Chapter 10
ten
. . .
Maddox
“So, did he just give you the car when you asked for it?” Georgia asked me, as she tipped her head back to let the snow fall on her pretty face.
“He’s pathetic. I could have snapped him in half if I wanted to. So, no, he didn’t put up a fight. He whined and bitched, and I counted to three, and he handed over the keys. I told you… you’ve been dating boys, not men.”
It had been all too easy. The bar that her dipshit ex had been performing at was a leased space owned by Lancaster Properties.
I’d made a call and was taken into a back room, and the show was temporarily stopped until after our little meeting.
The pussy had cried and said he still loved her.
I told him to stop contacting her or I’d be paying him another visit, and I wouldn’t be as friendly next time.
And I meant it.
“What are you? The dating expert now?” She smirked. I loved how salty she was with me when she was pure sunshine with everyone else. I brought something out of her, and I enjoyed it.
“I do very well. Thank you for asking.”
“I haven’t seen any dates on your calendar,” she said, her gaze searching mine.
“I keep my personal life separate, Tink.” I raised a brow, liking the way her little hands fisted before she shoved them into my suit coat pockets.
The snow was starting to come down harder, and I didn’t mind standing out here with her at all, even though I was freezing my balls off.
It was worth it to have this moment with her without four hundred fucking people interrupting us with fires to put out.
“I would hear about it if you were dating anyone here in Cottonwood Cove. Virginia gets all the scoop in town,” she said, her voice full of tease, but I could see in her eyes that she was anxious for me to answer.
She was right.
I hadn’t been out.
Not once since the day she’d come to interview with me.
And I needed to blow off some steam. Stop fantasizing about my assistant.
“I actually have a date tonight. We’re going to your brother’s restaurant because, according to Yelp, it’s the best in town. And I do like impressing my women.”
I couldn’t hide the smile on my face. Hell, I smiled all the time now. She brought out a softer side of me, which I’d normally despise, but I didn’t mind it at the moment. She looked jealous, and I liked it so much that I couldn’t stop smiling. How twisted was that?
“Really?”
“Not sure why that’s surprising to you, but yes. Really.”
“That’s actually fabulous. My family is having dinner there tonight after we take my niece to see Santa. Can’t wait to meet your girlfriend.”
“I don’t do girlfriends,” I said, and she shivered, so I turned her toward the building and placed my hand on her lower back to lead her inside.
“So, what do you do? Just buy them dinner and have your way with them?” she asked. Once we stepped inside, she looked up at me with her dark blue eyes wide and curious.
I leaned down close to her ear. “I buy them dinner and then I rock their fucking world.”
She crossed her arms over her chest as we stood in the entryway, a few feet away from nosy Virginia Hawkson, who thankfully looked deep in conversation as she held the phone to her ear.
“A one and done?” She raised a brow.
“Nah. I get a lot of repeat customers.” I chuckled because I knew I was infuriating her, and I enjoyed it.
“Heather is a woman I’ve seen many times, and she’s coming here tonight.
No pun intended.” I winked. “She was pissed I didn’t make time for her when I was in the city because I was busy dealing with your little fucker, and she insisted on driving here tonight to see me. ”
I didn’t know what the hell was going on with me, but ever since our trip to the city—nah, scratch that, ever since she was shaking her ass in the closet to “Slow Ride”, I’d adjusted my boss-employee relationship with her.
Georgia brought out a different side of me.
She was easy to be with. I laughed more than I ever had, and I didn’t mind it.
Hell, even I’d noticed the stuffy aloofness that I’d perfected under the tutelage of my father had faded.
Georgia was doing things to me physically and emotionally, and I liked it.
Her tongue swiped out to wet her lips. “Wow. Good for you, and good for her, if that works for you both. I’d never take part in that kind of deal.”
Her claws were out, and I liked it.
“And why is that, Tink?”
“Because that means you’re both allowed to do whatever you want when you aren’t together.”
“Correct.”
“I’d never be with a man who was willing to share me with someone else. I want to be with a man who couldn’t stand the thought of another man touching me,” she said, one brow raised as if she’d just put me in my place.
“And is that how Dikota, the car thief, was? When he wasn’t fucking your roommate?” I shouldn’t have said it. It wasn’t nice. But she was getting under my skin because even talking about another man touching her bothered me.
This conversation was completely unprofessional and inappropriate for a million reasons, and I didn’t give a fuck. Georgia mattered to me more than I wanted to admit.
She cleared her throat and kept her face even, but I saw the hurt in her eyes.
I was an asshole.
She needed to know that.
“Thanks for throwing that in my face when you are one of the only people that I shared that with. But, if you must know, he was actually quite possessive, yes. And I was done with him long before he strayed, but that would have been a deal breaker for me either way. I don’t share, Bossman.”
“Good for you. You should hold out for Mr. Perfect. And I assure you, it’s not that punk in the city.”
“You think I’m going to take dating advice from you?” she said, glancing down at her phone when it vibrated. “It’s getting late. I need to go send those emails and then get to my brother’s house to go see Santa. I guess I’ll see you and your woman of the evening at Reynolds’.”
I barked out a laugh. “I guess you will, Tink.”
She pulled my coat off her shoulders and chucked it at me before heading through the office and back upstairs. She got stopped several times because everyone loved her.
I took my time, watching the way she moved up the stairs. The way her lean legs elegantly took one step after the other. It was wrong, but I couldn’t help myself. This woman was consuming my thoughts. And I was dreading dinner with Heather.
I’d agreed to her coming to town because she was relentless about getting together, and I knew I needed to get laid. It had been too long, and it was the only chance I had at getting Georgia Reynolds out of my head.
Heather Olivia was the daughter of a wealthy banker, and she was definitely looking for a wealthy husband.
I’d been upfront with her from the moment we met when she’d pursued me hard.
I was always clear with the women that I spent time with.
I enjoyed dinner, a nice bottle of wine, and a show or the opera now and then.
I liked having a date to take to events that I had to attend.
But I didn’t want anything deeper than that.
I knew where that led, and I wasn’t interested in it.
I didn’t open my life to the women that I spent time with.
Everyone’s version of the fairy tale was different.
My mother had thought my father was her prince on a white horse, and though he’d set her up in a castle and given her the finest things in life, she’d soon learned that it came at a cost. That he didn’t mean it when he said, “Till death do us part.”
He was a selfish prick with a wandering eye and an ice-cold heart. He’d humiliated her at her lowest point, chipping away at her as her body deteriorated right before our eyes.
Love was overrated. It was bullshit. I wasn’t here to say that it didn’t work for some people. My grandparents were the rare couple that got it right. But I was more than aware that most of the women who had attempted to sink their nails into me were after two things.
The Lancaster name and the Lancaster money.
It came with the territory.
I was fairly certain that Heather wanted both.
But we’d been doing this sporadically for two years now, and it was clear that I wasn’t going to change my mind. Yet she kept coming back.
She’d taken a car service here because the woman was a pampered princess.
She didn’t work or have any real ambitions beyond shopping and finding a husband who’d keep her living in the lap of luxury.
That was why I wasn’t sure why she hadn’t moved on to someone else.
Someone more likely to give her what she wanted.
She was gorgeous, no doubt about it.
I arrived at Reynolds’ and was taken to a table in the back of the restaurant. The place was fairly busy, chatter and laughter surrounding me. Dark wood covered the floors, and stone accents on the walls offered a lot of character. It definitely had a rustic, cool vibe.
I looked up to see Heather walking my way.
Her black hair was straight and shiny, and she wore a skintight red dress that clung to her and ended just below her knees.
She wore a black fur coat that went almost to the ground, and sky-high fuck-me heels, per usual.
Heads turned as she moved toward me because she stood out like a sore thumb in here, as most people were dressed in jeans and sweaters.
I pushed to my feet and gave her a quick hug.
“Good to see you.”
“Well, I had no choice but to come to you, obviously. I can’t believe you’re living in this godforsaken town.
Is it just the worst living here?” she asked as I slipped her coat off her shoulders and set it on the empty chair beside us.
I pulled out her chair, and she took a seat, and I settled across from her.
“Actually, it hasn’t been so bad lately. It’s growing on me. It’s peaceful. There’s no press snapping pictures every time you go to fucking dinner. No traffic. And the office is thriving, so I have no complaints.”