I tipped my head back to look at him and he dipped his chin down to catch my eyes.

“Maybe we can go on the lam, head to Mexico,” I suggested.

He grinned at me but replied, “Nothin’s chasin’ me off my mountain, Duchess, not even your dick of a Dad.”

I sighed and then pressed my face in his throat again. “It was just an idea.”

Has fingers slid through my hair before he told me, “You say what you gotta say and then we’ll get the fuck outta there.”

I nodded. “Okay.” Then tipped my head back and noted, “Since what I have to say will take approximately five seconds, we should eat breakfast here. Do you know what time we’re supposed to be there?”

He rolled, taking me with him and twisting his head to look at the clock then he rolled us back into place and said, “Eight o’clock.”

I didn’t catch a glimpse at the time so I asked, “What time is it now?”

“Six thirty.”

I felt my eyes get wide and my body jerked. “Oh no! I have to start getting ready!”

I tried to pull out of his arms but this not only didn’t work, he rolled again, this time into me so he was mostly on me.

Then he shoved his face in my neck and announced, “They don’t get fancy Nina.”

Then I felt his tongue where his gravel-voiced words just sounded and goose bumps came up on my skin.

“Max, everyone gets fancy Nina,” I informed him, ignoring the goose bumps. “I am fancy Nina.”

His hands started moving on my body and his lips slid up to my ear. “They can get wet-haired, makeup free Nina.”

I gasped, not in shock at his words, in something else when his fingers curled around my breast.

“Max –”

His mouth came to mine. “Shut up, baby, and kiss me.”

“Max –”

His thumb swiped my nipple and he repeated his demand, “Kiss me.”

His thumb swiped back and I did what I was told.

***

“Nina, Jesus, babe, get a move on!” Max shouted from downstairs.

“Be right down!” I shouted back and I looked at myself in the mirror above the bathroom basin.

Getting ready, I noticed that bruises had risen around the scrapes on my leg and it ached in a dull way. That was the bad news.

But the good news was, no one could see that with my jeans on and the bruise on my cheekbone was mostly faded and light makeup covered it completely. This was good because I didn’t want Niles to see the bruise and jump to the same conclusions Dad did.

I grabbed my empty coffee mug which had been filled and brought up to me by Max. This was after Max had made love to me (again), slower this time and with nothing between us which, even for me, felt better. Then Max went downstairs, made coffee, came back, we had a shower (together again), he’d gone back downstairs, brought up two full mugs and shaved, wearing nothing but a pair of jeans while I stood at his side putting on my makeup. I found, although it was single basin sink, the counter was wide as was the mirror so dual occupancy was quite comfortable. Not to mention nice.

Especially when I could see Max’s chest in the mirror and right beside me.

Ready well before me, he’d left to do Max things which I discovered, when I’d left the bathroom to go get my clothes, didn’t include making the bed. But on the way back to the bathroom when I looked out the windows, I noted it did include shoveling the steps to the house. So I made the bed, got dressed and did my hair.

Max could be dictatorial or, I should say, just plain was but I was ignoring his wet-hair, makeup-free edict. As ever, “fancy Nina” would be in attendance at the breakfast meeting that day. This was habit but it was also the fact that I was confronting my Dad and I needed fancy Nina. Fancy Nina didn’t take anything from anyone (anymore). I’d never tried out wet hair, makeup free Nina. There was no telling what she’d do. She might be a wimp, who knew?

So I’d put on a designer sweater I’d bought at Harvey Nichols. Full price, it was a small fortune but it had a snag so it had been marked down and then put on sale (and I had a friend who was a dab hand at knitting so she fixed it and you couldn’t even tell). It was a soft taupe with a hint of rose, loose-weave and a bit see-through. It had long, wide sleeves, a deep vee neck that showed serious cleavage and a fair amount of chest thus it necessitated a camisole. Therefore I wore a fitted white one under it which only seemed to pronounce the cleavage. I also wore my Colorado adventure jeans, my high-heeled tan boots and the silver earrings and matching ring Max bought me. In fact, I’d never taken Max’s ring off.

I walked into the bedroom and saw it was two after eight. It took fifteen minutes at least to get to town. We were going to be late.

Normally this would put me in a panic. I didn’t like to be late nor did I like it when others were late, late was the worst, unforgivably rude. But since this was my Dad and he was a jerk, I didn’t much care. Though, to be fair, it wasn’t nice to make Niles wait however, to be unfair, I wondered if he’d even notice.

I scurried to my suitcase and gathered some clothes for the laundry, lights but I didn’t have enough so I opened the walk-in closet and found a massive pile of Max’s dirty clothes strewn all over the closet floor.

I stared at the mess, deciding he seriously needed a hamper.

I picked through them, finding not many lights so I gave up on the lights, dumping them in a tidy-ish pile in the closet. I grabbed some darks, Max had loads of darks, going back to my suitcase to get my own.

“Nina!” Max shouted.

“Coming!” I shouted back and rushed to the stairs.

I went directly to the back room, shoved in the clothes, measured in soap, turned on the washer and heard voices.

I walked out, still carrying my empty coffee mug and turned the corner to see Max in the kitchen, talking to a plump, petite woman with mouse brown hair which I decided in an instant would look fabulous with highlights.

I walked toward them, my heels sounding on the wood floors and Max’s eyes came to me then they dropped to my cleavage and stayed there. I ignored Max and looked into the warm, brown eyes of the woman to see she was smiling at me

“Hi,” I said.

“Hiya,” she said back.

“Babe, this is Caroline, Caroline, you’ll probably remember Nina,” Max introduced.

“Hi Caroline.”

“So cool to meet you!” she exclaimed. “Last week, you were o-u-t, out. Never seen anyone that out and my kids get sick all the time. You even slept through me vacuuming, not just down here but the rug under the bed.” I stared at her in horror when she informed me of this tidbit but she just kept talking. “Good to see you’re feelin’ better.” I’d hit the mouth of the U of the kitchen and once I did I lifted my hand to pull my hair away from my face to hide my embarrassment that she’d vacuumed around a bed I’d been o-u-t out in, opened my mouth to say something but her eyes zeroed in on my hand and she cried, “Oh my God! You have Jenna’s ring!”

Before I could react, she rushed forward and grabbed my hand, pulling it down and yanking it to her.

“Um…” I muttered, her head snapped up from her study of my ring and I saw she was wearing no makeup and she had the most beautiful peaches and cream skin I’d seen in my life.

“Jenna only makes these special and they cost a fortune!” Caroline cried out this information in an excited tizzy. “She says it’s ‘cause they’re a pain in the ass to make, seein’ as they’re rings and all. They cost more than the earrings which are a whack. I don’t get it, it’s less silver but what do I know? I’m no jewelry designer,” Caroline told me.

“Um…” I mumbled again, not knowing what to say about the fact that Max bought me a ring that cost a fortune. I knew how much the earrings cost; if the ring was more that was saying something.

But Caroline didn’t give me the chance to say anything, she kept right on going.

“I’ve wanted those earrings for ages, had my eye on them for… ev… er. I keep startin’ to save and then shit happens. Still, I hope someday to live the dream.” The entire time she spoke, Caroline did it through a big smile. “The ring, shoo! No way!”

For some insane reason, I told her, “Max bought it for me.”

At this news, her eyes bugged out and her mouth dropped open.

Then she twisted her torso to look at Max still holding my hand and she practically shrieked, “Killer! I love this!”

My mind was racing to find a way to make this news a little less “killer” and thus stop it from being spread around town when her fingers curled tight around my hand, she turned back to me and shook it with excitement. At that my hopes were dashed and I knew this would be all over town in a matter of hours. Maybe minutes.

“Caro, you wanna let Nina go? We gotta get into town,” Max said and I knew from his voice he was grinning and also he didn’t mind if news of his ring on my finger was around town within minutes.

“Oh, right,” Caroline muttered and dropped my hand then swept my empty mug out of my other one. “I’ll take that, you two get.”

“Nice to meet you,” I said to her.

“Right back at ‘cha, sister,” she said to me, turning toward the sink and I decided that I was definitely going to like Caroline. She had great skin, warm eyes and any woman who calls other women “sister” was a woman you’d like.

Max caught my hand, I quickly grabbed my purse from the counter and Max led me to the closet. Then he opened it, grabbed my coat and helped me put it on. Then he took my hand again and without putting on a jacket he led me to the door. He was, by the way, wearing a pair of jeans, boots and a heavy, navy blue, flannel shirt over a white thermal.

“Later, Caro,” he called as he opened the door.

“Later,” she called back and I heard the sink go on.

“Lock up when you leave, would you?” Max asked from the open door he’d pushed us through.

“Gotcha,” she replied on a wave and Max closed the door.

It was cold, definitely colder than it had been and there was a new layer of snow over the other layer that hadn’t quite gone away. It coated the landscape in white and made Max’s vista brand new again. There wasn’t much snow, maybe an inch or more, but it was there and the effect was magnificent.

There were also clouds covering the sun and the steps had been cleared but the gravel drive was still blanketed with white.

“You gonna be safe in those heels?” Max asked, dropping my hand and sliding his arm around my shoulders as we started down the steps.

“I think so,” I replied but suddenly, on the last step, his arm disappeared from my shoulders then reappeared behind my knees, sweeping my legs out from under me.

I started to fall, a small cry escaping my lips but he caught me in his arms, lifted me and carried me to the Cherokee.

“Max!” I exclaimed, wondering what Caroline would think if she was watching and she was probably watching.

“I’m hungry,” he stated, crunching through the snow to the Jeep. “You breakin’ your neck will keep me from breakfast.”

“I wouldn’t have broken my neck,” I snapped.

“Not takin’ the chance.”

“I’ve been walking on high heels since I was six and my Mom bought me plastic, little girl dress up shoes,” I informed him.

“Still not takin’ the chance.”

I really had no option but to let him carry me, regardless of what Caroline would think (and tell everyone in town). I couldn’t exactly wrestle him in my present position, he might drop me and I wouldn’t win anyway.

Therefore I muttered, “Whatever,” as he opened the door and set me in the seat.

He slammed the door, rounded the hood and got in as I buckled my seat belt. He strapped himself in, started up, did a three-point turn and drove down the lane.

“I’ll take you, Nellie and Steve to The Mark for breakfast after you do your thing,” Max offered as he turned into the road.

“The Mark?” I asked.

“Where we had burgers,” Max answered.

I liked the idea of revisiting The Mark where we’d had our first kind of date. And visiting it with Mom and Steve. Mom, like me, loved her food and Steve was a no-nonsense, stick-to-your-ribs food kind of guy so I knew he’d enjoy it. Something to look forward to after something definitely not worth looking forward to.

“They do breakfast?” I queried.

“Best biscuits and gravy you’ve ever tasted,” he replied and guided the Cherokee through another turn.