Page 110 of Axel

“Yes! It’s what we do, Wildfire; love and fight and yes, finally, we fuck, too.”

“Do you mean it?”

“Yes, I fucking mean it,” I swear to her wide blue eyes. “I love you. I have for a long time, and if I’m a dickhead to admit I never really loved my first wife, fine. Add it to my list. But when I makeyoumy wife? Myrealwife? You’ll let me love you until the day I die.”

“Did you make her your queen?” She whispers so the others don’t hear, but the pain in her voice is clear.

“I regret it,” I answer softly, muscling through her door and slamming it behind me. Stalking her way, I make her walk backward toward the bed. “I regret everything about that woman. I got caught up in who I thought Ishouldbe, not who I am.You’rewho I am.You’rethe woman I want to be with.”

“What happened to her?”

“She left me.”

“Why?”

“She left me a note that said I’m a cruel man with a cold heart.”

“No, you’re not,” she murmurs, shaking her head.

“Well, I guess she was the cruel one with a cold heart. She even made fun of my feet. How she never saw them. She never sawme, Ruby, and honestly, I didn’t let her. I never really trusted her.” I reach for her, but she steps back. “But I trust you, and I’m sorry I waited to tell you.”

The back of her legs hit the bed, and she plops down, looking shocked.

“We played the hating game for so long,” I confess, “until I finally got my chance with you and I didn’t want to fuck it up. And now, I don’t give a shit about our pasts, because I’m trying to have a future with you.”

“If she was your first wife and queen, then what does that make me?”

I crawl over her, making her wriggle up the bed, so I grin and chase her until she’s trapped underneath me. Too quickly, I grab her wrists, pinning them above her head. “That makesyou, Ruby Jones,” I swear to her eyes, “the first and onlyloveof my life.”

Something softens in her eyes, searching mine, but nothing is easy with this woman. I’d never want it to be. “I don’t know if I believe you.”

“Want me to prove it?”

“You better.”

“My piercing?” I tell her, “I got it for you.” The surprise on her face is cute. “I have the receipts to prove it, witness testimonies, too. Six months ago, I got a pubic piercing for you. And you’re the only woman who’s ever kissed it, who’ll ever feel it.”

“You pierced your dick for me?”

“Do you need a lecture on human biology?”

“Only if you want me to jump off the terrace.”

I laugh. “I didn’t pierce my dick. That would be for my pleasure. I pierced my body, right above my dick, to pleaseyou. Onlyyou.” Call 911. Or whatever it is in Europe. She’s struck speechless. “I thought about piercing my nipples for you, but you can see them through shirts, and judges don’t like that. And I heard you tell Helen?—”

“You listen to me talk to Helen?”

“It’s the best part of my day. I love it when you talk shit about me.”

“Whoops,” she murmurs. “Am I fired?”

“You should’ve been fired after your first day, when you made fun of my copy ofMoby Dick.”

“You made that too easy. It was low-hanging fruit.”

“Andthat’swhat you said about my balls the next day.”

She sighs, “You have very sexy balls.”

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