jerked at the buttons, instinctively seeking the heat of his skin to share the flames of her own. The slippery silk practically flew apart, and Axell groaned deep in his throat as her hands spread across his chest. Frantically, she tugged the shirttails from his trousers.
Lifting his head, he looked directly into her eyes as if he wanted to say something. She didn't want words. Finally, at long last, she could run her fingers over all those lovely muscles.
Axell nibbled her lips as she spread her palms across his broad chest, igniting the flames in more places than one. He cupped her breasts in return, taunting them into readiness.
She arched higher, and at the pressure of his hips against her knee, she gladly parted her thighs.
Maya shuddered as Axell's fingers slid downward, discovering she wore no panties. He growled in appreciation and caressed her with his thumb, while his mouth drove her senseless. Raising her legs, she wrapped them around his hips, pulling him closer until she could feel the heat of his arousal through the layers of his clothing.
"I hope you've taken care of birth control," he muttered thickly as his kisses melted her into tingling nerve endings, "because I don't think I can stop."
"The pill," she gasped, just before Axell's hot mouth greedily covered hers in an excess of gratitude. She'd sworn never to leave herself unprotected again, but she'd never thought to need protection from this man. She moaned as he spread her thighs wider and only their clothing prevented their joining.
The phone rang.
Axell jerked, but his mouth didn't release hers and his hands cupped her tighter.
The phone rang again.
"They may need you at the..." Maya's voice trailed off as Axell's fingers caressed the aching peak of her breast.
"They can handle it." He slid his kisses toward her ear lobe.
The phone shrilled louder.
Nervously, Maya thought she heard Alexa cry. They were making love in the middle of the kitchen with three children only a few thin walls away. She was the one losing it.
"What if it's Cleo?" she asked weakly as Axell's teeth nibbled at her ear and his hand slid beneath her nightie again. It wasn't an unreasonable question. Cleo had said she had a probation hearing coming up. She just couldn't think straight enough to recall the importance of such a call.
"She and Stephen can entertain each other," Axell answered without rancor, sliding his mouth back to hers.
That would have shut her up, but the wavering cry of an infant stopped them both before their mouths connected.
Maya could feel Axell shudder as he stroked her where she'd opened for him. Just a minute more...
The phone rang insistently. Alexa increased her wails. And a sleepy voice calling "Maya" from the back bedrooms finally broke the spell.
Maya flushed as she looked up and read the regret behind the heat in Axell's eyes.
He glanced down to where his tanned hand cupped her pale breast. "Damn," he muttered. "Damn, damn, and double damn."
"Point taken," she said wryly, squirming backward, hoping to escape his reach.
Refusing to let her go, Axell leaned over and grabbed the phone. "What do you want?" he yelled into the receiver.
"My, my, the lion isn't sleeping tonight," Selene's voice purred from the other end of the line. "Did the fish slip away from you again?"
Axell grimaced in defeat as Maya did just that—slipped backward over the table and out of his hands, straightening her nightshirt in the process.
"You got a telescope?" he asked in irritation.
"No, but I've seen our girl in action. You can catch her later. Right now, we've got a problem. Put her on."
Maya had already fled the kitchen to quiet Alexa and reassure whichever of the kids the noise had disturbed. Axell could still feel the heat of her bare skin on his hands. The ache in his groin pounded with the need for release.
He'd forgotten the kids, the bar, Pfeiffer, and everything else in his degenerate need to plow his maddening wife until she screamed surrender. He was a sick man.
Wiping the sweat off his brow, Axell spoke abruptly. "If it's about Pfeiffer, I've already heard. There isn't a damned thing we can do at this hour. Go back to your party, Selene."
"My source says it's murder, Holm. How far is your mayor friend willing to go to get his damned road?" The phone slammed in his ear.
Axell stared blankly at the receiver until the warning signal shrilled, then hung it up. Ralph Arnold, a murderer? No man could be that desperate