Colorado 01 The Gamble (75 page)

“I did not!” I cried.

Max’s eyes came to me. “Babe, you did.”

I turned again in his arm, looked at
Gladys and announced, “He has the memory of an elephant which you
would
think
is good
for, say, anniversaries and birthdays and such, but day-to-day?” I
shook my head and concluded, “It’s very,
very
bad.”

Max’s arm at my chest gave me a squeeze and
my neck twisted so I could look at him when he spoke.

“You didn’t think that when I gave you that
ring, incidentally a ring you haven’t taken off. You said it was
thoughtful and the best gift anyone’s ever given you.”

My gaze swung back to Gladys and,
harassed, I declared, “See? He remembers
everything.
”

I realized then that both Gladys and Norm
were smiling at about the time I realized that Max and I were
acting like lunatics.

“I don’t think she’s tied up in knots
anymore, Gladie,” Norm observed.

“She is, dear, just not ones she wants to
untie,” Gladys remarked.

“I should make breakfast,” I mumbled,
mortified and to my further mortification when I tried to break
free of Max’s hold it just got tighter and then I felt his lips
kiss my neck.

“Why don’t we make it lunch?” Gladys
suggested, her eyes sparkling, she’d caught the neck kiss but then
again, it would be hard to miss.

“No, I can make breakfast,” I told her
quickly.

“Lunch,” Norm said firmly, reaching a hand
out to Gladys and making a move to the door.

“
We can’t do lunch, Nina has to go to the
Police Station to press charges against Damon,” Max
shared.

“Brunch then, we’ll be back at ten,” Norm
put in.

“Works for me,” Max stated.

“Max!” I hissed on another twist of my neck
to look up at him.

“Ten,” Gladys affirmed. “See you then,
dear.”

Then the door closed behind them. Max let me
go to walk to it, he locked it and then he turned back to me.

When he did, I asked, “How bad is my
face?”

“Worse than when he backhanded you, better
than expected since he connected three times.”

Max said this while stalking toward me. Yes,
stalking. Therefore, I didn’t hear his words because instinctively
I was retreating.

“What are you doing?” I asked as he kept
coming at me.

“Veer right, baby,” he directed and I looked
over my right shoulder to see the door to the bedroom.

Then I looked back, noting my mistake
immediately for he’d gained significantly and was right on top of
me. His hands came to my hips and he veered us right.

“Max,” I whispered.

“I know you’re banged up, honey, so this
mornin’ all you gotta do is lay back and I’ll eat you for breakfast
before we have brunch.”

My stomach dipped and my hands fluttered to
his chest.

“Max,” I repeated but it was breathy this
time. “I’m really tired, I was thinking of getting in an hour of
sleep before they come back.”

We were well into the bedroom and I knew
this because my legs hit bed, I went down and Max came down on top
of me on my healthy side. Then his hand slid into my hair at the
side of my head and his mouth came to mine.

“You sleep while I go down on you, Duchess,
it’s gonna piss me off.”

I felt a quiver between my legs that
radiated outward and I felt my lips quiver too.

“I’ll try to stay awake,” I promised
him.

His mouth left mine but not before I felt it
smile. It slid down my jaw then to my neck.

At my ear, he ordered, “Shimmy out of your
pants, baby.”

“Okay,” I whispered and pulled the
drawstring of my pajamas as his tongue touched my earlobe then the
back of my ear then it slid down and out to the strap of my
camisole on my shoulder.

I shimmied out of my pajamas and undies and
I barely tossed them aside before his hand was between my legs.

“
Wet,” he muttered into my neck then his
head came up as his fingers slid around, I saw his eyes had grown
hungry and the sight made me wetter. He felt it and his mouth came
to mine before he growled, “
Fuck
. I
missed this, baby.”

It had only been two days. It felt like two
hundred years.

“Me too.”

His finger slid inside and a moan slid out
of my throat.

“Kiss me, Duchess,” he demanded and I gave
him what he wanted as he finger fucked me, his thumb pressing at my
sweet spot as his tongue invaded my mouth.

He broke the kiss and muttered against my
lips, “You’re ready.” Max used his hands at my waist to yank me
further up the bed. “Now I want you to open your legs for me,
honey.”

I opened my legs for him then he slid down
and rolled between them.

Then his mouth hit me and he had me for
breakfast and, at least for me, it was unbelievably
delicious.

* * * * *

“
Duchess,” I heard Max call and I blinked
then blinked again then dazedly looked around to see we were parked
in front of the Gnaw Bone Police Station.

I lifted a hand to pull my hair out of my
face then dropped it and turned to the door to see Max standing in
it.

“Did I fall asleep?” I asked stupidly.

Max leaned his torso into the cab and undid
my seatbelt, muttering, “Out like a light.”

“Mm,” I mumbled.

“This’ll be all over town next, Jeff gets
Nina Zombie swearing out her statement against Damon,” Max was
still muttering but also grinning as he straightened and then slid
an arm along my back and helped me hop down from the Cherokee.

After Max had “breakfast” we had a shower
and I got ready. Then we had brunch with Norm and Gladys and after,
exchanged contact information and fond farewells. Then Max and I
packed up the groceries, loaded the Jeep, checked out of the cabin
and Max followed me as we went back to the rental car agency.

The rental car agency, I found out when Max
explained as we were packing up, was the downfall of my heartbroken
getaway considering, when Max got home, found my note and saw all
my stuff gone, he wasn’t too happy and decided he was going to do
something about it pretty much at once. Then again, he didn’t get
home until well after lunch, it took him that long to cool down so
I had a head start.

Deciding I had to get a taxi, Max called
Arlene. Then Arlene called Bill, who was the person at Thrifty’s
who sent the taxi, and told him to tell her who my taxi driver was.
Then Arlene called Alan, my taxi driver. Alan told Arlene, who told
Max that Alan took me to the rental car agency so Max called the
agency. Since by then the rental car agency employees had changed
shifts, Max made more calls and he found out that George knew the
man who owned the rental car agency. George called him, that guy
called his employee at home and his employee told him where I was
staying, the crux of my downfall. He told George, George told Max,
thus Max found me.

The joys of small town living.

When Max arrived at the cabin, he’d been
pounding at the door because, as he put it, “Babe, seriously, you
sleep like the dead,” and eventually thinking he wasn’t going to
wake me with his pounding, he had to open the door with a credit
card.

Yes, a credit card.

Those cabins were very pretty and they’d
done a good job renovating but they definitely needed new locks.
And, perhaps, better outdoor lighting.

After we packed up the Jeep, we turned in my
rental. Then I climbed into the Cherokee and evidently fell fast
asleep.

I had not been in favor of the turning in
the rental car business. I thought it might be good for me to have
a car so Max didn’t have to drive me around everywhere. Max
thought, since he wasn’t working, there was pretty much no reason
he couldn’t take me where I wanted to go and, incidentally, be with
me while I was there. Therefore Max talked me into returning the
car. Or, I should say, Max ordered me to do it and after we argued
for ten minutes, I was too tired to keep arguing so I gave in.

Luckily, he did. It wouldn’t do for me to
fall asleep at the wheel. Though, I was
not
going to share that with Max.

Max still had his arm around me and he
shuffled me to the side then he slammed the door to the Jeep then
he shuffled me back, stepped in until my back was at the Cherokee
and Max was pressed up against my front.

I tipped my head back to look at him, still
partly asleep.

“Lucky you turned in that car, babe, or it’d
be another call to triple A to pull it out of the ditch, you fell
asleep at the wheel.”

God, Max was
so
annoying.

“
You know, I think you’re onto something,”
I told him. “A good way to get rid of Nina Zombie is to be
annoying
. And,
seeing as you’re that way a lot, it’s too bad you like Nina Zombie
because in future her appearances will likely be very
rare.”

He grinned. “You only think I’m annoying
when I’m right.”

“
Yes,” I agreed. “Take, for
instance,
now.
”

He burst out laughing but as he did this his
hand hooked around the back of my neck, he pulled me up to my toes
and his mouth came down on mine.

I’d never had someone kiss me while they
laughed. It was an experience.

A good one.

I’d also never had anyone kiss me (or do
other things to me for that matter) when I had a black eye and a
bruised cheekbone not that I had them very often, just both the
times my ex Brent hurt me. When I saw my face in the mirror that
morning I found Max was right. It wasn’t as bad as it could have
been but it was definitely worse than before. And not exactly
attractive. Though that didn’t faze Max, not in the slightest.

After I’d melted into him, my forearms under
his coat resting parallel along his spine, my hands flat on his
muscled back, his lips released mine but he didn’t move away.

He dropped his forehead so it was resting on
mine and I saw his eyes were serious when he said quietly, “When
you were sick, saw your plane tickets, honey.”

“Yes?”

“You leave Saturday.”

I felt my body lock as I pulled in a soft
breath to fight the sharp, twisting pain in my stomach.

He was right, so much had been going on I
hadn’t even thought of that. Unless I was telling myself I had to
leave, I hadn’t thought of actually
leaving
. In fact, in a weird way it felt strange thinking I had to
leave. Not only did it feel like I’d been in Gnaw Bone a lifetime,
England felt a million miles away.

And leaving meant leaving everything,
everyone, the A-Frame, The Mark, The Dog, Mindy, Becca, Bitsy,
Arlene, Cotton and, most of all, Max.

My flight left in, essentially, two days.
And even though it felt like I’d been in Gnaw Bone a lifetime, I
knew those two days would feel like two seconds.

And after that, what? The idea of a move and
all that involved pressed down on me, especially since I had to do
it without Max and I had no idea when I’d see him again.

What if, in my absence, he figured out I
wasn’t so cute?

My arms tightened against his back and
feeling the pressure of all this weighing down on me like an anvil,
I whispered. “Max.”

“Any chance your work’ll give you another
week?”

Another week? Could it be that easy?

My eyes drifted to the side and that
twisting pain subsided.

Yes, it could be that easy.

Then my eyes drifted back, I smiled and
pressed deeper into him when I said, “Yes. I’ve got loads of
holiday. I’ll call my assistant, get her to shift some things
around. Then I’ll call David, he’s a partner and my boss. He’ll be
okay with it, he likes me.”

Max’s head went up slightly but his brows
drew together sharply.

“He likes you?”

“Yes.”

“How much?”

I was still smiling when I said, “A lot,
seeing as I’m a good employee. His gay partner also likes me. No,
his partner Nigel actually
adores
me but not because I’m a good employee, because I make
fantastic martinis or at least that’s what Nigel says. They like me
so much, they’ve asked me to be godmother to their new Russian
orphan baby.”

Max’s brows had unknit and his body was
pressing me deeper into the truck when he smiled back and asked,
“Did you say yes?”

“Of course, she’s adorable and godmother
duties include buying her ridiculously frilly dresses throughout
childhood and then repeatedly explaining that men are idiots
through her teen years and then she’s honor-bound to come visit me
at the nursing home when I’m old and gray.”

One of his arms came from around me so he
could cup my jaw in his hand and he was still smiling but his eyes
were soft when he said, “Only you.”

“Sorry?”

“Only you,” he repeated.

“Only me what?”

“Only you would have some senior citizen
swipin’ at me with his cane. You knew him a day, he knew I could
break him in two and still, he thought I laid a hand on you and he
came at me. And only you would have a Russian orphan goddaughter
you buy frilly dresses.”

“It’s a godmother duty,” I reminded him.

His hand at my jaw tightened and he
whispered, “It’s Nina.”

The way he said those two words made tears
flood my eyes and my throat feel thick.

Okay so, again, Max had proved my fears
moot. He wasn’t going to figure out I wasn’t cute because the fact
of the matter was, he thought I
was
cute. And apparently there was no shaking that.

“Max,” I warned, my voice sounding as thick
as my throat felt, “you’re being nice.”