The CEO (The Millionaire Malones Book 2) Read online

  ‘For that precise reason, Ava. He’s my husband. Can’t you understand why I would want my big sister and my husband to actually get along, to occasionally have a civil conversation?’

  Ava had always replied with a tirade about how he was so rich and entitled and private schooled and Busy and Important and Sydney waterfront and clubs and that couldn’t possible mean he was a nice guy … blah blah blah. They were such clichéd excuses to hide behind and she’d used them as a shield.

  Damn, she wished it would stop raining.

  She looked down at her dress, which was now clinging to her like plastic wrap, and closed up her umbrella. Rivulets of water ran into her shoes and her arms were goosebumped from the wet and the ocean breeze. It was fitting attire for how she felt inside. Cold and awash with tears.

  Ahead of her, the few mourners who remained had gathered around Cooper Malone, the youngest brother by a few minutes, no doubt basking in the glory of his latest surfing win. He’d been an international surfing superstar for years and had the tan and the build to go with it. Other people might have found it well-nigh impossible to tell him apart from his slightly older twin, but not Ava. She would know Callum anywhere. And it wasn’t just because Cooper’s hair was longer and messier, quite different from Callum’s neater, shorter, more businesslike style, which was obviously more fitting for someone who wore bespoke suits, handmade leather shoes and who was CEO of Malone Enterprises. She could tell them apart because looking at Cooper had absolutely no effect on her whatsoever.

  ‘Ava?’ Lulu was waving her over and she reluctantly joined the group.

  ‘Hey, Ava,’ Cooper called as soon as she was closer and he jogged forward to give her a hug, throwing his big arms around her. ‘Good to see you.’

  She held on tight and he held her tightly in return. ‘Good to see you, too. I’m so sorry about your father,’ she murmured into his damp suit, holding back the sob that was catching in her throat. It was so much easier to say any of this to Callum’s twin than to say it to him. So much easier.

  ‘Thank you for coming,’ he said and when he released her from his bear grip he looked down at her with a sad smile on his tanned and handsome face.

  ‘How long are you back for, Cooper?’

  ‘Not long. I’ve got to get back to California as soon as I can. Hey,’ Cooper said as he slipped an arm around Ava’s shoulders. She got the distinct impression he was changing the subject. ‘We’re all going to have a bite to eat at Callum’s tonight, seeing as I don’t often have a chance to catch up with my brothers. You should come,’ he said. ‘It would be good to catch up. It’s been a long time.’

  Ava gulped. Lulu hadn’t mentioned this very important detail. This excruciatingly important detail. She’d agreed to go to the funeral to support her sister, but socialising afterwards? Oh no, that wasn’t going to happen. It couldn’t happen. She had to continue to stay as far away from Callum Malone as humanly possible.

  ‘Oh, I …’ her heart thudded. She glanced at her sister, who was giving her a please for God’s sake, come, I can’t do this on my own look. Then Ava flicked her eyes, for just the slightest moment in Callum’s direction. He was watching her intently, his mouth drawn, one hand slipped in to the pocket of his trousers, the other gripping the umbrella.

  ‘You should come.’ Callum finally spoke, his words hanging authoritatively in the sodden air between them. And now, like a game of ping pong, everyone else was waiting for her to respond. Ava looked across at him and his gaze, direct and penetrating, did that thing to her, in the same, exact, infuriating way it always had. That thing that made her so, so happy and broke her heart all at the same time.

  What she really needed to do was get as far away from Callum Malone and his sadness as possible. Which was, of course, why she nodded her head in agreement and found herself saying, ‘Sure.’

  Callum gave her the slightest of nods, a barely perceptible dip of his chin, and turned away.

  Lulu went to Ava and gripped her arm. ‘Thank you so much,’ she whispered into her ear. ‘It will be so much easier for me knowing you’re there.’

  That’s why she’d said yes, of course it was. To be a buffer between her sister’s ex-husband and her new partner. Like a human Berlin Wall of misery, that’s what she was. An emotional buffer for her little sister who’d been hurt and dumped by her rich-boy husband, which made loving him a riddle trapped in an enigma with a ribbon of heartbreak wrapped tightly all around the whole catastrophe.

  ‘What are sisters for, right?’ Ava took Lulu’s hand and they set off for the car park.

  *

  When they reached the cemetery gate, the three Malone brothers were standing together like a tall, muscled phalanx of sexiness. It really was criminal for so many of the world’s handsome genes to be clustered in the one family, Ava thought. They really could take a girl’s breath away with how gorgeous they all were.

  Cooper tossed his keys in the air and caught them without looking. ‘See you all at Callum’s.’ Then he stopped and threw Ava a questioning look. ‘Do you need a lift, Ava?’

  ‘No. Thanks,’ she said quickly. ‘I came with Lulu and Michael.’

  Lulu sidled up to her sister. ‘Actually, we thought we might go home and change into some dry clothes first.’

  ‘Oh,’ Ava said, suddenly deflated. If she had to tag along with them, it would be a good hour before they returned to Callum’s which meant this whole difficult afternoon would go on for eternity. She couldn’t have that. She wanted to be in and out of there as soon as possible. ‘Look, in that case, I’ll grab a cab and go home and change, and pick up my car.’

  Before she could unlock the keypad of her phone with her fingerprint, a large, strong hand, with a silver ring on the right middle finger, had lifted it from her grasp.

  ‘I’ll take you home.’

  ‘You?’ The word came out too fast and too harshly, like an accusation, and she regretted it immediately. Damn it. That mask of hers couldn’t slip now, not after all these years.

  ‘Yes, me,’ Callum said, his tone indicating he was well aware she would consider him her last choice.

  ‘You really don’t have to,’ Ava nattered with a wave of her hand. ‘It’s not far and I can grab my car and drive right back to your place.’ And then leave as soon as possible.

  ‘It’s no trouble,’ Callum said. ‘It’ll give us a chance to catch up.’

  Great. Ava’s traitorous heart was pounding like a bass drum in her chest. She knew that arguing would seem churlish and impolite. Lulu threw her a thank you look. Cooper, Chris and Ellie were already out the gate and heading to their cars.

  ‘Thanks,’ she muttered. And then almost silently added, ‘Traitors.’

  ‘What was that?’ Callum stopped and looked back at her with a scowl.

  Ava waved the comment away. ‘Nothing.’

  *

  When they reached his car, something European and expensive looking, Callum opened the passenger door like a perfect gentlemen but Ava didn’t get in. She held her umbrella away from the seat, bent down and peered inside at the plush interior. She guessed the car had cost a fortune. It smelled good. It was pristine and the seats were camel-coloured leather. They looked expensive. More than expensive. Luxurious.

  ‘They’re leather seats,’ she noted, nodding to the car’s interior.

  ‘Yes, Callum replied, impatiently. ‘Are you going to get in?’

  ‘But … look at me.’

  And when he obeyed, running his gaze up and down her body, Ava wondered how it was possible to feel hot when she was soaking wet through to her bra and knickers.

  ‘Callum … I’m drenched. I can’t sit on that leather. It was probably harvested from rare Peruvian goats or something. I’ll ruin the seat.’

  A small hint of a smile curled his lip as he looked down at her. ‘Goat leather. Can’t say I’ve ever heard of that.’

  ‘Oh,’ Ava waved a hand in the air to dismiss him. ‘You know what I mean. Not that I
approve of the leather seats anyway. What a terrible thing to do to an animal just so you can plant your butt on something comfortable.’

  Oh no. She’d mentioned his butt. She slowly closed her eyes to hide the mortification.

  ‘I’m not concerned about my car seats.’

  She didn’t want to hear the humour in his voice because it made him even more attractive. ‘Are you serious? You’ll never get the watermarks out of that leather. It’ll cost a fortune. Not that you probably care about anything costing a fortune, I’m sure, but it’s a waste and it’s not good for the environment and—’

  When Callum whipped off his suit jacket, Ava stopped running off at the mouth. And that was good. Very good. Because she’d already mentioned his delectable ass and had also managed to insult him for being rich. That mask of hers was well and truly still firmly attached to her face.

  He lay the jacket, lining side down, on the seat rather like a gallant gentleman in historical fiction covering a puddle. Which was kind of appropriate because she was kind of melting into one.

  ‘Happy?’ Callum was close now, almost jammed up beside her between the open door and the car, and he was wet, too. There was a thick strip of damp down the front of his shirt where his jacket hadn’t kept him dry, and the white cotton clung to him. The mother of pearl buttons shimmered and caught Ava’s eye, which meant she was staring at his chest. Not that she needed the wet shirt competition to know there were corrugations there. She already knew damn well they were there, but looked anyway. What the hell? She could make it look like disdain if she really tried. She curled a lip to make sure.

  ‘I was only thinking about … oh never mind.’ And when the sound of the rain beating down on the roof of Callum’s fancy car almost wasn’t loud enough to camouflage the sound of her pounding heart, Ava dipped her head and slipped into the passenger seat before anything else slipped out of her mouth.

  Callum got in and started the engine, which purred as they pulled away from the gutter. Ava gave him quick directions to her flat before pulling her lips tight and not saying another word as they drove towards Bondi on the wet and slick Sydney streets.

  ‘So,’ he finally said as they waited at a set of traffic lights, flicking a glance in her direction. ‘How have you been, Ava?’

  ‘Fine.’ She looked at the dashboard, her feet, out her window.

  ‘How’s life treating you?’

  ‘Well.’

  ‘It’s been a while since we’ve caught up.’

  ‘Yes, it has.’ She could probably count the days if she had to, not that she’d tell him that. She continued staring through her window out at the soggy street and wet pedestrians.

  ‘I see you’re still in that little place in—’

  ‘Yes.’ She wasn’t embarrassed one jot about her small flat, but she sensed he’d been on the verge of calling it ‘cute’ and that would be infuriating.

  From the corner of her eye, she saw him shift in his seat, angle his body towards her. ‘I don’t think I’ve seen you since Lulu’s birthday party last year.’

  She was more than surprised he’d even mentioned it, given what had happened that night. Ava had organised the whole thing for Lulu’s thirtieth birthday and had booked months in advance at one of Sydney’s hippest restaurants, an establishment so hip it didn’t take bookings, but had managed the impossible because the chef was a client of hers. She’d designed his garden and he’d repaid her not only by paying on time but by allowing a one-off exemption from the no-reservation rule. Lulu had been talking about the place for months and Ava was thrilled she’d been able to pull off such a surprise. The look on Lulu’s face when she’d arrived said everything. The service was exquisite, the food was divine. In fact, the whole evening was well on its way to being an utter triumph until Lulu had dissolved into tears and sad drinking after a phone call from Callum.

  ‘Yes,’ Ava replied. ‘I remember it well. You turned up three hours late and totally ruined Lulu’s birthday.’

  She ventured a look. The humour had disappeared from his face and his mouth was arrogantly fixed in a look that said, Don’t push it.

  ‘That couldn’t be helped.’

  ‘Really?’

  That night had been the official beginning of the end for her sister and Callum. Instead of going home that night with him to their luxurious apartment at Lavender Bay, situated right on Sydney Harbour with exquisite views of the Bridge, she’d crashed on Ava’s sofa in Bondi. She’d said nothing, just cried and cried into the night. And the next day, she’d left him.

  As they pulled up on a Bondi back street, Ava clutched her handbag and her wrap and stepped out of the car onto the footpath. She leaned down.

  ‘Thank you for the lift, Callum. I’ll see you back at your place.’

  He looked at her over the tops of his sunglasses. He reached for the keys in the ignition and turned off the engine.

  ‘What are you doing?’ God, Ava, try not to screech, will you?

  ‘I’m waiting.’

  ‘What for?’

  He let out a big sigh, ‘For you.’

  Ava’s throat seemed to close over and squeeze all the air from her lungs. She couldn’t find a word to say, so said nothing. And as she walked up her garden path to her house, she willed herself to remember her sister’s pain. She didn’t know the ins and outs of their break-up—Lulu had been so heartbroken that she’d never wanted to talk about it again—but Ava had seen her sadness and heartbreak that night on the sofa. She’d cried for her sister, had felt her pain and despair.

  And as the memories of that night came flooding back, there was one thing Ava knew for sure.

  Even if he was Callum Malone, even if she had loved him since the first time they’d met, he was the bastard who’d broken her sister’s heart.

  And she could never, ever forgive him.

  Chapter Three

  ‡

  Well, didn’t Ava Gibson still have that bug up her ass?

  She’d stopped to slip off her shoes and was now stomping away from his car towards a big, red brick apartment building, half hidden by tall trees.

  As Callum slowly propped his sunglasses on his head to get a better look, he remembered it was a nice ass, too. Of course, he was admiring it in a distracted way. She was his ex-sister-in-law, after all, and still prickly as a desert cactus and snippy as all hell. Nothing had changed on that score. But there was a sway to her curves that would have had any heterosexual man with a pulse taking a second look.

  Any man with an appreciation of the female form.

  Any man who hadn’t had sex since he’d split up with his wife. He sighed, deep and weary, shook his head ruefully and slipped his aviator shades back on. Man, he missed the company of a woman. He missed their scent, the soft touch of their skin and the sheer feminine presence of someone in his life. He missed knowing that there would be someone waiting when he got home and he sure as hell missed having someone in his bed.

  Holy fuck. Had it been so long that even Ava the Terrible was looking good?

  When the passenger-side door opened five minutes later, he was surprised. He’d been anticipating a wait of at least twenty minutes, and now here she was, still wearing that snarky look on her face. Callum reached over, picked up his suit jacket she’d sat on, and tossed it onto the back seat.

  ‘The leather,’ Ava said as she peered inside and pointed to the back seat.

  ‘You’re dry,’ he noted.

  ‘But your jacket isn’t,’ Ava insisted.

  ‘For fuck’s sake,’ he muttered under his breath as he leaned back between the two front seats and flicked his suit jacket to the floor.

  As Ava buckled her seat belt, he looked her over. Her hair was still slightly damp, and now hanging in loose waves around her shoulders rather than pulled back into a knot. If he wasn’t mistaken, there was fresh make-up and the smell of fresh flowers filled the car. Her eyes were bright and brown and the lipstick on her full lips a pale pink. She was wearing a simple, sle
eveless dress with large flowers and bright colours, which dipped low in front to reveal the curve of her breasts.

  Did he look? Hell yeah he did.

  Did she notice? Probably, because she slammed her handbag on her lap and said through gritted teeth, ‘Are we going or what?’

  Prickly as a cactus. Snippy as all hell.

  So many things had changed in his world during the past eighteen months. During the past four days.

  But one thing was for certain: Ava Gibson still hated his guts.

  *

  Callum was driving way too fast and, as he negotiated a winding, almost hidden road that would rival San Francisco’s Lombard Street, Ava felt her stomach clench with fear. He spun the steering wheel, and as he changed gears she glanced at his forearm, watching the muscles move and tighten. It seemed as if he’d barely slowed down before a garage door opened before them, almost silently disappearing upwards, as if it had sensed their arrival, and Callum manoeuvred into the triple garage. Parked inside was a mud-splattered four-wheel drive, which may have been white a few thousand miles ago.

  When he stopped and turned off the engine, Ava exhaled.

  ‘Thank God that’s over,’ she huffed. ‘Has anyone ever told you that you drive like a maniac?

  She heard a low chuckle. ‘You don’t like the way I drive?’

  I don’t like the way you do a lot of things. Like break women’s hearts.

  ‘Not particularly.’

  ‘Did I scare you?’ Callum shifted in his seat and turned to face her, one wrist resting on the leather steering wheel. His light brown hair was pushed back from his forehead and because it was still damp he looked like he’d just stepped out of the shower. His dark blue eyes teased her and that growth on his jaw sent tingles to her fingers. She wasn’t sure at that moment if she wanted to slap him or caress his jaw.

  Ava took a steadying breath. ‘Yes. And that was exactly your intention, right?’ She understood what was going on: this was his payback for all her bitchy behaviour over the years. He’d managed to get her alone in his car and now he was going to exact his revenge for all her snarls and all the rolled eyes she’d shot in his direction since they’d been acquainted.