I scramble away from him like I had just seen a ghost. It might as well be. What are the odds that my husband's identical twin would show up today?
"What the fuck are you doing here, Axel?"
The last time I checked, he's supposed to be in Europe. He has been living there ever since I married Ansel five years ago. He has never visited us. Never even came to our wedding.
"You looked like you needed a good fuck so I obliged. Jesus, has my brother not been fucking you right? You were hungry, primal, desperate. I couldn't resist," Axel replies. His eyes narrow, his lips curl upwards. I can detect the desire in him. He has never been able to hide the way he felt about me.
It's nice to know some things haven't changed. He still has that bad boy, 'I don't give a fuck' attitude that makes his brother hate him. I pull the bedsheet around my body, remembering the last time we saw each other. In his brother's bathroom where he had slammed me against the mirror and nearly fucked me.
'Why are you marrying him? He's a beast. You should be with me,' he had said. Begged me to marry him instead and when I turned him down, he had packed his bags and fucked off to Europe. For five years. Five years of his absence like he's punishing me.
In all the years I've been married to Ansel, all the years I've suffered his abuse, I've sometimes imagined Axel sweeping back to save me. I've dreamt about him, willed him to return and save me. I wanted to tell him: 'You were right. Your brother's a beast. I made the wrong choice. I should've married you instead.'
But he didn't come. He didn't save me. And now, he's here, back to invade my body like it always belonged to him. It makes me mad. What gives him the right?
Unable to stop myself, I stretch out a hand and slapped him. A hot, resounding slap that connected well with his cheek. It wasn't enough so I tried to hit him on the jaw but Axel caught my hand before it can land and whipped me around to his body, holding me pinned.
He is strong. Too strong.
"Ah, princess, is this any way to say hello to your brother-in-law?" he teases me in my ear.
I muster every hatred in my body: 'Fuck you, Axel.'
I feel his cheek stretching into a smile.
"Always so feisty, that's what I missed most about you."
I break free from his grasp with forceful struggling and pushing. The bedsheet has slipped away so I'm naked again. Axel tilts his head around, taking me in slowly. Perversely. Openly. With no shame or respect that I'm his twin brother's wife.
"Does my brother know what a lucky bastard he is? He gets to have this every single day!"
I cover my breasts with both hands. He doesn't need to know his brother has not fucked me in six months. His brother does not care about me. Never did. The last thing I need is Axel returning to ruin my life.
I don't trust him. He might be hot as hell but Axel has never been responsible. He would just fuck me and disappear again. He is a runner. No woman on earth will ever make an honest man of him. He will never ever settle down. It's one of the major reasons I chose Ansel instead.
"What the fuck are you doing back here?" I asked him again.
"Why? I can't come back to visit my family?" he retorts with that same old familiar sarcasm.
He falls back on the bed, stretching out his naked, gorgeous body. Axel might be identical to my husband but fuck, he is so much hotter. What has he been doing over the past five years? Sleeping in the gym?
He's not the Axel I remember. He has grown bigger, more attractive. His abs are etched onto his belly like a wall. He has added more tattoos to his body so now, they almost cover every inch of his body as far as the eyes can see. His dark hair is cut into short waves. His flaming black eyes fixate upon me, stirring up old feelings in me.
A current of electricity surges through me. While his older brother is intimidating and downright scary, Axel is mysterious and dangerous.
I remember in high school, he had left behind a trail of brokenhearted girls. He always warned them he didn't have any interest in them beyond getting into their pants but for some reason, girls always seem to fall for him.
With his leather jackets and bikes, he was a chick magnet. He fucked them and dumped them. He stripped girls of their dignities.
I had been obsessed with him, too. I never thought he'd look my way. I was jealous and mad at those girls because he would never see me the same way he saw them.
But here he is now, staring at me with those catlike eyes, looking like a predator waiting to pounce on his prey.
He is intoxicating, dangerous. I should be mad at him for abandoning me. Instead, I feel paralyzed by his presence, by those eyes. His lithe body stretched out on the bed piques my curiosities.
My mind is pulled back to the way he had felt inside me, moving with urgency, fucking me like he had needed it. His brother has never fucked me like that. His brother has never made me squirt. His brother has never made me come with just a command.
Everything was different with him. Wicked. I wanted to do it again.
Fuck! This is the thing about Axel. He has a way of creeping into your mind and taking over control of your entire body. I've seen him do it to girls since we were in high school and now, I've fallen under his control.
"Come on, princess, did you miss me?" Axel asks now. A lazy smile on his face.
Before I can answer, we hear a car pull up to the driveway.
Fuck. Ansel.
My husband's back.