And he downright terrified me.
The beatings didn’t start until we had been married for about two years. I went to see Dee when I was supposed to be picking up his dry cleaning. I missed my best friend, and I had honestly thought I could be in and out before he noticed. But Brandon Hunter noticed everything.
They weren’t bad at first, a slap here and there for whatever offense he deemed beat-worthy. Eventually though it didn’t take much. I could sneeze, and if he didn’t like it, I was sporting a black eye the next day.
He had played his hand right and I was well and truly stuck. Cut off from those I loved and so terrified of his wrath, I wasn’t going anywhere.
Those were the years I prayed and prayed for Axel to find his way back to me. Every single horrible day I was at the receiving end of Brandon’s fist, I tried to take myself to another place. To a place where Axel was, ready to take me away and be my hero. But I eventually had to face the facts; my hero was gone.
Closing my eyes, I think back to the time my life was the happiest. Twelve years ago to be exact.
“I can’t believe this is our last night together for six months, I’m going to miss you so much, baby.” I look up into his bright green eyes. God, I love his eyes. I think I would be happy to just sit here and look at his handsome face for hours.
Get lost in him.
How will I make it without him?
This boy I love more than anything.
I lay my head back down on his warm chest, feeling his strong heart beating under my ear.
I’ve known this beautiful boy since I was fourteen, and Axel has been the love of my life for the last three years. Not a day has gone by without him in it. How am I going to go just one day without him, never mind six months?
“Babe, quit. It will be over before you know it and I will be back to get my girl,” I hear him rumble under my ear. He knows exactly what is running through my mind.
We’ve been lying here in his tiny twin bed for hours, just getting lost in each other. I know he hates being in this house.
His foster family isn’t a bad foster family. Well, as far as they come, I guess. He might as well be a meal ticket for them, but they leave him alone. I get the impression that they are counting down the seconds before he leaves for basic training and they get his body out and a new one in. They wouldn’t want their check to be short—greedy assholes. His foster parents have never liked me. I don’t think I will ever understand why, but Axel thinks it’s because I have been around the last three years, taking up space and eating their food. Who knows? I just can’t wait for him to be free of them.
I can’t believe my beautiful boy is leaving for the Marines tomorrow. Marines . . . God, Ax is really leaving. I haven’t let myself think about what could happen to him when he leaves. Axel was born a fighter, a survivor. Nothing would happen to him, and I just had to believe that.
He starts to shift under me, sliding out from under my body and rolling onto his side to face me. I look into his bright, twinkling eyes again, smiling up at him. He really is perfect. Thick, messy black hair is sticking up in disheveled waves from me running my hands through it. His strong cheekbones and powerful jaw always remind me of how ruthless he can be. I run my finger down his perfectly straight nose and then run it along the thick lips I love to get lost in, tracing first the top and then the bottom. His lips twitch, and that lazy grin I love so much pops onto his face.
“What are you thinking about, Princess?”
“God, Ax, just about how much I’m going to miss you. You promise to come back to me?” I ask him, the tears coming back into my eyes, and the melancholy that has been a constant presence since his graduation Friday night returns.
“Just try and keep me away,” he says, leaning in to take my lips in a toe-curling kiss. His tongue licks my bottom lip, and then he catches it in between his teeth, lightly biting down. I open my mouth to let him in and capture his moan down my throat. Pushing his shoulder, I roll him underneath me, feeling his already hard cock nestle within my wet core.
“Mmmm, babe, already?” he groans.
“Always, Axel. I’m always ready for you,” I say as I lift up and help guide him inside my body.
As I begin to move with a perfectly mastered rhythm over his lean, hard body, I think to myself how hard it’s going to be to drop my boyfriend off at the bus tomorrow knowing that it’s going to be six long months before I see him again.
Little do I know, the last time I look into these eyes will be when he turns around to wave while walking up the steps to the bus, the bus that takes my heart with it.
A heart that never returns to me.