“You should thank me, that was definitely a compliment. I mean, case in point, you were clearly annoyed we were all here this morning, but you were hovering around Georgie and you brought the team coffee.”
Had he been hovering? That was just Liam.
“I wouldn’t say I hovered. I was observing.”
She rolled her eyes at him as if to say, “Whatever.” She downed her champagne in one gulp and stood. “Okay, I have a date with a guy called Mario who lives with his mother and loves laser tag.”
“Why?” Georgie asked.
“Because unlike you I don’t have men fighting over me.”
“No one is fight—”
She gave a dismissive wave. “I’ll see you Monday for the production meeting. You two behave.”
And then she was gone.
“I don’t like her dating guys like that,” Georgie muttered.
“Maybe Mario is a prince who just happens to live with his mother, which come to think of it a lot of princes actually do, they work with them too.” He paused considering this truth. “Why do the princes have all the game?”
Georgie laughed. “Actually, I have no idea. They’re not exactly self-made men.”
She went to stand and grab the champagne, but he beat her to it. “Sit. I didn’t grow up with servants you know. I know how to get you what you need.”
That was an understatement and they both knew it. In the trailer park on the edge of their small town, he’d grown up in the saddest, least-served trailer of all. Her parents had not been wealthy, but they had been happy and loving and she’d never gone without. That made one of them.
He came over to top off her glass.
“Thank you, my prince.”
“I don’t live with my mama.”
“No, now you live with me,” she said with a coy smile. As he sat beside her on the sofa, the reality of that sank in. She was living with Liam, the boy she’d grown up with who’d had her heart since she was twelve, and now he was a man and he had made it very clear over the years they were nothing but friends. And yet here they were living together.
“We are, and I for one couldn’t be happier.” He gave her a sweet smile.
At that moment Georgie’s stomach gave a small growl. It had been a long time since she ate that strawberry muffin, and when she thought about it, that was all she’d eaten that day.
“Chinese takeout?” he asked. He knew it was her first choice for takeout. While she could make Chinese food, it never tasted quite the same.
“You know me too well.”
“Go have a shower. I’ll order and let’s meet on the roof.”
“There’s a roof?” She’d barely made it beyond the ground floor.
“There is and you’re going to love it,” he said, taking her hands and pulling her to her feet so that her body crashed against his firm chest. She looked up at him, and she was sure she saw something more than friendship there, but that couldn’t be, this was Liam and Liam didn’t like her like that. She, on the other hand, felt that familiar glow she got when she was nice and close to him. If she was honest with herself, she felt more of that with him than Zach for example, but however she felt didn’t matter because Liam didn’t feel it.
She stepped back. “See you on the roof.”
He just gave her a nod before turning away to grab his phone.
* * *
Maybe Liam’s plan was not as well conceived as he’d thought. He considered his situation as he carried the Chinese food and plates and the champagne bottle to the roof. Being up close and personal with Georgie was going to be harder than he thought. That moment when she’d fallen against him. That had taken Herculean strength not to kiss her, and it was way too soon for that. The woman would get spooked. He wanted so much more than friendship with Georgie, but he had to tread carefully. Georgie in his life as a friend was better than no Georgie at all. Georgie downstairs showering, well, that was something he hadn’t given proper thought to.
He pulled the boxes out of the bag and arranged them on the small table the owners had left up there, and even though the roof was not totally dark, he found a switch for the fairy lights that lit a small trellis on one side of the rooftop and turned them on just as Georgie appeared in cutoff jeans and a soft pink T-shirt. Her feet were bare, her hair was in a ponytail, and she wore a broad smile. Yep, this was going to be tough because as beautiful as she was, he was going to have to fight hard to keep from ruining everything.
“Oh wow, isn’t this gorgeous? How was this not in the shots the realtor included?”
“It was, I think, maybe you were too focused on the kitchen to notice.”
She laughed. “Well, shame on me. Although this feels like a beautiful bonus. I don’t think I’ve thanked you for finding this place for us and so quickly. You’re a miracle worker.”
“I’m just well connected.” Also, he may have offered the realtor a huge bonus for finding a place and fast.
“Well thanks, Liam.” She pecked his cheek, and the sweet scent of her engulfed him. “And dinner.”
“I know what you like after all these years.”
“Remember when Chinese was such a treat and my parents would order it on special occasions?” She gave him a soft smile.
He certainly did, and he always felt lucky to be included in those because he was not getting any kind of takeout otherwise. “Nice memories.”
“They were. It wasn’t always perfect, but we had some good times.”
“I think all of my good times were with you,” he said softly.
“How’s your mom doing?”
He shook his head. “How about we don’t ruin a perfect evening by talking about Jean.”
“We should talk about her, though.”
Talking fixed nothing, but he knew that wasn’t the answer she wanted. “Sure, but not tonight. Tonight let’s just be in the moment.”
She gave him a nod before biting into a crunchy spring roll. “Man, I love these things. When I was on the show, they wouldn’t let me have them because I might get fat. Made me love them even more.”
“They said that to you?” Those producers really shouldn’t have been allowed to work with young kids.
She nodded and shoved the rest of the roll in her mouth so that it was so full he thought she might choke, but she managed to get out a garbled version of the word “jerks.”
He laughed. “I’m glad to see you’re over it. Well, you’re the boss now. You can eat what you like.”
She swallowed the rest of her mouthful while he took a bite of his own spring roll.
“It may be no coincidence that after being told what I couldn’t eat for years I decided to travel the country eating and cooking.”
Liam laughed. He’d never put the two together, but she was right. She’d certainly showed them, and she also hadn’t put on weight in the process. She was definitely more curvy than when she’d left for Hollywood at sixteen, but she was a woman now and not a girl.
She flopped into her seat, and he poured her a glass of champagne while she served some more spring rolls and crab rangoon onto each of their plates. It was very domesticated, and it made him feel a contentment he couldn’t recall feeling in a very long time.
“This is a treat. I rarely get takeout. I always cook. Not that I don’t love cooking . . .” Her voice trailed off as she focused on eating. It was nice to eat with a woman who clearly loved her food. Most of his more recent girlfriends had been models, and most had been rather picky eaters.
They sat in companionable silence enjoying the rooftop, the sounds of the city, and the meal. Liam wondered if this was what life with Georgie would be like if they were together. Probably not because if he was allowed, she’d be sitting right next to him and he’d have an arm around her while they ate, but apart from that it was just about perfect.
So all he needed to do was move them from the friend zone to so much more.
“This is a great party space,” he said after a while.
“Yeah, it is,” she agreed, using her chopsticks to serve out their beef and broccoli and kung pao chicken with fried rice.
“Maybe we should have a housewarming party,” he suggested
“Really?” She looked up from her plate and looked at him. “You’d want to host a party?”
“Sure, why not?” he asked as if she was asking a crazy question.
“Well, you don’t like parties, you don’t like people, and you’re ridiculously private.”
He sighed. “I do like people.” He liked her after all.
She arched her brow at him. “Besides your partner Malcolm and me, , who do you like?”
Is that how she saw him? Yes, he was a workaholic who shunned the spotlight, but he liked people well enough.
“I like the people I work with. I’ve met and liked your friends in the past. I like Marnie.” He knew he sounded a bit gruff, but sheesh, he wasn’t that bad.
“Okay, sorry, I just know Cara said getting you to parties was like pulling teeth and when they try to do any publicity about you at work that you refuse.”
“Who told you that?”
“Mal might have emailed me once to get you to do some publicity,” she said.
Mal was going to get it for that. “Well, I think that’s different. I don’t want people digging into my private life.” And she knew exactly why. “At our housewarming party we’d only invite people we like, so none of that would be an issue.”
“I’m game. I love entertaining. Let’s work out a date tomorrow,” she said before helping herself to another plate of food.
“Deal.” He’d choose a date in a couple of weeks so he could make some friends at work to invite. If she saw him as cold and unfriendly, he needed to prove otherwise. He just hoped she wouldn’t be inviting Alvaro or Zach or any of the other men who wanted her for their own.
Still, he’d just have to work around that because sitting on the rooftop with Georgie only firmed his resolve to make her his.
* * *
Georgie woke to three things: The smell of coffee, that odd feeling that she didn’t know quite where she was, and the knowledge that Tapioca who would usually be curled in by her feet was not. She blinked the day into focus and realized she was in the new place that she and Liam were sharing. That explained who had Tapioca and who had made the coffee. She took in her room properly. Last night after dinner with Liam she’d practically collapsed and fallen straight to sleep. Now the sunlight shone through white curtains she hadn’t properly closed that covered French doors, which led to a balcony with one tiny chair and a few pots on it. The room had a deep honey-colored carpet and dusky pink walls. All in all, her own dark sleigh bed with its white linens and white lamps set it off nicely. There was a picture rail along two walls; she’d have to decide what to hang there. It was a pretty room, and she could get very used to it and maybe even to having a roommate.
Since she turned eighteen and was allowed live alone, Georgie hadn’t shared a home with anyone else, and so it was an odd feeling to walk down the stairs to the kitchen and see a shirtless Liam holding a cup of coffee in one hand, filling in the New York Times crossword with his other while using one foot to scratch the belly of her dog who was lying there shamelessly basking in his attention
“Good morning.” She pulled her robe tighter around herself.
“Hey, you. Sleep well?” he asked, looking up from his paper.
“Maybe too well. I couldn’t work out where I was.”
“I hate that feeling. Or when you wake up in an odd hotel and walk the wrong way toward the bathroom.”
She laughed. “I have done that so often.”
She took a seat at the island, and he handed her a coffee just the way she liked with a dash of milk and some vanilla sugar. She was a cook after all, so she made her own sugar infused with vanilla beans just for this purpose. Not that it was really chef-like to stick some vanilla in a jar of sugar, but it did make for delicious sugar cookies and very tasty coffee.
“Thank you. Did you sleep okay?”
“Like a baby.” He smiled. He didn’t look like a baby standing there half naked, his finely chiseled torso on display. No, he was one hundred percent pure man.
“And yet here you are up early, making coffee, flirting with Tapioca, and doing the crossword.”
“Eight is not early, and I think she’s flirting with me. Not jealous, are you?”
She took a sip of her coffee rather than answer. “I still have some unpacking to do. What’s your plan for the day?”
“I’m going to go for a run, and I also need to unpack my office here. I don’t know. Do you want to grab lunch later?”
“Actually, would you mind if I made lunch? I need to really get to know my way around this kitchen before we start filming in earnest later this week.”
He leaned forward on his magnificent forearms, his coffee in hand. “We’ll need to talk about the filming schedule so I don’t interrupt.”
“Or worse, get caught on camera,” she teased. She knew there was no way he wanted that, and he had not signed a release form to allow himself to be filmed, which was absolutely his prerogative but also a shame. The camera would love him.
“Exactly, my hours are going to be pretty long, especially while I get a handle on the New York team, so I don’t think we’ll have a problem.”
She didn’t either. “We usually film a couple of days a week, and I travel a couple as well. My preference is to get most of it done Monday through Thursday, and then I do recipe research and the behind the scenes work on Friday and Saturday.”
“You sound like you work even more than I do.” His brow crinkled in concern
She walked around to top up her coffee. “When we’re in production, I probably do. That’s the price I pay for having control.”
Control. If anyone understood its value it was Liam. He was known around the company as a control freak himself. Still, he didn’t like the idea of Georgie working herself to a frazzle. She really didn’t have anything to prove to anyone.
“And when you’re not in production?”
“Well, we’re launching a couple of new cooking shows and I have bought the rights to a romance series that I’m hoping to turn into a TV series, and of course, I’m working on a studio album.”
“Of course.”
“You’re mocking me.” She gave him a steely stare.
He wasn’t really. “No, I’m not, that’s just a lot for one person.”
“Well, it’s not just me, we do have staff at Serious Blonde Productions.”
“I still love that name.”
“Yeah, me too.” Although her hair was now darker than blonde, the name still worked.
“But, my serious blonde, don’t burn out.”
She was laughing now. “Said the pot to the kettle. Look, you have something to prove and so do I. You want to prove that you are not like your parents, and I want to prove that I’m not a washed-up TV teen bimbo.”
“And how will we know when we’ve proved it?” he asked in all seriousness. Liam didn’t have enough money to live high-on-the-hog forever, at least not in New York, but he was more than comfortable. He owned a condo in Chicago and a place on the coast as well. He paid for all his mother’s expenses just like he always did. He had enough put away to be comfortable forever there, but he still had plenty to prove.
He knew Georgie was as well-placed or better than he was. Her father had invested her money wisely until she turned eighteen and took control. She’d had a couple of number one records, that alone would keep her in fine style, and back then when she’d toured as well, the cash had flowed.
“I don’t know. Right now it’s really important to me to get this right. It’s why it’s my focus.”
“And why you don’t date.”
“I want people to talk about my work not my boyfriend.” She was of course speaking from experience. “And to be honest, with my hours anyone more demanding than Tapioca isn’t on the agenda.”
Liam took that information in. So to be her perfect boyfriend he needed to be nondemanding, get out of her hair when she filmed, be nice to her friends and her dog, and maybe walk around without his shirt on because he’d noticed that she noticed and he kind of liked that.
“Makes sense. Well, I’m going for a run. Send me a message if you want me to get any supplies for lunch on my way back.”
“Thanks.” She walked over to the crossword and filled in an answer, keeping her eyes down and off his chest where he could tell she’d much rather be looking. “Sure, have fun.”
All of a sudden it occurred to him how much fun this could be. He might never wear a shirt again.
Chapter 5
Georgie was first to the bar on Thursday night and decided to grab a table on the rooftop. It was a beautiful night, and she felt like she’d been stuck indoors at meetings and recording all week. She sent a quick text to let everyone know where to find her and ordered a seltzer water while she waited.
It was good to have a few moments alone to collect herself because this had been quite a week. Work had been crazy busy. They’d revised the shooting schedule for the rest of the season to incorporate her move. That would mean a shoot at the old apartment to show the damage and also of the renovations as they happened. It meant a lot more work. They’d revised her travel schedule, and she’d be going to New Orleans, Santa Fe, Albuquerque, and Denver in the next three weeks for the show. She needed to get all that done before she went in to record her next studio album in Nashville in a few weeks’ time. She would need to shoot cooking segments based on the food from all the cities she visited and develop the recipes first. She sipped her drink.
It was a lot.
Then there was Liam. Liam who made her coffee in the mornings. Liam who walked Tapioca if she was running late. Liam who handed her a glass of wine when she walked in the door frazzled, and Liam who seemed to spend a ridiculous amount of time shirtless.
No Time for Temptation: No Brides Club, Book 4 Page 5
