Chapter 25 More fire
LISA
My mouth parted slightly as Axel stopped briefly in front of an apartment. It wasn't a mansion like I'd been expecting and it wasn't an apartment block either, it was just an elite bungalow that befitted
the image Axel had built for himself in school.
But was completely unbefitting of who he really was.
The gates slid open automatically and he drove in.
I expected guards and his soldiers to be running around the house but I saw nothing, well, except for flowers and more flowers that beautified the front of his apartment and made up a small pathway
to the front door.
Wasn't it ironic that someone like Axel was growing flowers?
"Are you not going to get down?" his words jolted me out of my reverie and I turned to see him unbuckling his seat belt. I didn't even realize that he had packed the car.
I got down cautiously, half expecting guns to be pointed at my head and for his men to dash out of their hiding but nothing happened. I heard nothing except for the slight thumping of my heart.
"Why do you look so dead? No one is going to jump out of nowhere and beat you to death."
"Really?" I matched his sarcastic tone as I held on to my bag strap, "I can't be so sure about that."
He rolled his eyes as he started walking towards the entrance. I had no option but to follow him cautiously, still expecting men to barge out of nowhere but everything remained awfully silent until we
stepped into the patio and the chirping of a bird welcomed us.
He owns a bird?
Laughter bubbled in my throat. Could the existence of Axel Ivanov get more ironic?
"Hi Cherry, how have you been?" he greeted in a chirpy voice that made me roll my eyes to the back of my head and he made his way to the cage to feed the bird.
I watched the scene unfounding in front of me with something akin to shock and surprise. I thought the way he had always interacted with people and flirted with girls was hypocritical of him but the
Why was he feeding the bird?
That's just...
I mean, his whole house was covered with flowers, flowers that look like he tended to himself and now, he was feeding and interacting with a bird.
What could possibly be more hypocritical than that?
"You tend to the flowers yourself?" my mouth asked the question that has been in my mind since I entered his apartment.
"Yeah, I love flowers," he replied casually as he started strolling towards the living room and I followed in.
"They do a very good job keeping my company since I stay alone."
"You stay alone?" I blurted out without thinking and he turned back to look at me, that cocky smile on his face.
"Yeah," he grinned, "is there a problem with that?"
"Of course, a lot of people could attack and kill you, you basically have no form of defense, anyone can just come in and attack you."
His grin turned into a lazy one as his eyes raked my body up and down.
"Are you worrying about me, Red?" He drawled lazily and my insides recoiled in disgust.
"Maybe I'm secretly gloating that you have no protection and I can sneak into your house to get rid of you once and for all."
"Really?" His lazy grin did not leave his face for a second, "you really think that low of C47 then, you really think I'd be living alone with no form of protection when I know that there are a lot of people
out there, yourself included that are willing to take my life, come on, you should know me better than that, you should know C47 better than that."
Of course, it was only now that he mentioned it that I allowed myself to see all the security measures in place. No one would have been able to guess that even the flowers were some sort of security
that could go off and harm them.
No one except people that work in security, people like me.
My eyes must have conveyed my thoughts because the grin on his face deepened and it took everything in me not to wipe it off his face.
"But why choose to live alone though?" Because despite all the security measures in place, he could still be at risk.
"Because it's fun, I don't want restrictions when I bring girls over."
He said it casually as if he was explaining the weather but the implication of his words dawned on me.
He doesn't want restrictions when he brings girls over. That could only mean that he fucks... shit! I reined myself in to take my mind out of the gutter.
When I looked up at him again, there was a smug look in his eyes and his grin even got cockier and bigger. It took a miracle for me not to cross the distance between us and yank it off his face.
"So, where's the study? We don't have all day."
"Sure sure, m'lady," he drawled before leading the way to the furthermost part of the house while I stared at his retreating back in disgust.
God! Can this human get more irritating?
AXEL
The look on Lisa's face has been priceless so far. I could the questions brewing in her mind even before she asked, could see and figure out the ones she wasn't asking out loud and could see the
judgment in her eyes and lips when she saw the arrays of flowers and Cherry.
Because I was a killer and a feared man, of course, I wasn't allowed to grow flowers, not like I was growing them for beauty's sake though. I wasn't sure I had that much time for frivolities.
When we finally settled into the study, I noticed how excited she was to see so many books in my library, then how quickly her expression morphed into a judgmental one. She didn't pass comment on
but we quickly got to work.
She didn't even take a sip of water when I offered her.
"Come on, Red, if I wanted to kill someone, I know more initiative ways than poisoning water."
"I wouldn't count on that," she retorted without looking up from her laptop, "maybe you wanted to take the coward's way out since you know that you can't kill me if I wasn't incapacitated."
"Never met anybody more vested in getting into arguments than you."
"Some of us live up to the reputation of what we really are."
I didn't say anything to that because I had no time to get into another headless argument with her, I just dropped the bottled water in front of her and as expected, she didn't touch the water.
She didn't even fully relax throughout the hours she spent in my library, her eyes kept darting towards the door at the slightest sound and her left hand never left her gun holder which was amusing because even if anything was going to happen to her, she already lost the fight by agreeing and actually entering my house.
I didn't even understand why she was all paranoid and scared. I hated the Volkovs, I hated their existence and everything they represented but I wasn't a caveman or a psychopath who was obsessed with shedding blood. No matter the kind of enmity we shared, I wasn't going to kill anybody without having a tangible reason to do so.
Lisa has pissed me off quite alright, she has pissed me off more than anyone has done in years but I'd rather punish her in other ways than the normal way I was used to in my line of business. Fuck, I shifted in my chair, hiding the boner in my pants. I've been spotting one since she showed up in tight jeans that hugged her curves and would have exposed the shape of her ass if she didn't
wear a baggy top that covered her ass but even at that, it didn't make her any less desirable, didn't make me feel like peeling the clothes off her body and doing everything sinful to the body she was
hiding
under
those clothes.
And now, she was sitting across me, gently biting down on her lower lip at intervals and swiping errant strands of hair behind her ear and I'd never seen a sight more arousing.
It was taking all of my willpower not to act on the want ravaging through my entire body. I knew I wouldn't even have to try, she wants me as much as I wanted her even if it was the most illogical
thing ever, it was only
going to take just a tiny tip to
make us cross a line we should never cross.
I wondered what would happen if we crossed that line.
"Are you even going through it at all?"
Her irritated tone was like music to my ears and I grinned as I met her hard glare.
"Why do something else when I can just look at you?"
She huffed and the look she sent me was one that should be reserved for a trash can but I wasn't even bothered, she could look at me like that all she wanted, I knew what she really wanted.
My eyes lingered on her face before I allowed it to dip lower to her lips then her chest, at how it was rising and falling, I allowed my eyes to rest on the swell of her breasts before I flickered my head up
again.
And yeah, the way she was looking at me as if she was just seconds away from wrapping her legs around my waist.
I snickered and she all but bolted to her feet.
I followed her movement with a knowing grin as she casually walked in the library, her hands trailing over the spines of the book. I knew she wasn't interested in the book, at least, not like this, she
was only picking the coward's way out like she had been doing these days.
I thought Lisa Volkov was all about the challenge but these days, she was proving me more and more wrong.
Or so I thought.