Bad Liar (The Reed Rivers Trilogy 1)

Chapter 10

Reed

As Georgina walks away to process my credit card, Josh’s unexpected voice at my shoulder jolts me. “What the hell happened to you?” he says. He elbows his way to an open spot at the bar next to me. “You were supposed to be getting us drinks, dumbass.”

“And I did exactly that.” I motion to the astonishing array of beverages before us on the bar. “Take your pick, my friend. They’re all ours.”

Josh laughs. “What the fuck?”

“Take a look at the bartender and all will become clear.”

Josh glances to where I’ve indicated and immediately rolls his eyes. “I should have known.”

“It was the only way I could get her to stand here talking to me for more than two minutes.”

Josh surveys the concoctions in front of us. “What’s what? It’s like a box of chocolates.”

“Yeah, you kind of have to taste them to figure it out.”

He picks up a martini glass. “This looks safe.”

“Since when are you ‘safe’?”

“Since I’ve been waiting for a drink for fifty fucking years and I’m thirsty. Is this gin or vodka?”

“No idea.”

He takes a sip. “Gin. And it’s good.” He takes several gulps. “You’ve seriously sat here flirting with her this whole time?”

“No, not this whole time. Before this stool opened up, I stood here flirting with her.”

He glances at Georgina again. “She looks exactly like T-Rod when she first started working for me. I’m assuming that’s a big part of her allure for you?”

T-Rod. It’s a reference to Theresa Rodriguez, Josh’s longtime personal assistant who’s now a part-owner with Josh and T-Rod’s husband on a chain of bars. A woman I’ve wanted to fuck since I first saw her ten years ago, when she was a twenty-one-year-old college grad and I was a twenty-four-year-old founder of a brand-new record label. And he’s absolutely right: Georgina looks strikingly like her, although I hadn’t made the connection until Josh pointed it out.

“She could be T-Rod’s little sister,” Josh says. “Emphasis on the word little. How old is she?”

“Almost twenty-two.”

“Cradle-robber.”

Smiling, I bring my glass to my lips. “She can vote, get a tattoo, buy cigarettes and liquor in all fifty states and weed in Washington and California. What more does a person need to be considered a full-fledged adult, other than all that?”

“Well, for starters, she could live in something other than student housing.”

“If she can join the military and get permanently inked without her parents’ consent, that’s good enough for me. She’s an adult.”

“Keep telling yourself that, old man, if it helps you sleep at night.”

“Weirdly enough, ‘sleep’ isn’t the thing that keeps popping into my head whenever I look at her.”

Josh drains the rest of his gin martini. “Is she a spitfire, too—just like T-Rod? How close a match is this, you fucking sicko wack job?”

“Yeah, she’s a spitfire. She’s already bitch-slapped me pretty good a few times. I deserved it, by the way.”

“Of course, you did.” He rolls his eyes. “You’re so predictable. Whenever you hear the word no, in any context, you do whatever it takes to get to yes.” He smirks. “Even if it means finding an uncanny double for the one woman in the world you wanted desperately but couldn’t have.”

Is he right about that? Have I been losing my mind over Georgina because she subconsciously reminds me of T-Rod—and I’ve got a score to settle? Or do I simply have a type—and Georgina is the most glorious version of it I’ve ever beheld in my entire life?

Unfortunately, “no” was the final answer in regards to my desire to fuck T-Rod. She’s the Argentinian who got away, and always will be. Not emotionally, of course. I barely know the woman. But, God, how I’ve always wanted to experience her. And now, sadly, thanks to the rock on her finger and the babies who call her mommy, I never will.

My fascination with Theresa—you might even call it a low-key obsession—started the minute I met her. She was the highly organized, straight-laced twenty-one-year-old sent to Josh by a temp agency. And the minute I saw her, I wanted her. In fact, when I first saw T-Rod, I distinctly remember feeling like a nuclear lust-bomb had gone off inside me. The same thing I felt when I saw Georgina today.

Georgina.

Oh, God.

With T-Rod, it wasn’t meant to be. Josh proclaimed her off-limits out of the gate—and not just for me, but for himself, too, and for all his friends—and by the time I decided to disregard his stupid proclamation, T-Rod’s future husband was in the picture and my window of opportunity had decidedly slammed shut. But, this time, with sexy Georgina, she’s not Josh’s employee. Not his honorary little sister. And there’s no would-be future-husband cockblocker slamming the door in my face. No, this time, with Georgina, it’s smooth sailing for me to get to yes, yes, yes... In fact, there’s not a doubt in my mind I’ll be sinking myself inside her tonight—blissfully riding her, and myself, to four hours of heaven tonight.