Colorado 01 The Gamble (50 page)

I liked that about him too.

“Duchess?” he called.

“Mm…” I answered and his fingers tensed into
my skin then they started gliding again.

“When you were sick, saw birth control pills
in your bag.”

“Yes?”

“You on the pill?”

“Yes.”

His hands stopped gliding and his arms
wrapped around me. “Next time, baby, don’t want anything between
us. Yeah?”

I had missed two pills while I was sick so I
doubled up for two days after. I had no idea if this strategy would
work and I didn’t care. Max didn’t want anything between us, I
didn’t either.

“Yes.”

His arms gave me a squeeze.

I raised my head and looked down at his
content, amazingly handsome face that, if this worked between us,
could be mine.

This thought washed over me in a way that
was so gorgeous, so warm, I automatically lifted up further and put
a hand to his face, using my fingertips to memorize the contours of
one side, his cheekbone, his temple, his hairline, his lips. It
didn’t feel as good as it looked but it was close.

I was sliding the backs of my fingers along
his stubbled jaw when he spoke.

“You okay?”

My eyes went to his and I saw his were
searching.

“Mm hmm,” I answered.

His mouth twitched and he muttered, “I got
morning but naked Nina Zombie sittin’ on my cock.”

I shoved my face in his neck again.

“Mm,” was my response.

I felt his body move with silent laughter
then he said, “I’m gonna shift you off me, darlin’. While I’m gone,
you move from this bed, I’ll –”

“I won’t move,” I murmured my assurance.

He was silent a moment before his arms gave
me a squeeze and he called my name. “Nina?”

“Yes?”

“You sure you’re okay?”

I nodded. “I’m good,” I cuddled closer,
“very good.”

I felt his body grow still under mine then
his arms got tighter.

“How good are you?”

I snuggled even closer and answered, “Max,
I’m very,
very
good.”

He was silent again then his hand slid up my
spine and sifted into my hair, cupping the back of my head and
holding my face close.

“Thank, fuckin, Christ,” he muttered,
keeping me close for awhile before he rolled me to my good side,
pulling out at the same time. He got up on an elbow but leaned
down, kissed my temple and then he left the bed.

I was curled on my side, parallel to the
pillows and I crawled back under the sheets and curled again with a
pillow held to me.

I watched Max walk out of the bathroom naked
and I decided I liked that too.

He pulled the covers up a bit, yanked the
pillow out of my arms, tossed it to the head then replaced it with
his body.

This was much better.

He gathered me in his arms, sliding a thigh
between my legs so I hooked one on his hip and pressed close, my
hands at his chest.

“What happened?” he asked.

“What?” I asked back.

“You’re different,” he observed.

I was. And maybe he wouldn’t like me
different. Maybe, when the thrill went out of the chase because
there was no chase, he’d lose interest.

All my contentment vanished and I felt my
body get stiff.

“Shit, there she goes,” he muttered.

I stuffed my face in his throat and lied in
order to cover my sudden fear. “I just remembered what’s on this
morning’s agenda.”

He was quiet a moment then his arms gave me
a squeeze. “Fuck. Yeah. Jesus, I forgot all about that.”

I tipped my head back to look at him and he
dipped his chin down to catch my eyes.

“Maybe we can go on the lam, head to
Mexico,” I suggested.

He grinned at me but replied, “Nothin’s
chasin’ me off my mountain, Duchess, not even your dick of a
Dad.”

I sighed and then pressed my face in his
throat again. “It was just an idea.”

Has fingers slid through my hair before he
told me, “You say what you gotta say and then we’ll get the fuck
outta there.”

I nodded. “Okay.” Then tipped my head back
and noted, “Since what I have to say will take approximately five
seconds, we should eat breakfast here. Do you know what time we’re
supposed to be there?”

He rolled, taking me with him and twisting
his head to look at the clock then he rolled us back into place and
said, “Eight o’clock.”

I didn’t catch a glimpse at the time so I
asked, “What time is it now?”

“Six thirty.”

I felt my eyes get wide and my body jerked.
“Oh no! I have to start getting ready!”

I tried to pull out of his arms but this
not only didn’t work, he rolled again, this time
into
me so he was mostly
on
me.

Then he shoved his face in my neck and
announced, “They don’t get fancy Nina.”

Then I felt his tongue where his
gravel-voiced words just sounded and goose bumps came up on my
skin.

“
Max,
everyone
gets fancy Nina,” I informed him, ignoring the goose bumps.
“I
am
fancy Nina.”

His hands started moving on my body and his
lips slid up to my ear. “They can get wet-haired, makeup free
Nina.”

I gasped, not in shock at his words, in
something else when his fingers curled around my breast.

“Max –”

His mouth came to mine. “Shut up, baby, and
kiss me.”

“Max –”

His thumb swiped my nipple and he repeated
his demand, “Kiss me.”

His thumb swiped back and I did what I was
told.

* * * * *

“Nina, Jesus, babe, get a move on!” Max
shouted from downstairs.

“Be right down!” I shouted back and I looked
at myself in the mirror above the bathroom basin.

Getting ready, I noticed that bruises had
risen around the scrapes on my leg and it ached in a dull way. That
was the bad news.

But the good news was, no one could see that
with my jeans on and the bruise on my cheekbone was mostly faded
and light makeup covered it completely. This was good because I
didn’t want Niles to see the bruise and jump to the same
conclusions Dad did.

I grabbed my empty coffee mug which had been
filled and brought up to me by Max. This was after Max had made
love to me (again), slower this time and with nothing between us
which, even for me, felt better. Then Max went downstairs, made
coffee, came back, we had a shower (together again), he’d gone back
downstairs, brought up two full mugs and shaved, wearing nothing
but a pair of jeans while I stood at his side putting on my makeup.
I found, although it was single basin sink, the counter was wide as
was the mirror so dual occupancy was quite comfortable. Not to
mention nice.

Especially when I could see Max’s chest in
the mirror
and
right beside
me.

Ready well before me, he’d left to do Max
things which I discovered, when I’d left the bathroom to go get my
clothes, didn’t include making the bed. But on the way back to the
bathroom when I looked out the windows, I noted it did include
shoveling the steps to the house. So I made the bed, got dressed
and did my hair.

Max could be dictatorial or, I should say,
just plain
was
but I was
ignoring his wet-hair, makeup-free edict. As ever, “fancy Nina”
would be in attendance at the breakfast meeting that day. This was
habit but it was also the fact that I was confronting my Dad and I
needed fancy Nina. Fancy Nina didn’t take anything from anyone
(anymore). I’d never tried out wet hair, makeup free Nina. There
was no telling what she’d do. She might be a wimp, who
knew?

So I’d put on a designer sweater I’d bought
at Harvey Nichols. Full price, it was a small fortune but it had a
snag so it had been marked down and then put on sale (and I had a
friend who was a dab hand at knitting so she fixed it and you
couldn’t even tell). It was a soft taupe with a hint of rose,
loose-weave and a bit see-through. It had long, wide sleeves, a
deep vee neck that showed serious cleavage and a fair amount of
chest thus it necessitated a camisole. Therefore I wore a fitted
white one under it which only seemed to pronounce the cleavage. I
also wore my Colorado adventure jeans, my high-heeled tan boots and
the silver earrings and matching ring Max bought me. In fact, I’d
never taken Max’s ring off.

I walked into the bedroom and saw it was two
after eight. It took fifteen minutes at least to get to town. We
were going to be late.

Normally this would put me in a panic. I
didn’t like to be late nor did I like it when others were late,
late was the worst, unforgivably rude. But since this was my Dad
and he was a jerk, I didn’t much care. Though, to be fair, it
wasn’t nice to make Niles wait however, to be unfair, I wondered if
he’d even notice.

I scurried to my suitcase and gathered some
clothes for the laundry, lights but I didn’t have enough so I
opened the walk-in closet and found a massive pile of Max’s dirty
clothes strewn all over the closet floor.

I stared at the mess, deciding he seriously
needed a hamper.

I picked through them, finding not many
lights so I gave up on the lights, dumping them in a tidy-ish pile
in the closet. I grabbed some darks, Max had loads of darks, going
back to my suitcase to get my own.

“Nina!” Max shouted.

“Coming!” I shouted back and rushed to the
stairs.

I went directly to the back room, shoved in
the clothes, measured in soap, turned on the washer and heard
voices.

I walked out, still carrying my empty coffee
mug and turned the corner to see Max in the kitchen, talking to a
plump, petite woman with mouse brown hair which I decided in an
instant would look fabulous with highlights.

I walked toward them, my heels sounding on
the wood floors and Max’s eyes came to me then they dropped to my
cleavage and stayed there. I ignored Max and looked into the warm,
brown eyes of the woman to see she was smiling at me

“Hi,” I said.

“Hiya,” she said back.

“Babe, this is Caroline, Caroline, you’ll
probably remember Nina,” Max introduced.

“Hi Caroline.”

“
So
cool
to
meet you!” she exclaimed. “Last week, you were o-u-t,
out
. Never seen
anyone that out and my kids get sick all the time. You even slept
through me vacuuming, not just down here but the rug
under the
bed.
” I stared at her in
horror when she informed me of this tidbit but she just kept
talking. “Good to see you’re feelin’ better.” I’d hit the mouth of
the U of the kitchen and once I did I lifted my hand to pull my
hair away from my face to hide my embarrassment that she’d vacuumed
around a bed I’d been o-u-t out in, opened my mouth to say
something but her eyes zeroed in on my hand and she cried, “Oh my
God! You have Jenna’s ring!”

Before I could react, she rushed forward and
grabbed my hand, pulling it down and yanking it to her.

“Um…” I muttered, her head snapped up from
her study of my ring and I saw she was wearing no makeup and she
had the most beautiful peaches and cream skin I’d seen in my
life.

“Jenna only makes these special and they
cost a fortune!” Caroline cried out this information in an excited
tizzy. “She says it’s ‘cause they’re a pain in the ass to make,
seein’ as they’re rings and all. They cost more than the earrings
which are a whack. I don’t get it, it’s less silver but what do I
know? I’m no jewelry designer,” Caroline told me.

“Um…” I mumbled again, not knowing what to
say about the fact that Max bought me a ring that cost a fortune. I
knew how much the earrings cost; if the ring was more that was
saying something.

But Caroline didn’t give me the chance to
say anything, she kept right on going.

“I’ve wanted those earrings for ages, had my
eye on them for… ev… er. I keep startin’ to save and then shit
happens. Still, I hope someday to live the dream.” The entire time
she spoke, Caroline did it through a big smile. “The ring, shoo! No
way!”

For some insane reason, I told her, “Max
bought it for me.”

At this news, her eyes bugged out and her
mouth dropped open.

Then she twisted her torso to look at Max
still holding my hand and she practically shrieked,
“
Killer!
I
love
this!”

My mind was racing to find a way to make
this news a little less “killer” and thus stop it from being spread
around town when her fingers curled tight around my hand, she
turned back to me and shook it with excitement. At that my hopes
were dashed and I knew this would be all over town in a matter of
hours. Maybe minutes.

“Caro, you wanna let Nina go? We gotta get
into town,” Max said and I knew from his voice he was grinning and
also he didn’t mind if news of his ring on my finger was around
town within minutes.

“Oh, right,” Caroline muttered and dropped
my hand then swept my empty mug out of my other one. “I’ll take
that, you two get.”

“Nice to meet you,” I said to her.

“Right back at ‘cha, sister,” she said to
me, turning toward the sink and I decided that I was definitely
going to like Caroline. She had great skin, warm eyes and any woman
who calls other women “sister” was a woman you’d like.

Max caught my hand, I quickly grabbed my
purse from the counter and Max led me to the closet. Then he opened
it, grabbed my coat and helped me put it on. Then he took my hand
again and without putting on a jacket he led me to the door. He
was, by the way, wearing a pair of jeans, boots and a heavy, navy
blue, flannel shirt over a white thermal.