“Tired?” Max inquired.
“Very. I didn’t sleep last night. I wanted to savor the feeling of being together one last time, even though you were three sheets to the wind,” she teased. “I can only imagine the whopper of a hangover you must have had this morning. Do you even remember last night?”
“Not much,” Max admitted reluctantly.
“Do you want me to fill you in how you accused me of being with another man and how you wanted to hate me?” she teased with a grin. “And why did you bring Tucker? I’m assuming my brothers left and took Tucker with them, but I thought you and my dog barely tolerated each other.” Mia knew that wasn’t true anymore, but she wanted to hear Max actually admit that he had become buddies with her dog.
“I did think you had a boyfriend. I didn’t exactly get the whole story before I laid into your brother. All I heard was that he’d been responsible for taking you away from me. We didn’t talk much after that.” Max repositioned her so they were lying face to face on the couch, covering both of them with the blanket and wrapping his arms tightly around her. “And the only thing I have in common with that ugly canine is the fact that we both love you. I couldn’t leave him at the house alone. I was being humane. He’s still a pain in my ass.”
“Do you talk to him? Tucker’s a good listener,” Mia cajoled him.
“He’s judgmental. I hate that in a dog,” Max grumbled.
She sniggered as she realized that Max was actually talking about Tucker as if the dog were a person. Yep. They had definitely bonded, even if it was an antagonistic relationship. “You adore him,” Mia accused.
“He irritates the hell out of me. Blames me because you went away,” Max argued.
“You could have dropped him at the neighbor’s house,” she reminded him. “They love Tucker.”
“He wanted to come,” Max said grudgingly. “He was whining. He missed you.”
Obviously Max wasn’t quite ready to admit that he loved Tucker and that the dog had become incredibly attached to him. So she asked, “Did you make peace with Travis?” She stroked her fingers lightly over the black-and-blue mark under his eye.
“Yeah. We’ve agreed not to kill each other,” Max said with a grin.
“And Kade?”
“I still owe him for laughing at my hangover,” he replied menacingly.
Mia cringed. “Was it bad?”
“Bad enough to make me want to be a teetotaler. I’m not sure I can ever drink another drop of alcohol again,” he answered unhappily. “Now I know why I’ve never gotten drunk. I had some sense before I met you,” he teased. “The thought of you betraying me and happily living your life somewhere else made me crazy. I remember how I felt before I got drunk.”
Mia sighed. “I can’t believe you’ve never been drunk. Not even in college?”
“Nope. I studied while everyone else was partying.”
“Oh God. You really are perfect,” Mia said with mock disgust. “And there could never be anyone else, Max. I even had your name tattooed on my ass,” she reminded him jokingly.
Max rubbed the marking possessively. “Yeah. You did. And it’s f**king beautiful.”
Mia laughed. “I forgot that you curse now, so I guess you aren’t perfect.”
“I always cursed. I just never did it in front of you. My dad never swore in front of my mother,” he replied remorsefully.
“Feel free to let it fly,” Mia replied with a smile. “I have two brothers. I’ve heard every profanity in existence and like to use a few occasionally. But since you never swore, I tried not to let one slip.”
“Christ, we really were pathetic. I’ve always adored you, but I’m not sure we ever really knew each other. No, I take that back. My heart knew you, but the rest of me was a damn idiot,” Max answered despondently. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you when you needed me. You shouldn’t have needed to run to Travis. You should have been able to come to me.”
Mia put a finger on his lips to shush him. “I didn’t allow it. And I wasn’t there for you either, Max. But I think we’ve both changed. Can we just start over again? I’d like to be a real wife to you now.”
Max cocked a brow and gave her a bemused look. “Did you really think there was ever any question about it? You’re not going anywhere, sweetheart.”
Her arrogant and possessive Max was back, and hotter than hell. Mia sighed and squirmed, trying to get closer to him, as close as she could possibly be. She closed her eyes, totally exhausted, but not wanting to miss a moment of this intimacy with him. “You belong to me too, you know.”
“Baby, I’ve known that from the moment we met,” he told her seriously, still stroking her tattoo absently.
Mia’s heart soared at those words. “Me too,” she confessed, knowing that she had started falling for Max at the very beginning, the first time she’d ever seen him smile.
She fell asleep a few moments later, secure in Max’s love, in his strong arms. Max sat stroking her tattoo for quite some time with a contented, relieved smile, before he joined her in slumber.
Chapter 12
The next week at the Montana ranch house turned out to be the happiest days of Max’s entire life. He and Mia were getting to know each other again—or maybe actually for the very first time. And even as he cherished each day, each new discovery he made about his wife, he still mourned for the wasted years during which he could have really known her, but never did. She was still the sweet, incredible woman he had married, the woman he loved with an intensity that nearly killed him, but she was so much…more. She was complicated and insightful, mysterious and bewildering, and the challenge of figuring out the way her mind worked intrigued the hell out of him. She had shown him the designs she was creating now with her jewelry, and her skill and passion still amazed him. The things she’d never told him in the past because she was afraid he’d be repulsed actually made him admire her strength. His wife was a survivor, a woman who had been through hell and had come out of it stronger and wiser. She might laughingly call herself a “work in progress,” but to Max, she was perfect. She always had been.
He sat on the bed and pulled on his hiking boots, a purchase he’d made, along with a bunch of casual clothes, on a trip into Billings. Grinning, he laced the boots, thinking about how seldom he and Mia had even made it out of the house in the last week. But honestly, he didn’t think she minded much. She seemed to flash that damned tattoo of hers way too often, and protested very little when he made good on his promise to f**k her every time he saw it.