“You know the answer to that,” he answered.
I did. He was the master. Outside grill. Fried in butter in a skillet. Broiled. You name it, he did it, and well.
“Next time, we eat in,” I told him.
He grinned.
“Cookie. I like that,” Nina murmured.
I looked to her and she smiled.
I relaxed into Ham’s side.
His arm around me got tighter.
The rest of the restaurant melted away.
Only then did I smile back at Nina.
We were in Ham’s bed, Ham on his back, me pressed to his side, my cheek to his shoulder, my hand resting on his chest.
I was exhausted. A day of a lot of great sex, good food, good drink, and, in the end, good company made me that way.
Nothing else happened after the incident with my aunt, Greg, and Kami, thank God, although I noticed that Max seemed a little standoffish with Ham but hid it behind his friendly Max ways. This melted after the appetizers and by the end of the night, luckily, everyone was getting on great and we had a good time.
But right then, as exhausted as I was, I knew sleep wouldn’t find me. There was too much on my mind. What Ham told me. How sad it was. How angry it made me feel that those women treated him that way, most especially his bitch of a wife. The fact that we’d been interrupted and I was worried there was more. Greg on the whole and what I was going to do about him.
But mostly, my aunt.
I would know that Ham also had things on his mind when he rumbled into the dark, “Somethin’s gotta be done about that ex of yours, cookie.”
I pressed closer and promised, “I’ll talk to him.”
“That is not gonna happen.”
His words surprised me so much I lifted my head and looked down at him in the dark.
“What?”
“I’ll have words with that fuckwit.”
I felt my body get tight. “Babe, he’s not a fuckwit.”
“Called you his wife. Got in my face,” Ham laid out the evidence.
“See it from his perspective,” I urged.
“Got in your face while you were at work.”
He did do that, though I wouldn’t call it “getting in my face.”
However, it must be said. The evidence was pretty damning.
“He didn’t wanna let me go,” I whispered.
“Well, he did. Papers signed. Months passed. It’s done. He needs to get the fuck over it and I’m gonna communicate that to him. You are not.”
“I think it’s best if I—”
I shut my mouth when he declared, “I stepped aside for him.”
Yes, actually, he did.
Ham kept talking.
And, in doing so, melting my heart.
“Didn’t want to do it, hated fuckin’ doin’ it, hated losin’ you for three years, but I did it. For you. For you to have him. So that means for him to have you. I wasn’t in the place to give you what you needed then but if I was, you made it plain, I coulda made things not so fuckin’ easy for him. I didn’t. Now you’re mine. He needs to back the fuck off.”
I loved that. All of it.
I still felt the need to protect Greg from Bruiser Ham.
“But you don’t know him, Ham. I do. And seein’ me with you had to hurt him tonight.”
“Zara, you bein’ you, actin’ like you, lookin’ like you, he’s fuckin’ lucky he hasn’t seen you with someone else long before this. And I’m not happy your life was fucked but that doesn’t change the fact I’m lucky your life was fucked so you didn’t even think about findin’ another guy or I would be fucked.”
I loved that, too. A whole lot.
That didn’t mean I didn’t keep trying.
“Let me try talkin’ to him first,” I suggested.
He weirdly cut me off with, “Babe, your clothes in my closet?”
“Yes, but—”
“They are. You’re mine. Two strikes, he doesn’t get a third. Now I’m dealin’ with him.”
“That makes me uncomfortable, Ham,” I shared.
“I get that. I get why. I get you got guilt. I get you got feelings for him. I also don’t give a fuck about him. You’re my woman out to dinner with me and he stands there in front of me and calls you his wife? No fuckin’ way. No one stakes their claim to what’s mine, not behind my back, not across a room, and especially not to my face without a conversation.”
That was when I knew I was right about Ham.
When it was no promises, no expectations, he was fair enough to give the same in return.
When there were, what was his was his and he marked his territory.
I was also right about something else.
Possessiveness was hot.
“Go easy,” I said quietly, giving in.
“We’ll start with that and see how it goes,” he replied.
I decided to leave it at that and settle in.
We were silent for a long while but I couldn’t fall asleep and I knew Ham couldn’t either, so I laid something else on my mind on him.
“I’m worried about my aunt comin’ to the table and what Dad might have to say.”
I was worried even though I suspected I knew.
I’d been waiting. Waiting for years.
That didn’t mean I wanted to know and wasn’t worried about finding out.
“Put it out of your head,” Ham ordered.
He, I knew, suspected, too.
“I’m not sure I can do that,” I admitted.
He moved his hand to my face, fingers gliding along my cheek, through my hair, and he finished by wrapping his arm around me so I was snug in both.
“You made the decision to turn your back on that, cookie. We talked it out then and I still think you did the right thing. It was either they succeeded in destroyin’ your sister or they got a shot at bringing the both of you down. They destroyed your sister. Even if it’s not done, it’s still done. We got you to the place of understandin’ that. Don’t give her the chance to drag you back in.”
He was right. He was right back then when he guided me to that decision and he was right now.
I sighed.
Ham’s arms gave me a squeeze.
“We need to finish our chat,” I told him.
“We will, baby,” he told me. “Though, not much left to say.”
At least that was good.
I pressed even closer and whispered, “I’m sorry those women treated you that way.”
“Me too,” he agreed.
“Just sayin’, serious, no joke, we have what we have now or even what we had before, if we made a baby and I was carrying it inside me, no way I’d ever let it go.”
I just got out the O sound in “go” when his arms got so tight, I was forced to slide up his chest and my lungs constricted, seeing as he was squeezing the breath out of me.
Therefore, I wheezed, “Ham.”
He pulled me up his chest, his arms relaxed, and he slid one hand into my hair, bringing my mouth down to touch it to his.
When he let me lift away, he whispered, his voice jagged, “Thank you, Zara.”
That meant a lot to him and it meaning a lot meant a lot to me, seeing as I clearly said the right thing and that was what I hoped I’d do.
“You’re welcome, darlin’,” I whispered back.
He shifted me back down his chest, his hand at my head settling my cheek back to his shoulder and ordering, “Go to sleep, baby.”
“Okay. ’Night, Ham.”
“’Night, cookie.”
I closed my eyes and tried to find sleep. After a while, I needed to move so I rolled, Ham rolled with me, bringing up his knees and mine and holding me close around my belly so we were spooning.
I felt his face in my hair and heard his voice murmur, “Softest hair I ever felt.”
I felt my lips curl up, I snuggled my ass in his groin, and then I fell asleep.
Chapter Ten