Page 15 of Velvet and Valor (Platinum Security: Shadows of LA #4)

JUNE

“Hey,” I cry. “You can’t do this right now! We’ve got to get out of here.”

Axel groans, and his eyelids flutter. Otherwise, he remains still as a stone.

“Come on, Axel, be okay. You’ve got to be okay,” I mutter, going into the bathroom. I quickly fill a paper cup with water from the tap. A few moments later, I toss the water right into Axel’s face.

The results couldn’t have been more dramatic if I’d shocked him with a live wire. Axel leaps out of my bed and stands at attention.

“Sir, yes, Sir!” he bellows. “Ready for PT, Sir!”

“Axel,” I say, grabbing his arm. “Hey, Axel, you’re not in the army anymore, remember?”

“Oh.” He blinks rapidly, then his eyes focus on me. “That’s right. Hey, we should probably get out of here before more guys with axes show up…I’m not bleeding that bad, am I?”

I check the damp spot on his sleeve, peeling back the fabric. The sight of the gash in his tricep makes me wince.

“Jesus, if I had a cut half this deep, I’d be squealing like a baby.” I rush into the bathroom. “Hang on, I’ve got a first aid kit.”

“I’m fine,” Axel says. “It’s not even that deep.”

“Well, maybe I don’t want you bleeding all over my place?”

I pause and consider him for a moment. I realize this is my fault. I insisted on coming back to my place.

And Axel agreed, even though he knew it was a bad idea. Score one for him. He is a soldier, and Jax didn’t seem the sort to hire a buffoon. Axel wears his snarky persona like a bulletproof vest, thinking it will keep him safe.

Safe from what, though? Caring? If that’s the case, I don’t think his armor is working.

I rush into the bathroom and grab the heavy kit before lugging it into the bedroom. I spray the wound with antiseptic, Axel doesn’t so much as flinch. It’s not as bad as I feared, but it continues to bleed.

After applying a gauze pad, I wrap Axel’s arm.

“There, that should hold long enough for us to get out of here,” I say. “Where are we going? To the police?”

Axel shakes his head.

“I don’t think so. We should head back to my beach house. They very well might be watching the police stations.”

“They must have seen us coming in,” I say, looking down at the unconscious intruder.

“Maybe, maybe not. They came in through your front living room window. We came in through the back. If they’d been watching us, it would follow they’d use the same way we got in, rather than smashing the window.”

“Yeah, and they warned us with all the noise they made,” I add.

Axel nods. “Now you’re thinking tactically. You’d have made a great soldier.”

“Yeah, right. I’m allergic to getting up early, and as far as I’m concerned, a push-up is a bra.”

Axel’s warm laughter fills the air as we make our way out the back door into my yard.

“For what it’s worth, I much prefer that kind of push up myself,” he says.

“Really? You don’t seem like you need the support,” I quip.

Axel snorts with laughter, holding the back gate open so I can exit first.

“Nah, the lace clashes with my tattoos,” he says.

“Well, of course,” I say. Axel offers me a hand down the steep concrete slope of the flood sluice. “We can’t have you clashing.”

He skitters down the slope and joins me at the bottom of the sluice. Our eyes meet. His gaze flickers down to my chest for the briefest of moments.

“Stop imagining what I look like in a push-up bra,” I warn. Axel holds his hands up and tries to look innocent. I chuckle to let him know I’m just kidding. “Shouldn’t we get going before you start bleeding again?”

He chuckles and joins me as we traipse down the sluice.

“This is the thanks I get for saving you from literal axe murderers?” he says.

“Hmm. Considering the state I found you in when I first came inside, maybe you’ve just about earned your way to a neutral position,” I counter. “I told you not to open that drawer.”

“I know, I’m sorry.” He can’t look me in the eye. At least it means it happened by accident rather than him being a perv.

“Forget about it. I’m the one who insisted on going, when you told me it was a bad idea.”

“I feel like I should make it up to—”

“Axel,” I say as we reach the end of the sluice. “No, really. Forget about it.”

“Ah. Got it.” He salutes me, then scampers up the side of the steep concrete sluice like it’s not there. He bends over and offers me a hand. I kick my legs, but Axel does most of the work, lifting me up to street level.

When we’re not far from where he parked, Axel calls the Platinum Security office to report what’s happened. He sounds awfully calm for someone who just fought off three armed attackers. I’m still shaking in my boots.

We scramble into the car and rumble out of my neighborhood. I have a meager backpack filled with a few things, most notably my work tablet and the flash drive. But other than that, I’m leaving my life behind. I wonder how long it will be before I can return home?

A terrifying thought hits me. What if I can never return home? Moorcrock seemed like a professional type of criminal. And if the Chinese Triads are involved, then I might not have the luxury of keeping my place.

Or even my name. What if I have to enter witness protection? I don’t want to give up my life. A life I’ve worked so hard to build. Why should I have to quit being me because of some stupid criminal plan gone awry?

Axel seems to sense my foul mood. He stops for tacos and horchata. I hadn’t even known I was hungry. After sating my appetite, and cruising along the highway with the windows down a while, I’m starting to feel better. It’s as if the night air has swept away my fears and anxieties.

When we return to the beach house, the moon has risen high enough to cast a silvery reflection on the gently rolling waves. We both stop and just take a long moment to enjoy the sight. I start when Axel takes my hand.

“Sorry,” he says, pulling away.

“No,” I say, grabbing his hand and pulling it back. “It’s okay.”

I glance over at Axel. He’s a little banged up, but otherwise none the worse for wear.

A real man of action. He’d been totally different when I was in danger.

No more of his carefree attitude or lighthearted jokes.

He’d become the perfect soldier, dispensing death and forming a hard wall in front of the innocent.

“You know,” I start. “Back when you were handling those guys with the axes…”

“What about it?” he asks.

“It was impressive,” I say. “That’s all. I just mean, you were something else. God, this is stupid. I can negotiate a deal for a potential million dollar film with half an hour of sleep and an empty stomach, and I can’t talk to a guy for a second without putting my foot in my mouth.”

“I think you’re doing fine,” Axel says. “I mean, it would be impressive if you COULD put your foot in your mouth, but that’s not really my thing.”

I cover my face and laugh.

“When you’re not trying too hard to be funny, Axel, you’re pretty damn cool. You have a way of making me feel like it’s okay to be…um….”

“Yourself?” he says.

I nod, turning to face him. The moonlight brings out the natural color of his gorgeous eyes. The way he looks at me quickens my pulse. My palm grows sweaty, and I try to pull away before he notices.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

Axel reels me back into his embrace, encircling his arms around my waist. I gasp as he pulls me in tight to his body.

“Um,” I say, heart pounding in my chest. “Ah, that is…palms…sweaty?”

“Oh sweetness,” he purrs, tucking a lock of my hair behind my ear. “You’re gonna be sweaty all over when I’m done with you.”

Axel’s mouth presses into my own. I stiffen up at first, unsure that I’m ready for this. But my body tingles all over, with a familiar warmth growing in my belly. Oh, I’m ready. I’ve been ready for a while, I’ve just been trying to talk myself out of it.

I relax, giving into his kiss. Axel takes the signal for what it is and plunges deeper. His kiss is hard, aggressive. Possessive. It’s as if he’s been holding an animal back behind a veneer of one-liners and slacker attitude.

But now he’s letting the animal loose, and it’s starving. There’s only one thing it wants to eat, and it happens to be me.

As if of their own accord, my arms slide up and encircle his neck. I cling to him like a rock climber with a broken rope as his kiss grows deeper, more intimate. He tastes wonderful. Perfect. Exactly the way I hoped he would taste.

Gone is the goofy pretend action hero, replaced with a grown man who knows exactly what he wants. Me. I’ve never had a man just give in to his desires so powerfully before. Not when I was the object of those desires.

Axel’s hand sweeps up to the middle of my back. He crushes me into his embrace as his mouth leaves my lips only to latch onto my neck mercilessly. I cry out at the sharpness of his teeth, then moan softly a moment later as he kisses and licks it all better.

His other hand moves over the slope of my bottom and grabs firmly. I groan, instinctively grinding myself against Axel as he kneads my bottom and pries my cheeks apart.

A sharp crack across my ass makes me cry out.

“Did you just spank me?” I cry.

“Yes,” he mumbles, his mouth on my clavicle.

“I think I liked it.”

With a growl, he rips my top down to my waist, exposing me. I cry out, but not from pain or fear, as he spins me around to face away from him. I plant my hands against the worn wooden timbers of a long-collapsed pier as his hot mouth kisses its way over my shoulders and back.

“You are magnificent, June,” he whispers into my body. My moans of delight mingle with the susurrus of the rolling ocean waves. There’s no one to see us but the moon. It reminds me of a line from a movie I helped produce.

Love, like murder, should never have a witness.

“Axel,” I gasp. “Axel, I’m ready.”

His hand smacks into my bottom. My sharp cry turns to laughter as he spanks me again. A delightful pulse of ecstasy spreads from my clit through the rest of my body, making my brain feel fizzy, with each new smack.

“You do like this,” he says. “Good thing I love giving women what they want.”

“Oh, and you know just how to do it,” I moan teasingly.

Axel growls in response.

“You’re asking for it, June.”

“I’m begging for it but are you man enough to give it to me,” I purr.

His sputtering response comes amid a flurry of action.

He hikes my skirt up to my waist, exposing my skin to the wind and the moonlight.

His hot breath spreads over my skin as he moves his face in close.

He kisses my pliant flesh before biting gently.

I cry out, fingers curling around the sea-worn timbers of the old pier.

Axel pulls my panties to the side, getting a full view of my pussy from the rear. His fingers stroke through the valley between my swollen, quivering lips, coming away wet. My legs are already shaking so badly I can barely stand. It feels so good to have Axel touch me.

“God, I’ve wanted you so bad.”

“Axel,” I sputter. It's all I can speak at the moment, with the waves of pleasure his continued stroking elicits in my core. Axel shuffles around, and then I feel something hard and warm against my thigh. My hand darts back, feeling about until I can grip his throbbing cock.

Axel gasps, and then he spins me around to face him. Our naked bodies press together. My hips buck, my body arching toward him as of its own volition.

“You talk a lot of shit,” he growls, eyes sparkling with desire.

My hand grips his shaft and gives it a long, slow stroke.

“I can back it up,” I purr. “Soldier boy.”

That sets him off like a keg of dynamite. Axel pushes me back against the wooden column. I lift my leg, arching my spine to accommodate him as he glides inside of me without hesitation. My eyes squeeze shut at the wonderful sensation of him sliding into me.

Axel groans, straining his body against me.

His cock throbs like a dance hall beat inside of me.

He’s already ready to let go but is hanging on.

Axel’s thrusts have an air of desperation about them.

He so, so wants to sate his lust--but more than that, he wants to make me cum before he lets himself release.

His hand is on my neck, his body pins me to the pier, and the sea drowns out my increasingly guttural cries. Blissful sensations build and build inside of me. Axel’s free hand moves between our sweating, straining bodies. His fingers stroke my clit as he continues to thrust with primal need.

I already have one leg wrapped around him. The other leg lifts up and joins the first as I lock him into my grip. That’s right, Axel, you’re not going anywhere. Desperate now, all I can think about is getting what I want, and right now all I want is to cum all over his thick, hard cock.

Axel grins at my power move. He bears into me with stronger, faster, deeper thrusts. It does the trick, all right. My eyes squeeze shut and it’s all I can do to hang on to him, as well as my sanity.

I suck in a ragged breath of air, hold it for what seems like an eternity, and let it out as a piercing wail. I feel as if I’m touching the fabric of reality as ripple after ripple of ecstasy storms through my body. Axel gives in to his own passion, cumming inside of me just moments later.

His cock vibrates as he empties his desires into me. Axel’s face twists into a mask of helpless pleasure. He’s totally given himself over to his lust, and I’m the one who’s pushed him to this. It makes me feel empowered in an oddly pleasing way.

Then, another orgasm crashes into what’s left of my conscious thoughts and smashes them to splinters of golden sunlight. I am unmade and recast all in the breadth of a heartbeat, writhing and screaming on the end of Axel’s rod.

My arms slap against his sweating, muscled back as I hold on for dear life. I’ve never held onto someone this tightly before, not ever. God, is this what it’s supposed to feel like when you’re with a guy? I thought it was all hype.

If it is, all I can say is hooray for hype.

My legs are basically jelly, so Axel carries me into the beach house.

He lays me down on the bed and then stands over me.

His body is a work of art, the lines of his tattoos seeming to accentuate the catlike ripple of his muscles.

The pillars of his sinewy thighs frame his magnificent cock, which already begins to swell as he stares at my naked body.

“I wish you’d stop holding back, soldier boy,” I say huskily.

Axel grins. His hand suddenly darts out, palm planting against my sternum. Axel shoves me back until I fall fully onto the bed.

“Be careful what you wish for,” Axel says, his eyes blazing with heat. “You just might get it.”

“Oh no,” I giggle. “Don’t, please.”