Total pages in book: 151
Estimated words: 139803 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 699(@200wpm)___ 559(@250wpm)___ 466(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 139803 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 699(@200wpm)___ 559(@250wpm)___ 466(@300wpm)
“There she is,” Axel whispered.
“Axel,” I whined, my eyes practically rolling to the back of my head. I couldn’t handle it. I wasn’t getting a break. I was losing count of the number of times I was coming around him, each orgasm leading right into the next.
It felt so good—too good. It was almost too much to bear.
“Julian,” I pleaded, desperate for a break, a moment to recover.
Julian leaned up to look down at me. He covered my lips with his before he reached down and rubbed my clit hard and fast. Axel held my thighs apart as I basically screamed their names, the pleasure way too damn much to bear. Tears were trickling down my cheeks. I was panting, desperately trying to catch my breath as my body trembled.
By the time Axel came, my eyes were drooping closed, my body giving in to my exhaustion.
Julian soothed his lips over mine. “Sleep, baby girl.”
I vaguely registered someone picking me up from the couch, but I was already succumbing to the peaceful, blissful darkness of sleep that was tugging me.
52
A warm smile crossed Axel’s face when I stepped into the kitchen the next morning. “Good morning, sweet girl,” he greeted, reaching out to pull me into his arms and press a soft, sweet kiss to my lips.
Holden kicked at my stomach, and I rested my hand on my belly with a tired smile. “Good morning, Axel.” I looked around the kitchen. “Where’s Julian?”
“Early morning appointment with his therapist.” He handed me a cup of decaffeinated coffee and pressed a kiss to my forehead. “Go sit down,” he ordered. I rolled my eyes but did as told and took a seat at the table. Axel walked over to the fridge. “What do you want for breakfast?”
I shrugged. “Surprise me.”
He made a humming sound in acknowledgement. I took a sip of my coffee. “I’m going in to see your sister today—try to work with her some more,” I told him.
He smiled at me as he walked over to the stove with the carton of eggs. “You’re something else, sweet girl, you know that?”
I smiled at him, a blush burning at my cheeks. “I just know how she feels,” I reminded him.
Axel sighed as he put butter into a pan. “I know that, Meghan, but most people can’t say they would continue to try to help her after she did the shit she did to you. Don’t get me wrong; I’m fucking so damn happy that she’s finally getting help and that she’s finally being receptive to her treatment, but I can’t say that I would actually go out of my way to help her like you are,” he admitted. “I’m not as forgiving as a person as you are.”
I shrugged. “Axel, if you knew the shit I did when I spiraled, you would understand where she was at in her mind.” He just hummed. “I was locked in padded room because I was hallucinating that Oliver was telling me he hated me, that my little boy was blaming me for everything.” I rubbed my chest as it began to ache while I reminisced on that really dark time. “Most of that time in that padded room was a blur, but I hit nurses, doctors.” I gave a wry laugh. “Hell, I even gave Dr. Gresham a black eye at one point. When we’re in those dark parts of our minds, feeling like there’s no way out, we don’t give a fuck about how much we hurt someone else. For just a moment—one moment—we want someone else to hurt as much as we do.”
Axel turned his head to look at me. “But you were finally receptive to the help that Dr. Gresham was offering you. She wasn’t.”
I shrugged. “That’s where Alli and I are different, Axel. I had something to fight for. You reminded me of that. She felt like she had nothing—no one. She lost a baby, her boyfriend cheated on her, her parents basically turned their backs on her, and her brother—the one guy she thought she could rely on the rest of her life—was in a relationship with someone else. And you know Julian frankly doesn’t give much of a fuck about anyone besides me.”
Axel sighed. “Never really thought of it that way,” he quietly admitted.
“Axel, I’m going to help her. And one day, she’s going to get released and come live with us, and she’s going to be so different from the troubled, depressed girl you grew up with. She’s going to grow and heal,” I promised him. “I’m not giving up on her.”
“You’re so much better than any of us, sweet girl,” he quietly told me as he flipped my eggs over in the pan.
I released a soft sigh. “No,” I disagreed. “You and Julian—you guys are amazing in your own ways. Not everyone is built to help others, and that’s okay. You’re a natural at taking care of me, at being there for me, because you love me, and you wanted so badly for me to be better. You’re a natural at it because I wanted to be stronger for you so badly that I was fighting for it. But even Dr. Gresham had to admit defeat with her and let her come back on her own time. You can’t help someone who isn’t ready to be helped.”