Page 15 of Guarding The Phoenix: Vol. 1

Axel conquered me until I was nothing but a writhing, clinging mass of need. I couldn’t see anything clearly but him.

I craved more than just his mouth. I wanted his touch. I yearned to feel the full length of him inside me. This man, this stranger, who’d held me and comforted me throughout the night, had awakened a woman I didn’t recognize, one who reveled in pleasure and exalted in her lover’s touch.

I’d been attracted to Axel the moment I met him. Axel was built like a tank with criminally rock-hard muscles I admired from afar. But now, with him wedged on top of me, I had to touch him. My hands sought his flesh like a drug addict craving their next hit. Gliding my fingers over his shoulders, I didn’t find an ounce of give.

The dude was ripped, a good two hundred forty pounds, and one of the sexiest men I’d ever encountered. And he kissed me as if my mouth held the keys to his salvation. It fucking devastated me. I moaned into his mouth, returning his kiss with equal fervor.

It had been years since I had felt something other than fear and pain. And this mountain of a man who looked like he could take on an entire army battalion single-handed made me yearn for more. Desire swept over me, guiding my movements as I caressed his chest through the material of his shirt. But I ached to feel his flesh.

In a hurry to feel more of him, I began unbuttoning his shirt. Was he covered in chest hair? Or was there a light dusting on his pecs and a happy trail I could follow from his navel to what I really wanted—his cock.

Axel tore his mouth away with a pained expression.

I whimpered as I looked at him. I needed his mouth back on mine in the worst way.

Axel shook his head, regret blazing in his jade eyes. “No. We shouldn’t do this.”

“Why not?” I licked my lips. “I want you. You want me. I don’t see a problem.”

He leveled me with a deep, penetrating stare and retreated, moving his glorious body off mine. “I’m scarred, Angel. And I’m not for someone as beautiful as you.”

Touched. Aroused. Needing to prove to him that his scars wouldn’t frighten me, I rose into a sitting position. His eyes widened when I gripped the hem of my chemise.

“What are you—”

I yanked the spaghetti strap chemise off and let him see my deceased husband’s handiwork. The sick fucker had liked to use knives on me. He burned my abdomen with knives after holding the blade over a flame.

Axel’s gaze slid over my torso, stopping at my bare breasts. Hunger darkened his gaze before he lowered it further. Shock made his brows rise, and then he menacingly scowled. “Who the fuck did this to you, Angel?”

“My husband. He wasn’t a good man. These he did for fun. He got off on doing it, on making me scream not from pleasure but from pain. But I really don’t want to talk about him right now.”

What I wanted was the big sexy brute who had held me like he cherished me. In nothing but a thong, I straddled his lap. Good lord, the guy was massive, with thick-hewn thighs and a body that dwarfed mine.

I shoved away any apprehension, stroking my hands over his broad chest. I was fascinated by his sheer size. I’d never been with such a big guy before. He fired every single one of my internal combustion engines, rocketing them into nuclear meltdown categories. And all he had done was kiss me.

What would happen if he touched me? If he stripped off my thong and put that big body of his to use, screwing my brains out? I didn’t know, but I wanted to find out.

“What do you think you’re doing, Angel?” But he knew. Lust darkened his features. Like he knew we should stop, but he was curious to see if I was bold enough to cross that boundary.

Lifting one of his huge palms that were bigger than my head, I rubbed my cheek against it. Then I stared him in the eyes and whispered, “Please don’t say no. Touch me. Please, it’s been so long—”

On a rough groan, he hooked his hand around my nape and brought our mouths an inch apart. He held us there, a breath apart. Our breaths mingled. I wanted to shout and ask what he was waiting for, but the words lodged in my throat.

“Tell me no,” he demanded. Like we would both be sorry if we crossed this line. And he was begging me not to venture over the line.

But here’s the thing, I had been denied pleasure for years. Pain had been my only companion. I existed in a world of darkness and misery for so long that the pleasure I experienced at his touch blotted it all out and made it a pale shadow with no hold over me. And I needed more from him. I needed everything.

If he didn’t touch me, it felt like I would die a slow, agonizing death.

Instead of a verbal response, I erased the distance, starved for another taste of his mouth on mine. And oh god, I adored the way his lips felt, soft as satin, but stronger than steel. It was an intoxicating combination that went straight to my loins.

Axel issued a deep, rumbling groan. His chest vibrated against my torso as he surrendered to the magnetic heat between us.

I wrapped my arms around his neck. Axel’s tongue swept inside as he took charge. He angled my head to his liking and deepened the kiss. I moaned into his mouth at the dominant move.

I’d been kissed before, but never like this, not even by him. It was this all-consuming annihilation of any man who had come before. Like he was wiping the slate clean with every thunderous plunge of his tongue inside my mouth. There would always be a before and after for me. Because Axel kissed me as if he couldn’t believe his good fortune and had every intention of acting out every wicked fantasy he had ever had on my body.

Axel delivered the most incredible kiss of my life.

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