“I’m sorry,” I said again, leaning forward to press my lips against his. Ax grabbed my ass with both hands and slid me to the edge of the counter as his tongue invaded my mouth with sweet and sensual licks.

I felt him harden between my legs, and he groaned, “I missed you this week, Blaire Bear.”

“I missed you, too,” I murmured honestly against his lips.

He lifted me by the waist and set my feet on the ground. “Let’s go upstairs. I wanted to wait until the room was done before I showed it to you, but you seem to be intent on not letting me surprise you at all,” he said, looking at me sideways and raising one brow. “You can see what we’ve done so far and let me know what you think.”

Axel held my hand and led me up the stairs. I smelled fresh paint and sawdust as we turned right at the top of the stairs. “I was going to put her right next to me, but I decided to leave a room in between because I thought we might need a buffer zone.” I guess I looked confused because he elaborated in a whisper, “I didn’t want her to hear… you know . . . bedroom noises. You’re kinda loud, Bear.”

I grinned at him and said, “That’s a little presumptuous. You sound like you think you’re going to get lucky.”

He pressed his mouth to my ear, his warm breath heating my entire body. “Oh, I plan to get very lucky, very often.” The tone of his voice told me that I was going to be the lucky one. “Okay, here we are. I hope she’ll like it,” he said, apprehension creeping into his voice as he turned the doorknob and opened the door.

My eyeballs were blasted with purple. Lots and lots of purple. The walls were covered with a light purple glitter paint, sparkling like they were adorned with millions of tiny diamonds. “Oh, God. She is going to love this with every bit of her sparkly little heart. It’s perfect!” I said and felt Ax let out a long, relieved sigh.

Reagan came out from an adjoining room through a door that looked like it had been freshly cut. I stuck my hand out and said earnestly, “Reagan, I’m so sorry about downstairs. I was… startled.”

She smiled graciously as she shook my hand and said, “It’s okay. If I had walked in and found another woman with my husband, I don’t think I would have been as nice as you. I thought you knew about me and didn’t realize Axel hadn’t told you about the project.” She cut her eyes at him, giving him a stern look.

“He’s just full of surprises,” I said wryly, squeezing his hand and smiling up at him.