The Wrong Callahan

by Karly Lane

  She shook her head sadly. ‘No. I’m still picking the wrong ones.’

  ‘Maybe you’ve just got the wrong things on your list,’ he said, stepping away and wishing this could be ending so very differently, but it didn’t seem likely with Cash looking at him miserably, as though he was the biggest disappointment of her life. It wasn’t exactly a turn-on.

  He stopped at the doorway on his way out and glanced over his shoulder at her, getting momentary satisfaction from seeing she was as affected as he was. He’d done all he could do for now—he’d proven that they had the chemistry. But how to make her see she was mistaken about him being the wrong kind of man? That was going to take some thinking.

  Cash sagged against the back of the door and stayed there long after she heard the ute fade into the distance. If she just stayed here long enough, with her eyes closed, maybe when she opened them again she’d discover it was all just a dream and she could go on with life as she knew it.

  Why had she let herself get close enough to the guy to let him kiss her like that? Although maybe her outrage would be a little more justifiable if she’d not been such a willing participant. A little flutter ran through her as she recalled the steamy kiss. She pushed away from the door. Get a grip, Sullivan! It was just a kiss. It wasn’t that big a deal. Only, it was a big deal. It made the kiss with Griff seem even more irrelevant. She’d known there’d been no fireworks with Griff, but she’d been convincing herself that maybe it hadn’t been as bad as she’d thought … Now she knew beyond a measure of a doubt. There was no way it compared to what had just happened with Linc. She’d been right to be wary of Lincoln Callahan. He was a temptation she needed to stay away from. Why hadn’t she been stronger? Now look at the mess you’ve gone and gotten yourself into, a prim voice scolded her inside her head. You’ve gone and wrecked everything. All because she was attracted to the wrong Callahan. Damn it.

  It’s okay, she told herself, taking a deep cleansing breath. This is good. It’s a test, that’s all. It was like any other addiction, she had to learn how to avoid putting herself in situations where she knew she’d be tempted. She could do this. All she had to do was steer clear of the guy. She had no reason to see him again, so there was no need to panic. The situation was salvageable.

  Fourteen

  Cash did a double-take when she looked up to see who had walked through the front door the next day. It was not Hadley Callahan.

  ‘Cash,’ Linc greeted her calmly. Too calmly. Something was going on.

  ‘Can I help you with something, Linc?’ she asked pointedly when he simply smiled confidently at her as though it made complete sense for him to be standing in the reception area.

  ‘I hope so,’ he said, coming over to lean one elbow on the counter. ‘I’m here for my appointment.’

  ‘Your app—’ Cash scanned the book in front of her quickly, as though she’d not have somehow seen Lincoln Callahan written there earlier.

  ‘Hadley booked it.’

  ‘She booked it for herself,’ Cash said tightly.

  ‘She must have forgotten to mention it was for me,’ he said with a shrug.

  ‘Funny that,’ Cash said sarcastically, before the realisation hit her that the appointment was for a massage. Uh-oh. This was not good.

  ‘Is there a problem?’ he asked innocently, holding her gaze with a silent challenge.

  ‘Not at all,’ Cash said, straightening her shoulders as she stood up and led the way through to the room she’d just set up. The candles flickered gently, and a delicate scent of coconut oil and lemongrass floated through the air. Suddenly, with Linc filling up the small room, the relaxing ambiance felt dangerously seductive.

  ‘Please take off your shirt and trousers and cover yourself with the towel, then lie face down on the table. I’ll be right back,’ she said, slipping out of the room and congratulating herself on sounding so normal, when inside she was a mess.

  Linc let out a long breath as the door closed behind Cash and gave a low, self-reproaching chuckle. When Hadley had told him she’d booked him a massage, he’d thought she was crazy, but the more he’d thought about it, the harder it had been to convince himself that it was a bad idea. Having an opportunity to get Cash all alone … with oil? There had been pretty much nothing his head could come up with that would have overruled the rest of him. Now, though, faced with the fact he was about to lay pretty much naked on a table and have her hands running all over him, he wasn’t so sure this was a great idea.

  With a fatalistic shake of his head, he pulled his shirt over his head and kicked off his shoes, then unbuttoned his jeans, before climbing up on the table. Come on, Callahan, you can do this. Just focus on something that doesn’t involve being naked with the hottest woman you’ve seen in a long time, in a candlelit room with soft music playing.

  The door opened and he clenched his jaw as parts of him began to stir in anticipation. For the love of God, you’re not fifteen-bloody-years old, he told himself with a measure of disgust. He could hear her moving quietly around the room preparing the things she’d need, but even though he could sense her every move, the moment she touched him, he almost jumped clear out of his skin.

  ‘Sorry,’ she murmured. ‘Just relax,’ she said, keeping one hand on his shoulder while he heard her reaching for something with the other, moments before he felt the sensation of warm oil and hands running across his skin. He bit back a moan. Jesus, this was going to be torture.

  ‘You’re very tense,’ she commented, and he wondered if he was imagining the note of amusement in her tone. ‘Seriously, you need to relax.’

  ‘I’m doing my best,’ he muttered.

  She added some more oil and continued moving her hands over his back and shoulders, up to his neck. He couldn’t stop the groan that escaped, it felt so damn good.

  ‘I’m going to have to work out some of these knots,’ she said calmly. ‘You’ve got a lot of tension stored in your neck and shoulder area.’

  ‘Weddings are stressful,’ he said as he felt her fingers working the muscles between his neck and shoulder. He was glad he was face down because he was pretty sure his eyes were rolling back in his head as she skilfully manipulated the tightness in his muscles.

  When she’d significantly warmed up the area, she began applying deeper, harder strokes and another groan broke free from his chest; however, this one was more pain than ecstasy.

  ‘Is that too hard?’ Cash asked.

  ‘No,’ his words came out sounding slurred. ‘It’s great. You’re good at this.’

  ‘I should be, I’ve been doing it long enough,’ she said dryly.

  ‘How long would that be?’

  ‘Since I was eighteen. Now stop talking. You’re supposed to relax. That’s what you’re paying for.’

  He read the message loud and clear. This wasn’t foreplay—this was a job. It was an effective mood douser. She was doing this because she got paid to do it. A rush of annoyance followed the thought and even though he knew it was stupid, he felt somehow cheapened by it, which made him scoff at himself—cheapened? He was sounding like some teenage drama queen. But try as he might, he couldn’t shake the irritation. He didn’t want to be a paying customer. Linc pushed himself up off the table and sat up, noticing the surprised look on her face.

  ‘What’s wrong?’

  ‘I just remembered something I have to do,’ he said, sounding gruffer than he’d intended, throwing the towel aside and reaching for his trousers.

  ‘Are you sure?’

  He felt bad about the uncertainty he heard in her voice, but he couldn’t risk a glance at her face or he’d feel like an even bigger idiot. ‘Yeah.’

  ‘Okay then, I’ll wait for you outside.’

  If there’d been a window in the damn room he’d have climbed out that, but he knew he’d have to face her sometime. How could he tell her the reason he was acting like a spoilt brat was because he wanted her to want to massage him? She’d think he was nuts. Who was he kidding? He was nut
s!

  Cash stared at the closed door to the treatment room, trying to work out what had gone wrong. Had she somehow said something out loud? Oh God, she hoped not. She’d been drawing on every ounce of her professionalism to remain focused, despite the fact her fingers felt as though they were burning as they moved across his back and shoulders.

  The door opened and she busied herself looking down at the appointment book as he approached the desk. ‘So I can reschedule you tomorrow, or let me know a day you’d prefer and I’ll tell you what times I have available.’

  ‘Ah, no … thanks. I don’t need to reschedule.’

  ‘Oh.’ What? No way was this because of any issue with her professionalism. Now she was just plain annoyed. What the hell did he mean he didn’t need to reschedule?

  ‘How much do I owe you for today?’ he asked, pulling out his wallet, and Cash noticed that his shoulders were as stiff as his tone.

  ‘Nothing,’ she snapped. ‘Don’t worry about it.’

  ‘I owe you for your time.’

  ‘You weren’t in there long enough to warrant an appointment.’

  Linc frowned, finally looking at her. ‘Look, I’m sorry I wasted your time.’

  ‘Forget it. I’m sorry it wasn’t an enjoyable experience for you.’

  ‘Cash—’

  ‘Linc, I said forget it. I’ll just finish early today. You did me a favour.’

  ‘It wasn’t because I wasn’t enjoying it,’ he said.

  ‘Then what was it? And don’t say because you suddenly remembered something you had to do, cause I’m not buying that.’

  He gave a low noise in his throat and ran a hand through his hair. ‘It’s not y—’

  ‘You, it’s me? Yeah. Okay. Fine,’ Cash snapped, turning away but looking down in surprise as he reached out and took her arm.

  They both seemed to freeze as Cash locked eyes with him. She didn’t realise she was holding her breath until he dropped his hand and she was able to breathe once more. He didn’t step away from her and she could smell a faint scent of some kind of masculine fragrance; deodorant or aftershave, she wasn’t sure which, but it went straight to her head.

  ‘Trust me, I want nothing more than to have your hands on me,’ he said, and his voice had a low gravelly quality that sent a stab of longing through her. ‘I’ve wanted it from the very first moment I laid eyes on you.’

  He leaned in, the movement so slight she barely caught it, until suddenly she felt his warm breath against her cheek. The room was so quiet, all she could hear was the beating of her heart. Her breath caught, then came out in an uneven rush, making her feel light-headed. He smelled so good. She felt her body sway towards his, and before she could prepare herself, his head lowered and his lips were on hers.

  She could feel the coarseness of his stubble as his mouth danced across her own. It was a slow, almost hesitant kiss, but the swell of need that it sparked inside her dulled the last of her commonsense and she slid her arms up around his neck, pulling the back of his head lower. If he’d had any thoughts of taking things slow, Cash had just ended them. To hell with safe and careful. She needed Linc and she needed him now. Ever since that first night they’d been circling around the attraction that flared between them. To hell with her bad-boy ban. She’d get back on track tomorrow. For now, she needed this—needed him. It felt like eons since she’d last felt the flame of desire touching her skin and setting her on fire. She wanted to feel alive again.

  When he tried to pull back and slow it down, she pushed closer and tightened her fingers through the short hair at the base of his neck, inciting a low groan from him in surrender. There was no need to encourage him further, he took the cue and his kiss became deeper, rougher. His stubble rubbed the soft skin on her face, but the burn felt good. Still it wasn’t enough. She moved her hands from his neck down the front of his shirt and gathered the bottom edges in her hands, lifting them. Without breaking their kiss, Linc manoeuvred his arms from his shirt, pulling away only briefly to pull it over his head, before gathering her back against him.

  His chest was wide and there was a hardness to his body—muscular but not sculptured like the men she usually met who owed their six-packs and impressive pecs to the gym. She ran her fingers from his waistband up the centre of his chest, and felt the soft hair there.

  He was like a drug. The more she tasted of him, the more she wanted. This was madness—and yet it wasn’t. This was lust. Pure, unadulterated lust.

  Cash squirmed her arms out of her work blouse, slipping it from her shoulders after working the buttons free of their holes, without breaking the kiss. Linc’s big hands spanned her waist, holding her firmly against him, the heat of his skin against hers sending a shiver through her body. She shimmied her work pants down her legs and stepped out, kicking them to one side along with her shoes.

  Linc walked her slowly backwards, back into the room they’d just came out of, their mutual sighs and moans the only communication necessary. She heard him kick the door shut behind them, moments before she was lifted onto the edge of the bed.

  For the briefest of moments Linc pulled his mouth from hers to allow his eyes to roam across her body, letting out a low, guttural curse before reclaiming her lips. Impatient for more, Cash’s hands went to the buttons of his jeans and unclasped them, smiling smugly beneath his kiss as she heard his rough intake of breath at the touch of her cool fingers against his hot skin.

  Linc bit back another low groan. Every time she touched him his minimal grip on restraint was tested. She was so damn hot. He knew she had some curves, but seeing them in the flesh, so to speak, was better than anything his imaginative mind had mustered up in the nights he’d spent thinking about her.

  He ran his hands up her rib cage and along her arms, wanting to take the time to read the delicately inscribed words written around their circumference, but he was too impatient to do so now. He moved one hand up to the back of her head and found the band that secured her dark hair, watching as it fell like a curtain across her shoulders.

  He swore again. He couldn’t help it. She blew his mind, and she’d barely even touched him yet. God help him when she did. He liked that she wasn’t shying away from her near nakedness. It was such a turn-on when a woman was confident in her own body. As his gaze reached her face once more, he realised she’d been watching him, through those sexy, lowered eyes, but there was no sign of discomfort—in fact she seemed content to simply allow him to look his fill.

  As tempting as it was to explore every tantalising inch of her body, now was not the time. With a knowing, sultry look that had his pulse skyrocketing, she reached behind her and unclasped her lacy black bra without breaking eye contact. It was So. Damn. Hot.

  A tiny voice tried to get his attention but he ignored it. He didn’t want to think about what he was doing right now. He didn’t want to examine the fact she’d turned him away once before because he was apparently the wrong kind of man for her. Clearly at the moment he was the right kind, and he wasn’t going to look that gift horse in the mouth. He’d deal with all the other stuff later. Right now, he had a woman he needed to satisfy, and he was not about to back down from the mission.

  Fifteen

  What had she done? It was all well and good to try to justify her actions by saying she was a spineless jellyfish when in close proximity to Lincoln Callahan, but now, sitting here in the aftermath, it was a little less easy to explain it to herself. She really was a lost cause. She kept relapsing back into old habits. He may be the wrong kind of guy, but holy mother of God, he’s good.

  Stop it! That was not the point. Cash rolled her eyes and groaned out loud. Now she was arguing with herself.

  After the impromptu sex—really, really good impromptu sex, the little voice inside her head added—Linc seemed as surprised as she was. For a long time they didn’t speak. His head hung as he fought to catch his breath, his arms braced either side of her on the bed and his chest moving steadily in and out as his heart rate slowed back t
o normal.

  She wasn’t sure why she felt so nervous—she’d never been the shy type before, but now she had a sudden urge to run and hide. Hide what—she wasn’t exactly sure—not so much her nakedness, it was more than that, it was her thoughts and her emotions that felt most at risk. He had an uncanny knack of making her feel as though he could see through her, and that was a very new experience. No man had ever got under her skin in quite the same way as Linc seemed able to. It was a little … unnerving.

  ‘Are you all right?’

  Cash’s gaze flew to his, expecting to find the usual amused grin in place, but instead discovered Linc watching her with a steel-like intensity, holding her eyes firmly. ‘I’m fine,’ she said, clearing her throat quickly. ‘Why wouldn’t I be?’ and she made a move to get off the table, hoping he’d take the hint and step away so she could. For a moment, she thought he didn’t believe her, but then slowly he eased away enough for her to slide from the table and gather her things from the floor.

  She could sense his uncertainty because it mirrored her own. She wasn’t sure what he was thinking—most likely he was trying to think up a polite way to extract himself from the situation. She opened the door and followed the trail of discarded clothing out to the foyer, giving him some space to get dressed. As he came out of the room a few seconds later, she handed him his shirt and plastered a smile to her face.

  She didn’t feel like listening to his excuse for leaving all of a sudden, so she decided to give him an easy out. ‘I better get things set up for the next client.’

  ‘I thought you said I was the last one today?’

  Damn. He was. ‘I meant for tomorrow.’

  ‘How much do I owe you?’

  Cash’s fake smile slipped.

  Noticing her expression, he seemed to trip over his words. ‘For the appointment … not … that.’ He gave a swift nod back towards the room they just exited.