Dream Spinner (Dream Team Book 3), Kristen Ashley [reading eggs books txt] 📗

loving. It was said to put him in his place, even if, when they’d had this conversation, if he recalled, Axl had been twenty-nine, and he still called him that, and Axl was thirty-four.

So yeah, he hated that.

And second, Axl did not view life as one competition after another.

He wanted people to be honest with him. He wanted them to respect him. He expected to give that first back at all times, earn the last, and return it if it was deserved.

So now, he knew the feeling he felt with the people glancing their way as they passed them, Axl walking with a beautiful woman in a sexy-as-fuck dress and arguably sexier shoes to a nice restaurant, knowing that woman on his arm was adorable, talented, loyal and a fighter.

That feeling was, he’d earned this.

He’d earned her.

And it felt fucking great.

His life philosophy in action.

Aim high.

And excel.

They went into the restaurant, were seated and given menus.

Hattie ordered BW’s rum-based Butter Beer cocktail (and he totally could have called that, for fuck’s sake, Butter Beer?—fucking adorable). He got the rye-based Edward Henry Masterman.

And the second the server wandered away after they’d ordered, she pressed into him where they sat thigh to thigh at the back of a curved booth, and she whispered in the direction of his ear, “It’s so romantic here.”

He pulled back a couple inches, caught her eyes but said nothing.

Still, she heard him, and he knew it when her lashes dipped, he sensed she was about to pull away, and then she seemed to make a conscious decision not to.

She lifted her gaze to him.

And knowing she’d just beat back the shyness, the instinct to retreat, Axl felt deserved a reward.

So he bent in and fitted his lips tight to hers.

He only touched them with the tip of his tongue before he pulled away.

When he again caught her eyes, her gaze had grown soft and she was now pressing even closer.

“You told me I looked beautiful, I didn’t get to tell you how handsome you look,” she said.

“Thanks, honey,” he replied.

“And just in case I get lost in the fabulous drinks, food, atmosphere and company, and forget to say it later, thank you for bringing me here. Thank you for making this special. Thank you for knowing this is important.”

He thought he knew where that was coming from, after hearing her talk about being a number with that idiot she’d dated, so he shared, “You need to know, when I’m with someone, I’m with them. Boiling that down, I’m a one-woman guy.”

She appeared confused for a beat before she pressed even closer and said, “Thank you for that, but no …I mean, this. Us. Here. Finally. And just, well … us. Which is special. And important. And thank you for knowing that, showing that and giving it to me.”

All right.

He was done.

The dress, the shoes, the hair, the made-up eyes, the perfume, and her being so fucking sweet?

He couldn’t take more.

So he slid a hand up her jaw, into her hair, turned to her at the same time pulling her up to him, and he kissed her.

And it was not fitting his lips to hers and then tasting them briefly with his tongue.

He didn’t make out with her, but he didn’t leave her in any doubt about how he felt about what she just said.

He kept his hand in her hair and Hattie close when he ended it.

“Never been so proud to have a woman on my arm as I was walking that two and a half blocks with you.”

Her eyes grew large.

“Same, sitting right here … with you,” he continued. “So, in case I forget later, bein’ here beside you, the food, booze and atmosphere, thank you for giving me that.”

“You’re awesome,” she breathed.

He smiled. “Love you think that.”

“It’s true.”

“Love you think that.”

Her eyelids went half-mast and did a fluttery thing, not flirty, more semi-annoyed, semi-perplexed.

“Axl, you are,” she stressed.

“Okay, baby,” he replied, still smiling, but unfortunately having to slide his fingers out of her soft hair seeing as he could probably keep them there for a fuckuva long time, but it’d be hard to eat if he did.

“Do you not think you’re awesome?” she asked hesitantly.

“Do you want a guy who thinks he’s awesome?” he asked in return.

She tipped her head a little, her curls sliding over her bare shoulders when she did in a way he felt in his dick almost more than the dress, then she turned more fully to him, which meant her breast was now pressed full into his arm.

Jesus.

Dinner was going to be agony and ecstasy, he already knew that.

But he didn’t know just how deep that would go.

“I see your point,” she relented.

“So I’m awesome and you’re the most beautiful woman in this room,” he remarked,

She lifted up and gave him a smile that was absolutely flirty, as well as cock-hardeningly playful, and said, “I totally am.”

He burst out laughing.

And then their cocktails came.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

B

AXL

So, how’d it go?”

It was late the next morning and Axl and Auggie were in one of the company Hummers.

It was rare any member of the team went out in one because—shiny, black, and kitted way the fuck out—they were known by a certain element of Denver and the crew tended to operate in most cases in stealth mode.

But where they were going, they were making a statement.

Axl was driving, Auggie in the passenger seat, and they’d reached their destination, so Axl was scanning for a parking spot.

He also answered Auggie’s question about his date with Hattie.

“Torture.”

“It didn’t go well?” Auggie sounded flipped out.

This was understandable, partly because Aug knew how hard Axl had worked to get last night, and partly because Auggie was next up with Pepper.

If he ever pulled his finger out.

Axl found a spot on the street and started maneuvering into it, saying, “When she’s not shy, she babbles. It’s not annoying or nervous and incomprehensible. It’s her and it’s cute. She reads. She’s got interesting takes on movies that are