by M. Malone
“I’m sorry, Jamie.” Georgie truly didn’t know what to say.
She’d heard about his brief marriage before but getting information out of King was like kicking a brick wall.
“That’s why I won’t marry. It’s not fair to any woman to be shackled to my family. And I don’t need to marry just to get the money in the trust. I’ll let it go to charity. I have my own money. It’s better than having my father constantly asking for it, too.”
“So they’re manipulative.”
“That’s one word for it.”
“I’m sorry. That sucks. But you know that has nothing to do with you, right? You’re a good son. And I’m sure they love you, even if they don’t show it well. Look at your name. They wanted to name you after your father and keep that connection going. Obviously, they were proud to have a son.”
Jamie smiled. “My mom told me she wanted me to sound fancy. Like someone who mattered. She always used to say that Jim Junior may be just a mechanic from Jersey but James Hamilton III could be President.”
“Well, if they wanted a son who mattered, they got their wish. Their son is kind. That’s all he needs to be to matter. And if he ever changes his mind about marriage, he’d be a great husband. The kind who would respect his wife and treat her right.”
Jamie pulled her closer, resting his head on hers. “If your vagina wasn’t broken, I would show my appreciation. But we can just cuddle.”
Georgie looked at the clock on the microwave in the kitchen. “I really need to go. It’s getting late.”
“Why don’t you stay over? I can take you home in the morning.”
The thought of going to sleep and waking up in his arms was so tempting. But if she allowed herself that, it would be even harder to return to sleeping alone when he left.
“I prefer sleeping in my own bed,” she replied, ignoring his skeptical look at the weak excuse.
“One of these days I’m going to wake up with you again, Georgie. When there’s no catastrophe to deal with and we don’t have to rush you home.”
As Georgie followed him out to his car, she decided not to remind him that he would be gone before that could happen.
Chapter 11
Jamie slammed the folder he was finished with and threw it on the pile with the rest of the reports he’d just read. He hadn’t been getting his usual satisfaction from work lately. Being at the office had never felt like an inconvenience before.
But that was before he started spending so much time with Georgie.
He groaned and buried his head in his hands. Even when he tried not to think about her, he ended up thinking about her. Every night they spent together brought them closer and closer.
Until the moment when she had to leave.
The moment he remembered that he wasn’t supposed to be enjoying this quite so much.
It hadn’t been obvious at first but now he could see it so clearly. The sex wasn’t why he was so obsessed with her. It was all of it. The way she listened when he talked about his day. How he looked forward to all the weird little observations she made about the world. Her scent. The feel of her in his arms.
He enjoyed spending time with her even when they were doing nothing. He just enjoyed being with her. Which was exactly what he’d promised not to do. The past few days, he’d pulled away from her and spent more time at the office. He had to break the dependency. But it hadn’t worked. If anything, he missed her even more.
“Hey, you ready?”
“What?” He looked up to find King standing in the doorway to his office.
“Thanksgiving dinner? Tonight. At my parents’ house. Man, where is your head this week?”
Jamie gripped the pen in his hand a little tighter. He was pretty sure on your sister wasn’t the right answer to that question.
Luckily King hadn’t seemed to notice the source of Jamie’s distraction. He realized then that his friend was still talking and he hadn’t heard any of it.
“Anyway,” King continued. “Olivia isn’t that close to her parents so we definitely won’t be splitting most holidays. I’m glad we’re in town. I really need to check on Georgie.”
Don’t say anything.
Don’t ask what she’s been doing.
Don’t do it.
“Why? Is she okay? Has Alex been bothering her?”
King shook his head. “No, she seems fine. I just haven’t had much time to spend with her lately. Are you okay? You’ve been here even later than usual this week. I’m not the one to tell anyone else they work too much but…I think you work too much.”
He laughed because that was what the old Jamie would have done. The one who had his shit together and wasn’t pining after a girl that wasn’t even his.
Who had never been his.
“I’m okay. Just tired. Yeah, let’s go to dinner.”
He could feel King watching him closely as he put on his suit jacket and grabbed his briefcase. He followed him to the Kingsley mansion, thankful that the traffic was light that day. Now that he knew he was going to see Georgie, all the parts of him that had been sulking earlier were suddenly wide awake. As they pulled into the long drive leading to the house, Jamie realized it was the first time he’d been back there since the wedding.
King let himself in the front door with his key instead of waiting for a staff member to open the door. The house smelled like pie and was tastefully decorated as usual but none of that registered. He barely heard King greeting his girlfriend or Fiona coming over to say hello. The only thing he saw was Georgina.
Always Georgina.
Jamie kissed Fiona on the cheek and shook hands with Mr. Kingsley before crossing the room to where Georgie was sitting on the couch. She looked up at his approach and then back down at her hands. The only sign she was happy to see him was the blush on her cheeks and the little smile she gave him before she coughed to cover it.
“Hello, James.”
Jamie smirked. If she was trying to keep things incognito, then she was failing miserably. She never called him James.
“Hey, Princess.”
She glanced around nervously. “Don’t call me that!”
“Why not? He sat right next to her and leaned back, stretching his hand over the back of the sofa. Her long dark hair was resting behind her and he twirled a few strands around his finger.
“You know why. Someone could overhear.”
He wanted to say that he didn’t give a fuck if anyone overheard them. That she was his and he didn’t care who knew. But then he saw how distressed she looked and he sat up, removing his arm.
“You’re right. I wouldn’t want anyone to get the wrong idea.”
“We’ll probably be seated together at dinner but I trust we can be civilized for that long. Besides, I have to leave soon anyway.”
“Oh, hot date?”
He’d been joking but when she shrugged, everything inside him stilled.
“Something like that. Excuse me.” Then she stood and gracefully walked out of the room.
“James, would you like a drink?”
He looked over at Mr. Kingsley’s question and nodded. “Yes, sir. I could use one.”
He was going to need alcohol to get through this dinner.
He had another drink with dinner. And then another with dessert. Georgie had left by then, excusing herself from the table with a quick kiss for her mother and a wave to everyone else. No one questioned why she was leaving early so he guessed she’d told them beforehand about her date.
He ground his teeth just thinking the word. By the time dinner was over, he already knew he wasn’t going anywhere.
“You should ride with us, buddy. I think you had one too many at dinner.” King clapped him on the back.
“I’m just going to sleep it off in one of the guest rooms if your parents don’t mind. I don’t really feel like going home. It’s not like there’s anyone waiting for me.”
King’s expression was unreadable but Fiona immediately ushered him toward the sta
irs.
“Of course, you can stay over. Thane and I are going out tonight to visit friends and won’t be back until late. They throw quite the party. But it’ll be nice to know that Georgie isn’t by herself in the house when she comes home. I hate leaving her here alone.”
In his slightly inebriated state, Jamie almost laughed. Not only because Georgie was a grown woman but because the Kingsleys employed live-in staff. None of them were ever really home alone.
An hour later, the house was quiet. King and Olivia had left first, followed by his parents. Jamie had stayed over many times in the past but never with the express purpose of waiting up for Georgie. He felt a little guilty getting trashed so he’d have an excuse to wait for her but desperate times called for desperate measures.
Georgie was out there on a date with some guy. He was just drunk enough to acknowledge that he was insanely jealous.
What they’d agreed on weeks ago seemed ludicrous now. How had they thought they could go from being lovers back to chatting about the weather? He knew how fast she splintered apart when he tongued her nipples.
There was no going back to basics after the things they’d shared.
A little while later, he woke up to the sound of footsteps. Blearily, he sat up and shook his head to clear it. He must have fallen asleep while waiting for her. He glanced at the watch on his wrist. It was just after eleven o’clock. Not that late by most people’s standards but practically the middle of the night for Georgie. He’d come home with King many times to find her in her pajamas by ten o’clock reading a book. She liked to go to bed early.
But apparently her hot date had been worth staying up late for.
The thought of it guided his feet down the hall and to her room. He opened the door as quietly as possible. Her back was to him as she kicked off her shoes. Most of the bedrooms were actually suites consisting of a small sitting room and then an attached bedroom and bathroom. Georgie’s sitting room was done in soft shades of rose with elegant crystal accents. It looked like her. Perfectly elegant. And way too good for him.
“You’re back.”
Georgie shrieked and dropped her handbag. “Oh my god. Jamie, what are you still doing here?”
He pointed at his face. “Had one too many. Was sleeping it off. Don’t drink and drive.”
“Well, you get points for safety at least. But that doesn’t explain what you’re doing here. In my room.”
“Just checking on you. Your mom wanted me to watch out for you. She worries about you being here alone.”
Georgie rolled her eyes. “As if I’m ever alone in this place. You know I don’t need a babysitter.”
“I know. I wanted to find out how your date went.”
Her expression closed up instantly. “Fine. Besides why would you want to know about that?”
“Well, I was your first practice guy. Maybe I wanted to know if you applied what you learned.”
As soon as the words left his mouth, Jamie instantly wanted to call them back. It was one thing to be pissed off and jealous but he’d never been mean. That sounded like the kind of thing his father would have said to his mother during one of their famous arguments. The kind of thing he’d heard as a kid that made him feel shitty even when he was too young to understand what the argument was about.
Georgie was across the room so fast that he couldn’t even track her movements. But the crack of her palm across his face got his attention.
“Fuck, that hurt.”
“Good!” she yelled. “You deserve to hurt after saying that.”
“Yeah, I do. That was a shitty thing to say. I’m sorry.”
Her chest heaved with the force of her breaths and Jamie was instantly horrified to see tears on her cheeks.
“Sorry doesn’t fix everything.” Georgie said with such quiet dignity that he instantly fell in love with her. Fell deeper in love with her.
Because he was no longer fooling himself that the way he felt was a new or sudden thing.
“I’m jealous, okay. There, I admitted it. So jealous I can’t see straight.”
Georgie pointed at him. “You are the one who said we couldn’t get attached. You are the one who has been blowing me off the past few days. Back to usual, remember? Everything was supposed to be the same as always.”
“Except I can’t stop thinking about you.”
Now that he was telling the truth, it was impossible to stop. Somewhere in the back of his brain, he recognized that pouring his heart out while slightly drunk probably wasn’t the best idea but the rest of him was on board with the plan.
Or at least it was better than continuing to bottle it all up and spending his nights miserable and alone.
She paused. “You can’t?”
“No. And I don’t even want to. I don’t want to go back to normal. Normal sucks. I can’t hide how I feel for you anymore. And I definitely don’t want to go back to the way things were.”
Chapter 12
It was a struggle to decide whether to kiss him or slap him again. After the night she’d had, she wasn’t surprised she’d snapped. James watched her warily, before rubbing his cheek.
“You pack quite a punch, Princess.”
“Only when necessary,” she shot back trying to ignore the way her palm was stinging. She couldn’t believe she’d actually hit him.
Slapping people was the kind of thing she’d thought only happened in the movies. Or on overdramatic soap operas.
Then again, she’d never had anyone make her as crazy as Jamie did so there was that. He had her behaving in all sorts of ways that were out of character. Sneaking around, defying her parents, going out without underwear.
It was a scandal!
She laughed at the thought and Jamie’s eyes narrowed.
“You’re enjoying this, aren’t you Princess? Is it funny to see me acting like a madman? Because that’s what I feel like. Just the thought of you with someone else makes me crazy.”
It was tempting to draw out the suspense a little longer but she couldn’t do it. She didn’t want Jamie to think that she was out dating or sleeping with anyone else. Especially not when the only man on her mind lately was standing right in front of her looking like a bull about to charge.
“I wasn’t on a date. Not really. I was catching up with some friends. Before that, I was with Alex.”
When his nostrils flared, she realized how that sounded. “To give him the ring back!”
Jamie ran his hands over his face. “I’m not sure if that makes me feel much better. You should have sold it. Payment for all the time you wasted on him.”
Secretly, she kind of agreed but when her mother had suggested giving it back, she’d decided it wasn’t worth the fight. There was nothing she needed from Alex Summerland and that included a diamond. She could buy her own diamonds, damn it. And those would probably mean more to her in the long run.
“I don’t want anything from him. In fact, I think I’ll buy myself something pretty to celebrate not having to put up with him anymore.”
Jamie chuckled. “That’s my girl.”
She wished that was true. It was getting harder every day to keep him firmly in the annoying friend of my brother category. It was difficult not to look at him differently or rush to his side when he showed up with King for dinner.
Now that she knew how he smelled, how he tasted and how intoxicating it was to be the center of his laser-sharp focus, it was excruciating to pretend that he was nothing more than a family friend.
“I hate that you even went to see him,” Jamie admitted quietly, looking like it pained him to do so. He pulled her close and held her against his chest.
Georgie relaxed, feeling the hard thump of his heart beneath her ear. She wasn’t sure what was happening. His intensity made it seem like he was mad at her for being around Alex but the way he held her made her feel cherished.
“It was nothing. I gave him the ring back, he tried to tell me how sorry he was and then I left. His excuses were as stupid as
I thought they’d be but I’m still glad I went. I got the closure I needed so I can move on.”
“That’s the part I don’t like.”
“What part?” She leaned back so she could see his face.
“The moving on part. Dating other men. I don’t want you moving on to anyone but me.”
When their eyes connected this time, Georgie felt it in her core. She swallowed, suddenly aware the tension she’d read as anger was the same untamed passion he’d loosed on her during their sex-fueled night. He wasn’t mad, he was turned on. And her body responded as if he’d sent up a mating call.
“Jamie, you said we would only do this until your trip. That we would keep it casual.”
His lips feathered over her forehead gently and she shivered as the sensations tingled down her spine, spreading warmth.
“And how is that working out for you?” Jamie whispered.
“Not so well. Unless, waking up horny every night is normal.”
His chest shook from his laughter. “You never fail to surprise me, Georgina.”
“What? Too real for you?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know if you’re ready for how real I want to get with you. Just this room brings back memories.”
She frowned. “My room? When have you ever been in my room?”
“I haven’t been in here. Just caught a peek a few times when you would answer the door. You don’t know how many fantasies I’ve had that began with you answering that door wearing your robe. Or nothing at all.”
Suddenly his smile turned predatory.
“Oh no. Jamie, we can’t! My parents could come home.”
He shrugged out of his jacket, letting the fabric fall to the floor in a heap at his feet. Then his fingers slid under his tie. “Then I guess I’d better put something in your mouth to keep you quiet then, huh?”
It only took her about three seconds to make her decision. Yes, she was still mad at him. Yes, he was definitely a jerk for sneaking into her room and demanding answers he wasn’t entitled to.
