“It’s your choice, Miss Turner,” Mrs. McCormick continued, ripping my attention back to her as she called me that on purpose—to prove her point that what I had with Max wasn’t real. “You can either give that baby over to its rightful family, or you can be responsible for the downfall of your husband’s business. Hisdream.”She sneered the last, like dreams were dirty. Like they were only meant for those without wealth and power.
“Hey!”
Max.
He shoved between Todd’s parents and lowered straight onto one knee. “Daze, are you all right?” He held my face, turning and searching it for signs of distress. “Daze…you’re pale,” Max said low, rage brimming like a current under the calm.
“Just feeling a little lightheaded.” Darkness eked around the edges of my vision, and I could feel every pump of my pulse as it climbed my neck. I pressed my hand to the top of my stomach, feeling like my little sprout had grown straight up into my ribs. “I think I need some air.”
And to never see the McCormicks again.
“Let’s get you out of here.”
I wanted to protest. Mrs. McCormick’s words rattled around in my mind like spare Legos, but Max took the cup of water from my limp hands and set it on the table.
“Up you go. Nice and slow.” He guided me onto my feet, his body a blockade against the two people who’d cornered me.
Taking my hands, he turned in front of me.
“Come near my wife and child again, in public or private, and I’ll be filing a restraining order.”
Todd’s dad’s eyes bulged. “Mary?—”
“How dare you threaten?—”
“You’reluckyI’m threatening you,” Max growled, cutting her off menacingly. “It’s because of my friendship with your son that I’mthreateningyou. If it weren’t for him, I’d be calling the police.” And then he bracketed his arm around my waist and guided me out of the event.
The people, the space, everything turned into a foggy blur until we reached our hotel room.
“Max…” I didn’t even sound like myself, my throat was so thick.
He came back over and cupped my neck, tilting my face up. “I know, Daze.” His forehead kissed mine. “I’m packing our things, and we’re going home.”
Maybe it was crazy to drive home at this hour when we had a perfectly good room to stay in—one Max had paid for—but I didn’t want to stay. I wanted to drive. I wanted to let the road untangle what just happened. What she’d said.What Max riskedby being with me.And then I wanted to curl up in the safety of our bed and pretend like nothing could touch us.
At least until morning.
We rode in silence,Max’s hand never leaving mine from the moment he’d taken it inside the ballroom until now. He was always there for me. No matter what.No matter how it hurt him.
“Do you really want to be responsible for ruining his career?”
That was what hit the hardest. Not the threat to me, but to Max.
Before…before I could pretend ignorance. It had been his choice not to tell me how he felt about me, just like it had been my choice to try to ignore my attraction to him. But now I knew. I knew all he’d done for me. All he was doing for me. And I couldn’t—wouldn’t let him do this.
Maybe I could be convinced he didn’t want those things more than he wanted me, but I’d be a fool to think I took first place over his business. I wouldn’t let him convince me that he’d weather whatever storm the McCormicks threw at him.
Before I knew it, the onyx carpet of freeway turned to tree-lined local roads that snaked toward the coast. Toward Max’s house.The house we’d been playing home in.And I felt like a fool.
I thought I was safe—that we were safe. I let myself believe the warning he’d delivered to Mrs. McCormick was enough to drive the point home, but then they showed up at the fundraiserand pulled that rug—that magic carpet dream I’d been riding—right out from under me.
The only point that mattered was the baby I carried was a McCormick, and I’d no sooner be able to get rid of my ties to that family than my daughter would be able to get rid of half of her genes.
I sat frozen, seeing the familiar moon-drenched outline of the coast through the trees. What was I thinking, believing I could fit safely into Max’s world? Assuming that just because he’d wanted me there for so long, there’d be no hurdles. Hoping that I could just start over—start again with the right man when I was pregnant with another man’s baby.
Ironic that Todd had left me, but apparently, I wasn’t allowed to leave him, his family, or their prestigious name.
“Are you okay?” Max finally asked, his voice rough like the night tide against the shore.
