Page 68 of Blaze & Ajax

I ignored him and looked at his head, lifting his damp hair away to check his wound. “Are you okay?”

“Never fucking better.”

I glanced over at the bathtub, seeing the tile on the wall now smashed in pieces on the floor. “What are you doing? Are you allowed to do that? I’m assuming you want to replace the tile?”

He scratched his head. “I don’t know… It’s just that I hate this fucking tile, which I can never get it clean enough, and it’s ugly. I found some better stuff over at the hardware store where I work that I really like, and it could really spice up the place. Modernize it, you know? And it’d be fucking clean. I need it to be clean. After that, I’m going to patch up the walls, maybe put a fresh coat of paint on them. I get sick of counting the cracks at night, not letting me sleep. Hey! We can pick out paint colors!”

He suddenly grabbed my hand and dragged me out of the bathroom. I stumbled and crashed into him when he abruptly stopped. “What color do you think I should get? Green? I really like green. What’s your favorite color?”

“Uh…”

“But charcoal gray would be super cool, and it would go well with the walnut color of those new nightstands. Do you like the nightstands? I just bought them. Oh! And those lamps I found at a vintage store. Cool, right? They’re totally retro. It’s about time I spruced up this place. I’ve lived here long enough.”

I shook my head at his rambling. Ajax always had this vibrant energy about him, even when he was pissed at me, but this was beyond what I understood about him. It was like he’d taken a bunch of drugs or something. I still wasn’t sure he’d taken any last night, but he could’ve. If so, did he take more?

“Ajax? Where is all this coming from?”

I reached for his face again, looking a little wild and a lot exhausted. He still had dark circles under his eyes, but they were more pronounced, and his cheeks were starting to sink a bit.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean—”

“Oh, how does homemade spaghetti sound? I make a mean sauce, and I add lots of red peppers to make it extra spicy.” He grabbed me again and punched his hips at me. “It’s spicy like you, my little enchilada.”

I snorted a laugh. “You didnotjust say that.”

“My little jalapeño.”

I rolled my eyes.

“I know! My little tomatillo.”

“You’re crazy!” I laughed.

He suddenly lifted me and kissed me. “Need you.”

“Again?”

“Forever and ever. All the time. Every day.”

“I don’t know if my ass can take it, Precious. I’m still sore from last night.”

“I’ll kiss it and make it all better.”

“It’s hard to say no to you.”

“Yes!”

Ajax tossed me onto his neat bed, wrecking it as he wrecked me once again.

I squirmed as I slept from my aching ass, from being fucked to being spanked again. Suddenly, I bolted upright, wincing at the banging coming from the bathroom.

Was Ajax going at the tile again? At this hour? What time was it, anyway?

I glanced at the clock, which read it was after midnight. The neighbors were going to be pissed.

And right on cue, someone below hammered their ceiling to shut him up.

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