sorry,” he said more softly. “Just please tell me I didn’t hear you right.”
She didn’t need to answer him. He could tell by the distant look in her eye and her awkward, hunched posture with her arms crossed protectively over her chest that he’d heard her correctly. He’d always known Sutton was a bastard, but this time he’d gone too far.
“Don’t make me say it again, Carson,” she said softly.
He fought the protective urge to wrap his arms around her and tell her it would be okay. After the day she’d had, she probably didn’t want a man touching her. Even him. Considering how quickly she’d backpedaled from their kiss the other day, she probably didn’t want Carson touching her, ever.
Looking around his office, he decided maybe they needed a change of scene for this conversation. “Buy you a drink?” he asked.
Georgia looked down at her watch and sighed. “I’m not going to get any work done, so why not?”
It wasn’t an enthusiastic response, but he didn’t expect one given that she’d just come here straight from Sutton’s office. He grabbed his phone and escorted her to the elevator. They exited the building and crossed the street, heading down the block to an Irish pub where Carson and his brothers had spent a good bit of their time and money over the years.
Since the official business day hadn’t yet come to an end, the bar wasn’t crowded with the usual suits. They took a booth in a darkened corner. Carson ordered himself a Guinness and Georgia opted for a pint of hard cider. They sat quietly for a few moments with their drinks. He didn’t want to push her, but he needed the whole story. Brooks and Graham would be very interested in just how low Winchester had stooped today.
Georgia took a long sip of her drink and sighed heavily. “Well, the punch line is that he isn’t going to back down on the land. He doesn’t care if we’re building a children’s hospital or homes for one-legged orphan refugees. Well, actually that’s not entirely true,” she noted. “He said he might reconsider his position if I was willing to seriously consider his generous offer.”
Carson’s grip on his glass was so tight he worried he might crush the drink in his hand. “What was the offer?”
“First, he offered me a job as his director of public relations with a million-dollar signing bonus.”
That didn’t surprise him. Sutton was constantly cherry-picking employees from his competitors. They’d lost several high performers due to his below-the-belt tactics. But who offered a seven-figure bonus? “I never knew he was such a generous man,” he said with a flat tone.
“I wouldn’t call him that,” she chuckled. “It came with some very important fine print. I was also to become his mistress. Then, and only then, would he consider backing down on the land project.”
“Did he touch you inappropriately?” Carson hated to ask, but if Sutton crossed a line, Georgia could bring charges. She wasn’t his employee yet, but at the very least they could file a civil suit and drag his name through the mud.
“Not really.” Georgia rubbed her palms together thoughtfully. “He held my hand longer than I wanted him to, but it could’ve been a lot worse.”
“Thank goodness,” Carson said in a rush of breath he’d been holding. Just the thought of that old pervert laying a hand on Georgia made him want to punch his fist through the drywall. He felt bad enough about letting her go over there against his better judgment. If Sutton had gotten physically aggressive, Carson never would’ve forgiven himself. “I’m so sorry about all this. He’s an even bigger pig than I expected. Where was Ron during all of this? I told you he had to escort you over there.”
“He did. I just left him sitting in the waiting room as I told you I would.”
“You didn’t call for him when Sutton got inappropriate?”
“No. Like I said, he didn’t really touch me. He just made me an offer I didn’t accept,” Georgia said with a guilty look. She held up her hand to silence him. “I know, I know. But I had it under control. My finger was on the trigger of my pepper spray the whole time. Sutton is bold, and certainly arrogant, but he’s also smart. He’s not going to have a woman run screaming from his office. It would hurt business.”
That was probably true. The only thing Sutton Winchester liked more than women was money. He wasn’t about to ruin his business and jeopardize his cash flow. It didn’t make Carson feel any better. Georgia was confident in her ability to protect herself, but he had his doubts.
She was a petite woman. Curvy, but small. With her platinum waves and knockout body, she drew men’s eyes wherever she went. She had certainly drawn his gaze the first moment they met. A part of him hadn’t wanted to hire her just so he could ask her out to dinner instead. In the end, his brain had overridden his erection. She was smart, experienced and the perfect candidate for the position.
“Georgia,” he began, “I need to apologize to you.”
“You just apologized. Really, Carson, it’s not your fault. You warned me about what he was like. I just never dreamed he’d be that bold.”
Carson shook his head. “I’m certainly sorry about what happened today, but that’s not what I was apologizing for. I actually was talking about that kiss by the lake.”
Georgia’s soft, friendly expression hardened. He could tell she was uncomfortable with his bringing it up. “Carson, I—”
“No, let me say this,” he interrupted. “In the moment, it felt like the right thing to do. But after what happened today, I realize just how inappropriate it was. If I don’t recognize that, I’m just as bad as he is.”
Georgia reached across the table and took Carson’s hand. “You will never, ever be anything like that man. Don’t even think that for a second.”
Carson looked into her gray eyes, noting the touch of olive green that radiated from the center. It was an unusual color, one he’d never seen before. Her gaze seemed to penetrate him, as if she were seeing inside him in a way that made him uncomfortable. He looked down at their hands, which were still clasped atop the polished wood table.
It was only then that he allowed himself to notice how soft her skin felt against his. As he grasped her fingers, the blood started to hum in his veins. He remembered the sensation from the field, knew how long it would take him to recover from the reaction she stirred in him.
He didn’t understand it. Georgia was beautiful, but Carson had touched his fair share of beautiful women. She was smart and funny, and he’d been around women like that, too. But never, not once since he broke the seal on his manhood in high school, had a woman affected him the way Georgia did. Lately all it took was the lingering scent of her perfume in the hallways at work, and he was consumed with thoughts of her.
Carson hated Sutton for putting the moves on Georgia, but he understood fully why he had done it. She had the power to enchant a man without even trying. A million dollars was chump change to Sutton, especially when it was a corporate write-off, but it was still a significant offer. If it came to it, what would Carson be willing to pay to keep her with him?
All that and more.
Looking up, he realized Georgia’s expression had changed. She was no longer softly consoling him. Now her brow was lined with concern, and he realized it was because he was still holding her hand as though he might be repelled from the face of the earth if he didn’t cling to her.
He immediately let her hand go and buried his own beneath the table. “I’m sorry. That probably just made it worse. I...I don’t know why I have such a hard time maintaining a professional distance when I’m around you, Georgia. I’ve never had this problem before.”
She nodded curtly and took another large drink, finishing off her glass without meeting his gaze. “I understand. We’re both human, after all. We work together a lot, so the temptation is there. But we’re strong, smart people. We can fight it.”