Impossible Dreams (31 page)

One look at the peekaboo bodice and Maya’s bare
shoulders rendered him incapable of walking across the room without crippling a
vital part.

He thought maybe he’d take her to the nearest motel
first.

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.”