“What do I know?” I queried.
His fingers stopped their roaming, one arm locked around my waist, the other hand slid up my spine and into my hair.
His amazing gray eyes didn’t leave mine when he answered gently, “I do too. I said it the other day and I meant it.” His fingers tensed against my scalp. “I’m in love with you, Duchess.”
I stared at him feeling the tears welling in my eyes because the feelings surging through my system were too much for them not to leak out somehow.
“Really?” I whispered as one tear escaped and slid down the skin of my cheek as Max’s eyes watched it mark its path.
Then his hand moved out of my hair to cup my jaw, his thumb sweeping my cheek to dry my tear. Then his warm, sweet gaze came back to mine.
“Really,” he whispered back.
I felt another tear escape and then I bent my head and touched my mouth to his. When our lips connected, Max’s head slanted, his fingers sifted back into my hair to tilt my head the other way and he rolled so he was on top. Through this, his lips didn’t touch mine, they fused with mine, kissing me hard, long, deep, wet and lastly, but most importantly, beautiful.
His kiss was a promise and it was a gift, both the best I’d ever received.
When he lifted his head he cupped my face with his hand and his thumb traced circles at my temple.
“Are we crazy?” I asked him.
“What?” he asked back, lips twitching.
“Are we crazy? Is this crazy? We barely know each other.”
All amusement left his face when his eyes locked on mine and he said, “Love isn’t sane, darlin’.”
“I wouldn’t know,” I admitted softly. “You’re my first.”
I watched with no small amount of fascination as his eyes grew dark and again intense and heated, before he growled, “Thank fuck.”
Then he was kissing me again, his mouth and tongue working wonders, his hands roaming, my legs circled his hips, my fingers moved on the skin and muscle of his back and I liked it all so much, I barely heard the phone ring.
But Max’s head came up when we both heard Harry’s voice fill the loft.
“Max, buddy, it’s Harry. I heard what happened to Nina and… uh… I called to –”
I heard him say no more because Max unfortunately stopped what he was doing, reached out a long arm, yanked the phone out of its charger, beeped it on and put it to his ear.
“Harry,” I watched him say into the phone then I watched him listen and then I watched him go on. “No, you can’t talk to Nina but you can listen to me. Nina and I hadn’t had the chance to talk about Anna and what you said was fucked up and it upset her. It upset her enough that shit went down that led to her gettin’ worked over by Damon. He caught her alone, freaked her right the fuck out and damn near broke her nose and her fuckin’ ribs. That’s on you, buddy. All that shit’s on you.”
“Max,” I tried to cut in but Max’s gaze was directed at the pillowcase beside my head and his focus was directed on whatever Harry was saying.
“I don’t care if you were drunk,” Max went on. “She told me the shit you said and she also told me while you were fuckin’ with her head, you told her you’d do her and you gotta know, I do not like that. That is not cool. You know she’s in my house, you know she’s in my bed and you know better than to say that kind of shit to my woman.”
“Max,” I tried again when he paused to listen but he kept right on talking to Harry.
“Yeah, we got problems. Fair warning, you need to avoid me for awhile and you get anywhere near Nina or I hear you tried to speak with her, our problems will get bigger. Are we clear?”
I lifted a hand and curled it around his neck, his eyes cut to mine, his were very angry and I braved the look on his face, opened my mouth to say something but before I could, he continued.
“I don’t give a fuck about that. What I give a fuck about is you tellin’ me we’re clear. Now, are we clear?”
“Please, Max, I think –” I started, Max’s mouth got tight, his eyes narrowed and his look was so scary, I clamped my mouth shut.
“Advice, Harry, grow a fuckin’ pair. You got somethin’ to say to me, you say it to me. You got issues, you deal with them like a man. What you don’t do is, when my woman or any woman slides her ass on the stool next to you to show you some compassion and kindness, you do not use that opportunity to let go of your shit by breakin’ someone else’s heart. You got a problem with the way your life’s gone down, deal with it without draggin’ someone down with you. Should have told you this a long time ago, Harry, but you need to man up, for fuck’s sake. You need to man… the fuck… up.”
With that, he took the phone from his ear and bleeped it off. Then he tossed it aside on the bed. Then his eyes came back to me.
“Max –” I began again.
“Don’t, Duchess,” he cut me off. “Seriously, don’t. It’s a guy thing. I know you got an opinion about everything but the bottom line is what he did was not cool, he upset you and that led to a string of events where you got hurt. I know it was our shit that led to you gettin’ hurt but what he did didn’t help the situation. It’s my job to protect you. What he did interfered with my ability to do that and I need to make certain that shit doesn’t happen again. I’m doin’ that. It’s a guy thing and you need to know right now, you do not stick your nose into a guy thing.”
“Okay,” I replied, Max stared at me a second then blinked.
Then he asked, “What?”
My hands moved on his back and I repeated, “Okay.”
“Okay?”
“Yes, okay.”
He stared at me again. Then he asked, “Easy as that?”
My hands slid around his sides, up his chest to curl around his neck and I asked back, “Is this important to you?”
“Yeah,” Max answered.
“Then yes,” I lifted my head and touched my mouth to his before dropping my head to the pillow again, “easy as that.”
That’s when, bizarrely, he said one word firmly and that word was, “No.”
My head tilted on the pillow. “No what?”
“No to your earlier question. We’re definitely not crazy.”
I smiled at my man’s amazing, handsome face. My man. And God, I didn’t care if it was crazy, but I loved my man.
The fingers of one of my hands ran along his jaw and I asked quietly, “Can I tell you something?”
The fingers of both of his hands ran along my body as he answered quietly, “You can tell me anything, baby.”
I planted a foot in the bed and rolled him to his back, rolling over him, I looked down at his face as my thumb explored the contours of his cheekbone.
Then I whispered, “There was a time in my life where I used to roll the dice. I did it a lot and I always lost. Every time, I lost and when I lost, I lost everything. So I got scared of rolling the dice.”
My hair was hanging down, curtaining our faces and one of Max’s hands moved to pull one side up and hold it at the back of my head. I watched his face get soft and I knew that he knew what was coming.
So I gave it to him.
“Thank you for showing me it was worth taking a gamble again, darling.” I dropped my head until my lips were against his and finished, “It feels good finally to win and win huge.”
I saw the flash in his eyes and heard the rumble of his growl before his hand at the back of my head brought mine down the fraction of an inch it needed to go before his mouth took mine in another kiss.
Then he rolled me to my back and showed me yet again why taking a gamble on Max, on us, on Colorado and on life was absolutely worth it.