CHAPTER TWELVE

Amelia had already sneaked away from her family while they were all still partying and wide awake. She made her way upstairs, to Hammer’s office, to confront him too. Because she, like her brothers, wasn’t buying his explanation either.

But when she first walked into Hammer’s home office and saw him lying on his back on his sofa, attempting to get one of his famous catnaps in before getting back to work, it gave her pause. She quietly closed the door behind her, and then she walked across the room and stood over him staring at him. He looked drained and tired to her. As if he knew that all of the smoke and mirrors and cloak and dagger and secrets and lies that was his life would eventually catch up to him. And that reality scared her. Because despite their myriad of problems, she loved him so much.

She sat on the edge of the sofa and gently rubbed his cheek. His head lifted up and his large eyes opened quickly as if he had to take a defensive position immediately, but when he saw that it was Amelia, his anxiety eased. And he laid his head back down. “Everything okay?” he asked her.

She nodded her head. “Yes. They’re still down there partying.”

He smiled a weak smile.

Amelia wanted to ask him point blank why he had to put her brother and his children through all of that pain, just as she had asked him before with no satisfaction in his response. But the man had the weight of the world on his shoulders, and she knew it. Jenay’s case wasn’t his only case. It was probably not even his biggest case. How could she go all in on him too?

People in the family often were surprised that a strong woman like her would, in their words, let Hammer get away with so much of his bullshit, but they didn’t understand their relationship at all. She got him. And he, perhaps unlike anybody else on earth, got her.

And because she got him, instead of confronting him, she decided to soothe him. “You look tired,” she said as she began to unbuckle his belt.

Hammer’s libido was immediately aroused when she touched him. “I guess I am tired,” he said as he placed his hand on her back. The way Amelia made him feel was second to none for a highly experienced man like him.

And when she unzipped his pants and pulled it out, Hammer could feel his heartbeat quicken at just the anticipation of Amelia doing him. It was already aroused when she pulled it out. And when she put it in her mouth, the way she made him feel had him arching up and straining from the sheer intensity of those feelings.

His hand entered her clothing and fingered her, while his other hand rubbed her hair. He moved her head exactly the way he wanted her to do him. And she complied. That was what people didn’t understand about Amelia. She was strong and tough and independent and stubborn as hell. She was all those things. But she was also a good woman. She was also a dutiful wife.

But he wanted more than duty from her. Giving him head felt like she was doing her duty. He had to have more.

When it seemed as if he was on the verge and would cum in her mouth, he eased out, pulled his pants and underwear down further, and laid her on top of him. After pulling down her clothing too, he didn’t hesitate. He entered her with a hard thrust that caused her to grunt and groan. As he made his way all the way into her tightness, he was grunting and groaning too.

And then they made love. Long, hot, passionate love. On the verge the entire time, it was among their best. Both needed it. Amelia had been back in Baltimore half of the month, and Hammer had been out of the country handling government business the other half. It wasn’t the kind of life they said they would have when they opted not to go through with their divorce, but that was the life they ended up having: very little actually changed.

But their love for each other, and the way they could make each other feel, never changed.

They made love for over half an hour. And when they came, it was electrifying. Hammer held Amelia so tight that she could hardly breathe, as they came.

Hammer grabbed a cover from the top of his sofa and covered their bodies as he continued to hold her.

It took only minutes before they both had fallen asleep.