Lovers at Heart (The Bradens, Book One: Love in Bloom Series)

Chapter Thirty-Eight, Lovers at Heart

Chapter Thirty-Eight

TREAT SPED THE whole way to Max’s apartment. Traffic was light and he made it there in record time. He flew into the parking lot and took a cursory glance for Max’s car as he ran for the steps, which he took two by two, feeling lighter on his feet than he had in years.

He knocked on her door twice, then twice more without waiting for her to answer. His heart thundered against his ribs. He had no idea what he’d say to her. He’d figure it out when he saw her beautiful eyes.

The knob turned. Treat held his breath as the door swung open.

“What did you forget?”

“Kaylie?”

“Treat?”

He looked over her shoulder. “Where’s Max?”

A smile grew across Kaylie’s lips. “She’s heading toward your father’s ranch.”

“My father’s—”

“Yes! Go! She just left ten minutes ago. Go!”

He bolted down the stairs and headed back toward the highway, spurred on by the knowledge that Max was coming for him.

BY THE TIME she pulled up in front of the ranch, Max had had plenty of time to mull over Kaylie’s questions, and she’d driven herself into a relative frenzy. She had asked him to love her through her insecurities, and he’d promised he would. Maybe she was making a mistake after all. Maybe since he hadn’t come for her, he didn’t really love her like he claimed.

She parked the car and felt the anger building in her chest, battling with the love that was tugging at her heart. She hadn’t given him a choice. She hadn’t said, Follow me. Love me. No. Instead she’d been an idiot and written, Please don’t follow me. Still, he should have known better. He should have figured it out, like she had when she’d gone to Wellfleet.

She watched one of Treat’s brothers riding a horse across the field, toward her car. As he approached, she saw it was the one with the huge muscles. Not that any of them weren’t cut from some incredibly sexy fabric that she’d never known existed, but this brother’s biceps were the size of footballs.

He pulled up on the reins of the beautiful red and gray horse as Max stepped from the car.

“Max?” He ran his eyes slowly down her body with an appreciative nod.

Ugh! She had forgotten what she was wearing, and now, with the crests of her breasts saying hello to the world and her leather pants leaving nothing to the imagination, she felt like a fool, which only spurred on her anger even more.

“Rex, right?” she asked.

“Yeah, that’s right. You just missed Treat. He took off to take care of some business.”

Damn it. “Business?” Why the hell isn’t he taking care of fixing our relationship?

Rex shrugged. “That’s what he said.”

His eyes roved to her breasts and remained there. Max cleared her throat, and he met her eyes with a nod of his head.

“Thank you,” she said curtly and climbed back into her car. Business? Business! She snapped on her seat belt. And the way Rex had ogled her? She’d come out looking to entice Treat and now she looked like nothing but a tramp! If Treat were there, they would have recognized her sexy attire as the lure it was meant to be. Damn it. She jerked her car into reverse and slammed the pedal to the floor—she couldn’t get out of there fast enough.