by M. Malone
Afterward, they followed the newly married couple outside to the gardens for the wedding photos. It felt like hours before they were finished and heading back in for the reception.
Jamie linked his arm with hers. “If I were to ever get married, I wouldn’t even need all of this. Just you, me and a pastor. Maybe we’d invite your brother.”
Georgie blinked in surprise. Ever since New Year’s Eve, their first real date, Jamie had been careful not to talk about the future. He was the best boyfriend, supportive and attentive, but he had this idea stuck in his head that she was too young to think about anything serious.
So it was surprising to hear him talk about a possible future wedding. Even though her first wedding had been a disaster, Georgie still wanted to get married. She wanted to stand up in front of her family and friends and declare her love for Jamie to the world. This time, she knew it was for all the right reasons. And most importantly, it would be with the right person.
“I would love to have a small wedding. Just our families. A few close friends.”
Jamie stopped walking and pulled her into his arms. As always, they fit together perfectly. Georgie sighed as she rested her head on his chest.
“I want to marry you, Georgina Kingsley. But I want it to be completely right. So, one day, when you are ready, I want you to tell me. Just say when. Or send me a carrier pigeon.”
Georgie giggled. “Really, I only tried that once. Can’t a girl have a hobby?”
“I know you like to keep things interesting. Do we have a deal?”
“Deal. In the meantime, let’s go watch my brother make a fool of himself dancing.”
“By the way, King said I should mention that he approves. Apparently he thought that would help my chances.”
Georgie laughed. “We’ll let him think that. But just so you know, you didn’t need any help. I think you got it just right.”
They were both smiling as they walked back inside.
Epilogue
Sweet Nothings by Georgina
Do you remember the deal we made a few years ago at my brother’s wedding? You said I should tell you when I was ready to get married.
Well, I’m ready. It’s time to close this deal.
You have shown me the meaning of unconditional love. I finally understand why people say their partner is their best friend. I love you more than I ever knew was possible and I cannot wait to be your wife.
Meet me at the altar?
Yours Forever,
Georgie
P.S. I hope you aren’t disappointed there’s no carrier pigeon. It turns out those things are REALLY hard to train.
I hope you enjoyed BAD BLOOD! You can find King and Olivia’s story under the title BAD KING or at minxmalone.com/badking
Author’s Note
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Excerpt of BEG ME
© March 2018 M. Malone
MILO
“What just happened is I secured a multimillion dollar ad account for our agency. I just saved both our jobs.”
She snorts delicately. “You just lied to a potential client and to our boss! Besides since when have you ever cared about my career?”
There it is again, the veiled accusation that I’ve hurt her somehow. I move closer, noticing how her eyes focus on my lips.
“Why would you think I don’t care about your career? Tell me, I can see you’re dying to since you keep bringing it up. What did I do that was so bad?”
That seems to take the cork out of whatever was holding her back. Arms flying, she gets all up in my face, and damn if it isn’t the sexiest thing watching her march around while that clingy dress drapes around her.
“You stole the Adler account after I told you how much I wanted it! Six months. That’s how long I spent researching them and planning for how we would approach them. And then James asks you to approach the client.”
By the time she’s finished, my mouth is hanging open and I’m experiencing something that I don’t feel often. Remorse.
“Mya, I’m going to tell you something. And you probably won’t believe it. But I need you to understand that I’m being completely genuine.” I pause. “I’m a clueless jerk sometimes.”
She crosses her arms. “I won’t have trouble believing that.”
“But you might have trouble believing that I didn’t realize you wanted the Adler account for yourself.”
Her eyes fire up again, but I hold up a hand before she can respond. “Just let me explain. When you first told me about the Adler account, I was already handling two other jewelers, remember?”
She nods reluctantly.
“We used to do that all the time, right? I’d see an account that I thought would be perfect for you, so I’d mention it. You’d do the same for me. We were friends once. Or at least, I thought we were.”
The anger on her face has softened somewhat. “We were friends. That’s why it hurt so much. I thought you knew how much I wanted that account.”
“I truly didn’t, but that’s on me. Because that means I wasn’t listening well enough and I’m sorry.” Then, because I know it will make her laugh, I add, “but if it makes you feel any better Owen Adler has a serious flatulence problem. So you can take over those update meetings if you really want to.”
Mya covers her eyes with her hands. “No, thank you. I got a little preview of that the last time he was in the office. Maybe the universe was doing me a favor in that particular case.”
“Probably. So many things make sense now. I had no idea you wanted that account. No wonder you hate me.”
Mya blushes. “I don’t hate you. Not really.”
The tension in the room goes down several notches, but I can sense that I’m still on thin ice with her. Not surprising since she’s spent the last two years thinking I fucked her over on purpose. And she just saw me lie to our boss, a potential client and several of our colleagues.
“Look, this thing with the Lavin team is a win-win situation. He likes us and that’s half the battle. Now that we’re in, he’ll schedule another meeting for us to present how we’d handle marketing for the new line.”
“This is never going to work! Everyone knows we’re not actually together.”
It’s amazing to me that she has this much faith in people after working in advertising for so long.
“Mya, have you forgotten what we do for a living? We make people see what we want them to see. People will believe whatever we tell them if we put on a show. Reality is what we say it is. If we say we’re together, then we’re together.”
“And when people ask where my engagement ring is?”
“If anyone asks, we’ll tell them we haven’t found the perfect ring yet. Done. Handled.”
She shakes her head and sits on the edge of the bed. “It’s that simple for you, huh?”
I reach down and adjust the bulge in my pants which has been stuck at an uncomfortable angle ever since I kissed her downstairs.
“Believe me, nothing about this i
s simple. This is going to be the hardest thing I’ve ever done,” I add putting extra emphasis on the hard.
She laughs but her cheeks darken slightly again. Damn messing with her is fun. It’s so easy to get her flustered. Mya is such an interesting personality, equal parts ball buster and blushing schoolgirl.
“Don’t think you’re distracting me from the most important thing here. Who gets lead on the account?”
I grin, having known she wasn’t going to forget that. That’s my girl, all flash and fire and tough as nails. She might blush when I tease her, but she’s not going to let anything slip by her. Mya loves to win just as much as I do, something that I never would have thought would turn me on in a woman. But competing with her is almost as sexy as the thought of…
She narrows her eyes at me as if she can hear my thoughts.
“We’ll each come up with a full campaign to present to the Lavin team. That’s usually what we do anyway, right? Well in this case, no one will know except for us who created each campaign. Mr. Lavin will choose whichever one he likes better and that’s who will lead the account.”
She appears to be thinking about it. “We let the work speak for itself. James is happy. The client is happy. I like it.”
“It’s the best way. Lavin Fashions deserves the best that Mirage has to offer and obviously that’s going to come from either me or you.” I sit on the bed next to her, noticing how she goes still.
“You really believe that?”
I nod. “Yes. We may not always agree on our methods but your work is exceptional, Mya. What you did for Fallen Angel Cosmetics was brilliant.”
She smiles. “I liked your campaign for Murray’s Tires, too. Who would have thought tires could be sexy?”
I laugh at that. “This is what I miss the most from when we were friends. When you love what you do, that’s a reward in and of itself. But there’s nothing like being able to share it with someone else. To explain the methodology behind why you made a certain design choice or went in a certain direction, and then know that they understand, it’s thrilling.”
Mya looks shocked and I’m suddenly self-conscious about being so open. But it’s true, everything I said. That kind of synergy is definitely not something I’ll find with the Brittanys or the Jessicas of the world.
That’s something I’ve only ever had with Mya, actually.
“I like talking to you, too. Well, not when you’re trying to drive me up the wall. But those other times, before everything. It meant a lot to me, too.” Mya’s eyes soften, like she’s remembering, and I like that look on her.
While we’ve been talking, we’ve subconsciously moved closer to each other, and when she peeks up at me, she’s so close I can feel her soft breath on my chin. All at once, she seems to realize how close we are and stands suddenly.
“I should go!”
“Not yet. Some of the Lavin team are staying on this floor, remember? We want them to believe we’re really in l’amore.”
Mya throws up her hands. “Well, how are we supposed to convince them of that?”
“For starters, they would expect us to share a room. They would expect us to want to share a room.” I wiggle my eyebrows at her. “Maybe we should rock the bed and scream a lot.”
I’m expecting her to laugh with me, maybe make a joke about screaming my name. But instead, she just looks skeptical. Uncomfortable.
She shakes her head. “Like that’s believable. That only happens in the movies.”
“Are you saying you’ve never screamed during sex before?”
Now I don’t want to overstate my case here, but I don’t think it’s a secret by now that I know my way around a woman’s body. There are few things more satisfying than watching a woman lose hold of her inhibitions, melt against you and yes, scream your name. So when I see that look on Mya’s face, the truth of the situation hits me in the face with all the subtlety of a two-by-four.
Prim, perfect Mya Taylor has never had that kind of sex in real life.
And every part of me is dying to know how that is possible.
Fuck me.
MYA
Considering how many things have gone wrong tonight, you’d think it couldn’t get much worse. But apparently we haven’t reached our quota on weirdness for the night. Standing in a hotel room alone with Milo while he talks about screaming during sex takes it to a whole different level.
Especially since the way he’s watching me makes me feel he’s not going to just let this go.
“Have you?” he presses again, his eyes locked on mine.
Which is not happening. I’m not talking about orgasms while he stares at me like that. Just not doing it.
“I’m hardly a virgin, Milo.”
His face twists into a grimace. “Jesus, don’t say that.”
“What? I just said–“
“What you said was a bullshit attempt to deflect and not answer. Which tells me everything I need to know.” He runs his hands through his hair looking pissed off. Which makes no sense to me.
“How did we go from discussing your bad behavior at dinner to talking about my love life?” My non-existent love life, I think ruefully.
A guy like Milo probably goes through women like underwear. What would he say if he knew it’s been six months since I’ve been laid?
Or kissed. Or hugged. Or touched.
Great, now he’s got me thinking about how pathetic I am.
“I’m just trying to understand what the fuck is happening in the world that a woman like you is having bad sex. Any man lucky enough to see you naked should be putting in the work to take you to O-town every time.”
Something in my expression must tip him off because suddenly he stops pacing and stares at me. “Mya, you’ve had an orgasm before, haven’t you?”
Now we’ve crossed the line from inappropriate to just straight-up embarrassing.
“Of course I have. Not that it’s any of your business.”
He still looks disturbed but at least he’s no longer looking at me like some kind of space alien. Which is why I have no idea what possesses me to say what I do next.
“Just not while anyone else is there,” I mumble softly.
“Fuck me!” he explodes before whirling around to blink at me in disbelief. His mouth opens and closes several times before he makes a strangled growling sound that has me going instantly wet. “Fucking hell.”
“Fucking isn’t the problem,” I snap, mortification at what I’ve admitted starting to sink in.
Of all the people I could have confided in, why would I tell Milo? For years it’s been my secret shame and the real reason my ex didn’t want to “settle” with me. I’ve read every Cosmo article, tried yoga and hypnosis and even those weird-ass positions in the illustrated Kama Sutra I ordered online. William was so offended when I suggested using a vibrator in bed and he didn’t even seem to like when I touched myself.
Maybe that was the problem. It all felt like work instead of fun. And right now, it just feels like one more way I don’t measure up. Especially with the way Milo is looking at me.
“You know what? I’m done talking about this. This has been a long night and we’re probably both going to be out of a job tomorrow once James sobers up and comes to his senses. So for now, I’m going to my room to get comfortable.”
He springs forward and grabs my arm. “Wait, Mya. I’m serious about not leaving yet. I’m pretty sure Christiane is staying on this floor. And she seems predisposed to hate us anyway.”
Fed up with being told what to do, I reach behind me and unzip my dress. “I need to get out of this bra before it cuts off my circulation.” I raise my eyebrows, waiting to see what he’ll do.
But he shocks the hell out of me when he calls my bluff. Milo grabs one of the discarded dress shirts from the bed and hands it to me. “Change into this. You can order room service and relax just as easily here as you can in your room.”
Clearly, like most men, Milo has no idea what relaxation means fo
r a woman. But I’m just embarrassed and exhausted enough not to care anymore. So I take the shirt and escape into the safe haven of the bathroom. Once the door is closed and locked behind me, I meet my own eyes in the mirror. That was the most ridiculous conversation, but in a strange way cathartic, too. Maybe I just needed to tell someone and Milo happened to be the unlucky bystander when it all came bursting forth.
Not that he should have acted like it was such a bother to him. I’m the one who’s been sexually frustrated for years, after all. If anyone has cause to be annoyed by this situation, it’s me.
The bathrooms in this hotel come stocked with all manner of toiletries, so I use the mini facial bar to wash my makeup off. There’s a small hook on the back of the door, so I use that to hang my dress by the straps and put on the shirt Milo gave me. It’s a good thing he’s so tall or there would be no way this thing would fit over my chest, but it’s just big enough. Although I have to unbutton quite a bit at the top so I don’t feel like my boobs are being strangled.
After pulling the pins out of my bun, I finger comb my hair down around my face. It’s super thick, so it’s easier to keep it braided or in a bun, but when I’m relaxing, I just let it go wild. Milo will just have to deal. He’s the one who wouldn’t let me leave, so if he doesn’t like it, he can bite me.
The man looked like he wanted to bite you anyway.
With that thought, I yank open the bathroom door and march back out into the room. Milo looks up from the mini bar where he’s selected a small bottle. His mouth falls open slightly before he clears his throat and looks away, guiltily.
“Want a drink?”
“Uh, sure.”
“We have scotch, some dubious-looking wine and vodka.”
I shrug. “Alcohol. Anything that can make me forget the past three hours.”
He’s about to respond when my phone rings. To my surprise, Milo picks it up as if he has every right to know who’s calling me. He tilts the screen so I can see the face. A picture of me and William taken during our last New Year’s Eve flashes on the screen. I take the phone and hit the button to silence the call.
