Page 86 of When Hearts Surrender

Silas lets out a happy howl, his tail beating loudly against the floor.

“You like this spot, don’t you, you little terror,” Maxwell says, still not having noticed me, as he tends to a sensitive spot under Silas’s collar.

Silas barks and stretches his body on the floor, giving Maxwell more access.

“You’re insatiable. Give you a scratch and you want more. And more. And more, until I can’t get any work done and you take over my time and my life…just like your mistress,” Maxwell murmurs, his lips curving into a smile, his voice infused with warmth.

My heart stutters to a stop and restarts before careening past the finish line, and I fall, head over heels, madly into something I never want to admit to with this man.

This infuriating, frustrating, overbearing man.

This passionate, kindhearted, beautiful man.

Butterfly wings flap in my stomach and wetness mists my eyes. The gasp I was holding in finally comes tumbling out.

Maxwell startles and freezes, his muscles bunching up under his cream-colored turtleneck sweater. He slowly lifts his head, his warm eyes snagging mine.

For a few seconds, all we can do is to stare at each other, the ethereal music wrapping us in a tender embrace, the world slowly fading away until all that remains is a man and a woman, two kindred souls with too many secrets and unsaid sentiments.

Maxwell and Belle, an artist and his little muse.

“Belle,” he whispers, awe-infusing his voice as his gaze rakes over me.

Slowly, he stands up, and I notice the vein in his neck pulsing, his throat rippling as if he wants to say something but can’t find the words.

I know how you feel.

Blinking the wetness away from my eyes, I fly toward him, and he opens his arms wide.

“Thank you, Maxwell,” I sob into his shoulder as he wraps me in his warm embrace. “Thank you so, so much!”

“Belle, I’m sorry,” he whispers into my ear. “I’m sorry for hurting you.”

His arms bind me tightly to him, his heat a fiery brand against my body, his scent of sandalwood and amber searing itself into my brain.

I shake in his arms, too overcome with emotions to say anything else.

I’m home.

It’s an instinct, a gut feeling, a belief that transcends time or logic.

I’m home…and stupid curse or not, I never want to leave.

Chapter 31

A suffocating pressure sitsatop my chest as I pull open the drapes in the study and watch the snowstorm obliterate the world in a tempest of white. The wind is restless, a vengeful spirit battering against the windows, begging to be let in, to spread its deathly chill to the inhabitants of the estate.

The same restlessness lives inside me as I clutch the speech I’m supposed to make in a few hours in my hand. Lana and the PR think tank drafted the quick speech that should be easy to do.Shouldbeing the operative word. They might as well be asking me to climb Mount Everest.

I can feel the stirrings of another monster trying to claw itself out of my chest.

“Sir Maxwell, your family just arrived. Should I bring them here?” Morris asks from behind me.

“We’re barging in, whether he likes it or not!” Rex announces seconds later, completely disregarding Morris’s traditional efforts to keep them in the sitting room while he finds me to announce their arrival.

Smirking, I turn around, grateful for Rex and his usual antics as a distraction from my dark mood. “Rex, nice of you to show up on time today.”

“It’s too early for my taste. If it weren’t for Ethan and Lana dragging me out of bed, I would’ve shown up later.”

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