Chapter 1
1
He had screwed everything up completely. George looked down at the beautiful woman sprawled naked on his office conference table and knew nothing could come of this. That this was the dumbest move of his life. He had just changed everything. “Remember, we said no strings. I’m not looking for anything permanent, Veronica. Not right now.”
Her chin jutted out at him. She pulled his suit jacket over her beautiful chest, hiding the delectable flesh from his gaze. “I get that. And I don’t want forever with you either, Georgie. This just happened. I needed a way to forget… and you were handy. I’m not exactly ready to settle down right now, anyway. Not yet… So relax, will you? I don’t have a ring in my pocket waiting for the best time to propose.”
But George wasn’t stupid—he saw the pain in those blue eyes of hers. He’d hurt her. Just like he had known he would.
He just looked at her and knew it was too late. He was so tangled up in this woman he would never straighten himself out. She was… beautiful, perfect—everything he had ever imagined having. But he was almost thirty-two years old. She was nine years younger—and nowhere near ready for a permanent relationship. Not the kind he would want. The intense, wrapped-up-in-each-other-forever kind. She just wasn’t ready for that. And what if he screwed it up and hurt her even more?
The last thing he would ever want to do was hurt her. He already felt like a complete screwup tonight, as it was. He’d screwed up everything for too many people today.
He didn’t want to screw everything up for her, too. George cared about her too much for that.
He kept telling himself that over and over as he just stayed right where he was. She had his shirt clutched to her breasts. She had absolutely perfect breasts. His body tightened, remembering. “Put the shirt on.”
“Too much for you?” She threatened to lower the shirt. “Think I’ll tempt you into sinning again?”
Did she realize that he still heard the hurt? He had hurt her. He had always known he would. It was why he’d kept his damned hands to himself until now. Almost two years, she’d been tempting him. Two years. She had only been twenty when they’d met. Twenty.
Far too young. And she’d been hurting and confused and he hadn’t wanted to hurt her.
Now he had screwed everything up completely. She would probably never forgive him.
George was a total ass, and he knew it. She deserved so much better than him. Why didn’t this beautiful woman see that?
And what in the hell had he been thinking? Sleeping with his paralegal-slash-law clerk was the dumbest damned thing he had ever done. “This isn’t going to happen again.”
“Your word is law, huh? Well, thanks, I think. I enjoyed it while it lasted. Maybe the next guy I sleep with will be even better than the first. At least I hope so, anyway.”
“Veronica…”
“Hey, no harm, no foul. And no strings. I gotcha. And by the way…” She looked up at him, tears turning her blue-gray eyes a beautiful blue he would never forget. “I quit.”
George just watched her as she walked away.
Taking his damned soul with him. Forever.
Because he had finally screwed everything up completely.