Chapter Nine

Gideon was glad for the next itinerary activity—cocktails. It was go and do what he was supposed to do, or sit in his suite and think about what he probably shouldn’t have done.

What he may have ruined by going after what his body wanted.

He needed to remember why he’d propositioned Georgia in the first place—Say!, Kurt, and the last of his dignity that didn’t feel all that dignified anymore. He’d lost sight of everything with her moaning beneath him. He needed to stay focused.

He was the kind of man who got what he wanted. He didn’t take short cuts and he didn’t have to.

Focus, he repeated as he entered the hotel bar. Unfortunately, when he saw Georgia leaning against the bar in a knee-length red and white checkered dress and red heels, focus was all he could do—on her. Georgia’s ass was plump against the fabric, her shoulders tanned and bare. Her dress held as many curves and promises as a genie bottle. The word focus was replaced immediately by rub.

Her wardrobe wasn’t going to make ignoring the thump in his gut any easier, but then, he’d wanted her earlier when she was essentially wearing a potato sack. Maybe she just wasn’t going to make this easy.

Georgia craned her neck around, searching the room. He should have just ignored her, but Kurt’s words weighed on him. Don’t screw this up. In order to make sure he didn’t, they still had a lot to work out. That is if he hadn’t screwed it up already.

“Waiting for someone?” He sensed her vanilla smell and their blistering heat the minute he hit her airspace.

“Not you,” she replied, not even turning to look at him.

“Who, then?” he continued, thinking of Kurt and his future that would not only be ruined by the deal not going through, but also by Richard blacklisting them all over town. Once he found out that Gideon had lied to him, he would end any chance Say! had of being a viable company. His carelessness with his words and his cock would toss two years of work and millions of dollars down the drain.

Georgia rolled her eyes severely enough to sprain them. It would take a lot more than that for Gideon to be deterred. There was too much on the line.

“Wait.” He leaned against the bar next to her. “Let me guess, you’re waiting for your boyfriend.”

She spun to face him and crossed her arms over her chest, forcing the line of her cleavage even higher. “What do you want?”

It was a good question. What did he want? The easy answer was her, against the bar with her dress pushed up around her waist and her blond hair mingling with the mahogany. The real answer, the answer he needed to give, meant he would have to let that fantasy go.

“A drink,” he replied, signaling the bartender.

Georgia’s eyes became slits.

He ordered a vodka tonic and let her stew in silence. Georgia responded best to playing hard to get. Look how hot and bothered she was over Brandon. He was making an art of ignoring her and it was driving her nuts. Considering she was doing the same thing to Gideon, it seemed his only defense.

She twirled the straw in her drink and searched the bar again.

“Maybe you should text him,” Gideon suggested, taking a sip of his vodka tonic. “Tell him you’re going to break your neck if he doesn’t show up soon.”

“He’ll show.” Georgia’s eyes scanned the room like search dogs.

“Then I’m going to just stand here until he does. You still haven’t told me hardly anything about yourself. And don’t even start with that bullshit about how I know you from high school. High school is over. I left whoever you were then behind a long time ago.” His feelings had not changed because of what had happened in the shed. They would never change.

“You left me behind?” she spit before it turned into a sad chuckle. “I suppose that’s what everyone thinks.” Her eyes floated over his face. Her gaze was softer than he’d ever thought she was capable of.

He wanted to look away. He wanted to not feel bad for her, to remember that she had lashed out when he attempted to offer her kindness in high school. He hitched up his resolve. “Stop being so melodramatic, it can’t be that bad.”

She took a long drink, the ice rattling as she set her glass back down. “Oh, but it is. The gossip you’re not big on is all true. It’s all my truth. I didn’t make it in L.A. I couldn’t hack it as an actress. It’s embarrassing.” She pressed a hand to her forehead. “Feel free to laugh.”

“Why would I laugh?” Her story reminded him of countless others in Silicon Valley. It was just like his friends with brilliant companies that investors couldn’t see the value in. He knew he and Kurt were the lucky ones. Without Richard, he would be just like his buddies who’d had to leave, just like Georgia.

Depending on how the dinner went, he still might have to.

“Because I failed; the girl who had everything going for her, or used to, at least.” Her chin trembled slightly, but she hardened her features.

He shook his head as his thoughts distilled. “I’m a proponent of going big or going home. You went big. You should have no regrets about that.”

“Your gamble paid off. Mine literally just sent me home.” Her voice was thick.

“I was lucky. Hard work doesn’t always equal success. The world isn’t fair.”

She worked her hair behind her ear. The color was more golden in the low light of the bar. “That’s easy for you to say, Mr. Palo Alto.”

She had no idea how close he was to success and how far away he would be if she had said no to his proposal.

“So, I guess that means you live in Kenmore now?” he replied, needing to change the subject. He knew how precarious the dinner on Monday still was. The less he thought about it the better.

“Yes. I live here with my sister, Hannah, and her family. You remember Hannah?”

“Of course,” he replied. Hannah was the complete opposite of Georgia, studious, serious. The kind of girl you’d think would make Georgia pause before she was mean to someone like Gideon. Well, if Georgia hadn’t been Georgia, anyway.

“She had a daughter five years ago and she has a law firm,” Georgia said, playing with the condensation on her glass. “A small one—I mean, it’s Kenmore—but she needed to go back to work. So I moved in to help take care of Bailey.”

“Bailey is your niece?”

Georgia’s eyes filled with that softness again. “Yeah.”

“Do you have a picture?”

She coughed, pressed her hand to her chest to stifle it. “You seriously want to see a picture of her?”

“I asked, didn’t I?”

Georgia sighed and took out her phone. She clicked and scrolled before holding it out for Gideon to take. “This is her at the park a few days ago.”

The screen held a photo of a little girl with blond pigtails on a swing, laughing and flying high. “She looks happy.”

“Yeah,” Georgia replied wistfully, “she’s an amazing kid.”

He handed the phone back, thinking of Georgia’s side of the photograph. That she would have seen that smile from Bailey countless times, the kind of smile that only came when you truly loved and trusted someone. It was definitely a side of her he didn’t expect. A side he respected.

Wait, he was giving her too much credit. Was it so strange for someone to love her niece? No, but it did seem strange for Georgia.

Georgia’s eyes were distant as she took one last glimpse of the photo and then put the phone back into her purse. There was more she wasn’t telling him, more she was carrying. For some reason, with that look in her eyes, in spite of their past, his only wish became making it a little lighter.

“That’s not failure, Georgia. I hope you know that.”

She glanced up at him slowly, her skin flushed and her lips parted slightly. She seemed to lose her balance for a second, lose herself in his gaze. He thought she might kiss him until her eyes shifted. “Where the hell is Brandon?”

His limbs went cold. Was he that stupid? Of course she wasn’t going to kiss him. She’d only told him all that because of their deal. It had nothing to do with her wanting to share something with him, nothing to do with her wanting him, or him wanting her.

“Well, there’s no locker room for him to play grab ass in, so the possibilities are endless.” Gideon downed the rest of his drink.

She clenched her jaw. “I thought you admired people who went big instead of going home. Brandon is like the definition of that. He plays for the NFL; he’s been to two Super Bowls.”

“As a backup quarterback.” Gideon snickered.

“Are you jealous?” Her mouth curved up.

Fuck, was he? No, he didn’t want Georgia like that. Brandon could have her. The whole reason Georgia was even allowing him to be within breathing distance was so Brandon could have her.

As if his thoughts were materializing, Brandon entered the bar out of Georgia’s line of vision. He was in a dress shirt and jeans. Gideon had to work out for every muscle he had now, but they seemed to grow all over Brandon without any effort at all.

Dammit, maybe he was jealous. For a split second he considered not telling her Brandon had arrived so they could keep talking, but Brandon, and Gideon’s dinner, was the only reason they were talking in the first place. He needed to remember that.

“He’s here.” Gideon grimaced.

Georgia straightened her dress and fluffed her hair. “Do something.” She stepped so close he could feel her breath on his jaw.

“Something?”

“To make him upset,” she insisted. “Seriously, Gideon, you’re not the only one who has an agenda here.”

“I thought he already bought it.”

Her face pinched, and her eyes were pleading. “The more angry he is, the more he’ll want me.”

Gideon reached for her arm without even thinking, but his move was not robotic. As much as he’d tried to deny it, his body was desperate to touch her. It seemed to exhale at the contact. Her skin was as soft and warm as fresh bread. His fingers played along her forearm, her wrist.

“Is this enough?” he asked, but the answer in his mind, in his cock, was: No. Not even close. Not now, and not three days from now.

Her eyes moved to his, but he wasn’t met with the emptiness he expected. There was a fervent need in her gaze. The same need he was trying desperately to rein in. “It’s fine,” she finally said.

Not nearly enough.

“Is he watching us?” Gideon skimmed his fingertip along the underside of her wrist.

Her pulse banged, shrieked against his skin. “Yes,” she exhaled through a shaky breath.

“Well, let’s give him something to look at.” Gideon eradicated the distance between them, clutched her around the waist, and kissed her, deep. It was a kiss filled with surprise, as much that he’d done it as that she kissed him back breathlessly, fervently. His lips wrapped around hers like a rope, tied with hers like a knot. His tongue searched her mouth for the end of a kiss that was endless.

She lost her footing. He grabbed tighter and squeezed her closer, her softness fostering his hardness. For one second, two seconds, three. It was just the two of them and that kiss.

He pulled back first, afraid if they continued, the dizziness of her would bring him to his knees.

Her eyes examined him for a moment before she whispered, “You need to ask me before you do something like that next time.”

“Don’t worry, Peach,” Gideon replied, his words as impermanent as clouds, “Brandon’s walking over here with Hulk-smash eyes. Hopefully there won’t have to be a next time.”

But even as Gideon said it, even as he walked away so she could cozy up to Brandon, those words panged in his chest. Without even trying, Georgia was wrapping him around her little finger and he was holding on for dear life.