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I grind over him, lust and love storming through me, too. The sounds of the others in the room, sharing the same desire, drip through my veins.
It sounds like Vale comes, Jace finishes, and Nash takes another turn with her while I hear the others.
Zippers drag. Chairs creak. Moans beg. Dirty whispers taunt. Slick skin slaps. The kings sound like beasts, and the queens sound like their ready mates.
It’s a sacred orgy and I’m dying to join them, to have Axel.
“In the bathroom down the hallway,” he whispers in my ear, “look under the sink. I put your shoes there.”
“What?” I whisper back. “My shoes?”
“Your running shoes.” He tugs my collar. “Because you’re going to run, my queen, and I’ll finally catch you tonight.”
CHAPTER THIRTY
RUBY
“But your father,”I warn, standing on the side porch of Delta’s.
“Fuck my father,” Axel seethes. “We’re not living in fear of him.”
“So, you want to chase me? Tonight? Why?”
I’m a flood of emotions. Lust, love, fear, and fight: they collide through my senses. My mind still reels from Vale’s initiation. My body is overwhelmed, too, and now my feet wear familiar shoes to run away.
“This is part of your test.Ourtest,” Axel reveals. “Do you want what you heard up there?”
“Yes.”
“Do you want it withme?”
For a moment, his ice cracks. It’s in his eyes; Axel’s holding his heart out for me.
“Yes,” I step toward him. “I’ll never run from you.”
“But you’re worth the chase, Ruby.” He cups my cheek. “And I won’t ever stop until I catch you. I don’t give a fuck who’s chasing us, too.”
“Buthow?”
“You put one foot in front of the other, but real fast like they’re on fire and?—”
I slap his chest, grinning. “Axel.”
“You have your new bracelet on.” He grins, pointing to the gold charms around my wrist. One is an SOS beacon. He can track me using GPS through an app on his phone, and I can double-click it if I ever need help.
I always wear my smart watch, too, but this jewelry is covert. No one would know it’s a tracking device.
“You have thirty minutes to run to the pineapple fountain.” He loosens his tie. “If you get there first, you get bragging rights, and can name our kittens?—”
“And I pick your next tattoo.”
“Deal.” He smirks. “But if I catch you first?—”
“You pick my first tattoo.”
“No, Wildfire.” He pauses, his tease evaporating. Reaching into his jacket pocket, he pulls out a blue velvet ring box. “If I catch you, I get to keep you forever.”
Who knew ice could melt you? Because that’s what Axel does to me. He’s sincere. He’s serious. He’s my future. He’s willing to risk everything to have me. But he doesn’t open the ring box. He puts it back in his pocket, making the weight of this even more heart-pounding.