Bad Blood (Left at the Altar Book 5)

by M. Malone

  While his friend paid the bill, Jamie’s eyes kept going back to Georgie. She looked happy. Her dark hair was twisted up into some kind of complicated knot and she was wearing a pink sweater that made her eyes look even bluer. As they approached her table, the huge smile on her face disappeared.

  There was a flirtatious chorus of hellos as several of the other women at the table waved at them.

  Georgie rolled her eyes. “King. Jamie. What are you doing here?”

  “Dinner with clients. And actually I have to go. Olivia just called me. Which means I’m late for something. Good to see you, sis.” King gave Jamie a quick wave as he left, his phone already glued to his ear.

  “And he’s off. I haven’t seen him move that fast since college,” Jamie remarked.

  “Neither have I,” one of the women at the table replied making the rest of them laugh.

  “Or maybe he just loves his girlfriend. Something you wouldn’t understand.” Georgie’s eyes might as well have been daggers.

  “He does.” Jamie tried to hold her gaze but she turned to the woman next to her, dismissing him.

  What the hell?

  This time last week, she’d had her tongue in his mouth but now she couldn’t bother with a conversation? When they’d first met, Georgie had been super sweet to him. There hadn’t been any bad blood between them until that damned Sweet Sixteen party. King liked to joke that the two of them were like oil and water. They naturally didn’t mix. But that was because King didn’t remember that it hadn’t always been this way between them.

  He had proof that Georgie liked him just fine when the lights were out.

  Fuming, Jamie walked over to the bar. He slid a handful of bills across the polished wooden surface.

  “I want you to send a round of drinks to the table in the corner. Where the woman in the pink sweater is currently sitting. Then another round ten minutes after that.”

  The bartender nodded. “Got it.”

  Jamie pulled out his phone as he walked to the back of the restaurant where the bathrooms were located.

  As soon as Georgie answered, he said “Tell the girls you have to go to the bathroom. Otherwise I’m coming back and we’ll talk in front of them. Your choice.”

  It took a few minutes but Georgie finally appeared in the hallway behind him. “Why are you still here? I thought you left after King did. And why did our table just get a massive drink order out of nowhere?”

  He grabbed her hand and pulled her into the ladies room, flicking the lock after they were inside. Georgie watched him warily. Even when she was snarking at him, it was still better than being ignored.

  “I’m here because you’ve been treating me like I have a communicable disease ever since last week. What’s up with that?”

  She wouldn’t meet his eyes. “I thought that was what you wanted. You said we had to go back to normal.”

  “Normal isn’t pretending we don’t know each other, Georgie.” With every word he got closer. Her eyelids fluttered slightly as he moved into her personal space.

  Just like that, he calmed. Jamie shook his head. Apparently all he’d needed to cure his foul mood this week was this. To see Georgie. To have her sweet scent wrap around him.

  Georgie didn’t seem like she was getting quite the same satisfaction. Her eyes flashed up at him as she snapped, “Well, it seemed like that was the way you wanted it. You didn’t even have time to call me afterward to make sure I got home.”

  He’d never heard her voice sound so small. Jamie could have kicked himself. He’d been so determined to play things cool and keep it casual, that he’d hurt her unintentionally.

  “If you think I just went back to work like nothing happened, that’s not true. I’ve been sporting this all week.” He pressed closer so she could feel the hard length at the front of his pants.

  Georgie bit her lip. “That feels uncomfortable.”

  “Tell me about it. Not the most convenient thing when in a meeting with ten other dudes either.”

  She laughed softly. “I bet. Sucks to be you, huh?”

  “Right now, no one is sucking on anything. Which is a shame.”

  Georgie pinched him again. “Is there a point to this?”

  “I have to go to Europe for company business soon but there’s no reason we can’t have a little fun until then.”

  The more Jamie thought about it, the more sense it made. Since he had to leave soon, it was like a natural break point. There was no risk of hurt feelings when things were so clearly defined ahead of time.

  “A little fun?” Georgie tilted her head. “More fun like that thing you did in the hotel room?”

  “Thing? What do you mean?” He almost laughed out loud at the frustrated expression on her face. God, he loved messing with her. She was so much fun to tease.

  She pinched his waist. “You know what I mean. That thing with your tongue that made me scream my head off.”

  “Oh, that thing. That could definitely be arranged. There’s just one condition.”

  She sighed. “There’s always a catch.”

  “It’s not a big thing. Just that we have to also do this part.”

  When she wrinkled her nose in confusion, Jamie could feel the heat climbing from the neck of his shirt. Apparently he was going to have to spell it out.

  “The part where you talk to me. Where we kiss. And you don’t ignore me when I talk to you.”

  Her eyes softened. “You’re a nice guy, Jamie Hamilton. Who would’ve guessed? But you’re in luck because I like this part, too. Especially the part where I get to smell you.” She buried her face in his neck and inhaled.

  “You’re so weird.”

  “I am. But you like it.”

  And that was the problem. He did.

  This was the worst possible time for him to be carrying on a secret affair with the boss’s daughter. Not only because it would look bad if it got out but also because it could ruin his career. He’d worked hard to earn an executive position next to King. It wasn’t easy to do for someone outside of the family. He finally had everything he’d ever wanted, money, power and respect from people he admired.

  His unrelenting obsession with Georgie could torpedo all of that in a heartbeat.

  Too bad none of those very logical reasons were going to be enough to keep him away from her.

  A loud knock at the door startled them both.

  “Oh my god,” Georgie whispered. “Someone’s outside the door. Um, just a minute!”

  Jamie covered his mouth to keep from laughing and giving it away.

  “This is not funny, Jamie. People know me here. I can’t be seen sneaking out of the bathroom with a guy! Go hide in the stall. I’ll leave first and hopefully whoever it is won’t know you were in here with me.”

  “Little problem. No, big problem. I still have this.” He looked down at the huge erection that was incredibly obvious due to the cut of his trousers.

  Georgie looked mortified. Then she bit her lip again. “So what do you propose we do about that?”

  “How about this?” He tipped up her chin and kissed her softly on the lips. He could tell it wasn’t what she’d been expecting by the soft little “oh” she muttered right before she practically melted into his arms.

  “Meet me at my place in an hour.” He held his breath until she nodded.

  “But I can’t stay over,” Georgie insisted. “If we’re going to keep this secret, then I definitely can’t be seen walking out of your building in the early morning.”

  He nodded before going to hide in a stall. A few seconds later, he heard a random voice and then it was quiet. He waited another five minutes before he left.

  If anyone had told him he’d be willing to hide out in a women’s bathroom, he wouldn’t have believed it. But there was something about Georgie that pushed him over the edge. He felt like an addict craving a fix. He wasn’t sure what she’d done to him in that hotel room but he wasn’t going to be happy until he got another taste.

&nbs
p; She was proving to be more of a distraction than he ever could have predicted. He was playing with fire and caring less and less every day about getting burned.

  Chapter 10

  Sneaking around had never been her favorite thing. Even as a child Georgie had always resisted the urge to peek at her Christmas presents out of fear of being caught.

  Jamie didn’t seem to mind the clandestine nature of their relationship at all. In fact, he’d proven to be a most inventive secret lover. He made her come at a movie theater with one hand up her skirt. He’d made love to her in the front seat of his Range Rover. She still wasn’t sure how that had worked.

  But as much fun as she was having with him, it all came with an unexpected consequence. Georgie shifted uneasily as she climbed carefully into the front seat of her car.

  She’d been sore for the past two days from all the sex.

  Hopefully they sold some kind of cream at the drugstore to help with intimate problems. It wasn’t the kind of thing she could ask anyone about so if the aisles at the store weren’t clearly labeled, she was screwed.

  What do you think it’ll say, Georgie? Cream for an overused va-jay-jay, Aisle 13?

  She’d only been driving for about ten minutes when smoke started coming from beneath the hood of her car. Terrified, Georgie pulled on to the shoulder and called Jamie.

  “Hey, Princess. You’re calling early tonight.”

  “Jamie, I think my car is on fire.”

  “Wait, what?”

  “Okay not on fire but there’s definitely smoke.”

  She could hear him moving around. “Are you somewhere safe?”

  “Not really. I’m on 495.” She peered at the exit a few yards down and told him what it said.

  “Okay, is the car still smoking?”

  “No, actually. It looks like it stopped.”

  “In that case, stay in the car. You’re safer inside than standing on the side of the road where you could get hit. I’ll be right there.”

  Ten minutes later, Jamie pulled up behind her. Georgie immediately felt like everything was going to be all right. The situation completely proved Jamie’s point about her being a sheltered princess but she wasn’t ready to examine that too closely. All she knew was that when something scary had happened, she’d immediately called Jamie.

  Not her father.

  Not King.

  Jamie.

  As she watched him approach the car on the passenger side, she decided she wasn’t ready to examine that little revelation just yet either.

  She rolled down the window. “Hey sugar, you looking for a date?”

  He squinted at her.

  Georgie rolled her eyes. “Seriously? It’s from Pretty Woman.”

  His lips twitched. “Pop the hood for me. Do you know how to do that?”

  “Of course I do. I’m not completely helpless.”

  After he moved on, she frantically tried to remember the things her brother had insisted on showing her when she started driving. One day she was going to have to thank him for trying to make her as independent as possible. It often came off as condescending but he really was doing it out of love. And he’d been right, as usual. She did need to know this stuff.

  Not that she’d ever tell him that part.

  It took long enough for Jamie to start making faces at her through the windshield but she finally pulled the right lever that opened the hood. After checking that no traffic was coming, Georgie joined him at the front of the car. Her parents had gifted her the car for graduation so it was only a year old.

  “Do you know what you’re doing under here? Or are you just trying to look like a hot mechanic?”

  Jamie glanced over at her. “I am a hot mechanic. Or I was. My grandparents owned a garage in Jersey. My dad’s a mechanic. I used to work there until I graduated high school.”

  Georgie looked at him with a whole new level of interest. “Wow. So you’re more than just a pretty face.”

  He laughed but also looked a little embarrassed. From the little he’d mentioned about his parents, and what she’d overheard that night in the hotel, she knew his family was a sore subject. She hoped he didn’t think she was poking fun at him. People often assumed she was a snob because of her family’s wealth but Georgie knew that having money didn’t make her better than anyone else. As King often said, it was just an accident of fate.

  “I think that’s really cool. No wonder you’re so successful. You’ve been working and fixing problems your whole life. Unlike me who didn’t even know how to open the hood thing.”

  He glanced over at her. “I knew you didn’t know how to open it.”

  “Whatever. So is my car dead? Should I plan the funeral?”

  He looked back to the maze of metal under the hood. Georgie wasn’t sure how he could tell what was what.

  “Not quite. It doesn’t look like you popped a fan belt or anything else that would explain the smoke. But it could be anything. Maybe an electrical issue. These fancy foreign models definitely aren’t my specialty.”

  “Thank you for coming to get me.”

  He kissed her forehead. “Of course. Wait in my car while I call the tow service.”

  Georgie retrieved a few things from her car before climbing into the passenger side of his SUV. It was another half an hour before the tow truck arrived. By that point, she wished she’d just taken a bath instead.

  “What’s wrong? I’m sure your car will be fine.” Jamie said before pulling out into traffic.

  “Nothing. I was going to the pharmacy and since I never made it there I still don’t have what I need.”

  “What do you need? We can pick it up.”

  “Um… it’s girl stuff.”

  “Georgie, we’re adults. If you need tampons, let’s go get tampons.”

  “Not exactly.”

  “Spit it out, woman!”

  “We’ve had so much sex that everything hurts. I’m not used to doing it every day. Okay. Are you happy?”

  Jamie’s chuckles only made her feel more self-conscious. “Stop laughing. I’m in pain over here.”

  He grabbed her hand. “I’m not laughing at you, I swear. You’re just so shy about certain things but then you’ll grab my dick like it’s nothing. I find it fascinating.”

  That made her smile. “It doesn’t have to make sense.”

  “Okay, I don’t think we need to go to the pharmacy. I have exactly what you need.”

  Georgie let her head fall back against the headrest. “It better not be your boner.”

  “I have to admit that I’m pleasantly surprised, Mr. Hamilton. I didn’t actually think you had the cure but I feel better already.”

  Jamie took another bite of ice cream and put his feet up next to hers on the coffee table. They were snuggled under a cozy throw blanket watching Netflix.

  “But is it better than sex? That’s the real question.”

  Georgie pointed the spoon at him. “Don’t ask questions if you aren’t ready to hear the answer. Considering that it feels like you broke my vagina, I don’t think you want to hear my answer right now.”

  He winced. “Fair enough.”

  A phone rang and they both looked around.

  “That’s mine.” Jamie placed his bowl on the coffee table and paused the show they were watching. Georgie watched as he picked up his phone, made a face and then put it in his pocket. He stood there, staring off into the distance.

  “Is everything okay?”

  No answer. Georgie had seen him look like this a few times before. Whenever she asked who it was he’d always said it was his mother and then changed the subject. He’d never answered the calls or responded to a message that she’d seen.

  She put her ice cream down and got to her feet. When Jamie still didn’t move, she walked up and wrapped her arms around his waist.

  He jolted but then his hand reached down to cover hers. “How did you know I needed that?”

  “You always look so sad after she calls.” Georgie knew
it wasn’t her place to ask about his personal business but when she’d seen how lost and alone he looked, all she’d wanted was to comfort him. Jamie seemed to live his whole life avoiding intimate connections or anything more committed than a passport.

  But spending these past few weeks together, even if it was in secret, she’d gotten to see a different side of him. He wasn’t cold and remote at all. In fact, there was a deeply passionate man beneath the corporate exterior. She just wasn’t sure whether he’d meant to show her that side or not.

  “I’m not trying to pry but if you ever want to talk about it, I want to listen.”

  “Why?” Jamie’s voice was rough with emotion. “I don’t even like thinking about them. Why would you want to?”

  “Because I know that if they created you, they can’t be all bad.”

  When he didn’t say anything, she assumed he wasn’t going to answer. But then he sighed.

  “My parents only call when they want something. Usually it’s money. Not always though. This time my dad wants me to co-sign a loan for him to start building racecars.”

  Georgie paused. He’d told her his father was a mechanic so she wasn’t sure if the idea was something he was thinking about or if he was just tired of them asking for money.

  “Does your dad know anything about building racecars?”

  “No. He never does. Every year he finds some new scheme and becomes convinced his ship has come in. But my mom usually ends up asking me for the money and it’s really hard to say no. I hate disappointing her. She always supports his crazy ideas.”

  “That’s a good thing, I guess?” Georgie thought it sounded nice to still believe in the man you’d married, even years later.

  “It would be if my father cared about anyone but himself. I made the mistake of thinking he cared when he tried to warn me away from marrying my college girlfriend, Sheila.” He looked uncomfortable.

  “King told me you were married before. He didn’t like her much.”

  Jamie shook his head. “No one did. My father begged me not to marry her. We weren’t married a week before she was trying to add herself to my bank accounts.”