Public Relations (19 page)

“I’m the black sheep,” she said, pulling back from the mire of emotion. “I insisted on going to a real school and shunned the coming-out party.”

“I’m impressed.” Corners of his lips pulling downward, he nodded. “I wouldn’t have thought you came from money.”

She nearly spat out her coffee. A quick swallow had her coughing into her fist.

“My father would be appalled,” she said, breathless, though relieved he hadn’t managed to find similarities between her and her alter ego.

“Do your parents and Gigi’s know one another?” Reaching into his back pocket, Peter leaned forward and drew out his wallet.

“They run in the same circles.” And they did, didn’t they? Being one and the same?

Her conscience twinged at the fib. Everything Peter had shown her in the last twenty-four hours proved him a great deal more complex and compassionate than she’d thought him when she’d met him at the charity gala.

“Well, that explains why you’re so close.” He withdrew several crisp bills and placed them under his coffee cup. “That and going to school together.”

Georgia made an affirmative noise and shoveled a few more bites of the pie into her mouth to avoid comment. The intensity of his stare unsettled her, and she slowly lowered her fork. Eyeing his empty plates, not remembering when he’d eaten all the food, she cleared her throat. A crowd stood at the door waiting for tables to open up.

“Ready to leave?” she asked.

“I can wait.” He nodded at her plate. “You’ve hardly touched your breakfast.”

She patted her stomach. “I’m full of pie.”

Her conspiratorial response brought the flirty smile back to his lips. “I won’t tell my mother if you won’t tell.”

The mere idea of having a mother who would care what Georgia ate for breakfast intensified the longing that had been slowly building in her since meeting his family.

She pushed back from the table and groped for her coat rather than meet Peter’s eyes. “I like your mother. A lot.”

“You’d like her a lot less if she were taking a wooden spoon to your ass, believe me.” He reached for her coat to assist her, and she let him.

Memories of Peter’s whispered threat yesterday in the clothing shop sent blood to her sex. With exaggerated slowness, she looked over her shoulder at him and let him see the desire in her eyes.

Fingers lingering on her shoulders, he squinted. “I sincerely hope if that’s your kink, you aren’t picturing my mother in my place.”

Images of herself over Peter’s lap, his hand cupped against her bottom, sent a frisson of awareness up her spine. She stepped forward, out of his immediate proximity. He lifted his coat and followed her to the door.

Cold air hit her overheated skin, and she stepped out onto the sidewalk. “Who said I’d be the one with the smacked bottom?”

His expression darkened, and he took a step toward her, keys in his fist. She put her back to the car. He didn’t come any closer, just regarded her with an intensity that had her stomach whirling like a gyroscope. Frozen breath puffed in little clouds, hers coming faster than his. A lot faster.

A shout sounded in the distance. Georgia looked toward the noise. Several blocks away, she made out a hill with colorful forms on sleds swooping over the snow. Trees dotted the rolling landscape but weren’t so frequent as to pose any real hazard to the activity.

When she chanced a peek at Peter, he stared into the distance, a faraway look on his face. “Want to go sledding?”

Disappointment and relief dropped her blood pressure. She sagged against the car door for support. “Er. Sure?”

He took in her jeans and sneakers with a negligent glance. “You’re going to get wet.”

You’ve no bloody idea…

He caught her flitting grin. Slow and cocksure, he smiled in a way that made her breath catch and her heart renew its pounding. When he pivoted and strode toward a hardware store, she followed on unsteady legs.

“Toboggan, sled, or one of those round things?” He pointed to a red thing that looked like an oversize lid to a rubbish bin.

If she chose the toboggan, he’d ride with her… She let her gaze linger on the more expensive leather and wood item, before her attention alighted on a box of rolled plastic sheets he’d overlooked. Less than five dollars apiece, they appeared as if they’d hold up to a season’s worth of use but no more.

“How about these?” Plastic slipped against her gloves as she held one aloft.

He eyed the flimsy sled, dubious.

“What? You think you have to spend a Benjamin to have a good time?” she teased.

He plucked the thing from her hands and regarded it with distaste. “You’re aiming for a sore ass all right, but not from anything fun.”

Georgia followed him into the store, another sled in her hand and a smirk on her face. She plunked her sled on the counter as he paid for his. The freckle-faced teen who rang them up either didn’t know or didn’t care that he was ringing up the equivalent of a dime-store toy for one of the world’s wealthiest men. Hell, she ordered a bag lunch for Peter, and it came with real silver much of the time in New York. Getting Peter out of the city was a nice change. Now she’d like to get the city out of Peter.

“Do you ever think it’s strange?” she asked as they trudged toward the snowy hill.

“What’s strange?” Bright blue eyes regarded her.

She studied the slightly reddened tip of his nose and the way the cold brought color to his cheeks. “That you came from a place like this and you live the way you live?”

His answering huff was uneasy. “I guess. When I have time to think about it.”

“Which is almost never?” She hazarded the guess.

“Honestly?” He gazed into the distance, his expression placing him far away—maybe in another time, if not another place. “I try not to.”

“Hm.” She switched the sled to her other arm so she could warm her opposite hand in her coat pocket. “Same here.”

He frowned down at her. “You try not to think about where you grew up?”

She nodded and kept walking. Why had she told him that? Things were getting dangerously intimate if she’d begun volunteering personal tidbits to this man. The snow, heavy and wet, soaked into her sneakers within minutes of the climb.

“I never thought money could be a burden until I had it.” Poised on the crest of the hill, he paused to wait as a group of teens got set to take a run down the slope. “Now I don’t know how people have kids
with
money, never mind without it.”

Georgia bent to position her sled. It slid a little, and she stomped one foot on it to hold it in place. The teens whooped as they raced one another over the rolling incline.

“The magic of nannies and boarding school.” Unable to hide the distaste from her voice, she shuddered. “You don’t know how lucky you were. Having your family. Your brothers.”

The comment earned her a noncommittal
harrumph
as Peter unrolled his sled. Settled on the plastic, they both clutched the curled handles of their own sleds. Her grin was spontaneous. Seeing this grown man—her powerful and often surly boss—perched on a flimsy toy lightened her heart. Giddy laughter burbled past her lips.

“Race you?” He lifted both brows in a mischievous waggle.

“What do I get if I win?” she asked.

His gaze darkened sensually, and he set off without warning.

“Hey! No fair!” she shouted.

She shot after him. Wind whipped at her hair, pulling it from her face as she picked up speed on her descent. What had appeared to be smooth ground under her feet as they walked, abused her backside with each bounce over the packed landscape. She laughed until she couldn’t breathe, and tears streamed from her eyes. Out of control, both she and Peter swooped down the slope, jouncing and swerving. She didn’t have a prayer of winning the race, but she could claim a different sort of victory.

Keeping him in her sights, Georgia angled her sled toward Peter’s back. Though he had a head start, her momentum was stronger toward the end. He slowed to a stop well before she lost power or steam. Angled sideways, she slid into him, pitching them both off their sleds, ass over teakettle, down the remaining slope. They halted as their sleds hurtled past, coming to a stop on the flatter landscape beyond.

When they came to a halt, Peter still clutched her in a protective bear hug. He’d taken the brunt of the damage. They both breathed hard, warm from exertion and proximity. Hair a wild tumble, he stared down at her as cold seeped through her jeans and coat into her back. Hesitant, she skimmed his cheek with the back of her fingers.

“Kiss me?” She needed to know last night hadn’t been an outright rejection.

He searched her gaze. “Are you sure this is what you want?”

“Yes,” she whispered.

He lifted her head, cradling her away from the snow. She pulled him down, meeting him halfway. So much more gently than last night’s kiss, he awakened her senses with a brush of his lips. Her eyes fluttered closed with her sigh.

She moved up and into the pressure of his mouth, opening to the dart of his tongue and the taste of maple syrup. He sampled her in lingering, languid sweeps and suckles, prompting little gasps from her. Back arched, she pressed into him, wishing for fewer layers despite the cold. Frostbite didn’t stand a chance against Peter’s heated onslaught.

His hardness settled against her thigh, and her hips shifted of their own accord in a little lift that accompanied her incoherent plea. He wanted her. And God, she wanted him. She moved against him, both arms coming around his neck to pull him closer. A wolf whistle sounded in the distance. Eyes bright with passion, he lifted his head.

“Not here, Georgia.” Her name registered as a growl.

She shuddered and let him help her up. They both brushed at the little ice clumps stuck to their respective clothing. Finished, he turned her around and worked his hand down her back. When he reached her bottom, he gave a few harder-than-necessary swats to remove the snow. Georgia yelped and tried to run, but he held fast to her arm with his opposite hand.

“No fair.” Warmth blossomed across her chilled posterior and drifted lazily toward her sex.

“I don’t play fair.” He turned her and brushed a succulent kiss against her lips. “You should know that by now.”

She pulled back a fraction. “Neither do I.”

He brushed his thumb across her lower lip, tugging the flesh away from her teeth with a sensual pull. “Good thing I always win then.”

The casual statement made her stomach go funny. “Always?”

“Always.” His expression painted him deadly serious.

By the time they reached the car, Georgia shook with a combination of cold and anticipation. Her sex ached until she longed to plow two fingers below the satin fabric of her panties and deliver satisfaction. She had to come down a notch if she were going to be able to think. Aroused, she was off-kilter and apt to say things she’d regret—allow feelings to blossom that should never have taken root in the first place.

She examined Peter’s profile as he drove. Color brightened his cheeks, but except for the telltale bulge in his jeans, she wouldn’t have known she’d affected him at all. The heater ran on full blast, and he’d turned on the seat warmers.

He slid his gaze sideways to take her in. “We’ll get you a warm shower, then visit with my family.”

It was past eleven by the time he pulled the car into the drive. Cold wind she hadn’t noticed earlier whipped at her, cutting through her jeans. The temperature was dropping and quickly.

“Good Lord,” she said through chattering teeth as Peter held the boathouse door open for her. A sheen of ice crackled across the water in the empty bay.

“I told them to let me put central air and heat down here.” They ran upstairs, and he opened the woodstove with a clang. “Go take your shower.”

Georgia hesitated in the open bathroom doorway. “You’ll be cold. Sure you don’t want to go first?”

Embers flared in the stove, mimicking the ones in Peter’s eyes as he looked over his shoulder. “If I warm myself, it’s not going to be with hot water.”

Tempting the devil, she pasted an innocent expression on her face. “That’s good, because I wasn’t planning on leaving any for you.”

The stove clanged. She squeaked and stepped back to slam the bathroom door. Too late. Peter muscled through, crowding her toward the shower enclosure.

A playful energy hummed between them, but her body took the fight-or-flight moment seriously. One hand fluttered to her throat as she backed away. She saw her reflection in the mirror, eyes wide, hair limp, and clothes hanging like wet dishrags. Her confidence flagged.

“Get undressed.” The quiet rumble of his command settled her attention on him.

“Help me?” For some ridiculous reason, she wanted his hands on her for this unveiling. He’d never looked at her.
Really
looked at her.

Without breaking her stare, he slid her jacket off and let it drop to the floor as she kicked off her sneakers. He reached past her to turn on the shower. The water’s wet hiss filled the room. When his fingers went to the hem of her shirt, she lifted her arms and he pulled the garment over her head. He tossed it to the floor, where it landed with a wet plop.

Georgia dipped her head to watch him trace lazy fingers over the contour of her bra. She murmured her approval when he cupped one breast and squeezed gently. He skimmed her waist, then her belly, heating her chilled skin with his palm as he went. A tug at her button and a pull at her zipper loosened the soaked jeans from her skin. She shivered, and he pressed a kiss to her forehead as he bent to peel her pants from her legs. Denim stuck to her thighs, proving stubborn. She curled her fingers over his muscled shoulder when he crouched to encourage her jeans lower. Heat blew out of a vent in the ceiling in a delicious blast, warming her bared skin.

Peter stood and made quick work of his clothing while she watched in her damp bra and panties. His hands jerked against his buttoned cuffs. Thread popped as he yanked out his hands and threw the shirt to the growing pile. Though she’d seen him—all of him—yesterday and this morning, she hadn’t had the time to appreciate his magnificence.

The sight of him lifting his undershirt over his head was the sexiest thing she’d ever seen. Taut abs rippled with the upward motion as he revealed heavy pecs and spectacularly defined shoulders. A dark trail of hair led the way to southerly climes and disappeared at his waistband.