“Fuck, Bree,” he said in a throaty whisper.

At the sound of his desperation and the feel of his excitement, my pleasure spiked. The once enjoyable ache spread into my lower belly, and I had a hard time controlling my body.

“Axel,” I whimpered breathlessly into his ear as I hovered on the verge of collapse.

The fire just kept growing and growing, and I knew that at some point soon, it would explode.

I gasped and my motions turned jerky. Axel’s hands tightened on my hips, his fingertips digging into bone. But then in a flash, he flipped me over. I don’t know how he did it—one second I sat on his lap, and the next, I landed on my back with his hard body covering mine.

“Bree…Bree,” he whispered with heavy pants, focusing on my eyes. “Let’s slow down. I’m sure we just crossed about ten lines. We don’t have to do this.”

I lifted my hips, the ache too much to bear. “Please, Axel. I need this. I’m going to explode without it.”

“Baby, you’ll explode if I give it to you, but we shouldn’t be doing this. Especially outside where anyone can see us.”

“It’s dark, no one can see who I am.” My excuses were pathetic, but I didn’t care. I continued to thrust my hips into his, seeking release for the pleasurable pain that plagued me between my thighs. “I need it. Please.”

He harshly leaned into me once, pushing me back into the ground. “What do you need, Bree? Tell me. Say it.”

“This…” Instead of words, I demonstrated what my body needed by opening my legs wider and rubbing my covered sex along the hardness that strained against the zipper of his dress pants.

He groaned and pulled away slightly. “Fuck, Aubrey. We can’t do this.”

“I love you and you love me. I’m not asking you to take me right now. I just need you to help me make this go away.”

“It will go away on it’s own. You just have to let the blood settle.”

“No.” I shook my head vehemently.

“And what about after this? What happens after you see how good it feels?”

“I can’t think that far ahead right now, Axel. Do something…or I will.”

He studied my eyes, probably trying to see through my threat. “You will what?”

I didn’t answer him, only trailed a hand down my body to the now damp part of my panties. For added effect, I bit down on my lower lip, arched my back so that my chest brushed against his, and moaned. Embarrassment didn’t even have time to set in before he slapped my hand away, gripped my hip hard, and rolled his pelvis into mine.

Sparks flew behind my eyes and the heated pressure in my lower stomach intensified. The air in my lungs depleted, but I couldn’t think enough to refill them. All my focus centered on the building fire threatening to burn me alive. The closer I came to the peak, the more my head tilted back, opening my neck for Axel’s blazing lips and sweet breath.

With my hands fisting his shirt at his sides, I gasped, falling over the edge. My entire body became overheated, yet freezing cold at the same time. My legs quivered uncontrollably as his body started to slow between them. And no matter how much air I tried to take in, I couldn’t draw in more than short, useless pants. I felt out of control and incapable of thought. Confused, yet completely understanding. Numb, but at the same time, overly sensitive.

Axel’s thrusts slowed to a stop, but he remained settled on top of me, between my legs with his face buried in the crook of my neck. Our heaving chests fought against the tight space between them, both needing it at the same time. I may have been taken care of, but the evidence that he remained unfulfilled, swelled against my pelvic bone. So when he finally pulled away, holding himself up by his hands on either side of my head, I used the opportunity to reach for him.

“Aubrey, no,” he said in a harsh rush of air, grabbing me by my wrist before I could do anything more than timidly touch him.

“Why not?”

He must have heard my insecure tone. His grip loosened and his expression relaxed. “Because, I don’t need you to do that. You can’t do it. That’s going way too far.”

“Don’t you want me to?” I tried to keep the hurt out of my voice.

He gave me a quick peck before completely removing himself from my body, closing my legs together and fixing the skirt part of my dress to cover me. “Of course I do. That’s a stupid question. We should’ve never let it go that far, but I couldn’t say no because I wanted you too much. But we have to stop. This is what I was telling you, Bree. In the heat of the moment, it becomes far too hard to step on the brakes.”

“So what do you do with it when it’s like that?”

He relaxed next to me and laughed. “Well, I could take a cold shower and think of something not hot until it goes away. Or…”

“Or what?” My words trembled with nerves. I knew the answer, but I asked anyway. I had no idea why I brazenly pressed him to say it. It was so unlike me, but at the same time, it felt wild to talk so dirty. I’d never discussed this before, but Axel had a way of bringing out the animal in me.

He dropped his head, shaking it in silent laughter. “Or I take care of it myself, Aubrey.”

“Is that what you’re gonna do? When you go back inside?”

His eyes pierced mine in the withering candlelight. “Do you really want to know what I’m going to do about it?” he asked in such a deep, sexy voice that it made my sex begin to throb all over again. “I’m going to go inside, take off all my clothes, step into the shower…and then turn on the water as cold as it can go.”

I pushed his shoulder. “I hate you.”

“You love me.”

“Yeah…and if you loved me, you’d go inside and take care of that while thinking of me.”

“You need to go home now before I lose it in my pants.”

I leaned over and softly pressed my lips to his. “Okay. I’m leaving. Go think of me,” I said with a wink, and then I stood up to head home.

The walk back to my house didn’t seem to take that long, probably because I’d spent every step replaying Axel’s words to me. His confession, how he sounded when he told me he loved me. I held onto the memory of his hands on me, the way his hips brought me pleasure, and then I carved it deep into my memory—I needed something to get me through the next year of my life.

I snuck inside with a lazy, blissful smile on my face. But all that fell away when I looked up and found my mom waiting for me. I froze in place, unable to move or talk. Fear flooded me, drowning out everything good Axel had filled me with. My happy thoughts—gone. The warm tingles on my lips from his kisses—gone. The dull but pleasant throb between my legs—gone.

Gone.

Gone.

Gone.

The only thing left inside was complete and utter terror.

“Why are you wearing a sweater, Bree?” Axel asked me before class on Monday. He stopped me before I could even make it down my aisle.

“You shouldn’t be talking to me,” I said, keeping my head down and voice low so that I wouldn’t be overheard. “Just don’t worry about it.”

“Bree, look at me.” His voice was so hard and cold that he gave me no other choice than to face him and force myself to hold his intense stare. “Why are you wearing a sweater?”

“I thought I’d be cold.”

“Don’t lie to me,” he replied, his words edged with a growl.

I lowered my eyes and whispered, “Because I’m not wearing a bra.”

He didn’t speak, but I heard him clear his throat stiffly.

“Please don’t ask, Axel. I’m really not ready to talk about it.”

His feet stepped back, and I assumed that meant others were in the room. When I glanced back up, I fought off the mist of tears that began to cloud my sight.

“Meet me after school.”