Page 95 of Ravaged For You

I instinctively shy away from the probing cameras that are thrust towards my face.

Axel relishes the attention. He stands beside me, confident and basking in the fame.

He faces me then.

“How’s this for a kiss?” he asks rhetorically.

Before I have a chance to react, he lifts me into his arms, making my legs wrap around his muscular waist, and deeply kisses me in front of everyone.

Wow. Freaking wow.

I better hold on tight, because I think I’m going to swoon.

I can hear the clicks of the paparazzi cameras behind me taking photos to document this crazy act, but I don’t care.

This is the best kiss in the world.

41

MADDIE

We are silent the entire journey back to the hotel from the restaurant. I can practically hear my heart beating fast as the limo whizzes us through Vancouver’s streets.

That kiss… My God, that kiss…

I’m dizzy. Elated with what just happened.

Wild.

The rockstar raised me up with just his arms. He drew me close against his body. He kissed me like I mean the world to him.

It was the most breathless I’ve ever been. Period.

I was really – literally – swept off my feet.

I sneak a glance over at Axel as we ride along. He’s completely still. Staring dead ahead with those cold green eyes of his.

Can he hear my heart beating in my chest? He’s not doing anything. How can he not be going crazy over what just happened?

Was that kiss even real or was it all a play for the cameras? A little bait for the tabloids and nothing more? Axel had taken me completely by surprise with that grand gesture. I mean, come on, no way could someone fake something like that, even if what we’re doing is one big lie. It can’t have just meant nothing. There is no actor on earth who could kiss like that and not have it mean a thing.

I just don’t know. Axel is one hell of a man.

What is going on in that brooding head of his?

My gaze lingers on his lips. Those full lips that took my own back there outside the restaurant with the confidence and skill that only comes from a man who knows exactly what he’s doing.

Everything’s a rush for me. We arrive back at the hotel, going underground through the secret entrance reserved for celebrities like Axel. We ride the elevator up to Axel’s suite and then we enter the massive luxury room. All of that without saying a word to each other. I keep my eyes on the rockstar all the time, hoping to discover an answer to all my burning questions in him. In a look or something. But the man is impassive.

Emotionless.

Distant.

We get ourselves ready for bed, still without a word being exchanged.

I watch him remove his suit. He does so carefully. Gently. I watch those hands of his. Those talented hands that can play both a guitar and my feelings. Those hands that were wrapped around my waist as he pulled me in for that kiss…

He’d been so vulnerable to me at the restaurant. So open. Talking about Gabe like that… I just know that he doesn’t speak about his childhood friend often or to everybody. I feel like I’ve been let into a corner of his humanity; his past that you can’t find on a Wikipedia page.