Colorado 01 The Gamble (62 page)

His face remained dark and his voice was low
and lethal when he told me, “Not findin’ you funny, babe.”

My body tensed but I felt my eyes get
big.

“Are you serious?” I asked.

“Deadly,” he answered.

We stared at each other silently as it hit
me like a succession of blows to the stomach. I was lying on my
back but I still felt winded.

I had conflicting information about the
state of play with Max’s bank account, but none of it had come from
Max until now.

I took what I knew and I put together the
picture.

I knew how much it cost to rent his house
for a week, it was a small fortune. And what I paid wasn’t even the
top tier of on-peak rent. In the winter months rent was nearly
double what I had paid. If he was only home two months of the year,
and rentals were steady as he said they were, especially in winter,
he made a fortune.

And he didn’t have a mortgage.

And he had two ATVs, a snowmobile, a
motorcycle, a car that needed to be kept under a tarp, a Cherokee
that wasn’t brand new but it was far from old and a
housecleaner.

He might not be loaded but he certainly
wasn’t doing too badly for himself.

What he was was unwilling to let the little
woman contribute to the household finances. He was such a macho
mountain man that he would let his macho mountain man pride stand
in the way of keeping his mountain clean.

Yes, here was the hitch. This was when the
good part of starting out with someone turned bad. I felt the fear
prickle my skin but I was too busy controlling the fury that nearly
blinded me.

“Proud and stubborn,” I whispered, my stare
had turned into a glare.

“What?” he asked, his stare had turned into
a scowl.

Quickly I rolled off the bed and searched
frantically through the clothes we’d tossed on the floor the night
before. Latching onto his thermal, I straightened and struggled to
yank it on, getting caught in the voluminous folds.

“Proud and stubborn,” I muttered from under
the shirt, battling the sleeves.

“Nina, get back into bed.”

I successfully yanked the shirt down and
glared at him.

“Just like your Mom!” I accused, my voice
getting louder.

His already dark face turned that scary dark
and his voice turned into a warning when he repeated, “Nina, get
back into bed.”

“
No!” I snapped. “You can handle me in that
bed, Max, and when you do, I’ll admit, I love it. But when you
aren’t fucking me, you cannot
handle
me.”

His brows snapped together and his voice was
a low, angry rumble when he asked, “What the fuck?”

I rolled the long sleeve on one side up my
wrist and as I did so I leaned forward and fairly shouted, “You!
Macho Mountain Man Max! You cannot
handle
me, tell me the way it’s going to be! Not let me
participate in the conversation! Not let me participate in
our
lives!
” I
finished rolling the sleeve and threw my arm out. “Do you think, if
I lived here, that
I’d
want that
bluff to be desecrated? Do you think
I’d
want a condo on it or a house or a hotel? Do you
think
I’d
want more
traffic on the road, the quiet and peace of this place ruined? Do
you think
I’d
want the
erosion of the mountain that people and building would cause?” I
started rolling the other sleeve and finished on a shout,
“No!
I
don’t want
that! But are
you
going to
give me a choice? Are
you
going to let me help? No again!”

He threw the covers back and I whirled and
bent, digging through the clothes to find my underwear. As I did
this I saw the leg of his jeans slide away and I knew he was out of
bed. I found my undies, snatched them up and twirled, taking a step
back from him as I saw he was close and buttoning his jeans.

I bent over and tugged my panties on,
shimmying them up, abrading my scraped leg as I did but ignoring
the pain.

“
I can plant flowers and buy stuff for the
kitchen. You’re
mad!
” I yelled
as I pulled on my panties.

“It’s my house, babe, my land, my
responsibility. This land has been in my family for over a hundred
fuckin’ years.”

I straightened and faced off with him, still
shouting. “Yes, you told me that and, if this works out like you’re
so darned sure it will, then won’t I be your family?”

His upper body jerked and I knew I’d scored
my point but I kept right on going.

“
You’re absolutely fine money-wise but
you’ll take this hit to have me the way you want me.
Not
the way
I
want
us
and
that’s with
me
being
your
partner, not your little
woman!” I yelled.

“Nina, that’s bullshit,” he clipped.

“It is?”

“We’re done talkin’ about this,” he
declared.

“
Oh, so now that
I’m
right and
you’re
wrong, we’re done talking about this?”

“Nina –”

I shook my head and lifted up my hand,
still shouting, “No, no way. Proud and stubborn. That’s you. I come
here, I slot into
your
life. We
don’t build one
together
.”

He took a step toward me and I took two
quick ones back as he clipped, “God dammit, Nina.”

“I’m glad I know this now, Max, this is good
to know,” I snapped and then I heard a rap on the door and my head
twisted in that direction. From my position in the loft I couldn’t
see who it was but I suspected it was my mother or, if the turn of
my morning luck held true, it was my father and Niles, so I
instantly marched in the direction of the stairs announcing, “I’ll
get it.”

“Leave it, Duchess,” Max growled, catching
my wrist but I twisted it free, not looking at him.

“Go to hell, Max,” I bit off and marched to
the stairs and down quickly, my mind in turmoil, my heart beating
too fast, tears threatening, hope dying and that was the worst. It
always was the worst when hope died.

I made it to the bottom of the stairs and I
knew Max was close behind. I took two steps to the door, belatedly
focused on it and stopped dead.

Standing outside the door, the sun blazing
on a new blanket of white coating the front steps, were Kami,
Shauna and an older woman who looked like Kami. Her hair was a
beautiful, silvery white streaked with Max and Kami’s almost-black
and pulled back in a ponytail. She, like Kami, held extra weight
but not as much as Kami and, even at a glance, I could tell she
wasn’t uncomfortable with it on her frame. She was attractive and
wearing the mountain woman uniform of jeans, poofy vest,
long-sleeved shirt and boots.

Max’s mother.

Wonderful.

I also took in the fact that both Kami and
Shauna were smirking, though Max’s mother was studying me through
the glass, her face unreadable.

They’d heard.

Double wonderful. Darn it all to hell.

Max stalked passed me straight to the door
which he yanked open.

“Now is not a good time,” he announced on an
angry snarl, barring entry with his big body.

“Yeah, we heard,” Kami told him
gleefully.

Yes, gleefully. She was
such
a bitch.

Then she forced her way in, scooting in
between Max and the doorframe. “It’s cold, Max, and we need
coffee.”

With Kami already inside and with no other
choice but to throw her out physically which, in my state of mind,
was a viable option, Max stepped aside for his mother to enter and
Shauna gave him a sweet, satisfied smile, swinging that same smile
to me as she came in too.

Shauna. In Max’s house.

Seeing her smile pinned on me while she
stood inside Max’s door, I felt the pressure build and I stayed
utterly still so as not to let it explode.

“You’re Nina,” Max’s Mom said and I started
then looked to her.

Then I forced myself to walk stiffly toward
her (yes, meeting Max’s Mom wearing nothing but Max’s thermal and a
pair of panties after just having been heard having a fight).

I also tried to force my voice to be kind
but I only managed neutral. “Yes, and you’re Max’s Mom.”

“Linda,” she said on a nod and lifted her
hand.

I took it. Unlike her daughter, her fingers
curled around mine in a warm grip before she let go.

“Lovely to meet you,” I murmured.

She watched me and I saw something flash in
her dark brown eyes, a twinkle, then she doused it so quickly I was
uncertain it was ever there.

She looked at Max and suggested, “Why don’t
you two get dressed? I’ll make coffee.”

“Like I said, Mom, this isn’t a good time,”
Max told her.

“Dressed, Max,” Linda ordered and then she
walked toward the kitchen.

Still smirking, Shauna and Kami
followed.

I decided to take this opportunity to escape
which I did without looking at Max. I ran up the stairs and I
didn’t care what it looked like.

I was in the closet, my cords in my hands,
my mind skittering from awful thought (meeting Max’s Mom during a
fight) to terrible thought (Shauna and Kami being there) to
horrendous thought (Max and me being over) when Max came in.

My intention was to ignore him, an
impossible task when he grabbed my cords, tossed them on the floor
and then his fingers curled into my hips.

I tilted my head back to look at him and
tried to yank my hips from his hands but failed at this when his
arms locked around me. One hand sifted up into my hair and cupped
the back of my head.

“Take your hands off me, Max,” I hissed
quietly.

“Shut it, Duchess,” Max whispered back and
then his mouth was on mine.

The kiss was hard, long and closed-mouthed,
communicating something I didn’t get. I pressed against his hold
and his shoulders while he kissed me but didn’t succeed in getting
away or yanking my mouth from his.

He lifted his head and I stopped struggling
in order to glare at him. His eyes moved over my face. Then his arm
at my waist drifted down to become a hand on my behind then it slid
up, taking the thermal with it.

Before I could protest what his hand was
doing, he whispered, “You were right, honey.”

With my history with men, most specifically
Niles who never listened to me, I found I was unable to process his
words.

“Sorry?”

His fingers slid out of my hair and his hand
went down, also under the shirt, and both of his hands were now
travelling soothingly along my back.

“You were right, I was wrong.”

My mouth dropped open.

Did he just say that? Did Macho Mountain Man
Max straight out admit he was wrong?

I felt the anger flood out of me as the hope
pushed back in and my body relaxed in his arms.

“Sorry?” I whispered.

He bent his head and his lips touched my
forehead where he muttered, “We’ll talk about it later.”

He kissed me sweet then suddenly the thermal
was pulled up, my arms going up with it and it was over my
head.

I stood in nothing but my undies watching
Max walk away pulling the thermal I just had on over his head. Then
he disappeared. And I continued to stand there, staring at where I
last saw him.

He’d just admitted he was wrong. He’d pulled
me in his arms, gave me a hard kiss as his Max-style apology and
admitted he was wrong. And he’d done it last night too, admitted he
was wrong, told me straight out he’d “fucked up”.

I continued to stare at where I last saw
him, letting this penetrate and thinking that the most macho
mountain man thing he’d ever done was have the guts to look me in
the eye and admit he was wrong.

That was when I stood there, staring at
where I last saw him but I did it smiling.

Then the murmuring of voices invaded and my
mind flew to the fact that Max’s Mom was downstairs having heard us
fighting and so, for some insane reason, were the dreaded Kami and
Shauna.

I snatched one of Max’s shirts off the
hanger without even looking at it, shrugged it on and grabbed my
cords. Then I flew into the bedroom, pulled underwear from the
drawer and, seeing the checked flannel of Max’s that I was wearing
(it was checked in gold, brown and navy, perfect to go with my
cords) I grabbed a cream camisole and hit the bathroom.

After I’d done my routine, dressed
(including Max’s flannel, which was huge but also warm, old and
soft from a million washings) and pulled my hair up in a ponytail
at the back of my crown. With no other choice but to go makeup
free, I rushed out of the bathroom and across the loft.

I slowed my progress on the stairs, deep
breathing to calm myself and repeating in my head,
don’t have a go at
either Kami or Shauna in front of Max’s Mom
.

I was in possession of my faculties and
hopefully in control of my mouth when I hit the bottom and turned
toward the kitchen.

Linda was in it, bustling around in what
appeared to be Mom Mode. Both Kami and Shauna were on stools. They
all looked at me when I approached. I couldn’t see Max until I got
closer for he was standing in the recess, hips against the
sink.

“Coffee’s poured, Duchess,” Max told me when
I hit the mouth of the U of kitchen and I saw his head dip to a mug
that was steaming on the counter beside him.

“Thanks,” I muttered, walked to the coffee
and picked it up, feeling all eyes on me and that feeling, needless
to say, was uncomfortable.