by Jorja Lovett
He opened his arms wide in an act of submission. “Hey, I’ve got no problem with that. I’m not about to challenge you. As soon as I get this place on the market, I’m outta here. Though I guess it’s gonna take longer than I thought now.”
And cost him every penny he had to put it right.
“I can ask around, see if anyone saw who did this and dust for prints.” Rory remained professional but Caleb knew it was a waste of time.
“Forget it. They’ve had months to fence whatever they took and there have been more people through here than the Europa bus station. I’ll get it put to rights as soon as I can and move on.”
Rory nodded, the plan obviously to his liking as well.
“Rory, I’m freezing sitting out in that car. Can we go yet?” A female voice breached the male stronghold, followed by a familiar face. Only hours earlier he’d chased her stunning white wolf form through the nearby woods. Her face paled as she recognised him and Caleb’s inner wolf howled in appreciation at being reunited with its mate.
His human couldn’t complain either. Slim, slight and blonde, she was every man’s fantasy. Although he preferred her naked instead of the jeans and jumper cover-all she wore now.
“Caleb, you remember my sister Mia?”
Holy shit! He’d just fucked Rory Blake’s little sister six ways to Sunday!
“Yes, I think I recognise her.” He swept his eyes over her body, remembering how responsive she had been to his touch.
“Caleb?” Large blue eyes blinked at him in fear. As if he would rat her out to her brother and run the risk of having his balls handed to him on a plate for his trouble.
“I told you to wait in the car.” Rory let his cool demeanour slide to scold his baby sister but Caleb was too caught up in this latest revelation to crow over it.
“Maybe I’m sick of being told what to do.” Mia pursed her pretty pink lips, reminding him of the pigtailed nuisance that used to follow him around like a shadow when they were kids. He never did understand her fascination with him, figuring that the pampered princess got her kicks watching a guy fail at life on a daily basis. Well, now she’d had her bit of rough and he’d got to enjoy the sweet revenge of watching embarrassment stain her cheeks.
Rory glanced at both of them in turn and scowled. “It’s late. I have to get Mia home. I’ll round up some help tomorrow but in the meantime you can stay at mine.”
“No!” Caleb and Mia chorused together.
“Thanks, but I don’t think your folks would appreciate a house guest at such short notice.” Caleb could imagine the mighty Blakes’ reaction to him revving up to the estate and messing up their perfectly manicured driveway.
“I’ve got my own place now and you can’t stay here without heat.” Rory wrapped his knuckles on one of the radiators hanging from the wall. “I owe you for not keeping a closer eye on the place.”
Caleb mulled the offer over. He was pretty sure his wolf would save him from the cold and he was used to kipping on sofas, or roaming the woods in his animal guise. The thought of being in Saint Rory’s debt didn’t sit well with him either. Then again, the expression of horror on Mia’s face was proving irresistible to his bad boy tendencies.
“Well, if you insist.” The sadistic streak running in his veins made him accept. The change in her, from the rampant sexual dynamo who’d had her legs slung over his shoulders so he could fuck her that much harder, to this diffident replica, didn’t sit easily with him. If she thought she could treat him like a lesser mortal now just because he’d dared to enter her cosseted kingdom, she could think again.
He gave them his cheesiest grin and decided he may as well have a little fun while being forced to confront his past.
Chapter Two
“I didn’t know we served ice cream floats in here.” Naomi cocked an eyebrow at Mia across the bar.
She frowned. Of course they didn’t serve kiddie drinks in this hard liquor pub. Mia shut off the pump and lifted the pint of beer. Only then did she understand the jibe.
“Oh. Sorry.” The foamy head half filled the pint glass. The customers who frequented The Wild Dog would surely have lynched her if she’d tried to serve it to them.
Under her boss’s watchful eye Mia corrected her mistake and served a full pint of golden lager to a relieved regular.
Naomi’s features softened into a smile. “You seem distracted this morning.”
“Just something on my mind.” Or someone. Mia turned her attention back to retrieving the glasses from the dishwasher, trying not to linger on thoughts of reckless carnal acts or sexy bad boys. It didn’t work. Even now she swore she could smell his heady, earthy scent, reminding her of his naked body pressed tightly to hers. The glass she was holding slipped from her fingers and smashed to smithereens on the tiled floor as her daydream claimed her attention.
“Shit!”
Naomi sighed and fetched a dustpan and brush to clean up the mess. “Do you want to share this mind-melting problem before you put me out of business?”
“It’s fine.” Damn Caleb Jackson! She didn’t get flustered and she sure as hell didn’t let her personal problems affect her in public. She blamed him completely for her total work fail. Until yesterday, the last time she’d set eyes on him he’d been a scruffy teenager on the receiving end of a beating from his father. Now her sympathy for Caleb Jackson was definitely being overshadowed by thoughts of a more risqué nature.
Thankfully, the lunchtime crowd began to filter in and Naomi dropped the inquisition to play hostess.
“Hey, sis.” Somewhere among the crowd, Rory had managed to slip in unnoticed. Her brother possessed that annoying knack of showing up when she least wanted to talk.
He stretched across the bar to reach for a menu, though Mia didn’t know why he bothered.
“I’ll have the soup of the day and a coffee,” he ordered, like he didn’t have the same thing every day.
He pretended to study the menu but Mia saw the sly glimpses he snatched at Naomi. She grinned. Her macho big brother still hadn’t worked up the courage to ask the attractive brunette out after two years of pining for her, but Mia knew better than to interfere. Naomi kept her private life closely guarded. No one knew anything of her background, save for the fact that she had turned up in town, heavily pregnant, and with enough money to buy the pub outright. Anyone who questioned her about her past was quickly dispatched with a flea in their ear, and Mia’s problems were great enough without adding her boss’s wrath to the mix.
“So, um, did your new lodger settle in okay?” She turned her back to pour a black coffee so Rory couldn’t read her as easily as she read him.
“Yeah. I’m thinking of getting a work party together to help him sort his place out. You in?”
She almost suffered third degree coffee burns at the idea of working alongside Caleb. Caught up in the euphoria of her liberation as a wolf, she’d willingly gone into his arms, unaware that her actions would come back to haunt her so close to home. Mr Jackson certainly couldn’t provide the security her parents expected from a suitor. She would do well to forget him altogether.
“In what?” Naomi walked in on the end of their conversation to place a bowl of steaming hot tomato and basil soup in front of Rory. “Are you two planning a bank job or something?” The smiles exchanged between her brother and her boss left Mia out in the cold, yearning for a share of the warmth emanating between them.
“The old Jackson place on the hill was vandalised. I’m looking for volunteers to help fix it up.” Rory’s face, so full of hope, concentrated on Naomi’s response.
“I will if Mia will.” Naomi threw her under the bus. There was no way Mia could say no now and refuse the big eejit some quality time with the love of his life.
“Sure. There’s nothing better I’d like to do in my spare time than freeze my arse off in a derelict house with a mop in my hand.” Or spend the whole time pretending I didn’t bonk the house owner like a wild thing.
The sarcasm was l
ost on her too-far-gone-to-notice sibling.
“Great. Hey, Caleb. We’ve got our first two recruits.”
Another glass hit the deck when Caleb appeared from the gents’ bathroom.
“Mia, what the hell is wrong with you today?” Naomi pushed her shell-shocked employee to one side and proceeded to sweep up for the second time.
“Are you sickening for something?” Rory studied her with concern, probably getting ready to bundle her up in cotton wool and ship her straight home to mother.
Mia didn’t have the chance to make up an excuse as Caleb walked straight into her eye line with a smirk that described his every dirty thought in great detail, sending her hormones haywire and making her panties wet.
“Yeah, you do look kinda hot.”
“I think something must have disagreed with me,” she mumbled, wishing Caleb could be a gentleman for once and let the matter drop.
“You sure about that?” He sniffed the air and she saw a flash of amber fire in his eyes. Oh holy hell! Surely he can’t smell my arousal?
“You know what? I probably should go home. Sorry, Naomi. I’ll be back as soon as I get this out of my system.” Glaring daggers at Olcan Hills’ latest resident, Mia took off her apron and admitted defeat.
“Sure. Maybe you could bring some plastic cups for your next shift?” Naomi snarked, emptying another panful of glass shards into the dustbin.
“Do you want me to give you a lift home?” Rory pushed his food aside and attempted to get up from his seat.
“No thanks. I’ll walk. The fresh air might do me some good.” With the usually homely log fire burning nearby now seeming unbearably hot and the cosy bar suddenly claustrophobic, she just wanted out of there. Away from Caleb Jackson’s smouldering looks and I’m-picturing-you-naked smile.
As had become his recent habit, Caleb jumped in to upset her plans. He put a hand on Rory’s shoulder to restrain him in the chair. “Don’t worry, I’ll see Mia home. You stay and finish your lunch.”
“But… But…” Think, damn it! She fought for an excuse to decline the son of a bitch’s magnanimous offer, while Caleb calmly took her by the elbow and steered her towards the door.
“I insist. Your brother knows you’re in safe hands with me.”
Left with no choice but to go with him in case she aroused her brother’s suspicions, she followed Caleb out, vowing to ditch him as soon as they were out of sight. “If my brother knew what you did to me, he’d have you stuffed and mounted.”
“First of all, I didn’t hear you complaining about what I did to you. In fact, I think I remember it went more along the lines of, ‘That feels so good… Don’t stop…’”
She raised a hand, willing him to stop assaulting her with those delicious memories.
He wasn’t done. “Stuffed and mounted, you say? You like it that way, don’t you, Mia?”
She followed her sharp intake of breath with an exasperated groan and strode ahead down the path. Unfortunately, with only fields and scrub as far as the eye could see, there was no chance of avoiding him.
He jogged up alongside her. “You know, I didn’t have you down as a beer and nuts kind of girl. I thought you’d end up spending your days lunching with the well-to-do.”
Not for the first time did she find herself having to justify her job. “For your information, I went to medical school, but it wasn’t for me. Working at The Dog puts money in my pocket. I can’t complain.”
He didn’t pursue the subject, but went on to tackle the other matter she wished to avoid. “So, are we ever gonna talk about what happened in the woods?”
“No.”
“We’re gonna pretend it never happened?”
“Exactly.” She kept up her brisk pace.
“Really? You’re not up for a repeat performance then?”
Mia spun around. The guilt, fear, embarrassment, not to mention longing, spiralling through her body, were emotions she did not wish to court on a regular basis. “It was a mistake. I don’t do that… I usually don’t do that sort of thing.”
“No?” A raised eyebrow questioned her virtue.
“No.” She repeated firmly. Someone as obviously promiscuous as Caleb wouldn’t understand the significance of that one act to someone like her. The daughter of Edward and Gayle Blake would never dream of behaving in such a manner and running the risk of tarnishing the family’s good name. The free-spirited wolf on the other hand apparently got carried away in the heat of the moment.
Fixing her eyes intently on his, she made it plain she had no desire for those two different aspects of her life to intersect and tear her apart. “I don’t need the likes of you screwing things up for me.”
His face contracted into a frown. “Fine. Just pretend it was nothing more than a bad dream.”
She should have felt nothing but relief when he walked away, ending a conversation she hadn’t wanted to have in the first place. But a pang of regret lingered with Mia, along with the image of that freshly crushed look on Caleb’s face. It wasn’t his fault that she wanted to deny her body’s natural reaction to him, merely unfortunate that he had ended up on the receiving end of her own self-loathing.
Maybe she could find some way to make it up to him for her brusque behaviour. Preferably something that didn’t involve her being in close physical contact with her walking, talking aphrodisiac.
* * * *
Caleb filled bag after bag full of litter from the wreckage of the cottage. After a fitful night’s sleep under Rory’s roof, replaying Mia’s look of contempt in his head, he had risen with the sun and set to work, eager to get the hell out of this place before it dragged him down again.
While he never did go in for hearts, flowers and promises ever after, to have her dismiss him so callously had struck soundly at his ego. It reminded him of his childhood here, unwanted, unloved and an embarrassment to those around him. After years of building up his defences, relying on no one but himself, he didn’t intend to hang around waiting for a pampered princess to validate his existence.
The minute the doors of the nearest estate agent had opened that morning, he had put the wheels in motion with a phone call. The fun most definitely over, now he was simply tasked with making the house presentable for viewing.
“Anybody home?” He heard a brief knock quickly followed by the thunder of work boots crossing the threshold. I really must remember to start locking that door.
“Hey, Caleb. I’ve brought a few helping hands for you.” Rory, looking mighty pleased with himself, led a procession of workers into his living room.
“Hi, everyone. Thanks for coming.” Caleb acknowledged their gracious spirit in helping someone who’d probably pissed them all off at some point in his rebellious teens. He’d done his fair share of petty theft and vandalism, in an attempt to get at his father.
Although, going by the uncomfortable shuffling of feet and furtive glances around him, he imagined they were here for Rory’s benefit and not his. He could almost picture a hastily arranged community meeting discussing in hushed tones the best way to oust the bad news biker from the good officer’s home. But at least they were all working towards the same goal.
The hairy workmen only appeared vaguely interested in the surroundings when Mia and Naomi appeared alongside them. He wondered what had made his blonde bombshell attend the gathering when she’d seemed so determined to keep him at arm’s length. But she’d come dressed for the occasion, wearing black leggings and a baggy blue T-shirt tied in a knot at her waist. With her golden mane swept up into a youthful ponytail, she looked fresh and innocent. Damn it if his libido didn’t respond, totally ignoring the fact that she’d seriously dented his pride only yesterday.
She possessed that aura of naïvety that made men want to protect her, as illustrated by the restless natives when Caleb’s gaze lingered on her a fraction too long. Brandishing their assorted power tools and brooms, the odd-looking army banded together to protect their queen. The warning came too late. He’d already h
ad his nuts handed to him by the woman herself for thinking he was in with a chance.
“Right.” Caleb clapped his hands together, breaking the sudden tension in the room. “Let’s get this party started.”
The assembled drones worked tirelessly through the day, cleaning and fixing whatever it took to end their responsibility to one of their own. Fair play to Rory, he knew enough tradesmen to make this shell liveable.
“What did you do, threaten them with jail if they didn’t help?” Caleb joked with Rory as they worked together to re-hang doors and dump the irreparable furniture.
Rory winced as they hoisted the damaged sofa into the skip, on top of the broken remnants of a table and a dubiously stained mattress. “I’m sure we could rustle up some second-hand furniture for you from somewhere.”
“You’ve done more than enough, mate. Thanks, but I think I can handle things from here.” Caleb shrugged off the hand of friendship, not at all comfortable in this unfamiliar territory. In his drifter life, coasting through towns and never lingering long enough to cultivate actual friends, he didn’t know how to handle the apparently altruistic policeman. Pats on the back from Rory might have been a sought-after prize for many but they only succeeded in making Caleb suspicious about his motives.
“A word of advice, Caleb. If you want the town to forgive and forget, you’ve got to learn to do the same.” Rory left him to mull that over and carried on with the house clearance.
What the fuck any of it had to do with accepting a second-hand sofa, Caleb didn’t know. Letting these people into his house in the first place was the olive branch as far as he was concerned. An entire community who thought he was scum, a woman to whom he was nothing more than an embarrassing indiscretion, and a do-gooder who treated him like a charity case—they were only here to salve their own consciences for turning a blind eye all this time.
He couldn’t temper his cynicism, but, when most of the helpers had finished their assigned tasks, even he was forced to admit that the results of the home makeover were impressive. As he walked back through the property, the empty rooms, swept clean of the past and bad memories, were oddly comforting. The coat of magnolia paint the girls had given the place meant that it no longer resembled the vessel for his father’s violent rages. The atmosphere now spoke of possibilities, and it seemed to him that the house was calling out to him for a fresh start.