He winked. “Loud andclear.”
I rolled my eyes. “Get out ofhere.”
“It’s Monday. We have a standing date to do some dickstorming before the meeting. We could do it undercover in the men’s bathroom so Georgina doesn’tknow.”
“You realize how gay you sound right now?” I asked. “Dickstorming is done. For good. We don’t need it—we can dobetter.”
I expected Justin to sulk, but he just nodded. “Sounds good, boss. Do whatever it takes to get back on George’s goodside.”
“That’s not why I’m banning it, and I’m not on her bad side.” She was upset with me, but we’d gone head-to-head plenty of times over the past couple months. She’d get annoyed. I’d get frustrated. We’d duke it out. Except unlike before, now we had the bonus of making upafterward.
I’d get myself out ofthis.
I stood and gathered the mockup poster boards my team had dropped off Friday and rounded the desk. “Let’s go to themeeting.”
On our way into the hall, Justin slung an arm around my shoulders. “You really like her, don’t you? Never seen your confidence thisshaky.”
That was just what I needed to win Georgina back—shaky confidence. Women loved that.Fuck.
I squared my shoulders as we entered the conferenceroom.
Vance stood at the front. Georgina had pulled a chair off to the side behind him. Using her closed laptop as a surface, she scribbled in a notebook, then paused to fix the collar of her blouse, some silky cream thing with tiny sparkly buttons that looked like they’d pop right off in myhands.
She glanced up. I gave her my best remember-how-you-screamed-my-name stare, which she held for a few moments before returning her eyes to her lap. Was she shy or still genuinely pissed? Maybe I was wrong, and this situation didn’t call for confidence. After the way she’d asked me to drop the act last night, I’dstillresorted to peacocking to get her attention—andstill, Georgina was immune toit.
Vance fumbled with the projector as I approached. He nodded at the conference table. “Why don’t you have a seat,Quinn.”
It wasn’t a question. Was it my imagination, or were Georgina and Vance giving me the cold shoulder? I set the boards against a wall and sat far enough from Georgina so as not to seem threatening, but close enough that I could still count—orrecount—the sexy freckles on her knees. I hadn’t been bluffing the night before. Georgina’s freckleshadfrustrated me. They’d been one of the first things I’d noticed about the utterly adorable and off-limits woman I’d instantly disliked. They’d tempted me. Teased me. Called to me when I’d had to keep mydistance.
And her ex had hated them? I’d better not ever come face to face with the emotionally abusiveasshole.
Georgina crossed her legs and pulled her skirt down. That was as clear a message as any. Eyes tomyself.
I’d been shutout.
Even now, I was being heckled by freckles, made worse by the fact that I’d tastedthem.
I needed to cool down. I reached for the tray at the center of the conference table and poured myself a glass ofwater.
Vance called our attention to the head of the room. “Morning.”
Laptops opened all around me. I uncapped my pen and opened my notepad to a rough outline for today’s meeting. “Hope everyone had a nice, relaxing weekend,” Isaid.
“Not as nice as yours,” Albert said to me. “I hope you had a great fucking-weekend.”
He said it with a knowing smile, as if afucking-weekendwere an event I’d attended. Which meant he knew about my date. Justin had probably opened his fatmouth.
I’d gotten my wish. Georgina’s face got so red, her frecklesdisappeared.
“What do you mean by that?” I asked Al, injecting a healthy dose of irritation into my tone so he knew better than to answerhonestly.
“Nothing, boss,” he said. “Just beingpolite.”
“You have the manners of a caveman.” I tapped the capped end of my pen on the page in front of me. “First item of theday—”
“Hang on, Sebastian,” Vance said. “Georgina and I have something tosay.”
Well, fuck. They wouldn’t have a secret meeting, decide to fire me, and then announce it this way—would they? Just how badly had I pissed her off? I stuck the end of my pen in my mouth and sat back in myseat.
