LITMIR.BIZ

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hoped he’d forgotten. Shame suffused her. She should’ve known... Unlike her, he never forgot a thing!

      Nor did he ever forgive.

      He blamed her for both the humiliating breakup with Ridley, of which she remembered enough patchy detail to make her swear off dating for life...and the horrific car crash that had followed, of which she remembered nothing at all.

      “Oh, my God! It even says who you’re going to be marrying...” Roberta’s voice broke into Georgia’s desperate thoughts.

      “What?” Her head whipped around.

      “Look!” Roberta shoved the papers back at Georgia. “You’re going to marry Adam Fordyce.”

      “Adam Fordyce?” Charis echoed from across the room. “You can’t marry Adam Fordyce!”

      “That’s what it says here, in black-and-white.” Roberta’s perfectly manicured red nails jabbed at the paper. “That’s who Kingston has picked out as your marriage mentor—or perhaps I should say merger mentor? Because that’s what this is starting to sound like. I didn’t even know you knew him.”

      This was crazy...

      The splintering light from the giant chandelier overhead was suddenly too bright. Georgia touched her fingertips to her temples. Had she gone crazy, too?

      A swift glance around the boardroom table revealed that only Jay hadn’t reacted. He sat silent and watchful, the familiar gleam of laughter absent from his eyes.

      It struck Georgia with the force of a lightning bolt.

      He’d known of her father’s plan all along...

      The betrayal stung. She and Jay clashed often. He infuriated her. He taunted her. The close working relationship he shared with her father concerned her. But despite the rivalry and never-ending mockery, he’d always been honest with her—sometimes brutally so.

      Jay had known...and he hadn’t mentioned a word about it.

      Georgia sucked in a deep breath. She’d deal with Jay—and the unexpected ache of his treachery—later. For now, she had to derail her father’s plan. “Of course, I can’t marry Adam Fordyce. I don’t know him from Santa Claus.”

      “Unfortunately, he doesn’t reside at the North Pole. He lives in Manhattan and he heads up Prometheus,” murmured Roberta. “Forbes named him one of the top ten—”

      “Oh, I know all that! But I’ve never met the man.”

      “And trust me—” Roberta was shaking her head “—Adam Fordyce is nothing like Santa Claus. He’s the coldest-hearted bastard you’ll never want to know.”

      Charis banged her sketchbook on the table. “That’s not true.”

      Georgia suppressed the urge to scream. “I’m not marrying anyone, and when I do get married, you won’t learn about it from a bunch of documents I had no part in drawing up.” She shot a killing glare across the table at Jay. “Now, Kingston, why don’t you take a few minutes to tell us all what you’ve been cooking up?”

      Her father didn’t hesitate. “Adam and I agree it’s—”

      “‘Adam and I agree’?” Georgia repeated, staring at him in horrified dismay. “You’ve actually discussed this with Adam Fordyce?”

      “Oh, yes, we’ve come to an understanding.”

      Of course, he had. Otherwise, it wouldn’t already be reduced to black-and-white on paper. Jay had known all about it. Adam knew about it. Norman and Jimmy were probably in on it, too. Half the world had known what her father planned for her future...but no one had bothered to fill her in.

      Hurt erupted into a blaze of fury she could no longer suppress; it flamed outward, until her skin prickled all over with white-hot heat.

      She couldn’t bring herself to look at Jay. So she focused her anger on the one man who she’d worked to impress her whole life. Her father.

      “How could you have arranged all this behind my back?”

      “Easily!” Kingston’s gaze sliced into the heat of her anger like an arctic blast. “You will marry Adam Fordyce.”

      But, for once, he didn’t freeze her into silence. Georgia had had enough. “I told you—I haven’t met this man, much less even been on a date with him.”

      “I’ve already fixed that.” Kingston smirked with satisfaction. “Fordyce will escort you to the Bachelors for a Better Future Benefit on Friday night.”

      “You’re joking!”

      “I never joke about business. I’ve arranged the most important alliance you will ever be part of, Georgia.”

      He sounded so proud...so confident that she would go along with it.

      Why should she be surprised? He’d pulled this kind of stunt before. Except that time, she’d fallen head-over-heels into his manipulative scheme.

      Never again.

      Even as Georgia reeled from emotions she couldn’t find words to express, her youngest sister waded into the fray. “When did you and Adam get so cozy, Dad?”

      Georgia finally found her voice. “Let me handle this, Charis. I’m the one he’s trying to marry off.”

      “Not only you.” Kingston gave Charis a fond smile. “I’ve found suitable husbands for all three of you.”

      A stunned hush followed his pronouncement.

      “That’s preposterous!” Charis was on her feet.

      Her father’s face softened. “Charis, the man I’ve chosen for you is the man I’ve come to regard as a son over the past two years.”

      Shock filled Georgia and her attention snapped back to Jay. “You...you are going to marry Charis?”

      Jay’s face was frozen.

      Jay and...Charis?

      Her sometimes ally, full-time rival...was marrying her sister?

      Georgia’s stomach churned.

      Since Jay had come to work at Kingdom, they’d sparred and argued—or at least she’d argued, while more often than not, he’d simply needled her, provoked her...then laughed at her irritation. He’d unerringly turn up at her office with the take-out coffees she craved, arriving just in time for her to bounce strategies off him. He might excel at pushing her buttons, but Jay was insightful and very, very clever, and all too often his opinions were right on the mark. Despite her distrust, she’d come to rely on his cool level-headedness.

      And he’d betrayed her.

      Stupid!

      She should’ve known better than to trust one of her father’s sidekicks. At least this time, she wasn’t infatuated with Jay—or engaged to marry him. Like with Ridley.

      Everyone was talking at once. Roberta had drawn herself up to her full height. She looked like some lush goddess. “There’s only one thing I want to know. To whom have you dared to barter me?”

      But Kingston didn’t spare her or Georgia a glance.

      Charis’s face was pale. She was saying something, but Georgia couldn’t concentrate. The sound of her heart pounded fast and furious in her ears and she felt completely incapable of the clear, analytic thought that usually came easily.

      All she could think about was that today was supposed to be the best day of her life.

      “Father—” Her voice sounded high and thin. Alien. Like someone else’s.

      She hardly ever called him Father—and certainly never at work. It never helped to become emotional. Kingston detested tears, and she’d displayed enough weakness two years ago

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