As I stared into the golden brown eyes of my best friend, I said, “That’s because he’s not just any guy, he’s my more, my bolt of lightning, the one I’ve been waiting for all my life.” A smile pulled on my lips as I stared at the floor and I whispered, “Él es mi corazón.”

I knew they couldn’t understand that I’d just called Axel my heart, and I was glad, it was my admission to myself.

When I looked across the room, Axel was sitting forward in his chair, his elbows on his knees. Then, as if feeling my stare, and unable to cope with such a declaration, wordlessly, he got to his feet and walked out of the room.

Feeling like the air had been stolen from my lungs, I drained the rest of my wine and got to my feet too. “If you'll excuse me a moment,” I requested, “I’m going to the bathroom.”

Leaving my friends to mull over my confession, I walked into the hallway and, on my left, I saw Axel enter the kitchen.

As I looked down at the empty glass in my hand, I knew, if caught, I could use that as my excuse for being in the kitchen with Axel. I simply needed more wine. That was plausible, right?

Not giving it anymore thought, I entered the large kitchen, immediately spotting Axel. He was bent over, hands placed firmly on the countertop. His back was rising and falling with deep controlled breaths.

Checking no one was behind me, I walked forward and stood beside him. Axel jumped on sensing my presence. His guarded expression melted into one of deep want when he saw it was me.

Without taking his hands off the counter, his eyes slowly undressed me. I could feel my nipples harden under his harsh scrutiny. “Fuck, Ally,” he rasped, his deep voice guttural, and I could see a bulge forming beneath his jeans. “You’re fucking killing me looking like that. Fucking nearly took you on the TV room floor.”

Clenching my thighs together at the effect his words were having on me, I turned and pretended to search a cupboard up high. I could feel Axel’s hard stare on me as I reached up, faking a search for more wine, knowing my stomach was showing and my breasts were pushing out as my back arched.

Hearing a low groan, my breathing paused when Axel brushed past my back with his front as though he was innocently passing by me to reach for a glass.

Shivers ran down my spine at his hard touch and I bit back a moan as his warm breath drifted by my neck. As if that alone didn’t have me yearning for him to press me up against the counter and fuck me from behind, the scrape of his lips and teeth on the skin of my nape sure did.

Slamming my palm on the granite surface to steady my feet, he ordered almost inaudibly, “You better leave those shoes on tonight when I get you alone. I want you in nothing but them, your hair as it is now and those heels stabbing into my back.”

Shakily opening another cupboard door, I kept up the pretense of searching for anything, when his arm pushed past mine, his skin scalding.

“You’re getting me alone?” I asked, knowing he, and only he, would be able to hear me.

Axel’s head leaned closer to mine. Licking along the shell of my ear with his hot tongue, my eyes fluttering closed, he growled. “You fucking bet I am. Didn’t have you last night and didn’t like it. I…” he cleared his throat and I heard him pause in breath, “I… missed you, carina…”

Completely shocked that an admission so heartfelt came out of his usually non-confessional mouth, such tender, honest words, when he rarely gave anything away, made me tearful. “Axel…”

I forced myself to hold it together, but my heart was so full of emotion and my blood so charged with need that I didn’t think it would be possible. Axel didn’t move from my side. In fact his large hand drifted across my stomach, wandering fingers first running along my exposed skin, then drifting down to trace the outline of my pussy as his lips drifted from my ear to nip at my neck.

“Did you mean it?” he whispered and my eyes fluttered open.

“Mean what?” I asked breathlessly.

“That I’ve stolen your heart,” he hushed. I could hear the reluctance in his voice at how much he wanted to know, “that it’s hopelessly fused to mine.”

Warmth filled my chest as he repeated my completely honest words back to me. Sliding behind me, his unyielding arm around my waist grinding my ass against his hard crotch, he pushed, “Well, did you? I need to fucking know…”

I could feel his heart beating rapidly against my back. I smiled. He was nervous. Axel Carillo, with me wrapped in his strong tattooed arms, desperately wanted my words to be true. He needed someone to care about him so strongly… he needed to be… wanted.

“Yes,” I murmured in a quiet voice, knowing that I could tell him so much more if I wasn’t so afraid. “I meant every single word. You have completely consumed, possessed and made me yours, querido. Todo tuyo…”

Axel’s grip on my waist bordered on painful and his hips rocket against my ass with more force, making us both moan. Hard his cock was teasing my already-wet pussy.

Gasping and scraping my fingernails against his hands, Axel was suddenly dragging me across the room toward the pantry. Once there, he slammed my back up against the wall, his hands keeping my wrists pinned up above my head. My chest heaved and he groaned on seeing my breasts swell with his attention.

“I feel like fucking you hard, right here, right now, against this wall, la mia luce. I want to feel you strangling my cock so fucking bad.”

I licked my lips, so turned on I couldn’t stand the torture, the sweetest of tortures, but torture nonetheless. I wanted what he offered too. I needed him inside me. I needed that feeling of a lightning bolt piercing through my body, the one I only ever felt when I came with him.