Chapter 13

Axel

I wasn’t used to waking up because someone else was moving around in my bed. When I brought a woman home, she never stayed the night. Ever. It was a rule of mine. I wouldn’t stay at their place, either. Not if I could avoid it.

But the idea of Ellie leaving last night had unsettled me. I wanted her in my bed with me. First off, because I wasn’t done ravaging her yet. Secondly, I wanted to feel the warmth of her body beside mine as we slept.

After spending hours fucking and licking and kissing, we had fallen asleep. I didn’t know what time it was now, but sunshine was streaming in through the cracks of the blinds, and Ellie was sitting on the edge of the bed pulling her black T-shirt on over her head. She pulled her blond hair out from under the collar, and I caught a whiff of her shampoo.

“Leaving so early? And without saying goodbye?” I asked.

Ellie looked back at me. “I have to feed Cade and let him out.”

“Cade?”

“My dog.”

“Right. Well, I’ll go with you. We can head to the shop together afterward.”

She nodded, a smile touching the corners of her lips. “Okay. But hurry up. Cade’s bladder is probably really full. Or he already peed on my floor.” She shrugged and stood. “Hopefully not. My lease agreement states I’m not even allowed to have a pet. If he pees on any carpet … Yeah. I have to go.”

She was naked from the waist down. I rolled across the bed and slapped her ass. She batted my hand away but didn’t move away from me. So I traced the curve of her ass with my palm. Her skin was warm to the touch and softer than silk. I wondered how she kept it that way. Did she even have to try, or was she always this soft? I eased my hand down under her ass cheek and dragged a single finger down the back of her thigh. I drew it back up, tracing swirling patterns on her skin until my hand settled on the inside of her thigh.

Her eyes were heavy as she watched me. She didn’t move or say a word as I pressed forward, letting my hand cup her warm pussy.

Her legs drifted apart, and she stared down at me, her gaze unwavering. “I have to go. And if you do what you did to me last night again, I know I’ll never leave.”

That was kind of the idea. I wanted to bend her over and spread her open again. I wanted to slip my cock inside her. I was rock hard at the thought. “I can’t have just a little bit of fun?”

Ellie shook her head. “Not right now.”

I eased a finger between her lips and felt her wetness against me. I arched an eyebrow, daring her to tell me no again. She sucked in a breath. I eased my finger inside her and moved it slowly in and out. She drew her bottom lip between her teeth, and her eyebrows pulled together. The face she made when I was stretching her open was so fucking sexy. I wanted to make her come again. I wanted to hear her moan.

“You can’t spare fifteen minutes? That’s all I need.”

She shook her head. Her eyes fell closed when I pressed deeper inside her.

Suddenly, she stepped away, and I was left with a wet finger. She grabbed her panties, stepped into them, and then hopped in place a couple times as she pulled her jeans on.

I sucked her juices off my finger before getting out of bed and dressing. The taste of her on my tongue was maddening, but I told myself I would have her again soon.

We opted to take one car to her place. I drove because then it gave her a reason to have to come back to my place to get her car. She spent the entire drive with her hand on my cock. I was thick and hard beneath the denim, and she knew what she was doing to me. Maybe it was payback for what I had done to her this morning.

If it was, I hoped it was the kind of thing she would do all the time. Having her hand on me while I gripped the wheel was a fine way to drive.

I parked in front of her apartment and then followed her up the steps and through the front door of the building. We went straight to the back of the building, and she let me into her suite.

A dog came barrelling down the hall toward us right away.

Cade was a happy-go-lucky pit bull with a grinning face and massive tongue. He dragged that tongue up Ellie’s cheek when she crouched down to greet him.

“Oh, gross,” she muttered, dragging the back of her hand across her cheek to wipe away the slobber. She stood up. “Come on, let’s go outside. I know, I know. You’ve been cooped up a while. You can say hi to Axel after you’ve done your business.”

Ellie opened her patio door and practically chased the dog out. Cade ran a few frantic laps of the backyard and then dropped into a squat to, as Ellie had said, “do his business.”

After she let him back in, I dropped to my knees and scratched him behind the ears. Then, I grabbed his snout, shook his head playfully, and wrestled with him for a couple minutes. Ellie watched the entire exchange with a smile.

I played with the dog a bit more while she changed into clothes more appropriate for spending the day at the shop. She emerged from her bedroom wearing a looser pair of jeans, her typical shop boots, and a white T-shirt with several grease stains.

“Ready?” she asked as she filled Cade’s dog bowls with water and dog food.

I nodded.

We got back in my car and drove over to the shop. Without a word, her hand was back on my crotch. I put mine on her thigh. She shifted lower in her seat and took my hand in hers. Then she interlaced her fingers with mine as her hand on my groin started rubbing me absentmindedly. I could get used to this shit, that was for damn sure.

At a stoplight, I had to put my hand on hers to stop her. “You’re going to give me blue balls for the rest of the day, woman. Keep your hands off me.”

Ellie gave me a coy but innocent smile. “Okay,” she shrugged. “You just tell me when you change your mind.”

I grunted out a laugh as she put her hand back in her lap and looked out the window as we drove the rest of the way to the shop. When we arrived, she stepped out and stretched. I got a nice peek at her lean stomach as she reached her arms over her head. I was sad to see it disappear when she began making her way toward the shop.

I told myself I wouldn’t have to wait long until she was under me again, until I could taste her and drink from her. My thoughts were of her naked body on the bed before me as I entered the shop.

Jamie was there. She was on the phone with whom I could only assume was a customer. Her voice was chipper and polite as she asked for their information and told them she would call them as soon as we were accepting work. She assured them they would be our first priority, and she would keep them posted if there were going to be any delays.

“Good stuff, Jamie,” I said as she hung up the phone.

“Thanks.” She grinned. “Looks like things will be pretty busy for you guys once you’re up and running. You’ve had a lot of your old customers calling in and asking if this was your new permanent location.”

“Means it’s been easy to find us. That’s good. Word of mouth is working.” We didn’t advertise. Advertising only invited attention, and we didn’t need any of that.

Ellie said hello to Jamie as my phone went off in my pocket. I excused myself and slipped back outside. The sun was hot on my shoulders, and I shielded my eyes from the glare as I answered the phone.

It was Jax calling to check in on his little cousin.

“How’s Jamie doing? She picking things up quickly?”

“Yeah. She’s pretty sharp. Fits right in.”

“Good,” Jax said. Then he paused. “I don’t think this needs to be said between us, but you understand she’s not available, right?”

I barked out a laugh into the phone. “You’re right. It didn’t need to be said. Besides, she’s not my type.”

“I thought anything with tits and a pussy was your type.”

“Well, you can’t blame a guy for that, can you?”

It was Jax’s turn to laugh into the phone. “‘Suppose not. But you keep your eyes and your hands off my baby cousin. She’s too good for you. She’s too good for any of us MC bastards.”

“Couldn’t agree with you more.” That was how I had felt about Ellie for all those years, so I knew exactly where Jax was coming from. His words reminded me that I had brought Ellie closer to the MC life. I didn’t like the way that sat in my gut. “I have to get back to work, Jax.”

“All right. Tell Jamie not to flirt with any of the guys who come in.”

“I’m not going to do that.”

“Fuck you, then,” Jax said, and he hung up the phone.

I laughed to myself as I slid my phone back into my pocket. Then, out of habit, I looked up and across the street before starting to turn back to the shop.

As I did, I stopped.

A black Lincoln was driving down the street and was cruising at a speed that was at least ten miles under the speed limit. I could hear the tires peeling across the pavement. The engine was silent as it approached, and I noticed it had tinted windows.

Then, when the car was directly across from me, the driver’s side window rolled down.

A man I didn’t know was sitting behind the wheel. His seat was reclined back, and his left hand rested lazily across the top of the steering wheel. His fingers were marked with tattoos and each one hosted a thick, gold ring adorned with several different jewels.

There was a cigarette hanging out of the corner of his mouth. He was clean-shaven and bald—perfectly bald like he just shaved his head with a straight razor that morning. He gave me a crooked grin, but I didn’t sense any kindness from him.

He was wearing sunglasses that were as dark as the car itself. As he passed, I stared into the depths of the lenses where I knew his eyes would be. Then, his hand emerged against the windowsill in the form of a gun.

He mimicked the motion of firing two rounds at me and then lifted his fingers and blew on them like he was blowing smoke from the end of a pistol.

He returned his attention to the road and drove on. The window rolled slowly back up, hiding him from view.

I could hear the blood rushing in my ears. A pounding had begun behind my eyes. My hands ached because they were clenched into fists so tight that my nails were biting into my palms.

I couldn’t go back into the shop right now. The anger was straining to break free, and I didn’t dare bring myself anywhere near Ellie right now.

So I stayed out on the gravel drive, mind racing, fury burning, as I came to a conclusion that made my skin cold. A name kept running through my mind, over and over, and I knew things were about to change.

Watson was waving the starting flag.