Chapter Nineteen

Renton rushes us back to Axel's house, and I'm feeling delightfully numb. Once in the foyer, I head up the stairs to go to bed and don't notice Axel following me. As I'm about to turn to walk to my room, Axel grabs onto my upper arm.

"Where do you think you're going?" he asks. His voice is low.

"Bed," I deadpan. I think I see a smirk almost grace his lips. Almost.

"Nu-uh. I don't think so, not like this. My room, now," he says and tugs me down the other way of the hall. I don't put up a fight.

In his room, he unbuttons and pulls off his shirt. He grabs a pair of his boxers from the closet and hands both items to me.

"Change into these and I'll get something to clean your face up," he says before disappearing into his bathroom.

"My face?" I whisper to myself. I lift a hand up to where the man hit me. I discover, upon pulling it away, blood. "Oh," I say to myself again. Still numb, I take off my dress, pull on the boxers, and pull the shirt over my shoulders. I try to do the buttons, but my fingers feel thick and uncoordinated. Instead, I just pull it close to my body and sit down on Axel's bed, my back against the headboard.

Axel walks back in and sits down in front of me. He leans forward and gently slips my earrings out before unlatching the flower clip from my hair. His eyes wander downward and he furrows his eyebrows.

"Why didn't you button the shirt?" he asks. I grin lopsidedly and hold up my hands.

"My fingers won't work," I explain thickly. He sighs, reaches forward, and deftly does up the buttons. His fingertips occasionally touch my skin, sending warmth from the spots. He reaches over and grabs a wet cloth he brought in with him and gently presses it to my face. I feel dried blood detach from my skin.

"Damn. This is deeper than I thought. I'll have to have Zex come by in the morning to stitch it up," Axel mumbles.

"How did I get a cut? I thought he just punched me," I say through a haze.

"I don't know. He was probably wearing a ring or something," Axel says. He puts the cloth down and pours rubbing alcohol onto a pad of gauze. "This is going to sting a little." He presses it to my cheekbone, and the haze I'm in lifts immediately. I hiss and jerk my face away from him. He brings his other hand up and cups the other side of my face. "Hold still," he demands, pressing the gauze back to the cut. I hiss again and screw my eyes shut.

"Fuck," I say through clenched teeth.

"I told you it was going to sting a bit," he says indifferently.

"A bit? That stings a lot more than a bit."

"Well maybe if you hadn't gone and gotten yourself punched, we wouldn't be doing this right now," he says acidly while pulling the gauze away. He picks up a few of those thin, little bandages used to hold small wounds closed.

"Are you mad?" I say quietly. He doesn't meet my eyes, but focuses instead on putting the bandages on my face.

"I'm feeling… a lot of things right now," he says, thoroughly avoiding the question.

"Such as?" I ask, biting down on my lip. He applies one more bandage, sits back, and sighs.

"Anger at you, anger at that guy, anger at myself, embarrassment, and a little bit of awe."

"Awe?" I ask, surprised by this. A smile definitely crosses his face this time.

"I never would've thought you had such an arm on you," he explains, and I can't help but smile.

"What were you thinking, though? You can't just go around butting into other peoples' business like that," he says, his smiling falling. Mine does too.

"You didn't hear what he was saying to that girl! It was disgusting. I couldn't just stand by and let that happen," I explain heatedly. Axel pinches the bridge of his nose.

"Well I can probably assure you she got much worse when he took her home."

"What? But I-"

"Look, this is the world now. Not everyone is as nice as me. In fact, nearly everyone treats the servants they buy like shit, and they're allowed to by law," he says. I narrow my eyes.

"Well it's a shitty law, and I would change it if-"

"But you can't now, can you?" Axel hisses, and I snap my mouth closed.

"Why aren't you like everyone else?" I ask quietly after a pause, not looking at him.

"What?" he asks.

"You don't treat me like shit; why?" I repeat. He sighs again.

"I try not to treat anyone like shit. I'm a smart-ass, not an asshole."

"But if you have the right to exert your dominance over me, why don't you? There have been plenty of situations where anyone else would've, right? So why don't you?" I ask intently.

"Ugh, do we have to do this right now?" he asks while running a hand down his face.

"Please…I need to know," I say, looking at him with intensity. He stares into my eyes for a moment before deciding to answer.

"I never had the urge to with you. Sure, you can be frustrating and stubborn and sarcastic, but I don't really mind. I don't want to squash those qualities out of you. I don't want to force you to be with me. I want you to just do it on your own, I guess," he explains. I search his eyes for some trace of manipulation, but come up short. I gnaw on my lip, drowning in the thoughts of everything I could say in response.

Finally, I force all my thoughts away and just do what seems right. I reach out and place both of my hands on his face and stare into his eyes. His breath hitches.

"What're you-" He doesn't get the chance to finish his question as I close my eyes and press my lips to his.

In the morning, I wake curled up against Axel. I flip over gently in his arms and observe his sleeping face. I smile at his peaceful expression and think about last night. It took him a few minutes to register what happened before he reciprocated, but boy, did he reciprocate! After my initial, shy little kiss, he placed his hand against the back of my neck and pulled me in for another kiss. His kiss was so intense and passionate; it made me feel as though every inch of me were on fire. He broke the kiss with a grin and pulled me down onto the bed with him. He nuzzled his face in my hair and we drifted off to sleep together.

Now, I run my fingers along his jaw line and place a gently kiss against it. He stirs and his eyes flutter open. He smiles when he looks into my face before lifting a hand and running it through my hair.

"Morning," he whispers.

"Morning," I reply.

"So, last night was…" he trails off, waiting for me to finish the sentence for him. I take a nervous swallow.

"About last night… What, uh, what does that make us now…?" I ask, not wanting to believe this gives us a typical master-servant relationship. His smile widens.

"Whatever you want it to," he says, pressing a kiss to my forehead. I close my eyes and smile contentedly.