to wear off.
“I mean besides the mortification, yeah, I’m great,” she chuckled as she looked up at him.
When she saw his expression, and the shimmer of emotion in his eye, she reached her hand up and touched his face. As the tips of her fingers brushed his jaw she asked, “Are you okay? What’s wrong?”
The tenderness in her touch overrode the part of his brain that had everyone on a need to know basis. He wasn’t sure if he’d always closed himself off as a protective mechanism or if it was just in his DNA, but he did know that he’d thought he’d always be that way. An island unto himself. And then she opened her front door and changed his life.
“I thought you were…” He didn’t finish that sentence, because to do so he’d have to tell her that he was here to protect her and he thought someone had found her. Which would open up a can of worms that needed to remain sealed. For now, anyway. “I’m glad you’re okay.” Even he recognized that his tone was flat and impersonal.
Brynn’s brow creased before she awkwardly moved away from him and started looking around at the ground around her. “I have clothes here. Somewhere. Why do I always seem to end up naked around you?”
“I’m not complaining.” His voice was rough with desire.
“Ha, ha, ha,” she pretended to laugh nervously, as if she wasn’t sure if he was serious or not.
For some reason seeing it made him need to tell her just how serious it was.
“If it were up to me, you’d be naked every time we were alone.” Fuck. He’d really just said that out loud.
And boy, did it get her attention. Her head popped up and the look of somber vulnerability that he saw in her eyes tore his heart out. “So then why do you avoid being alone with me?”
Damn. He loved that she said exactly what she was thinking. There were no games with Brynn. She called him out. She thought they were going to kiss and when they didn’t she confronted him. She wanted to know why he avoided being alone with her and so she asked. He knew that she deserved the same from him, but he couldn’t do that without revealing too much.
He tried to be as honest with her as possible while not jeopardizing his assignment. “That’s exactly why. I want things with you that I shouldn’t, that I can’t…” his voice trailed off.
“What things?” she asked sincerely.
A lopsided grin tugged at his lips as he ran his hands through his hair in frustration. “You have no idea.”
“You’re right, I don’t.” Her green eyes were wide as she nodded. “That’s why I’m asking.”
The air between them was thick and crackling with arousal. A flush had risen on her skin “I want you, Brynn. All the time. You’re all I think about and—”
The next thing he knew, Brynn had launched herself into his arms and cut off his declaration with a kiss overflowing with pent-up desire. His arms wrapped around her waist and he kissed her with everything he had. Feeling her lips against his, tasting her minty mouth, was like coming home.
He’d missed her more than he dared to admit. Holding her, kissing her, even just talking to her again, had brought to the surface all of the emotions that he’d been pushing down. A savage intensity burned through him and instead of trying to tamp it down, he let it drive him. Their kiss was punishing, devouring, and all-consuming.
Her hands clutched at his shoulders and he realized that she was tugging at his shirt so he set her down to take it off. As he tugged it up, she unbuttoned and unzipped his jeans. Once the shirt cleared his head, he felt his pants and boxer briefs pool at his feet. He stepped out of them both and his shoes as Brynn wrapped her fingers around his erection, jutting out proudly.
He reached down to cup her face and kiss her once again, but she was just out of reach as she dropped to her knees in front of him. He knew what was about to happen and he thought that he was prepared for it. He was wrong. Nothing could’ve prepared him for what he would feel as he watched Brynn’s perfect, cherry red lips press to his engorged crown. With gentle, yet firm pressure, she covered the area of his mushroom tip in tantalizing kisses before bringing her tongue to the party. Watching her kiss him was sexy, but watching her lick him, tease him, with the promise of more was more erotic.
Pleasure whipped through him as his skin heated from the arousal she was stoking in him. When she sealed her lips around him and sucked, pulling him into the enveloping warmth of her wet mouth, his knees buckled and he grew lightheaded. He grasped onto the table beside him for support. He was glad he did because she began brazenly stroking his shaft with her hand while sucking him in and then pulling him out of her mouth.
The delicious friction the dual forces created was potent and all-consuming. What started as a carnal ache morphed into a pulsing urgency and he knew that if he didn’t stop this, he was going to come in her mouth. As hot as that sounded, he didn’t want to chance not being able to be inside of her and make love to her one more time.
Everything in his body was screaming for him to let this play out, but he didn’t listen. Instead, he grabbed her arms and lifted her up. He’d told himself again and again that he wasn’t going to get another night with her, that he couldn’t have one. Now that it was here, there was no way he was going to waste it.
* * *
Brynn was catching her breath as she watched Axel’s eyes—wild with passion—track along the seam of her mouth as she licked her lips, savoring the saltiness of his velvet, steel-hard shaft. “I’ve wanted to do that for a long time,” she breathlessly confessed.
His nostrils flared at her admission and the hand that was resting on her hip flexed, causing his fingertips to dig into her flesh. “Do you want to know what I’ve wanted to do for a long time?”
The baritone in his voice reverberated through her as she answered, “No, but I’d love it if you showed me.”
A devilish grin pulled at his lips, sending a thrill dancing down her spine straight to her core.
With a dominating authority he instructed, “Turn around.”
Her heart was pounding as she did as he asked. With her back to him, she felt his fingers trail along her shoulder and brush her hair to the side. Then his lips were on her neck. He covered the entire area in sensual, open-mouth kisses as he unhooked her bra and slid the straps down her shoulders. Once it was off, he wrapped his arms around her and his hands cupped her breasts. Her eyes drifted down to where he kneaded her flesh. She watched, captivated, as his fingers teased her nipples, pinching them between his thumb and forefinger as his tongue and lips caressed her neck.
Her sex was already clenching with need when he lifted his hand to her mouth and pressed his finger between her lips. She sucked his digit, covering it with saliva before he removed it and traced her nipples, spreading the moisture across one before repeating on the other nipple. Once both her nipples were wet and glistening, he began teasing and pinching them again. This time she cried out from the pleasure that shot like an arrow to her sex.
When she did, he released her breasts and one hand gripped her hip as the other moved between their bodies and pressed between her shoulder blades. Her upper body moved forward and she splayed her hands out on the large table that she’d been using to cut material. Her belly quivered as it rested on the cool, hard surface of the table. As she lowered further, she turned her head to the side so her cheek laid against the wooden table top.
Her heart was beating wildly in her chest as she felt Axel tug her panties down her legs. She was bent over and totally exposed to Axel as his hands began caressing her, running over her backside then down her thighs, never actually touching her most needy place. It was as exhilarating as it was frustrating. She’d always considered herself a patient person, especially if the payoff was worth it. Right now though, she wanted to demand that he do something to make the aching pressure that was building in her core release.
She didn’t. She let him take his time, because she knew that he’d take care of her. Her body intrinsically trusted that he’d take her to places she’d never even dreamed were possible.
Even in her heightened state, she noted that no matter where he explored, his finger always returned to the same place and made a tiny circle just below her left butt cheek.
Finally, his hot breath fanned that same area as he said, “I’ve wanted to do this for a long time.” The next thing she felt was his hot lips pressing the sensitive spot that he’d been showing the most attention to. “I’ve wanted to kiss this birthmark since the first day I met you.”
Part of her was still embarrassed that he’d seen her totally naked before they’d even exchanged names. But part of her, maybe an inner exhibitionist that she’d never acknowledged before, was turned on by the idea of it.
He continued softly brushing his lips against her birthmark as his thumbs massaged her inner thighs in tiny circles. She was so lulled by the rhythm of his caresses that when he pushed her thighs apart with just enough force to make her even wetter than she already was, it caused her to gasp. Her fingernails dug into the wood surface as she braced herself for what was to come next.
Her preparations were not in vain, because the next sensation she felt was Axel’s tongue licking her from behind. That was all it took for her already primed body to explode in a cataclysmic release. Stars flashed behind her eyelids as she convulsed from the sheer force of her orgasm.
At the exact moment that she was cresting at the peak of her climax, she felt Axel replace his tongue with his cock. He pushed into her body with a driving thrust that had her lifting up on her tiptoes and crying out as a wave of pleasure crashed into her. Her body erupted in a chain of glorious explosions, one after the other.
Her body milked him as she rode out the ripples of ecstasy, until finally she collapsed onto the table. He wrapped his arms around her and sat on the bench beside them, pulling her onto his lap. She wrapped her arms around his neck and laid her head against his shoulder as she recovered from the massive, earth-shaking release she’d just had when a thought hit her. “Hey, what were you doing here? At the theater?”
A flash of something she couldn’t quite read lit in his eyes, but it was quickly masked. “I couldn’t sleep either. I came down to work and saw your car.”
“Oh. Great minds,” she joked, but she could feel the energy shift between them. The connection that had been there moments before was gone. He was guarded once again. She didn’t want to ruin the time they’d just had with awkwardness so she clapped her hands together. “We should probably get out of here before the night security finds us.”
The next thing she knew, Axel was covering her with a large swatch of cloth that lay on the table as he looked over his shoulder to see if anyone was there. A shot of giddiness hit her when she realized that his first instinct was to cover her up.
“I’m kidding.” She placed her hand on his chest. “This is Whisper Lake, there’s no night security.”
His face relaxed again and he exhaled before leaning down and kissing her on the forehead. And just like that, she felt it again. Their connection. And even though she knew that it would be gone again soon, she couldn’t help the smile that pushed her cheeks up to her eyes when she felt his lips brush her forehead.
She had no idea where this was going, or if it was going anywhere, but for right now, her plan was to just sit back and enjoy the ride.