[4 Seasons 01] Seducing Summer

by Serenity Woods

  “I’d rather not talk about it,” Callie said. “If that’s okay.”

  Rowan’s expression softened. “Sure. But you’re all right?”

  “I’m fine,” she lied. Phoebe had rung earlier to tell her that Kirk hadn’t been captured, and that a couple of people had been killed. She’d tried to convince Callie to postpone her tour, but Callie had been adamant that she wasn’t going to let some idle threats stop her doing her job. They’d argued, and in the end Callie had hung up and thrown her phone across the room. It was the last subject she wanted to discuss tonight.

  “Pressie time,” Willow announced loudly, providing a welcome distraction.

  Gene finished filling up the others’ glasses and promised to get Neve another glass of vodka, and the girls moved their seats to form a close circle around Willow with the other ten or so young women whom Willow had invited to her baby shower.

  The mother-to-be looked her usual bohemian self, Callie thought, smiling with affection at Willow’s pretty, rainbow-colored tunic that hung in soft folds over her maternity jeans. Her long brown hair hung around her shoulders in gentle waves, and she was the very picture of motherly beauty.

  Although she and Rowan were identical twins, they were so very different. But then, most of that was nurture, Callie mused. Rowan had told her once—late at night, after a party at university, and when they were both drunk—what lay at the root of her problems. They hadn’t referred to it since, but it haunted Callie sometimes. Things had happened in Rowan’s past that had molded her into a very different girl from her laidback sister. It was amazing that Rowan was sane at all considering what she’d had to deal with over the years.

  “Are you nervous?” Callie asked as a couple of her friends moved the table of presents closer to Willow.

  “Not really. I’m excited. It’s all planned.” Willow perched on the edge of the sofa, her cheeks flushed with pleasure. “I’m having a natural water birth, with no drugs, if at all possible.”

  “Sheesh.” Neve pulled a face. “I can’t think of anything worse. I’ll be, like, give me a fucking epidural and get that thing out of me!”

  They all laughed, including Gene.

  “Do you want kids, Gene?” Bridget asked him.

  He raised an eyebrow as they all turned to look at him. “Of course. When I meet the right girl.”

  “You haven’t met her yet?” Bridget enquired.

  He smiled at her. “When I do, you’ll be the first to know.”

  Callie reached across to the sausage rolls on the nearby table and took one. He hadn’t looked at her when he answered, and now he was helping Willow get comfortable on the sofa, fetching her a cushion and then a glass of lemonade. He’d sidestepped the question admirably, so Callie had no idea of knowing what was going through his head. Was he thinking, Jeez, that’s the last thing on my mind, hope Callie doesn’t get any ideas…? Or did the thought of a future with her give him a tingle, the way the notion of seeing more of him in the future did with her?

  She put it all to the back of her mind. This evening they had to concentrate on Willow, and there would be plenty of time in the future to work things out.

  Willow started with a present from her sister, squealing at the sight of Rowan’s handmade baby jumpsuit in neutral yellows and oranges because Willow and Liam had chosen not to know the sex of their baby.

  “And it’ll also remind him or her of me,” Rowan said, “as autumn.”

  “I love it.” Tears shone in Willow’s eyes and she stood to give Rowan a hug. “Thank you.”

  “I’ve made lots more clothes, but these are the prettiest,” Rowan said huskily. “I’m so glad you like it.”

  Neve nudged Gene, who was standing next to her. “You realize after this you’re going to have to go out and do incredibly manly things just to negate all the estrogen you’ve been exposed to.”

  “I plan to chop logs and hunt wild boar while listening to loud rock music straight after I leave here,” he advised.

  Everyone giggled, and Callie grinned. The idea of watching the sexy Mr. Bond chopping logs naked from the waist up wasn’t the worst proposition in the world. He glanced over at her, his lips curving up, and raised an eyebrow as if to say, What do you think? She shrugged, meh, but thought that her eyes probably held a little of the lust that coursed through her at the thought.

  It took Willow quite a while to open all the presents. Gene moved around the room while she did so, refilling glasses and taking around plates of food to keep everyone occupied.

  “Fancy a nibble, ma’am?” he murmured to her at one point when he bent to offer her a selection of tiny pastries.

  “Mmm, yes please,” she replied, determined not to blush, and well aware that Neve still had her eye on them. “Thank you, Mr. Bond.”

  He moved on, but not before they’d exchanged the briefest of glances, and she saw the warmth in his gray eyes.

  After the present opening, Willow made a short speech thanking her friends and family for their support, then announced that they were going to have a bit of fun with the Four Seasons lingerie party. The women all clapped, thoroughly enjoying themselves by this point.

  It was Neve’s turn to take over. Callie had been to many of Neve’s parties, so she was well aware how skilled her friend was at being the host, but as always she found herself admiring Neve’s confident manner, the way she managed to include everyone in the evening, and how she made it fun and a little risqué without picking on anyone who might have been embarrassed or nervous at some of the things she brought out of her suitcase.

  First she handed everyone a catalogue of the Four Seasons brand and brought out displays of lots of their lingerie and swimwear, which the girls all cooed over. Many of them took pieces to try on in Willow’s bedrooms, and Callie had to suppress her usual pleasure and excitement at seeing the order list get longer and longer as the girls emerged with pleased squeals. Even Willow chose a few pieces, because Neve had purposely included some maternity bras that Rowan had made—beautiful as ever, but with practical clips that meant a nursing mum could remove the cups.

  “What do you think, Gene?” Neve directed the question at him and held the bra with her fingertips, giving it a slight shake in his direction. She’d had a few vodkas now and was growing increasingly naughty, and Callie knew she’d do her best to tease him. Rowan coughed into her wine, always the most easily embarrassed of the lot of them.

  But he appeared impossible to shock and just nodded. “Easy access,” he said. “I approve.”

  Everyone laughed, and Neve gave a wry smile.

  Bridget nudged her as he turned away to fetch a new bottle of wine. “Leave the poor man alone.”

  “Why? I want to see what it takes to make him blush.”

  Callie knew she should stop her, but she had a sneaky feeling that it was her friend who was going to come out the loser in this battle. Gene was proving to have a better sense of humor and a higher degree of unflappability than she’d realized.

  The test came when everyone had finished looking at the lingerie. Neve produced another case and grinned as she placed it on the table. By now, all of them except Willow had been drinking for a few hours, and the mood was high and a tad raucous.

  “Ready for a little fun?” She popped the lid.

  The women all squealed at the array of vibrators and other sex toys on display. Callie, who was used to this, glanced up at Gene. He was looking with interest at the range of objects, but as if he’d known she would be looking at him, his eyes rose to meet hers, and a small smile crept onto his lips.

  “Right,” Neve said, and rubbed her hands together. “Time for some demonstrations.”

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Spending an evening with a crowd of rowdy young women would normally have been Gene’s idea of hell, and he’d been on the verge of turning down Neve’s suggestion of acting as a waiter for the night. That afternoon, however, after he’d gotten the taxi to drop Callie home, he’d walked into the Sa
fe & Secure offices to learn that Phoebe had received a new death threat.

  “It’s just as nasty as the previous one,” Kev had said. “But that’s not the only bad news.” He’d shown a copy of the note to Gene, who’d read it with growing distaste. As well as threatening Phoebe, it ended by describing exactly what he was going to do to her and her daughter when he got hold of them, in great and disgusting detail.

  “What do you want to do?” Kev had asked with concern.

  Gene knew he had to sort himself out. No more wearing casual clothes—it had to be the bulletproof vest at all times, and from now on he had to make sure he was completely focused on her safety. He couldn’t afford to get distracted with romantic thoughts when he should be concentrating on analyzing the threat at all times.

  He couldn’t tell Kev that, though. Instead, he’d said, “I think it’s time to upgrade the threat on Callie from low to medium.” They’d labeled Phoebe’s case as ‘very high’ from the start, but because the threat to Callie had been indirect, they’d kept hers rated as ‘low’ until now. “And it’s time to send someone ahead of us to do risk assessments of the places we’ll be staying, and to do covert protection from a distance to catch anything I might not be aware of.”

  “You really think he’ll come after her?”

  “No,” Gene had said, although he’d not been sure if that had just been wishful thinking. “I think it’s a scare tactic rather than a real threat. But we can’t risk that, of course.”

  After leaving the office, he’d gone to the gym for a while and had tried to lose himself in the heat and sweat of physical exercise, but all it had done was made him think of Callie’s hot skin next to his, her soft moans in the darkness, and to imagine how terrible he’d feel if something happened to her.

  How stupid he’d been to give in to his desire. Her life was in danger, and all he could think about was taking her to bed and tasting her again, and losing himself in her sweet warmth.

  To punish himself, he’d agreed to go to the party, certain he’d hate every minute. Oddly, though, he discovered he was quite enjoying himself. Willow’s friends were fun without being over the top, a little embarrassed to have him there but half enjoying it, too, and it was interesting to be on the inside of women’s lives for once and watch how they interacted with each other once they semi-forgot he was a guy.

  It was nice to get to know Callie’s close friends as well. Bridget was bright and bubbly, Neve outwardly mischievous and wicked, but inwardly—he suspected—soft as mush with a heart of gold. Rowan was a bit harder to fathom, as she barely said two words to him, and she seemed the shyest of the four of them.

  He also enjoyed watching Callie with her friends. She didn’t seem any different, sunny and warm, open and fun. Presumably, her mother had kept her informed of recent events regarding Darren Kirk. Was Callie concerned about the increasing threat on her life? She didn’t look it, appearing very relaxed, and she didn’t seem nervous or distracted.

  He’d wondered whether she’d be able to avoid the temptation of telling her best friends what had happened between them while they’d been away, but although she met his gaze once or twice during the evening, and something passed between them like a radio wave from her eyes to his, she didn’t make any reference to their brief relationship. He was relieved, and a tiny bit disappointed. Of course he didn’t want it coming out into the open, he scolded himself. But it didn’t stop him wondering where it was going. Was this just a bit of fun for her? A holiday fling to amuse herself while they traveled? Or was it something more? He surprised himself by hoping it was the latter.

  The only time she reacted to his presence with more than a flick of her eyes was when Neve opened the case containing the sex toys. Callie obviously knew what the case contained, but as he perused the contents and then raised his gaze to hers, he caught her watching him, and saw a deep blush spread from the apples of her cheeks across her face, like two drops of scarlet paint dropped onto a plate of cream.

  His lips curved up. That, at least, boded well.

  “Now, this is my favorite,” the indefatigable Neve said, holding up the rabbit vibrator. “Shaped for your pleasure, ladies.” She proceeded to explain to them the various delights of the toy.

  Gene retreated to the drinks table to pour another round of wine glasses and walked discreetly around the room to hand them out, trying not to laugh out loud at the squeals and shrieks of the women as they handled the toys. From what he could see, they consisted mostly of vibrators of various shapes and sizes with a few anal devices, no nipple clamps or whips or anything too scary or painful that might have been too much for anyone who hadn’t been brave enough to purchase any toys before. He felt a sudden surge of affection for Neve, who was managing to make everything seem both erotically naughty and yet perfectly normal, too. Even Rowan was having fun investigating the options, although she completely refused to look him in the eye.

  He tried not to stare too long at the contents, knowing he’d get himself hot and bothered at the thought of trying them out on the strawberry blonde currently examining the types of lubricants available. She didn’t really need any of those, he thought, remembering how wet and swollen she’d been, then closed his eyes briefly and forced himself to think about arctic conditions and having his wisdom teeth out and anything else that would dampen his ardor.

  Luckily, nobody seemed to notice his discomfort, their attention distracted by Willow, who was complaining that she was too fat even to see below her navel, and that once the baby came she was sure it would be at least six months before she and Liam would have the energy to try out any of the toys.

  Neve had apparently finished going through all the items in the case. The women were busy flicking through catalogues, purchasing items that were available from Neve’s small stock and writing down their orders for those items she didn’t have, most of the girls apparently brave enough to treat themselves to at least one item.

  Neve turned her wicked smile on him. “Gene? Can I put you down for anything?”

  Everyone giggled. He took her over a plate of chocolate truffles and bent to offer them to her. “Actually, I’ll take one of those. Looks like fun.” He tapped the list in her hand.

  Neve’s eyebrows shot up, and all the women went “Oooooh!”

  “For anyone we know?” Bridget asked.

  “Yes,” Neve said, “anyone we know?” Her eyes were hard.

  “For my special someone,” he said. “A lady who’s been in my heart for a very long time.”

  He saw the disappointment flicker across Bridget and Rowan’s faces, and surprise on Neve’s at the acceptance that it was someone he’d known for a while.

  “Well, she’s a very lucky woman,” Bridget said brightly, glancing at Callie. He didn’t follow her gaze, but out of the corner of his eye he saw Callie turn to talk to Willow, showing her apparent disinterest in his love life.

  The party went on for maybe another thirty minutes, but by then Willow was noticeably flagging, almost dozing off in her chair, and everyone began to gather their purchases and their handbags.

  “I’ll ring for taxis,” someone called. “How many do we need?”

  “Hitch is taking us home,” Bridget said, indicating the four of them. “I just need to phone him to come and pick us up.”

  “Will we all fit in his car?” Neve asked doubtfully. “It’s a very old Mini,” she explained at Gene’s quizzical look.

  “I’ll take Callie and Rowan home,” he said. “As I’m still officially on PA duty.”

  “Don’t worry about me,” Rowan said. “Hitch is going to drop me at the supermarket. I want to pick up a few bits and I can walk from there.”

  None of them seemed interested in the fact that he was taking Callie home. He glanced at her. She was busy saying goodbye to Willow, but didn’t reject his offer, so he guessed she didn’t mind.

  While he waited, he emptied any food remains into the rubbish bin, rinsed the plates and stacked them with the gl
asses in the dishwasher, and tidied up so Willow wouldn’t have much to do when everyone had gone.

  Closing the door to the dishwasher and pressing the start button, he looked up to see Callie leaning against the doorjamb, watching him. “Ready?” she asked.

  “Yep.” He picked up his car keys, wallet, and slipped the purchase he’d made into his pocket, and followed her out to where the others were saying goodbye. “Bye,” he said to Willow, bending to kiss her on the cheek.

  She threw her arms around him. “You cleaned up! You can come again. Thank you so much.”

  He gave her a quick hug back. “You’re very welcome. I hope things go well for you.”

  Callie waved goodbye too, and then they all went out onto the street.

  A tall, dark-haired guy was leaning against an old racing-green Mini, but he pushed off the car as they approached.

  “Gene, this is Bridget’s brother, Hitch,” Callie said. “Hitch, meet Gene. My… PA.” She left the slightest pause between the final two words.

  “Hey.” The two guys shook hands. Hitch turned to the girls. “Who’s coming with me? Might be a squash.” He winked at Rowan. “You can sit on my lap if you like.”

  “That would be rather dangerous, don’t you think?” she pointed out as she walked around to the passenger seat, completely missing the flirty nature of his comment. Hitch met Gene’s eyes and gave a wry smile.

  The other girls got in, yelling at Callie to keep in touch about the rest of their trip, and then Hitch drove away, pretending to bang into a nearby lamppost and making them all squeal before he righted the car and disappeared around the corner.

  Callie blew out a long breath.

  “Ready to go home?” Gene asked.

  “Yeah.”

  As they walked the short distance to his car, he crossed behind her to walk on the road side of the pavement.

  “What are you doing that for?” she asked.

  “So I can protect you with my weapon.”

  “I’d like to see that.”

  He smiled, and her lips curved up a little, but she seemed subdued.