Page 16 of Axel

“So what’s the big deal?” I ask, teasing her entrance with slow strokes of my finger, my palm rubbing against her nub. “It’s just one date.”

“It won’t mean anything,” she insists.

“Keep telling yourself that,” I say against the shell of her ear, my hand still working slowly against her pussy. “But if you want me to make you come right now, you have to agree to it.”

“Or?” she asks, her hips grinding in rhythm to my lazy motion.

“Or you can find yourself a new research assistant.”

“Damn you,” she groans.

“So?” I bring her right up to the edge again, then retract my hand, pulling it out of her pants.

“You’re really going to leave me like this?” she pants.

I tug on her earlobe with my teeth. “I don’t have to.”

“Fine.”

“Fine, what?”

“Fine, I’ll go on a damn date with you. Forresearch purposes,” she whisper shouts. “Just make me fucking come already!”

In one swift motion, my hand sinks beneath her leggings. Two fingers thrust into her sopping wet channel as my thumb shows no mercy to her clit. She explodes on impact. I cover her mouth as she struggles to swallow her cries of ecstasy and comes apart on my hand.

I hold her tight against me until she stills.

Then I slowly remove my hand from between her legs, gently tug her by the hips to turn her around to face me so she can watch me suck her sweet nectar from my fingers. “Mmm, so tasty.”

“You make a hard bargain.”

“But I got the job?”

“You got the job.”

I grip her hip and drag her body against mine so she can feel how badly I want her. “Then you’ll soon find out what other hard things I bring to the table.”

9

KELSEY

Axel pulledout all the stops for the date he blackmailed me into. I was firm that I did not want a date in Daisy Hills because people would talk. I wanted to enjoy this secret research opportunity as long as I could, and I didn’t want Axel getting any grief for it or earning a reputation he didn’t deserve.

He showed up on a motorcycle, holding out a pink helmet for me, and we rode to the next town over. I don’t know what I expected of him exactly, but dinner at a restaurant that had once been an old library was not it.

It was fucking perfect.

He reserved a corner booth for us on the second floor. The main level had been converted into a charming coffee shop. I’d definitely be making the trip back there to write. The walls around our booth were filled with bookshelves built around the windows. There were still books in all of them, that old book smell lighting up my soul. “I didn’t even know a place like this existed,” I said, still gawking at the restaurant as the server took our order.

“You’ve really never heard of this place?” he asks, eyebrows drawn.

“I haven’t left Daisy Hills since I moved there,” I admit. The charming town I’d called home for more than two years had everything I wanted. There was even a new bookshop in town where you could read and drink wine. But as cute asThe Book Cellarwas, it had nothing on this fascinating restaurant. Even the tablecloth was on theme. Some classic novel was printed on every inch of the long fabric that draped clear to the floor.

“Maybe you should stick around a little bit longer,” Axel suggested. “See what you’ve missed out on. There’s so much to explore in the area. It’d be a shame to leave if you still had another book or two in you here.”

Oh god how his words tempted me to prolong my trip to Hawaii, even just another month or two. It was exactly the reason I couldn’t give in. If I stayed a little longer, I might never leave. It wouldn’t just be my heroine falling in love with the grumpy tattoo artist slash volunteer firefighter hero. It would be me.

I might never write another book.

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