She's So Over Him (Mills & Boon Modern Tempted) Page 7

  Cale grinned at her. ‘Want to bet?’

  ‘I got over my childhood fantasies of you a long time ago, Caleb.’

  ‘You’re such a liar, Madison. You want me as much as I want you.’

  Damn him. While she was an open book to him, he was binary code. Maddie tried to bat him off. ‘You really should talk to a psychologist about these little delusions.’

  Cale stood up and stalked towards her. ‘You can keep protesting, sport, but soon you’ll have to admit that our attraction burns bigger and brighter and bolder than ever.’

  Maddie angled her chin. ‘Why?’

  ‘Because of this.’

  Maddie lifted her hands to fend him off but he just grabbed them and used them to yank her towards him. Slanting his lips over hers, his mouth captured the words she was still trying to say, not giving her the chance to object again. His tongue slid into her mouth and he lost the ability to think. Blood drained from his head and he felt her body slump as he kissed every objection away. His fingers snaked up under her T-shirt and in one deft movement one hand was on her breast, the other was kneading her bottom and… he was lost. In the feel, taste, shape, smell of her. If she stopped him now he’d cry like a little girl…

  Maddie whimpered in his mouth, hooked her hands around his neck and boosted herself up, her legs anchored around his waist. Cale held her easily and, still kissing her, walked her out of the kitchen, down the passage, nudged her bedroom door open with his booted foot.

  Maddie felt the bed sink beneath her before Cale’s welcome heaviness covered her from breast to thigh. Her clothes melted off her—everything except for a very tiny thong. Despite her body being the focus of his hot stare, Maddie felt no embarrassment. How could she when he looked at her like that?

  Cale took a deep breath and just held her gently, not moving, staring at the tiny violet triangle between her legs.

  Maddie slipped her hands from his grasp and pushed herself to her elbows. ‘Cale? Why have you stopped?’

  Cale’s eyes glittered when they met hers. ‘Do you want me?’ he demanded, brushing his fingers against that soft silk.

  Maddie arched her back, pushing into his touch. ‘I shouldn’t, but you know I do.’

  With a groan at her capitulation Cale moved off her and in a series of highly economical sexy moves stripped off his clothes.

  Maddie looked at him, impressed. ‘That was amazing. You took about ten seconds.’

  Cale grinned at her. ‘Racing. You learn to change fast.’

  ‘God bless racing,’ Maddie breathed, taking in the long muscles of his arms, his washboard stomach, the lean muscles in his thighs. ‘You have the most gorgeous body, Caleb.’ She laughed as red stained the tops of Cale’s cheekbones. As he repositioned himself over her, she grabbed his face in his hands and forced him to look at her. ‘You have heard that before, right?’

  Cale shrugged. ‘I haven’t. Not for a long time. I’m usually the one dishing out the compliments.’

  ‘They must be stupid.’ Maddie lifted her head and nipped his lower lip. ‘So, here we are naked, and I seriously need this.’

  Cale dropped his pelvis and she sighed in pleasure.

  ‘You do?’

  ‘As you know, it’s been a while…’ Maddie pulled his hips tighter against hers. ‘So, if you don’t have a condom in your tightly closed fist, I swear I’ll scream.’

  Cale licked and nibbled his way into her mouth. ‘Oh, you’re going to scream, Mad. I guarantee it.’

  Cale, hammered after making love to Maddie twice, closed his eyes and kissed the top of her head, nestled on his shoulder. His hand stroked the length of her spine and her silky leg draped across his thigh. This was, he decided, a perfect way to start the morning. He lifted his wrist to squint at his watch and couldn’t believe that it wasn’t even eight yet…

  Maddie squirmed in his embrace and rested her hand on his hip. Making love with her had been nothing like he’d expected. She’d explored and demanded, touched and teased. And made a lot of noise.

  ‘I didn’t scream,’ Maddie murmured.

  Cale smiled. ‘No, but you moaned and wailed, and hissed and begged.’

  ‘I didn’t hiss!’

  ‘Trust me, you made this little hissing sound…’

  ‘Huh.’

  ‘I’ll just have to try harder to make you scream the next time,’ Cale told her, and frowned when she stiffened. He pulled his head away and looked at her troubled face. ‘Is there going to be a next time, Mad?’

  He felt her body tense just before she rolled away to stare at the ceiling. He wondered what she was she going to say. His experience with women was that nothing good ever came from these post-coital conversations. Did she require some sort of assurance from him? Some sort of commitment? Right on cue, his skin crawling started. He just had to think about making a commitment and he started to itch.

  ‘That depends.’ Maddie rolled her head to look at him.

  Cale’s mouth dried up and he scratched a spot above his elbow. ‘On what?’

  Maddie sat up, yanked the sheet up over her breasts and twisted to face him. ‘Look, Cale, this isn’t easy for me. I don’t do this often. Actually never. So this might not come out right.’

  ‘Uh-huh.’ Here it came—commitment, exclusivity… He squirmed on the sheet and silently cursed. Maybe he should just pre-empt her and tell her the truth, that he didn’t do commitment or long-term. He blurted the words out. ‘I can’t do commitment or long-term.’

  Maddie gasped, and he silently cursed when her lower lip trembled.

  ‘So, does that mean you’re not going to marry me?’ she asked in a tiny, shattered voice.

  Cale stared at her, utterly side-winded. She couldn’t possibly expect him to… Could she possibly be serious? Then Cale heard the muffled snort of laughter deep in her throat and his heart started beating again.

  ‘Witch,’ he muttered, hoping that relief wasn’t etched all over his face.

  Maddie’s laughter filled the room. ‘That was classic! You are such a sucker!’

  ‘Yeah, yeah.’ Cale waved his hand in the air. ‘Stop laughing and get to the point.’

  ‘Well, that little statement of yours just made what I’m about to say a million times easier.’

  ‘Well, that would be good to know if I knew what the hell you were talking about.’

  Maddie, laughter still brimming in her eyes, took a deep breath and wrinkled her nose. ‘Men and sex generally aren’t worth the hassle. Usually I avoid both.’

  Okay… not what he’d been expecting.

  ‘I don’t do relationships either,’ she continued.

  ‘Sorry?’ Cale felt as if he’d fallen down a rabbit hole.

  ‘I’m not good at them, I don’t have time for them, and they don’t work for me.’

  Cale blinked, lifted his hand to rub his eyes and blinked again. What bull! Maddie was made for a husband, a house and a large garden filled with kids and animals. Not with him, obviously, but with someone.

  This conversation was having the strangest effect on him, because now he could hear trumpets… trumpeting.

  ‘Oh, hell. Mobile!’ Maddie tumbled out of bed and, grabbing a towel off the chair, she held it to her chest and lunged for her phone on her dressing table.

  ‘Gareth, hi! No, I’ve got about thirty seconds to talk to you. No, we need the small white tent.’

  Cale stared at Maddie—the towel just covering her interesting bits—who seemed to have shifted into work mode.

  ‘Black chair covers. The velvet ones. Thanks. Later.’

  Maddie put her mobile back where it had been and looked at Cale.

  ‘Sorry, where were we? Oh… I had a few relationships after you and they all went pear-shaped.’ Maddie waved her hand in the air in a gesture of dismissal. ‘I decided that it just wasn’t worth the hassle.’

  Cale linked his hands across his waist and frowned at her. ‘So what do you want from me?’

  Maddie tightened the towe
l around her chest and waved at the rumpled sheets and his bare chest. ‘This… if our schedules don’t collide and it works for both of us.’

  Cale lifted his eyebrows. ‘So, friends with benefits?’

  Maddie blushed and twisted the towel between her fingers. ‘Yes, well… if you think that’s okay.’

  Duh. It was way okay with him.

  Her mobile rang again, and Cale considered tossing it out of the bedroom window to see if he could make it reach the sea.

  ‘Mdu? Hey, hon. No, I can’t get my lazy butt to the surf. I work for a living.’ Maddie pulled a face as she glanced at the bed. ‘Yeah, yeah. I know the surf is up, I’m looking at it and weeping. Kalk Bay on Sunday? Maybe. Later. Okay? So, nothing heavy?’

  Oh, the ‘nothing heavy’ comment was directed at him. Cale shook his head to get his head in the game.

  Maddie seemed to take his silence for assent, because she sent him a bright smile and inched her way to the bathroom. ‘Good. I’m glad we had this chat—got rid of the elephant in the room. I think we’re on the same page. Excellent. I’m going to grab a quick shower. There is another shower in the other bathroom if you’re in a hurry.’

  What chat? Cale looked towards the bathroom. He didn’t recall being part of any conversation. She’d just thrown words at him… He slumped back on the pillows and stared at her ceiling.

  However, if he’d written a script for what he wanted from Maddie then he couldn’t have chosen a better scenario.

  So why, exactly, did he feel vaguely unsatisfied?

  CHAPTER SIX

  THE following Monday, Maddie whistled U2’s ‘Beautiful Day’ as she tossed her soft leather tote onto her desk. Dropping into her chair, she placed her booted feet up on her desk and folded her hands against her designer shirt. It was so good to stride into a busy office and smirk at your harassed colleagues when you had just completed a hugely successful project. Tight Lines had attracted record entry numbers and she’d doubled the sponsorship. The press coverage had been astounding. Frankly, she rocked.

  Thandi, custard tart halfway to her mouth, walked past and slapped her raised hand before picking up a box from her desk and offering her a cake. Maddie sighed and took the smallest one she could find, which was about half the size of a submarine.

  ‘Way to go, girlfriend.’

  ‘Thanks, Thands.’

  Jake just ignored her. They hadn’t spoken since Maddie had lambasted him about his practical joke. She’d also put codes on her computer and threatened Lucy with disembowelment if she gave them to Jake.

  ‘Isn’t this supposed to be your day off?’ Thandi asked, perching on the corner of her desk.

  Maddie shrugged. ‘Thought I’d get a head start on the week.’

  ‘You’re mad,’ Thandi told her, drifting back to her own desk. ‘And, worse, you make the rest of us look like slackers.’

  Maddie scooped off some custard that threatened to escape and placed her feet on an open drawer of her desk. Between the fishing competition and crazy brides, work had been insane this last week—so much so that she’d asked Cale to give her a week before they saw each other again.

  Mostly because she needed some time to work through the fact that she’d a) slept with a man without any thought about the implications thereof, b) she really wanted to do it again and c) she thought the best way to make sure it happened again was to convince him that she wanted nothing more from him but sex.

  Which hadn’t been a lie… exactly.

  ‘Cale called this morning,’ Thandi told her and Maddie felt grateful for the interruption to her train of thought, because she was sure that the train was about to plummet off a cliff.

  She’d expected him to call today. If he was feeling a fraction as flustered—frustrated—as she was, then they were in for a hot date later. But why had he called the office and not her mobile? Strange.

  ‘Well, well, well.’

  Maddie looked across and caught her friend’s smirk. ‘What is that supposed to mean?’

  ‘He’s getting to you.’

  ‘Don’t be daft,’ she retorted. ‘He’s just a guy I’m seeing occasionally. I refuse to be scared of any man.’

  Thandi grinned. ‘Did I say scared?’

  Maddie narrowed her eyes. ‘I said I wasn’t scared!’

  ‘Mmm. You have an “I want him but I don’t know what the hell to do with him” look on your face.’

  ‘Thands, with respect, you don’t know what you’re talking about.’ Maddie resisted the urge to shift in her chair—a clear non-verbal statement of the opposite.

  ‘And that’s why you’ve been working like a demon on speed. Work is easy. Cale is hard.’

  Maddie sighed, momentarily distracted. Since it was a lot easier to think of how Cale affected her physically than emotionally, she went with her little fantasy.

  Thandi, a closet prude, waved her hands in agitation. ‘Not like that! Get your mind out of the bedroom, please! Hard as in you don’t know what to feel with him, how to handle him. Work is your safety zone, the place you run to when real life gets complicated.’

  ‘You’re really irritating and I’m not listening to you any more.’ She couldn’t possibly be right.

  Thandi scowled in irritation when her phone rang and Maddie sighed her relief. Thandi pointed a finger at Maddie, her hand hovering above the receiver. ‘You know I’m right… Thandi speaking.’

  Nuh-uh. Thandi was wrong. Work was just the strongest reason why she couldn’t have a ‘normal’ love-life. The reality was that her career demanded enormous sacrifices. She didn’t have time for a proper relationship even if she wanted one. Before now, in this age of AIDS, creeps and idiots, there hadn’t been anyone who had captured her interest enough to tempt her into an affair. Unfortunately Cale epitomised temptation, and when she was around him her ‘take it slow’ button seemed to malfunction.

  ‘He’s got you all tied up in knots,’ Thandi commented as soon as she’d disconnected her call.

  Maddie banged her head against the back of the chair and closed her eyes in frustration. ‘Don’t you have work to do?’

  ‘Sorting out your head is work. It’s a dirty job but someone has to do it.’

  ‘Thands, Cale and I have something going physically. I admit that. But am I supposed to blow off work for my love-life?’

  ‘That’s a rubbish excuse. Millions of woman have crazy careers and happy relationships. It’s called balance, sweetie. Oh, wait—let me explain that foreign concept…’

  Maddie scowled at her. ‘Funny.’ She took a bite of her cake. ‘You’re assuming we’re in a relationship but we’re not. Neither of us wants one.’

  ‘He said that?’

  ‘Very clearly. So I need to keep this as simple as I can. That way we’ll both have some fun, and at the end of our run we’ll walk without either of us feeling like we’ve given more than we received.’

  In theory it was relatively simple. Sleep with him and do not let it go beyond sex. She could do this, couldn’t she? Hundreds of women did it every day.

  Maddie wondered how many got it right.

  Conscious of the silence from the other side of the room, she looked at Thandi. Maddie rolled her eyes when she saw that Thandi was bent at the waist, doubled over with silent laughter. Tears were running down her face and she was making a strange gurgling sound…

  Maddie shook her head. ‘For the love of God, what is the matter with you now?’

  Thandi lifted a trembling finger as she snorted through her mirth. ‘You! You crack me up. You really think that you can control this, don’t you?’

  Maddie threw up her hands. ‘There’s nothing to control!’

  A slamming door interrupted their useless—as far as Maddie was concerned—conversation, and she looked up as a pair of broad shoulders moved across the entrance to their open-plan offices and stopped. The shiny head of the owner of Mayhew Walsh, Jens Mayhew, bobbed and nodded. The person next to him Maddie recognised immediately—those shoulders
, that head of sun-streaked hair. Who else would feel totally comfortable in these swish offices dressed in faded Levi’s, battered trainers and a casual Zoo York T-shirt? Who else wouldn’t bother to shave and yet still managed to look… hot. And stylish.

  Maddie picked up her custard cake and stared at Cale, who was nodding at something Jens was saying. At the moment Cale noticed her, and sent her a wink over Jens’s balding head, a great big glob of custard cream dropped and splattered down her grey shirt and landed on her black skinny jeans.

  Maddie swore and Cale grinned. Placing the pastry on her desk, she took a handful of tissues from the box she kept on her credenza and frantically dabbed at her blouse while Jens and Cale walked towards her. Thandi just delicately licked her fingers and sent Cale interested looks from her Bambi eyes. Maddie threw a sour look her way.

  ‘Maddie!’ Jens bellowed, using his ‘this is an important client, impress him’ voice. ‘This is Cale Grant.’

  Maddie nodded and inspected the mess on her clothes while Jens introduced Thandi and Jake. In all honesty she wasn’t surprised to see Cale at her offices; Cale wanted her to work on the race and he never gave up and never gave in.

  Jens slapped Cale’s back with a bonhomie that was as false as it was loud. ‘We’re going to organise Cale’s charity race. For free.’

  Maddie lifted her eyebrows at Jens. Who was this man and what had he done with her boss? Jens was not a philanthropist on any day of the week. Maddie caught Cale’s look and saw the glint of mischief in his eyes. Whatever he was up to, he was enjoying it immensely.

  Maddie thought she’d better clarify the terms of the agreement. ‘We’re organising the race?’

  ‘Yes!’ Jens replied jovially, but Maddie could see the panic in his eyes.

  ‘For free?’ Maddie persisted. ‘You’ve signed a contract?’

  ‘Madison, your lack of trust is hurtful,’ Jens blustered. ‘This is your project, by the way. Cale is insistent.’

  Maddie looked at her desk and blew out a long breath. How was she going to manage an additional project? She turned to Thandi and widened her eyes in disbelief.

  Thandi, back to being a sweetheart, picked up her panicked expression. ‘I’ll help. I’ll take over the Whitsun wedding.’