Chapter 5

When her grandmother left, there was still some tension in the air but not like before. It was Axel’s father that stood up, clapping his hands. Then the others joined him. Dad was slightly embarrassed, but it was her mom who seemed to understand what was going on right now. As soon as she went to the kitchen, each of them could hear her yelling ‘ yes,’ and Mac was prouder of her in that moment than she’d ever been all her life. It was her mom that got balls, not her day and she was thrilled beyond words.

After dinner and the clean-up was taken care of, they sat in the living room to talk. Milly wasn’t feeling well, the baby, she said, and Charles and she went up to the bedroom they used when visiting. Chuck had fallen asleep hours ago and seemed just fine for laying on his dad’s shoulder when they left the room. She hadn’t realized it was so late until she heard the grandfather clock chiming that it was eleven o’clock. She had things to get going in the morning.

She did walk Axel out to his car. However, when the motion light went off, he pulled her into his arms and kissed her while pressing her against his car. Christ, he was hard as a stone, and his hands were all over her.

“I want you. I’ve never wanted to be buried so deep inside of a woman in all my life. I want to feel you come around me, over me. I want to feel your body milk mine until I’m so crazed with need that I can’t see straight. I want to see you come Mac, taste you when you do.”

Mac realized that he had taken them deeper into the shadows than they’d been before when he pressed her against the garage. It really was dark, but for the moonlight that was barely showing. When he slid her down his body, she could feel his cock pressing hard against her belly. Need, the need to feel him inside of her, raced through her. Axel gently pressed her back against the wall all the while kissing her, touching her.

Axel had his shirt unbuttoned from her before she realized it, and her bra pushed down over her swollen breasts. They were tender, so needy that she could barely stand to touch them. But what he was doing was sensual and gentle. And made her realize that it was because of him that she was like this, and she was thrilled that he was going to make her feel better in a few minutes.

“Mac, watch me suckle at your breast. I want to see your eyes glaze when you start to come. Watch me, baby.” She did, not even caring how demanding his words were. “Oh, baby, I love you.”

Mac leaned back and watched as he traced his tongue all along the areola, never touching the sensitive tip. His eyes never leaving hers, he flicked his tongue quickly over her nipple once, twice more before he covered it with his hot mouth and sucked.

Mac cried out from the feel of him rolling her nipple in his mouth and against the roof of the heat of his mouth. She felt him shift her around a bit, and then his hand was touching her between her legs through the material of her panties she moaned. Mac couldn’t decide which felt better, his hand or his mouth, and soon it didn’t matter. Her entire body was a live wire, waiting, waiting, and wanting something that she knew only he could give her.

“Please, I need…please help me, Axel.” She nearly cried out again when he pulled his mouth away from her breast. She thought that he was stopping and silently begged him to not stop.

Axel was moving down her, down her body with his back to the opening in the driveway that if anyone were to come out, they’d only see him, not her too. It didn’t take her long to figure out where he was going and what he was going to do. Before she could protest and tell him to stop, he had his mouth covering her clit, and she came apart, shattering into a million stars in the dark sky.

As he stood, she sat up and reached for him. She wanted to taste him as he had her. Fumbling with his buckle, she touched him as soon as he was free. His cock, hard and hot in her hands as she guided him to her mouth. Licking the tiny drop at the end of his shaft, she moaned at the taste.

Axel was hot and spicy, hard and smooth. Opening her mouth around him, he surged forward and bumped the back of her throat, causing her to gag slightly. He pulled back and cupped the back of her head, and gently showed her how to take him. Wrapping her hand around the inches she couldn’t take in her mouth, she slid her hand up and down him.

“Mac, please…I’m so close, baby. I’m going to come.” And she felt the first hot splash of him down the back of her throat. He rocked harder and harder as he came. Reaching between her own legs, still spread wide from him, she touched herself and came with him, moaning around his cock.

Mac fell back against the wall again, spent as he slowly leaned back against the wall of the garage again. She felt euphoric and happy. She laid her head on his chest and listened as his heart slowed. Her mind was all fuddled and still fuzzy from what they’d done.

“I love you, Axel. I think I always have.” She felt him move beneath her. It was slight, but the way they were standing made it impossible for her not to feel it. Flushing with heat, she realized where they were and what they’d just done. Christ, she hoped the god there were no cameras here. Someone was going to get an eye full if there were.

“Mac, I’m sorry. I just can’t believe what…it was fantastic but I…Christ, it was better than fantastic it was earthshattering and a bomb going off at the same time. I love you, honey.” Then he laughed. “I bought us a mattress this morning, hoping that I could persuade you to come back to the house with me. I heard that the workers didn’t work on Sundays. So I had this brilliant idea to woo you into my bedroom. I love—”

Mac cut him off before he said anything else. What he’d said already was enough to have her straightening out her clothing and then dragging him to the car he’d come in. “I’m sorry. I should go. I have things to do tomorrow, and I need to— I promise that I’ll make this up to you.”

“You leave without me, and I’m going to murder you.” She got in on her side and waited for him to join her by getting under the steering wheel. “That was the best sex I’ve ever had, and I want more. More of it and certainly more of you.”

“All right then.” He had to get out of the car to adjust his own clothing. Once he was dressed again, she had to laugh. His pants were too small to come up over his still-hard erection. And he’d buttoned his shirt up wrong. It was off by two buttons. She couldn’t stop laughing until he joined her. Then he stopped and put his head on the wheel. “I didn’t get any protection. Damn it all to—” he looked at her. “I don’t suppose you are?”

“No.” She wanted to cry, and it looked as though he did as well. “We’ll just be careful. And if a baby comes from us ‘being careful,’ I will welcome it with open arms. We’ll raise it, whatever she is together, right?”

“We’ll marry as soon as I can get it arranged. Did you want a large wedding?” She told him perhaps later. “Good. I can do quick if you’re all right with that, and we can get with our parents, if that’s the route you want to go later on a large wedding.” He grinned at her. “I’m all for whatever you want. I’m so in love with you that I could burst into song. Which, I’m telling you right now, you do not want to happen. My grandma told me once that I couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket with the lid glued down.”

They laughed and told stories to each other all the way to the house. Once there, she was feeling like they were going too far too fast, and she was chickening out. When Axel put his hand on her leg, she looked at him.

“Nothing needs to happen if you don’t want it to. I swear on my mother’s heart that I would never force you into anything or do anything to you that you don’t want as much as I do.” She let out a long breath. “Honey, we can’t make this work if we don’t talk to each other. All right? I mean, we’re going to fast in this. I’m sometimes overwhelmed as well.” He looked at the house that had a lot of lights around it because of the equipment and supplies lying around. “It’s a lovely home, don’t you think? When I saw it at the auction, all I could think about was that I wanted it. Then when I got it, paying about half of what I thought that I should have, it was like a dream come true. Then you came along and made it the best dream ever.”

“You are a romantic, aren’t you?” They laughed again. “I’m not sure what I want right now. I mean, I do want you, but having a baby because we couldn’t wait just seems stupid on our part. I know that I’m the one that said it, but I’m thinking that it was lust talking, and we need to get our shit together before we bring a baby into this.”

“I agree. Now that I can step back from it all.” He grinned at her. “There are two bedrooms that are finished—as you more than likely know. Neither of them has any furniture in them but they do have nice mattresses in them. The one with the ensuite bathroom is yours. The master, which is still weeks away from finishing up, is close to where you’ll be sleeping. I’ll take the one at the other end of the hall.”

They entered the house holding hands. He had had an alarm system put in and had to tell her the code twice before she got that it was the day that they met. She wasn’t sure how much more in love she could be with this man but he was wearing her down about a lot of things. But were they going too fast? She didn’t know if she wanted to be concerned with that right now. Mac was exhausted, and all she wanted to do was sleep.

As soon as she got her bed made up and was crawling into it, she felt every muscle in her body begin to relax. She didn’t know if it had anything to do with the almost sex or the fact that she wasn’t at home. But almost as soon as she closed her eyes, she was out.

Waking in the middle of the night, she didn’t have any idea where she was. Getting up and staggering to the bathroom with only the moonlight as her light, she remembered that she was in Axel’s home. Or theirs, as he was so fond of telling her. After washing her hands and getting herself back to her mattress, she wondered, not for the first time, if things were just too perfect in her life right now. Always waiting for the other shoe to drop, she laid back down in her bed and closed her eyes. Again, she was out almost as soon as she did that.

~*~

Axel was out getting them some breakfast when he heard from his dad. Glad now that he’d been able to get up early enough to talk to his dad, he told him about the stuff that was going on with Mac’s grandmother.

“Hanna had been arrested because she’d hit an officer when he asked her to turn over her purse. In it, they were able to find two handguns as well as a couple of switchblades. Christ, son, she told the officer that she was going to kill off her son if he didn’t pay her more money. As it is now, she gets about three grand every two weeks from the estate. Who couldn’t live on six thousand dollars a month?” He asked him where she had been living. “In a retirement village. And I don’t have to tell you that they’re glad that she’s gone. They’ve been trying to get rid of her for years. She just bullies her way into making them let her stay, and she wins. I can’t imagine living with her all the time. She’d drive me batty.”

“She’s only been here for a few days and I would think that she’s been driving everyone batty here now. I guess she’s going to have to have a court date. Do you think that I’d be able to represent the family? I mean, I don’t think it’s a conflict of interest, but I’m not entirely sure, as Mac and I aren’t officially married as yet.” He pulled into the driveway only to be disappointed that the workers were already there. But he could see Mac talking to one of the men. “Dad, I think I need to rescue one of the workers. Mac looks like she’s on the warpath right now.”

Dad was laughing when he hung up. Getting out of the car, he made his way slowly to where Mac and the other man were. With his box of donuts in his hand and coffee in the other, he was ready to do whatever was needed to cool things down.

“She’s making our lives more difficult. I wasn’t hired by her, so I don’t know who I should be listening to.” When he looked at Mac, she shook her head just enough where he got it. The man didn’t know that she was his boss, and for whatever reason, she didn’t want him to know either. Not now, at any rate. “She said that she didn’t want carpets in the bedroom. Who doesn’t want carpets in the bedroom? And you said that too, but I talked it over with my wife, and she said that the floor would be too cold to get up and walk to the bathroom.”

“I’ll tell you what I told the foreman of his site, wear slippers. There will be no carpet put down on any of the rooms unless she or I say differently.” He looked at Mac. “Can you think of any room that you’d want carpet in, love?”

“Not a single one. Like you said, wear slippers or socks if you don’t want your feet to get cold.” When she winked at him, taking one of the coffees, he opened the donut box when she held onto his as well. “Are those French crullers? For future reference, those are my favorite. Also, I don’t like coffee. I can drink it, but I prefer iced tea. Thanks for getting this.”

He was all right with ignoring the man while they talked about donuts. He was telling her that his favorite was apple fritters with a glass of cold milk when he was interrupted.

“Do I take up the carpets or not.” He asked him if he’d already laid the carpet. “Yeah, like I said, nobody in their right mind wants no carpet in the bedrooms.” Nodding, Axel looked at Mac.

“You’re fired.” She put her hands on her hips as she continued. “You’ll leave this job site on your own, or I call the police. You were specifically told not to put down carpet, and that is a purchase that neither one of us approved. Now—”

“You can’t fire me.” The man looked at him and twirled his finger around his ear like he was saying that Mac was crazy. That just pissed him off.

Handing the donuts and his coffee to Mac, he drew back and hit the man square in the nose. Watching him fall to the ground backwards made his entire day. When he looked at Mac, she looked as pissed off as he’d ever seen her. He asked her what he’d done.

“I wanted to hit him. You took my fun away.” He told her that he could pick the man up so that she could do it, too. “No, it’s all right. But next time, see if I want to knock the shit out of him first before you do it. You’ve knocked him out, and I wouldn’t have done that with my punch. All right?”

“Yes, ma’am, I can do that.” He called the police to have the foreman, Mr. Benny Courtright, arrested. He didn’t know what kind of charges to press right now, but given time, he was sure that he could figure out something. As he was being hauled away, he found that the kitchen was nearly finished. The refrigerator had been delivered and was set up for them to use. Pulling out the milk and juice that was in it, it must have been Mac who had ordered some things, he was ready to face the day.

“I have two hearings today. One at eleven, the other at four. So I’m going to be late coming home. Will you be all right here? I know you will but I want to make sure that you don’t need anything before I have to go.” She told him not to forget to shop for protection. He told her that he’d already done that while getting breakfast. “Good. I’m still not sure, but it’s good to know that if we are ready, then we’ll have them.” She stretched, and he could have taken her right there on the counter with all the men around. “I have some things I have to do today as well. The building downtown is coming along nicely. I did put carpet in the front room for clients. It was just too hard in the room and cold. I hope that’s all right?”

“Yes. It’s perfectly fine. I just have to make sure that I have it cleaned more often than they did at the other place I worked at. The lobby wasn’t nearly as decorated as the offices were, and people rarely saw those for the conference rooms. I’m so glad that I’m getting out of that place.” She asked him if they’d tried to talk him into coming back. “A couple of calls have come in but I’ve been ignoring them in favor of spending time with you. It’s much more fun.”

“Good. I have to tell my dad about firing Benny. I think he’s the man that he’s been having a little bit of trouble with for a while now. He’ll either be happy or disappointed. I’m not in the mood for him being disappointed in me today. I’m on top of the world.”

After getting a shower, he was going by his condo to change by nine-thirty. As soon as he got to the courthouse, he made arrangements for them to be married. He was serious when he told her that he would have a big wedding later if that was what she wanted. For now, they’d be married in the event that they had unprotected sex for whatever reason.

The first hearing that he had was a quick no-brainer. The man had robbed his neighbor of a great many packages over the last several months. After having his client put in cameras all around his home, he was able not only to catch him stealing his packages but also pissing in his azaleas. He’d been more upset about that than he’d been about the packages. The bush had been from his mother’s home when she passed, and it was dying now. He was awarded more than he asked for, and Axel thought it was because most of the people on the panel had had the same thing happen to them at one time or another.

He was preparing for his second trial when he heard from Mac. Always glad to hear from her, she told him what was going on a the house and how much was being done to finish up both the living room and the dining room.

“Also, Jamie called. The man doing your furniture? He said that he has the table finished with the chairs, and he’ll be bringing them tomorrow. Which is perfect timing as the dining room is ready to get set up. Also, did you know that my parents have the same table, a bit smaller than ours, and they’ve been trying to get rid of the two corner cabinets that go with it? You’ve been in their dining room. You know how crowded it can be.” He asked her if she wanted them. “I do. I have a feeling that we’re going to need the extra room for tableware and such, so that will be perfect. Jamie is going to give them a once-over so that he can make sure that they all match. Also, before I forget, I spoke to your brother Stamos. I had no idea that he was an electrical engineer—anyway, he’s going to come over when the television arrives and hook it up with the stereo equipment that you already got for that room. I love the television, by the way and think that it’ll look wonderful with the furniture surrounding it during the holidays and such.”

“The office furniture has arrived too. It’s been set aside until the office is taken care of. Did I mention that I’m having another office set up in the event that I want to take on a partner? I don’t right now but if it comes down to it, I’ll already have things set up.” She told him he was good at thinking outside the box. “Thank you very much. Have you spoken to your dad yet about Benny?”

“He said his plan for the day was to have fired him and three other men who were working on your house. When Benny was taken away, I guess the other men walked off the site. Dad told me that he thought they were slowing down the progress at the house and was happy to see them gone. I believe him. Without them there as distractions, they were able to finish up those two larger rooms.” He told her that it was beginning to feel like a home to him. “Me as well. When I was out there, I figured out that the pantry wasn’t very large. I hope you don’t mind but I’m having it expanded by taking out that closet that is in the dining room. I didn’t know what that was for anyway.”

“I think that it was a dish closet—at least that’s what my mom called it. But with the two cabinets from your parents’ house, we won’t need it. And you do what you want to the house. I’m just happy not to be spending the rest of my life in a condo.” She told him that she had an apartment somewhere but hadn’t been in it for years. “Years? Sheesh, Mac, I do hope you didn’t have any plants in there that needed attention.”

Laughing, she told him that she’d been subletting it. “Good to know. I’m thinking about doing that with my condo. I don’t want to have to go back there but the income from it would be a nice nest egg should we want to splurge on a cruise or something.” She told him that she had to go but loved that idea. “Good, I’ll make the arrangements to have it cleaned up and rented out. I love you.”

“And I love you very much.” Showing up at the courthouse a little before three, he was asked to sit in on a couple of other trials that were going on, not as an attorney but just as someone who could take some notes on the attorney who was working the cases. He didn’t mind that, but he also told his buddy that he wasn’t going to hold back when telling him what he observed, if anything.

“Good. I never expected anything less from you.” He sat down in one of the many seats that were empty and watched the young woman as she spoke to the judge about her client. Whatever was going on, he thought that she was over stressed about it and needed to chill a bit. Her movements told him that she was either a stick in the mud or she was dealing with more stress than he’d thought. Listening in better, he heard her then.

“Yes, your honor, I know that he was put out on bail. If you remember, I was against that when the other attorney suggested it. Why he had any say in this is beyond me. But the very fact that he’s not here shows the reason why he shouldn’t have been allowed to be free.” The judge asked her something, but he didn’t hear it. “Threatened me? Yes. I’ve made it known to my boss that he’s been threatening me with death since I took the case on. I don’t have any way of making it so that he doesn’t serve jail time with him admitting to the police that he’d killed the young child. His prints and DNA were all over the site. Again, I don’t know why he was allotted bail when there was a murder involved.”

“Give me a minute to look at this file, will you Ms. Author? It won’t take but a few minutes of your time.” She said that she had nothing but time for him. “Good girl. Also, I see Mr. Hathaway in the courtroom. Perhaps you can have a word or two with him concerning this other attorney. I believe he’ll have some information that can help you stay safe, too.”

Just as she reached him, putting out her hand to shake it, the back doors to the courtroom burst open, and gunshots were sprayed all over the room just as he pushed the woman to the floor and lay atop her.

“Debra? Where are you? Come out, come out from wherever you are?” Debra, he assumed, was beneath him, and she begged him not to let her die. It was her birthday today. The man, brandishing the gun, sprayed another round of shots into the room. Since he couldn’t see anything from where he was, he had no idea how the man was still standing when he had a fucking gun. “Debra honey? Come out and play. For every minute I have to wait on you, I’m going to kill one of these people.”

Then, just as another round of bullets took out the glass windows on his side of the courtroom, there was a single shot fired, and everything got eerily silent. He tried to sit up enough to see what was going on but was told not to move. He was able to move his body directly off Debra to allow her to breathe better.

It took nearly forty minutes for things to be straightened out enough that he was able to get up off the floor. He’d been allowed to move so that Debra could be questioned, but he never left her side. Holding his hand, she seemed to be dealing with what had happened much better than he thought that she would have under other circumstances.

“I did file charges against him just this morning. And the judge was…he killed him, didn’t he? Judge Markus?” The officer said that the bailiff, as well as the court stenographer, were also killed. And there were several injured. “I’m so sorry. He would have killed me too if not for the fast thinking of Mr. Hathaway.”

“I just reacted, that’s all. When the doors opened, it was all I could think of was to keep us both safe.”

The officer was a little green, but he was holding up well. It was more than likely his first murderer, as they had so very few in this town. In fact, other than the one that I have a hearing on next, it had been about a couple of decades since anyone had been murdered.

After another hour, he was finally able to see his family. They’d been called about two hours ago, and he was glad to see them. Especially Mac. Holding her while she sobbed into his chest about the fact that they’d only just got together, he told his parents that he was all right and didn’t have to go to the hospital as the gun was never pointed in his direction.