Axel: Just to let you know, I’m REALLY hungry.

Blaire: I’m hungry too. Starving, really.

Axel: Dammit. I’m so hard, I literally can’t walk right now.

Blaire: That’s okay. I wasn’t planning to take you for a walk. I’d rather take you for a ride.

Axel: Fuuuuuck. I just came a little in my pants.

Blaire: Well, that escalated quickly.

Axel: It always does with us, babe.

I grinned at our exchange. Axel was right; things had always escalated quickly when we were together. We were constantly hot for each other, a simple look was all it took before clothes went flying. I was glad that didn’t seem to have changed one bit.

24. Axel

Axel

I dashed up the stairs with the biggest grin on my face. Blaire was on the way! I hastily showered and put on some light gray sweatpants with no underwear and stuck a condom in the pocket, just in case. She had sounded receptive and playful in our text messages. I heard a knock on the door as I was coming back down the stairs. I jogged over to open the door, and there she was . . . my Blaire Bear.

She was holding her purse and a pink box, which I took from her and put on the table in my foyer. I closed the door and searched her eyes, my hands sliding up to cup her beautiful face.

“You’ve been crying,” I murmured.

She nodded, her gaze dropping to my bare chest before sliding up to find mine. “I talked to Beau. He told me everything.” The tiniest of smiles crested her full lips. “You wanted me.”

“And Carrie,” I confirmed.

“Oh, Axel,” she cried as her face crumpled. “I’m so sorry.”

“No, baby. No,” I said firmly, wiping her tears away with my thumbs. “Don’t you dare apologize to me. I fucked up, and you did what you needed to do. And even though I’m pissed as hell at your brother, I understand where he was coming from. You and Carrie are the only family he has left, and I know that he would protect you with his life. Maybe he can be a tad misguided and overzealous…”

“Just a tad,” Blaire said, her lips cracking into the slightest of smiles. She closed her eyes, tilting her face into my hand and rubbing against my palm, a soft vibration purring up from her throat. When her lids lifted again, the wanton burning in her irises made me take a step into her, my big body crowding her back against the door. “Axel…”

I lowered my head, placing a tender kiss on the corner of her mouth. “What, Bear?”

“Make me forget. Make me forget what it’s like to live without you.”