He looked at me, still outright smiling. “I get that, honey. But you’re not experiencing the adorableness of you.”

Adorableness?

He thought I was adorable?

Wow.

Sweet.

No.

Concentrate!

“Can I finish?” I asked snappishly, or maybe somewhat fake snappishly, but whatever.

He threw out a hand in invitation to continue before crossing it on his chest again.

So I continued.

“However, even if you thought I was jacking you around, which I will repeat, I was not.”

“I didn’t think you were jacking me around, baby,” he assured, again with the soft.

And man, did I like that soft.

“Good, but onward from that, I screwed up with the girls, and I know Lottie is special to you, but that’s mine and theirs and not for you to get in the middle of.”

He looked like he was going to say something, thought better of it, and closed his mouth.

Through all this, I kept speaking.

“So, although everything you said in my studio was right, there were some ways it was wrong, but you still shouldn’t have broken into my studio and confronted me. Which you apologized about and that’s done. I’m not going over it. I’m noting it just to explain, maybe minutes after you left, that creeper called me so I obviously wasn’t going to phone you because you were mad at me. And …the way …you left …was kind of … final …”

My words came funny, trailing off at the end, and I eventually stopped speaking because my body jerked seeing as he’d dropped his arms from his chest and started moving.

Toward me.

He did this declaring, “It’s discussion time now.”

I started retreating, saying, “No, I’m not done.”

Though, I kind of was, outside the hard part (or, the harder part), which was to share that I wanted to see where we went from here because I was really into him and he was a great kisser.

“No, you’re not done,” he agreed, still stalking me.

I was still retreating, and since I didn’t know the lay of the land, I bumped into an end table.

I scooted around it.

He kept speaking.

And stalking.

“And we’re not done,” he finished.

“Okay, so maybe you get to talk freely now, but you don’t get to stalk me around your living room.”

“You’d stop moving, I’d stop stalking,” he pointed out, still tracking me.

“Why did you have to move at all?” I asked, still withdrawing.

“Because we got a few more things to get straight,” he answered.

“And we couldn’t do it from where we were?” I queried, high-pitched and somewhat frantically, because he was getting closer.

I shifted to the side and then froze before bracing to make a dash, where to, I didn’t know, because he lunged.

I didn’t get the opportunity to find where to go because he caught me around the waist with an arm before he turned his hips and shifted his leg, catching me at my calves.

Yes, catching me at my calves.

Like, kicking them out from under me.

I swallowed a cry and grabbed on to his shoulders as I started to go down, but I didn’t hit floor.

Axl moved quickly, controlling the fall, and I hit couch with Axl on top of me.

I stared into his eyes from up close.

And felt his weight on me.

Both were very nice.

“Um …” I mumbled.

“Okay, Hattie,” he said quietly, “before we kiss and make up …”

Eep!

“ … it’s important you get it straight that no matter what, say we’re copacetic, but something tweaks you or worries you and you’re not sure it’s a big deal so you don’t want to bother me with it, or we’re in a fight and you think I’m mad at you, or you’re mad at me, it doesn’t matter. I’m your first fuckin’ call. You hear me?”

“Um …” I repeated.

“Baby, all you said is important, and I appreciate you givin’ that to me. I don’t have the words to express how happy I am you showed at my door at nearly three in the morning to work shit out between us. Finally. I also know how tough that was on you, so when I say I appreciate it, I seriously mean that. And eventually, when it’s not three in the morning, we’ll get into a lot of that or just decide to put it behind us. But this is important too. Really important. So confirm you heard me.”

I nodded.

And I did because I got how important it was, absolutely, seeing as he had to have my undivided attention by being full-out on top of me to share it with me.

So, yup.

I totally got it.

“I get why you called Cisco,” he went on. “And he sat down with Hawk today and we’re all on it. Just don’t do that again. Right?”

I nodded again.

He studied my face, must have sensed I was telling the truth, because a change came over him, and since he was on me, it came over me too.

I liked this change, it also terrified the crap out of me, then his gaze dropped to my mouth, and I experienced the supremely bizarre feeling of the terror receding and expanding at the same time.

“Uh, Axl,” I called unsteadily.

His eyes came to mine.

“You guys are on it?” I asked.

“I’ll brief you tomorrow, though we just got started and we got other shit happening, so we don’t have anything. Yet. But yes, we’re on it.”

“Thanks,” I whispered.

His lips tipped up, his eyes grew heated, and they fell to my mouth again.

“Uh, Axl?” I repeated.

He looked to me again.

“I get you’re a commando and all, but just so I know for future reference, do commandos need to pin women to their couches in order to share things they think are important?”

He out-and-out smiled before he answered, “Yeah.”

“All righty then,” I mumbled.

“You got a problem with that?” he asked.

He felt good. His body was warm and heavy. His skin under my hands was sleek, the muscle under that hard. And bottom line, I’d been wanting this in all versions of it that it might come since the first time I clapped eyes on him.

So, no.

I didn’t have a problem with it.

“No,” I answered.

He gave a brief nod before continuing, “Mostly, though, after you gave me all of that, and what I knew it took for you to come and give it to me, and then getting down to talking about that asshole who’s fucking with you, I needed to be close to you. Not to mention, seeing as we’re about to make out, might as well be comfortable doing it.”