He shrugged. “Lucky guess. And I saw the way you turned your nose up at the closet before I left the other day.”
“I didn’t dislike the way you unpacked, it just makes more sense the way I do it.”
“Is your obsession with closet organization part of that ‘always get what I want’ thing?”
“Probably,” Callie mumbled around a sip of coffee. “Okay, fine. I came here to tell you that last night was fun, but I don’t think it should happen again. We, I … I came back to Vegas to find my roots, start my business. Dating you is complicating what should be relatively simple.”
“Dating me?”
“What else do you call it? We’ve have three dinners, a lunch, and an ice cream stop. We’ve seen one another six out of the past seven days. This is getting really complicated really fast for me.”
“What’s so complicated? I like spending time with you, Cal, and I think you like spending time with me.”
“But you’re my … I lease your building, you’ve invested in my business. It’s murky.”
“It’s also fun.”
“It’s messy. What happens when you or I decide not to see the other person? Then there are emotions involved that will affect either my business or yours.”
He was quiet for a long moment. “True. What happens if we don’t decide not to see one another?”
Callie’s mouth went dry. If Gage didn’t get tired of her? Could that even be possible? She picked up her coffee to have something in her hands. “What if someone finds out we aren’t just seeing one another but that you’re my investor and landlord?”
“The angel fund doesn’t advertise its investments, not even when those investments are raging successes. Anyone can find out I own the Oasis, but I don’t see the problem that raises. We have a business deal that is separate from whatever else is going on. That is a contract.” He waved his hands between them. “This is personal. For me and for you.”
He was across the room, but the distance didn’t seem to matter. His gaze focused on hers, and she couldn’t look away. Complicated didn’t have to mean disastrous. Maybe it could be as straightforward as Gage said, with business on one side and personal on the other.
“Okay.”
“Okay, okay? As in you’re not going to start calling me ‘Mr. Reeves’ and we can head to the lake like the meteorologists suggested?”
“It is a Saturday, and a beautiful one at that.” Callie grinned. “I certainly don’t want to be stuck in the city or dealing with the crowd at my condo association pool, and I did pack a fabulous picnic lunch. Do you want to go?”
“And if I don’t?”
Callie blinked. “I’ll go by myself.”
There was a twinkle in his eye that told her he was messing with her now. “Swimming alone is dangerous.”
“I’ll take my chances.”
“What kind of lunch?”
“Ham sandwiches, a little pasta salad. Sodas, bottled water. And there may or may not be brownies with powdered sugar sprinkled over the top.” How many times in school had Gage charmed the brownie off her lunch tray?
Gage swallowed, and the motion of his Adam’s apple moving up and down his throat was mesmerizing.
“If I go take a shower can I trust you not to start out on your own? Or eat all the brownies?”
Callie held up two fingers in the scout salute. “Girl Scout’s honor.”
“That’s the Boy Scout salute.”
She grimaced. “I know. All they taught us in the Girl Scouts was how to sew our badges and plant flowers. And the brownie-baking thing.”
Gage put his coffee cup on the kitchen counter and held out his hand. Callie took it, and he pulled her to him. His chest was hard beneath her palms, and the heat from his body seemed to brand her. His hair was tousled, and his thumbs hooked through the back loops of her jeans when he set her hips against his.
“So we’re dating then,” he said. “Good morning, Cal.”
“Morning, Gage.”
His mouth pressed down on hers, drawing her up on her toes so she could wind her arms around his neck. This was why she couldn’t sleep. Why she’d given up on rest at the crack of dawn to cook brownies and make a pasta salad and clean her nearly pristine house. Because Gage’s lips on hers were already a drug that she didn’t think she could do without. His hands tangled in the short hair at her neck as he deepened the kiss.
And then he was gone. Callie opened her eyes. His pupils were dilated and his breathing rough. “I’ll be back in ten,” he said and disappeared down the hall. Callie put her hand to her chest.
Maybe she should have tried harder to resist the urge to see him so soon after last night.
She could go to the spa. Quadruple-check that things were ready for next week. Or drive into the desert with her iPod to think about her next steps. Consider all the possibilities of where this thing with Gage might end up. She could return her parents’ calls from earlier in the week or at least email the pictures of the new store.
It was a Saturday, anything could happen.
She looked down the hall where Gage had disappeared.
That was why she’d come here. To see what might happen.
• • •
Gage put the mini cooler back into the truck and returned to the side of the lake. Callie had put a picnic blanket down on the soft earth when they arrived at the small body of water that used to divide her parents’ property from the Rocking R. He didn’t know the new neighbors, and although he came to the lake as much as he liked, he’d never seen them here. He’d never seen a tire track or hoof print, either, so he assumed they didn’t come to this cool stretch of water.
A slight breeze ruffled through the leaves of the live oak as he sat down beside the most complicated women he’d ever met.
She said she didn’t want complications, but she was dating him while he held the purse strings—more or less—to her business.
She’d hinted that she didn’t trust her judgment—wasn’t that what her decisions with Eddie were all about? Yet when her life back East fell apart, she came back here and went into business for herself. That took balls of steel, in Gage’s opinion.
Callie popped a grape into her mouth and chewed. “Did you ever come out here to go skinny-dipping?”
Gage choked on his soda. “Did I what?”
“When we were kids. This would have been the perfect place. Secluded, quiet. No worries about being caught, unless you object to the spying of Herefords and Angus. Did you?”
“I can’t believe you’re asking me this.” He didn’t want to answer, mostly because he had brought a girl or two out here.
“So you did. Do I get to guess with who?”
“No.” He choked out the word. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Why not? Everyone has funny stories like that. Tell me yours.”
He slid his gaze to hers, and all he saw there was curiosity. Not morbid curiosity. Not judgment. Just one friend asking another a question.
“I brought a couple of girls out here, mostly because my idiot brothers thought it was funny to play Embarrass Gage any time I had a date at the house.” He sighed. “Tammy Westcott and Ingrid Sommers.”
Tammy, the head cheerleader, and Ingrid, a theater nerd with the most beautiful red hair he’d ever seen. Tammy had let him get to third base before making him cool his balls in the lake. Alone. Ingrid had let him go all the way and then asked if her performance was okay.
Callie’s hand slipped into his. “If I could have gotten Ingrid’s brother Tommy to notice me, I’d have brought him out here.”
“Tommy Sommers was gay.”
“He was not!”
“You never noticed how he and Brad Adams always paired off? They weren’t just buddies, Cal. Last I heard, they’d moved to Tijuana to run a B&B on the beach.”
“I had no idea. So you and Tammy and Ingrid, huh?”
“Not at the same time. But, yeah.” After Tammy and Ingrid, he’d avoided bringing any other girls
out here. And then his father died, and the thought of bringing a random girl out here after Callie had been so kind to him that day just felt wrong. He wasn’t going to tell her all of that, though. “I was a stupid boy, and they were willing.”
“I’m not judging. But I’m glad I’m here now. With you.” She pulled his face to hers. “Thanks for talking me down off the this-is-too-complicated ledge earlier. I know this isn’t the right time, because of our working relationship, and we aren’t kids who get off on having sex in dangerous places.” Wanting filled those deep, blue eyes. Desire. “And I don’t want to have this not-good-timing conversation every other hour, so I’m dropping it. I want you, Gage, with all the risks that entails.”
The blue deepened, and the navy flecks near her irises created sparks that dragged him under with her. Gage tried to push away, to put an inch of distance between them before things went too far. Who was he kidding? They’d already gone too far. First he’d invested in her business, and then he couldn’t stop thinking about her so he’d made up all kinds of reasons to see her. She hadn’t needed his advice on the new location or the grand opening plans. He didn’t have to ask her out to celebrate that first night, or any of the nights since.
He’d already broken nearly every one of his rules about dating, and he couldn’t seem to stop himself. It scared him how much he wanted Callie, not just in his bed but in his life. Because if it was this hard to stop seeing Callie when she obviously wanted to see him, how hard would it be to let her go when things weren’t so easy? When she was tired of the drives out to the ranch or he got busy with a new project? He wasn’t going to be like his father, chasing after a woman, but he didn’t know if he could exist without Callie in his life.
And it had barely been a week since she came back into his life. He pushed away and ran his hands through his hair. He pulled his boots off his feet and tossed them toward the blanket before stepping into the water. Cool waves lapped against his ankles, dampening the hem of his jeans.
“God, I want you, Callie.” The words left a burn as they ripped from his throat.
The one thing he wanted—Callie’s body beneath his, offering heat, comfort, and maybe something more—wouldn’t let him go. He glanced back, and her gaze pulled him down a little bit more.
“I want you, Gage.”
“Callie … ”
“The timing is terrible, but I do. This is complicated and has the potential to get messy, and I don’t like messes any more than you do.” She toed off her sandals and stepped into the water with him. She put her hands on his face. “But I can’t stop wanting you.”
“I want you, too, Cal. I don’t know how this works, the working together and the dating each other, but I know I want you around.”
“I think that’s a good start.”
Her sweet, soft lips brushed his jaw, and Gage was lost for a moment. He forced his mind back to the surface.
“My parents’ relationship was jacked for as long as I can remember. She left, he chased. She spent everything, and he gave her more. I swore I’d never repeat that cycle, so I made myself a serial dater. My own brother had me elected Bachelor of the freakin’ Month. I’ve got friend requests and emails and phone messages from women I don’t know and don’t want to know, and we’ve got this business thing between us. I’m not a great bet, Cal.”
She watched him for a long moment, as if considering what he said. “I’m not, either. I married Eddie Davenport because—” She crossed her arms over her chest as if the words hurt to say. “Because I was lonely and he said all the right things, and I convinced myself that the things he said were what mattered. In reality, he was a liar, and a cheat, and I have no idea why he proposed instead of just keeping me as one in his stable of girlfriends.”
Gage clenched his fist. Damn Eddie for hurting Callie this way. She deserved better. She deserved everything. Someone to hold her hand, someone to lift her up. He wanted to be that man. God, but he didn’t know if he could. What did he know about loving someone who wasn't biologically related to him?
“You deserve better.”
“I brought it on myself.” She tapped her fingers against her upper arms. “I wanted so badly to not be alone that I missed all the warning signs.”
“We all get lost, Cal.” He reached out, but she stepped away before he could touch her. Almost as if him touching her would make it harder to say whatever it was she needed to say.
“I was shocked when he proposed, because we’d only been dating a few weeks, but he said he wanted to help me realize my dreams. I do think he cared about me, in his way, and I let myself get carried away because when he was around I didn’t think about Vegas so much.”
Gage ran his hands through her hair. “Cal, you’re the strongest woman I know.”
“No, I’m not. I nearly destroyed my business before you came along, and I married a guy who regularly cheated on me. I get distracted, and when I’m focused, I sometimes lose track of anything else on the table.” She offered him a half grin. “I don’t want to be alone. I also don’t want to be this amazing businesswoman who goes home to an empty house and eats her dinner standing over the kitchen sink. So if you’re willing to be ignored from time to time, I’m willing to deal with strange women drooling over your picture in the paper.”
“So maybe we complicate things just a little bit?”
“I think complicated is the only way to go. Because after only a week we can’t seem to stay away from one another.” She stepped toward him, putting her hands on his shoulders. “I also think we’ve established that when I play, I play to win. That’s on games of chance as well as actual events. And so far I’m 2–0 against you.”
“Is that your way of telling me you’re betting on yourself?”
“Something like that. But I’ll let you in on a little secret. I only bet on things I really want. And the things I want, I generally get.” Her lips traced his jawline until she reached his earlobe. She pulled that bit of skin between her teeth and bit down.
Good God, she’d learned a few things on the East Coast.
Gage walked her back to the blanket and laid her down on the soft folds. He pushed his thigh between her legs as he captured her mouth with his. She was soft against him, pliant. Ravenous.
He slipped his tongue between her lips, tasting her. Her mouth was sweet, with a little sugar from the Dr. Pepper she’d had with lunch. Salty. She was Callie, and she was where she was supposed to be.
With him.
She tightened her arms around his neck, pressing up against him so that Gage could feel her breasts beneath the layers of fabric between them. He pulled the hem of her top up, up, until he could feel her bare skin against the back of his hand. Her muscles trembled at the light touch.
It wasn’t enough. Gage pushed both of his hands beneath her tunic, spanning her waist. She trembled again as one thumb dipped into her belly button. His fingers walked up her sides to play with the bottom of her bra. It felt lacy, soft like her, and he wondered what it would look like. Dangerously thin? Virginally white? He reached up, over her breasts, his hands flattening against her lace-covered nipples. They hardened to sharp buds as her tongue began to tango with his.
The rough lace between them was too much. Gage pushed it aside and filled his hands with her full breasts, teasing and stroking. Getting to know the feel of her. Callie’s head lolled back against the blanket, and she sighed.
“I’ve missed you.” The words slipped from his mouth, and for a split second Gage wanted to recall them. To unsay the words that might send Callie running straight back into the ranch house, to her car, and eventually back to Vegas. “I didn’t know it until you came into my office.”
Only she didn’t run.
She opened her eyes, watching him intently. She ran her index finger over his pecs, down his abs, to rest in the dangerous quadrant of his belt buckle. Teasing him a little, she traced little circles over the buckle up to his belly button and then down, down. Only to stop where his
jeans began and then head due north once more.
“Me, too.” She licked her lips. “I thought about you from time to time. Not in a romantic way, just wondering what you were doing. Then you followed me around looking at all those office spaces, and when I went home I kept wanting to ask you questions that had nothing to do with business.”
He nibbled her lower lip. “Questions like what?”
“Like how did the boy I knew turn into this charismatic hunk who makes women want him just by walking into a dive restaurant.”
Gage laughed. “No that many women want me.”
She tapped his back pocket where his phone was tucked securely. “Hundreds of friend requests, emails, and phone calls don’t lie. One picture in the paper and you’re irresistible.” She nipped his lip. “I’ve missed my friend Gage. Don’t make me miss you any longer.”
The words sent him over the edge. He’d been without Callie for ten years. Even when she was in his life as a kid he hadn’t had her in a romantic way. Once she left town he’d thought of her. Wondered about her. Now she was here, not in the best of circumstances, but she was here. Available. He couldn’t stop wanting her.
Gage undid the snap of her jeans and pulled them from her long, shapely legs. He drew in a breath. Emerald green lace met his gaze, peeking from beneath the blue silk of her top. He pushed the tunic over her head. Green lace outlined the sides of her breasts where he’d pushed the fabric aside earlier. He reached between them to unsnap the front closure and drew the straps from her body. Callie sighed, kissing his shoulder.
She pulled the black, faded tee from his shoulders, following the sliding fabric with her mouth, and then his skin was against hers. His hard chest trembled against her soft curves. Her smooth lips captured one of his nipples, and Gage tensed. Lord, but her tongue felt good on his body.
“Callie.” Her name felt right on his lips. Gage knew, in the back of his mind, the timing was all wrong for them. He knew that sooner rather than later his business or hers would begin to take precedence over their attraction. He didn’t care. For as long as he could have her, he wanted Callie.
Gage took off his jeans, drew a condom from his wallet, and sheathed himself quickly. Then he pulled her panties from her body and just looked at her for a long moment. Callie’s breasts heaved as she tried to catch her breath. Her deep blue eyes beckoned him closer. She reached out to him, her fingers lightly tracing the tattoo covering his ribs.
What the Bachelor Gets Page 17