“She would have read the newspaper story, which was a bit biased. And because my family refused to have me interviewed, the impressionable female journalist on the story took the view of a very handsome man. And what is written can be retracted, but it can’t be unread.”
“So, now you’re bankrupt?”
She shook her head. “My father bailed me out. Grayson predicted that accurately. Far paid the tradespeople, but I don’t have a house or a nice car now. I am as you see me, a garden designer who works in the gardens she designs and hopes for a cottage attached to the job. I don’t suppose I will see that again, but it was certainly timely. At this stage I need to save every penny I get.”
“And what about this Grayson. What did he do with your money?”
“While he was with me, he spent the trades’ wages on impressing people, partying, drugs.” She shrugged. “He cleaned out my bank account, and I didn’t even notice because I left him to handle the money part of the business, though the only money was mine. My sister warned me, but would I listen? No.”
He lifted his hand from his thigh and held hers. Tears drifted down her cheeks, but she didn’t sniff or make a noise because she didn’t want him to know how badly Grayson had hurt her. She had made poor choices in her personal relationships, and when she decided on a business relationship, she chose wrongly there as well. No doubt about it, she had no idea how to judge character.
Finally, she angled her head and wiped her tears on her shoulder, anything but let go of his hand and his incidental support.
“The worst of it is that he was such a stupid man,” she said barely above a whisper. “All looks, no substance. And I was a stupid woman not to see him as he was.” She cleared her throat, attempting to sit taller. “Anyway, with Far’s help, the law will catch up to him, and he’ll end up with nothing but a reprimand.”
“Whereas you end up looking like a fool to have trusted him.”
She swallowed. “How can I ever live that down?”
“By doing exactly as you are doing. By being yourself. I expect you are paying back your father?”
“I’ll need to take quite a few more jobs before I can do that, but I’m well on the way. But the house and the car—well, the house was mortgaged, of course, but it was a start. If I want anything better now, I will have to marry a rich man, that’s for sure,” she said, trying to inject a lighter tone into her pity-party.
He squeezed her fingers and finally took back his hand. “I won’t qualify for quite a few years,” he said slowly.
She stared at him, surprised. “I’m not looking for a husband. I just didn’t want you to think that I’m dishonest. I wanted to explain why I operate on a favor-for-a-favor system. That way I save on tax. Oh, hell. Now I’m outing myself as a tax-evader.”
He made a wry movement of his mouth. “Have I done you a favor recently?”
“But for you, I wouldn’t have had a slice of Pavlova. Why? What do you want me to do?”
“Tomorrow, I’m installing a kitchen in Richmond. The job will take all day and possibly extend to Tuesday. Meanwhile, Luke is going to start the plumbing in my house. He can start upstairs, but I’ll need to find the space from somewhere for the third bathroom you advised. I’m thinking it ought be an en suite for the bedroom at the end of the hallway. I could possibly take off space from the hallway and the bedroom alongside. Or not. I would like you to go over the changes with me, if you would, because this is your idea.”
“I’m no architect.” She stared at his perfect profile. “Your brother could do it.”
“He seems to think I should do the planning first. You women all say I ought to reinstate the butler’s pantry. If I convert the bathroom there to a powder room, I’ll want a laundry room somewhere else and all of those areas need plumbing.” He waited.
“Okay, I’ll do what I can. I have the graph paper and pencils I used for my garden designs. I’ll want to be walked over the floor space, first. I haven’t seen upstairs.”
He turned and aimed a relieved smile at her.
Her heart leaped into her throat. A single smile from him, and she thudded with helpless pleasure. Giving him up would be very difficult when only a single night of sex with him had this effect on her.
She mentally talked herself down while he drove into his own place. Fortunately, Trent’s car had gone. If he had told Kell her surname, Kell might not have mentioned his keenness to be employed by her father. So, at this stage, she had no need to be wary of Kell or suspect he might be interested in using her to get ahead. For reasons only known to a woman who had been chosen because of her surname to be fleeced of her money, she would prefer Kell not to know her Allbrook connection—not yet, not when she still hoped she could spend more time with him. She doubted Vix would call to tell him tonight.
In the meantime, remaining scrupulously business-like, she inspected Kell’s upstairs’ space and waited while he collected his house plans. He walked her back to the cottage and he settled with her at the kitchen table.
His plans absorbed her for the next few hours while together they plotted the position for each area, arguing over the space in the old butler’s pantry before repositioning the sink. In accord, they re-designated the old downstairs bathroom as a modern powder room and found space for the laundry alongside, plotted for the new extension.
Finally finished, she stood, stretched her back, and raised her arms high. While she had been working over pages of graph paper, day had turned to night outside. She strolled over to the sitting area, turned on the table lamps, and closed the shutters. The cat awoke, stretched sinuously, and eyed Kell, who had begun rolling the paper sheets.
Hobo glanced at Calli as if asking a question. Calli shook her head, as disappointed as the cat to see the end of this over-full day.
For the past couple of hours, she had been Kell’s helper, but now with night about to surround her, she wanted him to stay for selfish and possibly ignominious reasons. The longer she kept him away from Trent, the better.
“I would offer you a meal if I had anything interesting defrosted,” she said to him in a tentative voice. Earlier, he had wanted to get naked with her and she had put him off. Now, she had changed her mind. Getting naked with him seemed about the best idea she had heard in a year.
He raised his gaze. “I can get us a pizza,” he said, raking his fingers through his hair. “Do you have a preference?”
“Normally, but tonight I’m just plain hungry.” And she hoped he took that two ways.
“I’ll shoot off to the shop. Okay?”
She handed him his keys.
* * * *
The fact that Calli had given her trust to a lying loser tore at Kell. The fact that the guy had taken advantage of her because she had wealthy parents made him want to rip off Grayson’s arms and stuff them down his throat. Anyone who hurt Calli would get the same reaction from him.
He had been looking all his life for her. Her smile had melted him from the start and her wobbly sense of humor killed him. She had never taken him seriously and for reasons unknown he loved that, too.
She never took a stance and crossed her arms. Her opinions were up for grabs and she didn’t pass judgments on anyone. She didn’t presume he was an uneducated lout. She treated him like someone whose opinion she would hear, although he was an uneducated lout with an uneducated opinion. He had a lot to learn about himself and about his business decisions. She accepted that, and she didn’t push him in any particular direction.
Best of all, he loved the smell of her skin, he loved the gleam in her eyes before she laughed, and he loved that she fit in with his family. She hadn’t acted possessive and she didn’t try to find out what his brothers had been planning to rag him about. He suspected she would wait for him to tell her and he should—but the whole thing was too bloody stupid. He would sound bigheaded if he said he sometimes dragged two dates along in case one of his friends was interested.
He cou
ld only act laid-back and accept that what happened, happened, which was mainly nothing because as Calli had said, what sort of woman would want to share a man? But unfortunately, he’d spent years leaving his brothers to assume the worst. Trying to clear that up with them now would be far too late. He had needed to hold her in his arms since she had begun the story of Grayson. Now stuffed with pizza, and replenished with coffee, he looked into her eyes, accepting the sledgehammer hit to his heart.
He rose to his feet, folding up the pizza box, which he tossed from the table to the kitchen sink, still holding Calli’s gaze. Then he began to remove his sweater. She stood, her expression watchful, and slipped out of her shoes. One bound, and he snatched her up, staring closely at her, noting the way she held his gaze, her mouth slack and her breath short. Slow and deliberate, he brushed his lips against hers, again, again, and again.
She tightened her fingers into his hair while he kissed her eyebrows, her eyes, the tip of her nose, and then her mouth. He slid his lips to her jaw, and she arched back, her palms flat against his chest. His heart reacted with a thump into his throat and he lost his breath. “I swear I’ll get you naked any minute, but I have to finish kissing you first.”
She laughed deep in the back of her throat. “I don’t want to be greedy.” Nuzzling into his neck, she licked him there, before kissing his jaw. She traded him kiss for kiss until he needed to explore inside her mouth and she needed explore inside his. Although he began to snatch at air, he could tell by the heat of her skin that she wanted him as desperately as he wanted her—but if he prolonged the inevitable for as long as possible, the build-up would intensify the climax.
When he thought the end of his tether had been reached, he walked her backward into the bedroom, trying to kick off his shoes. “Don’t undress. I’m going to strip you.”
“I don’t think I can wait,” she answered in a shaky voice. “But I want to undress you, too.” She started by undoing his fly.
He pushed lightly at her hand, because if she had set that part of him free, he doubted he would be able to do more than toss her onto the bed. Now in far too much of a hurry, he pulled her shirt out of her jeans and sped each button out of each hole, his hands shaky. Finally he pushed her shirt off her shoulders. He would have undone her bra, but she moved back and crouched onto the floor to jerk off his shoes. She snatched off his socks. Then she waited, staring at his zipper.
“Your pants first,” he said, undoing her zipper.
She wriggled her hips and he pulled the legs and with a kind of hop-step, she ended up in her bra and panties. Although slim of body and fit, she had beautiful breasts, a good handful each, but he assumed his jeans would have to go before he could fill his hands. She stared straight into his eyes. “I’m getting those jeans off you now and if you don’t hang on to your interesting bits, I swear I’ll grab you into my palm and play around for a while.”
“Good God, you have a dirty mouth.” He laughed as he let her drag down his jeans. Stepping out of them, he undid her bra. “I’m going to grab these and play around for a while,” he said, staring at her lovely white breasts.
“Nope. You take your undies off, and I’ll take mine off.”
Because he couldn’t wait, he did as instructed, and then he stood, erect and desperate to have her while she examined his body and then his dick, which had decided to preen.
She said nothing. She stared. “It’s not fair,” she eventually said, her eyes glossing slightly. “I’ve never thought the male body was more than mildly interesting, but yours is bloody perfect.”
He cleared his throat. “How is that unfair?”
“Because your face is, too.” Her lips quirked ruefully. “Just my luck.”
“I’m not going to ask what you mean, and I’m not going to be coy because I can say the same of you. You are beautiful from the tip of your head to your tiny toes.”
“Tiny toes?”
“Compared to mine.”
She laughed. “May I touch now?”
He grabbed her by the hips and tossed her onto the bed, landing beside her with an oof. Then he lay back while she touched him all over, rolling on his condom slowly, stopping to kiss his belly while she did so, and exploring each of his reactions. Torture, but the best torture he had had in his life.
And then he had his chance to reciprocate.
For him, sex had always been pleasurable, no matter with whom, but never so intimate, never so personal, never so real. He wanted to be with Calli for the rest of his life. But, of course, that would never happen. He wouldn’t fool himself with the possibility now that he knew she had rich parents. When he finally entered her, each stroke was a groaning delight, each pass at her mouth with his lips was a last taste, and his final explosion no joy at all because he would have to give her up long before he wanted to.
He left her sleeping because he couldn’t make plans for a future with her. Although he resembled Jay physically, he was nothing like his brother. He couldn’t hook up with a rich girl, he shouldn’t love one, and he wouldn’t marry one.
During those few weeks at the beginning of the year with the biggest property development company in the state, he had worked with the best tradesmen in the business, people he would be proud to associate with for the rest of his working life. He saw how success bred success. Doing the odd flip once a year would help him buy a fancy house and a nice car, but expanding his company to accommodate the needs of Allbrooks would give him the professional standing he craved—but that was all.
If he was offered a commitment by AA & Company, he could possibly think about a life with a woman whose parents had the sort of healthy income he planned to make in the not-too-distant future. Long before that time, Calli would have moved on.
Chapter 11
Calli awoke to a cat sitting on her chest. “Good morning, Miss Hobo.” The bright sunlight streaming in through side cracks of the blind showed rumpled sheets but no Kell. He must have slipped away in the middle of the night. Calli frowned. “What happened to our pet man?”
Hobo offered a blink before leaping to the floor, where she waited to show Calli the way to her food dish.
“It’s no use trying to pretend you don’t know because you must have seen him leave. Since you only speak person in his presence, I’m guessing he wanted to get to work early. You cats have it easy. He has to earn a living like the rest of us humans.”
Hobo stalked off to the kitchen. After swinging out of bed, Calli grabbed her bathroom robe and followed, barefooted. No man before Kell had considered kissing her all over. He had even resorted to licking at times. Last night had been Super-Callistic-Extra-Stylosis, or something like that.
“Don’t be huffy.” She filled Hobo’s bowl while the cat frowned with annoyance. “He wouldn’t have left early to avoid the morning after. He’s not that type. He has a lot of confidence, you know. I suppose because he doesn’t expect to be rejected.” She made an uncertain face.
But apparently Hobo had no doubt about Kell’s confidence, and she munched her breakfast while Calli spooned cornflakes into her own mouth, showered, and dressed, hugging herself with the knowledge that for the first time in her life she had been cherished. She had finally met a man expert enough and generous enough to make sure of her satisfaction. She had never imagined making love would be so leisurely, so wonderful. A tickle of heat warmed her lower belly.
If she hadn’t heard the rumble of a truck in the driveway, she might have wandered around for quite some time with a dreamy smile on her face. Instead, she had to dash outside before five pallets of paving blocked the driveway. The orders on the delivery sheet should have directed the driver to the other side of the house where he could leave the pavers without impeding her access. After a short discussion, he backed up into the street and forklifted the pallets over the front fence. As he finished, the paving team arrived and stood discussing their weekend activities until the sand was poured into a pyramid near the pavers.
“Have you spoken to Kell?”
“This morning? Sure. That’s why I’m getting the tiles over here. I had them in the dumpster.”
“I hope you haven’t already, but please don’t tell him my surname.”
“I don’t know your surname.”
“Didn’t Emily tell you?”
“No. She said your family is rich. No point in me knowing your surname. I wouldn’t know it anyway.”
She grabbed his shoulders and kissed him on the cheek. “Allbrook,” she said. “That’s why I don’t want him to know.”
“Oh,” he said, glancing down while he spread the dirt in front of him with the toe of his work boot. “If he knew, he would drop you like a sack of potatoes.”
“Really? I was more afraid he would ask me to help him get a job with my father. I can’t. My father would instantly mistrust anyone I recommended. He thinks I’m a poor choice of character.” She moistened her lips. “And I don’t want to be dropped.”
Trent sighed. “He thinks I don’t know he’s been seeing you. I’m happy to keep out of this, but I have to tell you that Kell has never asked for a favor from anyone in his life. He’s a proud bastard.” He carefully neatened up the edges of two tiles. “Normally, I don’t get a chance to give advice to women, but I think you need to keep your secret a little longer.”
“I probably can’t. I went to school with Vix Dee. She knows who I am.”
Trent considered. “I might give her a phone call and see if I can get her to keep quiet, though I don’t know. Kell has been bitten before. More than that I won’t say. But,” he said with a shrug and a sigh, “good luck.”
Perfect Scents Page 15
