Colorado 01 The Gamble (34 page)

“Why’s Mickey been here?” Brody asked and I
felt Max’s body get tight against mine.

“Mins?” Max called and Mindy nodded so Max
carried on with a one word answer that was obviously meant to
explain all. “Dodd.”

It apparently did for Brody nodded.

“He needs you for Bitsy,” Brody guessed.

“That and he wanted my alibi,” Max informed
him.

Good-natured, teasing Brody disappeared and
his heavy, auburn brows snapped together dangerously before he bit
out, “What the fuck?”

Here we go again,
I thought.

“Brody, it’s fine. He’s talked to a lot of
people,” Max assured him.

“
Yeah, but
you?
” Brody was still unhappy.

“Can we go in?” Mindy butted in. “I need a
soda or somethin’.”

“Yeah,” Max said, his arm coming from around
my waist but I felt his finger hooking, this time in a back belt
loop of my jeans and putting pressure on to propel me forward.

“Doubt Mickey’ll come up on a vandalized
car, not when he’s workin’ a murder,” Brody noted as he walked
beside us up the steps. “Probably send Jeff or Pete. Still, gonna
have words with him ‘bout visitin’ you for an alibi.”

“Let it go,” Max said softly but firmly,
sliding his key into the lock at the front door. “He’s just doin’
his job.”

Max opened the door and pushed me in front
of him but I still saw the look Mindy and Brody
exchanged.

“I’ll get the drinks,” I announced, ignoring
their looks, telling myself all this mystery was none of my
business anymore not that it ever was. “Mindy, you want a
diet?”

“Yeah Neens,” she answered, skip-dancing to
a stool.

I shrugged my purse off my shoulder and
plopped it on the dining room table, calling, “Brody?”

“Beer.”

“Max?” I asked when I’d hooked my jacket
around a chair.

“Beer, honey.”

I nodded and hit the kitchen. Mindy sat on
the stool. Brody pulled himself up to sit on the opposite counter.
Max assumed his usual position with hips against the kitchen sink.
I got the drinks and then took my can of diet and went to sit
beside Mindy on the other stool. When I settled in I chanced a look
at Max to see I was right about feeling his eyes on me. He was
watching me and I got the impression he didn’t like that I put
space and a counter between us.

“Stayin’ at Mins’s place in town,” Brody
declared and Max’s eyes went to him. “Gonna look for Damon, have a
word, finalize shit.”

“How much time you get off?” Max asked.

“Gotta be back Wednesday,” Brody
answered.

“Brody and I decided we’re all goin’ to The
Rooster for steaks tonight,” Mindy announced, bouncing twice on her
stool with happiness at this idea and Max’s eyes took her in before
they cut back to me. This was both good and bad. Good because his
eyes cut to me rather than him going to his gun, bad because he
didn’t look happy.

“Made a reservation and Mindy got Bonnie to
cover for her at The Dog tonight,” Brody added.

Mindy turned to me and explained, “The
Rooster’s steaks are
awesome
and you get to
dress up!
”

“Um…” I muttered, feeling the heat of Max’s
stare and feeling the pressure of his unhappiness.

“
I’m wearin’ high heels and this absolutely
fab… you… las top I found at the outlet store. It’s designer but
they mismarked it and I got it for
a song
. You’ll
love
it.”

“That’s great, darling, can’t wait to see
it,” I said to Mindy and then glanced at Max to see he, unlike
Mindy, was not thrilled at the idea of The Rooster and he, unlike
me, could indeed wait to see Mindy’s designer top.

“What’re you gonna wear?” Mindy asked.

“Oh,” I muttered, looking away from Max,
“I’ll find something.”

“If you didn’t bring anything, you could
come into town with me and go through my closet and Becca’s!” she
finished, obviously excited about a girlie closet trawl.

“Um…” I muttered again.

“I’m sure she’s got somethin’,” Max put
in.

“But, maybe she –” Mindy started.

“She’s got somethin’,” Max repeated.

“But a girl’s gotta –”

“Mins, babe, she’s got somethin’,” Brody
said firmly and Mindy looked between the men then at me.

“Okay,” she whispered and grinned at me,
bugging out her eyes.

I grinned back then turned and saw Max’s
eyes go between Mindy and me to look out the window.

“Pete,” he said, pushing away from the sink
and I twisted on my stool to see an SUV with lights on top and a
star on the door rolling down the lane.

“We’ll let you deal with this. Reservation’s
at six thirty,” Brody said. “You wanna meet us in town or you wanna
meet us at The Rooster?”

“Rooster,” Max answered as Brody walked by
his side, still holding his beer, to the front door.

“Gotcha,” Brody replied.

“Honey,” Max called to me when he had his
hand on the door handle, “best get your rental papers.”

“Okay,” I replied, sliding off the stool and
heading to the stairs.

“See ya later, Neens,” Mindy yelled as I
wound my way up the stairs.

“Yes, darling, see you,” I yelled back.

“Nice to meet cha, Nina,” Brody called.

“You too,” I called back.

Then I hit the loft and went to my overnight
bag.

One thing I could say for Damon and his
antics, he’d provided the perfect tactic for avoiding Max’s
afternoon plans.

Still, he was a dick.

* * * * *

I was sitting on my side of the bed
finishing up my call to the rental car agency when Max hit the loft
after sending Brody, Mindy and eventually Officer Pete on their
way.

After I met Pete I decided if I were to
stick around, if Jeff didn’t work out for Mindy I was going to try
to fix her up with Pete. He wasn’t as cute as Jeff but he was still
nice.

Unfortunately it was highly unlikely I’d
find out what Mindy’s future held, since it was highly unlikely
she’d keep in touch after I left Max and Gnaw Bone behind.

I tried not to think of how overwhelmingly
upsetting this was, instead, I told myself I barely knew her. I
didn’t believe myself, not even in the slightest, but that didn’t
stop me from repeating it in my head with hopes it’d sink in.

“That’ll be fine,” I said into the phone as
Max came to a stop, standing in front of me. “Great, see you then.
Bye.”

It wasn’t great, I thought as I touched the
button on the screen to end the call. Seeing as it was late
Saturday, they weren’t sending anyone up until Monday. Which meant
I’d have to come up the mountain to meet them there, unless Max
would let them get to the car without me, seeing as I would, if it
all worked out, be staying at the hotel probably holed up in my
room in an effort to avoid my father and, undoubtedly, curled into
a ball with seven boxes of Kleenex lamenting my hideous luck that
Max could never be mine.

How, a week ago, I had a boring, predictable
life where nothing happened and now everything was a complete and
utter mess, I had no idea. I wasn’t rethinking my decision about
Niles but I was rethinking my Colorado adventure and any future
adventures I might be stupid, insane and irrational enough to
consider taking.

Therefore on Monday afternoon, after the
rental car person left, somehow, some way, I was heading to Denver
and then I was changing my ticket and going straight home.

I could take no more of this.

I put the phone on the nightstand and looked
up at Max. “They’re sending someone Monday.”

“Right,” he replied, standing weirdly close
to me so I had to tip my head back really far to look at him then
he asked, “How long’s it take you to get ready for somethin’ like
The Rooster?”

It was a weird question to which I didn’t
have enough information to provide a response. Furthermore, we had
other things to talk about.

Still, for some reason instead of bringing
up the other things we needed to talk about, I twisted on the bed,
looked at Max’s bedside clock, seeing it was a four thirty. Then I
looked back to him.

“When do we have to leave?”

“From here, in an hour.”

“It takes an hour to get there?”

“Yeah, how long’s it take you to get
ready?”

“I don’t know. How fancy is this place?”

“For Colorado, fancy.”

Hmm.

“Guesstimate?” I told him. “Half an hour,
forty-five minutes.”

His eyes went over my head to the clock then
he muttered, “Not long, but it’s somethin’.”

Then he leaned down, put his hands under my
armpits and suddenly I was lifted, Max’s knee was in the bed, I was
hauled further onto it and then I was on my back, Max on me.

Drat. Just where I didn’t want to be.

Though with his heavy weight pressing me
into the bed, I couldn’t help but think it felt like
exactly
where I wanted to
be.

“Max –”

“Quiet, Duchess, we don’t got time to
talk.”

“Max –” I said again as his lips hit
mine.

“Quiet,” he repeated and then he kissed
me.

I pressed against his shoulders and bucked
my hips, both hopefully since he was big, heavy and, apparently,
determined. My hopes were dashed, he stayed put and his tongue
touched my lips. As much as I liked the feel, which was a lot, I
twisted my head to the side. Undeterred, his tongue touched my
neck.

That felt nice.

“Max.”

“What?”

“There’s something I need to say.”

“Yeah?”

I opened my mouth to say it but his tongue
slid up my neck then traced the outside of my ear as his hand slid
down my side then ducked under my sweater.

“Max,” I breathed since his tongue at my ear
felt nicer than touching my neck, but I breathed it somewhat
loudly.

“What, baby?” he murmured in my ear in his
gravelly voice, my body shivered against my will, his hand slid up
my belly then curled, warm and strong, around my breast.

Oh my God.

That felt beyond nice.

“Max –” I breathed again, a lot quieter this
time, I was losing concentration since most of it was focusing on
his hand and tongue.

“You keep sayin’ my name, Duchess, I’m right
here.” Max was still talking in my ear but then his teeth nipped my
earlobe as his thumb slid over my nipple.

Oh… my…
God.

Of their own accord, my hands moved. One
glided down his back, one went into his hair.

“Nina?” he called as his thumb slid
back.

“Mm?” was all I could say as I felt my
nipple go tight and I felt it in two very good places.

His head came up, his thumb did another
swipe and my hips bucked involuntarily under him, this time not to
push him off.

“You gonna let me kiss you now?” he asked,
sounding amused.

“Unh-hunh,” I answered, unable to form words
because his thumb was now rolling circles around my nipple and that
was indescribably nice.

“Good,” he muttered and kissed me.

And he kissed me for a long time. While he
did it his fingers yanked down my bra and his thumb went back to my
nipple, joined by a finger, the rolling sharper, sweeter,
infinitely so. It felt more than nice, it was bloody brilliant.

My fingers were in his hair, keeping his
mouth to mine. I was kissing him back as my hand pulled his t-shirt
from his jeans and explored, taking its time, memorizing with my
fingertips the feel of him, silky but solid, just like Max, sweet
and strong.

I got lost in his fantastic kiss, in the
feel of his skin, his muscle, in the throb between my legs, I
didn’t notice his hand leave my breast until his hips shifted to my
side and his fingers ran over the zip of my jeans.

“
Max?” I whispered against his lips as his
hand cupped me between my legs, his fingers pressing in and my hips
lifted into his hand as I breathed, “
God.
”

“I wanna touch you, honey,” Max said against
my neck, his deep voice gruff.

“Okay,” I said back instantly, unsure what
he meant seeing as he was pretty much touching me all over already
but I was happy for him to do more of it however that came
about.

Max didn’t explain and he also didn’t
delay.

He unbuttoned the button on my jeans and
slid down my zip then his hand slipped inside. He not only didn’t
delay, he didn’t mess with my panties. He went right in, fingers
against wet, sensitive flesh and the minute he touched me every
nerve in my body zapped to life.

“Christ, I like that,” Max’s voice grated
against my skin as his fingers explored.

I couldn’t be certain at that moment, since
I wasn’t thinking all that clearly, but I suspected I liked it a
whole lot more.

His mouth came back to mine as his fingers
stopped exploring and found the prize. The instant he put on
pressure, I moaned into his mouth and my hips bucked against his
hand, telling him he’d honed in perfectly and hit the target with
delightful precision.

“You like that?” he asked against my
mouth.

“
Yes,” I breathed against his as his finger
put on more pressure and started circling then I breathed again,
“
Yes.
”

It was building fast. He was good, his
finger strong, firm, working miracles and it had been a long time,
too long,
ages.

My hand left his back and slid around his
hip to his front, glancing over his crotch, finding him hard and
liking that so much I felt a rush of wetness between my legs in
response.

He pulled his hips away with a jerk and his
hand slid out of my jeans.

“No,” I whispered, my eyes flying open when
I lost the beauty of his touch.