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“You didn’t have to buy me a Ferrari,” he reminded her.
“I wanted to,” she argued.
“Ditto,” he said, grinning at her.
“Are you planning on giving me a ride?” she asked softly, her eyes drifting to his new car.
Oh yeah. He wanted to give her the ride of her life right now. Max was seriously considering laying her over the hood of the Ferrari naked, but Mia had already jogged to the passenger side of the car and hopped over the door and into the sports car.
Resigned, he opened the door and sank into the leather seat, starting the vehicle and turning it around so he could head out to the highway. He drove slowly down the driveway, trying to avoid the potholes, and making a mental note to get them filled in as soon as possible.
“Do we know where we’re going?” Max asked Mia, not certain exactly where the back highways led in the area or what his destination was going to be.
“Does it matter?” Mia asked, her hair ruffling in the breeze as he stopped at the end of the driveway.
Max frowned as he looked back at her. He’d never been a fly-by-the-seat-of-his-pants type of guy. He always knew exactly where he was going, what he was doing, and why he was doing it.
But I’m in a car I’ve dreamed about since I was a teenager, with a beautiful woman in the passenger seat—a woman who I love and thought I’d never be able to touch again.
So no…hell no…he didn’t care where he was going, as long as Mia was going with him.
His whole body relaxed as he looked at Mia, her face radiant and glowing, his scowl disappearing and his lips curling up into a boyish grin. “Nope. It doesn’t matter at all.”
“You look like a teenage boy who just got his driver’s license,” Mia observed, amused.
“I’ve had a license for a long time, woman. But I do feel like a teenager in a couple of ways,” he told her hoarsely, his mouth going dry as he looked at her.
“How?”
“I want to see if this vehicle really does go from zero to sixty in less than four seconds and you make me as horny as a teenage kid who wants nothing more than to get into the panties of the girl sitting beside him,” he answered, shooting her dangerous look.
“I’m pretty easy for you,” Mia answered in low, sultry voice. “I’m your wife.” She paused before telling him sweetly, “Turn right. It’s a long stretch of pretty straight road.”
She might be his wife, but she’d never be easy. Luckily, his woman had been referring to sex, and in that regard, he was all for her being easy…with him. Mia would also tease him, delight him, frustrate the hell out of him, and change him in ways that would always make him a better man. She’d push his boundaries, make him realize that he could shed his Mr. Perfect title and still be a man his adoptive parents would be proud of if they were still alive. He’d probably never be reckless or completely abandoned, because that wasn’t who he really was, but he was learning that everything in life didn’t have to make sense. And in fact, most of the really good things, stuff that made life really worth living, actually didn’t involve reason or logic.
Turning his eyes back to the road, he let himself simply enjoy the purr of the powerful engine as he turned onto the two-lane highway. There wasn’t a car in sight, and there usually wasn’t until one reached the freeway. The ranch was a fairly lengthy drive from Billings, and the area was sparsely populated.
“Zero to sixty in under four seconds,” Max said absently to himself, driving slowly as he contemplated the road ahead of him and got the feel of the new vehicle.
“Well, let’s see it, Grandpa. Tear it up. Just watch for deer,” Mia said happily, sounding more than ready to see him speed it up.
Max accelerated, the car responding with a roar as the powerful engine shot the vehicle down the pavement, the horsepower beneath the sleek hood making the speed climb rapidly.
Forty miles per hour.
Fifty miles per hour.
Sixty miles per hour.
“Damn, it really does,” Max said loudly enough for Mia to hear over the wind and the engine.
His wife simply laughed, a loudwhoopthat kept him accelerating until he felt like he was flying. He pushed the vehicle as far as he dared with his wife beside him…but later, when he was alone, he’d test it more. But not with his entire life sitting beside him. He might be loosening up, but he wasn’t stupid. Slowing back to a little above the speed limit, he desperately wished he could find the words to say to Mia. It wasn’t the gift of the vehicle that moved him, but the fact that she wanted to make him happy.
“Turn up here. The next right,” she instructed him excitedly.
Max didn’t ask where they were going. He still didn’t care. He turned right and Mia directed him through a few more turns before she had him pulling into a dirt parking area.
After he got out of the car, he caught Mia just as she was about to hop out of the convertible, grasping her around the waist and swinging her over the door, savoring the feel of her body against him. He let her lower her feet to the ground, not sure if he wanted to let go.