AXEL’S POV:
"You missed a spot," Avery muttered, her audacity stretching as she reached up with her small, trembling hand. Before I could react, she brushed the edge of my eyepatch, her fingers skimming the streak of egg that clung there.
The slap came before I even registered my own movement, a crack that reverberated in the room. She staggered, clutching the edge of the bed for balance, her lip now split and bleeding. Crimson beads welled at the corner of her mouth, and she swiped at them with the back of her hand, glaring up at me with those fiery, rebellious eyes.
Damn her. She knew exactly how to push me to the brink, poking at corners of my patience I didn’t even know existed. I wasn’t one to raise my hand to women—if punishment was needed, my men handled it. But Avery was diffe
