Bang Bang(32)
Author: Rachel Van Dyken

I nodded. It was a small shy nod, but it may as well have been a blazing sign and a pep rally. He lifted me into his arms and carried me into the room.

I didn’t have time to register how beautiful it was, how warm I felt in his arms, because in an instant, I was on the bed.

And he was hovering over me.

“Three tries.”

“What?”

“Three tries.” He climbed on top of me and pushed my body down. “I get three tries to make you scream with pleasure… and if my name doesn’t cross those lips then I’m not doing good enough.”

“Three is hardly necessary — Oh, my gosh, what are you doing?”

Ax slid down my body, his lips pausing at my belly button. “Why, I’m doing my damndest to make you scream.” Before I could stop him, he was licking, torturing, kissing every single place he could find. His fingers following his mouth, then at times his mouth following his fingers. Time stopped existing — I stopped existing. With a cry I about fell off the bed as a wave of bliss hit me.

“Damn, no name.” Ax said, though it sounded muffled, I was officially no longer present in the room. His mouth found my foot. I almost kicked him. He laughed; his tongue swirled up my calf.

“No more, I can’t take it.” I heard myself saying.

“You can. You will.” And then I lost focus again as his hands cupped my br**sts, his lips teased my neck. I lost the ability to control my own body; it rose and fell with his touch.

“Ax—” His mouth covered my scream. And then he was filling me. The pain was small, minute compared to what I thought it would be. I’d always thought my wedding night would be tame, awkward. Plain.

This experience — the feeling of my body surrounding him — was anything but plain.

I was on fire.

“Two down… I get one more try.” He said against my lips, our tongues tangled as he moved, slowly, the pressure increased. I wasn’t sure if I could breathe let alone scream.

He moved differently.

And I’d been wrong.

I could most definitely scream.

So I did.

Repeatedly.

“I’m not sure I heard my name,” Ax panted.

“Axton.” Mind and body spent, I cupped his face lightly. “I love you, Axton.”

“I love you, too.” He kissed me almost violently and then slowly pulled away and lay down next to me. “I think I’m going to have to search you again.”

“I think I’m going to have to let you.”

“Let me?” he taunted, “Beg me is more like it.”

“Careful, your Abandonato ego is showing.”

“Admit it… you wouldn’t want me any other way.”

I turned, glanced at his beautiful face, strong jaw. The man was gorgeous. “You’re right… I wouldn’t.”

“I can do this all night, Ames.”

I burst out laughing. “Me too. But I want Chinese first.”

“I want you first.”

“You had me.”

“I want you second and third too.”

“Ax…” I groaned. “Feed me.”

“Fine.” He jolted up from the bed and held out his hand. “But in order for me to concentrate on using chopsticks I’m wrapping you in a towel.”

“Okay.”

“But first we shower… so I can… you know… explore some more.”

“Okay, Christopher Columbus, whatever you say.”

“Bite your tongue, that man was a Spaniard.” He winked. I took his hand and for the first time in five years…

Felt at peace in what should have been a war-filled future.

“You kept the picture of us.” Ax whispered a few minutes later, interrupting my thoughts. “Why?”

Amy ducked her head into my shoulder.

“Nope, none of that…I want to know.”

I lifted my head so I could see into his questioning eyes. “Things don’t matter to me. People do. You do. Even as a kid I somehow knew that the most important possession I would ever have—would be your smile, the memory of you. Everything about you was so…perfect. You were my rock. I knew if I had you, had your picture, your smile, that everything would be okay.”

Ax shuddered, “And I lied to you, abandoned you, I—“

“—Loved me.” I pressed my fingertips against his mouth, “You loved me, and that’s all I’ve ever wanted.”

“I do.” Ax sighed and kissed my forehead. “Love you more than words can ever truly describe.”

“I know.” My heart was full. My life was owned, altered, by a made man, by a man who in many stories is the monster, but my life wasn’t a story. What I was living was real. And my monster, just so happened to be my hero. “I love you too, Ax.”