23. Max
Max
“ I told my father to do it,” Draven said as I padded into the kitchen, pouring the fresh brewed coffee over ice and watching the cubes crack and sink down under the liquid.
I glanced over at Draven. “You spoke with your father?”
He was lying down on his side on my couch, his wounded side facing upward.
He looked cool, calm, and casual, in a way I’d never quite seen on him before.
“I spoke with him,” he said. “For the first time in quite a while.”
“And you told him…”
“I told him to take every instance of my fuckin’ name out of the Lyons Agriculture company.”
I furrowed my brow. “You’re kidding me, right?”
I had just slept like the dead for at least nine or ten hours straight, and woken up to see Draven happy as a clam in the morning light. Was he playing a prank on me?
“Not kidding. Told him all I want is the value of my plot of land, and to have my horses carefully transported down here to my land. I will be taken out of anything having to do with the company, though.”
“That can’t be how it works,” I said. “You can’t just decide to leave, when you’re written into all the documentation.”
“It’s certainly how it works,” he told me. “And yes, there will be a legal process and lots to sign, but it will happen.”
“I thought… I thought you wanted it. I thought you’d never back down. Never let your father win , or your former friend drive you out of your home state.”
“I thought all of that too, until I almost fucking bled out and died, and I realized that there are some things in life that just aren’t worth fighting for. And then there are a whole fuckin’ lot more important things than my stubborn, hateful, rage-filled pride.”
“But it was your dream,” I said.
“And you are one of the things that is a lot more important.”
I shook my head. “No. You’re going to regret this. You’re going to resent me for giving up on what you wanted so badly?—”
Draven just laughed softly. “I’m never going to regret a goddamn thing. I regret not pulling out sooner.”
“But the Lyons Agriculture name could have boosted a horse rescue center. If that’s really what you want, you should use it. Leverage it into getting more funding for your sanctuary.”
“No,” he said. “I am going to do it on my own. I’m still going to have more than enough money from the sale of my estate.
Money most people could never dream of. I can have the best animal sanctuary in Tennessee within two years, Max.
Trying to stay with the Lyons company… it would just be greed, and pride, and so many other fucking things that I am tired of prioritizing. ”
I sat down on the edge of the couch, being careful not to get close to the spot on his body that was in pain.
“But where are you going to live?” I asked softly. “Your whole life was on that estate.”
“I’m going to live right here in Bestens,” he answered. “My whole life isn’t back in Montana anymore. I know you’re still mad I scooped up Old Man Marsden’s property, but I hate to break it to you, Baby Blue, that land is mine now.”
“You’re going to stay here?” I asked, surprised to feel a tightness in my throat.
“I’m going to stay,” he said, the green in his eyes clearer than ever as I turned to look at his face.
“I’m going to complain about the heat. I’m going to be baffled at how nice everyone is in town.
And I’m going to watch over you like a fucking hawk until I’m damn sure there’s no more online stalkers coming your way. But yes. I’m going to be here.”
I felt the sting of tears at the corners of my eyes, but I’d cried enough in the last few days for a lifetime.
Instead, I leaned over, pressing my lips to Draven’s.
“Fuck, I love you,” I whispered. “I’m still so mad at you. How could you do that? How could you let yourself get stabbed for me? And you’re going to be here—you don’t even like the old Marsden house.”
“I love that house,” he protested. “I’m making it my own. Just like a lot of other things around here.”
He squeezed my arm.
“You think Veil and Jasper will like it here?”
“They’ll get used to it. Just like I did,” he said. “Going to get bigger stalls put in on the property as soon as humanly possible, too. Kiss me again.”
I moved in to kiss him and he held me close, pressing his lips to mine softly.
After the night when he’d finally kissed me—when he’d told me that he was falling in love with me, which I still couldn’t even fathom—Draven had been different.
He always seemed to want to hold hands. He wasn’t just affectionate. It was like a switch had flipped inside him and now he was desperate for my touch, anytime he could get it. Needy, almost, like a dam had broken inside him and he wasn’t holding anything back.
“I would say that Bestens doesn’t know what’s about to hit it, but… Bestens is already plenty acquainted with you,” I said.
“They know me, and they love me,” Draven said with a smile. “You were the only one who wanted to kill me.”
“I didn’t know you yet.”
“And I liked every last bit of your attitude,” he said. “You know I’m still going to demand you choke me sometimes. Still going to ask you to smack me, to bruise me, to give me that feisty look you’re giving me right about now.”
“I’m not doing any of that ‘til you’re fully healed,” I told him.
“True love.”
I pulled in a long breath, looking all around my barn. “The first night I met you, if you’d told me that I would fall in love with you, I would have laughed you out of the room.”
He hummed, squeezing my hand. “I always liked you.”
“You thought I was naive.”
“Still do, kind of,” he said. “And I like that, too.”
“I’m not so naive anymore. I’ve been on a plane. I’ve been to Montana. I’ve watched a person I love get fucking stabbed , because he’s stubborn and won’t just call the police like a normal person.”
“You already knew the important stuff.”
“And what’s that?”
He ran his fingertips along my arm, and I watched the rose tattoo on his forearm as he moved up and down slowly.
“You knew how to love,” he said. “How to be human . How to talk, how to be true to yourself. How to fuck.”
I groaned. “You’re the one teaching me how to get fucked.”
“Yeah, well, you’re a natural.”
He brought my hand up to his lips, kissing the back of it. “You’re mine now. If you want to be.”
I swallowed, focused on his eyelashes, thick and dark.
How gorgeous he was.
How masculine, and handsome, and perfect he was, scars and all.
“I really want to be, Draven,” I whispered. “I couldn’t stop being yours if I tried.”