Shifting the boxes in one hand, Caden reached for the latch on the gate. “After you.”
“Chivalry might kill you one day,” said Maggie.
“I’ll die a gentleman.”
“Gentleman?” Maggie repeated the word with a half grin. The things they’d done together were far from gentlemanly and ladylike. Taking a step forward, the memory made her knees buckle. Caden guided her by her arm. “Must have been the step,” she said, trying to cover up her fumble.
“Sure.”
Erin appeared back at the door for her part in helping. “Did you bring the entertainment?” Erin teased. Though she spoke low, all the single and not-so-single women in the front room flocked to the doorway.
Before Maggie could correct Erin for her mistake, Caden cleared his throat and peered over the boxes of cupcakes. “Hello, Dr. Hairston.”
“Caden?” Erin stretched her eyes and blinked as she wiggled out of the door, closing it behind her. “Are things that bad with your company you’re stripping on the side now?”
“Everyone has jokes today,” he mumbled.
Maggie bobbed her head back and forth between her cousin and Caden, not liking the camaraderie they had together. “Oh, of course you two would know each other.”
“Caden was just at the clinic this afternoon,” Erin explained. “I can’t say which client, of course.”
“Of course not,” Maggie mocked with a false smile that didn’t reach her eyes.
Erin squinted in confusion before shaking her head. “How do the two of you know each other?”
“We met in passing years ago,” said Maggie before Caden gave his answer. Lord only knew what he’d come up with. For reassurance she nodded and faced Caden.
Clueless, Erin pursued. “Where?”
“Oh, my mother owns a beauty pageant.”
“That makes sense,” Erin said with a nod. Maggie ignored the disdain in her cousin’s voice. Always with a nose in a book, Erin looked down on beauty pageants. “Welp, let’s get these inside. These old ladies are getting restless.”
“You’re having a wedding shower for an old lady?” Caden asked after letting Maggie walk through the door first.
Maggie stepped aside to keep the same pace. “Don’t let Auntie Bren hear you call her that.”
A howl of laughter came from the parlor room, where Maggie suspected another group of ladies were playing dominoes. Maggie’s image of little blue-haired grandmas crocheting or baking oatmeal cookies had been diminished the evening she brought over some cupcakes to the Southwood Elder Care Center and found a group of allegedly respectable churchgoing folks playing strip poker. Fortunately for her sake, she got there just after the first hand was dealt. Maggie shivered and focused on Caden. He still held the boxes of cupcakes.
“Sorry, let’s put these over here.”
They headed off down the hardwood floors into the kitchen area. Framed photos of prize-winning rosebushes and magnolia flowers hung from the eggshell-painted walls in gardenia-white frames. The kitchen stood off to the left, attached to a garage where the door opened. Maggie’s sister Kenzie appeared just as someone called out from the other room. Just as they were crossing the kitchen’s arched threshold, the group of ladies spotted them.
“Is that the man from outside?”
“Bren,” someone else gasped, “did your girls get you an exotic dancer?”
Footsteps shuffled against the floors toward them. Maggie spun around in time to watch her aunt and her friends advance on Caden before he had a chance to catch up with them. Lifting the cupcake boxes out of his hands, Maggie set them on the table before leaning against the wall with her sister and cousin to watch the frenzy.
“I’ve seen firemen and police strippers but never a, what?” Kenzie cocked her red head to the side. “A businessman?”
“We should just call him Mr. Southern Charmer,” Erin giggled.
Poor Caden. Even when someone goosed him, he jumped. His eyes pleaded with Maggie’s, and he mouthed the words do something. So Maggie pulled out her cell phone and selected a song from her playlist. “Pour Some Sugar on Me” seemed appropriate.
“Maggie, stop,” said Kenzie in between bouts of laughter. “Clearly the man is not a stripper.”
“How do you know?”
“Because Mrs. Dalbert is tossing dollars at him and he’s not collecting them. And wait a minute. Wait. I know him. Isn’t that Caden Archibald from Savannah?”
“Is he?” Maggie feigned her answer with a scratch at her chin.
“Ladies.” Kenzie clapped her hands together. “Let’s try to remember our places?”
“I found mine,” Mrs. Osborne said, cuddling under Caden’s arm.
Caden took it in stride. As the women began to reclaim their common sense with the help of Erin clapping her hands together, the path cleared for Caden to come into the kitchen. Like a pied piper, Erin led the ladies into the parlor.
“So you were going to leave me out there, huh?”
Maggie glanced around the kitchen to see what else needed to be done. “I would have said something if your clothes started coming off.”
“Does having my shirt untucked count?” He turned around, and sure enough his shirttails were out of his pants. As he readjusted himself, Maggie took the opportunity to admire his backside.
Damn, the man was fine.
The party went on in the living room. After a few beats of silence between Maggie and Caden, Kenzie cleared her throat and extended her hand to his. “Mr. Archibald, pleasure to meet you again.”
Caden returned the hearty greeting with a dazzling smile. “Please, call me Caden,” he said taking hold of her hand. “Mr. Archibald is my father.”
Scoffing, Maggie broke their handshake. “She’s just respecting her elders.”
For a moment Maggie thought she saw a frown cross Caden’s handsome face. Problems in the family? The last Maggie heard, the Archibalds were a close-knit family. As a matter of fact, when one got in trouble, they all did. Caden’s brother and cousin were in pageant hot water for their disparaging comments at last year’s Miss Southern Style Glitz pageant. It turned out Maggie’s experience with their unofficial “judging” of contestants wasn’t the first time they’d engaged in such behavior. Maggie sniffed and shrugged her shoulders. This was nothing new for the competition. It was just time Miss Kit found out, though Maggie hated the idea of the sweet woman’s feelings being hurt.
Kenzie groaned. “Excuse my sister. Ever since she quit social media, she’s been a bit cranky.”
“Whatever,” Maggie huffed. “I’ve taken a break from the world before.”
“But not this long,” Caden supplied.
“I am really going to need you to look up the word stalker,” Maggie said with a shake of her head.
Caden held his hands in surrender. “Mom’s all about social media these days.”
“How did she take it when you told her I couldn’t make the meeting?” Maggie asked.
Kenzie’s head bobbed back and forth between them. “What meeting?”
Instead of answering, Maggie ignored her. “Her feelings weren’t too hurt, were they?”
“I never got around to telling her,” said Caden.
“How is she doing?”
“She’s using a wheelchair now,” Caden explained.
Maggie turned to her sister and explained. “She has MS. You remember her, don’t you?”
Before Kenzie could answer, Erin popped back into the kitchen to get the ball rolling on the shower.
Maggie shrugged her shoulders and faced Caden. “Well, thank you for your unsolicited help with the cupcakes.”
“My pleasure.” They both walked back toward the front door. “I hope we can see each other later. Maybe coffee?”
The front door opened. Sun shined in, and the sweet smell of
Erin’s gardenias filled the air between them. Seeing Caden later sounded like a bad idea. One thing would lead to another, and as much as she was intrigued by the overwhelming desire to roll around naked in the sheets with this man, it was best not to. She wasn’t the same wild and carefree girl she had been the first time they hooked up.
“Probably not, Caden,” she said. “This is my aunt’s bridal shower, and we’re going out later. So I won’t have time to meet with you.”
Music started in the living room. From what Maggie gathered, the ladies were making a bridal dress out of toilet paper. And she was turning down Caden’s offer...why?
“Are you sure?”
No, she thought to herself. Caden reminded her of the things she’d lost in the past—mainly the Southern Style Glitz Beauty Pageant. “Maybe some other time.”
Chapter 3
The one thing Caden could count on in a small town was never getting lost. Instead of joining the rest of the workout addicts in his hotel’s gym the next morning, Caden tied his cross trainers, donned a pair of black basketball shorts and a black hoodie, and headed over to Erin’s clinic to work out with his clients.
Kamareon Ortiz, a soon-to-be-retired baseball player, needed to go over his contracts with Caden while he rehabbed. Two more of Caden’s clients, a set of international soccer players from Germany, needed to work out a few kinks at the rehab center, and he had all the confidence in the world with the therapists.
Some might think the Hairston Sports Authority was competition for the A&O Agency, but for Caden it wasn’t, at least not with Erin’s clinic, separate from the firm. Erin loaned her skills to the sports agency, unlike her sister and two other female cousins who made up Hairston Sports Authority but were consultant therapists for the clientele. Caden competed with her cousins to represent athletes. Erin was the best physical therapist he knew. She provided a private location just outside the city limits of Southwood with enough room for a track, a gym and every piece of physical therapy equipment possible. Most importantly, Erin offered privacy. Caden admired the way the Hairston ladies formed an all-in-one group, and he was more grateful on behalf of his clients for Erin moving out of Orlando. Her no-poaching-clients rule was also appreciated.
Caden also found it interesting for Erin and Maggie to be related. Erin prided herself on privacy; meanwhile, her cousin Maggie was the face of social media. Or she had been. Caden had done his homework last night and followed Maggie’s internet imprint. She went from being seen everywhere, via internet or making waves with her hologram trick she started at his mother’s pageant, to completely limiting herself to a video blog a week, if that, and no more selfies of herself or her food. Why? What changed?
The roads leaving the rehab center were evenly paved and easy to run on. Caden jogged down the country road into town. A sweet smell of fresh-baked goods drew him in like the pied piper until he found himself standing in front of The Cupcakery. Through the glass window, he spotted Maggie stepping through the French doors to answer the phone hanging on the wall. The red hair piled high on top of her head in a messy ponytail tilted when she cradled the receiver. His heart twitched, probably from the five-mile jog.
Common sense told him to leave. He’d asked Maggie to come to Savannah for his mother’s meeting. Maggie had declined. The paperwork with his clients was signed and done yesterday. So why was he still here?
A banging noise brought Caden out of his short daydream. Maggie repeatedly slammed the phone back on the hook before she grunted so loud he heard through the closed doors. Curiosity got the best of Caden. He jogged over to the alley where he’d met with Maggie yesterday and reached the back screen door just as a wave of black smoke billowed through the early-morning air, followed by a loud curse that would impress Uncle Samuel.
With a tray of twelve individual blackened cakes in one oven-mitted hand, Maggie jumped backward. Caden slid the hoodie off his head. For a brief moment her eyes softened once she recognized him and then narrowed with a snarl from her sexy lips.
“What the hell are you doing here?”
“I was out jogging and found myself here.”
Maggie rolled her eyes. “I don’t have time for you today, Caden.”
The keyword he heard was today. This meant he still had time to convince Maggie to come back to Savannah with him. “Relax,” Caden said holding his hands up in surrender. “We can get to that later. There seems to be something wrong.”
He peered around her just as the smoke alarm went off. Maggie cursed and dropped the tray of cupcakes onto the ground and ran back inside. Half spilled out into the cobblestone street. One hit the rubber tip of his running shoe. Early-morning sun peeked over the rooftops, offering a smoldering view of the burned desserts.
“Hey,” he called out. “Do you need help?”
Since she didn’t answer, Caden took it upon himself to step inside. If he thought the kitchen had been a mess yesterday, it was a total train wreck today. Four large silver bowls were turned on their sides on the oversize rectangular metal counter with their colorful contents spilling out onto the floor, melding into a pool of yellow, brown, pink and white batter. A digital timer on one of the oversize ovens rang and flashed four zeros while the smoke alarm still went off. Maggie stepped out of the racks where more than a dozen cupcakes cooled. She held one end of a broom and lifted the red stick up toward the ceiling to shut off the alarm, then she moved on to the oven and used the pink oven mitt dangling from the side. The delicious smell of this new batch of chocolate cupcakes replaced the acrid odor from a moment ago. Once she placed those cupcakes on an empty rack, she put in another batch. Maggie moved on autopilot to the next mixer.
“Hey,” Caden said softly. He reached for her elbow. “Talk to me.”
“I don’t have time, Caden.”
“You’ve said that before.”
Maggie stopped long enough to turn around and look at him, thus jerking away from his touch. Having been backstage around a bunch of beauty queens, Caden was used to seeing women without makeup. Maggie wore none right now, yet her beauty took his breath away. She wore a pair of denim shorts that showed off her thick thighs, pale pink canvas shoes and perhaps a white shirt from what he could tell behind her apron. “I’m serious right now, Caden. I just had my staff call in sick.”
“Is it serious?”
“Just a case of the summer fair.”
It didn’t take his MBA to figure out she needed help. Caden let her arm go to look around for an apron, finding a pink one with ruffles hanging by the coatrack by the screen door. Not hesitating, he put the garment on and turned toward her. Maggie pressed her lips together to keep from laughing. He followed her gaze to the bib of the apron and read the inscription. Boss Bitch. Caden shrugged and chuckled.
“Put me to work, Maggie. I’m serious.”
The subtle smirk across Maggie’s face deepened, and just when Caden was sure she’d planned on kicking him out of the bakery, she began to laugh. He liked the way her breasts jiggled underneath her black apron and white, scooped neck T-shirt. “I am not making some deal with you to come to Savannah.”
Less than five minutes ago he might have had a secret agenda, but after seeing the rim of her hazel-green eyes redden, Caden knew he better help.
“You’ve got what, a couple dozen cupcakes to make?” Caden crossed his arms over his chest. “You need extra hands. I’m not a stranger to the kitchen. This is the refrigerator, right?” He placed his hand on the warm oven and gave Maggie a wink.
“Caden, I have a thousand cupcakes to make for the opening of the fair tonight, and with the staff calling in sick, I have to do this myself.”
“Why not cancel this order?”
Maggie rolled her eyes. “I can’t cancel this. Everyone is expecting Vonna’s famous cupcakes.”
“Did you change your name?” Caden asked, raising his brow. “This isn’t your place?”
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There was no mistaking the red tints in her cheeks. He knew of the Swayne family and their successful history in the pecan world. Maggie wasn’t just a former beauty queen but a socialite, which meant she didn’t have to work. Ever.
“Vonna is the woman who owns this place,” she said as she waved her floured hand in the air. “She is out of town and has trusted me with one of the biggest events for the store.”
“Aren’t you the responsible one now?”
Any trace of humor left her pretty heart-shaped face. Sadness hid behind her eyes. “I am not the same little girl you met years ago.”
“No,” Caden said with a deep inhale of sweet air, “you’re not, and I can’t wait to get to know the woman she’s become.”
* * *
It was hot enough in the kitchen without an extra body, let alone a fine body like Caden’s. There were a few times the man lifted the apron to wipe his brow and his shirt would lift as well. Abs for days greeted her, forcing her to almost touch them. A couple of times her knees almost buckled when Caden swiped his finger against a tester spoon to taste the batter. Was it possible for her nipples to ache with the memory of where his lips had once been? Sweet Jesus.
Why she let Caden help was beyond her, Maggie thought. Sure, she was desperate and needed the extra hands—not like she would ever tell him—but Caden certainly was a distraction. Nonetheless, together they managed to bake and decorate a thousand cupcakes. Of course she made her new hummingbird cakes, but she ensured Vonna’s Death by Chocolate, peach crumble, lemon, and strawberry crème cupcakes were represented well, too. She liked the fact Caden took orders and didn’t question her.
There were a few occasions when Maggie had to remind herself they were in a commercial kitchen and not the bedroom. The cupcakes weren’t the only thing moist. Maggie glanced up from crowning a cupcake and found Caden staring at her. What she wouldn’t do to smear a slather of icing across his lip.
“You look like you’re crowning each and every single cupcake,” Caden noted, standing next to her as she pushed the last of the chocolate frosting out of the icing bag.
Southern Seduction ; Pleasure in His Arms Page 4