by Wood, Joss
Cale dropped his head against the back of the chair and stared out through the door of the shop at the tourists and after-work Capetonians who ambled through the shopping centre.
He was deliberately portioning out his time with Maddie, not wanting either of them to fall into the habit of meeting up after work, having something to eat, climbing into bed and thereby inadvertently establishing the patterns and expectations of a relationship.
But, by God, he only realised how much he missed her now he was in her company again—how much he wanted her now she was parading between him and the mirror in those sexy boots. How much he wanted her no matter what she was doing or wearing.
This wasn’t good. Cale sat up and lightly banged the ball of his hand on his temple. When he was feeling like this, churned up and out of control, it was better to distance himself, to remind himself that he liked his space, his life. They’d finish this torture she called shopping, grab a bite to eat and then he’d find some excuse to leave her at her door. He was a smart man. He was sure he could come up with something.
His libido protested loudly at this proposed course of action, but he refused to be ruled by his little head. It was time to take back control…
Cale looked up as the assistant walked towards him, juggling six equally black shoes and sending Cale a thunderous look.
‘Charcoal!’ Bang. A pair hit the coffee table.
‘Midnight!’ Bang.
‘Ebony.’ Bang.
‘I’ll take the first pair that fits,’ Cale growled, and pulled on the shoe closest to hand. It was supremely comfortable, so he yanked it off, pulled his trainer back on and told the assistant to charge him.
Maddie, the witch, just laughed when his heart momentarily stopped when he saw the price on his credit card slip.
‘Yikes,’ Cale told her, yanking her towards the door. ‘Why didn’t he just ask me for a pint of blood too? And a chunk of flesh? Black dress shoes—that’s all I wanted, Mad. Just normal black shoes!’
Maddie squeezed his hand as she laughed. ‘Charcoal, Cale. Charcoal Prada shoes. They are an investment. You’ll wear them for ever.’
‘I’d better be buried in them at that price,’ Cale grumbled.
Maddie’s laugh washed over him. She looked around and pointed towards the food section. ‘Do you feel like sushi? I feel like sushi.’
Cale winced internally. As he’d decided, it was time to take back control. ‘Actually Mad, sorry. I need to get back. I need to work.’
Maddie cocked her head at him. ‘Really? That’s such a pity… I thought you might want an introduction to my new underwear.’
He’d called her a witch before, and she was a witch who could play dirty. Cale groaned. ‘What colour?’
‘Chartreuse.’
‘Huh?’ Cale’s eyes were hot on her face. ‘I need to know what colour that is.’
Maddie sent him an evil grin. ‘But you have to work…’
Cale yanked her towards the exit. ‘What work?’
Maddie tugged, but couldn’t pull her hand out of his grip. ‘I’m hungry,’ she wailed.
‘So am I. But not for food.’
CHAPTER SEVEN
AT NOON on Saturday Maddie squeezed her car between a Porsche and a battered Toyota and cocked her head at the party noise that drifted from Cale’s house. She recognised the sound. How many times had he entertained on his deck overlooking the beach and the Atlantic Ocean seaboard? Maddie smoothed down the short skirt of her favourite sunshine-yellow dress, knowing that this bright day was summer’s last shout and that the second cold front approaching meant she’d have to swap halterneck dresses for turtlenecks. She rolled her shoulders, enjoying the feeling of the warm sun on her bare back and shoulders.
Maddie walked up the stairs to the front door and wondered how many people Cale had invited to this impromptu launch of the race. Stepping inside the hallway, she let out a yelp when a strong hand grabbed her arm and whirled her into a room. Maddie caught a glimpse of a desk and computer before Cale’s hard mouth dropped over hers and his clever tongue slipped past her teeth and tangled with hers. His tall, muscular frame held her against the closed door as his mouth dominated hers. Maddie felt the corresponding flash of lust scuttle through her as she angled her head up to him.
Disorientated, but incredibly excited by this unexpected sensual onslaught, Maddie gripped his shoulders as a million sensations pummelled her.
‘Cale… we… party,’ Maddie muttered as he kissed her jawline.
‘Shh, relax. Stop thinking.’
Stop thinking, indeed, Maddie thought as she looked at her flushed face in the mirror of the downstairs powder room twenty minutes later. She had, and she’d found herself thoroughly seduced against the study door to the sound of a party upstairs.
Madison Shaw, having hot sex before she’d even made it to the party, and no liquor had been required.
Cale was a dangerous, dangerous man.
Maddie, still disorientated after Cale’s assault on her senses, used the facilities to refresh herself and to gather her composure and, when she thought she could string a coherent sentence together, walked into the formal living room. Turning, she nodded her approval. The bare walls and ugly couch had been replaced with ivory paint, bold art and masculine chocolate leather furniture. Smiling, she headed towards the entertainment area at the side of the house—and stopped and stared.
Maddie felt the urge to look around for the cameras. She was waiting for someone to yell Cut! It looked like an advertisement for a sparkling wine or a cold beer… a stunning setting, and beautiful people in a relaxed, not overly decorated house.
This wasn’t what she remembered. What had happened to the rough wooden deck? The all-but-broken sliding door that kept jamming? Now there were floor-to-ceiling windows framing the spectacular seaview and the rotten deck-boards had been replaced with a fine wooden deck. The entertainment space ran the entire length of the formal lounge, dining room and kitchen, with the middle section covered by a high roof. On one side of the deck a bright, long infinity pool glittered in the sun, and the other side held a large Jacuzzi. In between were deep cane couches and chairs with brightly coloured cushions, an outdoor kitchen and bar.
Attractive men and woman were huddled in groups, beer and wine in hand, tucking into platters of canapés. In the old days, Maddie remembered, they’d eaten barbecued meat cooked over a smoky fire and shoved into bread rolls.
Strong fingers brushed the small of her back and Maddie instinctively knew it was Cale. How could she not, since he’d just…? She blushed. ‘Hi.’
‘Hi, back.’ Cale dropped a kiss on the corner of her mouth and grinned at her discomfort. ‘Get that into you. You look like you could use it.’
Maddie took the icy glass of wine he offered her, took a couple of large, fortifying sips and walked towards the solid wood railing. She gestured towards the ocean. ‘In all of Cape Town this is still my favourite view.’
‘You’re my favourite view….’ Cale said, low in her ear.
Maddie’s fist hit his muscled arm with no marked effect. ‘Will you stop? God, I’m sure everyone can see exactly what we… What you… Arrghh!’
Cale laughed at her embarrassment.
Maddie shuffled from foot to foot and stared hard at the ocean.
‘Cale, please…’
Cale took a long sip of his beer, his eyes full of mirth and a very healthy dose of male satisfaction. ‘Okay, I’ll behave. As for the ocean—you used to spend hours on this deck. But I admit it’s pretty special. It’s why I bought the house.’
‘Which looks fantastic, by the way.’
Cale shrugged. ‘My ex, Gigi, kept nagging me to do something. Megan did the decorating for me.’
‘She’s got great taste.’ Maddie sipped her wine and sent him a direct look. ‘Gigi the supermodel?’
‘Mmm.’
‘Another blonde…’ Maddie flashed him a naughty smile when he rolled his eyes. ‘So, how long did you keep
her around for?’
‘About eighteen months.’
Maddie gaped at him in surprise. ‘Oh, wow. So it was serious?’
‘Serious enough.’
‘No thoughts of marrying her?’
Cale shuddered. ‘No, thank you. I already had Oliver demanding my time and draining my bank account. I didn’t need anyone else in my life to be responsible for.’
Maddie turned that over in her head. Why did he equate marriage with responsibility? Love with the price he had to pay to receive it?
That was a conversation for another day, so Maddie thought it wise to change the subject. ‘I was too polite then, but I’m not now. How on earth did you manage to buy this property in one of the most expensive parts of the city while you were still studying?’
Cale leaned against the railing and his beer bottle dangled loosely from his fingers. ‘I had help from an inheritance. My grandfather was loaded, and left all of us a handy pile of cash with the stipulation that we had to buy property. I only needed a small mortgage, and I always had a money-making scheme going on campus.’
‘Like?’
‘I traded coins, made some money there. Bought a piece of land with a mate, flogged it and made some more. And I was a bookie for a couple of years at uni.’
Maddie smiled. ‘It’s a great house. You’ve done a lot to it.’
‘Yeah, money and furniture makes a big difference.’ Cale tapped her arm with the neck of his cold beer bottle. ‘What did I have back then? A couch and that disgusting bed!’
‘And a sick microwave that only worked intermittently.’
‘And an equally sick bank account.’ Cale looked at her surprised face. ‘You didn’t know? Maddie, when you knew me I was so comprehensively broke that I nearly lost this house.’
‘I had no idea.’
‘You weren’t supposed to. I was young and stupid and too proud to admit that I should never, ever have bought a house in the most upmarket suburb in the city when I had student loans, a looming PhD and no career. I worked like a demon to keep it, and myself, from going under.’
Maddie couldn’t find the right response. Would he find it patronising if she told him that she was proud of him for standing up and working hard to keep what he loved? Probably. So she just kept quiet and scanned the crowd. ‘Quite a get-together. Are all these people involved in the race?’
Cale lifted one shoulder. ‘The word got around that I was having a party so more people arrived than I expected. Racers, officials, hangers-on.’
‘So who must I make nice with?’
Cale shoved his sunglasses up onto his head and glanced around. He pointed his bottle towards a grey-haired man at the head of one group. ‘That’s the head of the racing federation.’
‘Okay. What’s his name?’
Cale told her and Maddie memorised it. ‘Fine. Who else?’
‘Liam Peters, one of our sponsors, is here. See if you can get him to up his sponsorship offer. But I don’t see him at the moment.’
‘I’ll find him,’ Maddie said, and changed the subject. ‘How did your mother like her jersey?’
‘Like you said—instant favourite child.’
‘And the shoes?’ Maddie asked, tongue in cheek.
‘I’ve wrapped them in bubble wrap and put them inside a protective box.’
Maddie’s mouth fell open. ‘Really?’
‘Get real. I tossed them in with the rest of the mess at the bottom of my cupboard.’
Cale laughed at Maddie’s wince and ran his thumb down her cheek. When he cupped the side of her face with his hand her eyes inexplicably and suddenly filled with tears. Maddie ducked her head as she furiously blinked them back.
‘Mad? Sweetheart?’
Maddie stepped back and folded her arms across her chest, gnawing on her bottom lip. When she felt as if she had emotions under some sort of control, she tossed her head and sent Cale a rueful shaky smile. ‘Sorry.’
Cale lifted his eyebrows. ‘You okay?’
‘Mmm.’
‘Why the tears?’
Maddie gripped the end of her nose with her finger and thumb and held it. She couldn’t possibly tell him that she felt as if she were floundering, utterly swept away by the passion and need he aroused in her. She couldn’t tell him that he confused and terrified her, that at this moment she felt so incredibly vulnerable.
If she wasn’t very careful she had it in her to love this man. This man who had no need for love…
‘I’m tired,’ she said in her brightest voice. ‘Working too hard. When I’m really tired I tend to cry. Sorry.’
‘You’re crying because you’re tired?’
‘It’s a girl thing.’ Maddie took a big sip of her wine and decided to drain the glass. If there was a moment when she needed alcohol, then this was it.
‘If you say so.’ Cale still sounded doubtful. ‘Better now?’
Maddie nodded.
Cale lifted his empty bottle. ‘Want a refill?’
Maddie looked at her empty glass and shook her head. The combination of sun, wine, Cale and her unstable emotions had gone straight to her head. ‘No wine. Water, please.’
Cale stepped forward and snagged the arm of the blonde that Maddie had seen the other day. ‘Hey, Megs, meet someone. Maddie, this is Megan, Oliver’s ex and my best mate.’
Maddie held out her hand, ignoring the emphasis he’d placed on ‘my best mate’. She’d apologized—sort of.
‘Hi. I’m so sorry about Oliver.’
‘Hi, Maddie.’ Megan squeezed her hand as Cale excused himself to greet a new arrival. ‘Thanks for helping organise this race. It means a lot to us.’
Maddie winced. ‘To be honest, I got shanghaied into it.’
Megan laughed. ‘I bet you did. Cale never takes no for an answer.’
She knew that. Sometimes—like earlier—he didn’t even ask the question. Not that she was complaining… Maddie fanned herself with her hand, hot from the instant replay in her head.
Maddie enquired after the boys, and she and Megan fell into comfortable conversation. They were talking about Megan’s interior decorating business when Cale came back, with a familiar-looking dark-haired man at his elbow.
Cale swapped Maddie’s glass for the tall glass of water in his hand and gestured to the man. ‘Maddie—Alex. My younger brother.’
Maddie saw the resemblance to Oliver in the slow smile and dark hair, but this brother shared Cale’s deep blue eyes. If possible, he was almost better-looking than Cale, but a lot less muscular. Maddie held out her hand and when they shook noticed that there wasn’t even a flicker of chemistry between them. Mmm, it seemed she was only attracted to the blond brothers of the Grant family.
‘Maddie? The one who got away?’
‘Shut up, Al,’ Cale snapped.
Megan patted Maddie’s shoulder. ‘Watch out for Alex, Maddie. He’s still single and desperately looking for a wife.’
‘I am not!’ Alex protested. ‘Not desperately. Just looking. I’m a slob and a terrible cook and I need someone to look after me.’
Maddie saw the glint in his eyes and knew that he was teasing. ‘Well, don’t look at me, I’m not wife material. I have the domestic skills of a tortoise and would drive a man mad in a week.’
‘I can vouch for that,’ Cale agreed.
Maddie wrinkled her nose at him. ‘So, are you a racer too?’ she enquired, to change the subject.
Alex looked at her as if she’d grown two heads. ‘Good Lord, no! I’m a doctor.’ He cocked a head at Cale. ‘A real one, not a play one.’
‘That joke is so stale,’ Cale whipped back.
Maddie thought she owed Cale some payback for his earlier statement. She sent Alex a mischievous look. ‘Well, you look pretty fit to me. You look like you should race. I mean, how difficult can it be?’
Alex obviously believed that any chance to needle his brother should be taken, so he picked up her cue. ‘That’s what I keep telling him! He carries on as if it’
s the pinnacle of sport.’
‘Why don’t you try it, Dr Nerd? I guarantee I’ll need to bring you oxygen before you get to five miles,’ Cale snarled.
‘You’re so full of yourself—’
‘We’ll race. I’ll give you a handicap. And I’ll take you to the hospital when we’re done,’ Cale interrupted.
Maddie grinned at their bickering. She heard the love beneath the taunting. She’d love to see that race… Maddie’s eyes widened and she danced on the spot in the excitement. ‘That’s a brilliant idea!’
Alex widened his eyes at her in dismay. ‘It is?’
‘Absolutely! It solves one of the problems I have with this race. How do we raise funds on a race that people don’t really care about? Triathlons appeal only to a few idiots—’
‘Thanks,’ Cale said dryly.
Maddie laid a hand on his arm. ‘But people would be attracted to a race, would be interested in a race, if they knew the people. Celebrities! So we have celebrity teams.’
‘Uh—no,’ Cale said.
‘Uh, yes. They’d make teams of four, and they’d have a handicap, and they’d raise their own sponsorship. T-shirts, entry fee, donations—all to go to charity. The public makes donations on behalf of their favourite team.’
Cale slipped his hand into Maddie’s and squeezed. ‘Mad, at the risk of sounding conceited, they won’t cope with it. Even normal sportsmen frequently aren’t fit enough.’
‘So we have a baby race for them, and the triathlon racers do the big race, and we work out a system for who wins.’ Maddie looked up into his doubtful face. ‘It doesn’t matter how you structure the race. It’s something new and the public will get behind it.’
‘I don’t know, Mad…’
Maddie nodded her head. ‘I do. This is my job. We’re doing it this way.’
Cale lifted his eyebrows at her sharp tone. ‘Okay, okay. Geez, when did you get to be so bossy?’
Maddie sent him an easy smile. ‘Another thing I learnt from you. You know, I used to be a nice, sweet, kind girl before I hooked up with you.’