The Wolf on the Hill (3 page)

“Sure. There’s nothing better I’d like to do in my spare time than freeze my arse off in a derelict house with a mop in my hand.”
Or spend the whole time pretending I didn’t bonk the house owner like a wild thing.

The sarcasm was lost on her too-far-gone-to-notice sibling.

“Great. Hey, Caleb. We’ve got our first two recruits.”

Another glass hit the deck when Caleb appeared from the gents’ bathroom.

“Mia, what the hell is wrong with you today?” Naomi pushed her shell-shocked employee to one side and proceeded to sweep up for the second time.

“Are you sickening for something?” Rory studied her with concern, probably getting ready to bundle her up in cotton wool and ship her straight home to mother.

Mia didn’t have the chance to make up an excuse as Caleb walked straight into her eye line with a smirk that described his every dirty thought in great detail, sending her hormones haywire and making her panties wet.

“Yeah, you do look kinda hot.”

“I think something must have disagreed with me,” she mumbled, wishing Caleb could be a gentleman for once and let the matter drop.

“You sure about that?” He sniffed the air and she saw a flash of amber fire in his eyes.
Oh holy hell! Surely he can’t smell my arousal?

“You know what? I probably should go home. Sorry, Naomi. I’ll be back as soon as I get this out of my system.” Glaring daggers at Olcan Hills’ latest resident, Mia took off her apron and admitted defeat.

“Sure. Maybe you could bring some plastic cups for your next shift?” Naomi snarked, emptying another panful of glass shards into the dustbin.

“Do you want me to give you a lift home?” Rory pushed his food aside and attempted to get up from his seat.

“No thanks. I’ll walk. The fresh air might do me some good.” With the usually homely log fire burning nearby now seeming unbearably hot and the cosy bar suddenly claustrophobic, she just wanted out of there. Away from Caleb Jackson’s smouldering looks and I’m-picturing-you-naked smile.

As had become his recent habit, Caleb jumped in to upset her plans. He put a hand on Rory’s shoulder to restrain him in the chair. “Don’t worry, I’ll see Mia home. You stay and finish your lunch.”

“But… But…”
Think, damn it!
She fought for an excuse to decline the son of a bitch’s magnanimous offer, while Caleb calmly took her by the elbow and steered her towards the door.

“I insist. Your brother knows you’re in safe hands with me.”

Left with no choice but to go with him in case she aroused her brother’s suspicions, she followed Caleb out, vowing to ditch him as soon as they were out of sight. “If my brother knew what you did to me, he’d have you stuffed and mounted.”

“First of all, I didn’t hear you complaining about what I did to you. In fact, I think I remember it went more along the lines of, ‘That feels so good… Don’t stop…’”

She raised a hand, willing him to stop assaulting her with those delicious memories.

He wasn’t done. “Stuffed and mounted, you say? You like it that way, don’t you, Mia?”

She followed her sharp intake of breath with an exasperated groan and strode ahead down the path. Unfortunately, with only fields and scrub as far as the eye could see, there was no chance of avoiding him.

He jogged up alongside her. “You know, I didn’t have you down as a beer and nuts kind of girl. I thought you’d end up spending your days lunching with the well-to-do.”

Not for the first time did she find herself having to justify her job. “For your information, I went to medical school, but it wasn’t for me. Working at The Dog puts money in my pocket. I can’t complain.”

He didn’t pursue the subject, but went on to tackle the other matter she wished to avoid. “So, are we ever gonna talk about what happened in the woods?”

“No.”

“We’re gonna pretend it never happened?”

“Exactly.” She kept up her brisk pace.

“Really? You’re not up for a repeat performance then?”

Mia spun around. The guilt, fear, embarrassment, not to mention longing, spiralling through her body, were emotions she did not wish to court on a regular basis. “It was a mistake. I don’t do that… I usually don’t do that sort of thing.”

“No?” A raised eyebrow questioned her virtue.

“No.” She repeated firmly. Someone as obviously promiscuous as Caleb wouldn’t understand the significance of that one act to someone like her. The daughter of Edward and Gayle Blake would never dream of behaving in such a manner and running the risk of tarnishing the family’s good name. The free-spirited wolf on the other hand apparently got carried away in the heat of the moment.

Fixing her eyes intently on his, she made it plain she had no desire for those two different aspects of her life to intersect and tear her apart. “I don’t need the likes of you screwing things up for me.”

His face contracted into a frown. “Fine. Just pretend it was nothing more than a bad dream.”

She should have felt nothing but relief when he walked away, ending a conversation she hadn’t wanted to have in the first place. But a pang of regret lingered with Mia, along with the image of that freshly crushed look on Caleb’s face. It wasn’t his fault that she wanted to deny her body’s natural reaction to him, merely unfortunate that he had ended up on the receiving end of her own self-loathing.

Maybe she could find some way to make it up to him for her brusque behaviour. Preferably something that didn’t involve her being in close physical contact with her walking, talking aphrodisiac.

* * * *

Caleb filled bag after bag full of litter from the wreckage of the cottage. After a fitful night’s sleep under Rory’s roof, replaying Mia’s look of contempt in his head, he had risen with the sun and set to work, eager to get the hell out of this place before it dragged him down again.

While he never did go in for hearts, flowers and promises ever after, to have her dismiss him so callously had struck soundly at his ego. It reminded him of his childhood here, unwanted, unloved and an embarrassment to those around him. After years of building up his defences, relying on no one but himself, he didn’t intend to hang around waiting for a pampered princess to validate his existence.

The minute the doors of the nearest estate agent had opened that morning, he had put the wheels in motion with a phone call. The fun most definitely over, now he was simply tasked with making the house presentable for viewing.

“Anybody home?” He heard a brief knock quickly followed by the thunder of work boots crossing the threshold.
I really must remember to start locking that door.

“Hey, Caleb. I’ve brought a few helping hands for you.” Rory, looking mighty pleased with himself, led a procession of workers into his living room.

“Hi, everyone. Thanks for coming.” Caleb acknowledged their gracious spirit in helping someone who’d probably pissed them all off at some point in his rebellious teens. He’d done his fair share of petty theft and vandalism, in an attempt to get at his father.

Although, going by the uncomfortable shuffling of feet and furtive glances around him, he imagined they were here for Rory’s benefit and not his. He could almost picture a hastily arranged community meeting discussing in hushed tones the best way to oust the bad news biker from the good officer’s home. But at least they were all working towards the same goal.

The hairy workmen only appeared vaguely interested in the surroundings when Mia and Naomi appeared alongside them. He wondered what had made his blonde bombshell attend the gathering when she’d seemed so determined to keep him at arm’s length. But she’d come dressed for the occasion, wearing black leggings and a baggy blue T-shirt tied in a knot at her waist. With her golden mane swept up into a youthful ponytail, she looked fresh and innocent. Damn it if his libido didn’t respond, totally ignoring the fact that she’d seriously dented his pride only yesterday.

She possessed that aura of naïvety that made men want to protect her, as illustrated by the restless natives when Caleb’s gaze lingered on her a fraction too long. Brandishing their assorted power tools and brooms, the odd-looking army banded together to protect their queen. The warning came too late. He’d already had his nuts handed to him by the woman herself for thinking he was in with a chance.

“Right.” Caleb clapped his hands together, breaking the sudden tension in the room. “Let’s get this party started.”

The assembled drones worked tirelessly through the day, cleaning and fixing whatever it took to end their responsibility to one of their own. Fair play to Rory, he knew enough tradesmen to make this shell liveable.

“What did you do, threaten them with jail if they didn’t help?” Caleb joked with Rory as they worked together to re-hang doors and dump the irreparable furniture.

Rory winced as they hoisted the damaged sofa into the skip, on top of the broken remnants of a table and a dubiously stained mattress. “I’m sure we could rustle up some second-hand furniture for you from somewhere.”

“You’ve done more than enough, mate. Thanks, but I think I can handle things from here.” Caleb shrugged off the hand of friendship, not at all comfortable in this unfamiliar territory. In his drifter life, coasting through towns and never lingering long enough to cultivate actual friends, he didn’t know how to handle the apparently altruistic policeman. Pats on the back from Rory might have been a sought-after prize for many but they only succeeded in making Caleb suspicious about his motives.

“A word of advice, Caleb. If you want the town to forgive and forget, you’ve got to learn to do the same.” Rory left him to mull that over and carried on with the house clearance.

What the fuck any of it had to do with accepting a second-hand sofa, Caleb didn’t know. Letting these people into his house in the first place was the olive branch as far as he was concerned. An entire community who thought he was scum, a woman to whom he was nothing more than an embarrassing indiscretion, and a do-gooder who treated him like a charity case—they were only here to salve their own consciences for turning a blind eye all this time.

He couldn’t temper his cynicism, but, when most of the helpers had finished their assigned tasks, even he was forced to admit that the results of the home makeover were impressive. As he walked back through the property, the empty rooms, swept clean of the past and bad memories, were oddly comforting. The coat of magnolia paint the girls had given the place meant that it no longer resembled the vessel for his father’s violent rages. The atmosphere now spoke of possibilities, and it seemed to him that the house was calling out to him for a fresh start.

But it would take more than a spring clean to convince him this was the place where he wanted to begin his life over again. Add some respect, a sizeable cash donation, and the love of a good woman, and he’d think about it.

With the living room finished, and Naomi back at the pub for her shift, Mia moved on to decorate one of the bedrooms alone. Singing tunelessly along to the radio, she actually found herself enjoying the task. Maybe she was high on paint fumes, but it gave her a ridiculous sense of achievement to watch the skirting boards transform with a coat of brilliant white gloss under her brush. For now, making sure she covered every inch of wood took her mind off her troubles.

“Oh, it’s you singing. I thought there was a cat getting strangled in here.” Caleb’s sarcasm permeated her solace and she stuck her tongue out at him in childish retaliation.

“You know, this isn’t a bad wee place now it’s tidied up.” Sitting back on her knees to admire her handiwork, she spotted a bare patch in the wood and leant forward to fill it in with a quick swipe of her paintbrush.

“It has a nice view, I’ll give you that.” He waggled a suggestive eyebrow with his gaze firmly rested on her backside. Another gesture that her body didn’t have the courtesy to ignore, as once again her insides turned to mush.

Mia balled up the cloth she had used to mop up any paint spills during her seemingly unnecessary attempt at reconciliation, and tossed it at him. Obviously he wasn’t as wounded by the previous day’s comments as she’d imagined. “Seriously, though, you could have a nice home here if you wanted.”

While the idea of Caleb as a permanent neighbour freaked her out to a certain extent, she believed that, once they put the whole shagging in the forest debacle aside, they could be friends. Ignoring the flirtatious edge to their banter, talking to him made a refreshing change from her now strained conversations with Robbie. If only she hadn’t realised too late that he wasn’t the one for her. If only her parents would accept her decision.

“I’m not one for settling down.” Caleb sounded apologetic, as if he knew the direction her thoughts were headed. “I’ll have the house on the market soon. In fact, the estate agent phoned earlier to say there’s already an offer.”

“Already?” It winded her to find out that he was making plans to hightail it out of there so soon after swooping in and turning her life upside down.

“Yeah. Strange, seeing as it’s not even listed yet.”

“It’s a small community. Word gets around quickly. You should know that.” She could have kicked herself for dredging up his past, but thankfully he paid no notice to her slip up.

“That would also go some way to explaining the ridiculously low offer. Obviously someone thought they could get themselves a bargain with the place trashed.”

“Surely you’re not going to take it?” Mia couldn’t explain the sudden panic rising in her chest. If he sold up and moved on, no one would know about her lapse of judgement.
Caleb’s quick departure is what I want, isn’t it?

“Not now, no. The house is worth substantially more today than it was yesterday and I can’t afford to give it away.”

Mia closed the lid on the paint, wiped her brushes and got to her feet. “Well, I’m sure with my artistry you’ve added at least a tenner to the value.”

The pinched expression on his face as he had talked money softened into a smile. As aggravating as he was, she definitely preferred this look on him. “With you in it, the house is priceless.”