Page 52 of Axel

“Why can’t all of your brothers know about me?” I half believed, “Are you ashamed of me?”

“No, I’m protecting you.” He kept watching his speed. “We don’t let anyone into our world because once you’re in, it’s deadly and there’s no getting out.”

“But you said I’m alreadyin. You suffer the delusion that you own me now.”

“I own your protection. It’s my responsibility because I stalked you, so you spied on me. So, yeah, I fucked that one up, and here we are…” He took the exit to the private airport. “But you’re notin. No one’s in unless they’re born into our world or initiated.”

“Oh, you mean the gangbang.”

“It’sNOTa gangbang,” he clipped. “Say it again, and you’ll get a spanking.”

I laughed. “Like you could catch me, Christian Grey.”

“Like you’re Flo-Jo.” He laughed, too. “I’ll catch you when you’re ready.”

“Ready for what?”

“Nothing. Forget it.”

“Forget what? That you’re into primal play?”

“Yeah,that,” he mumbled.

Axel was focused on driving but acting odd, and I don’tforget shit. I remember everything I’ve overheard, every tease he’s revealed.

“Why do you have to initiate a queen?” I probed. “Why can’t you just trust a woman?”

“Because trust doesn’t mean shit when a knife is held to your mother’s throat. Or you take a brutal beating for your brother. Only blood or a deep bond will die for someone else.”

I turned to him, watching pain twist his gorgeous face. “Is that what happened to you?”

“A lot of shit happened to me. It happened to all of us, but we escaped because we fought back together. And we keep fighting for others because it has to be for a reason. If you give your pain a cause, it can’t kill you. It only makes you stronger.”

“Is that why you help trafficking victims or women like Ms. Alonso, who can’t afford you? Because they’re your cause?”

“Something like that.”

“Well, shit, now your origin story makes it hard to hate you.”

He grinned.

“But don’t worry. You’ll pull a dickhead move soon enough, and I’ll remember you’re Satan’s shitstain.”

He laughed. “You’rereallyobsessed with my dickhead, aren’t you?”

I blushed. “It really likes my leggings, doesn’t it?”

Did he blush, too? It was tough to say because Axel’s so tan and changed the subject.

“By the way, in my meeting today at Delta’s,” he shared, “I met with the owner, Stacey, and her husband, Ford. Their daughter is being bribed by this asshole. She’s a young woman, a basketball player about to be drafted for the WNBA. She rented a beach house with her girlfriend, and now she’s being bribed, too.

“So, don’t let this go to your wildfire head, but…” He looked at me with sincerity, with respect. “Thank you, Ruby. We’re not just helping Nick today. Thisisa cause. We’re helping others, too.”

I turn from admiring Grant to find Axel admiring me the same way he did in his car, and I swear the man’s intense stare is an ocular orgasm. All heat and ice rousing my senses.

“Time to get ready before we land.” He gestures toward the back. “Your bags and disguise are in the bedroom.”

My nipples get hard. I’m aroused, closing the door to the small bedroom in the back of the jet to slip on the role-play clothes Axel bought for me.

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