Colorado 01 The Gamble (49 page)

“’Night, Max,” I whispered back.

Then I fell asleep in Max’s t-shirt, in
Max’s bed, in Max’s house and in Max’s arms and I did it before it
fully penetrated my brain how I felt.

Not scared at all.

Settling

My eyes drifted open and I saw the wall of
Max’s chest.

I was held tight to his side, my cheek on
his shoulder and my arm was draped across his belly. It was either
dawn or clouds were covering the sun for it was morning and there
was light but it wasn’t the sunny Colorado mornings I had swiftly
become accustomed to.

It struck me that I felt rested, not like
I’d spent the craziest week of my life, but like I’d just had a
week on a beach with nothing to do but sit in the sun, read a book
and, if the spirit moved me, go play in the water.

And I knew it wasn’t the three orgasms (one
in the sauna) that I’d had last night.

It was something else, or a bunch of
something elses.

And I knew all of them, every last one and I
decided to take that quiet me-awake/Max-asleep morning time,
finally, to sift through them in my head.

Those something elses included Max calling
me Duchess, not as if he’d christened me that name eight days ago,
but like he’d called me that since birth.

And they included Max holding me while I was
gripped in a fever, trembling with the chills.

It was Max making me oatmeal and telling me
he’d never give me a reason to take a timeout and, if I took it
anyway, he’d phone.

It was buffalo burgers and the fact that he
ordered them for me, not because he was domineering (or not
entirely) but because he knew they were delicious and he wanted to
give that to me. Coupled with that, it was the fact that he made
sure I had an ale when he found out I didn’t drink lager.

It was Max sharing his beautiful bluff and
having his picture taken with me, a picture where he did, indeed,
look happy. And so did I.

It was Max teaching Damon a lesson after
Damon hit me.

It was him taking care of Mindy, talking to
Bitsy for the police, on his back under his Mom’s sink because she
needed it fixed.

It was Max hearing me tell Sarah I liked her
earrings and going to buy them for me and, after finding out I’d
already bought them, bringing home the ring.

It was his voice when he spoke of Charlie,
as if he respected him and he’d never even met him.

It was because he had my back with my Dad,
found my Mom amusing and got along with Steve.

It was because we fought all the time and he
was right, I enjoyed it. It was challenging, he made me think, kept
me on my toes. He wasn’t boring, staid and predictable. He didn’t
let me walk all over him. He was honest and if something was on his
mind he shared it even if it would anger me or he was calling me
out on one of my many neuroses.

It was also because Max seemed not only to
have patience with my many neuroses but most of the time he thought
they were cute.

It was because he knew how I took my coffee,
he held my hand, he kissed my forehead and he draped his arm along
the back of the booth when we were sitting together.

It was Max telling Mindy she was loved; she
just didn’t get how much.

It was because he was a good kisser and
better in bed.

It was because he held me when we slept,
like right then, his arm under my body, wrapped around me, holding
me to his side as if, even in sleep, he had no intention of ever
letting me go.

Even with all that, I knew I would never be
the love of Max’s life. I knew someplace deep he’d already had that
and in that deep place it also hurt knowing I’d never be that for
him. If it worked out with us, I wouldn’t ever be the love of
anyone’s life. But that wasn’t what bothered me. It was that I
wouldn’t be that person for Max. Especially Max.

But I also knew it had taken him ten years
to find someone he’d like to explore sharing his life with again.
And he’d made it clear that someone was me.

So I would never be what Mom was to
Steve.

But being Max’s second chance at something
good was better than anything else I’d ever experienced. Nothing
else even came close.

If I gave it a chance it would be settling,
definitely.

But I decided, pressed to Max’s side, in his
bed, in his A-Frame in the Colorado Mountains, after living the
craziest week of my life and going through what we went through
yesterday and still waking feeling rested and safe, I could settle
for that.

Sweetheart, you’re selling
yourself short,
Charlie
warned in my head.

Go away,
I replied and shifted up, my decision made
which might be stupid, insane and irrational, but I no longer had
it in me to care. I put my mouth to Max’s amazing chest and I
trailed it down to his nipple. Once there, I flicked it with my
tongue.

Max’s fingers slid in my hair and I heard a
drowsy-husky-gravelly, “Honey.”

I’d forgotten about that so I added it to my
list. It was also the fact that Max called me “honey”, “baby”,
“darlin’” and “babe”.

Not to mention his gravelly voice.

I didn’t lift my head when I heard him
speak, just moved over him, straddling his body and adding my hands
to my discovery.

I took my time and Max let me. Over to his
other nipple where I played then down where I ran the tip of my
tongue along the ridges of his belly. All the while my fingers
moved along the contours of his chest, his sides then down to his
hips.

I moved down too, my body and my mouth. He
opened his legs for me and I positioned myself between them,
curling small, I wrapped my hand around his hard shaft and swirled
the silky tip with my tongue.

“Fuck, baby,” Max groaned, his fingers
sliding back into my hair and fisting.

Encouraged, I swirled and swirled and
swirled then opened my mouth over him and sucked him inside, as
much as I could take and I liked every inch I could get.

Max’s fist twisted in my hair and he
growled, “
Fuck.
”

I was guessing he liked it too.

Taking him deep, I decided I liked more than
the taste of him, the feel of him in my mouth. I liked knowing how
much he liked it so I slid him out and sucked him back in again and
again and again.

Max’s other hand went into my hair and
suddenly, when I slid him out, his hips surged up, filling my mouth
so full, I nearly took all of him. Then he pulled out and surged
back in again and again and again.

It was Max taking over, as usual, Max
being domineering and it was
delicious
.

So delicious, I felt the tightness and wet
of excitement gathering between my legs and I moaned against his
shaft.

When I did, he pulled out of my mouth, his
hands left my hair, they went under my arms and I was yanked up and
over him. I didn’t get the chance to process this quick change of
circumstances, he knifed to sitting and then before I knew it my
t-shirt was gone. Then he rolled me to my back on the bed and my
underwear was gone. Then he somehow maneuvered me so I was
straddling his face but was facing his hips.

“Wrap your mouth back around me, Duchess,”
he growled from between my legs before I had time to come to terms
with my position which under normal circumstances this early in a
sexual relationship might be a little daunting. But I felt the
vibration of his words between my legs and I liked it a lot, enough
to forget to feel daunted.

I leaned down and did what I was told. The
instant I did, Max’s hands went to my bottom, he pulled me down to
his mouth, my knees slid out to the sides and he returned the favor
and the very idea of daunted was history.

It was spectacular, so spectacular it took
every bit of concentration to keep giving him what I knew he liked
when he was giving me what I absolutely adored. He groaned against
my sweet spot, I moaned against his cock. It was taking and it was
giving and it was sublime.

I was close to climax, I knew it, I wanted
it and I worked him faster because of it.

He lifted me up and half-rolled, half-tossed
me to the side. Then he opened the nightstand drawer and grabbed a
condom. Once he turned back to me, he wrapped a hand around my
ankle and I gasped with surprise and excitement as he dragged me,
spread-eagled between his knees in the bed.

I sat up as he pulled the condom out of its
wrapper and tossed the packet aside.

“Hurry,” I whispered, my hands moving on his
body as he began to roll it on.

“You’ll get my cock, baby, lie back,” Max’s
voice was hoarse and his eyes were not on his task, they were on
me.

I waited and dropped my head to watch his
hand at work. He really was beautiful
everywhere
.

It had only been a second but I decided he
was taking too long.

“Max, hurry.”

“Lie back, Duchess,” Max growled. “I wanna
see you naked, spread on my bed.”

My gaze went from what his hand was doing to
his face. I caught his beautiful but hungry gray eyes and I sucked
in breath.

Normally I was uncertain how I felt about my
body and didn’t give it much thought. Though I was certain I didn’t
like flaunting it naked.

At that hungry look in Max’s eyes, I forgot
I didn’t like flaunting.

So I whispered, “Okay,” and laid back.

He leaned into me, one hand in the bed, one
hand wrapped around his shaft. Then he slid the tip though the
wetness between my legs, all the while his eyes roamed my face and
down my body.

“Come closer,” I urged.

“In a second.”

He kept sliding his cock against me, rolling
it over my sweet spot and all around, making me tremble and shift
with impatience, my hands going anywhere on his body I could
reach.

“Come inside,” I begged, bending my knees
and putting my feet in the bed to get closer to him while capturing
his hips and giving them a tug.

“In a second, baby.”

“Now, Max.”

“I like that,” he gritted, his head was
bent, watching what he was doing then it lifted and his gaze locked
on mine. “Beautiful.”

He was right, so very right. I still wanted
him inside.

The tip of his shaft rolled over my
ultra-sensitized sweet spot again, the feel of it shot straight
through me, it felt great but it wasn’t near enough and I lost
patience.

“Max!”

I watched as he grinned slow and slid inside
slower. My neck arched back.

Max’s body covered mine and his hips moved
in a slow, sweet rhythm while he wrapped my good leg around his
back and I wrapped my bad leg around his thigh.

His mouth came to mine but he didn’t kiss
me, instead he murmured, “So sweet, Nina, Christ, you feel so
fuckin’ sweet.”

One of my hands trailed his back, my
fingernails grazing as the fingers of my other hand slid into his
hair.

“I need you to go faster, darling,” I
whispered against his mouth but he shook his head and pulled out,
stilling with only the tip inside. “Max,” I breathed, wanting him
back.

“You like my cock,” he stated somewhat
arrogantly and after he did his teeth nipped my lower lip which
felt wicked and sexy so I decided to forgive him for being
arrogant.

“Yes,” I replied, “I like all of you but
right now that’s my favorite part and I want it back.”

I was concentrating on what was happening
between my legs so I missed Max’s body going tense.

Then he asked, “You like all of me?”

I was in such a state, I didn’t think before
I replied, “Yes.”

He slid inside, my eyes slowly closed then
he slid back out so I only felt the tip and my eyes slowly
opened.

“Max.”

“What do you like best?”

My attention was elsewhere so I had to ask,
“What?”

“What do you like best? About me.”

“Max.”

“You want it, Nina, you gotta –”

“
You know how I take my coffee,” I said
swiftly and when his body didn’t move, indeed, when he stared at me
like I’d grown a second head, I desperately went on. “And you
bought me buffalo burgers, you call me ‘honey’, you kiss my
forehead, you took me to your bluff and the ring is beautiful and
thoughtful and may be the best gift anyone’s ever given me,
now,
please
–”

He didn’t let me finish, he drove inside and
he kept doing it, not a slow, sweet rhythm this time, but fast,
hard, rough with his mouth locked to mine and our tongues
clashing.

My legs tightened and my fingernails stopped
grazing and started digging as it built back up and then, without
warning, overwhelmed me.

“You’re there, baby,” he muttered against my
mouth and he was right, I was there, my lips parted in a silent
moan and I heard him go on. “Christ, Nina, your pussy feels so
fuckin’ beautiful when you come.”

“Max,” I whispered as the climax he gave me
continued to engulf me.

“Right here, honey.” He kept driving deep,
hard and fast but his breath was ragged.

My arms and legs locked around him because
he was right there, as close as he could get and I wanted him there
forever.

I came down, holding him close, kissing him
deep as he kept thrusting until he planted himself to the root,
stayed there and growled in my mouth.

Yes, I wanted this forever.

I kept Max locked in my limbs as he started
drifting in and out of me, he kissed my mouth, my jaw, my neck then
rolled to his back, taking me with him and keeping us
connected.

His hands glided along the skin of my back,
over my bottom, aimless and soothing and I lay on top of him, my
face pressed into his neck. I gave him all my weight not because my
recent decision weighed on me. No, that made me feel weirdly free.
I gave it to him because I couldn’t hold it and I knew he was
strong enough to take it.