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Even now, he was in another difficult spot, and I suspected his hands were tied. He didn’t actually have proof she’d orchestrated the bad press and fake media. Even the photos weren’t much more than circumstantial, even though we both knew it had to be Marta.
“What are you going to do?” I asked. I hated that reality was intruding on the intimacy we shared here in this little closet, my arms around his waist, head on his chest, and his arms draped around my shoulders.
He pressed a kiss into my hair. It was so familiar and yet a gesture I’d missed so much. I closed my eyes, breathing him in and holding on to the quiet moment.
It couldn’t last, not with the drama in his life. Not with him needing to join the panel on stage soon.
“I have to trust my uncle to deal with her.”
“Do you think he will?”
Axel was silent for a long moment. “I don’t know. If I see her, though, I’ll tell her personally that she’s out. Tonight, I’m changing all my accesses and passwords. I’ll call my driver to make sure he doesn’t let her into my motorhome. That’ll lock her out of the most important parts. I never let her touch my financials, and never let her use any of my cards to make purchases. My lawyer’s team keeps a close watch on my accounts, anyway. She has a company credit card she uses to book my travel and lodgings when I don’t stay in my rig, but that’s through the team, so it’s Darius’ problem, not mine.”
I supposed that was better than I’d thought. “And your apartment or house?”
“Baby,” he chuckled. “My only home is with you.”
Okay…that surprised me. One other thing niggled at me, the one item that could cause the most problems.
“Do you think she’ll try to blackmail you? If she could do this, with these pictures, she could do worse.”
I felt his chest move beneath my cheek as he sighed, and when I glanced up, I saw him shaking his head. His fingers threaded through my hair and massaged my scalp. He dropped a quick kiss on my lips.
“She can try.”
Both lost in thoughts, we didn’t say anything else. He just held me, rocking me, while I kept my arms wrapped around him and ran my hands slowly up and down his back. I didn’t know how long we stood there, secure in each other’s embrace, locked in the moment.
This was almost a dance, the one we should have had at the bar, but the only music was our heartbeats and the rasps of our breathing.
“I’ve missed you so fucking much,” he said into my hair, his deep inhales and exhales rustling the strands. “Don’t ever leave me,” he begged.
“You left me,” I whispered, my broken heart rising up to remind me of the crushed mess I’d been. That was in the past. Over. Still, I had a difficult time letting it go.
“Biggest fucking mistake of my life. I could have found a way. Ishould havefound a way. There had to be some path where I could help my mom and still have the woman I love.”
I shook my head. “Could haves and should haves won’t take away the past six years and all the pain and frustration. We can’t go back—”
“I want you now,” he interrupted. “I wanted you then, but I want you now with everything in me. My vision is way clearer now than when I was stupid and eighteen with no life experience. I want everything with you, Bristol. Every moment we can have together. Tell me we can make it work.”
I leaned back from his chest, so I could look up at him. “You’re leaving in two day.”
That knowledge had taunted me and overshadowed every overture he’d made. I always came back to that. Axel was going back on the road in a couple days. His time in Cherish Cove had an expiration date.
He jerked a nod. “And I will spend every moment I can right back here with you. Or I’ll fly you out to me every weekend. Or…fuck, I don’t know. There’s got to be a way to make it work. I won’t give you up. I refuse.”
“For real?”
He cupped my cheek, his thumb stroking over my lips while he held my gaze. “Yeah, for real. Hell, you can even come with me if you want. I know you have the library and all—”
“Okay,” I agreed. “I… Okay. We’ll work it out.”
I wouldn’t deny his offer was everything I wanted. To be with him, to have his heart.
“We’ll talk every day we can’t be together. Hell, I’ve seen a couple guys set up their laptops on facetime so they can have a meal together with their girl and talk over dinner like a regular couple. I laughed, but to tell the truth, I was fucking jealous of them.”
“I’ll be eating ramen while you’re eating chicken parm.”
“I still owe you that meal tonight since my mom brought over the pot pie yesterday. Tomorrow night, we have the dance. You’ll come with me?”
