Following Her (Unexpected Heroes #2.5)(14)

“Shut up!” he thundered as he tried to focus on the person struggling beneath him.


His attacker tensed, and they each recognized the other at the same time. “What in the hell are you doing out here in my shrubs in the middle of the night, Axel?”

Ella’s stunned voice left Axel eternally grateful he hadn’t thrown a punch first and asked questions later. He would’ve jumped off a bridge if he’d hurt her.

“Bryson wanted me to check out the security system, make sure you were using it and that the smart criminals couldn’t break in. I was just finishing when you decided to clobber me,” he explained, still holding her beneath him.

“And why am I supposed to believe you?” she snapped as she yanked her arms, having no success at all in getting away from him.

“Your cousin, who is so worried about you, sure as hell trusts me.” He scowled at her. He didn’t like his integrity being questioned.

“Well maybe you’re both morons!”

With the moonlight their only illumination, they glared at each other while lying in the middle of her shrubs in the cold fall night. When the silence stretched around them, Axel quickly realized he was lying on top of her, and she was barely clothed.

“You can get off me now,” she finally said, her voice breathless, her pulse beginning to rise beneath his fingers, which were still gripping her wrists. This wasn’t such a bad place to be after all.

“I’m comfortable,” he replied, easing his head down slightly so not much more than air was flowing between their mouths.

Her breathing grew heavier, and her eyelids drooped the slightest bit—just enough to let him know that their current situation was having an effect on her. Hell, his body was revving to go. The neighbors were asleep. No one would notice if the two of them removed her barely there clothes and he plunged inside her heat.

“Well, I’m not comfortable and it’s cold out here,” she panted.

“I can warm you up, Ella,” he said, giving her a look that left no doubt he was about to kiss her. There was no way he’d make it through the rest of the night if he didn’t have a taste of her.

Leaning down, he brushed his lips across hers, just a whisper of skin against skin, a warning of what was about to come. If she truly didn’t want it, now was her time to tell him to go to hell, now was the time to demand he stop.

She said nothing.

Her breathing slowed, her eyes closed, and her pulse accelerated even more. “I’m not waiting any longer.” That was her only warning before his mouth claimed hers, instantly branding her, letting her feel his unmitigated hunger.

Desire unlike anything he could remember feeling shot through him, his body already hard, solidified to the point of pain. Releasing her hands, he cradled her head in one palm so he could angle it just where he wanted, while the other moved down the soft curve of her waist and gripped her lusciously firm backside.

His tongue sought entrance into her mouth, and when she opened to him, a shudder passed through him while he pressed his arousal into her, wishing there was nothing blocking him from sinking deep inside her.

She responded by wrapping her freed hands around his neck and tugging him closer, her own lips seductively moving across his mouth, her body pushing upward, seeking what he was offering.

This wasn’t a tentative first kiss. This was a kiss of lovers who knew each other intimately, and he was ready to take her right there, not caring where they were or who was around. This much hunger couldn’t be denied.

He knew he was almost past the point of no return, knew he could have her right here and now, but he wouldn’t do it without her permission. Yes, her body was saying she wanted him, but he wanted to hear her say the words.

“Let’s go inside, Ella. Let me please you,” he said before moving his lips down the side of her neck and sucking the skin above her pounding pulse.

She moaned as her body sought his, but she didn’t say the words he needed to hear. “Invite me inside, Ella. We can’t stop this. It’s been inevitable from the first moment we met,” he said before moving his lips down the vee of her shirt and sucking at the delicate skin of her freed breasts.

“I . . . uh . . . wait . . . let me think,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper.

“Don’t think, just feel,” he said, nearing panic as he heard doubt in her voice.

He slid her top to the right and ran his tongue out, touching just the edge of her sweet nipple that he so desperately wanted to see. She moaned again before her hands came around to push against his chest.

“Stop, please,” she gasped.

With a sigh that spoke of the pain this was going to cost him, Axel released her, then placed his hands on the ground and moved away from her, his lower half still desperately brushing against the softness of her core.


“Why stop? We want this, Ella. Both of us,” he said, wanting desperately to bend down and make her delirious again with his kiss.

“Give me a second, Axel. I c-can’t think,” she said, closing her eyes for a brief moment before opening them again, their depths just a little clearer than they’d been a moment before.

“I don’t want either of us to think. I just want to sink deep inside you and take us both to a whole new realm of pleasure,” he said, practically begging. Damn, he wanted her.

“I can’t do this. I don’t do this,” she said, and he knew the battle was over.