Page 7 of Stalked By Axel

I hate the regret I see in him, but it’s the pity that breaks me. My eyes swim with hurt, and I bite hard on my lip, willing the tears to not spill. I can’t break down in front of this man. I’ve already made a fool of myself enough as it is.

“Just get out.” I turn around, ignoring his pleas to listen as I gather what little dignity I have left and hurry to my room, slamming the door closed behind me.

Here, I can break down.

Whatever it is I set out to prove tonight, it’s obvious that I’ve failed. And lost everything in the process.

Chapter Four

Axel

A better man might turn around and leave, give the girl some space to breathe. He would honor her privacy and find some way to atone for his sins. He would repent for touching someone he never should have laid his hands on. But I’m not a better man, and I’m not leaving Brooke, not like this.

Forbidden.

I pace the floor of her living room, worrying my hair as the word rolls around my mind. Brooke Kane is beautiful inside and out. When I first met her, she was a shy little girl who never left her father’s side. I met Brooke when she was only ten and already knew her way around an engine. Anything her father did, Brooke was right there eager to help. She had this spark in her eye that lit up when she smiled, and even when she grew into a beautiful young woman, she held onto it. But it went out when her father died last year. I wanted to see that spark again, so I held back when she began to act out, allowed her to do whatever she wanted—within reason—in hopes that she would find her spark again.

She was supposed to go to college and fall in love with some stupid boy her age. Maybe he could make her eyes to light up the way they used to. Someone as warm and bright as hershouldn’t be bound to someone like me. Rough around the edges and jaded, I’m not the person for her. She deserves better than me. Brooke Kane deserves the world.

“Am I not allowed to want you? To fall in love with you?”

I stop in front of the door—the wrong door. I should be reaching for the one that leads out of her apartment, but instead, I find myself standing outside her bedroom. An honorable man would leave like she asked and apologize for what happened once she’s calmed down, but I can’t bring myself to leave her like this. Nothing, not a bullet or a knife, hurts worse than seeing Brooke’s tears and knowing I caused them.

Fuck this!

I turn the knob and push, expecting to find the door locked, but it opens. Brooke is lying on her bed under the covers, facing the wall, and I notice her curl her shoulders inward when I step into the room.

“If you are here to apologize, I don’t want to hear it,” she hisses, tugging the covers over her bare shoulder, and I find my mind racing with the knowledge that she’s naked under those sheets. Those small, soft tits are hidden from my view, but I remember exactly how they felt against my skin. God, she was so perfect in my arms minutes ago; we fit like a puzzle, or maybe that was just wistful thinking.

“You deserve better—”

“I’m old enough to decide what I deserve!” she interrupts, sitting up and turning to face me. The covers slip down her shoulder and pool around her waist, exposing her tits, and my semi-erect cock hardens to full mast in seconds.

“God,” I rasp, taking her in. She looks like a fucking dream, and I am helpless to do anything but stare. She flushes andscrambles to cover up, but I must make a sound because she stops. “We should talk.” It’s the right thing to do. I have to fix things with Brooke, apologize for giving in to my baser needs. I need to say something to remind her that I will always protect her no matter what. What she feels for me is not love. She thinks she wants me, when in reality she’s just grieving and turning to the one man besides her father who has always been there for her.

“Are you just going to stand there and look at me?”

My eyes shift to her face and those gorgeous gray eyes that are identical to Kane’s, but different too. Her’s are softer, more open. Beautiful. “What happened back there was…”

“If you are about to say that it was a mistake, you should leave like I told you to,” Brooke says, pushing back the covers. I can tell it takes a great deal of courage and a lot of forced bravado to do. She’s naked, and I damn near choke on air when she climbs out of bed and starts toward me. I don’t take my eyes off her body until she stops in front of me. A foot shorter, she has to look up to meet my gaze. She brings her hands up to touch me, tracing the planes of my chest with her delicate fingers, and I track the movement, heart hammering in my chest as she slowly chips at my willpower. “If you regret it, why are you still here?”

Because she’s a drug.

And I’m addicted. Capturing the moon and all the stars would be easier than giving up Brooke. I’ve been taking her in small doses over for nearly a year, wanting and craving her from a distance, and tonight, I just had my first taste of euphoria. How the fuck can I walk away from that?

“I can’t seem to convince myself to do the right thing,” I say honestly, running the backs of my fingers over her cheek. She shudders, her eyelids fluttering from the move. My eyesdrop to her erect nipples, and it’s hard to ignore her reactions to such simple caresses.

“This is the right thing,” she insists when I trail the back of my hand down her jaw to neck. Her breath hitches when I circle a nipple with my finger. “How can it be wrong when it feels so right?”

I feel it. Whatever willpower I was grasping onto slips from my grasp. I have none left, I realize. Not enough of it was there to begin with, but at least then, I could trick myself into believing that I would let another man touch Brooke. I would have buried them before I let anyone else have her.

Mine.

Goddamnit, she’s mine!

Her lips part with a gasp when I pinch her beaded nipple between my knuckles then lean in to capture the sound with my mouth. Brooke whimpers, wrapping her arms around my shoulders as she opens up for me, and I realize that I am done fighting this—done fighting my feelings for her. Our mouths brush with terrifying desperation. They’re soft, her lips, and I taste the cocktail she had tonight. I should have figured that even her lips would be addictive. With a possessive growl, I wrap an arm around her waist and pull her naked body against mine, kissing her with the intensity of a starved man. It’s wet and feral… Desperate!

Mine.

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