The Billionaire's Salvation: (The Billionaire's Obsession ~ Max) (9 page)

Mia walked back through the living room, down the hallway and into one of the bedrooms that she had converted into a workshop. As usual, the room was chaotic, exactly as she had left it. But the disorder was an organized mess. She knew where every stone, decorative bead, and piece of metal was located. In the absence of availability of the gems and metals she had usually worked with, Mia had started working on Native American inspired pieces of jewelry and had found her niche as she never had in working on fancy jewelry without any real meaning to her. Now, every piece she made was a labor of love, every article containing a part of her as she’d crafted each ring, bracelet, and pair of earrings.

Miraculously, her unique items had caught on, and she sold enough to make a living, never really needing to touch the money Travis
sent.

That’s why I watch prices; I don’t overspend. I wanted to make my own way, and I did.
The only time she had used the money Travis had sent was to buy her rather old pickup truck, a necessity when one lived so far from
town.

Wandering aimlessly, she walked into her bedroom, her eyes darting to her dresser immediately.

It’s still
here.

Without really thinking about her actions, she went to the dresser, picked up her wedding ring and slipped it on her finger. Wearing it brought in equal parts happiness and
sorrow.

I should have never seen him again. I should have waited to talk to Travis and
left.

“Now he’ll really hate me,” she whispered to herself, her voice filled with anguish. But she’d needed to do it, needed him to hate her and never try to seek her
out.

God, she’d missed him so much. There hadn’t been a day since she’d left him the first time that she hadn’t ached to see him, hadn’t felt like part of her was missing. While she’d had the hole in her memory, she couldn’t remember what it had felt like to be away from him. Now, she remembered, and it had hurt like hell. Her only solace had been that her family was
safe.

She tried to take the ring off again, but she couldn’t do it. The weight of the platinum band and beautiful diamonds gave her a small measure of comfort. It wasn’t much, but it was something.

Walking back to the kitchen, she dialed Travis’ office number, but he didn’t answer. He’d apparently changed cell phone numbers during the last few years, and she didn’t know his current number. Trying Kade’s number, she got his voicemail, hanging up without leaving a message. Kade rarely carried his cell phone, a habit he had acquired from being in the public limelight for so long, his phone ringing constantly and leaving him with no peace unless he turned it off and left it at
home.

Her hand hovered over the numbers on the phone, so damn tempted to call Max just to tell him how sorry she was, how much she loved
him.

“No!” she told herself harshly, putting the phone back in its cradle. “You can’t talk to him ever again. You need to separate yourself from him completely. You’re dangerous to
him.”

There was so much Max didn’t know, so much she’d never told him. What would he think of her if he really knew how stupid she’d been, how very damaged she’d become from her
past?

Two women in one
body.

Now she knew exactly why she’d felt that way. She’d only remembered the woman she had been before she’d gone to counseling, before she’d found out how to deal with her past, and had actually begun to like the woman she had found underneath all of her dysfunctional
self.

Max had fallen in love with an illusion, a woman who she’d tied in knots to please him, creating a persona that wasn’t real. Max didn’t truly know her at all. He never
had.

I never really knew Max completely either, yet I loved him. I still
do.

Mia slammed her thoughts closed, not wanting to think about the agony of still loving Max the way she did. He hadn’t revealed all about his emotions, but he wasn’t hiding the kind of secrets that she had never told him about, the horrible parts of her past. What would he think of a woman who had been stupid enough to be involved with a man who had no conscience, no qualms about killing anyone she cared about? Her father had been insane. Danny was a murderous sociopath.

Mia could hear the car coming up the drive before it arrived at the house, tires crunching over dirt and gravel as a vehicle made its way down her long, winding driveway. Her heart started to hammer and she ran to the kitchen to snatch the cordless phone, her hand trembling as she grabbed for it. Even though she was willing to sacrifice anything to keep Max and her brothers safe—and she intended to do just that—she didn’t look forward to the actual consequences of her actions. She could be dead long before the police arrived.

Peering through the window right next to the front door and switching on the porch light, she watched a sleek black sports car pull up next to her rented vehicle. A shadowy figure emerged—a very large, very tall figure. Unable to make out his face, she squinted to bring his features into focus as he entered the circle of light cast by the porch
lamp.

He stumbled, taking an uneven step as he cursed and moved forward again, his entire body finally revealed. Mia’s legs practically gave out with relief, and then
horror.

Max. Oh my God.
No!

He finally made his way ungracefully to the door and disappeared from view. Mia could still hear him mumbling as he pounded on the wood, calling out, “Open the door, Mia. I know you’re
there.”

Scrambling to the door, she unlocked it and swung it
open.

For the first time in his life, Max looked truly bedraggled.

For the first time in his life, Max looked completely drunk and disorderly.

And, for the first time in his life, Max did
not
look happy to see
her.

I
t was a sad, sad situation when a man needed a healthy amount of Dutch courage just to face his own
wife!

Max was drunk, and he knew it. Okay…he sort of knew it, but was trying like hell to convince himself that he wasn’t. Maybe sitting at the end of Mia’s driveway and taking some shots from the bottle of rotgut whiskey he’d bought in Billings hadn’t been such a good idea. At the moment, he was alternating between being “king of the world” and “emperor of the dumbasses.”

“Max…have you been drinking?” Mia asked, astonished.

Bingo. Give the woman a
prize.

“I’ve had a few,” Max answered, lying his ass off. He’d had more than a few. Several? A lot? Yeah…he thought one of those would be more accurate.

Still, seeing her in front of him, looking as beautiful as she always did, dressed casually in a pair of jeans and a red tank top, nearly killed him. Maybe the alcohol hadn’t helped ease the pain at all, ’cause his chest was aching just from looking at her. She looked…concerned and anxious, and when he saw her blue eyes flash with fear, he nearly lost it. Was she afraid of him, or the whole confrontation thing? She did seem to prefer to run away. But then, he’d done it, too. He just hadn’t done it with another
woman.

“You never drink much,” she mumbled, standing back to let him in. “And you never drink and
drive.”

Nope. He usually didn’t. In fact, he’d never actually been drunk, which may be the reason he was having such a hard time deciding whether or not he truly
was
intoxicated. “Didn’t drive while I was drinking—except up your driveway, which, by the way, has a hell of a lot of damn potholes.” And in his possibly inebriated state, he’d driven into every one of
them.

He was sauntering into the living room, trying hard not to fall on his ass, when he heard a stifled
laugh.

“You’re completely plastered, Max,” Mia informed him, her eyes concerned, but her lips smiling slightly. “How much did you
drink?”

“Don’t know,” he answered honestly. ’Cause really, he didn’t remember how many swigs he’d taken from the bottle. He’d wanted enough to make him numb, enough to keep him from reacting to Mia. The thing was, he didn’t think there was enough alcohol in the world to accomplish
that.

“How did you know I was here?” she questioned carefully.

“Your brothers. I’m not sure…but I think I killed Travis,” he answered cheerfully. He was pretty sure Travis wasn’t dead, but he’d be battered and bruised, and the idea of
that
made Max pretty damn
happy.

“You didn’t kill my brother, and you shouldn’t have gotten in a fight with him. He’s just trying to protect me,” she told him calmly, her hands on her hips as she looked up at him. “Is that how you got that cut over your eye? It’s bleeding.”

Damn.
Travis
had
gotten a few punches in while trying to protect himself. But at the moment, Max was feeling no pain. “Yeah? If you think I look bad, you should see
him,”
Max grumbled, highly offended that Mia hadn’t taken him seriously when he’d said he had killed her brother. “He fights like a girl,” he added, knowing he was lying. Had Travis really tried, and had Kade not stopped the fight, Max had no doubt both of them would be in the emergency room right now. “Bastard should have told me. You’re my goddamn wife. I had a right to know that you’d left me for another
man.”

Mia reached out and lightly touched the bruises on his face. “Oh, Max. What did they say? That
isn’t—”

“I want to hate you. I should hate you. But dammit, I just fucking can’t,” Max said coarsely, hating himself for still not being able to look at her and conjure up the hatred he should have for a wife who had left him desolate and heartbroken for over two years, making everything he’d felt—and still felt—seem like one big joke…at his expense. “Did you know that when I thought you were dead, I wanted to die too? I didn’t want to go on living without you.” Max knew they were drunken words, a pity party for one, but he didn’t give a shit. “I was completely obsessed with you, so out of control that I had to back away from it to keep a leash on myself. And the whole fucking time, your mind was on another man.” He reached out and grasped her wrist, pulling her down with him to the leather sofa, her body beneath his. He might be drunk, but as he looked down at her, he couldn’t mistake the anguished, tormented look in her eyes. Did she feel sorry for him?
Christ.
He hoped not. The last thing he wanted was her
pity.

“I’m not sure what my brothers said,
but—”

“They told me you left me because of another man. They told me that you’d been hiding out in Montana at your grandmother’s ranch. All this fucking time, you’ve been alive and content in another state, happily living your life while I tormented myself with thoughts that you were dead, that I’d never fucking see you again,” Max growled, angry now that he’d gotten over feeling sorry for himself. He’d never been soul mates with this woman. Everything between them had always been a lie. “Why marry me? It wasn’t like you didn’t have your own money,” he rasped, pissed that he had ever been such a sucker for her beautiful eyes and sweet demeanor. “And where the hell is this other guy? Did you run away from him,
too?”

She struggled beneath him, twisting and turning to free her arms from the bulk of his body on top of hers. “I married you because I loved you. I didn’t want anyone else.” Finally her arms came free and she grabbed him on both sides of his head, staring fiercely into his
eyes.

Max stared back, losing himself in the depths of a pair of shimmering blue eyes that had never failed to mesmerize him. Always had. And at that moment, just for a brief period of time, he wanted so damn badly to believe her. Because right now…nothing made sense. His mind was whirling from an overabundance of alcohol and all he could see was Mia’s fiery eyes and tempting lips, and kissing her seemed like something he had to do, he needed to do, and to hell with everything else. Grasping her wrists, he pinned them over her head and almost groaned as her breasts jutted out and brushed his chest. He swooped down and covered her mouth with his, sipping from her like a man dying of thirst. She opened to him immediately, like a flower that had just been waiting to fully bloom. Max allowed himself to indulge, and if he wasn’t already drunk on alcohol, he’d be intoxicated by
her.
Her taste, her smell, her response—everything about her enchanted him, and he couldn’t get enough. God help him, but he was completely
lost.

Suddenly, sobriety prevailed
. She betrayed me. She’s playing me. And I’m letting her do it knowingly this
time.

“Fuck.” The curse flew forcefully from his lips as he tore his mouth away from hers, angry with himself. “What the hell am I doing? I must have some kind of secret masochistic tendencies.”

Mia squirmed out from under him, getting to her feet and leaving him laid out on the couch on his stomach, white spots starting to form in front of his
eyes.

Either the couch is twirling, or I’m really
wasted.

“I think you need coffee,” she said quietly, walking away and into the kitchen.

“I need you,” he whispered huskily, knowing she couldn’t hear him, and feeling more lonely and abandoned than he’d ever felt in his life. Closing his eyes from the pain he was feeling, all he could think of were the things Kade and Travis had revealed before he’d left to find
Mia.

She had to
leave…

There was this boyfriend…

She was at Gran’s house in Montana, and I think that’s where she is
now…

She never meant to hurt
you…

Yeah, I helped her disappear…

The last comment had come from Travis, and Max hadn’t been able to keep himself from trying to throttle the bastard. With the conversation still droning in his muddled mind, he gave in to the darkness that was threatening to consume him. It would give him a brief period of time in which he didn’t need to
think.

Being grateful for some sort of mercy, Max promptly passed
out.

“Max?” Mia poked him experimentally, and then a little harder when he didn’t respond. Sitting the cup of strong coffee on the end table, she fished in his pocket for his keys and went outside to the sporty little vehicle he had apparently rented. Opening the door, she immediately saw the partial bottle of whiskey sitting on the passenger
seat.

“Not enough to kill him, but he’s going to have a pretty horrible hangover in the morning,” she mused, speaking aloud, stunned when something hurtled toward her. A sudden impact with the projectile nearly put her on her ass in the
dirt.

“Tucker,” she gasped with surprise, removing his paws from her chest and cuddling him when he had all four paws on the front seat. The hound gave her a disapproving look, but he licked her hand as she scratched him, his chubby body shuddering with delight.

After the canine had gotten enough affection, he jumped down and sniffed at the ground to do his business, acting like he wasn’t entirely sure he liked his new surroundings.

“Come,” Mia told Tucker affectionately, taking him into the house and closing the door behind
her.

Tucker went immediately to Max’s prone body, sniffing him first, and then positioning himself on the floor right beside the couch, shooting Mia an admonishing
look.

“He’s drunk. I didn’t do it. I wasn’t there. Why didn’t you stop him?” she said defensively, and then laughed at herself for having a conversation with her dog and accusing the animal of negligence.

Mia plucked the cup of coffee intended for Max from the table and seated herself in a recliner, wondering why Max had brought Tucker with him. For a man who insisted that he and the dog didn’t like each other, they certainly seemed
bonded.

She sipped the hot coffee, watching Max sleep, his eyebrows drawn together as though he were frowning while he slumbered.

As long as she’d known him, she’d never seen Max have more than one drink. He never did anything to excess, and that included not drinking more than he could handle. What had prompted him to drink that
way?

Maybe he had felt he needed it to be able to look at me
again.

Mia cringed, fairly certain she was the reason for Max’s sudden binge. Why else would he have to slug a ton of cheap whiskey at the end of the
drive?

“He hates me, Tucker,” she whispered softly to her dog, getting only what looked like a nod from her canine as he cocked his head. “And he thinks I had another
man.”

Maybe it was best for Max to think that she had betrayed him that way so he would hate her completely, but she had to wonder what her brothers had told him. She’d tried Travis’ office phone and Kade’s cell while she had been making coffee, still with no response.

I want to hate you, but I fucking
can’t.

Max’s words played over and over in her mind, but she knew that had been the alcohol talking. Every word, every action since he’d come through that door had been from severe intoxication. Nothing he said or did could be taken seriously. Still, that
kiss…

“Mia,” Max shouted, rolling over on the couch until he was on his back, thrashing like he was fighting demons in his sleep. “Come back,” he muttered in a low, desperate
voice.

Mia set her coffee on the table beside the recliner, went to the couch and sank to her knees. “Max?” She stroked over the bruises on his face softly, wincing as she smoothed the rapidly emerging purple and yellow areas under his eye. She nudged Tucker, getting him to grudgingly move over so she could take his
place.