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More gasps as the emcee said to Cade, ‘Well, now, Dr Coleman, this is getting interesting.’
Cade grinned and drawled, ‘Yes, ma’am.’ And Callie swore she could hear the sound of cells sighing as every female in the room leaned in a little closer.
Callie all but rolled her eyes. Cade was enjoying himself, getting a little too smug now for his own good, and a part of her just wanted to drop him right in it and leave him in the clutches of Natalie. After all, had he helped her out when she’d needed someone to scratch an itch not so long ago?
Nope.
He’d politely rejected her. And that itch was still there. If anything, Cade and his bloody tuxedo had intensified it. So quite why she was helping him out she had no idea.
A modicum of humility might not go astray.
‘Do we have an advance on five thousand?’
Aware of the expectancy pushing in around her, Callie’s gaze flicked to the excitable emcee, who was looking directly at her as she bounced on her toes and shuffled from foot to foot like a toddler with an urgent toilet problem. She glanced sideways at a very hostile Natalie before returning to Dr Full-Of-Himself.
She didn’t say anything, just met his gaze and let the seconds tick by. ‘Very well,’ the emcee said. ‘If there are no more bids…’
Callie folded her arms. The room fell silent, as if holding its breath.
‘Going once at five thousand dollars.’
Cade’s pulse spiked on a surge of adrenaline as Callie ignored the emcee’s call for further bids. He knew that the striking redhead didn’t owe him anything. Certainly, after he’d rejected her advances—which had been damn hard when she’d fit just right against his body—she didn’t owe him salvation.
Then why bid in the first place?
She couldn’t let him glimpse a way out and not follow through, surely?
‘Going twice.’
He narrowed his eyes as he looked at her. She quirked a sexy arched eyebrow at him.
She wouldn’t, would she?
Cade swallowed and reached for his collar, the stage lights suddenly hot again on his skin. Please, he implored with his eyes.
Please.
He wished he could speak. Tell her he’d pay her back—every cent. It would be worth the ridiculous amount of cash to keep Natalie’s particular brand of desperation out of his life. She was a nice woman and a competent doctor but she just wasn’t for him—no woman was—and encouraging her in any way, shape or form was asking for trouble.
Callie saw the moment his bravado faltered and uncertainty once again ruled his gaze. Humility. Atta boy.
‘Five one,’ she said, as the emcee opened her mouth again and raised her gavel.
The crowd was too busy gasping and murmuring to notice Cade’s ever-so-slight shoulder sag and the relaxing of his jaw, but Callie did. Their gazes met and the I owe you in his eyes was clear.
So, she hoped, was the damn right in hers.
‘Miss?’
The emcee was addressing Natalie, and Callie, along with the rest of the ballroom, looked at the willowy blonde with bated breath. A cold blast of hostility lobbed her way as Natalie’s mouth tightened. She shook her head at the emcee, conceding defeat, and Callie admired her restraint. Someone who set a limit and stuck to it had ironclad impulse control.
It wasn’t something she’d ever been known for—her rash propositioning of Cade being one good case in point. Tonight was an even better one! She hadn’t even planned to bid and now she was out of pocket five grand.
Cade Coleman owed her for sure!
With no other bidders the auction wrapped up quickly and the entire ballroom stood and clapped as Cade sauntered off the stage and headed for Callie. When he got to her table he reached for her hand and kissed it in a very European manner.
Callie couldn’t deny, as his lips brushed her knuckles, how very Prince Charming it was.
‘Thank you,’ he said over the noise of their applauding audience, a camera flash or two adding to a Hollywood feel. ‘I am in your debt.’
Callie gave him a half smile but kept her tone brisk. ‘You have no idea.’
He grinned as the band struck up a number and the clapping eased. ‘How about we discuss that a little further on the dance floor?’
Their hands still clasped, Callie glanced over at the rapidly filling space. There wouldn’t be a lot of room to move out there. She wasn’t keen to revisit the memories of the last time she’d suggested they dance or whatever, in particular the rather humiliating way it had ended. ‘Do you think that’s such a good idea after last time?’
‘I think we’re a little past that now, aren’t we?’
Were they? Callie could easily recall the embarrassment even if he couldn’t. Maybe he was so used to women coming on to him they all just melded into one. But he was right. They’d worked together since then and had slowly moved into friendlier territory. Hell, they lived on the same floor of the same apartment complex.
Clearly, he wasn’t holding that night against her so why should she?
Plus, they were both adults. No matter how persistent that itch had become beneath the touch of his lips and the nearness of his broad male frame.
She inclined her head, conscious of their audience. ‘One dance,’ she murmured.
Cade put his hand on her back as he ushered her past tables and through the milling crowd onto the dance floor. He resolutely ignored the way her clingy, emerald-green dress dipped low at the back and how her rich Titian hair, piled high in a curly mass on her head, exposed her nape and the fascinating indentations of her spine.
They took up position towards the outside and, as the song was slow, he slid one hand onto her waist and the other captured hers. They didn’t speak and she stared resolutely over his shoulder at some point behind him, but he was conscious of the curve of her hip, the shift of her body beneath his palm and the heady aroma of frangipani as they moved together.
Someone jostled them from behind and his hand automatically slid to the small of her back as their bodies moved a little closer to accommodate the restricted space. Her hair brushed his cheek, as soft as a petal and, as something primal stirred in the vicinity of his groin, Cade was suddenly conscious of just how long it had been since he’d been with a woman.
Of how much he missed it.
The Sophie debacle had sent him packing both physically and emotionally as he’d fled first to the opposite side of the USA and then the opposite side of the world. And he’d convinced himself that he was done with women and dating.
That his career came first.
Yet one dance with Callie Richards was making a mockery of all that.
‘I’ll write you a cheque first thing in the morning,’ he said, suddenly uncomfortable about owing her anything.
Callie’s eyes fluttered closed as his breath stirred the hair at her temple and his accent slithered down her spine and tingled where his palm held her fast. She pulled back slightly until she was looking into his eyes. Light brown with tawny flecks. Like amber. Like whisky.
‘You think I can’t afford five grand?’ she challenged.
Cade’s gaze was drawn briefly to the way the subdued light from the magnificent overhead chandeliers glowed in the rich emerald of her eyes before being distracted by her mouth. Her lipstick was a deep scarlet and seemed to beckon with a simmering but subdued sexuality. ‘I didn’t say that.’
Callie shrugged. ‘It’s a damn good cause. I’d be a lousy representative of the hospital I work at and the unit I love if I didn’t show my support in some way.’
‘Five thousand bucks is a little extreme,’ Cade said dryly.
‘Oh, I don’t know,’ Callie said, settling back to peer over his shoulder again as his raw masculine scent found its way past her usually impenetrable veneer. ‘I’ll consider it my public service for the year. Plus, I’m thinking it might be good to have you in my debt.’
Cade grimaced as her hair brushed his cheek again. ‘That’s what I’m afraid of.’
Callie laughed at the dread in his voice. She didn’t like to give anyone control over her life, either. A disastrous teenage marriage had taught her that. ‘Don’t worry,’ she said as the occasional brush of Cade’s thighs caused her pulse to flutter, ‘I’ll wield my power wisely.’
Cade snorted—screw that. He’d avoided dating since his arrival in Australia, but obligation was to be avoided even more. ‘How about we just get it over and done with?’ he suggested. ‘You paid five thousand dollars to go out on a date with me so…let’s do it.’
Callie shut her eyes, trying to tune in to the music rather than the slow thick pounding of her pulse at his ‘let’s do it’. He didn’t mean it, and she had no desire to go out on a date with him. Mind-blowing, head-banging sex, sure, but he’d already made it perfectly clear that any horizontal recreation was off the table. And she just didn’t do the whole dating thing.
‘I don’t date,’ she said.
Cade frowned. ‘What do you mean, you don’t date?’ Wasn’t that what women wanted?
‘I don’t date,’ Callie repeated, as she once again pulled back to look at him. ‘Haven’t since my teens. I refuse to. Like you, it would seem.’
Cade wasn’t sure what to make of that. He’d spent his entire adult life dating women as a way into their beds. And then done a complete about-turn and spent the last couple of months deflecting those who wanted nothing more than to score a date with him. Her lipstick glistened in the subtle light from above and he couldn’t believe a woman in possession of such a fine mouth didn’t enjoy many a date.
‘I’ve never met a woman who didn’t date. Or who didn’t want to, anyway.’
‘Oh, is that only a male prerogative in the good old US of A?’ Callie enquired sweetly. ‘I think you’re meeting entirely the wrong type of woman,’ she continued. ‘I’m honoured to be your first.’
She smiled at him and Cade’s loins heated at the deliberately provocative language coming from that sexy painted mouth. ‘Is there a particular reason why you don’t like to indulge in pleasant social discourse with the opposite sex?’
‘Is there a particular reason why you don’t?’ she countered. Her reasons were her own and not up for discussion. As she suspected his were.
Cade gave a half smile. He’d never been told so politely to mind his own business. ‘Touché,’ he murmured, and they swayed in silence for a moment or two before he said, ‘So you paid five grand for nothing?’ he clarified.
Callie shrugged. ‘Not necessarily. You never know when the need for a male escort might just pop up.’
‘Great,’ Cade grumbled, feigning his best insulted look. ‘Now I feel like a gigolo.’
‘Well, at least you’re the expensive kind.’
He blinked at her bald inference and then laughed. To his surprise she joined him and the light, throaty noise enveloped him in its sexy resonance. He’d heard her laugh before, of course—at work. She was always kidding around, when appropriate, with the staff on the NICU or the wards—particularly the male staff.
Oh, yes, she had great rapport with her male colleagues and she was resoundingly liked by them all. It was obvious she enjoyed being ‘one of the boys’. The blokey, slightly off-colour language and good-natured ribbing came easily to her.
She felt pretty easy in his arms, too, and her laughter reminded him again that it had been a long time since he’d allowed a woman inside his head.
‘It’s the accent, isn’t it?’ he said suddenly, a little miffed that the woman in his arms seemed to have no interest in him whatsoever. It might be all his conceited American arrogance, but women were always interested. ‘It’s too brash, right?’
Callie smiled. ‘Nope.’
‘But you don’t think it’s exotic and charming?’ he pressed.
Callie shrugged. ‘I prefer the British accent.’
‘Damn,’ Cade murmured. ‘That Hugh Grant has a lot to answer for.’ She laughed and it curled straight into his ear and brushed down the side of his neck. He thought a little more. ‘It’s that we work together?’
Callie sighed at his persistence. ‘Look…it’s not you. It’s not your accent or that we work together. I just prefer to…cut to the chase…with men.’
She looked at him, their gazes meshing. ‘I’m not looking for a husband or to cede control of my life to someone. I like sex,’ she said, figuring from what she knew of him that Cade would appreciate the direct approach. ‘I don’t need a candlelight dinner before or to snuggle afterwards. I’m busy with a career that pretty much takes over my whole life so I know what I want and how to ask for it. But you’ve already made it clear that you aren’t interested so…there’s no need to pretend.’
Suddenly Cade understood where Callie’s hesitancy to cash in her chips was coming from. ‘Ah, I get it. This is about me rejecting your advances that time.’
Callie frowned. ‘No. It’s not.’
‘Okay,’ he said, not believing her for a moment. But she had given him the perfect opportunity to clear the air over that. ‘About that…’
Callie shook her head. ‘No. Let’s not go there, please. It was a major error of judgement on my behalf and, as you’re probably aware, I don’t make errors of judgement. It was a weird night… . Weddings kind of do that to me. And I was a little tipsy.’
‘It’s okay,’ Cade said.
‘No. It’s really not,’ she insisted. ‘I embarrassed myself. And you. I still feel embarrassed about it. So if we could not talk about it now, or ever, preferably…’ Callie could feel her cheeks growing warmer by the second as she squirmed through her speech. Hell—was this song never going to end? ‘…that would be good.’
Cade ignored her. ‘It wasn’t that I didn’t find you attractive. I hope you don’t think that.’
Of course she’d thought that. She’d been tipsy and essentially alone in a sea of colleagues at a wedding—it had pushed all her buttons. His it’s-not-you-it’s-me had pretty much fallen on deaf ears.
She’d been mortified.
And rejected again by a man. A position she’d worked hard to avoid over the years. It had taken a long time to regain her sexual confidence after Joe but she had, and she’d wielded it ruthlessly. She took control sexually. She was in the driver’s seat. She said who, where, when and how often.
She knew a sure thing when she saw it—even through wine goggles. And every ounce of her female intuition had told her Cade Coleman had been a sure thing.
Right up until the second he’d politely declined.
‘Of course not,’ she lied.
‘It wasn’t,’ Cade repeated. Hell, Callie was put together just the way he liked. In fact, it was taking all his willpower not to lean in and taste that scarlet mouth. His hand tightened against the fabric over her lower back as things south of his navel stirred at the mere thought.
‘I’ve messed a lot of things up…back home,’ he conceded, even though he wasn’t quite sure why he was telling her or why it was important that she know his rejection of her come-on hadn’t been about her.
Callie nodded. ‘Alex said you’d had woman trouble.’
Cade paused. He kept forgetting that his stepbrother and Callie went way back. It was through their association he’d landed the job at Gold Coast City Hospital in the first place. He waited for her to say something else but she just swayed, waiting for him to continue.
He smiled and shook his head at her lack of curiosity—most women he knew would be digging in earnest to find out more about his ‘woman trouble’. The fact that she wasn’t only ramped up her appeal even further.
‘Yes,’ he said, dragging his head back into the conversation. Woman trouble was decidedly correct. ‘And so I’m here to start over. Concentrate on my career. Avoid the casual sex scene and romantic entanglements. To be honest, they were never very satisfying anyway, not in any real sense. Not the way my career…my patients are.’
Callie smiled at him realising for the first time what kindred spirits they were—like she and Alex. She was conscious of the fabric of his tux beneath her palm and she smoothed it, absently signalling her approval.
Cade grimaced. ‘That probably doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.’
