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

by Wood, Joss

  ‘The Whitsun bride is neurotic and temperamental. And she trusts me,’ Maddie replied, mentally juggling her schedule. She’d have the wedding off her hands in two weeks and then her schedule would be marginally lighter. ‘I’m snowed under but I think I can manage it—if I get a break from the reports and quotes.’

  ‘Consider it done,’ Jens breezily agreed.

  Maddie knew when to press her advantage. ‘You’ll clear it with Harriet?’

  ‘Of course. So, is this settled?’ Jens rubbed his hands together.

  Maddie smiled at him. ‘Absolutely, Jens. Cale and I’ll take it from here.’ She made a point of glancing at her watch. ‘You probably have a full morning?’

  Jens took the gap she’d created to leave. He hastily shook Cale’s hand and told him that he was leaving him and his event in capable hands. He hustled out without a backward glance and they watched him leave.

  When he was out of earshot Maddie turned to Cale. Opening her mouth to interrogate him, she caught a glimpse of Thandi’s and Jake’s very interested faces. Grabbing Cale by the hand, she led him down the passage to an empty private conference room and slammed the door behind him.

  Cale wasted no time and pulled her into his arms, planting his mouth on hers. Maddie fell into his kiss for a minute, and then forced herself to step away. In order to avoid temptation she positioned herself on the other side of the conference table and placed her hands on the back of a chair.

  ‘What on earth did you say to him?’

  Cale shrugged, grinned and followed her around the table.

  ‘C’mon, Cale, he never does things like this,’ Maddie said as he loomed in front of her.

  Cale used his index finger to scoop a blob of custard off a button. ‘You’re a mess, Maddie.’

  Maddie slapped his hands away. ‘Cale!’

  Cale’s slow grin had her stomach flipping. ‘I used my connections. I know some people who would consider sending some of their business Jens’s way if he allowed you to work on my race.’

  Maddie narrowed her eyes, suspicious. ‘Like who?’

  ‘One or two national sports federations.’

  Wow. Big accounts, Maddie thought. National accounts. Jens would think her time was worth sacrificing for a shot at those contracts.

  Cale fiddled with the buttons of her shirt and slipped them open to reveal the top of a hot pink lacy bra. ‘Nice. Very nice. Matching panties?’

  Maddie nodded, her mouth drying at the heat in Cale’s eyes.

  ‘Tiny thong?’

  Maddie swallowed. ‘Very.’

  Cale’s hand slid over her breast and rested on her hip. ‘You have an insane work schedule, Madison.’

  ‘I know. And with the race it’s just going to get worse.’

  ‘Planning on doing anything about it?’

  Maddie closed her eyes as his mouth dropped to hers, but when his lips touched the corner of her mouth her eyes flew open as his words registered. ‘What do you mean?’

  Cale stepped away from her and half perched on the conference table. He stretched his legs out in front of him. ‘Are you going to make room for a man in your life? Specifically me?’

  Maddie walked across to a table in the corner where a water dispenser stood. She jammed a plastic cup under its spout and pushed the lever. When it was full, she took a sip and waved the cup in the air. Water sloshed over the side.

  ‘I don’t know. I don’t even know how I am going to manage your race, let alone an affair.’

  ‘You have some serious time issues.’ Cale folded his arms and tipped his head. ‘You really surprised me, making that offer of no-strings sex.’

  Maddie looked amused. ‘Let’s not pretend it’s the first offer of uncomplicated sex you’ve ever received.’

  ‘I meant you surprised me,’ Cale replied patiently.

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Because I thought you had marriage and for ever and hearts tattooed on your butt. So, no desire for the white fairytale dress and the trip to church?’

  Maddie vehemently shook her head. ‘I’m violently allergic to weddings. I didn’t grow up with a great example of marriage.’ Maddie toyed with the paper cup. ‘If I ever do marry, probably with a gun to my head, I will be barefoot on the beach at sunset, wearing a scarlet dress with bougainvillaea flowers in my hair.’

  Maddie tossed her cup in the wastebasket and faced him. She had no idea how they’d got onto the subject of marriage… and it was time to get this conversation back on track.

  ‘Look, since you’ve lobbed this grenade in my lap, I’d better get back to work. I have got so much to get through before I even look at what needs to be done for the race.’

  ‘No, not today,’ Cale told her, and took her hand and pulled her towards the door.

  Maddie tried to tug her hand back. ‘What are you doing?’

  ‘We’re going to lunch.’

  ‘Did you not hear a thing I just said about my work?’

  ‘Heard. Ignored.’

  ‘It’s nine in the morning! Don’t you have heads to fix?’ Maddie demanded, unable to get her hand out of his.

  ‘Such respect for my work.’ Cale pulled her down the passage and back into the open-plan office, cheerfully grinning at her colleagues who were staring open-mouthed at them. ‘I’ve taken the day off. So should you.’

  ‘Cale, I can’t—’ Maddie wailed as he picked up her bag and casually draped it over his shoulder.

  Cale looked at Thandi. ‘Remind her why she can take a couple of hours off without the world coming to a grinding halt.’

  ‘Absolutely!’ Thandi said on a wide grin. ‘As mentioned, Mad, it is your scheduled day off!’

  Maddie scowled at her and whispered, ‘Traitor!’ How long had Cale been tracking her movements through Thandi?

  ‘Excellent, let’s go!’ Cale pulled her away from her desk and blew Thandi a kiss as they passed.

  ‘Stop flirting with my colleagues!’ Maddie snapped.

  ‘Okay, then, I’ll just have to flirt with you,’ Cale told her as he bundled her into a lift and pulled her into his arms for a soul-shattering kiss.

  Maddie ran her hands over the leather seats in his Range Rover and settled back in her seat, thinking that it was quite exciting to be kidnapped by a hot man in a nice car. By the way he’d kissed her in the lift she’d assumed that they were heading back to her flat for some mid-morning entertainment, and frowned when Cale turned in the opposite direction from both their residences.

  ‘Where are we going?’ Maddie asked, confused. ‘This isn’t the way to my flat. Or your house, for that matter.’

  ‘Why would we be going to either of…? Oh!’ Cale laughed at her. ‘You thought…’

  ‘I wasn’t… I didn’t!’ Maddie stammered, blushing furiously.

  ‘When are you going to learn that you can’t lie to me?’ Cale stopped at a red traffic light and dropped a hard kiss on her mouth.

  ‘Okay.’ Maddie blushed and stared out of the window. ‘You kissed me… in the lift… I thought…’

  Cale patted her knee. ‘Mmm, it did cross my mind, but I thought we’d do something different this morning.’

  ‘Like?’ Maddie looked at him suspiciously.

  ‘When last did you go wine-tasting?’

  ‘I don’t know! Three, four years ago? I had a client who wanted a new wine label launched…’

  ‘That’s work, not pleasure. This will be all pleasure.’ Cale swung onto the motorway and joined the traffic flowing out of the city. ‘I have an old friend who has just bought a wine farm in Franschoek. He needs a partner and wants to know if I want to go into the wine-making business.’

  ‘Do you?’

  Cale shrugged. ‘Who knows? I’ll see what his business plan looks like.’

  ‘Oh, but he won’t want me tagging along!’ Maddie protested.

  ‘He’s a sucker for a pretty face, and yours is one of the prettiest around. We’ll take a look at the vineyards, have a chat about the winery and then we�
��ll have lunch. He’s an amazing cook,’ Cale told her. ‘So relax, enjoy the ride, the scenery. And maybe later, if you’re in the mood, I’ll kiss you again and see where it takes us. Who knows? You might have a headache later.’

  Maddie flicked her hair and sent him a naughty grin. ‘Or you might have a headache.’

  ‘Sweetheart, trust me, no headache is going to stop me,’ Cale retorted. ‘So, let’s change the subject before my eyes roll back in my head and I drive off the road. The race. Where do we start?’

  Maddie ducked out of the side entrance of the Sea Point office block that housed Mayhew Walsh, winced at the persistent drizzle of the first cold front to hit the Cape, dodged a kissing couple and hurried through the rain to her car. She slipped inside her vintage Jag, tossed her bag onto the passenger seat and thought it was a miserable day—perfectly suited to her mood.

  Starting the car, she slapped her foot on the accelerator, left the parking lot and roared through the busy city streets, a combination of colonial and modern buildings, nosing the Jag towards the motorway running north. Years ago, as a student, she’d made this journey towards Cale’s house in the cosmopolitan suburb of Bantry Bay with excitement. Today she just felt comprehensively frustrated.

  Her mobile rang and Maddie touched her ear to activate her headset.

  ‘Do I have to make an appointment to see you?’ Kate demanded.

  ‘Pretty much,’ Maddie admitted. ‘I’ve taken on Cale’s pro bono project and Horrid Harriet is not impressed. So much so that’s she given me another product launch to co-ordinate.’

  ‘The woman doesn’t have a warm and fuzzy bone in her body,’ Kate commented. ‘And your new man?’

  ‘Interesting.’

  ‘And… satisfying?’

  ‘Very. So much so that I spend far too much time thinking about him,’ Maddie admitted, sparing a glance at Table Mountain covered in wet grey clouds.

  Kate laughed and Maddie thought about how she and Cale had hooked up only twice since that first morning. ‘Our schedules have been crazy lately. The nights he was free I had a function, and viceversa.’

  ‘And you miss him?’

  ‘I do.’ She missed his crooked smile, the way his eyes could change from cobalt to navy, Egyptian blue and denim and back again. She could spend a lifetime counting the shades of blue. His voice…

  ‘Oh, Mad, you have it bad.’

  ‘It’s just sex, Katie. He’s good at it.’ Maybe if she said it often enough she’d actually begin to believe to it. And it was all Thandi’s fault. Ever since that stupid talk the other morning she couldn’t shake her words from her head.

  ‘Thandi says that I use work as a safe place to hide from what she says are my scary feelings for Cale,’ she blurted. ‘What do you think?”

  Kate was silent for a long time. ‘Is she right?’

  ‘If I knew that, Katie, why would I be asking you?’

  ‘So, it isn’t just sex?’

  Maddie sighed. ‘I’m trying to convince myself that it is.’

  ‘Ah. And have you had any scary feelings?’

  ‘I’m feeling flickers of… something.’

  ‘Oh. It could be gas.’

  ‘Kate! Not particularly helpful, friend,’ Maddie snapped. ‘Do you have any other worthwhile advice for me?’

  ‘Sure: please don’t think about how good he is at sex while you’re driving. You’ll cause an accident.’ Kate laughed and disconnected.

  Maddie did spend far too much time thinking about Cale, and while she often thought about what they did in bed—how could she not? He was a very attentive and inventive lover—she also liked the man he’d become. He was smart and funny, and so desperate to hide that he was a bit emotionally dinged up, which made him more attractive, not less. There was nothing more irritating than a seemingly perfect man. She really liked him—in and out of bed.

  But what neither of her spectacularly unhelpful friends realised was that even if she did have any feelings for Cale, she didn’t know what she was supposed to do with them. Where was she supposed to put them? Cale didn’t want them. He couldn’t have made that clearer if he’d drawn her a picture. They were ships passing…

  So what was the point of even entertaining the idea? And the more she thought about how he made her feel, the bigger the feelings got, and where was the one place she was too busy to think about Cale? Work.

  So really work was the safest place for her to be. Hah, she should have been a psychologist…

  So, in the interest of not thinking about Cale, she should turn her attention to something else. The race. Maddie sighed. Unfortunately she also had issues with the race itself. Cale had the date for the race firmly fixed in his head and she knew she wouldn’t be able to change it. Three months and three weeks away—the anniversary of Oliver’s death.

  She still had no idea how to get a couch potato to donate money to a cancer charity just because a few supremely fit nutcases were running up and down a mountain and cresting a couple of waves. And without Joe Public’s donations the race would never realise the type of money that would make a significant difference. And she wanted to make a significant difference, for Cale’s sake.

  But she was severely short of time.

  Her mobile rang again.

  ‘Where are you?’ Cale demanded.

  ‘I’m getting there. Ten minutes,’ Maddie shot back. ‘Are they there yet?’

  ‘No. See you soon,’ Cale said before disconnecting.

  Seven minutes later Maddie swung into his oak-lined driveway and slowed down as she approached the house. Close to the house a new, smaller, double-storey cottage echoed the style of the main house.

  The house… Oh, the house was just the same. Two storeys of honeyed stone, but stripped of the climbing roses that had once climbed free. A deep veranda ran around the front of the house, and the shadows held comfortable couches and colourful hammocks. Three dogs bounded up to her car and enthusiastically barked their welcome.

  This side of the large property held gardens and swathes of lawn, but Maddie knew that the house was perched on the side of a cliff, with stunning views of the sea. She might feel conflicted about its owner but she adored his property.

  Maddie was about to get out of the car when the front door flew open and two little boys dressed in swimming shorts hurtled down the steps, whooping at full throttle. They sent her a casual look before veering around the house towards the path to the beach. A long, cool blonde appeared in the doorway, talking to Cale, who pulled the front door shut behind them. She was tall, almost too slender, and dressed in blue cut-offs and a white T-shirt, her long hair pulled back into a ponytail. Maddie watched as Cale ended their discussion by dropping a kiss on her temple. Then he flew down the steps, pulled her passenger door open and manoeuvred his six-foot-plus frame into her car.

  ‘Help!’

  Maddie draped her arms over the steering wheel, looked at him and lifted her eyebrows.

  ‘Shopping emergency.’ Cale looked a bit panicky. ‘It’s my mother’s birthday tomorrow and I’ve forgotten!’

  ‘But the charity people!’ Maddie protested. ‘We have a meeting with them.’

  ‘They postponed this morning.’

  ‘And why didn’t you tell me that?’ Maddie’s voice had dropped several degrees.

  ‘We haven’t had much time together lately, so no way was I going to give you an opportunity to find something else to do.’ Cale managed a half-turn in his seat. ‘Then Megan reminded me that it’s my mom’s birthday tomorrow and she won’t forgive me if I forget. So, help!’

  ‘So that’s Megan?’

  ‘Megan. Ollie’s ex-wife. They were married for about ten seconds. The hoodlums are Ollie’s boys. They live over there, in the cottage.’

  Maddie winced as a bankload of pennies dropped. ‘Megan? As in the phone call you received when you came to get me out of the bathroom?’

  Cale nodded, not bothering to hide his irritating smirk. ‘And she really doesn’t mind w
ho I sleep with.’

  Maddie bit the inside of her lip. ‘I suppose I should apologise?’

  ‘You should, but I’m not holding my breath. You can say sorry by helping me buy a gift for a sixty-something diva who rules her family with an iron fist,’ Cale said, trying to get comfortable. ‘Can we take my car? This is like driving in a sardine can!’

  ‘No, we can’t,’ Maddie retorted, starting the car. ‘Any ideas where to find this present?

  ‘No! That’s why I’m throwing myself on your mercy. I’m the world’s worst shopper.’

  Maddie rolled her eyes. ‘I’m doing this for your mother. Because any woman who gave birth to you deserves a fantastic present.’

  ‘Understood.’ Cale sent her his slow, sexy internal-organ-melting grin. ‘And because you love shopping.’

  Maddie tossed her hair before pulling out onto the road. ‘Well, duh.’

  At the waterfront mall they found his mom a present in record time—a cream cashmere jersey that Maddie assured him would instantly elevate him to favourite child status—and, because he’d been dense enough to mention that he needed some new dress shoes, he found himself in an upmarket shoe shop valiantly trying to follow the conversation between Maddie and the earnest, camp shop assistant. He knew they were speaking English because he understood the individual words, but their meaning escaped him. Edward Green… John Lobb… New & Lingwood.

  When they mentioned Prada, he jumped in.

  ‘I want a pair of shoes. A normal pair of black dress shoes.’

  They both rolled their eyes and Cale gritted his teeth.

  ‘Charcoal? Ebony? Midnight?’ the shop assistant asked.

  ‘What?’ Cale blinked at this insanity. ‘I want black. Plain black.’

  ‘There are shades of black,’ Camp Boy told him. Since when?

  Maddie patted his shoulder. He knew she was patronising him, the baggage. ‘What size?’

  ‘Ten.’ Cale slumped into a purple wingback chair and looked at Maddie who, after asking the assistant to get the right size in three styles of shoe that looked, to him, exactly the same, was examining a pair of leather knee-high boots in deep chocolate.

  He swallowed as an image of Maddie, dressed only in one of her tiny thongs and those boots, popped into his head. He groaned silently, watching as she slipped off a stiletto to slide a foot into that high-heeled boot. He needed her in his bed, under him…