The wind kicked up so much the windows rattled. Stella jumped and the dogs started barking again.
Dane snapped his fingers and turned to the dogs. “Bed.”
The one-word command had them darting toward the wide stairs and they raced each other up to the second floor. Once they were out of sight, Dane turned back to Stella.
“Come into the living room.”
She crossed her arms over her chest. “I’m not staying or obeying your commands.”
“You’re being ridiculous right now,” he growled. “Are you just going to stand in my foyer all night?”
“If I want.”
Dane raked a hand over his hair and blew out a sigh. “Don’t be so damn stubborn.”
Stella stared at him for another minute before she turned her attention around the open space and ultimately went in the opposite direction of the living room.
He glanced up to the ceiling and willed himself to remain calm. This woman had been through hell, at the hands of her father and then him. She was strong willed and angry, and totally entitled to all her frustration and rage.
Having her here at his ranch seemed perfect in all the wrong ways. So as she set off, Dane had no choice but to follow.
Seventeen
Stella figured the storm inside was better to deal with than the storm outside...or at least that’s what she told herself as she explored the first level of Dane’s ranch.
She wasn’t actually focusing on anything, more just wandering aimlessly through the oversize rooms. One area seemed to flow to the next and everything looked like something from a magazine. The high beams, the worn wooden floors, the plush leather sofas, and stone fireplace.
Everything about this house reminded her of the resort. The dark wood, the way everything from the furniture to the size of the rooms just screamed power and money. His mother might have built Mirage, but Dane was clearly his mother’s son. Stella was not only fighting her father, but she was also up against a family lineage. Dane wasn’t just going to let her have the resort, and she wouldn’t expect him to if what he told her was true.
Still, that didn’t mean he had gone about things the right way. She wasn’t sure what the right way would have been, but she sure as hell knew he’d made the wrong choice.
“Looking for another escape route?” Dane asked as he came up behind her.
Stella turned her attention from the photos lining the mantel to Dane. He stood behind her, just close enough she could reach out and touch him, but far enough to give her a bit of space.
“I’m trying to wrap my head around all of this,” she replied honestly. “I mean, what the hell were you thinking coming into all of this? That you deserved Mirage, that you’d get it no matter what and that anything that wasn’t your feelings or your end goal simply doesn’t matter? Did I sum it all up?”
The muscle clenched in his jaw as he shoved his hands into his pockets. Those dark eyes narrowed.
“Don’t even try to be offended,” she went on. “You brought all of this upon yourself.”
“I had no time,” he demanded. “It’s not just Mirage in Gold Valley. There’s more going on and I had to move when I could.”
“More what? More businesses you’re trying to steal from unsuspecting women?”
He stared at her for another minute before cursing under his breath and turning to pace toward the wall of windows. The harsh conditions continued to rage outside and honestly, it wasn’t much prettier inside. She wished she’d never come. She wished she’d never met Dane Michaels. And she wished like hell she’d never put stock in thinking her father would finally give her something—anything—she truly wanted.
She’d felt so damn isolated for so long. Even training for the competitions she’d felt alone because not many people understood that willpower and determination.
Now here she was alone. Stella knew she needed to dig deep and find that drive and determination all over again. She would, too. Nothing would keep her down. Life may knock her, but she couldn’t let the hits deter her.
Stella stared at Dane across the room. He’d not answered her and from his rigid shoulders and silence, she had a feeling he wasn’t planning on it, either.
She turned back to the photos on the mantel. There were only three. There were two on each end and each picture was a teenage version of Dane with another boy who she assumed was his brother, and their mother. The photo in the middle of the mantel was a snapshot of his mother alone. Her head was thrown back as she laughed and there was so much happiness, so much life in that image.
Tears formed once again and Stella wished she didn’t feel for this woman, this man. But Lara Anderson was the woman Stella had admired for years. Stella had loved hearing the story about Lara and how she’d started the resorts for couples...yet she was a single mother with two boys.
There was a family here in these photos, a family Stella had always wanted and craved. But this family had been torn apart by an untimely death and Dane just wanted to reclaim what he believed belonged to him.