Austin’s jaw worked and I felt like shit. I could see him hating the fact that he was hurting Rome, but I could also see how much he wanted to defend me. “Rome, I’m just as shocked as you at them being together, and honestly, I ain’t sure what to think of it right now. But Axel’s been doing real good. So just back the fuck off with all the hating for a damn second, yeah?”
“Back the fuck off?” Rome repeated through gritted teeth. “Back the fuck off? He’s trash. He’s always been trash. He always will be trash... and Ally?” Rome looked right at Ally and said, “He’ll make you trash too. You’ve already been lying for his ass to your family and best friends.”
And that right there broke me. Ally was anything but trash. And I knew the guy was in pain, his wife was sick, and he looked like shit. But nobody was calling Ally trash, cousin or not.
Leaping forward, I nearly got a good crack on Rome’s face but Austin managed to hold me back. JD was on Rome as he tried to rush at me. Just as he did the door to the waiting room flew open and the two guards, from before, walked in.
As soon as they saw me being restrained their eyes darkened. Ally rushed to me and put her palms on my face. “Axel, please, calm down,” she whispered. As I looked at her face, I could see she was more than upset, then I looked down at my hand still in a fist. I ripped my arms from Austin and wrapped them around Ally’s shoulders.
“Sir, we need you to leave,” the bigger of the two guards said to me. I could feel Ally crying into my chest. I nodded to the guy that I would go. Glancing back, I saw Austin with his hands behind his head, watching me… but I could also tell that even he didn’t approve of me with Ally. The one person who I thought had my back really fucking didn’t. When it came down to it, he still thought me unworthy.
“Carina,” I said, “You stay with your friends. I’ll leave. You need to be here for Molly.”
Ally’s head snapped up and her eyes looked huge. “No,” she replied. I caught Cassie cussing from behind.
Ally threaded her hands through mine and turned to her friends, Rome watching us like a hawk. Straightening up, she announced, “I lied about who I was with because I knew y’all would act this way. Yes, I’m with Axel, and I don’t care what any of you have to say.” She looked across to Rome and he shook his head at her in disbelief. “I know he’s done wrong in his past. I know that y’all will find it hard to forget it, but he’s a good man.” Her face flushed and she added, “And I’m twenty-seven for Christ’s sake! I’m old enough to choose who I want. And I choose him. I don’t need, nor do I seek your approval.”
All her friends gaped. I’d never seen a bunch of people look so friggin’ shocked. Then, to make things worse, Rome stepped forward and said, “I’d rather you were with anyone but him. Anyone’s better than a crack dealing junkie that will lead you straight to hell.”
Ally’s head snapped to Rome, her eyes darkened and she said, “Yeah? Well I don’t want anyone else, Axel,” she looked up at me and hit me with a watery smile, “he completely owns my heart.”
“Ally…” Lexi whispered from our side, her hands to her mouth, tears in her eyes. And I couldn’t speak, my chest was too tight at her proudly standing by my side. She was proud to be at my side. What kind of fucked up world had I landed in where Ally Prince was standing proudly at my side?
Ally turned to Lexi. “Please can you keep me informed of Molly’s recovery, Lex? Tell her that I’ll see her real soon, and I’m sorry I couldn’t stay.” Lexi nodded, looking worryingly at Austin. Ally then looked to her cousin. “I know you don’t approve, Rome. And I want to stay for Molls, but I get that you’re pissed at me right now and need us to leave. Because if Axel goes, so do I. But know that I ain’t the kid you feel you gotta protect no more. And I don’t need you to approve my choices.” She took a breath and continued, “If you want me to leave your house, I will. I understand.”
Rome’s jaw clenched as he glared at me, but when his eyes fell on his cousin, they softened some. “You don’t have to leave, Al. You know that, but I can’t get on board with you and him being together. I got no idea how it happened or how long you’ve been together. But I know he’s fucking poison, Al. He might be doing okay now, but he’ll fuck up again. I’ve seen him do it from when we were kids. He’s Heighter for life.”
“He’s not, Rome,” she said coolly. “You have no idea how amazing he really is.”
With that, we turned and walked down the hallway, leaving all her friends behind. We never spoke as we got in the car, we never talked as we drove to my studio.
Wasn’t much to say anyhow.
*****
As we walked into the studio, Ally had her arms wrapped around her waist like she was cold. I stepped back, watching her as she stood still just staring out of the window. She was so damn beautiful I almost couldn’t stand it.
Putting her rental car keys on the table, I moved to stand behind her and turned her in my arms. Her normally bright face was so pale and most of her makeup was gone from how much she’d cried.
As I drank in her unusually sad face, my stomach rolled.
I did this to her.
I did this to everyone. Fucking destroyed their lives, made them sad… made them leave the people they loved.
Rome was right, I was poison. And I probably would fuck up again. It’s what I did best.
“Don’t,” Ally suddenly said in a hoarse voice, pulling my attention back to the moment. I didn’t say anything in response. She wouldn’t like what I had to say anyway.
Ally’s hand pressed in my cheek, drawing me in. “Whatever you’re thinking, stop.”
“We shouldn’t be together,” I replied, even though it was fucking tearing me apart inside to say so.
Dropping her hand from my face, Ally walked toward my bed and began undressing. My dick immediately started hardening as she pulled off her top, a white lace bra underneath. And when her hands began pulling down the zipper of her skirt, her tanned firm ass appearing as she only wore a tiny white thong, I had to close my eyes just to keep my shit together.
Managing to gain some sort of composure, I strode across the room to Ally, fighting for breath as she unclasped her bra and it fell to the floor… only her thong remained and those sexy as fuck heels still on her feet.
I froze, completely unable to move. Then Ally turned and faced me. She threw the pins from her hair on the floor to let her long hair fall down her back.
She looked like a damn siren and I was so fucking screwed.
I could see in her eyes that she knew what I was trying to do. She’d clearly anticipated that I was standing here about to push her away. To save her from losing her best friends because she’d fallen for me. But I could also tell by the determined look in those eyes, that she wasn’t gonna let me do shit.
Moving her hands to the hem of my shirt, she lifted it over my head and leaned forward to press her lips against my hot skin. Her soft, swollen lips ran across my pecs and down to my nipple where she sucked it into her mouth. She then continued down until she reached the zipper on my jeans.
Carefully unzipping me, she pushed my jeans down and took tight hold of my solid cock. I breathed through my nostrils as she straightened to whisper in my ear, “Stop trying to run me off. I choose you. I want to be with you, Axel Carillo. And if you keep trying to push me away, I’m gonna unleash the fiery Latina living within me and make you friggin’ listen.”
As she drew back her head, her eyebrow was raised in challenge and her natural color was coming back to her cheeks. I couldn’t help but hook my lip up in a smirk, and Ally had to purse her lips to stop from laughing too.
“Unleash the fiery Latina?” I asked in a gruff voice, as that skilled Latina hand of hers began working my dick back and forth.
“Si,” she whispered in her cum-worthy Spanish accent and, taking my hand, I pushed it down into the tiny triangle of her thong, slipping my fingers through her wet pussy, eventually finding her clit. Using the pad of my finger, I began moving it in
circles, loving hearing her gasp.
As our hands worked each other faster, I pushed her hair aside to hush out, “Don’t forget I’m Latino too. I can give as much as I get.”
Ally’s eyes were hooded with hunger when I moved my head back and met her gaze. “It’s… It’s… why it’s like… this… between us…” she said between shallow breaths.
“Mmm?” was all I could say in question. I held her hair bunched in my hands, my hips beginning to rock as a flush chased up her skin.
“This… explosiveness we have… it’s why we fight… scream… then fuck like we ain’t gonna see tomorrow… fuck with all that fiery passion… it’s the Latin blood… within us… it’s the… Latin fire…” she managed to say, before a cry had her words cutting off as I sunk a finger into her hole.
She was right. We fought with each other, butted heads, screamed… but that only fueled the attraction we had for each other.
We were lighting…
Unable to see anymore through the damn sex fog she’d put me in, I knocked her hand from my cock and, withdrawing my hand from her cunt, ripped her thong in two until all she was wearing was her natural tan and those fucking spiked heels.
Ally’s eyes were wide as I stepped into her, flesh against flesh. “I told you I was gonna fuck you in those heels,” I said in a low voice, and I watched as millions of goose bumps covered her skin.
Ally’s tits heaved with her breathing, and on a sigh, she said, “So fuck me then.”
Smiling at that Latina inside being unleashed, I picked her up by her thighs. Striding across the room, Ally dragged her teeth along my traps making me groan. Hitting my workstation, I used one hand to clear the desk and lowered Ally to the surface, her back immediately spraying up marble dust.
Ally’s brown eyes were glazed with lust as she looked up at me. Unable to not touch her anymore, I sucked her tit, rolling her hard nipple into my mouth.
“Axel… Mi Dios…” she moaned, her pussy grinding against my hard dick. The faster her hips moved, the more I needed in. Breaking from her tit, I took Ally’s thighs in my hands and pulled her to the edge of the countertop. Never taking my eyes off hers, I wrapped her legs around my back, hissing when the spiked heels of her shoes dug in to my flesh. My eyes flared and Ally smiled in victory.
“You said you wanted them digging into your back… well, they’re in your back, now what?”
Grunting as she tensed her legs, the sharp sting of pain from her heels shooting straight to my dick, I braced at her entrance and pushed straight inside.
“Christ!” Ally screamed as her hands raked at my biceps, but I was too gone, too fucking wrapped up in this chick beneath me, the only chick to ever have been standing proudly at my side.
I pounded into her, my stomach clenching and thighs tensing as her head thrashed around in the dust. Her dark hair was lapping up white dust, smudges paling out her flushed face. But the more she thrashed, the more I stared. She looked like a living sculpture. She looked like the best sculpture I’d ever seen.
Back arching, Ally’s moans came longer and her arms fell from my bicep and lay across her head. Dust settled on her flat, toned stomach, and unable to resist, I spread my palm over her covered skin, pumping harder and harder with every stroke. Ally’s eyes were closed as I felt her pussy tighten and start to contract. Then, her whole body tensing, her mouth dropped open as she screamed out her release. Unable to take the sight of her beneath me, and my dick unable to take the pressure of her tight pussy, I came harder than I ever had done in my life, Ally’s eyes shooting open to watch me.
Gasping for breath in the aftermath, I lifted my hand and, using my thumb, lightly traced the dust covering most of Ally’s face with my fingertips, and I knew, without a shadow of doubt that I’d be adding one final piece to the exhibit.
Ally let me touch her face, she let me shift her head from side to side as I studied her angles and features. And I knew right then, that this piece would change it all. This piece would be the first one to break the mold.
It would be the one to set me free.
When my hand dropped from her face, my heart began to race in excitement for what I was going to create, Ally moved her heels from my back. I immediately felt blood drip down the back of my thighs.
I hissed and Ally’s eyes widened. “Shit… Axel, I’m so sorry.”
Lowering my head to take her full bottom lip between my teeth, I pushed into her one last time and dropped her lip from my teeth to say, “Don’t be. That was fucking incredible.”
Ally’s returning smile almost knocked me on my ass. Picking her up again, I walked us to the bed, but not before Ally grabbed the new bottle of whiskey I’d just brought from my table and took it with us.
She held it tightly in her arms. Ally shrugged. “I think we need it after tonight.”
As I lowered us to the bed and we crawled under the covers, dawn began to break. Ally waited until I sat against the headboard, then reached over me to the bedside table. She took a smoke from my nearly empty packet, placed it between her lips and lit it. As the end burned orange, Ally took in a drag, only to blow it out of her lips and place the smoke between my lips. As she hovered above me on all fours and I took a long drag, her eyebrow raised. “They’re real bad for you, you know.”
Taking the smoke from between my lips with my finger and thumb, I exhaled. “Yeah, I heard that once.”
Ally started laughing harder this time, but stopped to press kisses down my stomach. I ran my hand through her hair and Ally lifted her head to say, “I can never get enough of you. It’s impossible.”
My heart beat faster and I reached for the bottle of whiskey. As Ally’s head tilted to the side to gaze at me, I said, “I’m real bad for you, you know.”
Ally held her breath for a moment, losing her smile. She lowered her mouth to my chest and moved up to my lips, only to whisper back, “Yeah, I heard that once.”
I huffed a laugh as Ally sat back, eyeing me playfully. “Just once?” I asked.
She pretended to think, her finger to her lips. “Or twice, or three times…” she laughed, but quickly lost her humor, “or a million.”
My stomach tensed at the sad tone in her voice. I balanced the smoke between my lips and took the bottle of Tennessee heaven from her hands. I unscrewed the cap and, moving the smoke from my lips, took a swig of the whiskey and handed it to Ally. She took three long swallows before tearing it from her mouth to gasp at the burn in her throat and chest.
As she lay back on her ankles after drinking down the whiskey, her eyes scanned around the room. When she saw the state of the workstation, she looked down at her hair and lifted it in her hands. She laughed.
“I’m a mess,” she said, trying to swat the dust off her hair and skin.
She wasn’t a mess. In fact, if she wasn’t here right now, I’d be taking a new slab of marble, beginning to sculpt the image already haunting my damn head.
Ally’s shoulders slumped. Running her finger round and round the top of the bottle, she said, “The exhibit is almost done, Axel.”
That sadness was back in her voice and she couldn’t lift her eyes to me.
“Yeah?”
Ally nodded her head, her eyes downcast. She lifted her head and, looking at me, said, “I’ll get another commission after this one is done.”
Realization hit… she’d be leaving Seattle.
“Where will you go?” I asked.
“Wherever I get a job.” I nodded, unable speak, feeling like a thousand daggers were cracking open my chest. I really didn’t want her to leave.
“And you, Axel? Where will you go?”
My back stiffened and I stilled. I hadn’t even given it any thought. I only ever thought of the here and now. That I needed to be in Seattle…
“Don’t know,” I replied.
Ally regarded me. “You won’t go back to Bama?”
I firmly shook my head.
Ally frowned. “Why?”
I glanced a
way, not wanting to talk about it, but Ally crawled forward and straddled my waist, pushing the hair back from my face with her hands. “Axel, tell me why. For God’s sake, you have to start sharing things with me. Tell me about your life. What’s going on in that complex head of yours?”
Sighing, I lay my hand on Ally’s soft thigh and said, “I’ll be killed.”
Ally’s hand topped stroking my hair and the color drained from her face. “You’ll be…”
“Killed,” I finished for her and sucked in another smoke. Ally watched me. I could see her hand begin to tremble. “Hey,” I said, taking her hand in mine. “Don’t—”
“Who will kill you?” she interrupted. I could see the fear in her face.
I hesitated, not wanting her to be dragged into anything, but she leaned forward and pressed her forehead to mine. “Tell me… share this with me. Don’t deal with it on your own. I’m here… I’m right here... with you… for you.”
My fingers tightened on her thigh and I realized that I finally wanted to tell her what I’d always kept to myself.
“Axel, please,” she begged and, not wanting to be alone no more, I looked her in the eye.
“You know how many years I got, Ally?”
“Ten,” she said.
“But I only served five,” I added.
Ally’s eyebrows pulled down. “I assumed you got out for good behavior.”
“Part of it was,” I said. “I kept my head down, tried to stay out of everyone’s way.”
“Then what else? What else got you out early?”
“I gave up names.”
Ally’s forehead pulled down in confusion. “What names?”
Running my hand down my face, I said, “Drug dealers that supplied to the Heighters. Feds knew I could give them the names and addresses of the big coke hitters and where they kept their stash. I had nothing to lose in giving them up. The feds promised me a half sentence if I did, so I agreed. The suppliers were the ones that gave us the messed up coke that made Porter OD. Those fuckers deserved to go down.”