He buries his head into my neck and, with a strangled cry, empties himself into my body. We lie there, covered in sweat and connected in every way possible, for the longest time. His body feels wonderful against mine.
My breathing slowly returns to normal and I feel like I am able to speak. Turning my head slightly so my lips kiss his ear, I whisper as softly as I can the words I have longed to speak to him.
“I love you, Axel Reid. I have loved you forever and I will never stop. Made for me, baby. You were made for me. Don’t ever leave me. Never again. I would rather die than be without you again.”
He tenses for the smallest of seconds before rolling our bodies so that he is taking my weight, my legs straddling his hips and my arms still wrapped around his shoulders. He brings his arms up and pulls me even closer to his body. I can feel our joint orgasms leaking between us, reminding me that we are still intimately connected.
“You wouldn’t be able to get rid of me if you tried.” I lean up and look into his face, memorizing each feature before rubbing my cheek against his. “It feels like my heart has been ripped from my body knowing everything that happened to you. I can’t even begin to process all that we lost. This is our second chance, Izzy and nobody is fucking it up this time.” His voice is soft against my cheek. His lips are warm when he presses a soft kiss against my ear before he rolls me back over and slowly slips from my body. I cry out weakly at the loss of him.
“Princess, that’s twice now I haven’t used protection. Promise you, I’m clean, but I can get you papers if you don’t believe me. Is this going to be an issue?” He says this lightly, but I can tell by the way he is staring at my stomach he isn’t talking about anything I can catch. “As much as I would love to have you carrying my baby inside you, we aren’t there yet. We will be. But not until my ring is around your finger,” he adds almost as an afterthought, leaving me stunned.
“Um . . .” I clear my throat a few times and look back up into his smiling eyes. “We’re okay. I’m on the pill,” I whisper.
“Good. Then I guess I don’t need all those boxes of condoms, huh?” He laughs as he walks to the bathroom and shuts the door behind him.
I can’t help but wonder what the hell just happened here. Was that some weird marriage proposal? No, surely not. We might have agreed to see where this goes, but marriage?
I am silently freaking out when he returns to the bed and tenderly cleans me off. He throws the towel off in the direction of the bathroom before pulling me into his arms and holding me tight. My head is resting against his chest and I can feel his heart beating slowly under my ear. I wrap my arm around him and hook my leg over his hip, brushing his still-hard dick in the process.
“Easy there, Princess. You might want that in working function later.”
I laugh before I allow his warm body and steady breathing to pull me under into the most peaceful, dreamless sleep I have had in twelve years.
CHAPTER 17
I woke up feeling the most delicious soreness between my legs and an ache in muscles haven’t been used in years. Stretching out, I reach over expecting to find Axel’s warm body next to mine but only meet cold sheets.
I open my eyes and look around the room. Empty. Climbing out, I pick up the shirt from last night, pull on a pair of yoga pants from my bag, and continue my search for Axel. The bathroom is empty and so is every room I check after. Not in the kitchen, not in the garage, but his truck is still out front.
I’m standing on the back porch, looking off across the lake at the sun just barely peeking over the tips of the trees. The lake is calm in the early morning hours, and the world seems to be asleep. I am about to give up my search when I see a slight movement down at the end of the dock. The path to his dock is covered slightly by a line of trees, and in the early morning hours, I am worried my eyes might be playing tricks on me. When I see the movement again, I realize I have just found him.
Tiny pinpricks shoot through my feet when I hit the cold pebbled walkway on the way down to the docks. I keep my eyes on his naked back. He is sitting at the very end of the dock, his legs are folded up, and his arms are resting against his knees. It isn’t until I get a little closer that I realize his head is resting against his arms and his back is heaving with deep breaths. He has to have felt my footsteps against the wood of the dock, but if he did, he didn’t change his posture.
“Ax?” I ask softly.
No response.
“Baby?” I try again.
Nothing.
Sighing deeply, I sit down and bring my body close to his. My legs fall open and the cold skin of his back hits my front. He must be frozen.
“Jesus, Axel, how long have you been out here?”
Nothing.
“Ax, baby, please. You’re scaring me. What’s going on?”