by Tessa Radley
Had she felt his arousal? God, he hoped not.
“What do you think I did? I told him I couldn’t marry him.” Her chin came up. “I told him I needed the bathroom—I felt sick.”
Jay forgot his own dilemma. He snorted. “You actually told him that? That he made you sick?”
“Not quite.” For the first time, a spark of her familiar feistiness showed through her anguish. “Trust me, there was nothing funny about it.”
“I’m not laughing.” But he felt a rush of very male satisfaction. In all their barbed exchanges, he might have annoyed her, frustrated her, but he’d never made Georgia sick...
“I ran into Charis in the ladies’ room.” Her words tripped over each other. “I don’t understand her. I don’t think I ever have.”
The pain that underpinned her confession made Jay swallow. God help Fordyce when he found the man...
“She told me she intends to be part of the launch of the spring collection—and to hell with whether Kingston lets her or not.”
“Well, I suppose that’s one bit of good news.”
His response didn’t help.
“It’s not! I don’t think she intends to stay at Kingdom. She didn’t even want to talk to me. She’s always been as stubborn as a mule. She even told me I was welcome to Adam—and then she picked up her purse and walked out.” Georgia gulped in a deep breath. “I couldn’t bring myself to go back into the ballroom, but Adam was waiting for me in the lobby. That’s when I got really scared because he looked so terrifying. He said I had to marry him, it was all arranged—” She broke off.
The wild despair in her eyes tore his heart out.
Under his intense scrutiny, Georgia colored. “So I ran.”
“To me.”
“It was run to you...or throw up that five-hundred-dollar-a-plate dinner onto his highly polished handmade shoes.”
That was his Georgia!
Something like euphoria made him feel as high as a kite. He stepped forward and took her into his arms. It felt...right.
“You don’t have to do anything you don’t want.”
She sighed. “Just hold me, Jay. Please?”
God.
Torn between the need to give her the comfort she craved and his fear of what might happen next, Jay shuddered. There was no way he could disguise the effect her closeness was having on his body. But there was no chance that he’d resist her request.
Even if it cost him his peace of mind.
When his phone buzzed in his pocket, Jay cursed silently at the sudden tensing of Georgia’s body.
“Is it Kingston?” she whispered, her fear tangible. “Charis?”
The spell was broken.
Jay moved away and pulled his phone out.
“It’s my mother.”
“Answer it—something may be wrong.”
He bit down on a tide of four-letter words. Against his better judgment, Jay accepted the call.
His mom was loud and enthusiastic. He made himself wink at Georgia as he waited for his mother to run out of steam, and as soon as she slowed down, he said, “Mom, I’ll call you back later. I’m in the middle of something.”
“You work too hard, Jay. You should consider coming home. Permanently.”
He didn’t intend to have that discussion right now—not with Georgia watching, and a hard-on to end all hard-ons filling his pants. “Mom—”
“It would make your father so happy. And Suzie is looking forward to seeing you again. We all are. You’ve been gone too long.”
He was relieved to hear that Suzie actually wanted to see him again. Georgia shifted from one high-heel clad foot to the other in obvious discomfort. Before he could smile at her, she drifted farther into his apartment, clearly intent on giving him some privacy.
“Mom, I have to go. I have someone with me.” He cut off her rush of questions. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Jay killed the call and went in pursuit of Georgia.
* * *
Through an open door, Georgia spotted what had to be Jay’s bedroom.
The enormous windows on the opposite wall framed the brightly lit city skyline.
Wow!
Fascination drove her into the room. It was decorated in shades of navy and dull gold brightened with an ivory knit throw draped across the bed. Over the headboard hung an abstract canvas full of stormy movement, dominated by midnight blues and inky grays, a narrow shaft of light piercing the dark turmoil.
Then she spotted the open steamer bag beside the bed. The sight drove all other thoughts out of her head.
She heard footsteps behind her.
Without taking her eyes off the bag, she asked, “When exactly do you leave?”
“First thing in the morning.”
Georgia wished she could escape like Jay. Fly away. Go home to a family where everything was simple and uncomplicated. Before she could stop herself, she found herself saying, “Can I come with you?”
“What?”
Trying not to feel foolish, she considered pretending she’d been joking—as Jay had been when he’d invited her to marry him. But the impulsive idea wouldn’t go away...
In a rush, she said, “I could check online and see if there are still seats available...” Her voice trailed away when she got no response. Maybe it was a stupid idea. “We don’t even need to sit together.”
“Why?”
At last, she turned to him.
He stood a couple of feet behind her. The dark intensity in his eyes unsettled her.
“Why don’t we need to sit together?” By deliberately misunderstanding his question, she tried to inject some humor into an exchange that had grown astonishingly awkward.
For the first time, she became aware that it was well past midnight...that she was standing in his bedroom...that several buttons of his rumpled shirt were undone, revealing the chest she’d buried her head against. And his feet were bare. It was intimate. They were asking for trouble.
Yet, she wasn’t the least bit afraid.
This was Jay...
Although she had to admit, after the auction earlier tonight, she was seeing him in a different light. He was a very attractive man. It would be all too easy to fall for him.
But Jay had never had any interest in her. She simply wasn’t his type.
Jay still hadn’t smiled. “Why would you want to come with me?”
“I need a break.”
God, she hoped she didn’t sound like she was begging, but she was at the end of her tether.
“You want to avoid your father,” he said slowly.
“No,” she denied too fiercely. She looked down, away from that penetrating gaze. “I just need to leave.” Escape. Her father was going to kill her when he found out she’d turned Adam down.
The air vibrated with her desperation.
Jay blew out a breath in an explosive gust that sounded loud to her ears. “Georgia, you have to tell your father that you’re not going to marry Adam.”
“I know. I know. I will.” Someday. “Just not yet.”
Jay went silent again. From under her eyelashes, Georgia watched him, trying to read his thoughts. He must be thinking she was the biggest coward on earth.
As the seconds passed, the mounting tension started to get to her. Even taunts and rivalry were better than his silence.
Well, she’d better get used to it. Jay was going to be gone for two weeks.
It would mean two weeks without his heckling. Without his laughter and lame jokes. Without that crooked smile at her office door each morning...and two take-out coffees in his hands. Without someone to argue with and bounce her ideas off—and share the triumph of success with. The place was going to be dead without him.
She swallowed, stunned at how forlorn she felt.
Somehow, Jay
Black had become so much more than a threatening rival. More than a colleague to collaborate with.
An astonishing realization struck her.
Jay had become a friend.
A friend she could turn to for support...and comfort. She remembered the electric brush of his lips against hers. That had been something more than friendship...
No!
She couldn’t afford any disturbing thoughts about Jay. He was her friend. Better to have him as a friend than a lover who would betray her at the first opportunity.
She gazed at him, silently imploring.
Jay thrust his hands through his hair, causing the espresso-brown strands to stand up untidily. “Georgia, it’s my parents’ wedding anniversary—”
“You’re right. I’d be party-crashing.” Embarrassment seared her.
“It’s nothing like that.” He gave her a long look. “But you’d be better off facing up to your father.”
Watching Jay cross the room and hunker down to zip the steamer bag shut, she tried to imagine his parents’ home in some pretty, small town. It would be modest. With a white picket fence. No doubt, his mother and father loved Jay to death. She seemed to remember that his family had visited him over the past couple of years. Jay had taken them to shows on Broadway, done family stuff. Not that she’d given it much thought; she’d been focused on work. Now she wished she’d paid more attention...even asked to meet his family. She thought of how fondly he’d smiled a few minutes ago while he’d spoken to his mom. A wave of something close to envy swept her.
It had been a long time since she’d had a mom.
Only a dad. Her mom had driven away one day and she’d never come back. It had been left up to Kingston to tell them weeks later about the helicopter crash that had claimed the life of their cheating mom and the boyfriend she’d loved more than her daughters.
What would it be like to have grown up in a safe, secure environment like Jay’s family? To be loved for oneself? To have no expectations placed on you from the moment of birth? To have a mom—and a dad—who loved you?
To her surprise, Georgia discovered she wanted to find out. She wanted to feel what it was like to live in the warm surroundings of a normal family.
If only for a week...
Except she had to be back at work by Monday. Kingston would be there—supposedly taking it easy.
But if she could escape for the weekend...
“Jay?”
He looked up, his eyes unfathomable.
Hauling in a deep breath, she said with raw honesty, “I haven’t taken a vacation in years. I’m not coping well with the decisions I’ve had to make this week. Going away for a couple days will give me a chance to get some perspective. Please, may I come?” Laying herself open like this was hard. She tried to smile but her bottom lip trembled. “I won’t stay long—only until, say, Sunday night.”
“What about your father?”
She fought the claustrophobic fear of her father’s displeasure when he learned she’d left without a word. Even worse would be his rage when he learned she’d turned Adam down. She couldn’t face him. Not yet. He’d steamroll her to change her mind, to go prostrate herself to Adam.
“I’ll make sure Marcia and Roberta take care of him until Monday.”
“You know that’s not what I mean.” Jay’s eyes didn’t leave hers.
Beneath her apprehension about telling her father that she’d turned Adam down lay the haunting terror that her father was going to disown her. Abandon her. Just like he’d done to Charis...
Without Kingdom, she had no family.
No future...
“Putting it off never makes it any easier. Trust me on that.” Jay’s smile was crooked. “I speak from experience.”
“I know. I know. I’ll do it. I won’t put it off indefinitely. I’ll do it on Monday.”
“You don’t want Fordyce telling him first—”
“Adam’s so sure I’m going to change my mind that he told me to take the weekend to reconsider. He won’t say anything to my father. Please, Jay. I need this time away to think about how I’m going to handle Kingston’s reaction when I tell him that I’ve turned Adam Fordyce down.” Just thinking about confronting her father caused her stomach to churn anxiously.
Jay’s face softened, and her frantic fear eased a little.
Finally, he rose to his feet and placed his hands on his hips. He studied her in a way that was a little too calculating.
“What?” she demanded.
“Okay, if there’s a seat, you can come.”
She gave a squeal of relief and delight and rushed toward him to throw her arms around him.
“Wait!” He warded her off with one hand, and gave her a ghastly grin. “There’s one condition.”
“Anything!”
“You should know better than to agree before hearing the terms.” His grin grew feral. “Haven’t you learned that much this week?”
“Better the devil I know,” she teased, back on familiar territory. “What do you want?”
There was an abrupt shift in his expression, and he stopped grinning. “You’ll come along as my fiancée.”
“What?” She hesitated, uncertain now. “What do you mean, your fiancée?”
“Don’t worry. It won’t be the real deal.”
Were his parents really so conservative? “Uh, surely you can tell your parents we work together...that we’re colleagues? We don’t need to be engaged to spend a weekend together.”
Jay’s expression lightened as he gave a chuckle. “My parents haven’t spent the past couple of decades buried in the woods. But they’re hoping to persuade me to return for good. A fiancée with a career and a family in New York would convince them that’s not going to happen.”
Georgia was so relieved she would’ve promised anything. Besides, she couldn’t wait to meet Jay’s small-town family.
“Oh, I can do that. And I can tell them how indispensable you are to Kingdom, how much Kingston relies on you and what a great future you have ahead of you. They’ll be even more proud of you when they find out what a hotshot you are in the Big Apple.”
She gave him a smile full of eternal gratitude.
“Thank you, Jay. You’re the best—the very best friend I could ever have!”
Nine
Aspen, Colorado.
Jay had collected a sporty black SUV rental at the airport, and now, as they drove through the town bustling with Saturday morning activity, Georgia looked about with interest. Last night, when Georgia had begged Jay to take her home with him, she certainly hadn’t expected their destination to be one of the premier ski resorts in the country.
She’d never been to Aspen—clearly, a big mistake. There certainly weren’t many towns that boasted Louis Vuitton and Prada stores—Kingdom ought to have had store presence here, too. Georgia made a mental note to follow that up as they left the heart of the town behind, and Jay swung through a roundabout onto the picturesquely named Castle Creek Road. She wondered how far away from Aspen his parents lived. She’d love to come back for a look around the town.
“I thought you might like to see some famous Aspen Gold,” said Jay, tossing her a quick grin.
They passed under a bridge, and the road opened out ahead. Georgia bit back a torrent of questions and sat back to enjoy the ride.
The road snaked upward as the dark blue-green mountains rose steeply around them. In the distance ahead, snow-capped peaks jutted out against the Colorado blue sky. The beauty was breathtaking. Her heart soared as they sped into a tunnel of ghostly silver-white trees topped with clouds of golden foliage. Too soon, they emerged on the other side. Seconds later, they swept through a bend, and the next flurry of slim silver-and-gold aspens flashed by. Georgia smiled in delight.
About ten minutes later, Jay slowed and pulled over.
“Why are we stopping?” she asked, turning away from the awe-inspiring landscape.
Jay killed the engine and swiveled to face her. “You’ll need an engagement ring.”
That brought her swiftly back to reality.
“It’s not necessary—it’s not a real engagement.”
“It is for this weekend. My parents will never believe our engagement is real without a ring.” Jay’s eyes glimmered. “They’ll be annoyed enough that I didn’t let them know before.”
“But they know I’m coming?”
He shook his head. “It’ll be their anniversary surprise.”
“You didn’t call ahead to let them know you were bringing a guest?”
“You worry too much.”
He leaned toward her and she caught a whiff of the delicious woody notes of his aftershave as he reached for his shearling jacket in the back seat. From one of the pockets, Jay extracted a small velvet-covered box and flipped it open.
The ring inside made her gasp.
A gorgeous round art deco diamond—the biggest blue-white she’d ever seen—blinked up at her. Set in white gold, with four diamond-studded petals folded back down the sides, it looked like a flower smiling up at her.
Georgia’s heart sank. “My God. What if I lose it?”
“In one weekend?” Jay lifted a brow. “Unlikely. Anyhow, it’s insured. Do you like it?”
I love it.
She controlled her impulsive response, but honesty compelled her to say, “It’s the most beautiful ring I’ve ever seen.”
Part of her was horrified. Jay earned a very good salary, but he wasn’t wealthy...at least, not compared to her family. What he must’ve spent on that ring wasn’t worth a one-weekend charade—unless he had it on loan. But even then, the insurance premiums would be horrific. A ring like this hadn’t come from a last-minute foray into one of the airport shops. By some magic, Jay must’ve pulled strings to have it couriered to him this morning.
His attention to detail left her gasping.
Georgia’s lips parted, but when Jay took her hand, all her questions scattered.
