Page 71 of All's Fair in Love & Wrath

Cora looks up at me, a little startled and slightly hurt. I was never going to settle down with Cora, or Becca, or any of them. I was always meant for Sienna. Which is why I had rules that I never crossed. I just didn’t know it until now.

Cora nods. “I’m happy for you, Wrath. You deserve it.”

“You do, too. If you ever want more than club life, just let us know how we can help.”

“I appreciate that,” she replies with a smile, fluttering her fingers at me as she walks out of my view. The music changes its beat, and there’s only one thing I want to do.

On autopilot, I walk up to Sienna, and as if she’s in tune with me, her attention shifts, her eyes glimmering in the overhead lights, face softening, her pretty pink lips turning up in the corners. I hold out my hand to her in offering. “Dance with me?”

Sienna doesn’t hesitate. She doesn’t look around the room, doesn’t second-guess anything, she just takes my hand, standing and following me to where some others are already dancing. I pull her into my arms, wrapping them around her body, putting my thigh right between her legs, and then we’re swaying, rocking against each other to the sultry beat.

“It’s not a dance, and we aren’t dressed up fancy, but I hope this’ll do,” I whisper against the shell of her ear.

Her hands are everywhere, rubbing up my chest, over my neck and the shaved sides of my head. “This is better.” Fuck yes, it is.

We dance together, my hands rubbing up and down her spine, over her ribs, squeezing and kneading, loving being able to touch her like this and have her welcome it, want it. My heart rate is through the roof, my breaths coming harder. Sienna looks up at me with the most beautiful eyes I’ve ever seen, that emptiness that used to sit behind her pretty blues now full and open. Everything seems to disappear around us, our dancing having slowed to a gentle sway. Sienna bites her bottom lip, eyes flicking down to my own. She’s killing me. The tension around us has finally gone taut, and it won’t take much more before it snaps altogether.

“Fuck, the way you’re looking at me right now, baby girl. Makes me want to do reckless and dangerous things.”

“Like what?” she presses, her handflat over my chest, right above my heart. I’m keenly aware of how rapid it’s beating right now; how completely and utterly gone I am for her. I lean down, running my nose along her jaw from chin to ear. Her skin breaks out in goosebumps, her body shivering in my arms. I pull back just enough to look at her, our breaths mingling, that tension crackling.

“Like kiss you.”

“So, what are you waiting for then, Axel James? Kiss me.”

I only hesitate for a fraction of a second, and it’s because I was too stunned to believe she actually said those words. My hands thread into her hair, angling her head backward as my nose rubs against hers, sweet and tender, then I’m kissing her.

Finally.

Chapter Twenty-Six

SIENNA

Kissing Axel is everything I thought it would be and nothing like I imagined all at the same time. He tastes like whiskey and marijuana, and something that’s all completely him. I can’t get enough, our tongues tangling together, the way his lips move over mine. My body melts into his, my hands gripping around his wrists to ground myself.

Our kiss heats up, our bodies flush against each other, my hips seeking him out. Axel moves quickly, bending just enough to grab my ass, lifting me into his arms. I wrap my legs around his waist, my hands cupping his face. He starts to walk, the cool summer breeze hitting me the moment he steps onto the porch.

“What are you doing? Why are you leaving?” I suddenly feel extremely self-conscious. I thought it was Axel’s thing to fool around out in the open like that, but he’s taking me outside, like he doesn’t want anyone to see him with me. “Axel, put me down.” He complies immediately, but his handsnever leave my body, tucking me in close, his fingers threading through my hair.

“You don’t want to kiss me in there?”

“Not in there I don’t, not like this. If there ever comes a day you want me to play with you out in the open, I’m yours. But not right now, not while I’m getting to kiss you for the first time. I want this just for myself, just for us.” Then he’s kissing me again, my body completely melting into him. He kisses me like he’s starving for it, like he’s been waiting his entire life. The world would have to burn down around us before he stopped.

The image of Axel touching me like he does in the bedroom out in the open stays firmly rooted in my mind, causing heat to pool at my core. It’s something I want to try, something I want to explore. I just don’t know how to ask for it.

He backs me up slowly, and I give up full control, trusting that wherever he’s leading us, I’ll enjoy. My bare legs hit cool metal, and I break apart to see I’ve bumped into a gorgeous motorcycle. It’s all black, with a faded purple chrome gas tank on the side.

“Go for a ride with me, Sienna?” My eyes must say exactly how I’m feeling because Axel steps closer into my space, gripping my chin between his fingertips, angling my head upward. His nose ring gleams against the hard floodlights of the clubhouse, his neck tattoos prominent and beautiful.

“Do you trust me? Really trust me?” God, that’s such a heavily loaded question. I haven’t been able to trust anyone but my family in so long. But trusting Axel is as easy as breathing; innate, biological. It just makes sense.

“Yes. I trust you, Axel.”

Then he’s lifting me, sitting my ass on the back of his bike, climbing on in front of me.

“Watch your leg against the exhaust. Hang on to me, I want you as close as physically possible.”

Then the bike is revving up under us, the vibrations spreading through my core. I wrap my arms around Axel’s waist, laying my head down on his back as he walks us out of his spot. He takes off the next second, dust and dirt kicking up in our wake. He drives down the long road, the gates opening up when they see him coming.