Amelia was stunned herself when she looked across the room and saw that the big man was heading her way. And once again, just by looking at him, her heart began to pound as if she was either about to face danger, or pure, unadulterated excitement. She could never tell which it was going to be when it came to a man like him.
He looked stunning, she thought, as he walked her way. He was dressed to the nines in an Italian silk suit that fit with such perfection that it appeared as if it was his second skin. His face was always serious: what CIA guy didn’t have that look? But Hammer’s seriousness wasn’t so much what he did in his previous profession, Amelia thought, but because of who he was. He was a serious man, unyieldingly comfortable in his own skin, who didn’t suffer fools well. He viewed her as a fool when she turned him down that day, she assumed, and he probably still held that opinion. But she wasn’t lowering her standards for him. If he wanted her, he was going to have to work to have her.
But as soon as Hammer Reese walked up to Amelia’s table, and they were within inches of each other for the first time in years, he wasn’t interested in working at all. And unlike Oz, he didn’t lean down and whisper sweetly in her ear. He didn’t even say her name.
“Let’s go,” he said, turned around, and headed in the direction that led upstairs, to his residence.
Amelia was astonished. Others in the club were too. But they all seemed to have the look of surprise that she hadn’t gotten up yet and followed him. Did she know who he was, their looks seemed to suggest? What was she waiting for, was another suggestion? And Amelia felt the same way, too. What the fuck was she waiting for? Because she knew, if she didn’t follow him this time, if she turned him down this time, there was not going to be another time.
Despite all of her plans; despite all of her internal dialogue about self-respect, she grabbed her small, beaded handbag and followed Hammer Reese across the floor of his nightclub, up the crystal spiral staircase, and into the door that led to his onsite residence. It was almost uncanny to her that she was doing it. She had been married to a domineering man. Why would she want that again? And as she walked, the question wasn’t about what was she waiting for, but why was she giving in so easily? Who did he think he was?
But as soon as she crossed the threshold into his pristine apartment, and he slammed the door shut behind her, effectively slamming everybody else out, she got her answer: and it was short and firm.
Her back was against the door, and he was in front of her. “Let me get something straight,” he said to her. “I am not the kind of man who will be handled by a woman. Not any woman. Not even you. I will respect you as the lady that you are, and treat you with the respect you deserve. But you will respect me as the man I am. I will accept nothing less. Are we clear?”
Amelia didn’t quite know what to say. She was accustomed to strong men. That was all she knew in her life. But she was not accustomed to a strong man telling her that she mattered too. And that he would respect her worthiness.
“We’re clear,” she said.
He stared at her, a moment longer, and then his face moved down toward her lips and he kissed her. She could tell a lot by a man’s kiss. And what she could tell about Hammer was that he was not going to be a gentle lover. He was his namesake: he was going to hammer her.
And he did. He lifted her up into his arms and kissed her so hard and so passionately that she felt as if he was going to lose all control. Until she felt what he was feeling. And then she was lost too. She dropped her bag, she didn’t give a shit what was in it, and wrapped her arms around him. She came all the way from the states to be with him. She wasn’t pretending any longer. And she was going to let her actions speak for her.
Hammer’s actions were speaking for him as he kissed her. She tasted as he remembered her tasting: warm and sweet. And he couldn’t get enough of her. He lifted her dress, and took it all the way over her head, and she gladly snuggled out of it.
She wore no panties, he realized, and her boldness only made him more excited. He leaned her against the door, lifted her legs, and began eating her pussy with a ferocity that caused her to scream. She was squirming against the back of that door as he did her. She was grabbing his hair, and squeezing it to the roots as he did her. She lifted her bra, and threw it aside, and began fondling her breasts. Every inch of her body ached for him. Every inch of her body craved him. She wanted him in the worse way.
She got him. He stopped mouth-fucking her long enough to removed his suit coat, his tie, and to snatch his dress shirt over his head. He tossed it all aside. And then he pulled a condom out of his pants pocket, dropped his pants and briefs, and stepped out of them. And those old biddies at Bulldog’s party were right. Hammer had a hammer on his hands. Big and thick as a motherfuck! She was going to have scars to prove it too. And she couldn’t wait!
He removed her hands from her breasts and began sucking them hard, like a man who had been trained by vampires, as he put on his super-sized condom. Then he entered her. She was so wet, he could feel the warmth. She was so tight he could barely move inside of her. He looked into her eyes as he made his attempts. He could tell it hurt her. “Want me to stop?” he asked her.
“Don’t you dare!” she responded.
And that broke it wide open for him. This wasn’t going to work. It was as if he’d been waiting forever to have her, and he was having her from afar. They said men sometimes made life and death decisions in a matter of a second. Hammer made that decision that night. For them both.
He pulled his fully aroused penis out of her, slung that condom off of it, and rammed it back inside of her. Raw. Because he had to have her, all of her, in the worse way.
And this time, he wasn’t trying to see if it hurt. He knew it did. But she’d given him the green light, and he took it.
He shoved his penis so deep inside of Amelia with one hard shove that her entire body shuddered. And felt it was on fire. And she bucked him as he fucked her. She rode that rod hard. She knew he was raw. She knew what that meant. But passion was their ruler that night. And it was a dictator.
Sweat beads were dripping from her breasts, and sweat was dripping from his forehead, as they fucked. They were like two teenagers having sex for the first time, when neither one of them knew what innocence meant. They just fucked. They cast every care they had to the wind, and fucked the shit out of each other.
Amelia came first, when that long lasting, relaxing feeling that gripped her pussy turned hard. And she could barely contain the euphoria that followed.
Hammer came after her and spilled into her with such a gush that it took him to his knees. She slid down with him, as they both felt the outpouring, and then he had her on the floor fucking her. He was on top of her, and wrapped her in his arms, as he fucked her long and hard. Until another gush came, and another orgasm escaped from her again.
It took several minutes for the last of his cum to come out, and for both of them to stop pulsating.
CHAPTER EIGHT
After their pulsating had finally ceased, they laid on that floor, still breathing heavily, still in each other’s arms, as those deep feelings they always seemed to feel whenever they were in the other’s company, surfaced again. And alarmed them both.
Especially Amelia. She was still reeling from the way Hammer had put it on her. Now those deep, indescribable feelings too? “I’ve got something to tell you,” she said quickly, to change her heart’s attention.
Hammer looked at her, understanding it too. “What?” he asked.
“Remember that night in that cloak room?”
He smiled. How could he forget it? “Yes.”
“You asked about my parents and my siblings.”
He didn’t expect it to go in that direction. “Okay.”
“I know who they are now.”
Hammer stared at her. “Do you?”
“I found out that my half-brother is somebody you probably know.”
This concerned Hammer. “Who?”
Amelia looked at him. “Mick Sinatra,” she said, and then searched his eyes to see the full impact of his reaction.
But she didn’t have to search at all. She could feel his dick begin to deflate inside of her. “Mick Sinatra is your brother?” he asked. “Mick the Tick?”
Amelia smiled. “Yes.”
That Italian motherfucker, he wanted to say, as if he still couldn’t believe they were talking about the same person. “He has a black sister?” he asked instead.
Amelia smiled. She understood his shock. She was shocked too. “We have the same mother, but different fathers. Our mother gave me up when I was a baby because I was black, and her husband wasn’t. She tried to kill me, and so did her husband.”
Hammer was shocked. Shit, he thought. This woman had been through hell since the cradle! But he hesitated for a different reason. Mick Sinatra? He didn’t need that Sinatra illegal drama shit in his life! But he wanted Amelia. No doubt about it anymore. “How do you feel about being hooked up with him?” he asked her.
“I’m pleased,” she said truthfully.
“Pleased to be Mick the Tick’s sister? You must don’t know that bastard very well.”
She laughed. “I know him well enough. And yes, I’m pleased.” Then she stared at him. “How do you feel about it?”
“I would rather you didn’t have that connection. For your sake.”
“And yours?” Amelia asked.
“And mine, yes,” he said, and then explained. “I have a well-deserved reputation for being a badass. I’ve done a lot in my life I’m not proud of. But I still believe in the rule of law, and right and wrong.”
“As does the Sinatras,” Amelia said. “They clap back, but they don’t go around starting shit.”
Hammer exhaled. “The FBI have their sights on that group. I was CIA. They weren’t in my orbit very much.”
“But sometimes they were?”
He didn’t respond. He just continued to stare at her. And she could see concern in his eyes, which made her realize how easily she could fall for him. And get her heart broken. The prospect alarmed her. And she bailed. “I’m not settling down,” she said suddenly.
Hammer looked at her. There was something about her that made men want to control her, and dominate her, and bend her to their will. Hammer was a man, and had it in him, too. But he cared about Amelia, deeply, and knew her dead husband treated her that way. He knew she didn’t want that. “I’m not settling, either,” he responded, which he knew was more than what she meant.
Amelia stared at him. “So what is this?”
“This?”
“You and me. What is it? A one-night stand?”
Hammer leaned his head against hers, inhaling her sweet perfumed scent. “No way,” he said. “I have to have more.”
Amelia did too. She could still feel him lodged inside of her, despite the fact that he had deflated. And all of a sudden, instead of getting smaller, he began getting big again. And she decided to dare him to go there. “What are you saying?” she asked him.
“It’s not a one-night stand, that’s what I’m saying,” Hammer said. “It never will be.”
“What is it then?”
Hammer stopped resting his forehead against hers and looked at her. She surprised him because she almost sounded needy and clingy, which, he knew, wasn’t her at all.
Amelia realized she had revealed too much. She wanted him, and now he knew it. Which gave him power over her she couldn’t allow him to have. She course-corrected quickly. “We get to have our cake, and eat it too?”
He stared at her. He knew she was covering up her mistake.
“An open relationship, in other words,” she went on. “We get to see other people.” She said this and looked at him, as if his response was everything.
The idea of another man touching her, entering her, and experiencing her so intimately the way he just had, disturbed him greatly. But he wasn’t about to beg her ass. Besides, this woman could make him sick in love, and he didn’t want that either. “Yes,” he said. “We get to see other people.”
He dared not, Amelia thought. But instead of showing how hurt she was, she smiled. “My kind of man,” she said.
“Still soaking?” he asked.
Amelia jumped at the sound of his voice. She was back in the present now. She was still in her jacuzzi tub, and had been lost in her thoughts about that night they conceived their son. But the fact that she jumped so nervously proved how much that ambush and kidnapping she had just endured had affected her. And how jittery she still was. “Yes, I’m still soaking,” she said.
“How do you feel?” He stood there staring at her, as if he was assessing her the way a doctor would assess his patient.
“I feel . . . jittery,” she said.
“Nothing my dick can’t cure. What about physically? Did those bastards do any damage?”
His first comment, about his much-sought after dick, didn’t go over her head. Because he was the master at stress relief. “They were a little rough in the way they handled me. But I’ll be okay.”
“Did you know them?” he asked.
“No.” She guessed who they worked for, and guessed right, but she didn’t need Hammer calling in cops to arrest them, or the FBI. She needed to exact her own revenge.
“Going to tell me who they work for?” he asked. “Or you got it?”
She looked at him. She loved the fact that he respected her abilities. “I got it,” she said.
“When you finish with them, let me know. They took out some of my men, too.”
“I’ll be sure to remind them of that very fact,” she said. “I’ll let you know.”
But Hammer wasn’t satisfied. He sat down on the Queen Anne-styled tufted armchair that stood prominently in the large bathroom, slouched down, and stretched his long legs out. And as she continued to soak in the tub, he stared at her.
His suit coat and tie were removed, and the top three buttons of his shirt were unbuttoned. She knew that meant he planned to spend the night with her. Although she still ached from the way those assholes manhandled her, and was therefore too sore for sex, she would gladly give him some anyway if it meant he would hold her afterwards. Hammer’s sex was great, and more wonderful than any she’d ever had, but his affection was even better. She needed the warmth and protection of his big, loving arms tonight. She was acquiring a weakness for that affection, and it bothered her mightily.
“What went wrong, Amelia?” he finally asked her.
“You mean other than everything?”
He smiled. “Other than that, yes.”
But she wouldn’t elaborate. Weasel and his crew had her so out of sorts that she didn’t know which way was up. And she had to find Jerardo.
Hammer knew she was lost in her own thoughts. But he was also angry with her for nearly getting herself killed. “Watch yourself, Amelia,” he warned her. “You know who I am. You can’t do any shit you want to do and expect me to continue to turn a blind’s eye.”
She looked at him. And her anger rose too. “Who you are has nothing to do with what I’m doing.”
“Like hell it doesn’t! You’re the mother of my son.”
“Here we go.”
“I expect your ass to behave as a woman with more than just herself to be responsible for.”
“I do that.”
“Then why was your ass on Potomac at one in the morning? Why was your ass ambushed if you’re so upright and forthright and not involved in any underhanded shit?”
“You’re one to talk.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Hammer asked.
“You’re just a friendly little nightclub owner the way a lion is just a friendly little cat,” Amelia said. “That’s what it means! Don’t motherfucking judge me. Your ass ain’t no choir boy either.”
“But my ass got enough sense to keep my shit undercover,” Hammer shot back. “My ass wasn’t ambushed on Potomac at one in the morning because my ass has enough sense not
to be anywhere near that rathole that time of morning!”
“I was driving on a street. How fucking irresponsible of me.”
“Just watch yourself, Amelia. That’s all I’m going to say about it.”
Amelia was surprised he didn’t say a whole lot more. Because she knew how he felt about her business. But Hammer, unlike anybody else, understood her need to do her own thing. “I’ll be careful,” she said.
Hammer stared at her. “Your brothers know you’re trafficking in that shit again?” he asked.
Amelia didn’t respond to that.
“They wouldn’t approve, I’m willing to bet.”
Amelia looked at him. “You keep them out of it.”
“I take care of you and our son. Why do you need to do that shit? You don’t need---”
“I don’t need a man taking care of me, that’s what I don’t need.” She looked at him. “I can’t go down that road ever again, Hammer. You don’t know what it was like. He fed me. He clothed me. He told me when I could shit gotdammit! And you think I’m going to allow myself to go back to that way of life again? Where some man handles me like that? My brothers are domineering. Your ass is even more domineering. I let y’all run my life, guess what’s going to happen? Y’all are going to run my life! I’m not going out like that. Not ever again. You got your own shit. Mick got his own shit. Charles got his own shit. Guess what? I got mine, too.”
But the look in Hammer’s eyes had softened. Surprisingly so to Amelia. Then he spoke: “It was hellish, wasn’t it?” he asked her.
Amelia was about to sip from her wine, but stopped. And sat it back down. She knew exactly what he meant. “Yes,” she said. “After you saw me that day in that alley, and I got away from you, he was waiting for me in a van. He blamed me when that bank heist failed. I wasn’t even in the bank. I didn’t have shit to do with it. But he blamed me. He beat me so bad I had to be hospitalized for months. And he had security there with me the whole time, in case I decided to tell somebody that some stranger didn’t beat my ass, my husband did!”
Amelia Sinatra: Hammer Time Page 7
