When we pulled up at her apartment, I told the driver to give me fifteen minutes so I could walk her up. I grabbed both our bags from the trunk and started to follow her, but after seeing her ass in those yoga pants, I asked her to give me a minute and jogged back to the driver.
“Do you have to pick up someone else?”
He shook his head. “You’re my last ride of the day.”
“Good.” I pulled my wallet from my pocket, peeled off a few bills, and held them out to him. “Is it a problem if I’m more than fifteen minutes?”
The driver looked down at the Benjamins and shook his head. “Not a problem at all.”
“Thanks.” I jogged back to Georgia.
“What was that all about?”
“Did I mention your ass looks spectacular in those pants? It almost makes me want to do that dumb yoga class with you again. Almost.”
She laughed. “What does my ass have to do with the driver?”
“I paid him to stay in case you let me in to tap it.”
Georgia’s nose wrinkled. “Tap it?”
“What? Not eloquent enough for you? How about in case you let me bang you?”
“Yuck.”
“Put the bread in the oven?”
She laughed.
I opened the door to her building. “Pork you?”
She shook her head.
“Slap skins? Shag? Boink? Bump uglies? How about raw-dogging it?”
“Keep going.” She pushed the elevator button, but smiled. “The only thing you’re going to be bumping is your palm.”
“Ah. You want something more mature sounding. Make whoopie? Copulate? Fornicate? Do the hanky-panky?”
We stepped off the elevator, and she laughed as she dug out her keys. “I think you may have wasted that money asking the driver to wait.”
I grabbed a handful of her ass as she unlocked the door. It opened, and we fell inside, both laughing. “How about fuck? That’s a classic. I’d like to fuck the shit out of you, Georgia.”
I dropped her bag on the floor and wrapped my hands around her waist, ready to peel those sexy-as-shit yoga pants off her body.
But Georgia froze. Her laughing abruptly stopped.
“Gabriel? What are you doing here?”
• • •
“I’m sorry.” The asswipe rubbed the back of his neck. “I texted you, but you didn’t answer.”
Georgia shook her head. “My phone was on airplane mode. I must’ve forgotten to turn it back on. But why are you here?”
“I came to talk to you. You weren’t home, and I still have my key. I didn’t have anywhere else to go.”
My eyes zeroed in on a suitcase. I folded my arms across my chest. “It’s New York City. There are hotels on every corner.”
He looked at Georgia. “I just want to talk to you. I’ll go to a hotel after if that’s what you want.”
If that’s what you want. This fucker walked out on her months ago and had the balls to let himself in? He apologized, yet his territorial stance told me he felt like he had every right to come back.
He was taller than I’d expected from the picture I’d seen, and in better shape. But I’d crush him without breaking a sweat, if it came to that. At the moment, I kind of hoped it did.
But instead, the guy took a step toward me and extended his hand. “I’m Gabriel Alessi. I’m sorry if I’ve interrupted your evening.”
I made no attempt to move.
Georgia sized up the situation and put her hand on my arm. “Max, do you think we can talk for a moment?”
I looked over at her, but said nothing. She nodded toward her bedroom. “In my room. Do you think we can talk in there?”
I glared at the guy for a good, long while before nodding. I was pissed. It felt like smoke should be coming from my nose. But when I followed Georgia in and she looked up at me with tears welling in her eyes, the ache in my chest made me bend. I couldn’t handle any woman crying, but especially not Georgia when she hadn’t done anything wrong.
“I don’t know what to do,” she said.
I blew out a rush of air and nodded. “What do you want to do?”
“Honestly, I want to curl up in my bed and just go to sleep.”
“Do you want to talk to him?”
She looked down for a long time. “I’d like to know why he’s here.”
To me, it was obvious. The fucker wanted to put her on ice for more than a year and have his fun. But the minute he found out she was putting herself out there and not sitting at home crying, he’d hopped on the first plane to New York. “Do you want me to leave?”
She was quiet again. “I don’t think I’m in the right frame of mind to be with either of you. You have been nothing but good to me since the moment we met, and I’m not going to disrespect you by having you walk out of my apartment while another man is sitting in my living room, a man you know I have a past with. I’d also rather not spend time with you while my head is spinning and I’m emotional over Gabriel coming back. So I think it’s best if I tell Gabriel I’ll meet him tomorrow somewhere, and he and I can talk.”