‘I’m glad you know.’ Lulu threw her arms around her sister. ‘I love you, Ava.’
‘And I love you, Lulu.’ They held each other tight. ‘Any chance you might have a dress I could borrow?’
*
Ava called Callum the second she got back in her car.
‘Ava.’ Would she ever tire of him saying her name?
‘I’m leaving Lulu’s now. Can you meet me somewhere? There’s something I need to tell you.’
‘Let’s meet halfway,’ he replied in a rush. And when he told her where, she thought it was perfect.
Chapter Eighteen
‡
Callum drove up the long gravel driveway to the house at The Meadows and pulled up in the circular driveway in front of the long verandah. He’d called ahead to make sure Ava could get past security and he wondered if she’d already arrived. When he turned the key, his car’s engine purred to silence. He stepped out of the car to take one more good, long, look at the house. Soon, memories would be all he and his brothers would have. The Malones would soon end their association with this grand estate. He hadn’t had time to progress the sale, given the long and complicated process of sorting out his father’s assets, but it wouldn’t be long before the property would be on the market, privately and discreetly of course. He was certain that someone with deep pockets would snap up the place in a hot second. It was huge and famous and held a stature in Australian architecture and botany that was unrivalled. It was a valuable property in so many ways.
Would his father have wanted a sale? Callum honestly didn’t know. They’d never had the discussion, surprisingly enough, perhaps because his father was beginning to sense, too, that the end of an era was approaching. His father was born into the house at a time when grand families had staff to cater to their every whim, but that team of people had been whittled down to Daphne, and William Malone had exhibited a rare sense of kind-heartedness and kept her on, even though he hadn’t been there very much, until the end.
Callum shook his head. Maybe the old man had had a heart after all. Not that his sons had seen much evidence of it when he was alive.
His footsteps crunched across the gravel until he hit the lawn, soft and spongy underfoot. The place would be sold. He had no interest in coming home at the end of a twelve- or fourteen-hour day, or after weeks overseas on business trips, to this old-fashioned, fusty house. He loved his beach house now and he loved even more the idea that Ava might be there more often. He smiled at the idea. Maybe she’d swim in his pool some more. Naked.
When he lifted his gaze from the grass, there she was, waiting for him in the very spot he’d mentioned on the phone, and in that moment he knew for sure how he felt about this woman. Now there was only one thing he wanted to do at the end of each and every day. He wanted to sweep Ava into his arms and kiss her off her feet. That was the life he wanted. He had the job. He had the house. He had respect and a position in business that he’d worked hard for. He had all the trappings of success.
But he wanted Ava more than any of that. He wanted the warmth and humour and life she brought with her every time she was in his arms. Her noise, her laughter, her teasing and her anger. He wanted it all.
She was it. He was done looking. He was done fighting it.
The woman he loved was lit up by the warm afternoon sun, her hair long and flowing and shining in the sunlight. She was wearing a dress with a blaze of colourful flowers in blues and greens and oranges and reds, and it cinched in at her waist before it flared out in a skirt. Her arms were bare and so were her legs, and she was barefoot.
His beautiful gardener. His barefoot princess.
He went to her. Knowing. Hoping.
*
Ava’s heart skipped a beat when she spotted Callum walking towards her, his jeans and T-shirt worn and soft, his smile flashing at her from a distance. She held her breath to calm the pounding of her heart and clenched her fingers in a knot as she watched him lope towards her. He was so handsome her heart ached. There was so much she needed to say. There was so much she wanted that she thought her heart might just burst at the thought of getting it.
And then he was there, an arm’s length away.
Only five years and an arm’s length away.
She had planned on saying something romantic and lovely but the words came out in a nervous explosion. She had no time to wait and no time to waste. She wanted this man right this very second.
‘I talked to Lulu,’ she blurted.
Callum waited. His eyebrows rose in a question.
‘And she told me the truth. She told me everything.’
His chest rose and fell on a deep sigh. ‘I’m glad.’
‘I want to be angry at her for letting me believe all this time that it was you … but of course I can’t. No matter what, she’s my sister. Can you understand that?’
‘I’ve got two brothers, remember? I understand.’
‘I’ve thought terrible things about you. Called you all kinds of names that I can’t repeat in polite company. But I was wrong all along. I wish I’d known that, Callum, because, you see … I’ve wasted so much energy trying to hate you, did you know that?’
When he smiled, she knew everything would be all right. ‘I knew you did. That’s why I hired you to landscape my gardens.’
‘Seriously? You hired me because I hated you?’
‘C’mon. Ava the Terrible being forced to spend time with me, someone you hated so much? I thought it would be fun to see you squirm. That’s why I made the offer too good for you to refuse.’
Ava took a step closer to him, reached for his hand and entwined her fingers with his. So warm and strong and sure. Just like him.
Callum pulled her a step closer. She looked up into the eyes of the man she loved and saw love reflected right back at her.
‘Why didn’t you tell me what had really happened?’
He looked at her, long and loving. ‘It wasn’t my secret to tell. I made mistakes, and plenty, but cheating on my wife wasn’t one of them. I thought you had to hear the truth from Lulu. You would never have believed it from me. She’s your sister and you would always be loyal to her. Blood is thicker than water.’
He slipped an arm around her and looked down into her eyes. ‘What’s with the dress?’
‘You don’t like it?’
‘I like it.’ He dropped his gaze to where the tight bodice created more of a cleavage than she actually had. ‘I like it a lot.’
‘Good.’ Ava glanced around the expansive garden. ‘So, why did you want to meet here?’
‘Because it’s special. It’s our place,’ he said, his voice a rasp.
‘This place, right here,’ Ava said. ‘Is the place you realised you might love me, right?’
Saying it out loud, free from the guilt and the hurt she’d felt for so long, was like a rebirth.
Callum smiled at her emphasis. ‘Yeah. Since that day.’ His grin lit her up from the inside.
‘So that’s about two weeks by my reckoning?’
He squeezed her hand. ‘I hadn’t thought of it that way but yes, about two weeks.’
Ava took a deep breath. ‘Try five years.’
‘What?’
‘Callum Malone, I’ve loved you for five years. Since the first time we met at my parents’ house for dinner. We had roast lamb and you went back for thirds on the roast potatoes. I can’t blame you. My mother makes excellent roast spuds.’
‘What the hell?’ Callum asked with a confused head shake.
‘I tried hard not to let it show. It’s been agony, but it’s what I had to do. You weren’t mine.’
‘I never knew.’
‘And that’s exactly how I wanted it to be.’
‘Ava. I couldn’t have …’
‘I know, I know. You were involved with someone else. And it wasn’t as if I was waiting around for you to break up with my sister or anything. I tried to fall in love with other people.’
‘You did?’
&
nbsp; ‘I’ve been out on dates. I went on one last week, actually.’
Callum’s dark eyes and suddenly serious face thrilled her, and she got brave.
‘I don’t know if I want to hear this.’
‘Don’t worry. I didn’t have the five hundred dollars necessary to … um … secure the transaction.’
‘He was a …?’
‘A professional woman pleasurer, yes.’
Callum snorted. ‘Lucky bastard.’
‘The trouble was … he wasn’t you.’ And then Ava kissed him. Deep and long and hungry and fraught with a passion that had been building for a very long time. An eternity, it seemed.
When she pulled her lips from his mouth, breathless, giddy, she felt the desire in his gaze.
‘Babe,’ he said, kissing her again, pulling her lower lip gently with his teeth, playing with her mouth like it was his because it was, ‘I know a man who will make love to you for free. And then cook you dinner after.’
Ava kissed him and Callum wrapped his arms around her.
‘I love you, Callum. Like crazy.’ Ava’s voice hitched and she felt the tears in her eyes. ‘For so long I thought I did. But that was nothing compared with what I feel for you now.’
He pulled her up tight against his chest and pulled her hard into his life. He leaned in and kissed her, soft and slow, his lips hot and wet, and when she parted her lips, his tongue danced with hers and she felt his groan vibrating in her own chest. It was long and loaded and full of promise and when he lifted her off her feet she held on to him and savoured every inch of that kiss.
When he put her down on the grass, the grass tickled her bare feet.
‘I needed to tell you all this in case you think it’s weird or stalkery or something and change your mind about maybe loving me. Because you’re it for me, Callum.’
He reached for her hand. The look in his eyes told her he wanted to do so much more.
‘And you, Ava Gibson, are it for me. I haven’t known it as long as you’ve known it, but I know it now.’
Suddenly, the sweet smell of jasmine was in the air all around her. She squinted her eyes into the bright, bright sun and willed herself to remember this moment. Every second of it.
She loved and was loved in return.
‘I might not be good at this, Ava. My first wife was in love with someone else for a whole fucking year and I had no clue until the day she left.’
‘Callum …’
‘But I love you, Ava Gibson.’
‘And I love you, Callum Malone.’ Then she laughed, happily and heartily. ‘In case you were in any doubt on that score.’
She reached for him and pulled him down on to the grass. He fell flat on his back with a groan and she straddled him, her floral dress all around her, and she reached down and held his face between her hands. She didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. So she did a bit of both.
‘Ava the Terrible,’ Callum said as he looked up at her. ‘Who would have thought?’ He kissed her left cheek. ‘Ava.’ He pulled her down. ‘The.’ He kissed her right cheek. ‘Terrible.’ He found her mouth, slowly, teasingly, bit her lip and tugged it.
‘That’s a really awful nickname, you know.’
‘I promise never to use it again.’
‘Hold your horses. Let me think. I actually am terrible in the kitchen but I love food.’
‘I noticed.’
‘I’m really, really messy and judging by your house, you’re a neat freak.’
‘Not really. I’m just not home often enough to make it messy. But that’s something I plan to change. Starting Monday.’
‘Good. Now.’ Ava traced a line across his jaw to his lips. ‘Given we’ve already had sex and decided we love each other, are you going to actually ask me out on a date?’
In a move so quick Ava assumed he’d practised it, he’d flipped her over and was now lying on top of her. She gasped at his speed and his strength. And at how much he loved her.
‘You want to go on a date?’
‘You bet,’ she said, breathless and happy. Oh, so happy.
He kissed her, gently. ‘You’re so demanding, you know that?’
‘You ain’t seen nothing yet, Mister.’
Chapter Nineteen
‡
Ava couldn’t get out of the elevator. She was stuck to the wood-panelled sides of the small space as if she’d just been spun in a centrifuge. Callum had stepped out into the expansive foyer of Malone Enterprises’ offices and was waiting for her to make a move. It had taken three solid months of persuasion to get her up here to his office, forty-eight floors above Sydney. And now she was stuck at the final hurdle, her expression a mix of defiance and plain old shit-scared. She planted her palms flat on the wall on either side of her hips.
‘C’mon, Ava. You can do this.’ Callum was trying damn hard not to laugh.
‘Give me a minute,’ she said, pushing her hair back from her face.
Callum pushed back the sleeve of his midnight blue suit and checked the time. ‘You can stay there if you want, but you’ll miss the big announcement.’
She looked at him, her eyes narrowing with suspicion.
‘You know full well I can’t miss that. Another minute, I promise.’ She looked pale and kind of sweaty. God, he loved her.
‘So we’re on the forty-eighth floor?’
He took a step into the lift and reached out a hand for her. ‘C’mon. I’ve got you.’
Ava reached for Callum’s hand and gripped it with nervous fingers. ‘Oh, God. What am I doing here? You know I don’t do heights. I like my feet planted firmly on the ground.’
‘And that’s what I love about you.’ The doors began to close and Callum forced them back. ‘If you come out, I’ll kiss you.’
She managed a jittery smile. ‘Tempting.’
‘And when we get back to my place, we’ll do more than that.’
She took a steadying breath. ‘If you make it mind-blowing sex, you’ve got a deal.’
He grabbed her wrist with his free hand and pulled her out of the lift into his embrace. Her body slammed against his and, man, he would never get sick of holding his woman in his arms. His woman. Yeah, that’s how he thought of Ava now. He’d waited a long time for a woman who fit him the way she did. Her softness, her sass, her fears and her loyalty. She was the one for him. Always would be.
‘Wait a minute. Isn’t it always mind-blowing sex?’ He grinned as he dropped his forehead to rest on hers.
‘Ahem.’
Evelyn. Callum looked over his shoulder across the expanse of the reception area. His executive assistant and right-hand woman was peering at him over her red-rimmed glasses.
‘Good morning, Evelyn,’ he called out.
‘Callum. Ava,’ she said with a barely suppressed smile.
‘Is everyone here?’ He released Ava from his embrace, took her hand and they strolled across the enormous Persian rug to Evelyn’s desk.
‘Chris, Ellie and Charlotte are here. Isn’t that baby just as cute as a button? And Cooper is hooked up on Skype from San Clemente.’
‘Brilliant. Thanks.’
Ava tugged her hand from Callum’s and rounded the desk, throwing her arms wide open. ‘Hey, Evelyn. How’s that lime tree?’
Callum liked to see the love of his life and his right-hand woman like this. They’d hit it off from the first time they met and regularly conspired to clear his diary to make sure he had the ‘work’ part of the work-life balance equation in check.
Evelyn hugged Ava right back. ‘I think you were right. It needed a citrus feed. It’s got some lovely fruit on it now, so I can’t wait to make my first gin and tonic.’
‘I’d love some of those limes when they’re ready,’ Ava said.
‘Absolutely. I’ll send them home with Callum.’ Evelyn resumed her seat. Callum urged Ava to his office doors. She stopped at the first sight of mahogany.
‘Are the windows very big?’
‘Yes, but walk in and turn left a
nd take a seat on one of the leather sofas. I’ve scoped it out and you won’t be able to see anything from there.’
‘Are you sure?’
Callum looked into her eyes and he saw a whole lot of things. He saw love, as he had every day since he’d started looking for it. But right here, right now, he saw trust. He knew how precious a commodity that was between two people and he treasured having it now.
‘I’m absolutely sure.’ Oh, he was.
He pushed open the door and shepherded Ava left. Chris got to his feet and hugged her. Ellie was cradling Charlotte in her arms and she held out a hand to Ava, who sat next to her.
Callum walked over to his desk and pressed a button. The automatic blinds on all the windows lowered, darkening the room, and a screen descended from the far wall, right in front of the leather sofas where everyone was gathered.
‘You there, Coop?’
An image flickered and Cooper joined them long distance. ‘Hey you guys. This is very cool. Check out where I am!’ The image wobbled as Cooper picked up his laptop and walked to the window, aiming the camera to the view. There were tall palm trees and a pier extending out into the blue ocean. ‘Sunny San Clemente, folks. What do you think?’
‘It looks beautiful, Coop,’ Ellie called out. ‘We’re coming soon, you know that.’
‘Can’t wait.’ The image settled when Cooper put his laptop down. He pushed his hair back from his forehead and grinned at his family. ‘So what’s with the family meeting, bro?’
Callum joined Ava on the sofa, threw an arm around the back of it to bring her in close. ‘I wanted to put a proposition to you all and since Cooper can’t fly back, I thought we’d get together via the wonders of modern technology.’
Everyone was listening intently to Callum.
‘The Meadows. Everything’s gone through with the Will and the settlement. We’re finally free to sell it.’
There was a pause. Glances were exchanged but no-one spoke for a long moment.
‘Right,’ Chris finally said, although he didn’t look as happy about is as Callum thought he might.
‘Cool,’ Cooper added. Callum looked at his brothers. They both looked like they’d lost a puppy. Ellie was studying Chris with a strange look. Ava rested a hand on Callum’s thigh and he looked at her and winked.
The CEO (The Millionaire Malones Book 2) Page 14
