- -
- 100%
- +
An instant billionaire wants revenge...and more!
Mason Harrington grew up as a rough-and-tumble stable boy. But a shocking inheritance enables him and his brother to return to their hometown and settle some scores. First on the agenda: take over the elite horse farm belonging to the woman who once broke Mason’s heart when her daddy said he wasn’t good enough.
Despite Mason’s motives, EvaMarie Hyatt has no choice but to stay on at the ranch and work for him. Soon it becomes clear Mason wants more than revenge. Even more surprising: EvaMarie’s willingness to succumb. But will new misunderstandings derail their renewed passion, or will this second chance lead to forever?
As he came closer, the realization struck her like lightning.
She hadn’t seen Mason Harrington in almost fifteen years. Oh, she’d wondered about him almost every day. But she’d refused to let her curiosity turn into anything more. After all, she imagined she was the last person Mason ever wanted to contact him.
It looked like the years had been good to him. Even at this distance, she could spot the telltale features she’d found so attractive: the dark blond hair cropped close at the sides but leaving just enough length on the top to showcase its inherent wave; large hands rough from working but with long fingers that could play her like the most delicate of strings; the square shape of his jaw that belied the soft curve of his full bottom lip.
He was even taller now, filled out and muscular in a way that made her uncomfortably aware of him. As did the piercing blue gaze that found her with unerring accuracy. But it was the signature black cowboy hat that he swung up onto his head that was the nail in her coffin, confirming that she faced the boy she had wronged.
And now he was every inch a man.
Dear Reader,
I grew up on a farm and had a horse as a teenager (along with goats, cows, chickens and various house pets). Nothing on the scale of my Desire characters, but there was a certain peacefulness in being out in nature that much, a certain connection that can only be felt when caring for an animal’s very existence. The circle of life as you attend births, nurse them through illnesses, watch out the window as they play and bury them with lots of tears. It’s a very different life from my current suburban one.
That’s why I’m excited to visit horse-racing country with the Harrington brothers! These men know the land, the animals, and the women who can give them exactly what they (think!) they want. Too bad for them love doesn’t always play fair...
I love to hear from my readers! You can email me at readdaniwade@gmail.com or follow me on Facebook. As always, news about my releases is easiest to find through my author newsletter, which you can sign up for through my website at www.daniwade.com.
Enjoy!
Dani
Reining in the Billionaire
Dani Wade
www.millsandboon.co.uk
DANI WADE astonished her local librarians as a teenager when she carried home ten books every week—and actually read them all. Now she writes her own characters, who clamor for attention in the midst of the chaos that is her life. Residing in the southern United States with a husband, two kids, two dogs and one grumpy cat, she stays busy until she can closet herself away with her characters once more.
I’m very blessed in this life to have a wonderful mother-in-law, who I watch give herself tirelessly to those around her every day. Kay, thank you for all you do for us. These books would not happen without the love, encouragement and sheer physical support you gift to me and our family day after day.
I love you.
Contents
Cover
Back Cover Text
Introduction
Dear Reader
Title Page
About the Author
Dedication
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten
Eleven
Twelve
Thirteen
Fourteen
Fifteen
Sixteen
Seventeen
Extract
Copyright
One
Finding out that the old Hyatt estate was available for purchase immediately—cash buyers only—had to be the biggest triumph Mason Harrington had ever experienced. After all, how many people got to fulfill their life’s goal of owning a horse farm and get the revenge they’d ached for—all in one unexpectedly easy move?
“The foreclosure was just approved and finalized through our corporate offices,” the bank manager was saying from across the polished expanse of his desk. His worried expression made him look more like a concerned grandfather than a businessman. “The family hasn’t even been notified yet. There simply hasn’t been time—”
“I’ll be happy to handle that part for you,” Mason heard himself say. Oops! Was that too much? From the look on the manager’s face, probably. The nudge from his brother confirmed it.
Mason subtly leaned out of reach from his brother’s sharp elbow, ignoring the creak of his leather chair. Kane might resent Daulton Hyatt for his role in ruining their father’s reputation in this town, but Mason had been at ground zero for the man’s nuclear meltdown.
He’d never forget the humiliation Daulton had dished out with satisfaction...or the pain of having EvaMarie watch without defending him.
If the memories made him a little mouthy...
“I have to say that the foreclosure went through against my wishes. I’d hoped to help EvaMarie turn things around,” the manager said with a frown that deepened the lines on his aged face.
“Why EvaMarie?” Kane asked. “Wouldn’t it be Daulton Hyatt who needed the help?”
The man’s eyes widened a little as he watched them from across the desk. After a moment, he said, “I’m sorry. I spoke out of turn. I didn’t mean to discuss personal details about my customers.” He lowered his gaze to the printed paper before him. Mason had found the foreclosure notice on a local website. The bank hadn’t wasted any time trying to recoup its loss. “But I just don’t feel comfortable—”
“That doesn’t matter now. The bank has already listed the property,” Mason cut in. “Look, we are offering more than the asking price, cash in hand. Do we need to contact someone at the corporate offices ourselves?” Surely they’d be happy to take the Harrington money.
Mason could tell by the look on the manager’s face that he most certainly did not want that to happen. But Mason would if he had to...
“We can have the money transferred here by this afternoon,” Kane added. “Our offer is good for only an hour at that price. Do we have a deal?”
Mason’s body tightened, silently protesting the idea of walking away, but his brother knew exactly what he was doing. Still, the thought of losing this opportunity chafed. The waffling manager was obviously trying to look out for the family, as opposed to the strangers before him, but right now Mason didn’t give a damn about the Hyatts.
He cared only about making them pay for striking out at Mason and his family all those years ago.
He couldn’t help but wonder how EvaMarie would look when he told her to get out of her family home...
Slowly, reluctantly, the older man nodded. “Yes. I guess this really is out of my hands now.” He stood, straightening his suit jacket and tie as if steadying himself for a particularly unpleasant task. “If you’ll excuse me a moment, I’ll get my secretary started on the paperwork.”
And he would no doubt call corporate while he went outside the office, Mason suspected, but it wasn’t going to do him any good. What the Harrington brothers wanted, they often got. Usually it was from sheer bullheadedness. This time, though, they had their inheritance to back them up.
Money did open doors, indeed.
Mason still missed his dad, who had passed away about six months ago. It had been just the three of them for most of Mason’s life, and they’d all been really tight. Learning of their father’s cancer had been hard.
But it had only been the first surprise.
The fact that their mother had been the debutante daughter in a very wealthy family in a neighboring state had never been a secret to the boys. She’d died of brain cancer when Mason was around seven. He remembered so little about her, except how good she’d smelled as she cuddled with him and the silky softness of her hair. He would brush it for her sometimes, after she got sick, because it soothed her and often got rid of the headaches she frequently had.
Still, she’d been gone a long time. It had never occurred to either of the boys that she had left something behind for them. Hell—something? This wasn’t just something, it was a fortune. Their father’s careful money management had paid off in big ways, and he’d grown their already substantial inheritance into a monumental sum. Mason couldn’t even think of the money in real dollar amounts, it was so excessive.
After all, sometimes they’d had to scrape the bottom of the barrel growing up. Like when Mason had lost his job at the Hyatt estate. They’d had to move back to his mother’s hometown. Times had already been tough. Little had he and Kane known, their dad had been going without while planning for their future.
And their future was now.
After the secret came out, Mason had asked his father why he hadn’t used some of the money to make life easier for him, for them. He’d said he never wanted to prove their mother’s parents right—they’d always said he’d married her for money.
The brothers had been around horses all their lives. Their father had been a horse trainer with an excellent reputation for creating winners. He’d taught them everything he knew. They’d also both learned a lot from working in some of the best stables in the area, along with raising their own horses and cattle. Now, finally, they had the capital to purchase and establish their very own racing stables.
Oh, and get back at EvaMarie Hyatt for almost ruining his family at the same time.
“That look on your face has me damn worried,” Kane said, studying him hard.
Mason stood, pacing the space that was relatively generous for a bank office but still left Mason feeling cramped. “I can’t believe this is finally happening.”
“You know Dad wouldn’t want us to get back at the Hyatts for what happened almost fifteen years ago, right?”
It may have been close to fifteen years ago, but to Mason, the wounds and anger were as fresh as yesterday. Kane thought of it as a teenage crush, but Mason knew he had loved EvaMarie with everything he had at the time. Otherwise, it wouldn’t still hurt so damn much.
“Yep, I know.” But he could live with that. Simply seeing the shock on EvaMarie’s face—and that dictator daddy of hers—would be worth a little blackening on his soul.
Right?
“Are you saying you’ve changed your mind?” he asked Kane.
His brother was silent, thinking before he answered. Mason admired that about Kane—it was a trait he lacked. Mason jumped first and worried about the consequences later. But as a team, their differences worked in their favor...mostly.
Kane turned to meet his gaze, his expression harder than before. “Nah. I say, go for it. But just a little warning, Mason—”
Mason groaned. “Aren’t we a little old for you to jump into big brother mode again?”
“I am your big brother, but that’s not it.” He gave Mason a level look. “You need to keep in mind that there might be a good reason that they’ve lost the estate. They may not care what happens to it or who has it. I haven’t heard any rumors about them financially except that they were downsizing a while back.”
He shrugged at Mason’s raised brows. “So I kept tabs. But we’re out of the loop, except for a few old friends.” He shrugged, his suit still looking out of place to Mason. They were used to flannel shirts and sturdy jeans. Dressing up wasn’t the norm...but considering where this inheritance was taking them, they’d better get used to it.
Kane shook his head. “I don’t know. I just have a feeling this isn’t going to play out like you want it to.”
Mason thought back to his awed impression of the Hyatt estate when he was a know-it-all eighteen-year-old. The opulence, the care EvaMarie’s mother had put into every little touch. That house had been her life. Not that Mason had been allowed to see it. Officially, he’d seen it only once. He’d been told to take some papers to Daulton Hyatt at the big house. EvaMarie’s mother had trailed after him, anxious in case he tracked manure on her antique rugs.
As though he was too much of a heathen to know how to wipe his feet. The only other time he’d been inside, there hadn’t been a parent in sight.
“You may be right,” Mason conceded, trying to shake the memories away. “But trust me, they care. I remember that much all too well.” And he was gonna use what he knew about them to his every advantage.
It paid to know thine enemy.
* * *
EvaMarie Hyatt didn’t have a clue who was driving up to the house in a luxury sedan followed by a shiny new pickup truck. But as she spied out her bedroom window on the second floor, she fervently wished that whoever it was would go back from whence they came.
After all, she was sweaty and gross after hanging insulation inside the old dressing room between her suite and the next. Plus, she had a headache pounding hard enough between her temples to rival a jackhammer. And she was the only one here willing to answer the door.
Still, she smiled with the satisfaction of knowing all of her hard work would be perfect for what she had in mind.
But this wasn’t the time for lingering admiration of her handiwork. She had to get herself in gear and head their visitors off at the pass. She scurried down the back stairs, hyperaware of her parents’ location. They’d be interested too, but she knew good and well they wouldn’t come outside.
It was so sad to see her once social butterfly parents now housebound. Their secrecy and embarrassment made EvaMarie’s responsibilities that much harder...and much more painful.
She made it to the side entrance just as the vehicles parked. Unexpected nerves tingled through her as she attempted to smooth her hair into some semblance of order. Maybe her parents were rubbing off on her...or the isolation of taking care of every last detail of their lives was turning her into a hermit.
To her surprise, the bank manager stepped out of the first vehicle, his pristine suit making her all too aware of her dust-covered T-shirt and sweatpants. But it was the driver of the truck who confounded her.
She studied him as the two men approached across the now cracking driveway. He was a stranger, yet familiar for some reason. There was something about the cocky set of his shoulders, the confidence of his stride. As he came closer, the realization struck her like lightning.
She hadn’t seen Mason Harrington in nearly fifteen years. Oh, she’d wondered about him almost every day since then. But she’d refused to let her curiosity turn into anything more. After all, she imagined she was the last person Mason ever wanted to contact him.
It looked like the years had been good to him. Even at this distance, she could spot the telltale features she’d found so attractive: the dark blond hair cropped close at the sides, but leaving just enough length on the top to showcase its inherent wave; large hands rough from working but with long fingers that could play her like the most delicate of instruments; the square shape of his jaw that belied the soft curve of his full bottom lip.
He was even taller now, filled out and muscular in a way that made her uncomfortably aware of him. As did the piercing blue gaze that found her with unerring accuracy. But it was the signature black cowboy hat that he swung up onto his head that was the nail in her coffin, confirming that she faced the boy she had wronged.
And now he was every inch a man.
Mason Harrington was someone she certainly didn’t want near the house...or within miles of her father. Rushing forward despite her nerves clenching her stomach, she ignored the bombshell and focused on the manager. “Clive,” she said, “what can I do for you?”
“EvaMarie, I’m afraid I have some bad news.”
She wanted to look at Mason, see if he knew what was going on. Which was silly. Of course he did or he wouldn’t be here. “I thought we had everything straightened out last month?” Oh, goodness. Please let this not be what she feared most.
“Well, I’m afraid corporate overruled us. As I mentioned then, everything has to be approved through them.”
Her breath caught for a moment, then she forced herself to speak. “But I thought you said you knew enough people up there to get them to listen.”
“I know, honey. Apparently I wasn’t quite persuasive enough. I was going to call today, but got—” he glanced at the silent man next to him “—sidetracked.”
EvaMarie hugged herself as her heart pounded in her chest. Nausea washed through her. She’d been alone through a lot of hard times over the past five years, but right now she wondered if there was a person alive who wouldn’t let her down. “What does that mean?”
Mason stepped forward, his boots scraping across the driveway. “It means I’m the new owner of the Hyatt estate.”
His voice had deepened. This was a man speaking. A man taking away what he had to know meant the world to her. She couldn’t even look him in the eye. Turning back to Clive, she struggled not to beg. “I just need a little more time—”
“Too late.”
Mason’s harsh words made her cringe, but she tried to focus only on Clive. Breathlessly she pushed the words out. “But the mares will foal—”
Clive stepped forward, cutting off her view of Mason with a hand on her shoulder. “You know it won’t cover more than a few payments,” he said, his voice low and firm, even though his touch was gentle. “Then you’ll be behind again. You’ve done the best you could, EvaMarie, but we both know you’re only delaying the inevitable. It’s time. Time to let go.”
She shook her head, the words ringing in her ears. Time to admit defeat—to Mason Harrington. Her father would rather die.
For a moment, she almost gave in to the tears that had plagued her for the last six months. She glanced over at the quiet, still barn in the distance. The surrounding lush trees had sheltered her since she’d first walked. The lake in the distance had seen her learn to swim and fish. The rolling hills had been her playground in her youth, her solace as she’d gotten older. Her mind conjured up memories of a time long ago when the picture before her had been bustling with employees, and horses, and visitors.
Not anymore. No matter how hard she tried.
Every time she’d thought she was making progress, yet another setback would stomp on her efforts. But this one was the crowning glory.
Now she zeroed in on Mason, surprised by his smug I won look. Obviously, he could remember a lot about this place, too. Part of her ached that he still hated her enough to find taking her home from her a worthy challenge. But a part that she didn’t want to acknowledge found a tiny bit of solace in the fact that she could still touch him in some way.
She’d never be able to admit all the ways he’d changed her, even after he’d been gone. The thought was enough to have her dragging her stoic expression back into place, covering her true emotions, all of the frustration and pain she’d dealt with since he’d left, since her father became ill.
She felt so alone.
“So when do we have to be out?” she murmured, struggling to be practical. She wouldn’t think right now about how it would feel, leaving the only home she’d ever known. That would lead to the breakdown she wanted to avoid.
Mason stepped fully into view, muscling his way around the bank manager. How he’d heard her, she wasn’t sure. “As soon as possible would be great. You can work that out with Clive here, but first, I’d like to look over my purchase, please.”
If she hadn’t been struggling already, his complete lack of compassion would have taken her breath away. EvaMarie looked at the smug man, seeing again the few traces of the boy she’d loved with all her heart, the boy she’d given her body to, even though she’d known she couldn’t keep him—and wished she had the courage to punch him in the face.
Two
Mason’s crude satisfaction at besting EvaMarie and her family quickly transformed to dismay as he followed her into the house.
Bare. That’s the word that came to mind as he looked around the entryway and beyond. It was like a gorgeous painting stripped of all its details, all the way down to the first broad brushstrokes covering the canvas. The basic structure was still there. The silver-leafed cabinetry, the crystal doorknobs, the delicate ironwork. But a lot of the decorative china and porcelain figures and landscape paintings he remembered from that long ago day had disappeared, leaving behind bare shelves and walls that projected an air of sadness.
They had entered the house through a side door, the same one Mason had been let into fifteen years ago. The long hallway took them past the formal dining room and a parlor, then a couple of now empty rooms until they came to a sunken area facing the back of the house. Apparently the family used this as a cozier living room, if one could call the massive, hand-carved limestone fireplace and equally impressive Oriental carpeting “cozy.”
Upon closer inspection, the once pristine furniture had a few worn corners. But weirdly enough, what impacted Mason the most was the flowers. Not the ones in the overrun garden outside the wall of windows, but the ones in the vase on the table behind the sofa as they entered the room.
He vividly remembered the large sprays of flowers in intricate vases from his first visit, impressed as he had been with their color and beauty. They’d been placed every few feet in the hall and several in each of the rooms he’d glanced into and entered. But this was the first flower vase he’d seen today: a simple cut-glass one. Inside was an arrangement of flowers that looked like they’d been cut from the wild gardens. Pretty, but they were obviously not the designer arrangements of hothouse blooms he remembered.
Boy, the privileged had truly come down in the world.
Glancing over to the couple seated near the fireplace, he recognized EvaMarie’s parents, even though they’d aged. Mrs. Hyatt was dressed for visitors. Mason would expect nothing less, though her silk shirt and carefully quaffed hair denoted a woman who hadn’t faced the reality of her situation.
The pearls were a nice touch though.
“What’s going on?” Daulton asked, his booming voice still carrying enough to echo slightly on the eardrums. “Clive, why are you here?”
The bank manager shook hands with the couple, then stepped back a bit to allow EvaMarie closer. Mason had thought he’d want to see this part, to witness the lowering of the high-and-mighty Hyatts. After all, they’d orchestrated the moment that had brought his own family’s downfall.