Free Colorado 01 The Gamble by Kristen Ashley

replied, “All right, you tell
me how old you are, I won’t call you Duchess in front of
Trudy.”
    I looked at the ceiling and asked, “Why? Why
me, Lord? What did I do?”
    My body went stiff and my chin jerked down
when I felt Max’s fingers curl around the side of my neck and I saw
that he’d gotten close. Not only did I see he’d gotten close, his
face had grown soft and he looked amused and the combination was
phenomenal. So phenomenal, I held my breath.
    His eyes dropped to my mouth and my lungs
started burning.
    “Christ, you’re cute,” he muttered.
    “Max!” I heard a man yell, Max’s head turned
and I let out my breath.
    Then Max muttered under his, “Fuck.”
    I looked into the restaurant to see a tall
man with a handsome, open, boyish face, light brown hair and a
lanky frame headed our way. He was smiling.
    At his side walked a tall woman, thin and
utterly beautiful in a very cool way. Flawless skin. Long, ebony
hair, perfectly straight and gleaming, parted severely and then
pulled back just as severely in a ponytail at her nape. She also
wore no makeup. She had on almost the same thing as Becca this
morning except her poofy vest was less poofy and was a muted, sage
green and her shirt wasn’t a thermal, it was long sleeved, ribbed
and dusky blue. She and the man were holding bottles of beer, Coors
Light to be precise.
    Her eyes were on Max and she was not
smiling.
    Then her eyes slid to me and for some
bizarre reason her expression turned glacial.
    “Max, didn’t know you were back in town,”
the man remarked sociably as they made it to our table and
stopped.
    Max slid out of the booth and shook his
hand. “Harry.”
    Harry looked at me and greeted, “Hey.”
    “Hello,” I replied.
    “Nina, this is Harry,” Max said then jerked
his head to the woman and I noticed Max was also not smiling, “and
this is Shauna.”
    Shauna? Shauna with a U of the password on
Max’s computer? No wonder her look was glacial.
    Oh my God.
    “Hello, Shauna,” I said, trying to cover my
surprise and discomfort.
    Her eyes grazed over me and she said to the
wall at my side, “Hello.”
    “Man, it’s packed tonight,” Harry noted,
looking behind him. “They’re clearing our table, you mind if we
hang here with you while they do?”
    Then without allowing Max to answer, he
shoved our coats and my purse to the side and slid in the booth
opposite me. Shauna’s entire face grew so tight I thought it’d
split open but Harry just grabbed her hand and pulled her in,
oblivious to her state of mind. Or maybe he didn’t know his
partner’s name was the password on Max’s computer and all that
implied.
    I looked up at Max and saw just his mouth
had grown tight but his face had grown that scary dark I’d seen the
first night I met him. Nevertheless, without a word he slid in
beside me.
    “So, Nina, you come back with Max?” Harry
asked me.
    “Back?” I asked him.
    “Yeah,” Harry said, grinning a somewhat
goofy grin.
    “Um…” I replied, answering his confusing
question the only way I could, “no.”
    “Nina rented the house,” Max told Harry and
Harry nodded.
    “Yeah, fuckin’ great house,” Harry remarked
then took a drink of his beer.
    “It is,” I agreed, not knowing what to do in
this situation and hoping the icicles Shauna was so obviously
willing to shoot out her eyes and pierce my flesh wouldn’t actually
form.
    “Pretty unbelievable, Max built it himself,”
Harry said.
    I stopped trying not to look at Shauna
without looking like I was trying not to look at Shauna and my eyes
shot to Harry.
    “I’m sorry?”
    “The A-Frame, Max built it himself from the
ground up,” Harry informed me and my eyes moved to Max.
    “ You did?” I breathed, actually breathed . Then
again, I was surprised. And impressed.
    “Designed it too,” Harry went on before Max,
who’d turned his head to me, could reply.
    “He did not,” Shauna put in coldly and I
looked back at them.
    “Well, Rudy