Page 54 of Fighting Furry

“Hell, yes,” he said.

I should have just accepted that and kept going, but he'd put up the boundary and I felt I should respect it. “But I thought we were just being friends until I came to you and asked for more.”

“We'll be friends tomorrow.”

And that was enough for me. I spun and straddled him, kissing his lips and his chin and his neck. I kissed every part of him I could reach and then started pawing at his shirt, needing to get to his skin. He gripped my waist, put me on my feet, and stood with me. He pulled off my shirt and then got me naked faster than I'd ever managed to get myself naked.

“Let's use the equipment in here for some fun,” he said, a wicked glint in his eyes. “Go over and put your hands on the bar you were just squatting. I walked back over to the smith machine, bent at the waist and put my hands on the bar. I wasn't sure that's what he'd intended, but I was happy to give him a show. Behind me he swore. “You are the sexiest fucking thing I've ever seen. “

I looked back over my shoulder to see him standing about three feet behind me. He was shirt-less and his pants were unbuttoned and unzipped, revealing the flat plane of his abdomen leading down to the goods. He removed some plates from the smith machine and lay them next to my feet. He helped me to step up onto the plates, making me a bit taller, putting me right where he needed me.

He gripped my hips and drove into me in one hard thrust. I was more than ready for him and it felt so good I thought the top of my head might fly off with the pleasure. It felt like it had been weeks instead of a day since I'd felt him inside me. He paused for just a moment and I tried to jerk my hips back, to get some movement, some friction, but he tsked and gripped my hips harder.

“Axel, please.” I needed to move, I needed to feel I was in control.

“Trust me,” he said. “Keep your hands on the bar and trust me to give you what you need.”

I was getting closer to trusting him, and I knew he knew exactly how to give me what I needed. “Okay.”

He sighed, like I'd removed one of those burdens he carried, and pulled out of me slow. He pumped in and out, holding my hips in place, and it felt so good, but I needed more. I pulled one hand from the bar to touch myself, to get the extra friction I needed, but he stopped mid-thrust. “Hand back on that bar,” he said, his voice a husky growl. He wasn't using his alpha voice. If he had, I would have fought his order. Instead, I put my hand back on the bar and lost myself to the motion and the feel of him, the sounds our flesh made, the feel of his fingers digging into my hips, the moans we both made.

Finally, he touched me in that magic spot. He was rougher than I would have been, but it was just what I needed in that moment. I exploded, screaming his name with the pleasure. He followed and collapsed over my back, breathing heavy. “Stay with me tonight?” he asked, once he'd caught his breath.

“Okay,” I said. “But just tonight and only because I want sex.”

His face was against my neck so I could feel his smile. Which was dumb. Why was he smiling about that? “Of course.”

“Axel?” Clarissa's voice carried through the door. Before I could look over, I heard her footsteps on the concrete floor. “Oh, shit. Sorry. I'll come back later.”

By the time we'd both stood, she was gone. Axel didn't even put on clothes. He picked me up and carried me inside. He took me straight upstairs to his bed. “What if Clarissa needed something?”

“If it was important, she would have told me before she left.”

He laid me down on the bed and dropped to his knees. He spread my legs wide, enjoying the view for just a moment before he dove in and feasted. I forgot about Clarissa and the valley pack and Axel's burdens. I forgot my own damn name.

***

I woke up in Axel's bed alone. I could hear his welding tools from the warehouse, so I took my time getting out of bed and putting yesterday's clothes back on. I made coffee for both of us and carried it out to the warehouse, but Axel didn't look up from his work. He was shirtless, sweatpants hanging low on his lean hips, his damp skin flexing and tightening over his firm muscles as he worked. It was a sight to behold and I couldn't resist grabbing my phone from the bench where I'd left it the day before and filming him in action.

I got about ten minutes of video, zooming in on my particular areas of interest as much as on his work, before he looked up and noticed me there. He grinned when he saw me and put down his tools. He took off his face shield and walked lazily over to me, his gaze scanning my body as though he was ready to go again, even though we'd been up most of the night. “Thanks, sweetheart.” He picked up the coffee mug I'd brought out for him and lifted it to his lips. Damn, his lips. I needed to leave before I climbed all over him and forgot that I needed to be making my own way, not spending every moment of every day in bed with him.

“I need to get home,” I said. “Has yesterday's meeting been rescheduled?”

He smirked like he knew why I was in such a hurry to leave. “It's this afternoon. Same time, same place.”

I nodded and left. I walked back to Lucinda's, taking my time and enjoying the sunny, warm morning. I'd taken my mug with me and I sipped coffee as I walked. I stopped at the diner, which was much less busy that morning, though the menu offerings were the same, and had a quick breakfast. By the time I got back to Lucinda's, I was feeling relaxed and pretty darn good about everything.

Lucinda was seated on her couch, scowling at me. Several other women, including Lara, were seated around the room, not scowling at me. “Good morning,” I said.

Lucinda grunted. “It would have been better if I hadn't been up all night worrying about you.”

“I'm…sorry,” I said. “I didn't realize you would expect me back. I just…” They didn't need to know I'd been with Axel. “I got busy and lost track of time.”

“Busy with Axel,” one of the women said. “Didn't you hear, Luce? Clarissa walked in on the two of them getting it on in the middle of the gym.”

Lucinda's scowl deepened as I made a mental note to kick Clarissa's big-mouthed ass. “Sounds exceedingly unsanitary to me,” Lucinda said. “Do you know how many germs live on publicly used gym equipment?”

“Don't really want to know,” I said. I looked around at the women. Since all the seats were taken, I sat on the coffee table. “I'm Julie. I know Lara and Lucinda, I don't think I've met the rest of you.” A couple of them looked familiar, but we hadn't been officially introduced.

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