Page 23 of Axel (Belles & Bratva Beasts #2)

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

RUBY

It wasn’t a bad seizure. I’ve had worse. And my medication works. I felt it coming. I probably should’ve stayed in my bed where it was safe, so I wouldn’t fall, but…

I wanted Axel.

I only felt safe in his arms.

With him by my side.

Yep, I’m falling in deep shit, aka. Love .

He tucks his sheets around me while I feel like the plug has been pulled on my body. It usually takes me hours to fully recover.

He stands by the edge of the bed, visibly concerned. “Do you need anything?”

“Water, please.”

“Be right back.”

He turns to go downstairs in his black boxer briefs and socks, and it’s the first time I see the ink across his broad, tapered back. It’s the melting face of a horned devil, dying with a knife through its skull, faces in anguish in its shadow.

It’s his father. Axel’s turned his back on him.

But flexing, snarling lions prowl up Axel’s right leg, like an army, protecting him. But his left is bare. Why?

His body, muscles, and ink tell a story to fear.

But his feet?

They’re heartbreaking.

He wears simple, black, half-calf socks, hiding what must be the most horrific scars. On his skin. In his heart.

Who would do that to a child? Their child?

It douses all the hate in my heart. Though, I admit … I never hated Axel. I just never really saw him until now. And what he lets me see? What he shares with me? That he wet the bed?

I was right; he’s beautiful.

When he returns, I have enough strength to sit up and sip the water he offers before he sets the glass on the nightstand.

But I can’t help it. I let my eyes roam over his hulking, tatted body, and he grins. “See something you like?”

“Nope,” I quip softly, “I’m blinded by annoyance.”

“I get it. I am annoying with how hot I am.” He lifts the sheets, making me chuckle, touched by how he crawls in beside me. “And let me add to the record: your sexy race car pajamas are annoying as fuck.”

I fall back on his pillow, sighing, “I love NASCAR.”

Resting his head in his hand, he props on his elbow beside me, making his bicep pop and my heart race. He gazes down at me, looking way too sexy and sweet. “You, loving dozens of men, racing fast? Shocker.”

“Fuck you.” I laugh. “I don’t want the men . I want the car. I want to drive around a race track as fast as I can.”

“Then do it.” He grins. “NASCAR has no high-noon shootouts, so it’s gender equal.”

“Cute.” God, I want to kiss him again. “But it’s not about gender. I can’t drive a race car or my car now that I’ve had another seizure. ”

“How long since your last one?”

“Over two years. Almost three. So, after a year without one, my doctor permitted me to drive. But now, I guess?—”

“I’m so sorry, Ruby.” Regret brims in his eyes. “It was my fault and?—”

“Don’t flatter yourself. You’re not that powerful.” He is, but in the best way. “It’s not your fault. I pushed myself emotionally, and I should’ve known better. It’s a long story I don’t want to tell tonight.” I poke his lips. “Just keep making me laugh. It helps.”

“How?”

“Humor relieves my stress, so make a woman-driver joke. The timing is perfect.”

“I’m smitten,” he chuckles, “but not stupid. And for a daily blow job under my desk, I promise I won’t tell your doctor about tonight.”

“You need to stop being kinky and cute.”

“Told you.” He winks. “It’s annoying.”

“No, annoying will be me, riding the bus again.”

“Fine.” He rolls his hypnotic eyes. “For two blow jobs a day, I’ll be your personal taxi.”

“That would save your stalking from being utterly pathetic.”

He laughs, and it reaches his eyes this time, making them sparkle like glacial ice in the sun. And that’s Axel; all heat, all cold. He’s everything I can feel.

“I didn’t mean it tonight.” I reach for him, brushing my shaking fingertips over his soft, groomed beard. “I might want to hear more about your new job offer to be your queen. You know, does my king offer sick days? Is it like mobsters with good benefits and?—”

The laughter in his eyes suddenly burns into passion. “Damn, Ruby, I want to kiss you again.”

“Not until you answer my questions. ”

“Oh?” He chuckles. “You finally let me kiss your mouth, and now you think I can trust it?”

“ How can you know if you can trust me until you give me a chance?”

“Ditto, Wildfire.”

“I trust you. I let you carry me like a damsel in distress. Trust me; that’s trust.”

For emphasis, I gently rub my feet over his, covered by socks, and watch it melt something in his eyes. I may never see Axel’s feet, but I’m melting, too, finally seeing everything else about him.

“Okay,” he sighs. “I’ll tell you what I can. And if you tell anyone else, I’ll have to kill you.”

“You said you’d never hurt me.”

“And I meant it. I’ll never hurt you.” He lilts, “Grant, on the other hand?”

“He adores me.”

“Yes, he does. So quit making me fucking jealous about it.”

“Okay, so answer this—how many brothers do you have?”

“I have five blood brothers, and Nash, he’s like a brother, so that makes seven of us.”

“Who’s your mom?” I wince. “I mean … if she’s still alive. Sorry if she’s not.”

“Oh, my mom is alive and kicking ass. You’ve met her.”

“Who?”

He blinks.

“Axel!”

He smirks, pressing his forehead to mine. “Once upon a time, there was a beautiful cowgirl at a sex club, but she looked sad, like she’d lost her little pink pony, so my mom tried to help her and?—”

“Ms. Faye!” I practically shout. “The hot goddess who owns the sex club is your mom ? ”

“A goddess? I’ll give you that. But please, don’t call my mom hot .”

“But she is . She’s a badass. I want to be her when I grow up.”

“Again,” he winces, “not an image I want.”

“But you said I remind you of your mom.”

“You do. But in a ball-busting way. Not a dick shriveling one.”

“Aw,” I circle his nipple, “I don’t shrivel your dick?”

“Reach down and find out, Wildfire.”

The hot butterflies are instant. Axel sends a million fluttering through my core. Lying in bed beside him feels too perfect and right. And tempting.

I guess deep down, under our hating game, this was always here. We’re so attracted to each other. It makes me want to reach for Axel and never let him go.

“But not tonight.” He plays with a lock of my hair, confessing, “Yes, I’m hard as hell lying beside you.

Hell, I get hard within two blocks of you.

And I really want to kiss you, but then I won’t be able to stop.

I’ll want to fuck you forever. So, just lie here, feel better, and drive me bat-shit crazy with your questions instead. ”

My muscles feel like a melted candle, but I want him more than I’ve ever wanted a man. He’s not only hot, powerful, smart, and scary as shit; Axel can be tender. He’s caring. He’s fiercely protective and loyal … but he’s right. I don’t feel up to it.

But I ask him an intimate question.

“What would it mean if I were your queen?”

He pauses, brushing the back of his inked fingers over my cheek. “It would mean everything to me, Ruby Jones, if you were my queen. But…”

He trails off. All conviction stolen from his eyes.

“But what? ”

“But you need to think about it. We need to think about it. It would change your life, if not end it, and?—”

“But you said I’m already at risk. That I know too much about you, your brothers, the other queens, and now your mom and?—”

“But it’s my father,” he answers. “He’s your greatest risk.”

I shake my head, confused. “Why?”

“Because I’m his heir. Most men in the Bratva forgo a wife and kids. They’re a liability. But not my father. He saw my mother; she was practically still a child, and he had to have her. He’s that arrogant, powerful, and evil.

“Sire is my oldest brother, but from a young age, he wanted to be a priest, so the role fell to me, the second born. At ten, I was presented to the organization as my father’s heir.

I was named the next Pakhan, the future boss.

I was supposed to take over when I turned thirty, but my mother saw the bloody writing on the wall: how all of us were at risk.

To say nothing of his sadistic abuse, so she got us out. ”

My pulse skyrockets, hearing Axel’s story. But I’ve heard of the Bratva. They’re considered part of the most influential and dangerous people controlling the world.

“So, does your father think you’re dead?”

“Fuck, Ruby.” He winces. “This puts you at deadly risk. I didn’t think this through. I just saw you and fell so damn hard for you and?—”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, I don’t know what my father truly knows about us—me, my mom, and my brothers. A man helped us stage our deaths in a plane crash, but did my father believe it? I don’t know. But I know him. He’s looking, and he won’t ever stop. And if he finds me and my queen, he’ll torture you to kill me.”

“God,” I mutter, “no offense; but your father sounds like a real asshole. ”

Axel laughs. He actually laughs. “Yeah, he’s the biggest asshole on the planet. So, I guess it’s inevitable that I’m a big dickhead.”

“Don’t tell anyone,” I whisper, “but I really like your big dickhead.”

He pauses, breathing, “Only you make it this fucking hard.”

“I don’t believe you.” My teeth grab my bottom lip.

“And I’m not falling for your beautiful mouth tonight.” He grins, reaching to switch off the lamp. Turning back my way, he settles in beside me. “Now, let’s start that whole Dom/sub thing, where you shut up, obey, and let me hold you.”

Happily, I let him wrap his arms around me. Spooning me, he presses his hard, warm body against mine, making me gasp, “Oh, my god.”

“What?” He tenses. “You okay?”

“No.” I wiggle my ass against him. “Because you’re fucking huge .”

His chuckle is deep over my ear. “Told you: I’m always hard for you.”

“Good God,” I huff. “No wonder…”

“No wonder what?”

“No wonder you say dumb things to me all the time. Your poor brain is so starved for blood because it’s all flowing to your giant dick.”

“You’re swelling my giant ego, too, talking that way.” He grabs my hip. “Now, be still, dammit, or I’ll paint your pink race cars white.”

I giggle. Dammit, Axel actually makes me giggle into our hands clasped together, and if it weren’t for my seizure, demanding that I sleep, I’d turn around in his arms and disobey him all night long.

Gently, he mumbles, “Can I ask you some questions now?”

This moment is too perfect, a first for me, letting a man hold me while I sleep, so I sigh, “Later. If you kiss my ass and all.”

“Noted: she’s an ass woman.”

His chuckle is soft. His skin, tight silk. His body, hot, hard, and feeling like my new home, so…

“Axel?” I whisper.

“Mmm?” He hums into my hair.

“Are we done hating each other?”

“Fuck no. It makes my dickhead too happy when you’re a wildfire.”

“Can we be each other’s king and queen, too?”

He squeezes me tighter. “Till my dying day.”