CHAPTER ELEVEN

While Hammer had been dreaming, Amelia had been partying. At an exclusive club for the well-connected, she and her good friend Lakeisha "Keisha" Gaines were on the dance floor having a blast. Carlo, the gorgeous younger man who saw Amelia from across the room and glued himself to her, dancing with her every time she got up to dance, inviting himself to sit down at her VIP table, was having a blast too. Amelia didn't mind it so much. He was cute and funny and she was going with the flow just as she had been doing all evening. Forget the past and embrace the future. That was what she was trying to do. And Carlo, with his cute self, helped.

But by night's end, and it was time to go home, she said her goodbyes to Keisha. And Carlo, still glued to her, walked her to her car. But the party was over as far as Amelia was concerned.

But Carlo wasn't trying to get that memo. "Over? Come on now, pretty woman. It's just getting started."

Amelia wasn't thinking about that boy as she opened her driver side car door. She already told him the night was through, whether he got the memo or not.

But in that same parking lot, a few rows over, Hammer was watching from the backseat of his SUV. And Hammer didn't see a kid who understood boundaries. He saw a kid with the look of a guy who just knew he was about to get laid. "What do you mean no?"

Amelia gave him a hard look. "Did I stutter?" she asked him.

When Amelia looked at him with that steely strong look, Hammer's heart sank. He loved her strength. That was why he wanted her. He could handle a woman like her. But his dumb ass lost her anyway.

But unlike Hammer, Carlo wasn't accustomed to that steely strong look of Amelia's, and he certainly wasn't in love with it. It scared the shit out of him. For a second. "It's just that it's still early. Not even nine o'clock. Come on. I can go home with you and make you feel real good. I got what it takes my queen."

Hammer's jaw tightened at the way he was looking down the length of Amelia's body as if it already didn't belong to Hammer anymore. But she was still his wife. She still belonged to him.

But it wasn't even that serious to Amelia. She looked at that kid as if he was so out of her league it wasn't even funny. "Beat it," she said to him.

"Don't talk like that. Why you got to get an attitude?"

"I'm telling you I'm not interested. You're telling me I am. Beat it."

He glanced around in the parking lot, as if to see if anybody was watching. Hammer moved to the edge of his seat, ready to jump out of that SUV and expose his stalking ass if it came to that. Then Carlo moved closer up to Amelia and gave her a hard look of his own. "You know I can get real ugly if I wanted to though. You know that right? I can get real ugly."

"Oh can you now?" Amelia moved so close up to him that he no longer had a personal space. Hammer's heart was pounding. That kid was a thug who could do her some real damage. The chances she took!

But Amelia didn't care what that kid was. She never backed down from a threat. "You can get ugly? Get ugly then. I want your ass to get ugly."

But when he saw that look in her eyes, he backed up, held up his hands, and smiled. "I'm just messing with you dang. Why you got to be so serious? But can I at least get your phone number?"

"You can get lost," Amelia said firmly. Then anger overtook her expression. "Now gotdammit!"

She stared at him until he held up his hands again, smiled again, and then backed away from her. She got in her car and sped away.

The young man was still smiling as he watched her leave, but the hatred on his face was palpable.

Hammer leaned back in his seat. At least she still had standards. At least she wasn't going for the boy toys just yet. But he also knew that was just a matter of time.

Then he motioned for Ozzie to get him out of there too.

"Where next, Boss?" Ozzie asked him.

"Airport," he said. "Alert my pilot."

"Will do."

As he did, a depressed feeling came over Hammer. But what was the point in hanging in Baltimore another night? What was he doing? She was done with his ass.

He was going home.