WANTED: Meaningful overnight relationship.
“Will this do?” Maya asked uncertainly.
She’d piled all those glorious curls into a tumbling mop atop her head, so she was all naked neck and shoulders, except for the thin strip of material at the top of the gown which drew the eye to the very nice cleavage displayed below. He’d gratefully pay any amount that showed on his credit card for this view. Or was this another of her thrift shop bargains?
“Depends on what you wanted to do,” Axell replied skeptically. “Bring me to my knees?” He glanced at Constance who watched with interest. He wouldn’t complete his thought. He couldn’t think with all his blood concentrated well south of his brain. He had thought himself immune to women. No man in his right libido could be immune to Maya.
The front doorbell rang. No one ever used the front door. Sidewalks weren’t a part of the landscape here. Maya blanched a shade whiter and Axell knew at once who their caller was.
He returned a few minutes later trailing the musician, who — with his gold earring and long ponytail — looked decidedly out of place in this family setting.
“Stephen! I though you worked at the club in the evenings.” She cupped her elbows in her palms and drifted nervously toward the doorway where Axell stood.
“Even God got a day off,” Stephen grumbled, searching the room until he discovered the baby-sitter returning a wide-eyed Alexa to her infant seat. “I figured I could take care of my daughter for one night.”
Like hell, he would. Axell draped his arm proprietarily around Maya’s shoulders. Her bare shoulders. His ability to concentrate on Stephen’s declaration and not the electricity shooting up his arm revealed the extent of his anger. “Have you ever changed a diaper? Mixed formula? Heated a bottle? Those are the essentials of infant care.”
Stephen looked angry and confused, and Maya apparently took pity on him. Axell hoped it was pity. Any minute now and he’d be growling and baring his teeth at the intruder. He damned well hoped she understood that because he didn’t.
“Dorothy is here. She can teach you what Alexa needs,” Maya said reassuringly. “Or you can just kick back and relax and watch some television.”
Cleo appeared in the hall doorway, holding Matty’s hand. “What’s he doing here?” she demanded, glaring at Stephen.
“Time to go!” Maya cried cheerfully, swinging toward the doorway into the kitchen. “We’re late. Kids, behave yourselves. We’ll be back to see you’re tucked in, so you’d better be in bed and sound asleep when we return.”
Axell smothered a grin as Maya executed another of her graceful exits. Behind her back, he raised a reproving eyebrow at the glowering combatants. “Dorothy is in charge,” he announced in a tone that brooked no interference.
Stephen looked relieved. Axell pinned a mutinous Cleo with a glare. “Remember those guys at Social Services? Do you suppose it’s a coincidence that their initials are ‘SS’?”
Cleo’s glare wavered uncertainly. Axell accepted that as surrender. He was exposing Constance to unhealthy influences, his conscience warned. But Dorothy was here, and Stephen and Cleo were adults — of a sort. And Constance had a sensible head on her shoulders. She could always leave the room if the hostilities escalated. She’d probably take Matty with her. She’d inherited a few of his instincts.
He caught up with Maya and practically shoved her out the door and into the garage.
Wrapping her arms around herself, Maya slipped into the BMW. “It’s awful late.” The grim set of Axell’s jaw rang all her warning bells. “Maybe we should put this off to another time. I’m starving.”
Axell reached into the back seat, grabbed a lap throw, and wrapped it around her shoulders, grazing her arm in the process. Heat immediately combusted where he’d touched her. Biting her lower lip, Maya stared out the windshield as he backed out of the garage at a speed that should have taken them through the trees at the rear of the yard.
“I should have hired a zoo keeper. How long do you think we dare leave them alone?”
“That depends on the amount of destruction you can tolerate.” With the blanket wrapped around her shoulders, Maya relaxed a little into its warmth. She should never have worn this dress. She’d been challenging him again.
Although, it had been fun watching Axell nearly crumple when she flashed her leg. Men didn’t generally look at her as if she were a sex symbol. She was too short, too red-haired, too weird looking. But her husband looked at her as if she were the only female on the planet. She really, really liked that feeling. It gave her warm butterflies in her middle.
“You know them better than I do. How much destruction can they wreak? I don’t want the kids involved in a war zone.”
She even liked the worried timbre of his voice in the velvet darkness of the expensive car. She liked so many things about him, it scared her to death.
“I haven’t seen Cleo in years. I barely know her anymore. But she’s always been more self-destructive than hurtful. Stephen, well, Stephen has tantrums. But they’re usually harmless,” she replied brightly. She didn’t know what she was saying. Was she trying to make him turn around and go back? She’d never have left the kids with Stephen and Cleo if she’d had any doubts about their welfare.
“We’ll get home early,” he said evenly.
Early. Did that mean they’d just eat and not stop anywhere on the way home? Or that they’d eat and go home and climb into Axell’s bed? She wished the damned man wasn’t so enigmatic. She’d never been this nervous in her lifetime.
“It’s too late to drive all the way into Charlotte,” she answered cautiously. As much as she would have liked an evening of dinner and dancing, she knew when she had to be practical. The kids weren’t used to their absence. Stephen and Cleo would entertain them for a while, but they couldn’t be trusted for long. Dorothy was a good sitter, but she couldn’t control adults.
“I’m all for reducing driving time,” he said solemnly, staring straight ahead, but Maya thought she detected a teasing note to the comment.
“You want to tell me just what you have planned?” she demanded. He always had everything planned, even sex, she figured.
“Fine wine, dancing, and good music.” Glancing at the slit baring her thigh, he admitted in all honesty, “Followed by hot sex.”
The covetous glance, his seductive tone, and the promise of his words shot straight through Maya’s sex-deprived hormones. She’d never made love with a man half so handsome, half so downright masculine as her husband, and she wanted it right now.
Clearing her suddenly dry throat, she tugged at the gap in her skirt. “Feed me, and we can skip the first three.”
He almost drove the car straight into the ditch.
“Fast food.” He swung the car off the main road and roared down a secondary one.
“They have chicken in town,” she offered. Axell’s restaurant was the only other alternative in Wadeville, and that definitely wouldn’t be fast.
“I feel like a cheap jerk taking you for fast food chicken.”
Axell’s hold on the steering wheel was pretty tight, Maya noticed. She wondered if it was because of the kids or her and started to inquire, but as they approached the main street of town, he cursed and veered the car into a parking lot.
Holm’s Bar and Grill took up the entire end of one of Wadeville’s blocks, so that the rear of the restaurant could be seen from this side street. Startled, Maya glanced up to see what had caught Axell’s attention.
“I’m sorry.” He jumped from the car without explanation and stalked toward the kitchen.
All she saw was two men entering the rear door. The employees often stepped outside to have a smoke. She didn’t see anything unusual about that. The furious expression on Axell’s face in the light of the security lamp warned otherwise, not that anyone else would read that tightened jaw as easily as she did. A stranger would just think him more stern than usual.
Hurrying in her high heels wasn’t easy, but Maya managed to cross the gravel lot and enter the back door just after Axell. Men in a fury were often unpredictable. With Axell’s concealed Scorpio, he was capable of anything, including paranoia. She didn’t know why she should worry, but she did.
She heard the angry shouts as soon as she walked in. In front of her, some of the kitchen staff edged toward the back door where she stood, and the rest, toward the exit into the restaurant. Axell stood in the center of the kitchen, speaking in a low, taut voice to a couple of surly-looking young men. One of them was shouting and shaking his fist. In horror, Maya watched as the other grabbed a meat cleaver from the butcher-block counter.
She wanted to scream, but sound froze in her throat as the punk swung the weapon toward Axell. Gory images of gushing arteries and bloody hearts from every horror movie she’d ever watched flashed before her eyes. The idea of losing Axell in such a catastrophic manner barely had time to lodge in her brain before Axell’s hand shot out.
Grabbing the wrist holding the swinging weapon, Axell twisted until the guy shrieked and dropped the cleaver. Then with the same efficient movement, Axell wrapped the punk’s arm behind his back and propelled him toward the door. Maya jumped out of his way, her heart thudding in relief.
The man sailed out, landing palms down in the parking lot. Not even noticing Maya’s presence, Axell swung around and pointed at the other one, jerking his head toward the exit. The young man hastened to follow his friend.
One of the waitresses whistled her approval. The others returned to their work as if this were a daily routine. The chef winked at Maya before returning to his stove. Still weak-kneed and starting to shake, she took in the staff’s calm reaction with astonishment and stared at Axell as he casually ordered someone to call the police.
She’d thought him a safe, sane family man, a respectable guy who wore business suits and ties like she’d seen on television. No one had warned her he had the manners of a five-hundred pound gorilla when angered, or that his job entailed cleaver-waving madmen.
Axell expressed no emotion as he spotted her hiding behind the door. “I’m sorry you had to see that. I can’t afford to jeopardize my liquor license by having those two hanging around here. They’re out on bail awaiting trial on drug charges. I’ve just got the ABC board off my back over that incident.”
“He could have killed you!” Maya couldn’t shake the image of that cleaver swinging at his chest. She stared at him in wide-eyed horror. It had never occurred to her to worry about Axell’s safety. He was just there, like North Carolina’s ever-present jungle of trees. Discovering he was as human and vulnerable as Matty and Constance and Alexa turned her version of the world on its head.
A glitter of amusement lit his eyes as she gripped his arm. “Bigger men than that have tried. I grew up in a bar, Maya. I can take care of myself.”
“You lifted him off the floor! He was nearly as big as you. He had a meat cleaver!”
A waitress returned with glasses of wine. Axell shoved one into Maya’s fingers. “Settle down. I have to wait for the police and make a report. I want it perfectly clear that they weren’t here at my request.” Regret puckered his brow. “I’m sorry, Maya. I wanted to have you to myself for a little while, but I know you’re hungry. Shall I have Alphonso fix you something to eat?”
The question was moot. The chef had already dished up plates of pasta and one of the busboys was carrying them in their direction.
“It’s my new recipe,” Alphonso shouted over the noise of the kitchen. “Taste it.” He turned to snap at one of the waitresses scurrying to keep out of his way. “Bring them a Caesar salad, and don’t bruise the lettuce this time!”
Still amazed, if not as shaken, Maya shook her head at Axell. “The pasta will be fine. Will you sit and eat it with me or do you have to check on the bar?” She was slowly understanding that she had married not just a man, but his business too. They were part and parcel of each other. She hadn’t decided how she felt about that, no more than she was certain about his violent streak, or the electrical excitement leaping between them.
In reply, Axell gripped her elbow and steered her toward the employee break room, away from the staff and his patrons and any other interference. “The evening isn’t over,” he warned as he seated her in the same booth they had used the night the shop collapsed.
Anticipation shivered up Maya’s arm as Axell squeezed it. He wouldn’t kiss her in front of others; he wasn’t a publicly demonstrative man, but she could see the heat in his eyes as he looked down at her. The man definitely intended for the evening to have a more intimate end.
***
“We found them smoking in the alley, both higher than kites,” the patrol officer announced as he accepted the soft drink a waitress handed him. “Claimed they came after their back pay, but the drugs blow the terms of their bond. They won’t be out again.”
The detective in charge snapped his ball point shut and shoved his notepad back in his pocket. “Until we find the dealer and where he stashes his stuff, the problem will only get worse.” He glanced in Maya’s direction. “Heard your sister is back in town.”
“My sister has absolutely...” Maya started out of her seat as if prepared to scratch the cop’s eyes out.
Axell grabbed her shoulder and shoved her back down. She turned her glare in his direction and spiked his foot with her heel so hard, he grimaced, but ignored her fury. He calmly answered for her. “Cleo is out at my place tonight, reading books to her kid. That was a cheap, lazy shot. And I’d already paid the bastards. This is a set up. Ask them where they got the stuff.”
“Those kind never give straight answers.” Undeterred by Axell’s insult, the detective got in his parting remark. “Heard that musician staying at the shop is working at a club downtown that got raided. You might wanta be more careful who you associate with, Mr. Holm. Tar sticks.”
For a woman who detested confrontation, Maya certainly put up a struggle as Axell grabbed her arms and physically held her in her seat, clapping a hand over her mouth as the detective walked off. She bit his fingers as savagely as she could and dug her fingers into his arm. He was damned glad he wasn’t wearing just a T-shirt. She’d had her nails done, and they cut like miniature knives.
“You have no right—” she sputtered as the door closed behind the police and Axell released her.
“I have every right,” he returned coldly, dragging her from the booth and toward the door. “This is my place, and I’ll not have the local cops on my back. They just don’t like outsiders, and Cleo and Stephen,” he glanced down at her briefly, “and even you, are outsiders. It’s much easier to pin bad things on people they don’t know. They’re human. Hell, I’ve met your sister and Stephen, and I still don’t trust them. So let it go.”
“You don’t trust them?” she asked incredulously as he pushed her into the alley. “You think I would leave the kids with anyone I didn’t trust? What kind of person are you? Would you leave Constance with someone you think deals drugs?”
“I’m trusting your judgment in leaving them there, and that’s all I’m trusting. And there are times I wonder why the hell I’m doing that.” Axell could see all his plans for the evening going up in a tower of flame. If he’d thought Maya capable of planning anything, he’d blame her for the evening’s fiasco. He was in dire need and she was no less attractive for being furious. He had to hold on to her arm to prevent her from slapping him. He could think of a lot better things his hand could be doing right now.
“Right. I’m an airheaded idiot too naive and too stupid to know if someone’s doing drugs. What do I know about people, anyway? They all look alike to me.”
She was on a real roll, Axell realized as he tried to steer her toward the car. He’d married a spacy pacifist, and she’d emerged from her cocoon as a Valkyrie, prepared to defend those she loved. He’d always detested scenes like this, but the earlier adrenaline rush had combined with too much testosterone, and his lust not only took on new proportions, but entirely new perspectives. The heat of her in his arms baked his brains.
“Why don’t you take away my license and keys and keep me at home, where I can’t hurt myself?” she taunted as he tried to drag her toward the car. “That’s what you’d really like, isn’t it? Complete control. Well, dammit, I’m not one of your little tin soldiers.”
To Axell’s surprise, she jerked her arm from his grasp and ran down the alley in those ridiculous strapped high heels. He’d never seen Maya in high heels. She had ankles halfway up to her knees. Shaking his head at his wayward thoughts, he waited for her to discover she had nowhere to run.
He figured she’d give it up before she crossed the street to the next block, but she didn’t. Cursing at making a spectacle of himself, Axell chased her across the street and down the alley behind the town’s oldest stores.
Stumbling over a garbage can, he caught up with her before they could both break their necks. Grabbing her arm, he pulled her hard against him, despite her twisting protest. To hell with arguing. He was ready for the next part. Past ready. “Yell at me if you want, but don’t run away, dammit!”
Holding Maya’s squirming curves tight with both arms wrapped around her, he dived down to claim the lips he’d coveted for too long.
In seconds, they were both going up in flames. Gasping for air, Axell leaned back against the door of Cleo’s old shop.
The door opened, and they fell in.