Axel: A Bad Boy Romance (8 page)

Chapter Fourteen

She hated him. She wanted to scream at him and rage against him. She hated when he told her to keep going and to focus on being strong. She wasn’t strong. She was weak and tired and she wanted to quit. But she couldn’t. She refused to give him the satisfaction of seeing it. She pushed herself until her body gave out and only then did she let him help her.

It felt good. It felt cleansing. With every repetition, with every lift she was turning herself into someone else. Someone who was stronger and tougher than the Marie De Santa from Phoenix, Arizona. Someone who would never let anyone lay a hand on her child. She hated him, but she knew she would go back. Nothing could keep her away.

She kept remembering the way he looked. His body was just muscles on top of muscles. They lay hidden everywhere on him popping up when he lifted or punched. His arms were as strong as tree trunks, the shapes and colors and outlines of his tattoos accentuating his strength. She couldn’t stop herself from staring at him. From the corner of her eye and in the reflection of mirrors, she saw him and she wanted to see more.

It was crazy. She wasn’t ready for anything with anyone. She still jumped every time she saw a car on the road that looked like Austin's. She still heard his voice in her head at her lowest moments. She was still trying to figure out who she was. But it had been so long since she had felt anything other than fear and desperation. She wanted him to touch her. She wanted to feel his hands on her skin. She wanted to be held in his strong arms.

It is just a fantasy
, she said to herself.
I am just dreaming. It is the same thing as lusting after Alexander Skarsgård
. It was nothing real, nothing would ever come of it. It would just be a fantasy for her alone. Axel Connelly never needed to know her inner thoughts.

Her body ached. But it was a good ache. It came from doing something hard, from pushing herself harder than ever. It was well earned. She followed his instructions and took the long luxurious bath and she slept like a rock that night. For the next three days he was all that she thought about. She watched videos of his fights and read his interviews online. She counted down the hours until she would see him again.

“So, we’ve been working pretty hard at the basics,” Axel said once they were back in the boxing gym. “But I think today, we should talk about some self-defense tactics. That is why you came here, right?”

“Yeah,” Marie said with a nod. Her hands were on her hips and she glanced up at him as she agreed. She didn’t want to burden him with her history and she appreciated that he hadn’t asked anything about it. They only ever met in this gym. It was almost like their lives outside of it didn’t exist. She didn’t have a past here, there was only sweat and hard work and Axel watching.

“So,” he continued. “I’m going to teach you how to get out of a chokehold.” He walked behind her and said, “If I were someone who was trying to grab you, a chokehold is how I would do it. I would sneak up behind you, wrap my arm around you neck and grab my wrist, holding you in place.” He detailed the movements as he did them. The hair on the back of Marie’s neck stood up as she watched him in the mirror. He came up to her slowly and put his arm around her neck, but gently, not holding her.

Her stomach formed one big knot. She didn't like this. It was too familiar, too scary. She had been in a chokehold before and she didn’t like it. But she wasn’t running away now. She needed to learn how to do this. If she could just figure out how to get out of a chokehold, she wouldn’t need to be afraid of them, or him anymore. But she was still nervous.

“You can feel that my right arm is doing all the actual work and my left arm is just hanging there, so you want to reach behind you with your right arm and grab his head and then with your left hand push his elbow up and over your head. Then you keep hold of the left wrist as you spin around then using the left arm as leverage you’re going to force the person to bend over and give three kicks right to the stomach.”

It seemed so easy with his big strong hands. They went through the motions slowly, almost dancing as she spun free of him and then twisted around. Then it was time to do it for real. He turned her around so she was facing the mirror and he came at her. Marie wasn’t ready for how fast he was. In an instant his hand was around her neck and she was frozen in place.

“Sorry,” Marie mumbled. She couldn't move. She had forgotten the moves she had learned only a few minutes ago. She felt like some tranquilized animal waiting to be tagged. “Give me another try,” she said snapping herself out of it.

He stepped back and nodded, but he wasn’t any gentler the second time. He came up behind her and wrapped his hand around her neck and she was ready. Recalling the moves, she wrenched his elbow up and over her head and took his wrist firmly and spun him around. It was over. He was at her mercy. Marie, a girl who had never been in a real fight had just escaped from a chokehold.

“Not bad,” Axel said with a nod.

Marie nodded at him suddenly out of breath. She stood there heaving for breath with Axel standing across from her. It was at that moment that she realized they were totally alone. There was no one else in boxing gym. She looked up at him through her eyelashes and was surprised to see him staring down at her with a look of naked longing in his eyes. She was startled, but not afraid. She wanted him, too. She shouldn’t, of course. She couldn't. She had just left Austin a couple of weeks ago. It was too soon for her to do anything like this. She wasn’t a casual sex kind of girl. In fact, Austin was the only person she had ever had sex with.

But she knew she should deny herself; that would be the right thing to do. But she had spent so much time denying herself and focusing on the happiness of others that she had forgotten about her own happiness. She wanted to be touched. She wanted to kiss someone and be held. She wanted to screw Axel right here in this gym.

He took her chin gently in his strong hands and tilted her head and then his lips fell upon hers. She sighed as she kissed him. His lips were soft, but she could feel the light stubble that peppered his cheeks and chin.

Marie brought her hand up and rested in on his back as he took a step closer. He slipped his tongue into her mouth, tracing along the inside of her lower lip. Marie couldn’t help but let out a little whimper as he sucked on her lower lip before breaking the kiss. He leaned his forehead against hers and she could see he was a little out of breath. His hands moved back along her neck and he pulled her against him pushing his body onto hers.

His lips crashed onto hers again. His hands traced down her back and then cupped her ass. He lifted her off the floor until Marie stood on her tiptoes, straining to reach him. She didn’t want to stop. She wrapped her arms around his neck and leaned against him as their tongues slid over each other and she bit down on his lip. He let out a low growl and grabbed her ass, holding her in place against him as they continued to kiss.

She wanted this. How long had it been since she had felt this wanted? She came off her tiptoes and broke her kiss. Her fingertips traced down along his chest over the silky fabric of his shirt. His hands traced down her arms making her skin tingle. He kissed her again, deeply. It was almost like he was consuming her and she was only too happy to let him.

“Come here,” he said and he took her hand gently in his. He led her to a small back room. It was where a chiropractor and a masseuse held hours, but it was empty at the moment. She felt a sudden plunge in her stomach. Was she really going to do this here, now, with him? He closed and locked the door and then spun around and picked Marie up.

She gasped and held onto his shoulders as he sat her down on the table. He settled himself between her knees and he began to kiss her again. Her legs wrapped around his waist as his hands ran through her hair. He pulled back and then he tilted her head to side and kissed a trail of fire up the sensitive skin of her neck. Marie shivered from the sensation of his lips and tongue and she grabbed his head, taking fistfuls of his hair in her hands.

She could feel his hands as they reached for the hem of her workout shirt. He ripped it up and over her head and tossed it to the side. He hooked his fingers under her sports bra and pulled that off, too. Her small, pert breasts strained for his touch. Her pink nipples were hard and she grabbed at his loose t-shirt and ripped it off of him.

His abs were a perfect six pack. She could see the lines of his muscles and she traced on with her fingers. He was firm and strong. He was so tempting; there was no way she could ever hold herself back. But what about Austin? What about the life she was running from? Was she really ready for this? Could she even stop herself if she wanted to?

He leaned down and took her breast in his mouth. He swirled his tongue over her nipple and she arched her back. She was pert and ready for him and he clamped his teeth gently over her breast making her gasp and shudder. He pulled back and he stared her in the eye as he took her other breast in her hand and he massaged it. He stroked his thumb over her nipple and her legs tightened around him as goosebumps erupted over her arms. She pulled him closer, pushing and grinding herself against him.

He scraped his teeth over her breast and Marie writhed against him. Her hands were buried in his hair as she urged him to keep going, to give her more. More, she wanted more. She never wanted him to stop. His hands were gentle up into the point where they weren’t and then he pulled back leaving Marie constantly on her toes. It was like a push and a pull, a dance only she was learning the steps to as they moved.

He put his hand on the center of her chest and gently pushed her back down onto the massage table. He came up with her and knelt between her knees. His hands ran up and down her thighs over the thin fabric of her exercise pants. She raised her hips toward him, wanting him to touch her everywhere.

He pulled at the waistband and slid them and her panties down over hips and then her knees and then past her ankles. He tossed them to the side. Marie felt suddenly self-conscious lying there naked in front of him. She tried to close her legs and cover her breasts with her hands.

“What are you doing?” he asked as his hands ran down the seam of her thighs. He slipped his hands between them, and she felt the rough touch of his fingers tracing a path of electricity along her. Her breath hitched as his hand moved between her legs and gently separated them. He pushed her knees down until she was spread out before him. “You’re beautiful,” he whispered into her ear as he leaned forward and hovered over her. He kissed her breasts and licked the sensitive space between them. Marie felt a bolt of pleasure pulsed through her body at his touch. He slid a finger into her center. He moved easily inside of her. She was wet and ready for him, and she squirmed under his touch as his finger drew longs stroked inside of her.

She moaned as her desperate hips writhed beneath his fingers. He was so gently slipping his finger over her clit making her jump with pleasure with every stroke. She grabbed his shoulder and whispered the word
yes
into his ear. She licked his earlobe and then took it between his teeth as he growled in pleasure.

She was rocking against him. She was desperate for him to keep going. She clung to his shoulders as his fingers continued to spin fire and pleasure inside of her. Her orgasm was building up slowly inside of her. The sensation was almost too much. She both wanted to finish and never ever wanted his fingers to stop. “Please,” she breathed the word into his ear as her desire grew. She was so close. Her body felt out of her control. Her hips were bucking against his hand. She was so desperate for completion that nothing could have stopped her. She would have begged; she would have done anything to finish.

His touch was feather light inside of her and her hips were rising off the table as she yearned for contact between his rough hands and her most sensitive place.

“Yes. Yes!” She cried out as his fingers slid over her again and again. She was so close, at the tipping point and with one last stroke her entire body tensed and then convulsed as her orgasm pulsed through her, a fire coursing through her veins and obliterating everything in her path. Crying out in pleasure and gasping for breath she his fingers continued to stroke as she rode her orgasm to the end.

Her eyes had been clamped shut and she blearily opened them and looked around the white massage room. She was still breathing deeply and she felt like she was floating above her body. But Axel wasn’t done yet. He was biting and licking at her neck and slipping out of his gym shorts.

Marie sat up and crashed her lips against him. Her hair was plastered to her skin and she couldn't have cared less. This was perfect. It was exactly what she wanted. Marie scooted to her knees and now she pushed Axel back. His cock was hard and she reached down and gently stroked up the shaft and caressed the head with her thumb. Axel groaned and closed his eyes and her hands continued to work.