Chapter 28
Daisy
Home.
It had always been a place in my mind. An apartment. A house. A physical structure where I lived. It wasn’t until Max brought me to his house—my dream house—and made me his, that I realized home was, in fact, not a place but a person.
Home was him.
His smile. His warm gaze that set my skin on fire. His touch that seemed to read my skin like a mood ring, going from gentle to supportive to possessive to dominating without me having to say a word.
“Mr. Obrien, this is my beautiful wife, Daisy,” Max introduced me to the hotel manager, his hand remaining firmly on my lower back. As though the cum running down my inner thigh wasn’t possessive enough. “Daisy, this is Mr. Obrien.”
The way Max was looking at me made it hard to want to look at anyone else.
To think of anyone else. His beautiful wife.
Todd never introduced me like that. Not to people like this.
Beautiful had been implied by the smug look on his face.
Like I was proof of something. But Max…Max looked at me like I was his world. Like we were his world.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Daisy,” Mr. Obrien said, and I finally turned as he extended his hand. “Congratulations.”
I placed mine in his and watched as he brought my knuckles to his mouth. Every time someone kissed the back of my hand, I had to wonder if they could smell me on my ring. I knew Max licked it clean, but…But that was the point, the butterflies in my stomach whispered.
“Thank you.”
“I can see why you’ve been so busy recently,” Mr. Obrien said as he straightened.
Max’s smile didn’t even falter—nor did his gaze break from me. “Family comes first,” he said, slipping me a wink as he looked back to the other man. “But it’s my beautiful wife that you have to thank for the perfume samplers.”
“Your idea?” He looked to me.
“Her idea and her talent,” Max said proudly. “She developed the blend herself.”
“Yes, that was a very nice touch,” he replied, seeming more conciliatory now.
“You know, Mr. Hamilton, it may be something I’m interested in using throughout the hotel…
” He trailed off, and my heart thudded, and then something—someone—caught his attention.
“But we can talk about that later. If you’ll excuse me. ”
As he walked away, my breath let out in a whoosh, and then I felt Max’s head dip next to mine.
“You’re incredible, do you know that?”
I let out a weak laugh and then reached for my stomach, feeling a small cramp.
“Max…” I tipped my head.
“Incredible and all mine.” His mouth dropped to mine, kissing me in the middle of the crush without a care in the world.
“Max?”
We pulled apart as a very handsome and vaguely familiar face came over. In the background, a banner echoed his striking features. Blaze Stevens.
“Blaze,” Max greeted warmly. “Good to see you again.”
The Hollywood star smiled, but the expression didn’t reach his eyes. “I was hoping I’d find you here…” he said as he shook Max’s hand.
“Blaze, this is my wife, Daisy. Daisy, this is Wade’s brother, Blaze.”
Blaze gave me the same clipped smile, like a flower that had been clipped and pruned so it didn’t grow too tall or too wide. Like he’d trimmed his emotions into the image the public wanted to see.
“I just wanted to thank you for letting me rent the apartment,” Blaze continued, his voice lowering a notch.
“It’d be different if it were just me, but with Pais, I don’t trust a hotel or the strangers there to keep my privacy.
” There was a flash, and his head snapped to the side, though his expression remained untouched.
Like a man who smiled as he was being tortured.
“It’s not a problem. Glad I could help.”
“Flowers look great, by the way. And the perfume…genius,” he added, and I felt a blush of pride warm my chest. “Heard a bunch of people remarking on it.”
I looked up at my husband, who just smiled calmly and said, “Wonderful.”
Max’s reserve carried new meaning now. New weight. A gentlemanly kind of armor he only shed when he was around me, and that made my blood heat. Just like I shed a few things only around him and became something I never thought I’d appreciate: submissive.
“Blaze!” a deep voice called from behind the famous actor. With a nod that looked more like a grimace, Blaze excused himself and disappeared into the crush.
“Everything really is beautiful, Max,” I said, inching closer to him as a group of men who were drinking and talking loudly moved behind me.
He took my hand and lifted it to his mouth, pressing his lips to the back for long seconds and staring at me. “You’re beautiful, Daze. Exquisite.”
“Max.” I sighed and shook my head.
I’d lost count of the number of times he’d complimented me tonight. In every private intermission between meeting and greeting people, Max had told me how beautiful I was. How exquisite I looked. How he couldn’t stop looking at me. How he couldn’t wait to get me back to our room.
“I’m serious, Daze.” He stepped closer and cupped my face. “Everyone in here is looking at you.” His voice lowered. “You’re a goddess.”
“You keep saying that—”
“Because it’s true,” he growled. “Everyone is looking at you, and all I want is to take you back upstairs and remind you that you’re mine.”
“Max.” I shivered, my eyes fighting to stay open as his mouth found the shell of my ear.
“Do you still feel me running out of you?” he husked with a devilish grin.
My jaw went slack, my nipples pebbling hotly against my dress.
I picked this one because the way the fabric pleated over my chest, I could get away without wearing a bra.
I had to get away with it. I was too big and uncomfortable for bras anymore, and Max acted like I’d made the decision solely for him.
To him, I didn’t live in oversized T-shirts and dresses because everything else was too tight or uncomfortable.
I wore those things because they gave him easy access to my body.
When I woke overnight, tossing and turning because there was no position comfortable enough when you were about to pop, it was just one more invitation to give me an orgasm.
When I couldn’t bend down to put socks on or tie my sneakers, he never wasted an opportunity to get on his knees for me—and make mine weak for him.
Every moment when I could’ve felt bloated and overstuffed, uncomfortable and unattractive, he turned those thoughts on their head. He made every minute of this pregnancy—every change my body endured—like I was providing him one more facet of his fantasy.
I’d never felt more attractive. More desired. More cherished. More loved. And I would admit to being wrong, to picking the wrong man a thousand times over, if every time it meant it would lead me to the right one. To Max Hamilton.
“A little,” I murmured, my gaze hazy as I stared at the crowd around us.
“Maybe I should take you back upstairs and fill you back up. I wouldn’t want my little wife to forget who she belongs to.”
I sucked in a breath and turned my head, forcing him to look at me. “You.” I placed my left hand on his beating chest. “I belong to you.”
“Max.” Mr. Obrien clapped him on the shoulder and then took a step back, not realizing Max and I were having a moment. “Sorry to interrupt. I wanted to introduce you to some of the donors for tonight.”
Max’s eyes flashed possessively at me.
“Go,” I murmured and smiled. “I’m going to sit for a few minutes.”
Catching my chin in his fingers, he held me steady and took my mouth in a long, deep kiss. “I’ll be back soon,” he murmured.
As Max dipped into the crowd, I heard Mr. Obrien remark, “I can see why you keep her to yourself, my friend.”
And Max wanted them to see. He wanted everyone to know I was his, and it was the sweetest feeling in the world.
I walked to the water table a few feet away and took a small glass, finding a chair at a table near the perimeter of the room and sinking into it.
We’d been milling around the ballroom for over an hour, but it was only now that I was sitting that I felt the exhaustion start to creep in.
That was why I told Max to go with Mr. Obrien alone.
The second he realized my energy was flagging, he’d want to leave, and I knew tonight was a big night for him. I wanted him to have it.
“Mrs. Hamilton,” a voice drawled from behind me, its vitriol scratching at my skin, ripping away the glossy sheen Max had put on the night.
No.
My spine stiffened into steel as I turned and looked up at my former almost-in-laws.
“Mrs. McCormick.” Her dark-red lips were pulled into a severe line. “Mr. McCormick.” His lips were hardly visible at all except for how they anchored his expression in a frown. “It’s nice to see you.”
I was polite because I was too panicked to be anything else. My arm instinctively slid over my stomach when Mrs. McCormick’s gaze dropped to it, and I had to remind myself that she couldn’t take my baby. Not now, when Lucy was still inside me. Not ever.
“If you’ll excuse me—” I broke off, sinking back into the chair when Mrs. McCormick moved in front of me, bodily blocking me from standing. Suddenly, the grand ballroom felt as small as a janitor’s closet.
“Absolutely not. We have some things to discuss.”
My hand curled into the tablecloth as I fought to breathe. “I believe I said everything I needed to say to you weeks ago,” I said, my heart thudding faster. “Now, if you could move out of my way. I have to go—”
“No.”
“My husband—”
“Is here by the grace of his business,” Mrs. McCormick snapped. “A business which is successful by the grace of our name.”
Dread curled like a snake in my chest, not only suffocating me but threatening to bite.
“The clients he has, the ones he’s meeting right now, Daisy, would disappear like a dandelion on a breeze with just one word from Senator McCormick. One hint that MaineStems is a business non grata.”
I stared at her, unable to believe what I was hearing. She was threatening me. Threatening Max.