Page 28 of Axle
I stood, and the scrape of my chair legs seemed louder in the quiet tension thickening the air.
Her chin tipped up like she could stare me down.
“You think this is just heat?” I asked, closing the distance between us.
“I think it’s a freaking firestorm, Mason, and I’m the reason it’s at your door.”
“Angel,” I gritted, the word coming out like gravel as I stepped in close enough that she had to tip her head back to keep my eyes, “you’re in my world now.”
Her chin lifted, stubborn as hell. “And I’m trying to get out of it before I burn it down.”
“It’s not yours to save.” The muscle in my jaw ticked hard enough to ache. I didn’t give her the chance to run. I caught her wrist, not rough but firm, and walked her backward until she was pressed against the wall. I planted my hands on either side of her head, boxing her in, close enough to catch the rush of her breath. “You don’t get to decide who I fight for.”
Her eyes searched mine. “Why are you fighting for me?”
It wasn’t a taunt. Wasn’t even a test. It was the naked question of a woman who didn’t see how someone could look at her and choose the harder road.
I let my gaze drop and did a quick, possessive sweep from her eyes to her mouth, then down to where my cut hung over her frame like a claim. My blood pounded loud in my ears, and my body was on fire, desperate to get her naked and under me. But not before we cleared this shit up. “I protect what’s mine, angel.”
Something flickered in her expression—heat, relief, the barest hint of surrender—but her voice stayed steady. “You barely know me.”
“I know enough.”
Her pulse jumped in her throat again, and I slid my hand over it to feel it under my thumb. I wanted to take her back upstairs and mark her in ways that would make anyone who looked twice think better of it.
“You shouldn’t have to take fire meant for me.”
“This isn’t about taking fire. It’s about making sure it never gets close enough to touch you.”
11
ASHLYNN
The hum of the air conditioner and the soft tick of Mason’s pen were the only sounds in his office, steady enough to almost lull me into a nap. Laptops sat open, one in front of each of us, displaying different decrypted indexes Jax had passed along for a fresh set of eyes.
He and Deviant were uncovering information faster than they could go through it, so they were letting me pitch in on organizing it all.
“Need a break, angel?”
I glanced up at Mason with a distracted smile. “Nah, I’m good.”
“More coffee?”
“Nope.” I took a sip of my half-full cup and smiled at him over the rim. “I think three is enough for today, even after you kept me up all night.”
A heated gleam filled his eyes—one I’d gotten quite familiar with since he took my virginity. “Maybe we should take a different kind of break.”
I pointed at the broken stapler in the small garbage can to my left. “The last time we did that, everything on your desk crashed onto the floor.”
“Worth the mess.”
I couldn’t argue with that. Not when he gave me two orgasms while I was bent over his desk and another with me riding him on his chair.
“Totally.” I pressed my thighs together as my core heated at the memory. “Give me ten minutes to finish this up, and then we can go upstairs and have a nice, long nap. With a round of orgasms first.”
“Love how your mind works, angel.”
And I loved when he gave me compliments like that, which was often.
