Page 32 of Second Chances with my Billionaire Bosses

Maxie’s hand didn’t move so fast that I couldn’t have stopped it but I didn’t want to. I welcomed the burn left behind after her slap. Her chest heaved with anger and then horror as she stared at her hand.

“Oh, my god… I’m sor—”

I grabbed her and gently shook her.

“Fuck no. Do not apologize. That’s what I want. I want the fire, Maxie. I wantyou. I’m not going to stop until I get what I want, either.”

She struggled between fury and shame, I could tell. Her eyes burned with indecision but her hands were fisted at her sides.

“I want you to think about what your mom did to you and ask yourself which one of you was the problem. Then I want you to think about being big and round with our babies. Are you going to be your mother? Are you going to raise our kids the same way she raised you?”

Fire. Her entire being went up in flames as she jerked away from me and went up on her toes to shout at me.

“Don’t! You don’t know what you’re talking about. None of you do. No one was here so no one gets to speak about any of it. Everyone left me here, doing it all, and now you think you can come in and take over? No! No, you don’t get to do that! You don’t get to talk about the imaginary kids we’ll never have. And if you knew anything about me and my relationship with my mother, you’d never think twice about raising a child with me. It’ll never happen. I will never be a mother. I will never risk turning into her. You may as well look somewhere else for whatever fantasies you’re inventing.”

Her words knocked me back a step. What the fuck had her mother done to her?

“There’s a cattle auction coming up soon and there’s plenty of fence that still needs mending. I’m going to work.” She stomped down the stairs, all signs of the broken doll and the robotic woman gone.

Shep stared up at me after the front door slammed.

“Did that go the way you wanted it to?”

I rubbed my hands down my face.

“I don’t fucking know. At least she’s not practically comatose anymore.”

Rhett walked up next to Shep and frowned at me.

“What was that?”

I made my way down the stairs, my head already throbbing with a headache.

“I don’t know. If I have to push her to get her out of that robotic state, then maybe it’s worth it. Anything to make the real Maxie come out. We have a lot more of a shot with the real version of her than the cold version her mother left behind.”

Shep blew out a deep breath. “Maybe.”

“I’m going after her. The least I can do is help with the fucking fence now.” I stormed out the front door, miserable with how everything had gone. I wasn’t a cruel man. I didn’t want to push Maxie, not when it was clear the trauma she’d endured still had a hold on her.

I closed the front door behind me and grunted when a soft weight hit me. The sweet scent of Maxie filled my senses as her hands clenched in my hair and dragged my mouth down to hers. She kissed me hard, sinking her teeth into my bottom lip and sucking before I had a chance to grab her and hold on. She danced away from me, her eyes burning with an erotic mix of anger and desire. I pressed my fingers to my mouth and stared at her, confused and turned on beyond belief.

She glared at me as she steadily backed away.

“You don’t own me.”

A slow smile stretched my lips. As fucked as things felt, she’d kissed me.

“No? What if you own us?”

CHAPTER 23

Maxie

What if you own us?Arlo’s question banged around in my head as I worked on the fence in spurts while my energy lasted. After being sick for days, it seemed I’d have to build back up to my normal stamina. As it was, all the resting time was giving me too much time to think about the infuriating men working beside me.

They were workhorses, never slowing down. They’d each lost their shirt, content to work in front of me shirtless and sweaty. It was a lot of sweaty, tan, muscled man to just look past. And, thanks to Arlo, my defenses were shattered. I couldn’t manage to engage my Stepford shields. They left me burning up and slipping back into that icy place wasn’t something I could do.

I took a long drink of water and tightened my ponytail. The end of it stuck to my sweaty neck and I had to stop to lift it from my skin before I decided to cut it off. I stared out across the land and blew out a long breath. I was a mess. Emotionally. It was embarrassing to admit it but I was. I felt like I couldn’t hold myself together anymore and I knew it was the presence of Arlo, Shep, and Rhett that was threatening the carefully constructed life I’d built. I held myself together by holding everyone else away. It was easier not to feel the disappointment and anger that had once threatened to smother me with every breath. I knew if I let those emotions take over again, I’d never be able to drag all of the bullshit in and button it back inside.

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