The CEO(21)

This had to stop. Right this second. Ava tried to pull her fingers from his grasp, but he held on.

‘I like that you get your hands dirty,’ he said, his voice low and deep. ‘It shows you have a passion for your work.’

He’d seen through her after all. She had a passion for something and it damn well wasn’t underground sprinkler systems.

When she lifted her eyes to his face, Callum was looking at her, his own narrowed and his brow creased.

She slipped her fingers out of his hands and, this time, he let her.

‘I’ll go wash up,’ she said.

*

After Ava had cleaned up, removed the smear of mud from her forehead that she’d clearly missed when she’d checked herself in her car’s rear view mirror when she’d arrived, she found herself back at Callum’s table, tucking into a crunchy Asian salad and devouring the most delicious salt-and-pepper squid she’d ever tasted. She’d managed to cool off a little and collect herself. The splash of cold water to her face had been enough to douse the flame in her cheeks, but the burning and throbbing she felt between her legs was determined to keep on doing its girl thing and torment her all through the meal. Sitting opposite Callum Malone was definitely not the recipe for dampening down her hormonal dance party.

‘I didn’t quite believe you when you said you like to eat.’ His eyes went to her near-empty plate and then settled on her mouth.

‘I never lie about food. This is heavenly,’ she groaned as she scooped up another serving from the white platter between them, where the glistening squid pieces were nestled in fluffy white rice.

‘Why thank you,’ he said with a smile in his voice. ‘More wine?’

Ava covered her glass. ‘No, thanks. I have to drive. But don’t let me stop you. Where’d you learn to cook like this?’

Callum half-filled his own glass, took a sip and looked up to the ceiling. ‘Reality TV.’

Ava couldn’t contain her laughter, which came out in a splutter and a snort. ‘You’re kidding me.’

‘Not kidding,’ he said, his face splitting in a grin. ‘When I come home, when I eventually walk through that door, I need to put the day and business and all that shit behind me, so I cook. I get down and dirty with those TV chefs.’

‘Let me guess. Nigella?’

Callum raised one eyebrow and it was almost the sexiest thing she’d ever seen. ‘Damn straight.’

‘I get that,’ Ava said with a wicked grin of her own. ‘I think even I would turn for her.’

Callum lifted his wine glass and took a huge sip before clearing his throat. ‘So, what about you. Where did you learn the garden business?’

‘University, then ten years with a major firm here in Sydney.’

‘Do you like working for yourself?’

‘Yeah, I do. The fringe benefits are awesome,’ she said as she tucked in to more of the squid.

Callum laughed and Ava sensed a small unravelling, a loosening of the distance that had always existed between them. She looked over her shoulder to the big windows and to the fading light in the evening sky. Something had changed, as if she’d walked through his door tonight and discovered he was a completely different person to the one she thought he was. She’d never seen him act like this around Lulu, playful and fun, loose and relaxed, although it was true to say she’d always been too busy being haughty and distant to ever see anything else. If she’d been able to talk with Callum like this when he was her brother-in-law, she may have liked him a whole lot better and been in love with him a whole lot less.

‘So,’ Ava filled her plate with an extra scoop of salad, ‘you mentioned something about a shitty day. Did you have to do something horrible? Like maybe retrench some people or something?’

‘That’s what you think I do? Sack people?’

‘I read the papers,’ she shrugged. ‘It’s happening everywhere at the moment.’

‘Not in my company it’s not.’ Callum pushed his empty plate to the side and leaned his elbows on the polished wood. ‘I met with Chris and Cooper today.’

‘The brothers Malone,’ Ava said, smiling at the image in her head of the three of them together in one place. Surely that much handsome caused oestrogen surges within a fifty-mile radius.

‘The brothers Malone had to have the discussion about our father’s Will.’

‘Oh God. How awful.’ Ava put her fork down. She tried to swallow her guilt. ‘I’m sorry I was flippant.’

‘You weren’t to know. We’ve decided to sell our father’s house.’

Ava gasped. ‘You mean the mansion?’