Page 56 of Bound By Temptation

They both chuckled then sobered, wanting an answer to their question.

They heard what had happened with the tape and Ax’s recant of it. Mom and GramO were way too forgiving if you asked me.

So, I sat down at the island and told them the tale from the night before, having to add in the part about Ax carrying me out of the clubhouse since Mazie thought it would be great to tell my niece about it.

“There’s more to the story,” Luna said.

Ax slid a cup of coffee in front of me, and it looked perfect. “How did you know how I take my coffee?”

“I’m observant. What would you ladies like?” he asked Meadow and Luna, who both appeared in shock the man was asking their preferences. After a few beats, they gave theirs as Ax leaned down in my ear. “You gonna tell them how I fucked you against the wall until you screamed? Sure Olive would love to hear all about it.”

A growl came up deep in my throat. “No. Now go,” I ordered, only to hear the man chuckling again. “I’m so happy I amuse you.”

He pulled away. “More than you know.”

Meadow leaned in. “Did he really do that?”

“I’m not talking about it. Stuff happened. I came home, he showed up and we … well … talked.”

Meadow burst out laughing just as Ax dropped off the other two coffees.

“Talked? Guess we did that too,” Ax said, leaving us once again.

There weren’t many secrets I kept from my family. We were pretty open when it came to life. Even talking to GramO about things. But here in front of him … that wasn’t going to happen.

It felt strange and uncomfortable. I never wanted to feel uncomfortable in my home.

“Yes. Talked. And he made me dinner.”

“You didn’t make this mess?” my mother said, washing some of the dishes. “I mean, it smells amazing and would’ve loved to try it if it had been put away and hadn’t sat out all night…”

“I’ll make it for ya sometime,” Ax offered.

I turned to Ax. “Don’t you have somewhere to be or something to do? You can see my house is full, and we have a family meeting that I seemed to have missed the memo about, so yeah, you can go.”

He held his arms out wide. “What, and miss a morning with five beautiful women? Not gonna happen. Besides, I need GramO to teach me how to make her sausage gravy.”

“Oh boy. That’s a family secret,” GramO responded, shaking her head.

Ax smiled at her. “Don’t worry. I’ll be family soon enough.”

Holy shit. Butterflies danced in my chest.

"That’s not happening,” I retorted as Ax looked to me and winked.

“Yeah, it is.” He was seriously going to kill me this time.

His confidence was an allure that pulled me in. Instantly, I threw my walls up and blocked off my heart. And added my soul in there too. He was dangerous, and I knew with everything inside of me that he was going to hurt me.

How? I didn’t know.

But it was coming.

19

AX

The dishwasher was running,so I washed the rest of the breakfast dishes by hand. GramO did teach me how to make her sausage gravy, and when we all sat down at the table in the dining room, everything felt right.

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