Caleb could practically hear Luke rubbing his hands together in absolute fucking glee. "Good. I'll text you where we'll meet. Let's say 9?"
It was nearing eight now. That gave him an hour. "See you then."
When he hung up, Maddie regarded him with those soft brown eyes, quirking a brow. "A friend of yours?"
"None of your business."
She shrugged. "Well, hope you'll have fun tonight. You wouldn't want to disappoint all those random hot chicks."
Caleb almost laughed. "Jealous of them?"
She snorted, rifling through papers. "I pity them, actually. I hope for your sake they're not irritating, or all you'll do all night is nag them about how they're not working hard enough."
Caleb almost choked in surprise. Then calm as can be, Maddie flipped closed the folder she'd been perusing and faced him fully. "Now, if you don't mind, I have other work to do at home which is due in the morning. Same time tomorrow? Great. No, no … no need for you to stand up, I'll just get my car from Brian. Good night."
With that, she immediately swept from his office, snagging her purse at the last moment, leaving him dumbstruck in his desk chair. He didn't remember the last time a woman had gotten the upper hand. He was always the one in control because he never wanted to feel weak again.
With an angry growl, he pushed out of his chair and stalked to the office door, wrenching it open with enough force to slam it against the wall. Maddie had already made it to the bottom of the stairs, but she didn't even turn around when he stomped after her.
Chasing a woman. What had become of him?
Frankly, he was too pissed off to care.
"Did I say you could leave, princess?" he grated.
She turned to him, all wide-eyed innocence. "Oh, I'm sorry. I wasn't aware I was being kept here against my will. You know what they call that, don't you?"
Caleb's jaw clenched. He was torn between giving her a verbal lashing or taking her back up to his office to strip her out of those damn jeans-naturally the heels would stay on-and give her a good, proper spanking.
"That office-" he started, jabbing a finger over his shoulder.
She cut him off smoothly, her tone positively chipper. "Isn't going to be done in one evening. Besides, it sounds like you have plans. I'm just making myself scarce so you don't have to go through the horribly awkward process of kicking me out." She gave him a smile that … no, goddammit, his heart did not just skip a beat. "Although, I'm sure you've had lots of practice with that."
It took him a second to catch onto her meaning-that little minx-but by then she'd already called out for Brian.
"What's all this, sweetie?" the older man asked from across the garage. He was getting ready to leave, had already shrugged on his jacket.
"Caleb kindly said I could go home a little early. Could I please get my car keys?"
"Brian, don't you dare give them to her. For all I know, she'd just take her car and never come back."
She stiffened at his accusation and swung her gaze to him. "I'm not a cheat or a liar. When I said I'll do your bookkeeping, I meant it."
Caleb believed her. He didn't know why, but he did. He never really thought that she'd back out of their deal, but he needed to regain control of the situation.
"You're not leaving without a little insurance on my end, princess," he told her, his tone dangerously low. "Your credit card details, for instance."
Her eyes narrowed. "For all I know," she started, repeating his words, "you'd steal my card number to pay for your little night out when I'm already working to pay you off."
"Princess, what's in your account couldn't even pay for one of my nights out, if you can't even afford your car repairs."
It was a low blow and the color that flooded Maddie's cheeks made Caleb almost regret his words. Almost.
"You know nothing about me," she said quietly. "So don't you dare throw that in my face."
"All right, all right, kids. Let's play nice," Brian intervened. Maddie looked away from Caleb, down to the floor of the garage. And just like the time when he'd blasted the radio to tune her out, he was bothered by her silence.
Or maybe you're bothered because you're just an asshole, his mind whispered.
Pushing his sudden remorse to the back of his mind, he rumbled, "You still can't leave without insurance."
Maddie straightened and looked him in the eye. "Fine."
She dug into her purse, pulling out a wallet the size of a brick. The garage was silent as she unzipped it, collecting cards from various pockets. Seriously, how many pockets did that thing have? When she was all done, she thrust eight or nine black and white gift cards into Caleb's hands. Their fingers made brief contact-she had the softest damn skin-before she pulled away like she'd been burned.