Their breath evened out while she was touching him, tasting him.
He did the same.
Sometimes you said a lot with no words at all.
This was one of those times.
Even though she’d never done it before, Axl knew what it meant when she trailed a thumb along his throat to his chin, along his jaw and kissed his ear when her thumb arrived there.
He let his hands fall away.
She slid off him and out of bed.
Since it was her first time, he didn’t know where she was at with cleanup, if she wanted privacy or not. So he lay in bed, waiting for her to finish in the bathroom, instead of joining her.
When he saw her enter the room, he got out of bed. They met halfway, touched lips, and he hit the bathroom, cleaned her from his cock, quickly brushed his teeth, and headed out.
She was in bed in a nightie, and he knew, panties. She didn’t sleep bare in any way.
He didn’t either, so he pulled on some sleep pants.
He joined her and tangled them up.
She cuddled closer, tucking her face in his throat.
“You felt really good tonight, baby,” he said quietly into her hair.
“You always feel really good, baby,” she replied.
He grinned. “I meant, it was nice to have you like that.”
He meant more than dispensing with the prophylactics.
“Yeah,” she whispered.
She knew what he meant.
He gave her a squeeze with his arms.
“Thanks for having my back with Dad.”
“Mm,” she hummed.
She did not like his dad. She didn’t warm up to him once all night. No matter how obsequious Sylas was being, she put up with him and that was it.
It was his father’s loss.
Then again, his dad had been losing out on a lot for as long as Axl could remember.
Through this, his mother was entirely unoffended.
In fact, Hattie and his mom bonded.
Extreme.
He liked it.
But there was something he didn’t like.
“I think something’s up with him and Mom.”
“Mm,” she repeated, but it was different.
“What?” he asked.
“I don’t know,” she answered.
“You kind of know,” he returned.
She tipped her head back. “Tonight was rough for you.”
“Tonight was worse than sometimes, not the worst it’s been. It’s annoying but I’m used to it and it’s annoying because I’m used to it.”
She nodded against the pillow. “I feel that.”
Yeah, she did.
“You mention that because … ?” he prompted.
She was hesitant when she said, “I don’t know how raw you are.”
“She’s done with him,” he stated.
She pressed her lips together tight and lifted her brows.
Yeah.
His mother was done with his dad.
Hattie could even read it and she barely knew them.
“Thank fuck I don’t have a guest room,” he muttered.
She grinned up at him. “Your mom gives me the impression she can take care of herself.”
He didn’t know about that.
“You haven’t mentioned anything about this being a possibility. Is this out of the blue for you?” she asked.
“I would have wanted her to leave him twenty years ago. She just seemed like she was so stuck in it, she was never getting out.”
“Maybe something happened,” she suggested.
“He tends not to dig in with her. Tonight, he dug in. She seemed surprised he did it in front of you. But I’m not sure she was surprised he was doing it. They weren’t at each other’s throats, but it was clear it took effort for them to even be civil.”
Hattie had nothing to say to that.
So they had his mom gearing up to do whatever she might be doing, Hattie’s dad maybe being someone worthwhile, and Axl and his teammates were on a stalled mission to root out a pack of dirty cops.
“At least your stalker seems to have lost interest,” he remarked.
“You think?” she asked.
“It’s been a minute,” he said. “I told Hank and Eddie about it, gave them the pictures. I’ll call a meet. Sit down with them and Hawk. Ask their take.”
“’Kay.”
She sounded like she was getting sleepy.
He shifted so she had some of his weight and they were closer.
“You take a stalker in stride,” he murmured.
“I have people looking out for me,” she replied.
Definitely sleepy.
“Yeah, you do, baby. Go to sleep.”
“’Kay,” she repeated.
“Hattie?” he called.
“Yes?”
“We feel you’re clear from this guy fuckin’ with you, and you wanna go home, I’m givin’ you two drawers here, and I want one at your place.”
Her body tensed, then relaxed.
Completely.
“Two drawers. I need a diary,” she mumbled.
He chuckled.
She pressed her face in his neck.
Not long after, they were both asleep.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Off
HATTIE
I was in my bed in a post-sex haze when suddenly I was no longer in bed.
Well, half of me wasn’t.
My upper half was in Axl’s arms and his face was buried deep in my neck.
It felt like he was giving me a hickey, I liked that feeling, then he sank his teeth in, and I liked that feeling so much better.
After he did that, he growled in my ear, “Creamer.”