Page 22 of Guarding The Phoenix: Vol. 1

I brought the video feed I wanted up on the screen with a few keystrokes. When I found the one I wanted, I hit play. “Take a look.” I nodded at the screen. The video played. As a group, we watched Kylie with her deceased husband at the front door, returning from some event. They were fighting. He backhanded her hard. Hard enough, the force slammed her slight body into the wall with the recoil. Then she was holding her cheek while her husband got in her face and started knocking her around.

Axel roared. “Son of a bitch!”

“Damn, he beat the shit out of her.” Gideon frowned, like he hadn’t expected this turn of events. He was rarely wrong about anyone or anything, so this couldn’t be easy for him, reassessing what he thought he knew.

Chase’s voice was laced with disgust as he said, “She weighs what, a buck twenty? A guy like that could do a lot of harm.”

“Then there’s this one from the following day.” I pulled up the video feed of Kylie outside by the pool in the backyard. She was in a bikini exposing the scars on her belly that Axel mentioned, lounging with sunglasses on, looking lovelier than any woman had a right to. But we could clearly see that her lip was split and swollen. And we could discern right around the periphery of the sunglasses, the dark discoloration of bruising around one of her eyes.

Axel swore. “Fuck. I’d kill the motherfucker if he wasn’t already dead.”

Gideon rubbed his chin, his eyes distant as the wheels in his head spun. “So, we know his widow holds no love or allegiance to the deceased. We could use that to our advantage.”

“What do you propose?” Chase asked, leaning forward with his elbows propped on his knees.

A half smile curled the corners of his mouth up as Gideon said, “Axel beat us all to the punch, but it wouldn’t be the first time we shared. It might be our best angle. A woman like that, who has been abused, will be aching for praise and adoration in the bedroom.”

I wanted to crow in my seat at the sharp turn, but I kept a straight face as I asked the boss. “So, we share her? Get her to trust us? And then, what?”

Chase had his devil-may-care smile plastered over his face. “And then find out what she knows while keeping her safe. It’s a win-win for all parties.”

“She’s not a piece of fucking meat,” Axel snarled vehemently, seething, like he was ready to tear us limb from limb. The big guy was really sweet on the widow. Not that I blamed him after the performance I saw last night.

“Are you claiming her as yours, then?” Chase asked Axel with raised brows.

Axel opened his mouth to argue. Closed it. Scowled. Then said in a deep voice, “No. But don’t make her promises you don’t intend to keep.”

Chase was all sly dog as he responded, “The only promise I ever make is that I will make them scream with pleasure. Think she’d be down for some double or triple team action?”

I hoped she was. There had only been a handful of women who enjoyed having sex with all four of us at the same time. And it was something each of us enjoyed immensely. There was something almost poetic about each of us fucking the same woman at the same time.

Axel glanced at each of us with a dark scowl. “Do whatever the fuck you want.” Then he slammed out of the room.

He’d get over it. Eventually. But it was open season on the sultry widow. And I, for one, was looking forward to charming her out of her panties.

Chapter fourteen

Smooth Moves

Kylie

Mylipsstillbuzzedfrom the humdinger of a kiss with Axel when he dropped me off at the gym. Half of the gym was free weights, weight machines, and cardio machines. The other half was my yoga studio. It was one of the few things Carlos had given me that I liked. In fact, I loved it. During my marriage, I did hours of yoga each week here. It was the only thing that kept me sane.

As I shifted from downward-facing dog into cobra pose, my mind churned. I slept with Axel. Although slept with was too tame a word. I got my freak on and experienced the hottest, break-the-bed sex imaginable. Before last night, I hadn’t realized sex could be that passionate. I had never experienced its like.

He didn’t make me any promises. Nor had we discussed whether it was something that would continue or if it was only a once-and-done kind of thing. Strangely enough, I craved another go round with the hunky bodyguard.

Axel was huge, yet he’d been extremely gentle with me afterward. He held me while I fell asleep and didn’t leave my side all night. I couldn’t remember feeling so safe and utterly cherished.

I still couldn’t believe I had been that bold. It had been totally out of character. Or perhaps it was a part of my personality I had suppressed while married to Carlos.

Sex with Carlos had been adequate—until it hadn’t been. In the last two years of our marriage, he’d stopped coming to me for sex unless he wanted to prove a point and then it had always been by force. He had given these lavish parties and would fuck a few women in one of the guest rooms.

I wish I could say I had minded. If anything, I was relieved. Because sex with my husband once the relationship turned sour had been abysmal. And it had never been great to begin with.

Shifting into plank, I held the position until my arms trembled. Then I shifted, pushing up into downward dog. Once I breathed through that pose, I brought my right foot forward and lifted my torso and arms into warrior one.

And that was how Gideon found me.

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