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Axel considered for a moment, rapping two knuckles against the table in thought.
“I guess, that night in the parking lot, I saw something in your eyes. You had this look…” He broke off with a frustrated noise. “Probably sounds crazy but you had this look like you were screaming so loud without saying a word in the hopes that someone would just…listen.”
I was speechless. Axel glanced down at his empty coffee mug, his long fingers lightly wrapped around it. I couldn’t take my eyes off him as he gestured to the waitress for the bill.
Even though I hadn’t thought of it that way, he was right. I was surrounded by people who were convinced they knew how to run my life better than I did. No matter what I said, they ignored me as if I hadn’t spoken in the first place.
Axel was the only one who heard me.
When I asked him to kiss me, he did.
When I asked for his help, he dropped what he was doing to lend a hand.
“We should get going,” he said after a moment.
The waitress sailed by, seamlessly sliding the bill onto our table as she passed. Axel didn’t even give me a chance to reach for it.
“I’ve got this,” he said.
“Axel,” I replied. “Just because you agreed to be my fake boyfriend doesn’t mean you have to foot the bill. I can pay for my own food.”
“I’m sure you can.”
He retrieved some cash from an inner pocket on his vest and smoothly tucked it beneath his plate. Lionel always made a big show when he paid for dinner, flaunting his money around, announcing the size of the tip he’d left. Meanwhile, Axel was so subtle about it that I wouldn’t have noticed he’d paid at all if I hadn’t been looking.
“I’m setting a different precedent though,” Axel added. He slid out of the booth and took my hand, pulling me to my feet. “When was the last time you had dinner with no expectations?”
I opened my mouth to protest then snapped it shut because I didn’t have an answer. Axel raised an eyebrow at my silence because he knew what I would say. Dining with my mother was a networking event. Dining with Lionel was an exhibition to make him look good, and sex was always expected afterward.
Eating with Axel was…just a meal. He wasn’t working an angle.
When I didn’t respond, he lifted my hand to his lips and pressed a kiss to my knuckles without breaking eye contact. Then he leaned closer and his breath was warm against my ear as he spoke.
“There’s more than one way a bad boy can ruin you for all other men, sweetheart.”
A delicious rush of heat swept across my skin and a low, needy burn bloomed between my thighs. Axel wasn’t just acting as my fake boyfriend to ward off the wealthy, predatory men my mother continually tried to set me up with.
He was teaching me what it felt like to be respected instead of used. He was teaching me what it felt like to exist without the burden of expectations.
My phone buzzed furiously in my hand. I glanced at the screen to see several text messages from my mother. I knew it was only a matter of time before she saw the pictures I posted with Axel, announcing our new relationship.
And she was livid about it.
Ignoring the messages, I shoved my phone in my purse. Axel, I noted, was still holding my hand. I wished he would never let go.
***
Axel took me for a long motorcycle ride through the desert. The sun was unbearably hot and the pavement shimmered, rippling with heat waves. After a while though, the sand dunes and scrubby, low-lying brush became a welcome sight.
Out here, there were no prying eyes. My phone remained stowed in my purse. As one hour melted into another, I realized that I didn’t strategize about posting to social media, didn’t check my comments or DMs, and I didn’t worry about whether or not we were making a good impression.
It was just the road, Axel, his motorcycle, and me.
When he slowed at a stop sign, I tapped his shoulder. Axel half-turned his head in my direction to hear me when I shouted over the rumble of his bike.
“Where are we going?”
“Thought I’d take the long way back to my place,” he replied.
