~Candy~

I push Axel out of the bed. I work fast, trying to get rid of all the evidence of what happened literally five minutes ago. The room smells of sin, of sex. Axel's scent hangs heavy in the air.

Fuck! I open the windows to air it out. I pull out the soaked bedsheets and throw on a robe to cover my nakedness.

Axel observes me, amused.

"You need to get the fuck out of here now! My husband's back!"

Axel moves reluctantly. Slowly. Like he wants to be caught. He's not afraid of his brother. Not the way I am.

"Hurry up! Get out! He's gonna kill me if he sees you here!"

Ansel's a literal sociopath. I am scared of what he might do if he finds out about us. He would rather kill me than let his brother have me. The only reason he married me had been because 1: He wanted to get his father off his back and 2: He wanted to hurt Axel. He knew I liked Axel and he knew Axel wanted me back then. Yet, he had swooped in at the last minute with an offer I couldn't resist.

He was the older brother, the responsible one. He was not a screwup like Axel. I thought I would get more stability with him and I did. But I also got years of unearned abuse.

"Oh, I get it princess. You don't want your husband to know you enjoyed it when I fucked you!" Axel teases me now. I push a finger hard into his chest.

"Don't you ever repeat that to him. Ever!"

Axel tilts his head.

"My God, you are scared of him!" he whispers. A serious expression descends on his face. He has always been able to see right through me. He sees the fear radiating through my body at the thought of Ansel finding out the truth.

"This can never happen again. Okay?"

Axel bites the corner of his upper lip. I already know it will happen again. He's a weasel. He's impossible to get out. Now that he has crawled under my skin, it'd become harder to resist him. God, I wish he would just fuck off back to Europe and leave me alone.

Ansel storms into the room, carrying his briefcase and loosening his tie.

"Candy, whose car is parked downstairs ----" he starts to say but he stops when he sees Axel who is now fully-clothed. I stand away from him, hoping that Ansel doesn't suspect a thing or I'm dead!

"Axel," he says, a rigid greeting.

"Ansel," his brother returns.

The two brothers stare at each other, challengingly. Two alphas tugging for dominance. I can see the aura radiating from them. Facially, they look exactly alike. Except now, Axel has put some distance in their bodily resemblance.

When they were younger, Ansel had always been the bigger brother. The scary one. Now, Axel has brushed past him. Axel is far more attractive now. More dominating. Ansel can feel it, too. He grinds his teeth angrily.

"I wasn't expecting you until next week," he says.

Axel shrugs, carefree.

"Yeah, well, I wrapped up early and here I am."

Silence falls.

The tension can be sliced with a dull knife. I stand frigid. Any moment now, Ansel will smell his brother on me and all hell will break loose.

My husband has always been scared of losing everything to his brother. When we got married, his biggest fear had been losing me to Axel. He had nightmares where he dreamt of Axel attempting to kidnap me. He dreamt of losing the family business to his twin.

Ansel prided himself on being the better brother. He had gone to business school to take over their parents' company. He had married right out of college to please his father. He always wanted to follow in their father's footsteps and he loved the fact that his brother was the fuckup. It made him the preferred brother.

I don't know why Axel's back now, but I can notice the dynamic between them hasn't changed much. Axel still has his air of recklessness. Ansel still has his seriousness.

"We need to talk, brother. My office is right this way," Ansel says.

He eyes me suspiciously as they leave the bedroom. As soon as they disappear, I fall into bed. Relieved.

Oh, that could've gone bad. Ansel would've blown a casket if he found out what happened.

I touch my hand to my lips, exhaling heavily. Then, I lower my hands to my breasts, my vagina where I can still feel his dick inside me. His big dick. Bigger than my husband's. Oh, I'm so screwed.

I head downstairs to the kitchen. I fumble around in the fridge, fetching a bottle of water and some cut-up fruits.

When I close the fridge, I see Axel leaning against it. Waiting for me. I startle with a jump. Everything I was holding falls out of my hand and land on the floor with a loud noise. The glasses break into pieces. The fruits scramble away.

Axel laughs deviously.

"Jesus. I thought you were still up there!"

He smiles. He just loves getting under my skin. "Oh, my conversations with my brother are always brief."

I look behind him up the stairs. Ansel's not lurking around.

Axel reads my mind. "Don't worry, I didn't tell him I fucked his wife. He's never gonna find out from me."

"Good, it should stay that way. Cause the last thing I need is you fucking up my life right now!"

He steps closer, tugging at my rope to pull it open.

"Oh, but I know you liked it," he teases me.

He pulls me closer, touching me.

"Stop it, Axel. Please," I beg without any conviction in my voice.

He gropes my breasts, playing with my nipples. They harden against my will. My body reacts completely to him. He has all the control. I can't resist him even if I wanted to. I can't pull away from him.

My husband can walk through at any moment but it's that risk that makes this thrilling. The thrill of being caught makes me hotter.

I just want him to shove everything off the kitchen island and throw me on top, fucking me right there.

"Oh, Axel...." I whisper, giving in completely to him.

~Candy~

"I love the way you say my name," Axel whispers against my neck. His breath is hot against my skin.

"Axel," I repeat. His name sounds like melted butter in my mouth. Sensual, seductive, wild.

This is wrong. This is all wrong. I took a vow to commit to my husband. The first twin. Why the hell am I breaking that vow with the second, wilder twin? The wrong twin. The one that would surely ruin my life.

But everything's different with Axel. With Ansel, it's all about morbid control. All about his own desires. But Axel knows how to manage control, to spin it into a pleasurable experience for me. For one thing, I am not afraid of Axel. I am enthralled by him.

"We shouldn't do this," I whisper to him.

"Yeah, we shouldn't...." he returns hoarsely. That voice has a hold on me. A strange hallucinatory effect. The low rumble of it, the duskiness, and rough edge captures my entire body, holding me captive.

He pulls my panties aside, his finger searching for and finding my clit. He begins to run circles on it. I moan into his skin.

He runs his tongue along my neck base.

"Do you want me to stop? Just tell me to stop," he breathes, fierily.

"You need to sto..." I begin to say but I couldn't bring myself to finish the sentence.

Fuck it, I don't want him to stop. I want him to ravish me right here. Again, and again and again.

"Good girl. Now sit back and let me..."

A sudden noise outside the kitchen door startles us. I shove Axel away, afraid that it was his brother coming in to catch us red-handed.

In my attempt to run, I jump right into the broken shards of glasses lying around on the floor. The glass penetrates into my feet, drawing blood.

I let out a short cry of pain.

Axel comes over immediately. "Let me."

Before I can protest, he scoops me into his arms and carries me away from the glass. He deposits me carefully on the kitchen island.

I struggle against him the entire time.

"Ansel's coming."

He can't even begin to understand the horrors I would be put through if Ansel found us in a compromising position.

Axel heads out to the kitchen door to have a look. As soon as he pushes the door, my cat, Sir Louis, comes running in.

"See? It was just a cat. Your husband's busy on international calls in his office," Axel scolds me.

I exhale with relief.

Sir Louis hops onto my laps. I begin to stroke his mane.

Axel returns to me. he takes my leg, examining it with a tenderness I have never received from his brother. Ever in all the five years we've been married.

"You should be careful, Princess. We don't want your precious body getting hurt now, do we?" Axel asks with a teasing grin. He starts to pick out the glass in my feet.

I can't stop staring at him. His devilish streak of seduction is irresistible. His eyelashes have only grown softer, longer in all the years he'd been away. His skin is tanner now.

"How was Europe?" I ask him.

He puts down my feet, looking up.

"Cold. Fun. The summers were the best."

He finds the first aid kit in the overhead drawer. As he stretches a hand to bring it down, his shirt peels up, revealing his lithe body. I see the number 2/02 tattooed on his body inside a love tattoo. My birthday? He has my birthday tattooed on his body?

My heart beat suddenly accelerates.

Calm down! You definitely need to calm down, I think to myself. It could be something else...who knows? Another date in his life.

It definitely has nothing to do with me.

Still, just the thought of having my date on his body for one second made me so happy. Fuck, Axel has a way of driving me nuts. It makes me irrationally angry knowing that our time together will never amount to anything tangible. I already chose his twin. Being back here will ruin everything for me.

When he tries to touch my feet again, I slap his hand away.

"Why are you here, Axel?" I want to know.

Knowing him, he'd just get me attached to him and then run away again. I don't trust him. I never did.

"I'm back to stay, Princess."

I wish he wouldn't call me that. It has a possessive tone. It automatically sounds like he's my prince. He's not.

"Why? Europe sounded amazing five years ago. You said you would never come back. You left."

I wanted to add 'You left me' but what right did I have to make that assertion? I married his brother. Technically, I left him first.

"I fucked up. I know. I was a coward. I never should've let him have you! You belong to me!"

I sigh. This is all messed up.

He touches my upper thigh.

"Tell me you've never thought of me all these years. Never even imagined for one second about me," he says slowly, sensually.

I can't think straight with his hand on my body.

"We can't do this, Axel. You lost that right when you left for Europe."

"If I remember correctly, I was begging you to marry me instead. You said no. You chose him. What was I supposed to do? Sit around here and watch you be happy with him?"

I snap!

"I am not happy with him. I was never happy with him. I wasn't happy back then and I'm definitely not happy now!"

Axel's brows raise quizzically.

I take a deep breath. I shouldn't have done that. Now, he knows. I never wanted him to feel like he won or that I made a mistake in marrying Ansel.

We hear footsteps coming down the stairs. I cover myself up quickly and leap out of the kitchen with Axel following me.

My husband's coming down the stairs. He frowns when he sees us together. Then, he notices my leaping.

"What happened?"

"Nothing. I stepped in glass. I'm fine."

He observes me coldly for a few minutes before turning to his brother. He doesn't say sorry, or express concern about my injury.

"Um, you can stay at the guest house in the north end corner of the property until you find your own place. I expect you to come to the office tomorrow. We need to start making preparations immediately," Ansel says in his business voice.

I glance over to Axel, my eyes full of questions. What preparations? What's the real reason he came back?

~Candy~

As soon as Axel leaves for the night, my husband turns to me. He walks slowly, purposefully toward me.

I take a few steps back, afraid. Ansel's eyes flame with hate and jealousy. I recognize that look. His vengeful rage has taken over his body.

"I didn't know he was going to be here," I start to explain.

But he doesn't care about my explanations. In his mind, he has made up his own scenarios.

Ansel grabs me by the throat, squeezing hard. I kick around, slapping his hand, kicking my feet but it's all useless. He's too powerful.

He knows how to squeeze with just the right amount of pressure to make me lose consciousness. He likes to let me know he holds my life in the palm of his hand. He can take it any time he liked. He likes to see me terrorized.

"I swear I didn't know he was coming back. He just showed up!" I stammer, my voice breaking up from the tight grip.

"You let him into our bedroom?" Ansel questions, angrily.

This is it. He's going to kill me.

"Nothing happened, I swear. I was waiting for you. I didn't hear him in come. I thought he was you. I swear it to you. Please, Ansel, you are killing me!"

My vision gets blurry and just as I'm about to pass out, Ansel loosens his grip. I fall to the floor and lay at his feet, coughing and struggling to breathe. He kicks me square in the ribs. A sharp pain reverberates around my body.

I'm used to Ansel's cruelty, his choking, kicking and many other creative ways of leaving scars all over my body. But now that Axel's back, I know it's only going to get worse.

He leans down and strokes my hair gently at first. Then, without warning, he wraps my hair around his fingers and yanks it hard, dragging me upwards to meet his face. My painful cries can be heard all over the house.

"You're mine, Candy! Mine! Don't you ever forget it and if I even smell him around you, I will fucking kill you," he snarls.

A final warning. He doesn't need to tell me twice. I already know he can make good on his promise.

*

The next morning, Axel comes over for breakfast. My husband is getting ready for work. The domestic staff are back this morning so we can see the gardeners pruning the hedges and the kitchen staff setting the table.

I don't work anymore. I haven't worked since I married Ansel. Before that, I was in college studying political science. I wanted to work in DC with hopes of rising in the political ranks.

But now, I'm just some rich asshole's trophy wife. The only time I get to do any kind of political work is when I host dinner parties for Ansel's connected political friends.

Axel arrives shirtless. The summer's just starting out. Even though it's hot, I'm dressed in long wool dress with a designer kerchief tied as a necktie to hide the bruises Ansel's hand left around my neck.

"Morning, sunshine! What a beautiful day!" Axel calls out, spreading his arms. He has a large wingspan. His muscles ripple as he moves. I roam my eyes around his body. He looks like an Adonis, a gorgeous Greek sculpted god. His entire body is testament to some god out there, molding superior specimens.

"Good morning, Axel. We were just about to have some breakfast. Come, join us," Ansel says.

Axel walks over. As he brushes past my chair, his finger pinches my skin around the neck area. I freeze. A shower of goosebumps descends on my body. My nipples harden.

He takes the seat facing me while Ansel sits at the head of the table. The kitchen staff had displayed an array of foods on the table. Axel picks a strawberry, throws it into his mouth and chews with pleasure.

"God, I've missed all of this."

"Well, of course you did. Digging around the forests of Asia and Europe, I don't know what you were trying to prove!" Ansel scoffs. He's always hated that his brother chose the 'rough' life over the luxury pleasures of their childhood.

"Proving that I'm tougher than you. Bro, you would not have survived some of the trails I hiked. Believe me," Axel retorts. He likes pissing his brother off. The two brothers had the worse case of sibling rivalry I've ever seen. They love nothing more than to make each other mad.

"But you are back now. That's what matters!" I chime in, hoping to defuse the situation but it only earns me angry glares from my husband.

Axel must have noticed my deflated mood. His leg stretches out under the table, caressing mine. I swallow hard, struggling to maintain my composure and hoping that Ansel doesn't see what his brother is doing under the table.

He caresses my shin, moving slowly. The thrill wets my pants. Just the fact that I am able to flirt with him right under Ansel's nose is enough to send me spinning.

But the pleasure doesn't last. Our breakfast is interrupted by the arrival of our butler, Ian, announcing the presence of a visitor.

"Irina Snow for Mr. Baldwin, sir," Ian says.

I look up at the woman entering the dining area. She is tall, blonde-haired with sharp green eyes. A model-like beauty. She is carrying the latest Birkin bag.

Ansel stands up and hugs her. I notice Axel stand too, but his body is rigid.

"Irina, what a pleasure to see you again. Axel, I hope you don't mind. I took the liberty of arranging this breakfast so you can get to know each other better."

I drop my fork, confused.

"What's happening? Who's Irina?"

Ansel turns to me and with considerable twisted sense of pleasure, he smiles and says:

"Candy, I'd like you to meet Irina Snow. She's Axel's fiancée. She's the reason he came back home! Looks like our bad boy's getting caged at last!"

My heart sinks.