‘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.’
‘Not at all,’ Callie murmured, her palm still smoothing along the line of his shoulder. ‘I think you and I speak the same language.’
‘We do?’
‘Sure. We live to work. And everything else is superfluous. That’s a good thing.’
He gave her a puzzled look. ‘Women don’t usually see it that way.’
Callie smiled. ‘I am not your usual woman.’
Cade was about to mutter ‘Damn right’ when the music faded to a close. Couples were parting and clapping and they followed suit.
She leaned in close and put her mouth to his ear as they left the dance floor. ‘But I’m still going to call in my debt one day.’
The brush of her lips and her warm breath arrowed straight