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2022-03-23 04:59:24“You might own my heart, George Stone, but that doesn’t give you the right to abuse it. It doesn’t mean you get to decide what I do, who I see, who I sleep with, where I work. I’m not your employee or someone who even gives a crap if you get your own damn way or not. It doesn’t mean you get to throw your money around until I see things your way and give in to you the way everybody else does!”
“Then please enlighten me as to what it does mean.”
“It means if you’re sorry, you man the hell up and stop hiding behind your money. It means you show me you’re sorry, because right now, all I see is a man unwilling to admit his mistakes.” I placed my own hands on the table and leaned into him. Our breaths mingled as his eyes flicked to my lips, and mine to his, before our gazes crashed into each other’s. “And for a man s
“Us,” he finished, sitting next to me. The tug inside my chest grew and spiralled into an all-consuming ache I felt deep into my bones. I could see it now—the love we never knew existed circling us. The love, so pure and real, clouded by reality and lies. I couldn’t take my eyes from it, the picture of us. We looked perfect. Like we were meant to be there. Like its right—right, right. Wouldn’t-have-it-any-other-way kind of right. It cuts and it hits and it twists inside me. An evil reminder of what we had. What we have. What’s buried beneath the same reality that sliced it apart. “How did you get it?” I asked softly. “I called Joe while we were in Italy and asked to see the pictures that weren’t chosen. Then I bought them from him and had these done. They were waiting for me in New York when I got back last week.” I swa
Last Updated : 2022-03-24Rubbing my hand over my stinging butt cheek, I turned and glared at him. “Not looking good for you already, Mr. Stone.”His eyes darkened. “Call me that again and the only thing looking good will be you lying back on my desk completely naked.”I put my boots on, fighting my smile, and he unlocked the door. I stopped in the doorway and glanced up at him. “Is that a promise, Mr. Stone?”“Gina,” he growled, and I laughed, walking into the reception area. He grasped me round the waist and steered me into the elevator, waving to his receptionist, who looked on, still bewildered. Poor woman.When the elevator doors closed, I leaned up and whispered in his ear, “I can play dirty, too.”“And if I wasn’t trying to behave, I’d have this elevator stopped and you against the wall so I coul
Last Updated : 2022-03-25I sighed. “I do trust you, George. As a person, I do. But I just don’t know if I trust you with my heart again.”“I’ll prove you can.” He softly touched his lips to mine. “I don’t deserve this second chance, but I’m going to make every second of it worthwhile. For the both of us.”“Deserve it or not, you were going to take it,” I muttered. “Easy way or the hard way. I know when to pick my battles.”“Oh yes. Because I wholeheartedly believe you aren’t going to fight me every step of the way.”I followed him into the kitchen and nodded when he pulled a bottle of wine from the fridge. “I will never stop fighting you. It’s way too fun.”He placed the glass in front of me. “I know.”“Crap. I drove to your office. My
Last Updated : 2022-03-26“Mom made it clear from day one that she didn’t like Rachel—and she wouldn’t try to either. You, however, have always been somewhat of a golden girl in her eyes. So naturally, when she learned of the events in Paris, I transported to the top of her shit list.” I covered my mouth with my hand. Shit list. Hearing such a juvenile term from him amused me so much. It was so out of line with his usual composed speech. “That’s because your mom obviously has good taste.” I dropped onto the bed tummy-first and proped my chin on my hands. George emerged from his closet, minus his jeans, and my mouth went dry. Holy shit, the man cut a fine figure in those boxers. I couldn’t decide if I preferred the underwear look over the suit. “That’s a matter of opinion.” Wait. What was the question? “Hey!” I shook off my haze. Clearly, I needed sex. Fast. “Wha
Last Updated : 2022-03-26I laid it on the bed while I changed my underwear and rolled some stockings up my legs. With a rub of my temples, I pushed the memory aside, slunk into the tight material, and looked in the mirror.It hugged my body perfectly, and I could imagine the look on his face when he sees it. It’ll be somewhere between pleasure and anguish, delight and torture.Exactly what I was going for.I applied my makeup and painted red onto my lips. The shade matched the heeled pumps peeking at me from my shoe rack in the closet, and I slid my feet into them easily. My toes wriggled to get my feet comfortable, and I stood.George was standing at the door to my lingerie room, and I bit the inside of my lip. Shit. Should have closed the door…“Like what you see?” I asked, repeating his words from earlier.“Do you have stock in the linger
Last Updated : 2022-03-27I’ve never needed love, not from a man. I’ve never needed to feel loved for my life to have any sort of meaning. I looked at those women and believed they were weak because they needed someone to lean on, but perhaps I was wrong.There was nothing weak about love, and needing to hear George tell me that he loves me didn’t make me weak either.****** *******“Gina!” George’s mom stood and opened her arms to me when we entered the restaurant. I stepped into her warm embrace, then his father’s, and took a seat opposite them at the table.We were seated in the back of Glassini, an upscale restaurant that neighbors the Southfall hotel. The curved shape of our booth meant we were practically invisible to prying eyes, and the lighting was just bright enough to make out the shade of red velvet on the chairs but lo
Last Updated : 2022-03-27She was silent for a moment before she continued. “I told him to tell you. When he told me you were going with him on the trip, I told him you had to know. You weren’t just anyone. You’ve never just been anyone. Not to him.” I swallowed and looked down. “What did he say?” “He said he would. He said he planned to tell you, but I couldn’t push him into it. He didn’t want to lose you again.” “And he still couldn’t tell me.” Cathy sighed heavily. “I think he spent the day in bed with a migraine when I was through with him. He’s loved you since you met, and because of his stubborn pigheadedness, he hurt you in a misguided attempt to protect you.” “I think I said the same thing to him,” I said softly, looking up. “He fired her.” Her lips twitched. “He forced her to sign the divorce papers in front of us and our la
Last Updated : 2022-03-27“I condensed a week of meetings into a few days. I had no choice but to attend them, but the second I could leave, I was on the plane back to New York.”“Why?” I swallowed and looked at him.His mom might have told me, but I needed to hear it from him. My crazy mind, the insanity he made me feel, needed to hear it. It needed to hear something to validate the relationship he believed he payed for but was so very real.George’s lips curled slightly at the corners, and he brushed some hair from my face. He left his hand cupping my head and drew our faces closer together.“Because I couldn’t be away from you for any longer than I had to be. I couldn’t stand by and not fight for you when you were back here. There wasn’t a single part of me that would let me do that.”“Your fighting could use so
Last Updated : 2022-03-27EpilogueFour Months Later“No, no, no!” I dropped my forehead to the table. “Why is this so hard for them to get right? Champagne and ivory are not the same color. The seat sashes are supposed to be champagne, not fucking ivory!”Brenda patted my shoulder. “There, there, Bridezilla. You have three months still to chew their asses out until they get it right.”“Brenda, with the amount George is paying them to get it right, I shouldn’t have to be chewing asses.” I sighed and straightened again. “This is crazy. Why can’t we just elope in some tropical country and get married without all this fancy crap?”My best friend laughed and shut the laptop down. “Okay, babe. Let’s get you a drink. You and I both know you wouldn’t want to have this any other way.”“I know. I just… I
I was not getting it out of him no matter how hard I tried. I knew he wouldn’t give anything away until he was good and ready, so I was stuck sitting here in my awkward limbo until he did. Stuck here, wondering, waiting, what-iffing.Our plates were cleared away and replaced with our main course. Again, it was eaten in silence, our eyes flitting from our plates to each other’s. The only difference was that there was a zinging of tension, one tight enough to cut, and I swallowed hard. My fork clattered as I placed it against my plate and looked at him firmly.“Do you want dessert?” he asked innocently, his steady voice betraying the tightness between us.“No. I want to know what this is.”“This? It’s dinner in the Eiffel Tower, sweetheart.”“No. What is it? Why are you doing it?”Geo
He prodded me in the side. “I think I found desires you weren’t aware of over the last few days.”Ah, this much wass true. Who knew having sex in front of a large bay window in the middle of the day was so fun?“I was very much aware of them. They’d just never been satisfied before now.”“They’ll continue to be satisfied, too.”“I should hope so.”He laughed quietly, burying his face into my neck. “Sit up. Let me wash your hair.”I did as he said, and he grabbed the showerhead from the little holder I placed it in for easy reach. When the water was the right temperature, I leaned my head back and let him wet my hair.“Ivan’s coming back to Seattle in a few weeks.”“He is?”“Hmm. He said he’ll call you to arra
“Again?”“Mhmm.”“Oh no.” I wrestled myself from him. “No, no, no!”I laughed, running through the apartment. And as I slammed the office door shut behind me, I realized my mistake.You never run from someone willing to stalk you until he can catch you.“Gina.” He hummed my name through the door. “Do I need to break the door down?”“That’s a habit for you.”“Open the fucking door. The longer you keep me waiting out here, the harder I’ll have to fuck you.”Oh, silly, silly man. When will he realized that, that was not a bad thing at all?I giggled and tapped out a random beat on the door. Truth was, I had no intention of letting George Stone fuck me right now.I planned to sit him on that fancy-ass leather chair an
“We are?” “Yes. You’re wearing my shirt again, and I believe it was some six hours ago I was promising to fuck you on my desk, so I suggest you get your ass into my office and hop up onto that desk pronto.” “You’re getting more demanding by the day, Mr. Stone.” I added some extra wiggle to my hips as I walked, and I was rewarded by a low growl of pleasure behind me. And punished with a sharp smack on my ass. “I never said anything about a demand. I’m requiring you get on my damn desk. Now move.” *** “Thank you.” George took a large envelope from someone and closed the door behind him. I watched from my slouched position on the sofa as he pulled a letter opener from the kitchen drawer and sliced the letter open. Because who doesn’t keep one of those in their kitchen?
It was ten in the morning and George still wasn’t up.That alone told me how much yesterday tired him. He was incapable of sleeping past six. Crazy man.I rocked my head from side to side. If I had any idea exactly what he was doing last night, I’d go into his office and finish it. As it was, I had no idea, so all I can was sit there like a freaking orange waiting to be juiced.I couldn’t read because my concentration wouldn’t last beyond a page. I had done my Candy Crush and Coin Dozer thing, and if I saw one more whining status post on Facebook, I’ll do one of my own.The sound of a phone ringing in his office cut through the silence, and I paused. Oh hell.I jumped down and ran into the room, barely blinking at the name on screen before answering. “Hello?”“Hello? Gi
I sat up, brushing hair from my face, and listened for any indication of him being around. There wasn’t any, so I swung my legs over the edge of the bed and made my way out of the room. The city lights flooded the front room, and I glanced at the clock. Three a.m. Where could he possibly be at this time? Something creaked in the direction of his office, and I walked down the hall to it. His door was cracked open slightly, and a gentle light from the television was flickering through the tiny gap. I wrapped my fingers around the edge of the door and eased it open, my eyes landing on his exhausted, shirtless figure. He was slumping over his desk, his fingers buried in his hair. His laptop was open in front of him, papers were scattered everywhere, some lying idly on the floor, and a desk light was illuminating the mess. “You should be in bed, asleep,” he mutte
“George!”“What does it say?” I looked at her. She bit her lip. “Rachel. Tell me now!”“She said that if you don’t pay within the hour, she’ll have it distributed to a large number of websites and presses ready to run a breaking news story first thing tomorrow. They’re waiting for her story.”“Will she fuck.” There was no wavering in his voice. Despite his lack of jacket and tie, George looked as serious as ever. “Rachel, get me her on the phone ten minutes ago.” He turned. “Alexander, get something drawn up that prevents her from contacting either Gina or me for the next fucking lifetime. This ends right now.”“George, you can’t pay her!” I wrenched myself from his mom’s grip. “Don’t be so fucking stupid!”He br
“I’m sorry,” I whispered, looking at my feet. Guilt and remorse—they flooded me. Consumed me.George pulled me into him and tilted my face back. “Look at me, Gina.”I shook my head. I couldn’t. Not this time. I couldn’t look in his eyes and know that everything we have was on the line. Everything he and his father have worked for was now hanging in limbo because of me.How many reporters have picked that up? How many stories will I see tomorrow? How many news alerts will pop up on my cell?“Gina.” His voice was hard. No-nonsense. “Look at me. Now.”My eyes disobeyed me. They raked up his body until they found a sea of bright blue.“We will figure this out. Do you understand me? It’s unexpected and sudden, but we will fix this.”Tears born of a real fea
