by Tessa Radley
“Here, let me put it on.” Cradling her hand between both of his, he stroked the length of her fingers. Her skin started to tingle. Then he slipped the ring onto her finger.
A perfect fit.
Adam had never even gotten his as-good-an-investment-as-any-diamond-can-be ring onto her finger. The memory of another engagement ring—Ridley’s—crowded in. Shuddering, she blacked out those disastrous associations.
Thank God, this time it was only a pretense.
Because she truly wasn’t any good at this engagement stuff...
Jay’s ring winked up at her. She thought of her mother’s art deco earrings, which were all she had of the woman who had walked away from her three young daughters. She stared at the exquisite ring for a long moment, wishing, wishing... For what? She gave up trying to figure out what she yearned for, and lifted her gaze from the most beautiful ring she’d ever seen to the man beside her.
“Jay, it feels like it’s never going to come off.”
He was smiling at her, his hazel eyes warm and amused.
Georgia took in his features. The firm chin and angled jaw, dark with rough stubble. The good-natured curve of his mouth. Her gaze lingered. Why had she never noticed until recently the deep slashes beside his mouth that gave his face such rugged masculine appeal? Or the spark of bright green in his eyes? Like moss in the depths of a dark pine forest.
She worked with the man every day and all she’d ever allowed herself to focus on was their rivalry. For good reason. Every secret, silent SWOT analysis she’d ever done had convinced her that Jay was her biggest threat.
Yet, when offered the chance to usurp her place in her father’s life, he’d turned it down.
He did her head in.
“Good,” he said easily. “I’m glad it fits. Now you don’t need to worry about losing it.”
Unexpectedly, he lifted her hand and brushed his lips across the backs of her fingers.
Her heart bumped in her chest as the moment stretched between them, oddly intimate...and so very sweet.
It was friendship, Georgia told herself firmly. That’s what the warm glimmer in his eyes signified. No point making more out of it.
So, instead of leaning across the space between the seats and seeking the shelter of his arms as she had last night, she simply smiled at him. “Thank you, Jay.”
She was thanking him for the surprising comfort she’d discovered in their friendship—and the opportunity he’d offered for her to be part of a loving family for a brief time, giving her time to heal, to become whole again. It was friendship. She needed to keep reminding herself of that. Because there were other unfamiliar yearnings beneath the warmth of gratitude, yearnings that felt nothing like friendship.
As she studied him, his expression grew serious. “There’s something we need to talk about.”
The sudden intensity in his eyes caused her to still. “What is it?”
* * *
Georgia might not be aware of it, but she wanted him to kiss her.
The dewiness in her eyes, the lush, ripe fullness of her pink mouth told Jay all he needed to know.
Even as hope fired up within him, he suppressed it. He understood her hunger. That desperate desire to seal lip against lip. But he could no longer be satisfied by kisses. He wanted more. Much more. Just for starters, he wanted to slip his hands under the soft sweater she wore, strip it away and touch her skin. He wanted to shuck off his clothes. He wanted her naked against him.
But he had no right to any of those things.
The moment he’d put the ring he’d inherited from his grandmother on her finger, he knew that he couldn’t leave any unspoken deceit between them. He had to face his fear...and tell her the truth.
Even though it meant he risked losing her.
Forever.
So don’t screw it up this time, Black.
Jay hauled in a deep breath to steel himself against the terror.
Cupping his hand under her jaw, he tipped her face up to his. Looking into dark-lashed eyes, he said in a rush, “What if I told you that we’d met before?”
As always, the beauty of her eyes, clearer than Colorado summer skies, enthralled him. Right now, they glistened softly.
“This is going to sound...weird. Sometimes I feel I’ve known you all my life, Jay.” Her throat bobbed. “You understand me—almost better than I understand myself.”
“That’s not exactly what I mean.”
She blinked rapidly. “Then I don’t understand.”
Jay decided to sidestep the thorny issue of that powerful sense of connection he, too, knew so well. It had hit him the very first time he’d seen her in the hotel bar. Bam! Between the eyes. He hadn’t understood it, either. So, for now, he was sticking to what could actually be explained.
“I’m talking about two years ago,” he said softly, his heart pounding against his ribs.
“Two years ago?” she repeated slowly, her eyes never leaving his.
Jay nodded, watching her, his chest tight. Georgia—of all people—wouldn’t have missed the significance of the timing. “Before I came to Kingdom.”
“No!” She pulled back and laced her fingers together. His hand fell away. “I don’t believe you. I would’ve remembered meeting you.”
The interior of the SUV closed in on him.
To escape the sudden claustrophobia, Jay thrust the car door open.
“Let’s walk,” he commanded gruffly. Without waiting for an answer, he climbed out, dragging his jacket with him.
He led her down a short track between the quivering aspens to the edge of the bubbling creek. The wind blew off the distant peaks with a snow-chilled edge so typical of the Rockies, and Jay slung his jacket around her shoulders to block out the worst of it. The jacket was long enough for Georgia to sit down without getting her jeans damp. She did so, and then he settled himself on a tussock beside her.
A splash in the water caused her to jump.
“Trout. Brown trout,” he told her.
Her profile was etched against the silver tree trunks that surrounded them.
“Where?”
Jay didn’t pretend to misunderstand. She wasn’t asking about the trout, and he knew he’d run out of time...and distractions.
“Las Vegas. I was attending a conference—you were there, too. With your fiancé.” Good-riddance Ridley.
Georgia went very, very still.
The creek babbled busily in front of them as he waited for her response.
An aspen leaf drifted past on the surface. The current swept it between two rocks and it spun into the eddies below and down toward the deep rocky overhang where he knew lazy fish loved to lurk. All the courage he’d summoned threatened to drown along with the golden leaf.
She pushed her hair—paler than the silver bark of the aspen trees—off her face, and finally she looked across at him.
“When, exactly, did we meet?”
“On the Friday night.” He waited.
There was an explosive silence as she absorbed that.
“I don’t remember.”
Jay had to ask. “How much do you remember about that night?”
“I don’t want to talk about Ridley.” Her tone was flat. There was no emotion in the words. He’d heard far more enthusiasm in her voice about the rising costs of Italian leather for next season’s totes.
Tipping his head back, Jay stared at the blue sky visible between the gold leaves above. Hell, she never ever talked about the damned man. Why had he thought she would now?
Her eyes were bright with accusation when he glanced back at her. “You should’ve told me we’d met.”
“I...tried.”
He told himself he had. When she’d returned to work on crutches, her broken ankle encased in a moon boot, she hadn’t shown any hint of recognition. That
had been when he’d learned what hell was. It had been blisteringly clear that Georgia didn’t remember him. The concussion she’d suffered in the car crash had wiped out several days afterward...and parts of the time just before. Jay hadn’t realized how much he’d been banking on her favorable reaction to finding him in the office next door. She’d refused to discuss the car accident, her injuries, any loss of memory and her ex-fiancé. And Jay hadn’t wanted to rub her nose in whatever she remembered of her humiliation.
“Not hard enough!”
At her stony expression, the ache in his chest swelled.
He hesitated, loath to confess that he’d been afraid. Afraid of exposing himself to her ridicule as their relationship settled into habitual snark and rivalry. He was still afraid. But now, at least the past was out in the open—she knew they’d met before.
“I thought it would be better if you remembered by yourself.”
“What do you know that I don’t?” She shook her head and her hair swirled around her shoulders. “Dammit, Jay. You kept this from me, every day. For two years.”
Anger and distrust cooled her eyes; he’d expected that. Hell, he deserved every bit of it.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
“You’re sorry?” She glared at him. “You think that’s enough?”
“I know it can never be enough, but I’m very sorry—I shouldn’t have kept it from you.”
What he badly wanted was her forgiveness. Day after day, he’d held stubbornly on to the hope that she would remember. One day. How could she not? The bond that had linked them from the moment they’d met had blown him away. She had to remember it.
So each morning, he’d resolved that he would tell her the truth, while secretly hoping she would remember him. Each morning, he’d brought her a cup of coffee.
Each day, she’d greeted him with a wide smile, a clever quip and suspicious eyes filled with fear that he was trying to edge her out of Kingdom.
And each day, it had nearly killed him. And he’d put it off for another day.
Two years of his life—and hers—had ticked by. He’d hidden his desires by playing the fool. He’d made her laugh. He’d driven her crazy. But he’d also worked to help her chase the dream she wanted—a dream of a future that every day took her further away from him.
But Jay wanted more than a dream woman. He wanted Georgia. He loved her mind. He loved her spirit. And he wanted his ring to stay on her finger.
More than anything, he wanted her love.
A wave of self-disgust at his own impatience swept him. He was pressing her too hard. He’d harbored a selfish hope that telling her that they’d met before might jog her memory. It hadn’t happened. And it was probably for the best. While she might get to remember him—the first time he’d held her, comforted her—on the flip side, she’d also get to remember everything else about good-riddance Ridley that she’d so carefully blocked out.
He sucked in a deep breath. “Do you want to call this off? Do you want to go back?”
“Back?” Her eyes were dazed.
“Back to New York.”
* * *
Georgia stared at Jay. His normally smiling lips were pressed into a grim line and there was no laughter visible in his eyes.
“No, I want to stay!” Despite the shock he’d delivered, she wasn’t ready to face her father. At least not until she’d decided how she was going to appease him without giving in to his wretched demand.
Jay gave her a long considering look and got to his feet. He stretched out a hand to help her up, but she ignored it, brushed past him and marched back up the trail. All too soon, they were back in the SUV. He restarted the vehicle and spun it around to head back the way they’d come—back to Aspen.
Thoughts tumbled through her head as she tried to make sense of what Jay had told her, what it meant for her. For them. For their working relationship.
Jay had lied to her.
Turning her head away, she looked out the window. Around them, imposing mountains dominated the vast landscape. But this time, instead of driving through the town, Jay headed into the surrounding hills. She caught a couple of the road names as they climbed higher and higher through the switchbacks and the homes became increasingly more exclusive.
Hunter Creek Road.
Red Mountain Road.
When a pair of stone gateposts set with heavy black wrought-iron gates came into sight, Jay slowed. He pressed a code into a keypad beside the gate, and the heavy gates swung swiftly and silently open.
As the SUV purred along a driveway lined with aspens that shimmered in the sunlight, she realized her assumptions about Jay’s family might have been a little off. The driveway ended in a spectacular sweep in front of a house.
No, not a house. Forget that. A luxurious Colorado lodge rose out of Red Mountain to a haphazard height of at least four stories. Not even the warm rays of the morning sun could soften the craggy lines of the stone structure that had been built to withstand storms and snowfall in the harshest of winters.
Georgia stared. “This is where your family live?”
So much for a white picket fence...
And what about the party tomorrow?
Any chance that it would be a low-key family affair went out the window. She thought frantically about the casual selection of garments she’d tossed into her Kingdom carry-on for a small-town family visit. She’d deliberately dialed it back, not wanting to arrive with a mountain of luggage looking like some super-spoiled big-city fashionista.
Aside from the French blue jeans and turtleneck sweater that she was wearing with a pair of flats, and her Kingdom coat with its distinctive crown-pattern lining on the back seat, there wasn’t much in her carry-on.
Mentally, she listed the contents. Fawn riding-style pants that never creased. A white shirt—not silk, because she’d foolishly decided silk would be too over-the-top. A plain wool cardigan—not cashmere. A white long-sleeved T-shirt. Apart from her Kingdom coat, her favorite pair of well-worn Chelsea JJB boots was the only recognizable brand she’d packed. One pair of modest heels—nothing like the sublime skyscraper works of art she wore most days to work. One dress. God. The dress! It was an ode to understated mediocrity.
Her confusion and shock crystallized into anger.
She could kill Jay for not warning her!
Before she could give voice to it—or the million questions bubbling in her head—a small crowd spilled out of the lodge’s enormous wooden front door and tumbled down the stone stairway.
Later, she promised herself. She would kill Jay later. He’d die a slow death. A very slow death...
She was out of the vehicle before he could come around and open the door. More shaken than she would ever have admitted by the discovery that Jay didn’t come from some average small-town home, Georgia hovered beside the SUV as a woman wearing Western-style jeans, a pale pink cashmere sweater and a pair of black suede Jimmy Choo boots rushed down the stairs to fling her arms around Jay and kiss him soundly.
A moment later, the woman turned to Georgia and examined her. She had Jay’s hazel eyes. It was his mother. There was no doubt about those eyes.
Georgia smiled hesitantly at Jay’s family.
The people who loved him. The people to whom she and Jay were about to pretend they loved each other and intended to marry...and live happily ever after.
For the first time, the stark reality of the deception they were about to enact struck Georgia. If there was one thing she was worse at than engagements, it was telling lies.
Unlike Jay...
How would she convince anyone that she was a besotted bride-to-be? Aside from that fiasco with Ridley, she’d never had much practice.
Her palms grew clammy.
There were two more women and a man behind Jay’s mother. The younger woman was more casually dressed than Jay’s mother i
n a pair of JJB boots—newer than those Georgia had packed—along with black jeans and an oversized white linen shirt. Once again, Georgia thought of the sorry contents of her overnight bag.
Jay moved closer. When he took her clammy hand in his, it eased her fluttering nerves. The sense of relief she felt further confounded her.
He gave her hand a gentle squeeze. “Mom, Dad, Jennifer, Betty...meet Georgia Kinnear. My fiancée.”
Everyone appeared to freeze.
* * *
“Did you say fiancée?”
As Jay might have expected, his mother was the first to speak, even as his father’s face grew tight-lipped with disapproval.
“Kinnear? Isn’t that the name of that man you work for?” His father’s dark brown eyes bored into him.
Here we go, Jay thought. His father knew the industry inside out. J.J. knew exactly whom Jay worked for. This was simply the next salvo in a long running battle. Their relationship had gotten no easier with absence.
Georgia was smiling at his father, a careful, charming little smile. Jay noticed she hadn’t offered her hand. Clearly, she feared his curmudgeonly parent might choose to ignore it. He rather suspected she’d read the situation correctly. Sometimes, she could be the most astute woman he’d ever known—yet, at other times, she remained as blind as a newborn mouse.
“I’m Kingston Kinnear’s eldest daughter, Georgia.” She was still smiling. “Nice to meet you.”
Her hand had gone cold in his. Jay gave it another gentle squeeze.
“Georgia, this is my family. My parents, J.J. and Nancy, my sister, Jennifer...and Betty, who has looked after our family for decades. You’ll meet more of the extended family and plenty of friends at the anniversary celebration tomorrow.” Turning his attention to his family, he said, “I’m fortunate that Georgia has agreed to marry me.” Jay raised the hand he held and kissed it.
He heard her breath catch. He froze, too. The slanting sun caught the ring on her finger, causing it to glitter with fierce blue fire. He felt Georgia jerk, and looked up.
Their eyes caught...tangled...held.