by D. A. Young
He pulled her to him, and his mouth came crushing down on hers. The fighter in her wanted to take advantage of the vulnerability he’d exposed his body to by cupping her face, but the lover in her that had surrendered to him completely was all in. Tears spilling over, she grabbed the front of his shirt and gave as good as she got— tongues dueling, lip biting as desire flowed like hot lava through her body. God his lips and tongue…Georgina was drowning... no…SUFFOCATING…she was being smothered by him. She wrenched her mouth away with a gasp and backpedaled, putting distance between them.
“NO!” She hissed as she wiped the tears from her wet face. “You don’t get to...to…do this!”
“DO WHAT???” he asked coldly. “I don’t get to what, Georgina?! Tell me!”
“Be a goddamn knight in shining armor! I don’t need you to swoop in and save me from my shit, Max! I’m here because we had a deal and somewhere along the way-”
“You got a BETTER deal! It’s called a happy ending,” Max interrupted harshly, glowering furiously at her.
“You don’t see what you did and are still doing!” Georgina replied tightly. “I may be really new at this relationship thing, but I’m pretty sure that’s how it works. We do and discuss things TOGETHER. Not, one person goes off and does something impulsive without discussing it with the other. But you don’t even see it that way, do you??
“And you don’t see what you’re NOT doing!” Max roared and Georgina flinched. The front door opened behind her as he continued. “You’re not trying to live up to your full potential and have a life filled with happiness! You want to run, then run dammit! That’s what you do best!” Max snatched his Stetson off of his head and slapped it against his thigh in frustration as he took in her beautiful, furious face. He wanted to hit something; his anger and frustration was escalating with every moment that passed. If it had been such a terrible idea, surely someone involved from Eliza to Nate would have stopped him right??? They would have suggested that he let...Georgina have her moment of empowerment instead of… just taking it. SHIT. Maybe he did see after all.
Agitated, Max rubbed his beard furiously and looked up at the starlit sky. She was right. In a city, you couldn’t appreciate the real beauty of something so simple, because the view or chaos around you always clouded your judgment. What they had was beautifully simple. She loved him and he loved her. In his efforts to make sure she was happy, he’d made moves and created a chaotic shit storm that now clouded that simplicity.
He looked back down at Georgina and then moved past her to look at the compassionate faces of his good friends and nodded his head in acknowledgment. They smiled at him encouragingly. With a sigh, he moved toward her slowly and was filled with relief that she allowed him to pull her back into his arms. Max dropped his forehead down to hers and looked deeply into her eyes as she clenched the bottom of his shirt tightly in her fists. The feelings that he evoked in her right now just about killed him as he saw the hurt, anger, and betrayal in those wide eyes. The smell of her perfume and hay teased him and reminded him of a simpler time, only an hour ago when they were in sync. He couldn’t do this all on his own and never should have attempted to, but that’s the price that you paid for the one you loved.
“I’m sorry that I hurt you. I would move heaven and earth to be with you and would die before intentionally hurting you.” He dropped his arms and stepped back. “I love you to death, baby, but I’m not going to chase what shouldn’t be running so hard. Take care, Georgina.”
Then he turned and walked away.
***
Las Vegas, Nevada
One Month later…
“Good Morning, boss! I come bearing caffeinated gifts!” Renee said as she sailed into Georgina’s office and navigated her way between cardboard boxes. “Wow, I can’t believe you’ve got everything in here just about packed up!”
Georgina smiled enthusiastically at her assistant, “Hey, doll! Thank you very much! Did you bring more packing tape?”
“Yup, got it right here. I’ll start in the kitchen with the dishes. Damn, did you think your house would sell so fast?” Renee grinned. “I vote we throw a house party before you go.”
“No way! I didn’t think it would, but I’m sure as hell not complaining for the price they offered for it,” Georgina said as she placed files into a box and taped it up. After coming back from Baymoor, Georgina had put her house on the market. Her plan was to downsize to a two-bedroom condo in a less expensive part of town, and with the money saved, rent out an inexpensive storage space for her team. Her house hadn’t even been on the market for one day before her realtor called and informed her a bidding war had ensued. Apparently the school zone Georgina lived in was a highly coveted one, and the two parties battling it out were in it to win it as they sent Georgina letters, flowers, and cupcakes to butter her up. In the end, Georgina would be walking away with seventy-five thousand dollars more than what she asked for it. So far she’d yet to see a condo that she really liked, but Renee had offered her guest bedroom while Georgina looked.
“Oh, and Ian called me on the way here. He said he has three interviews lined up with Allure, In Style and Essence,” Renee said excitedly as she handed Georgina an iced latte.
“Awesome! This morning’s conference with Lavon and Vivienne went smoothly. I’m just so relieved and excited that everything is coming together,” Georgina said, pumping her fists and doing a little dance. “So for the fashion show, Lavon is going to do an ethereal look on the models. Lots of shimmery nudes, flower headdresses…and to keep in line with the Garden of Eden theme, we’re going to rent the jungle background from Alexis.”
“Oooh, I’m loving the concept! Here’s the proposal the dee-jay sent over for music,” Renee said. She walked over to Georgina, handed it to her, and gave her an impulsive hug. “I’m so proud of you! You’re working so hard to make your dreams come true, despite what happened between you and Max.”
Georgina smiled brightly and tried to ignore the ache in her chest Renee’s words caused.
After leaving Baymoor, all she’d wanted to do was come home and lay in bed until her heart didn’t feel like it wasn’t covered in shards of glass, causing it to hurt each time she took a breath. But she couldn’t after receiving the text on her phone from Max’s accountant that five-hundred thousand dollars had been deposited into her account. Then Jack called and kept her moving one step in front of the other with all of his ideas and requesting information on Feminine Intuition, demanding a detailed written report on what her vision was for her company. He was tireless and showed no mercy as he maneuvered a toddler and newborn baby. So no there was no time for heartache. He pushed and pushed at her until Georgina wanted to throw something at him. But it did keep her regrets at what she’d thrown away so quickly down to a minimum of a hundred times a day.
But she didn’t break, and on their Skype meeting last night as he held his adorable newborn, Jack smiled at her proudly, “Now tell the truth, aren’t you glad I didn’t leave you to wallow in your feelings?”
As she gaped at him, Jack winked and gently said, “You’re gonna kill the lingerie game. Get some sleep, Georgie.”
“I couldn’t have done it without you, Renee,” she admitted with feeling and returned the hug. The doorbell rang and Renee excused herself to answer it. Georgina took a deep breath and slowly released it, wishing she could confide just how much she missed Max— his kindness, warmth and fiery brand of lovemaking. He said she should be living to her full potential, which she already knew, but she’d taken his advice and run with it and even accepted a date with Marquisse’s cousin Carlos. The thought of going on a date depressed the hell out of Georgina, but she knew she’d have to try.
She was even more determined after doing her daily scouring of the internet for news on Max and hitting pay dirt. Two weeks ago, pictures surfaced of him hanging out with famous polo player, Tarik Owens and a pretty woman at a polo match. The woman leaned into Max as she stomped the divots. They were both la
ughing like they were having the time of their lives, and Georgina was beyond jealous. She wanted to shove the woman’s big-ass hat down her throat and stomp on Max’s “divots”.
So she went on a date with Carlos, who was handsome, smart, and a good dancer. It was the worst time of her life. He took her dancing, but their bodies just didn’t mesh well together, no matter how she tried to plaster herself to him. His soft kisses lacked fire and had her attacking him, practically shoving her tongue down his throat to get some sort of feeling. It was terribly hopeless because he wasn’t Max and at the end of the date, Carlos looked relieved to be rid of her as he burned rubber down her driveway.
“Chile, who you tellin’? I had to tell him that you were fresh out the “big house” and that’s why you were actin’ so crazy, with your horny ass,” Lavon teased to her embarrassment when she warned him the date didn’t go well.
“Look who I found!” Renee trilled, and Georgina looked up to see Graham and Eliza standing in the doorway. She squealed and ran to them, launching herself into Eliza’s arms, and Graham picked them both up. Behind her, she heard Renee murmur as she left the room, “I like a strong man.”
“Hey, Little Bit, we heard you were moving so we thought we’d come and help,” Graham said warmly as he bussed her cheek.
Georgina wiggled down from her brother’s grasp and clasped a hand over her mouth as she looked from one to the other. “I can’t believe you’re both here in Vegas! We haven’t been together in this city since…”
“Well now it’s time to make new memories,” Eliza said firmly, and Graham nodded his head in agreement. “I just wanted to say that I’m sorry about giving you shit when I called you last. You were probably trying to find the best way to tell me what you’ve been keeping to yourself all these years, and my anti-Ingrid stance didn’t help in the least bit.”
Georgina could only look at them, still unable to process they were all together again here. Graham was six feet six inches of lean muscle with a body covered in tattoos. He kept his head shaved bald and wore a goatee. His nose was strong, his cheekbones high, and his lips, full. All in all, he was the consummate bad boy mothers warned their daughters about, but it was his eyes, so like Georgie’s, that reeled women in. So soft looking, that every woman believed they could be the one to change him. According to him, he couldn’t be changed, but he would say with a slick smile, they were more than welcomed to try.
And dear Eliza, like Georgina, she didn’t wear any makeup, but where Georgina was pretty, Eliza was stunning. With her reddish-brown halo of shoulder-length curls, luminous hazel eyes, and full mouth, she looked like someone you’d find during the Renaissance or Woodstock eras. Tall and willowy built, she appeared to be fragile- looking, but her siblings knew she could take a man down faster than Lara Croft.
“Where is my darling niece?” Georgina asked, looking around as if Camille would magically appear out of nowhere.
“She’s with the parentals in Baymoor,” Eliza said. “Graham swooped me up, and we dropped her off before heading here. She’s safe and perfectly happy, so don’t worry about her. We have bigger things to discuss, young lady.”
“You should have told us, Georgie,” Graham stated with a frown as he stroked his goatee and death-glared his baby sister. “How come you didn’t trust us to help you? Ingrid’s a fucking nightmare on her best day. Do you know how stupid I felt to hear a stranger say that he wanted to help my baby sis with her problem?”
“Max had no right to come to you,” Georgina maintained stubbornly. “I trusted him with my problem, and he turned around and betrayed me.”
“Kind of like us trusting you, and this entire time you’ve been holding out on the entire family?” Eliza asked sarcastically. “So you’re really done with Max just like that? You’re ready to walk away from that kind, sexy man for good? Because, honey, if you don’t want the farmer, there are plenty of women who do…”
“Yes I know, Eliza, thank you,” Georgina snapped already knowing what her big sister said was true and exactly how many different types of fools she’d been. Sometimes she wished she could go back to that moment and backhand herself. Like really hard. “Come on you two! Stop standing around and help me to finish packing!”
“So what are your plans? Did you find a place already?” Graham asked “Or are you going to stay with Renee? I have to warn you, it’ll be pretty crowded with the three of us there,” he said with a lecherous wink. “She generously offered to put me up.”
Rolling her eyes at her outrageous assistant, Georgina looked around the room full of boxes. For the last twelve years, she’d called Las Vegas home, but that was a lie. Home was where your heart was, and hers was with her family, Raymond’s cooking, the Spring Chickens, her dance classes, George Jefferson, and…Maxwell Jason Hayes.
“I’m going home to Baymoor,” she said with finality, and for the first time in a month, she felt completely at peace and happy with her decision.
Chapter Thirty
“Alright, here’s your dinner! Max, Chef Raymond said to enjoy,” April said weakly as she placed a charred salmon burger in front of him. “He said that he’s celebrating his Cajun side tonight…and every night that you decide to eat here.”
She hastened away, and Wade chuckled as he looked at Max’s burnt meal. “Templeton still fucking with you?”
Max could feel the old bastard’s crazy eyes on him but wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of complaining as he picked up the disaster that was his dinner and took a big bite. It tasted like shit. “Yup, like clockwork. He’s got his thong wedged up his ass real tight, thinking I drove Baymoor’s princess away. But it’s not just him. The Spring Chickens aren’t speaking to me either. All the little girls that were in her dance class give me the stink-eye when I walk by, including your nieces.”
“The price you pay for breaking a princess’s heart,” Wade said good-naturedly as he dipped an air popped broccoli floret into the ramp-pesto vegetable dip. “Mmmm, that’s good stuff.”
“Yeah, well what about my heart?” Max asked sourly. “How come no one cares about my shit? Sherlock and Watson keep looking at the door and wagging their tails waiting for her to come through the it,” He shook his head, “Hell, my goat won’t even listen to me!”
“Damn! She got to George Jefferson too?” Wade asked incredulously. “Brother, there ain’t no coming back from that. So what are you going to do about-”
Wade cringed when he heard the voice that sounded like a rusty engine trying to turn over interrupt him. “Good evenin’, gentlemen. How’s your food tonight? I trust everything is to your liking?”
Max looked into the tricky good eye of Raymond and decided he’d had enough of his bullshit. “Everything tastes excellent. As a matter of fact, I was just about to post a pic of the delicious Cajun burger you made me and write a thoughtful review about its presentation, taste, and all the love you put into it for lil ole me.”
He was filled with satisfaction when he pulled out his phone, and the smirk disappeared from the older man’s face as he snatched Max’s plate and placed it behind his back. “Oh no, you don’t, Old MacDonald! You think you’re gonna run some sick mind game on me like you did cherie??? With that dirty, twisted mind…humph! Lookin’ at farm animals having “relations” all day has got you all kinds of messed up!”
Max shifted to the side just as Wade’s iced tea came spewing out of his mouth and across the table. The sheriff struggled between catching his breath and laughing at Raymond’s crazy observation. “Who the fuck says shit like that, old man?!”
Max ignored Wade because he could see that Raymond, like himself, was hurting at the thought of Georgie leaving again. “I’m sorry that you’re hurting, Raymond. Hell, that everyone is, but short of forcing her to stay, there was nothing I could do. She did what she felt she needed to do.”
Raymond exhaled a sigh of acquiescence and placed the plate back on the table, before pushing Wade’s shoulder. “Scoot your peanut-headed ass over.
” At Wade’s glare, he sneered at him. “What you think I’m ‘posed to be scared ‘cause you carry a gun? I done put a voodoo on your meal, and we are now forever intertwined. You shootin’ me is like shootin yo’self.”
Wade stood up quickly and pointed at him, “See, this is that bullshit I’m talking about! I’m outta here, Max. Templeton, if anything happens to me-”
“Then it gonna happen to me too! Adieux, Sheriff,” Raymond said smugly and cackled gleefully as he watched the big man depart. “What’d he mean “Templeton”? Like the rat in that piggy movie?”
“I have no idea what he’s going on about,” Max declared as innocently as he could while mentally cursing Sheriff Bigmouth. Didn’t Wade know the best nicknames were the ones people didn’t know they had?
Raymond gave him a suspicious look before sighing heavily, “I don’t have to tell you what that girl’s been through. But she looked at you the way I would look if chitlins came odorless.”
“Wait...what???” Max looked at him incredulously. “Did you just compare our LOVE to CHITLINS?!”