Broken glass

“I love the way you say my name,” Axel whispers against my neck. His breath is hot against my skin. 

“Axel,” I repeat. His name sounds like melted butter in my mouth. Sensual, seductive, wild. 

This is wrong. This is all wrong. I took a vow to commit to my husband. The first twin.

Why the hell am I breaking that vow with the second, wilder twin? The wrong twin. The one that would surely ruin my life. 

But everything’s different with Axel.

With Ansel, it’s all about morbid control. All about his own desires.

But Axel knows how to manage control, to spin it into a pleasurable experience for me.

For one thing, I am not afraid of Axel. I am enthralled by him. 

“We shouldn’t do this,” I whisper to him. 

“Yeah, we shouldn’t….” he returns hoarsely. That voice has a hold on me. A strange hallucinatory effect.

The low rumble of it, the duskiness, and rough edge captures my entire body, holding me captive. 

He pulls my panties aside, his finger searching for and finding my clit.

He begins to run circles on it.

I moan into his skin. 

He runs his tongue along my neck base. 

“Do you want me to stop? Just tell me to stop,” he breathes, fierily. 

“You need to sto…” I begin to say but I couldn’t bring myself to finish the sentence. 

Fuck it, I don’t want him to stop. I want him to ravish me right here. Again, and again and again. 

“Good girl. Now sit back and let me…” 

A sudden noise outside the kitchen door startles us.

I shove Axel away, afraid that it was his brother coming in to catch us red-handed. 

In my attempt to run, I jump right into the broken shards of glasses lying around on the floor.

The glass penetrates into my feet, drawing blood. 

I let out a short cry of pain. 

Axel comes over immediately. “Let me.” 

Before I can protest, he scoops me into his arms and carries me away from the glass.

He deposits me carefully on the kitchen island. 

I struggle against him the entire time. 

“Ansel’s coming.” 

He can’t even begin to understand the horrors I would be put through if Ansel found us in a compromising position. 

Axel heads out to the kitchen door to have a look.

As soon as he pushes the door, my cat, Sir Louis, comes running in. 

“See? It was just a cat. Your husband’s busy with international calls in his office,” Axel scolds me. 

I exhale with relief. 

Sir Louis hops onto my laps. I begin to stroke his mane. 

Axel returns to me. he takes my leg, examining it with a tenderness I have never received from his brother. Ever in all the five years we’ve been married. 

“You should be careful, Princess. We don’t want your precious body getting hurt now, do we?” Axel asks with a teasing grin.

He starts to pick out the glass in my feet. 

I can’t stop staring at him.

His devilish streak of seduction is irresistible. His eyelashes have only grown softer, longer in all the years he’d been away. His skin is tanner now. 

“How was Europe?” I ask him. 

He puts down my feet, looking up. 

“Cold. Fun. The summers were the best.” 

He finds the first aid kit in the overhead drawer.

As he stretches a hand to bring it down, his shirt peels up, revealing his lithe body.

I see the number 2/02 tattooed on his body inside a love tattoo. My birthday? He has my birthday tattooed on his body? 

My heart beat suddenly accelerates.

Calm down! You definitely need to calm down, I think to myself. It could be something else...who knows? Another vital date in his life.

It definitely has nothing to do with me.

Still, just the thought of having my date on his body for one second made me so happy.

Fuck, Axel has a way of driving me nuts. It makes me irrationally angry knowing that our time together will never amount to anything tangible.

I already chose his twin. Being back here will ruin everything for me. 

When he tries to touch my feet again, I slap his hand away. 

“Why are you here, Axel?” I want to know. 

Knowing him, he’d just get me attached to him and then run away again. I don’t trust him. I never did. 

“I’m back to stay, Princess.” 

I wish he wouldn’t call me that. It has a possessive tone. It automatically sounds like he’s my prince. He’s not. 

“Why? Europe sounded amazing five years ago. You said you would never come back. You left.” 

I wanted to add ‘You left me’ but what right did I have to make that assertion? I married his brother. Technically, I left him first. 

“I fucked up. I know. I was a coward. I never should’ve let him have you! You belong to me!” 

I sigh. This is all messed up. 

He touches my upper thigh. 

“Tell me you’ve never thought of me all these years. Never even imagined for one second about me,” he says slowly, sensually. 

I can’t think straight with his hand on my body. 

“We can’t do this, Axel. You lost that right when you left for Europe.” 

“If I remember correctly, I was begging you to marry me instead. You said no. You chose him. What was I supposed to do? Sit around here and watch you be happy with him?” 

I snap! 

“I am not happy with him. I was never happy with him. I wasn’t happy back then and I’m definitely not happy now!” 

Axel’s brows raise quizzically. 

I take a deep breath. I shouldn’t have done that. Now, he knows. I never wanted him to feel like he won or that I made a mistake in marrying Ansel. 

We hear footsteps coming down the stairs. I cover myself up quickly and leap out of the kitchen with Axel following me. 

My husband’s coming down the stairs. He frowns when he sees us together.

Then, he notices my leaping. 

“What happened?” 

“Nothing. I stepped in glass. I’m fine.” 

He observes me coldly for a few minutes before turning to his brother. He doesn’t say sorry, or express concern about my injury. 

“Um, you can stay at the guest house in the north end corner of the property until you find your own place. I expect you to come to the office tomorrow. We need to start making preparations immediately,” Ansel says in his business voice. 

I glance over to Axel, my eyes full of questions. What preparations? What’s the real reason he came back?