I shift my gaze to Isabel, hoping whatever I see there will make everything okay. But, no, Isabel’s face only makes matters worse. Her lipstick is smeared. Her hair disheveled. In short, she’s a hot mess—a woman who just got fucked. She wipes her mouth—apparently trying to remove the evidence of Reed’s mouth on hers—and a cavalcade of emotions flood me. Rage. Hurt. Rejection. Heartbreak. And then nothing but rage, rage, rage, rage, rage. But, somehow, I manage to disassociate from my white-hot emotions, long enough to get through this mortifying moment.
“Hello, Isabel,” I say calmly, like a sniper looking through a scope. I shift my gaze to Reed, my eyes like lasers. “Reed.”
“Hello again!” Isabel says, sounding nervous. Is she worried I’ll run straight to her billionaire fiancé and tell him what I’ve just seen?
“Reed was just showing me his cars,” Isabel blurts.
“Oh, yeah?” I say. “I’ve heard about them, but haven’t seen them for myself. Are they pretty?”
“Very pretty.”
I return to Reed, my nostrils flaring. “Would you be willing to show me your pretty cars, Mr. Rivers? I’d love to see them. Maybe I could feature them in my article about you.”
Reed’s Adam’s apple bobs. “Sure.”
“I should probably find Howard,” Isabel says, walking briskly past me. “I’m sure he’s looking for me.”
When Isabel is gone, Reed steps toward me, his palms raised. He whispers, “Georgina, I know how this looks.”
I point toward the garage. “Turn your lying, cheating ass around and get into that fucking garage. I’m not going to do this out here.”
Chapter 33
Reed
My heart crashing, I close the garage door behind me and turn around to face Georgie’s wrath. “I know how this looks, baby, but—”
“Don’t you dare call me baby!” she seethes, her eyes like meteors. “When your dick is still wet from another woman’s pussy!”
Oh, Jesus. “I didn’t fuck her, Georgie.”
“Liar. I saw her flushed face, Reed. Her smudged lipstick. Her tousled hair. That look in her eye like she just got fucked. You not only fucked her, you fucked the living shit out of her!”
“No. Calm down and listen to me.”
“Why? So you can tell me I’m crazy and paranoid? So you can look me in the eye and lie through your teeth?”
“I’m not lying to you, Georgie. I didn’t fuck Isabel.”
She crosses her arms over her chest. “You expect me to believe you and Isabel came into your garage, while your party was raging in your house, for who knows how long... because you suddenly felt the need to show her—a woman you’ve known for ten years—your car collection?”
My stomach twists. Shit. Fuck. Shit. Fuck. I run my hand through my hair. Fuck!
Georgina’s eyes are wild. “If I hadn’t stumbled upon you two at exactly the right moment to catch you red-handed, would you have come clean about what you did? Or would you have taken me to your bed after the party, and fucked me right after fucking her? Would you have at least done me the courtesy of showering before you fucked me, to get her off your dick and lips?”
“You need to listen to me. Isabel asked me to talk in private, about something important, and the garage was the only place I knew nobody would barge in on us.”
“Do you think I’m stupid?” she screams. “I saw her smudged lipstick, Reed!”
Oh, God. I feel the ground giving way underneath my feet. Panic streaks through me. Regret. Remorse. But there’s no way around it. If she saw Isabel’s smudged lipstick, then I have to come clean. I have no choice. “Yes, I kissed her,” I admit, my stomach twisting and churning. “But, I swear, I didn’t fuck her.”
“Liar!” she shrieks.
She pushes on my chest and whizzes past me, racing past the hoods of my cars, and I follow her, my panic spiraling.
“She asked me to give her a goodbye kiss, for old time’s sake, and I did it,” I blurt, keeping step with her. “How could I say no to that? But it meant nothing to me.”
She whirls around in front of my Porsche, her eyes aflame. “I don’t believe you only kissed her as far as I can throw you. But let’s pretend you’re telling the truth, for a minute. How could you say no?” she asks, echoing me. “How could you not say no, Reed?” Tears fill her eyes. “You said it made you crazy to think of me kissing anyone else. You promised exclusivity was a two-way street, and I believed you. You said you’re