Delicious (Cooking Up A Storm) (5 page)

Shelby didn’t. She took the Sprite from her and kneeled in front.

“What happened?”
Shelby asked so calmly that Cara started to cry.

“It was horrible,
Shelby,” Cara told her. Accepting the tissue she gave her, she covered her face with it.

“
Aiden was horrible in bed?” Shelby asked in disbelief.

“No. No,
Aiden was wonderful. Aiden was everything that Miranda said and then some. I was horrible.”

“Oh,
Cara. That’s not true. You’ve had enough lovers for me to know you must be doing something right there.”

Cara
moved the tissue away from one eye and looked at her. “No, I’m not talking about in bed. We were great together in bed. I’m talking about as a human being. As a friend. As…” She started to cry even harder.

“You guys were great together. I knew it.”
Shelby was thrilled. “So what’s the problem? Sounds wonderful to me and about time I might add.”

“
Shelby, it’s not wonderful. It’s far from wonderful. Aiden wasn’t making love to me. He was thinking about Miranda. He was getting even with Miranda.”

“No!” She breathed the word into the silent room.

“Yes. Why else would he make love to me…more times than I can remember?”

Shelby
tried hard to hide her smile. “Cara, you two have had a year of foreplay. What did you expect? Of course it was going to be unbelievably out of this world. You waited long enough for it.”

Her words made
Cara want to cry even more. If only that were true. She knew better. Aiden was in love with Miranda.

“No, that’s not true. I mean, yes it was. It was amazing, in fact. But it wasn’t directed at me. It was all
Miranda. And I not only cheated on her, I cheated on Jason as well.”

“Oh please!”
Shelby interrupted in an explosion of anger. “Miranda is too good for you and for him. She only cares about Miranda. And Jason, well, you’re right he didn’t deserve it but you knew going into the relationship that it was just to protect yourself against Aiden.”

Cara
stared at her. Was that the truth? Had she simply been dating the half dozen or more men to protect her heart from Aiden? Jason was the latest in a long line of guys she’d dated this year. Truth was, Cara rarely dated at all that much before Aiden. She’d been preoccupied with her career. Meeting Aiden had thrown her for a loop in so many ways.

“
Cara, Aiden’s not in love with Miranda. No way. He was just using her for…”

“For sex? Because she is the perfect female specimen for him? Because
Aiden’s only attracted to models?” Shelby’s expression said all of those things were true. “So where does that leave me. I don’t want to be one of those women. I can’t. I—” Cara bit her tongue and clamped the words off before she could say the words, ‘I’m in love with Aiden.’ In Love? Where had that come from?

“
Cara, who cares what happened in the past? Aiden was just playing the field. He could never be serious about Miranda or any of her kind.”

“
Aiden isn’t serous about me either. I’m no different from the others. I just don’t look the same.”

“Oh,
Cara. You are such an idiot. You can’t possibly believe that?”

“Its true and I do and I don’t want to talk about it any more.”

“You’re not going to call him back, are you?”

“No. What’s the point? He just thinks he feels something for me. Give him a few days and he’ll be begging her to come back. Or worse still. He’ll have moved on from the both of us to Miss July.”

“Oh, Cara.”

Cara
started back to the kitchen.

“You don’t want to talk about it?”
Shelby asked as if she’d just sprouted two heads.

“No.” She took tonight’s entrée out of the oven and shoved it on the counter. “There’s nothing to talk about. And if
Aiden calls back, I’m out. Forever. For the rest of my life. In fact, I’ll never be in for Aiden again.”

* * * *

Aiden didn’t actually believe Shelby’s cover up, but still, the thought of Cara with Jason left a hollow feeling in his gut and made him want to turn the rented car around, go back to the airport and return to Dallas to find out for sure.

“Stupid, stupid, stupid,” he told himself again. Give her space. She was just…what? Upset that he’d made a move on her? Unhappy that she’d betrayed
Jason? Or just unmoved. Like he’d pictured her over the phone. Like she’d sounded when she’d told him it was just a mistake.

Mistake? He’d never met a woman whose body responded to him like
Cara’s had. How could that be anything but meant to be? Fate. The person he was supposed to spend the rest of his life with?

Aiden
had a full day ahead of him. Best to stop obsessing over every little tone or word that she’d spoken. If he were going to give her space, he’d at least try to get the Shelby Advertising back to profitability after the former chief executives screw-ups. A year. That’s all. He’d promised himself that he would stick it out for one year to get the experience and then he was coming back home to Dallas to start his own agency. That had been Aiden’s lifelong dream.

Two days ago, one year in his life hadn’t seemed like such a big thing. But that had been before
Cara had rocked his world and sent his prospective scattering in a million different directions. Since last night, well all he could think about was a repeat performance. More than once. Because once was never going to be enough.

Apparently,
Cara had not felt the same. In fact, she hadn’t had anything close to the same reaction as him. Cara it seemed was full of regrets. Or at least, that’s what she wanted him to think.

Aiden
debated on whether to go straight to the apartment that he’d picked out his last trip here. He could use the time to get settled in, even though the place came fully furnished and he hadn’t exactly added anything, except for a few clothes and basic necessities.

After listening to the three voicemails on his cell phone, he decided against spending the day settling into the apartment. Two of the three messages were from his second in command, Eric Reynolds. The man who had been forced to fill in for
Aiden after the executive, who had run the company into bankruptcy in the first place, absconded to parts unknown with most of the pension plan, not to mention his secretary.

Things were in absolute chaos at
Shelby. And that was just what he needed at the moment. Nothing like a sinking ship to take your mind off one stubborn brunette.

Aiden
chanced another call to Cara, this time bypassing the office and Shelby entirely. He dialed Cara’s cell phone instead and got the expected recording asking him to leave a message. He didn’t. He’d be patient. She couldn’t screen her calls forever.

He turned off the main interstate and headed downtown. This part of the city was filled with a variety of long standing businesses. Shelby Advertising had been around for almost twenty years when its founder died and the next generation of
Shelby’s took control. Alfred Shelby didn’t have the brains God gave a snail. It had taken him only five years to run his daddy’s dream into bankruptcy.

“Mr.
Wilder, good you’re here. I have a dozen or more messages that need your attention.” Lois Brown was Eric’s assistant but she was covering like Eric in lieu of Alfred’s secretary disappearance.

“Good Morning, Lois. Is Eric in?” Eric was definitely in. Apparently, he’d been listening for
Aiden’s arrival. He stood in the doorway of his office, looking like a man who had just been rescued from a burning building.

“Good morning, Eric. Things as bad as you look?”
Aiden felt his bad mood grow when the man who looked to be twenty years his senior nodded furiously.

“They’re that bad all right. This place is one bad decision away from closing its doors entirely and I don’t think Southern’s going to be none to happy with the midyear earnings…or should I say lack of them.”

“Okay, well, let’s see if we can fix that.” Aiden started for his new office and stopped. Something on Lois’s desk caught his eye. Roses. Bright red roses.

“Is it your birthday?” he asked the woman.

“No, my husband sends those to me every month or so. Says he just wants to remind me that he loves me.”

On an impulse,
Aiden turned to the older man. “Eric, I’ll be right there. Why don’t you get the files that are critical together and I’ll meet you in your office in two minutes.”

Eric didn’t need much coaxing, which only confirmed how bad things really were.

Aiden turned back to Lois. “Can you do me a favor?”

“Sure thing, Mr.
Wilder. You need me to type something up for you?”

“No, I need you to send flowers to someone. And I need them to be there by today?”

“A girlfriend?” Lois smiled gently.

Aiden
considered that. Cara wasn’t his girlfriend at all. Not because he hadn’t been considering it and trying to work toward that goal. Or more for that matter. But mostly because she was good at putting obstacles in his way. Namely that damn friendship thing. And then there was Miranda that she’d practically forced on him. And now this whole avoiding him thing.

“Something like that. But I’m hoping for more,” he told Lois honestly and was rewarded with the smile that women sometimes got when a man finally admitted he needed a woman.

“Tell me where to send them and I’ll have them delivered today.”

Aiden
took a piece of paper and jotted Cara’s work address and number.

“Could you see if the florist can do something in brown…no, not brown, nutmeg?”

Lois looked at him as if he’d just ordered black roses. “I can try. Any special reason.”

“Yeah, because I want them to match her eyes.”

“Aww…” Lois practically oozed that sentiment. “What do you want the card to say?”

Aiden
thought about it. Considered how embarrassing the truth would be to admit to Lois.

He took the paper back from Lois and wrote:

It’s only a mistake if you regret it. I don’t. I hope that you don’t either. I’ll be back in two weeks. And once is never enough to know it wasn’t a mistake. It was only enough to want more. I want more. Aiden.

He didn’t look at Lois, but as he closed the door to Eric’s office he heard her say, “The girl’s a fool if she turns you down for seconds.”

Aiden closed the door, barely stifling his laugh.

The expression on Eric’s face was enough to wipe away any remnants of his grin.

Aiden let go of his breath. This was not going to be an easy year.

“Okay, who do we start with?” he asked his second in command before taking a seat across from him.

“There are three clients, all major money clients that are threatening to pull their accounts right away. Somehow, word got out about the merger, but that’s not the worst of it. They’ve heard about Alfred’s shenanigans as well.”

“Great. Who are they?”

Three hours later, Aiden understood Eric’s concern. He was halfway through the busy afternoon filled with crisis conference calls to the major clients when Lois sent him an instant message.

Mission
accomplished. They’re called sassy brown, but the sales person assured me they were nutmeg. And they were delivered to her ten minutes ago.

Aiden
smiled. He could almost see Cara’s embarrassment.

He messaged Lois back:

You’re a miracle worker.

Those are the kinds or miracles I like to work. Now, why don’t you do the same for
Shelby?

Easier said than done. But
Aiden was determined to try.

* * * *

Cara felt as if she’d just drifted off to sleep when the shrill ringing of the phone next to her bed brought her back to the world she needed to forget for a little while.

She lifted the receiver and said something. She wasn’t exactly sure what, never mind if it were civil. It was, according to her alarm clock, one in the morning. Whoever chose to call at one didn’t deserve civil.

“Caught ya.” Aiden. Aiden’s husky baritone voice filtered through her sleepiness, clearing away the cobwebs.

“
Aiden?” She couldn’t think of a single thing to say other than his name. She heard him laugh softly, which did disturbing things to her body.

“
Aiden, its one in the morning.”

“I know. I figured you couldn’t run from me at one in the morning.” While
Cara tried to cover her embarrassment at being so obvious, she heard him ask, “Were you sleeping?”

“Yes.” The word almost didn’t sound at all. She was finding it hard to breathe.

“Are you alone?”

“I’m not answering that. That’s none of your business.”