Jagged (Colorado Mountain #5)(66)

I was there because he wanted to make sure I was all right.

“Brave face, baby, I love that you got it in you to do that but you don’t have to put that shit on for me,” he replied.

I took in a breath, then dropped my head forward so it landed on his chest.

“She still has the power to hurt me,” I said there.

“I get that,” Ham replied, moving his hand from the door so he could wrap it around the back of my neck.

And he would get that, since I’d explained all about it back when Xenia got hurt and Ham, I was finding, didn’t forget anything.

“I don’t understand her,” I shared.

“Means you’re gonna make a great mom,” he stated and I pulled back to look up at him.

“What?” I asked.

“My guess, you spent a lot of time thinkin’ on it. My guess, if by now you still don’t get it, there wasn’t somethin’ in your history with her that explained it. So my guess is, she was just shit at bein’ a mom and if you don’t get how she could do that, then you know how to be a good mom. Reckon that’s the hardest job in the world just as it’s the easiest.”

I felt my brows draw together as I informed him, “That’s a contradiction, Ham.”

“Nope,” he returned immediately. “You love a job, no matter how hard it is, it’s still easy. Not sure, never studied up on the guy, could be wrong, but I reckon Michelangelo didn’t wake up and think, ‘Fuck, I gotta drag my ass outta bed. More painting at the Sistine Chapel. Wish that shit was done so I could get to a f**kin’ beach.’”

His words made me laugh and move into him, pressing my hands against his chest and pressing everything else close.

When I quit laughing, I told him, “Okay, that makes sense. And it’s very wise, Mr. Reece.”

His brows shot up. “Now I’m Mr. Reece?”

“Bruiser drags me to bed. Mein herr bosses me around. And Mr. Reece is like a life professor, smart and generous with his wisdom.”

His eyes got dark in a way I felt all through my body and he pressed me into the door.

“Right, we were in here for me to take your pulse. Now we’re in here so I can f**k you against the door,” he stated, his voice jagged, and I felt that all through my body, too, but I shook my head.

“I’ve got booze to sell,” I reminded him.

“You can sell it in fifteen minutes,” he muttered, his face disappearing in my neck as his hand slid over my ass.

“Fifteen minutes? Is that all I get?” I asked.

His teeth nipped my earlobe, his hand squeezed my ass, and his other hand, which I’d lost track of, was at the side of my breast and his thumb slid out, grazing the underside.

I shivered.

“All it’ll take,” he whispered into my skin as his lips slid up my jaw.

I wanted that, but I needed more.

“I’m thinkin’ about giving Bruiser whatever he wants later, however he wants it, however long it takes him to get it. If he takes it now, that might not work out that great.”

His head came up and his eyes burned into mine. “Whatever I want, however I want it, as long as it takes me to get it?” he asked.

“You got it.”

His lips dropped to mine and I could feel them smiling as I saw his eyes doing the same. “You need to sell booze now.”

“Right,” I replied and I knew he saw my eyes smiling because my lips were doing the same.

He pulled me into him and kissed me, wet, hard, a promise of good things to come before he lifted his head an inch and looked in my eyes.

“You sure you’re good?” he asked gently.

Every day in what seemed like a thousand ways, I fell deeper in love with this man.

I didn’t share that.

I nodded. “Yeah, darlin’. I’m fine. Thanks for comin’ to my rescue.”

“Anytime, baby.”

I grinned at him.

Ham grinned back.

Then we got to work and I kicked ass selling drinks to earn Ham his bonus, which was double good since it earned me more tips.

But I did it taking time while they were still there to gab with my girls and noticing that, when I wasn’t at their table and I caught her studying him, Maybelle was looking at Ham a little bit differently.

Then again, he’d vaulted over a bar for me.

It wasn’t chasing a guy fifteen blocks and beating the crap out of him.

But it was nothing to sneeze at either.

* * *

“No,” I breathed my denial, pressing back against Ham.

I was on my knees, Ham on his behind me, his body pressed the length of mine. Ham had one of my br**sts in his hand, his fingers doing amazing things with my nipple. I had my fingers linked behind my head and my knees were spread wide.

Ham had my toy.

He’d just taken me almost there with my toy, only to not let me go there by taking the toy away.

“I need it back, baby,” I begged and his thumb dragged against my nipple, pulling at it hard. My h*ps jerked and I whimpered, “Ham.”

“Not yet,” he denied.

I tried another tactic.

“Okay, then I need your cock.”

“Not yet,” he repeated and I wriggled back into him but stopped when his finger met his thumb at my nipple and he pulled sharply.