She didn't mind the risk.
"Our grandfather took from the community and never gave anything back," she replied, watching the sun sparkle over the prisms hanging from the old chandelier they'd rescued from the fire remains. "He took drug money to buy some of these buildings. Maybe he tried to make up for his wrongs by renting the school and shop to us cheaply and telling the dealer to take a hike, but that doesn't right the wrongs he committed. But we can see downtown restored, see that the tenants have decent places to live, offer their children an education they wouldn't get elsewhere. It's a start."
Axell was watching her, and Maya wanted to bask in the warmth of his approval and the awareness between them, but she continued studying the prisms. The opening ceremonies for the fall session of the Impossible Dream in its new location would start in half an hour. They didn't have time for what he was thinking, what they both were thinking. On some subjects, they were perfectly attuned.
"That's a nice thick carpet you had installed in the office," he murmured.
Maya darted him a hasty look. "We can't," she whispered. "There isn't time. Cleo and Selene..."
"Will be running late, as usual. Do you realize this is the first time in months we haven't had the kids underfoot?"
Oh, dear Lord, he was such a beautiful man. Maya gazed up into dreamy gray eyes and got lost in them. When Axell lowered his head and scorched her lips with his, she melted bonelessly and would have flowed down the stairs like hot molasses if he hadn't caught her waist and dragged her up.
"I hope you have ocean tides in the CD player." He hit the stereo button as he hauled her into the office and the crashing waves exploded from the speakers overhead.
"Axell, this is insane," Maya protested as he laid her down on the thick carpet and pinned her with his weight. He had his necktie on, for pity's sake, and his best white shirt.
Anyone could walk in downstairs. She forgot her objections as he slid his hand down the scooped neck of her summer dress. "Ummm, Axell, don't..." Her voice trailed off as his lips found a more interesting place to play and she arched upward for more.
"Don't what?" he murmured, trailing kisses up her throat. "Don't kiss my wife in the middle of the day? We're perfectly respectable, you know."
No, they weren't. He had his big hand up her dress and she was frantically loosening his tie and looking for his buttons. There was nothing respectable about this. But it was wonderful, just the same.
"We're an old married couple," she whispered. "We should have grown out of this by now."
Axell snorted as he nibbled her ear. "We've been married all of five months and two don't count. I figure we've got another five good years at least." His fingers found her panties and stroked. "Maybe ten. Then I'll be over the hill and what will you do?"
She laughed with a trill blending with the ebb tides on the sound system. "Follow you over to see what's on the other side. You'll never be old, Axell Holm, you have too much curiosity in you."
A hank of golden hair fell across his brow as his smile gleamed down at her, and Maya's heart pounded as it always did when he looked at her like that. Nordic gods weren't meant to be possessed, but she thought maybe she owned just a little piece of him, or maybe more. She cried out in delight as he finally unsnarled their hampering clothing and sank into her.
Afterward, they lay in disarray upon the thick carpet, listening to the sounds of bird song emanating from the speakers.
"I forgot to take my pill again last night," Maya worried out loud.
"You always forget to take it," Axell replied calmly, pulling her tighter against him. "One of these days, you're going to get caught." He tickled her breast as he adjusted her head more comfortably against his shoulder.
"You wouldn't mind?" she asked.
Axell propped himself up on one elbow. "Are you trying to tell me something?"
She shook her head until her hair tumbled around her ears, but she smiled. "No, I just wanted to know you wouldn't mind. Alexa is a handful already."
He gazed speculatively at her still unbuttoned dress. "Maybe breast-feeding makes them quieter?" he suggested with a gleam of hope.
Hot waves of desire crashed through her at his words and look and implication. She