Our lovemaking is hard and quick. Before I know it, we are both crying out in our shared climax.
I fall back onto his chest, slick with his perspiration that is sliding against my own.
“Good morning, Princess,” he mumbles into my hair.
We both laugh and I hold him closer, enjoying this new lightness between us. We cuddle there for a while before he gets up to clean himself off. I smile when he walks back from the bathroom with a washcloth in hand.
“You do know I know how to clean up myself, right?” I joke.
“My job. I like seeing my come all over your skin. Mine. This is my job.” He continues to wipe me clean before leaning down and giving my sensitive skin a kiss that causes me to moan long and loud.
He laughs lightly, falling back next to me in the bed.
“We might want to get up at some point today,” I note, looking over to the window. The sun is hanging high in the sky, letting us know we have missed a good portion of the day.
“I’m happy right where I am and have no plans of leaving this bed today.”
“Hate to point out the obvious, Axel, but we might want to eat at some point.” I look into his smiling eyes before continuing. “I mean, I don’t know about you, but I plan on enjoying this fine-ass body some more today and I will need some fuel!”
His body shakes with silent laughter and I cuddle back down next to his side. Reaching out, I touch the hands of the angel tattooed on his other side. I can’t see the body from here, but from what I remember of the tattoo, it was done in almost a loving and peaceful way.
“Why an angel?” I ask.
He is silent for a few seconds before answering. “Look closer,” is all I get.
Puzzled by his answer, I crawl over his body and bring my face closer to the tattoo. I gasp when I get my first good look at her face. It’s me. Holy shit, that’s me.
“Um . . .” I offer lamely.
“I told you, you were the only person I have ever given my heart to. You have always been the angel in my life, Izzy. You came into my life when I needed you the most, always happy and so full of love for me. Not one day went by that I didn’t know how you felt. I got this a few years ago. You might not have been by my side physically but I couldn’t deny you were there mentally. Every day I was gone, it was the memory of you that pushed me, and even when I thought I had lost you for good and through that anger . . .” He trails off and I look up into his eyes. “Even through the anger of losing you, I still knew you were my angel. My light.”
Oh my God.
“I love you, Princess.”
“I love you, too,” I croak and fall into his arms.
In that moment, I know that whatever was broken over the years has finally been put back together again.
I am whole.
CHAPTER 18
One Month Later
Axel and I have been going strong since that weekend we spent locked in his house. It is sometimes shocking for me to think back to the scared and lost girl I was just months ago. He brought out the old me. And I am shining. We have new dreams and plans for our future, and for once, I’m starting to think fate is done with me.
I am happy.
I am loved.
I have overcome.
Over the last few weeks, we have spent almost every second together. Axel likes to joke that he is making up for lost time—a joke that often falls short because it would always remind me of the time we spent apart. Until he starts taking my clothes off. Our desire for each other is like an itch we can’t scratch.
We haven’t spent a large amount of time with our friends, but we have had a few nights out with them for dinner or drinking. I am able to do all of my work from Axel’s house, and he spends the majority of his time doing his from home as well. The first thing we did when it became obvious that neither one of us wanted to part from the other was buy office furniture. We now both use the large library space as our dual office. His area takes up much more space. Computer monitors and other technical equipment are spread over every surface on his side of the room. I have a small corner, but that is all I need. We work in silence mostly, but we are together, and at this point, it is something we both need.
Another big purchase we made together was a kitchen table and comfortable couches for the living room. If you didn’t know what his house looked like before, you wouldn’t be so shocked, but slowly we are turning this large, empty shell of a house he bought into a home for us both.
We were back to ‘us’ for three weeks when he told me I was moving in. There wasn’t any room for arguments, and honestly, I wasn’t going to put up any. It might seem soon to most, but with all the time we had lost, it made sense for us. We made the pact to move forward, and that’s what we are doing. Picking up the pieces we had lost and putting them back together.