Page 54 of Axel (Belles & Bratva Beasts #2)

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

RUBY

“You know it’s just an act.”

I nuzzle my nose to Axel’s, teasing his nose ring. Yes, he knows the truth, and I don’t want to hurt him. I want to reassure him that my double dinner date with Colton, Blair, and Beau tonight is business. It’s part of our mission.

“It’s just hell watching you with another man,” he brushes our lips together, “when all I want is for you to be mine.”

“I am yours. You know that. It’s just…”

We stand at the bottom of the boarding stairs to Axel’s jet. The clock is ticking down. I need to get to Atlanta before the kick-off, but I don’t want to leave him.

“Baby, I need to fix this.” Axel wraps around me tighter. “I need to fix us . What can I do?”

With everyone else, Axel’s a cold, ruthless king.

But with me?

“I don’t know.” Tears well in my eyes. “I want to trust you again. Believe me, and I’m trying. But I don’t know how and…”

I trail off and let him take me in a deep kiss. Most of me is here, forever with him, but a piece of me is distant .

“Be careful.” He sighs over our lips. “Be my queen and stay safe.”

“Always,” I promise.

Reluctantly, he lets me go.

As the jet taxis down the runway, I peer out of the window and blink back tears at Axel, still standing there, watching me leave.

He’s waiting for me.

And I’m waiting for … something.

In a haze, my quick flight to Atlanta passes. Using the small bedroom at the back of the jet, I change into the emerald dress Vale picked out, while all I can remember is my first flight with Axel. The trip that started this whole thing.

Our first kiss.

Our love.

Our partnership as king and queen.

Our mission to help another king and queen, too.

It feels like a lifetime ago. I don’t recognize that wild woman anymore.

I’m still fearless, but now I’m focused. Now, I’m helping others, and I understand how Axel’s addicted to this, too.

Justice is a powerful drug.

“The ma?tre d’ says there’s at least a dozen waiting outside for us tonight.”

Beau Bronson, Atlanta’s quarterback, sits with his arm around Blair, but glances toward the restaurant window, worried about the paparazzi waiting for us when we leave.

“We got this.” Colton elbows me, winking.

And I wink back .

Is Colton Hawke a tall, blonde, inked skyscraper of muscles with a sexy hair knot? Yes. And he’s all Blair and Beau’s; he just can’t show it.

“Are you wearing your touchdown panties again?” I tease Blair about our last double dinner date when the paparazzi swarmed us.

When one aggressive photographer heckled Blair, causing her to trip and fall in her cute dress, exposing her TOUCHDOWN panties, which were meant only for Beau and Colton’s eyes.

But instead?

They went viral.

“Yes.” Blair bounces her raven brows at me. “I took your advice. I’m spinning the whole panty scandal to my advantage. I’m wearing BALLER panties tonight, and selling copies on Etsy, and donating everything to charity.”

“Smart woman.” I point my fork at her. “If they’re going to call us sluts , at least we’ll be charitable ones.”

“Speaking of proud sluts.” Blair lowers her sexy cat-eye glasses at me. “When are you going to confess about your pussy pact with my twin? That you and Vale are in a three-decker with Nash Allen?”

Blair’s smart.

She knows there’s a connection between me and Vale. Obviously. Vale’s the one who asked me to help Blair and her partners.

But Vale’s a queen, who can’t even tell her identical twin everything about her king, Nash Allen, the man she loves.

All Blair can know is that Vale has fallen in love with Nash, her best friend’s dad.

But like me, Vale has to hide the kings and queens from her sister. Except I’m under more pressure, hiding Axel’s ex-Bratva life from three sisters.

So, I understand Blair’s natural curiosity .

And soon, hopefully next week, Blair, Beau, and Colton will at least meet Nick, Zar, and the other closeted players and understand more.

Until then.

They have no idea who the mastermind behind our plan is.

The Queen.

And they don’t know who I love. The Queen’s son. The Bratva prince, whose evil father won’t stop cutting at him, body and soul.

“While I support all love,” I answer Blair, “my heart is taken and not by your sister and her best friend’s dad.”

“Oh?” Colton swigs a Hennessy on the rocks. “Do tell. You know all about our love. Seems only fair we know about yours.”

Why am I blushing with warmth?

Why does it feel good to talk about Axel?

Even though I can’t say his name.

“Fine.” I smile. “You want an intimate detail?” They nod eagerly. “I’m learning to be a sub for a Dom, which is saying a lot if you knew how hard it is for me to trust a man.”

“That makes total sense,” Blair says. “It’s liberating. It’s the ultimate love to trust someone to bind you, to control you totally.”

Huh. I guess I’ve been taking that for granted.

Sexually, I still trust Axel. Even though my heart struggles to trust him again, my body sure doesn’t.

We’ve been experimenting with nipple clamps, clit suckers, spreader bars and bondage rope.

As my Dom, Axel’s trying to make it up to me.

He’s torturing me into the most orgasmic submission.

I even trust him to chain me to our new sex bench.

He likes to leave me there, with my dress hiked up and my panties around my thighs, my pussy and ass exposed to him until his icy, silent stare makes me so hot and wet that I’m begging for him.

“Really, kitten?” Beau raises his brows at Blair. “You’ll be our sub, too?”

“Baby,” Blair coos at him, then at Colton. “You know I’ll role-play anything with my men.”

“Careful what you wish for,” Beau teases her.

“So, when do we get to meet your Dom?” Colton’s sweet and not judging me.

“One day soon, I hope. I have lots of people I want you three to meet. We have a plan we want to share with you.”

They nod, and I know better than to push.

We finish our dinner, drinks, and dessert over comfortable laughs before we run the usual gauntlet of cameras, flashes, and shouts hurled at us when we leave the restaurant.

Like a pro footballer, Colton blocks for me, shucking away the wall of obnoxious men and their cameras shoved in our faces.

Once we’re safe inside the limousine, Blair pops open a bottle of bubbly to celebrate their win tonight. I sip water and enjoy the music. I’m not fazed by Blair kissing Colton, then Beau, or Beau passionately kissing Colton and palming his erection with a moan.

If Axel could see their love, he wouldn’t worry about me.

They can hardly keep their hands off each other as we pull into the circular drive in front of Beau’s massive home on the outskirts of Atlanta.

“You’re staying the night, right?” Blair asks.

It’s what I usually do. Beau’s lavish home has more than enough bedrooms, but suddenly…

I want to wake up in Axel’s arms.

“I think I’ll fly home,” I answer, giving her a peck on the cheek, then Beau, before they crawl out of the limo.

“Call me tomorrow, sugar lips.” Colton teases me, kissing my cheek as a show to the limo driver, not that I think he cares.

Hell, he doesn’t even turn around.

They wave goodbye and stumble through their front door before the driver pulls away.

“Where to?” he asks gruffly.

“Peachtree-Dekalb airport.”

I take my phone from my purse and text Axel.

Flying home tonight

I want to wake up with you

Spitting Cobra

I’ll tell the pilot to ready the jet

And I’ll pick you up

I’ll do whatever it takes

…

I chew my lip, always baited, waiting for Axel’s reply.

You know Wildfire I don’t do heart emojis

But you always have mine

Same

BTW

Is this harassment or stalking?

It’s everything with you

See. I’m not afraid of emojis

And loving you

And don’t pick me up

Sleep. I’ll take an Uber

You’ll let me take care of you

Now shut up and obey

Safe flight

…

Again, I wait with baited breath for him and he replies…

Wow. Axel’s first emoji.

Why is it so silly and simple and flooding me with love? I don’t know what flipped my switch, but something’s changed.

Maybe it’s what Blair said.

Deep down, I do trust Axel. I need to get out of my head about it and listen to my body.

My body that starts to tense, when I glance out of the tinted window, and I don’t recognize where we are.

“Excuse me,” I ask the driver. “Where are you going?”

“I need to pull over. Tire pressure problem.” He slows the car, pulling to the side of a remote road, not the interstate where we should be. “Just a minute.”

I watch from the back seat while he appears to text someone on his phone, maybe roadside assistance, before he turns around, aiming a gun at me.

“Phone,” he barks. “Right now.”

Oh my god, it’s Halstead.

I didn’t recognize him without his dumbass preppy clothes.

“Now, bitch,” he hisses, waving his gun. “And that smartwatch on your wrist, too, or you can eat my bullets. You’ve been fucking with me for too long. Cooperate or die tonight. ”

With shaking hands, I take off my watch, then pick up my phone.

Pressing a button, he rolls the window down beside me.

“Toss them out,” he orders. “No one’s tracking where we’re going.”

Yes, they are.

The tracking bracelet Axel gave me, I never take it off. I use my other hand to toss my smartwatch and phone out of the window, not wanting to draw attention to it.

“Put these on.” He tosses a pair of metal handcuffs. They land on the floorboard in front of me. “And keep your fucking mouth shut.”

“I’ll put these on,” I say, securing one metal cuff, then clicking the other closed. “But good luck shutting up my mouth. I’ve come to a point in my life where if you don’t like what I have to say, fuck off. Problem solved.”

“You fuck off, you dumb slut,” he snaps.

“Hey, Einstein. You’re the one kidnapping me. So, the only off I’m going is on you. And you know, the only people who shame sex are the ones who don’t have it. Or don’t have it good .”

“Shut the fuck up,” he sneers.

“Point made. The truth hurts.” I smile. “And so does looking at your face.”