by Amy Andrews
Callie thanked her lucky stars there was a table to hide behind as she squirmed in her seat. Cade’s accent and his breadth of knowledge plucked at her body like she was a guitar and he was strumming her strings.
She was a doctor, for crying out loud! She was surrounded by intelligent people. Every day. Three of them, in fact, were sitting right beside her on this very panel. But every time Cade opened his mouth and said something in his confident American drawl, her belly heated a little bit more and she shifted restlessly to ease the ache that had taken up permanent residence between her legs.
It was a relief when it was over and she was able to put some distance between them. She’d had a long day and was obviously sleep deprived. Having come straight from work to the five-star Surfers Paradise hotel where the symposium was being held, all she wanted was a shower and her bed. She was on call over the weekend, too, and that was always full-on.
She was gathering her stuff when Cade excused himself from the crowd of people milling around him. He made a beeline for her and asked, ‘You want a ride home?’
Callie looked up at him as she hauled her bag off the floor. He was tall and sure and sexy with his tie askew and his hair all ruffled, and she thought, Hell, yeah, but not the way you mean.
Cade had always been up front about not wanting to be in a relationship. As had she. They were a one-off deal. No matter how much she wanted to take him home and tie him to her bedposts.
‘Cade…Callie.’
Callie turned towards the voice to find Natalie Alberts approaching. She was looking pretty and feminine in a floaty dress. She herself felt decidedly not, in a pair of tailored trousers and a plain button-up blouse.
‘That was so fascinating,’ Natalie enthused. ‘The potential outcomes you spoke about are incredible.’
Cade smiled politely. ‘Yes. I’ve seen amazing results.’
‘I’d love to be able to watch the surgery,’ she said.
‘You should be able to watch it from the gallery,’ he said. ‘I think it’ll be kind of full but I’m sure you could squeeze in.’
Callie almost rolled her eyes as Natalie beamed, obviously taking it as some personal compliment.
‘So where are you two off to now for your date?’
Callie blinked at the question. She’d forgotten about that. From the stunned look on Cade’s face he had, too.
‘Oh…we’re just going to…go down to the bar,’ Callie said, looking at Cade for confirmation.
‘Yes,’ he agreed. ‘We’re just going to grab something to eat there. Nothing formal.’
‘Oh, excellent,’ Natalie said. ‘I’m meeting some colleagues down there now.’
Callie kept her smile in place. Of course she was.
‘I have to say, Cade…’ Natalie smiled, her long blond hair falling in a curtain to her shoulders ‘…I think it’s so sweet that you’re going through with this thing. You’ve been such a good sport about it.’
Callie frowned at Natalie. So the frail blonde had some teeth. ‘I coughed up five thousand dollars for him,’ she butted in, folding her arms. ‘There’s nothing sweet about it. He owes me.’
Cade smiled at Callie’s irritation. ‘It’s no hardship,’ he assured Natalie, his tongue firmly in his cheek.
‘Oh, yes, but we all know that these things are just formalities,’ Natalie dismissed with a laugh. ‘It’s all about the donation, really.’
‘Not for me it’s not,’ Callie said, gritting her teeth. ‘I fully intend to get my five thousand out of him.’
Natalie looked put out and Callie felt a moment’s triumph. How dared the other woman suggest that Cade was just being a good sport and humouring her with a date! She had a good mind to rip his shirt off and show her the scratch marks on Cade’s back.
Show her she’d already got more than her money’s worth.
‘Anyway…’ Cade said to Natalie as he grabbed hold of Callie’s elbow, ‘I guess we’ll be seeing you down there.’
‘Yes,’ she said. ‘I’ll catch you later.’
Callie watched her walk away. ‘Cow,’ she muttered under her breath.
Cade chuckled. ‘She sure pushed your buttons.’
Callie wanted to say, No, you’re doing that, but refrained. ‘Yeah, well, that’s because I’m dog-tired. I need a shower. I need my bed.’
Cade shook his head, mainly for something to do other than offering to help her wash her back. God knew, he hadn’t managed to have a shower in his own place yet without thinking about how he’d taken her against the tiles.
‘Too bad,’ he said. ‘We have a date to go on.’
‘No,’ she protested.
‘Oh, yes,’ he said, as he ushered her towards the lift. ‘Just an hour then I’ll take you home. Just for appearances’ sake.’
Callie was too tired to fight him and her bodily urges. It might just be easier to give in to them and let them have a bit longer in his company.
Bloody demanding things, urges.
The bar wasn’t too crowded when they arrived. Cade secured them a low round table just big enough to place drinks on with trendy tub chairs near one of the huge windows that overlooked the ocean. He ordered a selection of tapas at the bar and bought her a red wine and a beer for himself.
‘Thank you,’ she said, as he sat and she took a fortifying sip as the minimal distance between them closed even further with the bulk of his presence.
She could easily slide her hand onto his thigh, should she be so inclined.
Callie took another sip and looked around, reminding herself why she was there. ‘Natalie and her pals are at three o’clock,’ she said to him. ‘Ringside seats.’
Cade glanced over. Natalie smiled and waved and he raised his glass to her and her group. ‘She is persistent, isn’t she?’
‘Uh-huh,’ Callie said, taking another sip.
‘Okay, then,’ he said, resigning himself to his fate. ‘So, let’s do this thing.’
Callie frowned. ‘What thing?’
‘The date.’
‘Well, I’m going to have to be guided by you,’ she said. ‘Because, seriously, I haven’t dated in a lo-o-ng time.’
Since high school, to be exact.
Cade unknotted his tie even more and undid his top two buttons. Callie shook her head as she watched him. ‘What?’ he asked.
Her fingers itched to strip his shirt off him altogether so she gripped her glass harder. ‘Why do you even wear one?’ she demanded. ‘It’s always half-off anyway.’
‘It’s a nod to the dress code but it’s kind of my own personal protest. I hate the damn things.’
‘Well, take it off, then,’ she said, and this time she couldn’t resist. She put her glass on the table, reached across the narrow space separating them and made short work of it. The satisfying zip as she pulled it out of his collar went straight to her belly.
‘I am perfectly capable of taking my own tie off.’ He laughed as she stuffed it in his shirt pocket.
‘I know that,’ she said, putting her hands firmly back on her glass lest they decide his buttons could do with some undoing, too. ‘I know you’re perfectly capable of taking all your clothes off,’ she said, trying to say it with a nonchalance she didn’t feel.
‘But we have an audience and a woman touching a man’s tie hints at intimacy. Which will probably send a louder message to a…certain someone than this stupid fake date.’
Cade laughed. ‘That’s taking it a bit far, isn’t it?’
Callie shook her head and deliberately leaned towards him, hoping to convey intimacy. Which was surprisingly easy. Too easy. But pretending to him that she was faking that intimacy was harder.
‘Go ahead and laugh,’ she murmured, smiling at him like a lover. Which she was. Or had been. ‘While Natalie thinks that you’re just humouring me, you’re still going to be number one on her hot-docs-to-marry list. It pays to be convincing.’
Cade was taken aback not just by the sense of her words but also by the look on her
face. The Mona Lisa smile, her lowered lashes, her parted lips.
‘Is that so?’ he asked, as his gazed dropped to her mouth.
‘Uh-huh,’ she said, her smile flirty now, reaching all the way to her eyes.
Suddenly he couldn’t have agreed more. He leaned forward, covering the short space separating them, and kissed her.
She was right—it did pay to be convincing.
CHAPTER SIX
FOR LONG, DIZZYING SECONDS Callie leaned into the kiss. The bar noise around them faded and it was just her and him and a truly breathtaking assault on her senses. Long and slow and wicked, it erased all thought from her head. All she knew was the smell and the taste of him. They filled her up until she was drunk with the power of them.
She was so intoxicated she didn’t even notice when he eased up and pulled back. ‘Convincing enough, do you think?’ he murmured, his mouth still close, his lips almost brushing hers with every movement.
Callie slowly opened her eyes. Her peripheral vision kicked in and the bar noise started to filter back. With a concerted effort she yanked her hormones into line and forced her head back into the game. She smiled at him, keeping her mouth exactly where it was. ‘I think that’ll do it.’
Then, fighting the urge to clear her throat of its sudden affliction of huskiness, she casually sat back into the cushioned embrace of the chair.
Far away from the temptation of his mouth.
She deliberately took her time crossing her legs ensuring that her foot, clad in a cute kitten heel, angled towards his outstretched leg, lightly brushing against his calf.
Cade felt a bolt of heat travel from his calf straight up his inside leg right into his underpants. It joined the other one that had arrowed down from his mouth during that hot little kiss.
He raised an eyebrow. ‘You do that well. You should date. You’re a natural.’
Callie shrugged. ‘As long as Natalie’s convinced.’
Cade looked around him at the speculative glances being thrown their way. ‘I should think everyone in this bar is convinced. I think you and I are going to be hot gossip come Monday.’
‘Oh, joy,’ she muttered, leaning forward to pick up her glass of wine for another swallow.
A sinking feeling settled low in Callie’s gut. She’d been the focus of town gossip after her marriage had broken up and it hadn’t been pleasant. Since then she’d gone to great pains to be very discreet with her liaisons. And her no-dating policy had certainly helped. No one, for example, had ever known the true extent of her relationship with Alex.
So, why was it she seemed to lose her head around his brother?
‘Oh, come on, it’s not that bad,’ Cade cajoled. Gossip wasn’t his favourite thing in the world and he’d been grateful that none had got out about him and Sophie, especially after she’d been admitted to hospital.
But there were worse things in life.
That was easy for people to forget in a world that focused on trivialities. But Cade never forgot it. He and Alex had come from a place that had been the very definition of worse.
‘Oh, yeah? Just you wait. They’ll have us dating next.’
Cade chuckled. ‘Wasn’t that the object of this?’
‘No, the object was for Natalie to think we’re an item. Not the entire bloody hospital.’
‘Is that so bad?’
Callie shot him an exasperated look. ‘Are you crazy? They’ll have us married off within a couple of months.’
A waiter arrived with their tapas and Cade was glad for the interruption even if it did mean that she withdrew her foot from where it had been lazily circling his calf. It gave the plan forming in his head time to percolate. He waited until they’d both tucked into the goat’s cheese and caramelised onion tartlets before saying any more.
‘It might be good cover for both of us, you know,’ he said. ‘Pretending to be a couple.’
Callie almost choked on her mouthful of cheese and onion. She stared at him nonplussed but he just looked back at her calmly, like this conversation hadn’t just sunk into the ninth circle of hell.
‘Good for you maybe,’ she snorted. ‘You don’t want be involved with anyone at all so it’s kind of perfect cover for you. But I, on the other hand, both want, like and need to be with a man every now and then. Dating you is really going to cramp my style.’
‘That’s fine.’ He shrugged. ‘I’m sure I could be persuaded to put out every now and then.’
Callie blinked at the casual statement. Regular sex with Cade. Her belly clenched at the possibilities. But that smacked of a relationship to her—even if it was a fake one. The last time she’d been in a relationship it had ended in a divorce. ‘Gee…thanks. Don’t do me any favours.’
Cade took a sip of his beer. ‘Come on, Callie, think about it. It would probably only take a few dates in the beginning to get the rumour mill churning then there’d probably be minimal upkeep.’
She shook her head. ‘No.’
‘Would I be so bad to date?’ he asked, feigning a wounded look.
Callie glared at him. ‘I don’t want to date you, or anyone else, for that matter. We’ve been over this already—I just don’t see the point in it.’
Cade frowned. ‘The point?’
Callie nodded. ‘I’m not going to date anyone I don’t want to sleep with. So if we both know how the date’s going to end, why not just cut to the chase?’
After that rather emasculating statement Cade was pleased he knew that Callie didn’t carry over her cutting-to-the-chase theories in bed. ‘I don’t know,’ he said. ‘How about the anticipation? The dance? The slow, delicious build-up?’
Callie picked up her wineglass. ‘That’s what foreplay’s for.’
Cade blinked. ‘Wow.’ He shook his head. ‘You really should have been born a man.’
Callie quirked an eyebrow at him. ‘I’m not going to apologise for knowing what I want and going after it. Men, as you so aptly point out, do it all the time. Isn’t that what you were like before your sudden celibacy?’
‘No,’ Cade said, offended. ‘I dated. A lot, actually. I’m a damn good date if you must know. Sure, it may have been a means to an end but I enjoyed the anticipation. The dance. And sometimes it didn’t go my way. And that was fine, too.’
Cade’s formative sexual experiences with his Beverly Hills cougars had been a good training ground for him. Older women liked to tutor and he had absorbed every last pointer from where women liked to be touched to how they liked to be treated.
She raised her glass to him. ‘Well, good for you,’ Callie said. ‘It’s just not for me.’
‘I bet you it could be,’ Cade said as he picked up a stuffed mushroom. ‘I bet you and I could fake-date very impressively.’
Callie looked at him. A smear of buttery sauce decorated one corner of his mouth and the urge to lean right over and lick it off shook her to the core. To paste it all over his body and lick that off, too. In fact, she wanted to drag him and the tapas plate up to the nearest unoccupied hotel room and do it right now.
She’d never had problems walking away from a hook-up before, but for some reason Cade was different.
Which only solidified her convictions. It was time to lay her cards on the table.
But first, that sauce had to go.
She picked up a napkin, reached over and wiped at it. Not a sexy little dab that lovers employed—that would fool Natalie—more like a motherly swipe. But at least it was gone. And she hadn’t used her tongue.
She scrunched the napkin in her hand. ‘I’m not going on a date with you. I’m not going to even pretend to go on a date with you,’ she said. ‘Because I know where it’ll end up. Back in your bed. Or my bed. Or the bloody shower again. I don’t know why but my body doesn’t seem to be satisfied with just one night where you’re concerned. And that’s just not the way I roll.’
Cade felt her very matter-of-fact admission right down to his marrow. It simmered in his cells and tingled in the scratch marks th
at were now only faint pink lines down his back.
She wanted him again.
That would be bad if it wasn’t so horny.
Bad because it would be straying into fling territory and the last time he’d had a fling it hadn’t ended so well.
Horny because having a woman be so up front about her desires, so honest about her attraction, was flat-out arousing.
It was also vaguely insulting that Callie thought he’d be such a pushover. She was so damn sure of herself sitting opposite him, cradling her wineglass, confident in her body and her sexuality.
Which also happened to be very horny.
‘Well, now,’ he said, easing himself back into his chair, ‘just because you have no self-control, it doesn’t mean I don’t.’ He smiled. ‘I do believe I’ve turned you down before. I’m pretty sure I can do it again.’
Callie couldn’t believe what she was hearing. That someone so experienced with life’s pitfalls could be this naive. Whatever else they had between them, they had chemistry to burn. That was always hard to turn down.
She leaned forward a little, her elbows on her knees, her wineglass dangling from one hand. The movement squeezed her breasts together nicely and gave him a good view down her top. Her blouse may have been plain but her cleavage was spectacular.
‘So,’ she murmured, running a fingertip around the rim of her wineglass, ‘you think we can go on a date and just talk about everyday getting-to-know-you type things after a dirty ocean swim, a quickie against the wall of your shower and two hours in your bed and not end up back in it at the end of the night?’
Cade swallowed at the deliberately provocative language and the come-on in her actions. But he was hardly some youth still wet behind the ears. He’d spent the last few months shoring up his defences against women and he’d got pretty damn good at it.
He was more than a match for Callie.
‘I do. I absolutely do. I promise you I can get through a date without laying a finger on you.’
She smiled at him sweetly. ‘But what if I want you to lay a finger on me?’