Bruce was the last assistant. And as far as she could tell, he’d quit because he couldn’t handle working with Seth. Which hadn’t made a lick of sense to her at the time because he was so sweet.
He shrugged as best he could. “Bruce bought his suits on sale and I didn’t care. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but the software industry is kind of relaxed. My old version of dressing up was switching out my pajama pants for a pair of sweats. Do you really think I cared what he wore?”
Manipulative bastard. “You don’t care how I do my job, do you?”
This job was all she had.
He moved fast, as though he’d anticipated her next course of action and sought to block her as quickly as possible. He rolled on top of her, trapping her under his body. It was pure proof that he was a great tactician because she’d intended to get out of bed, throw something at him, and stomp out. A great exit was totally necessary when she needed to keep her head held high.
He brought his face close to hers, their noses almost touching. “You are the best assistant I’ve ever had. You care about more than just keeping your job. You’ve taught me how to dress and you’ve charmed the world’s nastiest geeks into submission with one little smile. You light up my every fucking day, and I have zero intention of letting you go.”
She was so confused. She’d just settled into a future where she didn’t get Seth. She’d let go of Logan a long while back, but apparently he was in the kitchen making breakfast. It seemed like a slope she shouldn’t go down again, a long slow trip to Wonderland where someone would inevitably lop off her head. Because she wasn’t Alice. “Seth, it’s not like you can hold me prisoner. It really might be better for me to head to California. Win can find a job for me.”
She wouldn’t try the acting route again. It had been a huge bust.
“No.” Seth breathed in, his eyes closing briefly as though he was categorizing the scent. “And I can keep you prisoner. This is my little kingdom, Princess Georgia. Consider yourself a hostage.”
His lips were curved up, his gorgeous eyes seemingly innocent. She rolled her own. “Yeah, I’m sure the moose is going to keep watch over me.”
“Nope. He’s completely useless as a watch moose, but I have other ways to keep you here. Let me kiss you. Do you have any idea how much I wanted to kiss you in the limo?”
But the time wasn’t right. She wasn’t sure she liked being a chess piece in one of Seth Stark’s games. “But the timing is right now?”
He was close, not respecting her space at all. His lips, those gloriously sculpted lips, were hanging right there over hers. She could smell the mint of his toothpaste, feel the heat of his body. “The timing is all screwed up. I meant to take a couple of days, to ease you into the situation, but Logan is a fucked-up asshole and he didn’t follow the plan. Let me kiss you.”
Logan, if he was anything like Georgia herself, had very likely had no idea there was a plan to begin with. Seth had been playing some deep games, maneuvering her into a position, and now cutting in for the kill with ruthless precision and stormy blue eyes. She’d been so stupid thinking he was perfectly nice and kind. He was a billionaire, and he hadn’t inherited it. He’d been smart. There was a wolf under all that fluffy wool, and damn her, it just made him that much more attractive. And it made her that much more sure that this couldn’t work.
But her body didn’t seem to be in line with her brain. Her body was turning all bow chicka wow wow and thinking, hey, sex has sucked before, but this could totally be different. Let’s give this penis a try! Her vagina was in full-on cheerleader mode, and her nipples had totally joined the party. Her girl parts were overly optimistic in the worst of times, just plain dumb in times like this. She had to shut that shit down before the girls took over and slipped a nipple in his mouth and she was down for the count.
“What did Logan say to you last night?”
Seth rolled off her, and she could have sworn her nipples deflated, their protest obvious. “Nothing. It was nothing.”
Well, at least she could breathe a little now. He walked back to the window and, just for a moment, she really wished she’d listened to the girls.
Excellent. Ditch your clothes and throw yourself at him. Call out and ask Logan if he wants to join in. None of your friends has ever had a hot ménage with a moose witness.
Her nipples had perked right back up at the first sign of weakness. She decided to silence her inner idiot. “It wasn’t nothing, Seth. You broke a hundred dollars’ worth of Waterford over what he said.”
She could still remember rushing and feeling the tension as she walked in. The idea that they were fighting because of her had made her stomach churn. She’d quickly figured out that it was just Logan being his jerkfaced, never-give-a-girl-a-reason-to-love-him normal self. She’d been ready to lay into him when she’d seen the shocked look on his face. She knew that look. She’d had it on her own face from time to time when she said something she didn’t mean to save her pride. Logan had wanted. He’d wanted to take it back and Seth was all kinds of cold, and she’d done the only thing she could think of to fix the situation.
It was something she’d done from childhood when her brothers would fight. She hated it, needed calm and peace among the only people she really loved. When they started fighting, she would do something dumb, and then they would all turn on her and unite to save their idiot sister.
She’d attempted to walk straight into the glass like she didn’t have a brain in her head, and Logan had responded accordingly. She’d known damn well that Seth would try to reason with her and that big gorgeous Neanderthal would do something brutish. Neither one of them would let her walk anywhere near that glass.
It had worked beautifully. She’d seen the moment Seth had thanked Logan, a bit of their peace restored.
“I don’t want to talk about it.” He was staring out the window as the moose slowly lumbered away.
It was time to lay a few ground rules herself. She wasn’t going to do whatever he wanted. She couldn’t. Well, she was almost certain that she couldn’t. She would eventually hike out of this town and make for civilization, but just in case she made the horrible decision to stay, she needed to make sure there was a real place for her. She couldn’t be Seth Stark’s china doll, another piece of his collection who didn’t really mean anything. She was damn tired of keeping her mouth shut and trying to look pretty.
Not his china doll. His fuck doll. They actually make them in Japan, but he seems to want a warm one. And he apparently wants to share you with Logan. Yeah, you could be their sex toy.
She needed a serious therapist. “If you didn’t want me to ask questions, then you shouldn’t have taken a way-too-curious captive. Look, you just pulled the rug out from under me, Seth. You say you want me? Well, you can’t keep me around only for the good stuff.” She’d had enough boyfriends who just wanted to have sex and go to sleep and not have a lick of intimacy between them. That was what she’d loved about being close to Seth. She’d felt like she was a part of his world.
Seth was silent for a moment, staring out the window with nothing but the sound of the river rushing by. “He told me he wasn’t ever going to be my boyfriend and I should stop hoping.”
That was what it felt like to get the breath knocked out of her. Wow. She could hear Logan saying it, his lips faintly cruel. She should have taken that fucking broom to his head. What an ass. And yet… “Do you want Logan?”
A low huff came out of Seth’s chest.
She scrambled and found quickly that she couldn’t stay away from him. She wrapped her arms around his lean waist, and that move had nothing to do with the girls and everything to do with that other stupid part of her. Her heart was just as dumb as her girl parts. And her brain was working about a million miles a minute. What if Seth really only loved Logan and he thought that bringing a girl into the mix would get him his guy? She hated the thought, but then realized that she didn’t care. She still loved this man. “I didn’t mean it in a bad way. I wouldn’t think less of you if you did, Seth. Sweetie, we need to talk because I don’t think he’s gay. I think that’s just a heartache waiting to happen.”