Page 41 of Pain in the Axe
The man was methodical and thorough in his work, but it was nothing compared to the focus he brought to my pleasure.
He shifted and rolled, exposing his chest. I studied the ink on his shoulders, tracing the lines with my eyes.
As I moved to the designs on his chest, my heart lurched.
Oh shit.
A dragonfly.
Right over his heart. Thin, delicate wings spread up toward his collarbone. I hadn’t noticed in the dim light last night. It blended in with the other ink and chest hair, but it was clear asday in the bright morning light. And right below it, in tiny script, were numbers.11.11.04.
Oh my God. It was our wedding date. Fuck. My fingertips began to tingle, and a lump formed in my throat, making it hard to breathe. I was suffocating.
How dare he? How dare he mark his body forever with a relationship he so carelessly tossed away? Last night’s haze lifted, and as I studied him again, I saw him for who he really was. The kind of man who could pledge forever one minute, and in the next, turn on the person he was supposed to care about most.
My stomach roiled. I was an idiot. How could I have fallen for this all over again?
“You gonna stare at me all morning, Dragonfly?” he asked, turning to give me a sleepy smile.
My shoulders tensed in response to his deep, raspy voice. What had I been thinking? I’d let him lull me into some kind of lumberjack sex haze, and now, in clear daylight, I saw this for what it really was.
A backslide.
An emotionally dangerous hookup.
With my ex-husband.
The man who’d broken me, body and soul. And I’d let him in again.
He sat up and shifted, pulling me against him. “Did I crush you?”
I shook my head and avoided eye contact. “Just hot. I should get dressed.” I swung my legs around the side of the bed, but before I could stand, one large arm snaked around my waist and pulled me back down.
“No,” he growled, pinning me beneath him and dipping low to gently kiss me. “You think I’m letting you out of this bed?”
“Gus, I need to go.” I managed a firm tone, shocked when my voice didn’t tremble. I had the overwhelming urge to burst into tears, but I had to fight it.
His face fell.
“Please,” I said softly.
With a sigh, he rolled off me.
As I climbed out of bed and scooped my dress up off the floor, he lay in bed, naked and handsome, watching me, not letting me off the hook.
I turned to him. “Put some clothes on.”
“Why?”
“Because I can’t have this conversation with”—I shook with frustration—“thathere.”
With a smug smirk, he looked down at his cock, which was already hardening.
“You didn’t mind last night.”
I stomped into the massive walk-in closet and wrenched open one drawer after another until I found one filled with a neat stack of folded boxers. I threw them at his face and turned to look out at the mountains as he slid them on.
When he was covered up and standing, I inhaled deeply, shoring up my defenses. “This was a big mistake.”
