Page 88 of The Sound Of Us

Axel’s fingers dig into my hips, pulling me in closer to him. With one hand braced on the floor next to his head and the other wrapped around his throat so I can hear him, I drive into him. Moving in and out of him like a demon is sitting on my back, urging this carnal act of love and lust. Of pain and sorrow. Hopes and dreams.

He reaches down and grabs his dick, pumping himself while he lifts his hips to meet my thrusts.

It doesn’t take long. Fast orgasms are a mandatory part of adultery.

And with my fingers now entwined with his above his head, I pull almost all the way out and then drive all the way back in, where my orgasm meets his prostate in a pleasure so intense I feel the vibration of my own shout reverberating throughout my body.

The warmth of his semen spills onto my abs. I lower my body until we’re pressed chest to chest, abdomen to abdomen.

We lay like that for a long time. In reality, it must have been no more than two or three minutes, but for us, those minutes somehow always feel like forever.

I eventually slide off him, pulling him into my arms. He faces me, tracing the angles of my face with his index finger.

“I think I’m in love with you,” he says.

I choose the easiest words to tell him in sign. He’ll understand because it was the one they already learned at the sign language classes.

He watches my fingers as I move them slowly. I… love… you.

Tears gather in his eyes. His face is expressionless, and he lowers his lashes when they fall down the side of his face. I feel them gather at my chest. I let him look away from me for a second. Because for just a moment, I’m preoccupied by the lack of emotion in Axel’s face when he cries. How he lets his heart bleed through his eyes with such numbness. As if his soul can cry without the need for physical reactions.

When we can communicate quicker in the future, I want to ask him about it. I want to know how I can bring out those parts of him that are so hidden away. I want to bring this silent part of him back to life.

When I’ve had enough of my musings and not being able to see his face, I gently lift his face back up to mine.

He signs back. I love you.

I press light kisses to his fingers.

So there it is. The truest declaration ever made between two people who can do no more than steal each other inside the storeroom of a bookstore.

But it doesn’t matter. Nothing will keep us apart. He’s chained to someone else, but that doesn’t mean he belongs to me any less than if it were my ring on his finger right now.

“What are we going to do?” he asks.

I reach over to my discarded pants and retrieve my phone. I type. I’ll get you the best divorce lawyer in the state.

He nods and I almost shout with relief and joy.

“How soon?” he asks.

Immediately. We can leave for the city as soon as you are ready.

Another nod to add to my increasing confidence that this man could be mine sooner than I imagined.

“I don’t have a high school diploma, so it’ll take some time to get a job and pay you back.”

I’ll give you a job.

He sits up, seeming to forget his nakedness. I remain still so as to not remind him while letting my eyes rove over his body as casually as possible.

“What do you mean?” Axel asks.

I’ll hire you. I’ll pay you a million dollars a year.

His shoulders shake with laughter, but he stops when he notices I’m not laughing.

“Stop talking like that,” he says.

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