‘It’s not that simple!’ she insisted.
‘It is.’
‘I can’t give up everything that I’ve worked for.’ She engaged that skill that had made her famous then. Mav saw it click into place. It didn’t matter that he knew she was acting, it still devastated him when he saw her resolve. Because it was unmovable. ‘Iwon’tgive up everything that I’ve worked for. I’m sorry, Mav.’
He knew she was evading even as the pain of her rejection tore through him. He thought he had been here before. But he hadn’t. This was more terrifying than Shannon abandoning him with an infant. This was the end of a future he’d wanted with every cell in his body.
‘I never asked you to,’ he reminded her. ‘I’m here, Nina. I showed up, to help you fight for what you want.’
‘Mav, you’ve known me two weeks. Two of the lowest weeks of my life.’
‘Yeah, maybe. But I’ve been searching for you for a lifetime, and that has to count for something. And if I can love you as much as I do at your lowest, God only knows how much I’ll love you at your best.’
‘Mav,’ she urged, her tone slipping.
‘Nina.’
‘I’m asking –begging– you to go home, to give me time to sort my life out. Please.’
Arguing wasn’t going to change her mind. He could see that she had made her decision, and that she was sticking to it. If anything, the more he resisted, the more committed she seemed, and Mav would rather cut off his own arm than make her feel trapped and miserable. He’d unknowingly done that to a woman once before and still regretted it, and Nina already had so much to carry.
‘Call Markus,’ he said, because he’d be damned if he’d leave her alone like this. ‘Once he gets here, I’ll go.’
He waited for her to nod before pushing up off the sofa and walking through to the en-suite shower. He ran the water cold, stripped, and stepped under the unforgiving spray, hoping that the frigid water would freeze out his anger and despair and grief. But it only left him cold and numb.
He knew in the deepest part of his soul that they were destined. He even knew she loved him too. But how could he justify staying when she’d begged him to leave? How could he try and show someone who’d never been loved by a lover thatmakinglove to someone andlovingsomeone could be completely different and that the precise test of real love was sticking through the bullshit that life threw in your face?
Mav had no fucking idea.
And if there was a small, insecure part of him that had known this would happen, that reminded him he had been expecting it, he tried to ignore it. Because even as she broke his heart, Mav understood why she was doing it. Hell, he even admired her for it.
Nina could hear the water running in the shower and had to actively stop herself from going to him, from slipping inside the shower and pressing her body to his, from taking his mouth and then begging him not to leave, from apologizing for causing that pain in his eyes and then never letting him go again.
FuckShadowlands, because that conversation with Mav had been her best performance yet.
But as difficult as it was, she knew that she was right, and that she was doing the right thing. For Mav, who had worked his entire life to make Hunt Ranch the serene escape it was. For Poppy, who didn’t deserve to be indoctrinated into the world’s deceit because of Nina’s mistakes. For Sierra, who would have stood up for Nina for no other reason than Maverick had asked.
Despite all of Mav’s points – and he had made some that had her heart beating overtime – Nina couldn’t ask him to sit with her through police interviews, press conferences, Instagram wars, and media harassment. It wouldn’t have been fair, and she loved him enough to want to spare him.
Because he would stick if she hadn’t been the one to put her foot down. Nina absolutely believed that to be true. And, when it was all over, she really hoped she’d be proven right.
And if there was a not-so-small, niggling part of her that knew she feared trusting him, feared relying on him too much, Nina forgave herself for it. Because she had absolutely meant what she’d said: Maverick didn’t know what he was taking on.
Tomorrow, when she made her official statement, the war would truly start. And all wars had casualties. It didn’t matter that this one would primarily involve words, twisted into lies and arguments that masked the truth, people would get hurt. Nina was already one of them.
But she’d be damned if the Hunts would be, too.
Still, when Markus arrived, dressed in neatly pressed, pleated khaki pants and a white linen shirt, it took every ounce of her God-given talent to remain composed.
‘What’s going on?’ he asked, his dark eyes searching her face.
She could hear Mav rummaging around in the bedroom as he packed. ‘I asked him to leave.’
Markus nodded slowly. He didn’t tell her she was an idiot or argue with her. This man, who knew every corner of her soul, the corners that Maverick was still learning, said, ‘I don’t agree with you. But I’ve got you.’
Nina’s eyes burned, but she refused to let the tears fall until Maverick had left. Still, holding them back made her think about how often she had cried in the past month, and how often she had cried in front of Maverick. It wasn’t because she was a particularly sensitive person either. It was because he made her feel safe, and in doing so gave her the space to be vulnerable.
He came out of the bedroom, looking like every woman’s dream on legs. Nina promised herself that one day, hopefully soon, he would be hers again. Forever.
