Page 15 of Axel (Belles & Bratva Beasts #2)

CHAPTER TEN

AXEL

They say running is good for stamina, blood flow, and moods.

No shit.

I’ve never been so aroused in my life.

Chasing Ruby is even more alluring when she knows I’m on her heels. She’s running faster than ever through the park and making every part of me work harder for her.

My testosterone spikes. My heart races. My blood pumps, and it’s all flowing straight to my cock.

I woke up alone, and so damn hard for her, knowing she was only a bedroom away. I desperately needed to jerk off, but I could hear her quickly getting ready for her run. It’s like she wanted the chase, and I was up, literally, and running after her.

My black running shorts have a compression liner, but it’s obvious I’m erect.

And I swear, it’s like running with a charging lion in my shorts. It wants out. It wants her, and I’m trying to contain it, but I can’t. I hyper-focus on Ruby’s luscious ass in those blush pink leggings and follow my instinct.

I chase her.

Usually, she takes thirty minutes to run three miles, but not this morning.

She’s mad, and I’m on a mission. I’m only a block behind her, not two, and she can hear my breath, and I can smell her drug.

Perfume. Sweat. Musk that lures a mate. She’s my singular pursuit as dark urges pump through my veins.

She says she doesn’t trust me. Not yet.

But does she want me?

Does she feel this maddening attraction, too?

I’ve kept it caged for a year.

By the time she’s running back to my home, my watch says it’s only been twenty-five minutes. Without a word, she opens my gate and races for my door, her thumbprint beeps it open, and she slams it behind her.

In no time, I follow and slam it behind me, too. Breath huffing. Body sweating. My instincts feral and hunting. I find her panting, sweating, and standing in my kitchen with her fists on her waist.

For a moment, we’re silent.

Staring each other down.

Exhaling heavily.

Then…

Her gaze falls to my shorts, not able to contain my erection for her. Her eyes widen with surprise, and it only makes me harder.

I let her stare at it. I let her lick her lips at it, watching my cock swell even more for her.

I can’t fight it. I get even more aroused at the lust in her eyes.

This is our truth— I need you, and you want me.

I’m fighting the urge to lick the bead of sweat trickling into her cleavage. I’m fighting so many urges when she demands to know, “What will you do if I ever let you catch me?”

Gone is the lawyer who’s so careful, cold, and calculated. The one who’s been waiting for her. Now, I’m an animal, a predator in heat; I’m hers.

And I can’t hide it.

Last night, I was willing to wait forever for her. This morning?

I need to know … now .

“Did you like it today?” I stalk toward her, and she steps back, but I’ve got her trapped against my kitchen table. “Trusting that I’d chase you? That I won’t let you go? Did you like it?”

I hover close enough to swim in her scent. Like a king tide, the Earth, Sun, and Moon align, pulling me into her space, making her lips part and her eyes search mine.

This attraction is irresistible.

I won’t go another day denying it.

“Yes,” she confesses, “I felt like I was running from you and I liked it. It made me faster. Like you can’t ever catch me.”

I’m hot and sweaty and need to be unchained, so I rip my shirt off and toss it on the floor.

I stun her eyes with all of my ink, her stare drinking me in. Every flexing, glistening muscle on me is covered. Only my left leg is bare. The rest is all blacks and greys, all my pain and past, and I want her to see it. I need her to know...

“Then trust me when I tell you to never let me catch you because I will, Ruby, and you won’t survive it.”

My cock throbs, pressed at an angle against my abs, my swollen tip exposed, straining against my waistband. And I leak, remembering how she’s seen my pubic piercing.

I got it for her.

When I finally catch her heart, I’ll tell her. I’ll make her feel how I got it months ago to please her. Only her. I didn’t let Wren feel it last night. That was an initiation. Not love.

I’m saving myself for my true queen; I’m saving everything for Ruby.

I won’t make the same mistake I made with Alena. I did that for her, not for me. And with Katya, I let myself be taken, instead of giving everything to her.

But for Ruby?

I’ll give her everything because I recognize a true queen when I see one. Alena was innocent, and Katya was entitled. But not Ruby. Even when she falls, she gets up. She fights back.

That’s a queen.

That’s my queen.

She swallows nervously. “What do you mean I won’t survive it?” But desire hoods her eyes. “You said I was safe with you.”

I step even closer, licking my hungry lips.

“Your life is safe with me, Ruby, but your pussy is in danger. It won’t survive how I obviously need to fuck you. Hard .”

I make her softly gasp as I let my burning gaze drop to the maddening outline of her sweet pussy lips in those leggings.

I want to rip them open with my teeth and devour her cunt.

I’m making her ribs heave, the sweat on her flesh driving me insane. Our lust. Our pheromones. Our bodies. Our breath. Our instinct to fuck is right here, demanding we do it.

“You say you don’t trust me, and maybe you shouldn’t,” I warn. “A very violent man raised me. He was a cruel animal. It’s my mother who made me human, but still. Yes, I’ll protect you, but I feel it when I chase you and only you. I’m a beast who can’t control what I want to do to you. ”

“What…” She stammers, glancing down again at my violent erection. “What do you want to do to me?”

Here I go, baring my fangs and heart for you.

“Everything,” I growl. “I want you wet. Open. Taking. Shaking. Hot. Sweating. Squirting. Dripping and bloody. I want you covered in my cum, and screaming my name, and fucking loving it.”

“Fuck,” she sighs, her shaking hand grabbing my table.

“Yes, fuck , that’s what I crave to do to every sweet, tight hole you have, Ruby. So fucking hard and so many times.” We stand inches apart, my nose almost touching hers. “ Trust that I’m being honest about how much I want you, so you’ve been warned.”

“You’re saying you’re going to attack me?”

“Only if you want me to.”

“I’m not afraid of you.”

“You should be.”

She scoffs, “Okay, my name’s not Bella, and you’re not Edward. We’re not red flags and teenage vampires. We’re adults. So, what are you saying, Axel? You have a primal kink, and you want my consent?”

Fuck, she’s beautiful when she’s blunt. “Yes, but I want your trust even more. I’ll never fuck you without it.”

“What makes you think I want to fuck you?”

“Do you?”

I freeze while she burns right in front of me. I don’t want her to see how I’m holding my cold heart in my shaking hand for her. How this will hurt like hell if she says no.

The other women? They weren’t a fight.

But Ruby is. She’s a war I won’t lose.

“Maybe,” she teases, but it’s tender. “But maybe you’re not my type.”

“Touché. A primal fuck is an acquired kink.”

“How did you acquire it? ”

“I met you .”

I let her search my eyes and see it’s not a lie. I hide so many truths, but my feelings for her are my most vulnerable ones.

“I met you,” I confess, “and I met my equal. You stopped my fucking heart and you became mine—the woman I will have.”

It’s like she can’t breathe, she can’t believe it.

But she can feel it.

I brush my thumb over her plump bottom lip, making her softly gasp.

“But I want more than to fuck you, Ruby.” I can’t stop myself.

I can’t stop this feeling. “I want to catch you and for you to want me inside of you. I want your trust. I want everything you have because I’m not a man who settles for less.

But you need to earn my trust, too. You’re a wildfire.

You get hot and burn out of control, and we can’t lose control in my world.

It’s too deadly. But once we trust each other, imagine how we can burn … together. ”

She softly shakes her head. “I’ll never trust you.”

“Maybe not. But you want me, don’t you?”

Her body trembles, goosebumps blooming over her creamy flesh. Yes, she wants this. She’s a runner; I’m a chaser. We’re a true pair.

“So be my brave little Wildfire and tell me...” I urge my thumb against her lips, penetrating their seam. “Is your pussy wet from my chase?”

Her eyelids flutter. She falters for a moment.

And I hold my heavy breath.

Then…

She moans, obeying and shamelessly sucking my thumb. She nods her head; yes, I made her pussy wet. And I can stifle my groan, but I can’t control my cock.

“Do you see how fucking hard I get chasing you?” With my thumb in her warm, sucking mouth, I tilt her head down so she can stare at my tip, exposed and dripping for her. “Do you see how you’re making my hard cock leak for you?”

A soft mewl escapes her throat.

“Every morning, after I chase you, I come home hard like this,” I confess. “Then, I stand in my shower, stroke my cock and close my eyes, imagining doing so many goddamn dirty things to you. I come so fucking hard moaning your name.” I lift her chin. “So tell me, do you want me, too?”

She’s so stubborn, so good at being a rock wall against which so many men, I’m sure, have crashed themselves into pieces over. Ruby doesn’t give her heart to men; I can see it in her dark blue eyes.

So, I step even closer and give my body to hers. Skin to skin. Sweat to sweat. My hard cock, its wet tip, touching the soft flesh exposed above her leggings.

She gasps over my thumb, at me, rubbing my hard body against hers. “Tell me, Ruby. Tell me if you want me, too.”

My mind warns me to back away, and whip out contracts, demanding NDAs, and a relationship disclosure. I could lose my practice over her. I could lose my life and so much more.

But my heart pounds too hard for her. I need to know if, under our hating game and biting barbs that thrill me daily, does she feel this? Am I right? Have I made her hate me so much that she’s falling in love with me, too?

Her eyes anchor to mine. Like a deep blue sea, something churns in them, and God, I’ve killed men, but this woman is killing me right now.

She won’t answer me.

I’ve never felt this exposed before. I’ve never put my heart on the line. Maybe it’s a big mistake. Maybe I should let her go and…

Her warm hand brushes my aching cock, squeezing my swollen shaft before dropping her grasp and I shudder. “Oh fuck.” I press my forehead to hers. She made my thighs shake, my heart tumbling inside my chest. “This is your answer? You want me, too?”

She nods yes, and I close my eyes, letting something even more powerful than my desire for her release inside me. Warmth floods my heart. It’s a new and brave feeling.

I pull my thumb out of her mouth, my lips slowly seeking hers, but she turns away, just barely, like she’s afraid.

“Okay,” I whisper, and I don’t know why. I’ve never felt this willing to do anything for a woman. “We’ll wait.”

“No,” she softly answers, “we’ll be late for court.”

She smiles, wriggling against me, so I silently step away and let her go.

Without glancing back, Ruby darts upstairs.

And I know, from this day forward, wherever that woman runs…

She’ll take my heart with her.