Chapter Forty
Rhys
“Yes, ma’am.” Exhilaration still zinging in my veins, I hop off the stage, take Max’s hand and press my lips on the center of her palm. She curls her fingers, a slow smile curving her mouth.
Selena’s chin wobbles, tears gathering in her eyes. “Rhys—”
“Sorry. Gotta listen to my lady.” I squeeze Max’s hand, making her laugh.
There’s something hot as hell about your woman declaring how much she wants you publicly. I love how she’s unabashed about it. To her, nothing matters but me.
The nauseating unease that’s been plaguing me eases.
The foreboding that Max couldn’t possibly want to stick around once she saw the full picture of what her life would be like if we stayed together kept stabbing into me, even when I should have been in the moment, enjoying her presence.
Even when she was laughing with Finn and Liam earlier, I couldn’t help but question if the positive interactions with my brothers would be enough to overcome the infinite embarrassment to be heaped upon her by my parents.
She thinks there are a billion reasons to choose you.
The thought goes to my head like the finest whiskey in the world. If the emcee hadn’t been in my way, I would’ve run to Max, dragged her away and had my way with her until we were both limp with satisfaction.
Hell. Might still do it. It isn’t like we need to stick around, is it?
I pull her close so she can feel how hard I am for her. Heat blazes in her green eyes. We exit the ballroom and walk toward the lobby.
“You’re amazing,” I say. “The first person to make me feel like a billion bucks.”
“For a good cause.” She quirks an eyebrow.
“Where did you get the money? What happened?” I whisper, dying of curiosity. Max’s too responsible to say something she can’t back up, and she would never assume she could just use my money—although I’d love it if she’d spend it to make herself happy.
“Trevor’s lawyer finally convinced me to take his money.
Apparently he’s in the middle of a nasty divorce and doesn’t want anything to go to Lily.
But I heard she’s using his infidelity as a defense for her lies about their son being his.
It’s amazing what lawyers can twist to justify cheating and backstabbing, isn’t it? ”
“But a whole billion? What about you? Is there anything left for you?”
She shrugs. “Well, I kept about five million in a separate trust that Trevor can’t touch, in case of emergency. But I don’t need billions, especially when it’s from Trevor. He earned that money being an asshole, but now it’ll be used to better the world.”
“How dare you, you stupid bitch!”
Speak of the devil.
Trevor’s shout comes from behind. He cuts across the floor toward us. Veins bulge on his forehead, tendons standing up in his neck. He might just keel over if he keeps this up.
“Watch your mouth,” I say curtly.
“Shut up!” he screams, then turns to her. “I didn’t give you the money to squander it on a man.”
She looks at him like he’s intellectually deficient. “What’s wrong with it? It’s my money and my man.”
I smile at the easy way “my man” slips from her.
Trevor’s shriek shatters my joy, though. “I was planning to get it back after the divorce is final! It’s my money—I earned it!”
The corners of her mouth turn down. “Well, sadly for you, it became my money after I signed the papers. If you wanted it to remain your money, you should have set up a super-secret trust in Switzerland or something. Besides, I think our veterans deserve the billion more than you.”
“Besides, she thinks I’m worth it,” I add with a small preen. Trevor is luckily—for him—too old for me to break his face, so I’ll take what I can get.
“He has his own damn money!” Spittle flies from his mouth.
Max and I take a step back. “Stop acting like you’re destitute.
There’s still another billion.” Max’s eyes crinkle with diabolical pleasure.
“Oh, wait…” She snaps her fingers. “That’s right.
It’s not in your account, but in my trust. Maybe I’ll give that away too.
Make it do some good, since just sitting in your coffers is a pretty shitty fate for those poor, poor little dollars.
They’ll be much happier financing homeless shelters.
Or helping single moms who are struggling. ”
“It isn’t my problem if they’re stupid and lazy! If those bitches got jobs, they wouldn’t be so poor!”
She closes her eyes briefly. “Your humanity is touching.”
No kidding. How in hell did he end up with a daughter as smart and nice as Max? Must have been her mom. I regret not meeting her before she passed.
“You should at least get him to marry you before spending a penny on him,” he adds, pointing at me.
The demand hits like a hammer blow to the head.
Marriage.
It doesn’t seem so out of reach. I look at the smart-mouth-having, no-nonsense-tolerating woman who never judges me for anything except what I’ve done…
and realize I don’t just want a year of dating.
I want to spend the rest of my life with her.
Wake up with her in my arms, be the first to see the smile on her face every day and kiss those cute freckles before she hides them under makeup.
Share a quiet evening, have wild sex that leaves us shaking.
Our adorable kids will run around, a girl and a boy, both of them as lovely as her.
I’ll treasure them, make sure they know they’re always my priority—
“Holy shit, that’s it.” Trevor’s eyes light up with calculation as he turns to me. “You’ll be my son—my heir through marriage.”
What the hell? “Why would I want to be your heir? Or worse, your son?” I shudder. “I’ll never choose to have a father like you.” A man worse than Auric Kingswood? I shudder again.
“Then I guess you won’t be with my daughter!” Trevor turns to Max. “Are you hearing this ingrate—?”
“Stop demanding that she take your side,” I cut in. “She doesn’t owe you anything.”
“Max is mine—my daughter. If you want to be with her, you’ll have to be my son-in-law.”
I scoff. “You don’t get to claim her after abandoning her for a nonexistent son. What kind of pathetic piece of shit are you? You threw away the only child you have to chase after an illusion.”
Trevor’s mouth tightens. Frustration tenses his jaw. He knows he has no defense for what he’s done. But then he turns to Max.
“What if I told you I have cancer? Late stage. Terminal.”
She lets out a soft gasp, then blinks a few times as though trying to process this bombshell.
Her chin wobbles for a second, her mouth opening and closing a couple of times as though she’s searching for something to say.
After a couple of moments, she shakes her head.
“Dying won’t erase the memory of you announcing that I was a disappointment because I’m a girl.
Or the pain and humiliation you caused me and Mom when you flaunted your mistress and the son you thought you’d had with her.
Even now, you’re just thinking about ways to use me to get the son you desperately want. I mean less than a dog to you.”
“You heartless bitch,” he hisses between clenched teeth.
I bristle. “You don’t talk to my girlfriend with disrespect.”
“Your girlfriend?” he sneers. “She’s my daughter. What are you going to do? Hit me?”
“Do you really have cancer?” I study his hale complexion. “For a dying man, you’re awfully loud and confrontational.”
“Of course not. I threw it out there to see if she’d relent.”
Max’s jaw drops. I exhale slowly. I always thought my parents were the world champions in shamelessness, but they’re amateurs compared to this guy.
He glares at us. “Jesus Christ, what a couple of disgusting, ungrateful, ill-mannered assholes.”
He walks past me, intentionally bumping his shoulder against mine. I stick my foot out. He’s so busy cursing and shaking his head that he trips and falls to his knees. “Ow!”
“Oops.”
He rubs his knees. “You son of a bitch,” he manages to snarl through the pain.
“What you going to do about it? Hit us?” Max taunts him.
I take her hand. “Let’s go. Something stinks worse than a zombie skunk in here.”