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.
Chapter 27
If you smoke after sex, you're doing it too fast.
"You forgot to lock the damned door!" Axell muttered as he staggered backward into the musty darkness and righted both of them before they could collapse into the chaos of old boxes left from the move.
"It's a condemned building, let someone else lock it," Maya sniped, more disgruntled by having the fieriest kiss of her entire life interrupted than worrying about whether or not she'd locked a door. Still, she shouldn't have let him manipulate her with sex. She was angry at him. Furious. She just couldn't completely remember why.
"Proper civic attitude." Slamming the door closed and casting them into total night, Axell backed her against the wall. "Now, where were we?"
"If you think you can..." she started to protest, but Axell's mouth cut her off. His tongue took advantage of her parted lips and initiated an intoxicating foray that had her gripping his shoulders for support. Virgo's avoided spontaneity. Surely he didn't...
"Axell, we can't—"
"We can." He propped his hands on either side of her head and deepened the kiss.
The heated, masculine aroma of Axell's skin and shaving lotion surged through Maya's senses as his weight pressed her against the wall. She was piercingly aware of all the places they touched, of the way her breasts in their thin silk crushed against his suit coat, of the way his zipper ground into her belly beneath the pressure of his arousal. With what remained of her mind, she knew this was insane, but the insistent hollow in her lower parts had no mind, only needs, and her hips pushed up to find his.
"I'd meant to take you to a hotel and buy champagne," he muttered in frustration as his hands located her breasts and crushed them in a desperate caress.
"The nearest hotel is in Charlotte and I hate champagne," she protested without thinking, sinking her fingers into Axell's glorious golden hair and pulling his mouth back to hers.
"Oh, God, yes," he muttered hungrily against her mouth. "No kids, no cats, no interruptions..."
She couldn't argue with any of that, especially with his hands unfastening the thin collar holding the top of her dress in place. She could see nothing in the darkness, but the lack of vision heightened her other senses. Axell's fingers slid caressingly beneath the fabric of her dress, slipping the neckline down until he cupped her breasts with those big firm hands she'd admired from the start. She sucked in a breath as the callused roughness stroked her skin.
The urgent mouth plundering her lips lowered to suckle at her breast.
Given the freedom to scream, she did. The moisture of Axell's mouth connected with the electric current already surging through her, jolting her into a different dimension. Maya arched higher, grasping his broad shoulders for support, pushing into him and demanding more. Axell obliged.
With a haste she'd never seen in him, he drank her deeper, harder, until she thought he'd sucked her inside of him and she swirled somewhere in the dark vortex of his soul. His other hand plucked the nipple he had yet to claim. The twin sensations spun her into a spiral from which there was no return. Only the crush of his hips against her belly prevented her from elevating entirely from the floor.
Somewhere in the back of her mind, Maya knew what they were doing was ridiculous for two grown, married people, but she didn't care. Releasing Axell's shoulders, she wriggled her hands between them and sought his belt.
He groaned