Page 282 of One More Kiss

“You can have it,” he said. “I’m only getting it for you anyway.”

I laughed and swatted at his chest, but he didn’t return my laughter. “You aren’t serious.”

A shrouded look crossed his face. “I know it’ll look better to your dad if I have my MBA. And it’ll look better for the CEO of our business to have an MBA. But after the week I’ve had, I’m ready to fucking drop out.”

I patted his chest. “We’re almost through it. Because you’re right. It will look better to have it. You’ve come this far. Why stop now?”

He grunted in the most Axel-like fashion, a mix between a petulant adolescent and a bull. “Because I’m over it.”

“You’re more than halfway through—”

“And more than halfway broke. Trace is graduating this semester, which means we can get a jump on the business. And we need to. Besides, I was ready two years ago to be CEO; so why flush all this extra money down the drain just to receive the bragging rights of a Colombia MBA?” He sighed, the blue thunderstorm of his gaze darting over the crowds. “I’m so conflicted. Trapped between money and commitment yet again.”

“Axel, if there’s anyone who can figure out a solution to this problem, it’s you.”

“I’m sick of having to always figure out the solution.” His throat bobbed as he gazed off into the distance. “I’ve been dealing with this shit my whole life. I just thought that once I got to this point, it would get easier.”

A sad laugh floated out of me. I could relate to that statement in about a hundred different ways. “It doesn’t get easier. You just get used to it.”

Axel squeezed his arm tighter around my shoulders. “I didn’t want to start our night with all my bitching. Will you forgive me?”

I grinned up at him. “Hmmm. I suppose there is a way you could make it up to me.”

That heartbreaker smile returned to his face—the type of look that held me hostage whenever he directed this brilliance my way. The type of smile I’d see even when I was dead. “Can I start making it up to you now?”

I couldn’t respond before he scooped me up into his arms with a whoop. I clung to him, giggling and delirious with joy. I was no stranger to the random public displays of affection that Axel loved to put on, yet they never failed to delight. My rolling luggage was forgotten as he tossed me over his shoulder, patting my ass like this might help me stay in place.

“There we go,” he said. Loudly. “Right where I like ya.”

Laughter cascaded out of me. “Oh my god, Axel. Put me down.” People streamed by us, barely registering the ripple in the space-time continuum of the walkway.

“I’m making it up to you. You get to stare at my ass for the next hundred yards. There’s no greater gift, babe.”

I couldn’t even talk for how hard I was laughing. His arrogance was only preceded by his humor. This type of bawdy display would earn us plenty of stern looks and even a vicious dressing-down from my mother if this were happening anywhere near them. But that was one of the things I loved about my boyfriend.

He didn’t give a fuck about the rules of my world.

And I loved flying free in his.

* * *

An hour later,we stumbled up the steps of his walk-up, barely able to focus on walking between all the kisses and laughter. I’d laughed more in the past hour with him than I had in the previous two months without him. Further proof that my sanity and well-being required Axel in my life.

He fumbled with the lock on the door, trying and failing to insert the key.

“Come on, babe.” I snagged his lips in another kiss, tugging at the buckle of his belt.

He drew in a sharp breath, sending me a warning look. Heat pooled in his slate blue gaze, a promise of the passions lurking inside him, waiting to explode the second we got behind the closed door of his bedroom. “Cora…”

“What?”

He stilled, his throat bobbing. Emotion crowded out the heat in his gaze, the entire world around us disappearing until only this moment remained. “I love you, you know that?”

“Of course I know that. I love you too.”

He smashed his lips against mine, a kiss both desperate and hungry. When we broke apart, my lips tingling and entire body electrified, he finally managed to insert the key.

“There we go,” he said as it swung open.

---