AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She rears back, blinking rapidly. “Whatdid you just say?”
Shit. Wrong thing to say.Wrongthing to say.
Simone closes her eyes with a sigh. She shakes her head. “Sebastian. You are being impressively idiotic right now.”
“Do you think that’s how I built my first business too?” Georgia seethes. “You think I got everything by sleeping my way to the top?”
“No!” I explode, my arms spreading wide. “He…he said he’d work overtime on your cove! How was I supposed to react?”
Georgia stares at me for a beat, blinks, then looks at Simone. Her brows tug together, and she finally meets my gaze again. “Overtime…on mycove?”
“The…the name of the gallery. And…you know.” I flick my gaze to her crotch.
Simone snorts, then slaps her hand over her mouth.
“This isn’t funny,” Georgia and I say at the same time.
She lifts up her thumb and forefinger. “It’s a little bit funny.”
Georgia rubs her temples. “This is a nightmare. I’m going to wake up any minute. This isn’t real. I didn’t sink a ton of money into a gallery that will be a total flop. I’m hallucinating.”
I lean against the nearest wall and drop my chin to my chest. “I’m sorry, Georgia. He was needling me, and I should have been the bigger man. But I just can’t—I can’t listen to a man disrespect you like that.”
“He was kind of a dick,” Simone says gently, nodding. “He obviously wanted to provoke Sebastian, prove something by doing it. Who uses the word ‘cove’ seriously? What is this, a romance novel?”
“He was the biggest-name artist in town.” Georgia’s arms hang limply at her sides. She glances at the bare walls. “What if he goes around saying that he won’t have his work displayed here? Everyone followed him to sign up, and now everyone will follow him to back out.”
“Mac won’t,” Simone says. “And I bet Sebastian can slap something together before the opening. You can put a big sculpture right there.” She points at the blood and piss on the floor. “Right in the middle of the gallery.”
I nod, and Georgia scowls.
Our gazes clash, and heat blazes through me. She might be mad at me, but I’d kill a thousand men who dared to speak to her like that. I’ll take her anger, her worry, her pain. I’ll take it all on myself because that’s why I’m here. I will protect her from everyone who tries to stand in her way, even if she hates me for it.
I love her so much it hurts. I want her so badly I can’t think straight.
The moment shimmers, hanging between us, our gazes locked.
Simone walks over to my hat, which I dropped on the floor at some point. She picks it up and hands it to me, slapping it onto my chest. “I’m going to leave you two to discuss this in private,” she says. “Don’t forget to lock the door behind me.”
She slips outside, and Georgia and I are alone.
“I’m still mad at you,” Georgia says. Then she walks to the front door and turns the lock.
28
GEORGIA
I’m soangry I’m shaking by the time I walk into my new office. I don’t look back to make sure Sebastian follows; I can hear his footsteps. We leave the dog in the main gallery space curled in the corner, satisfied with herself.
The office is bare, with only Simone’s boxes, an office chair, and a white acrylic desk holding my laptop and travel mug. The back wall of the office has a storage room with a keypad lock that goes the full back length of the gallery, to store and sort through art pieces when I take possession of them from artists.
IfI take possession of any art pieces after this. I haven’t even opened the doors, and this is a disaster. Cameron’s probably already told all his artsy friends not to do business with me. He’s such a dick. Part of me is happy I don’t have to deal with him, even though I won’t admit that to Sebastian.
I wait to hear the office door close before turning around to face Sebastian. His eyes are a cold, pale blue, and they sweep up my body, taking in my mood in one glance.
“You’re still angry,” he says, because he’s a man who enjoys stating the obvious.
“I just watched you assault a man.”
