Vet's Desire (3 page)

Damn his little
shred of chivalry. That was definitely from his father’s side.

“Me?” She
looked genuinely surprised.

“Yes. You.” He
took a sniff and was able to smell some of his beer on her breath
and her perfume.

Nice perfume.
Suited her. Full-bodied and yummy.

Yummy?
Hell, maybe he was drunk, even though he never got drunk
anymore.

Placing the tip
of one purple-nailed fingertip on his chest, she pushed him back
slightly. “Down, Fido.”

Straightening,
he frowned.

“Sniffing isn’t
polite. Next thing you know, you’ll be sniffing people’s crotches
instead of shaking hands.” Taking a step back, she eyed him just as
warily as he was suddenly eyeing her. “What’s your problem?”

You
.
“Nothing.” He tucked his hands into his pockets and rocked back on
his heels. “I’ll wait until your taxi comes.”

“Why?”

He shrugged.
“Good manners?”

“I doubt it.”
One fine brow arched. “I’m not drunk, you know.”

“Okay.”

“So you don’t
need to wait.”

“Okay.” Where
was the damned taxi?

She stared at
him before suddenly nodding her head. “Ah.”

Refusing to
ask, he feigned disinterest in her reply by watching the people
passing them as they came and left the pub.

“You’re worried
that Sassy will come out and find you here alone. Why don’t you
just run along to your car and make your getaway before it’s too
late?”

He glanced at
her.

“Or maybe
you’re worried that I’ll get hit on the head while waiting for my
taxi and Mike will clobber you for leaving me alone?”

He glanced
away.

“Huh.
Okay.”

What she meant
by that, he didn’t want to know. Where was that damned taxi?

“You should run
while you can,” she said.

“I’m not
running.”

“You’ll wish
that you had.” Laughter lurked under her tone.

Taking a deep
breath, he watched as a taxi pulled to a stop and a giggling group
of people got out. About to hail it for Cindy, he froze when a
familiar husky voice sounded behind him.

“I’d have
thought you’d have a car waiting for you, Tim.”

Taking a deep
breath, Tim turned slowly and managed a smile at Sassy, who was
glancing inquiringly between him and Cindy. “Never drink and
drive.”

“You can afford
a chauffer. Like your mother.”

“I’m not my
mother.”
Thank God
.

Taking a tiny
step back, her gaze slid to Cindy.

Cindy gave her
a little one-finger wave. “He’s very responsible.”

“So I see.”
Sassy looked again at Tim. “You didn’t mention that your friend was
married.”

“Who?” He
looked blankly at her.

“Rick.”

“Rick? Oh,
Rick! Yes, yes, he’s married.” Tim gathered his unusually scattered
wits as Cindy gave a gurgle of amusement beside him. “I gather he’s
left?’

“To pick up his
wife from the hospital where she works.” Sassy’s eyes held more
than a hint of frost.

Knowing that
his friend was utterly devoted to his one-true love, Tim had no
doubt he’d given Sassy the truth fast and sure as soon as she’d
turned her gold-digging attention to him.

“He was killing
time with me.” Tim added belatedly, “And with Cindy, of
course.”

“Of course,”
Cindy echoed. “Oh look, here’s my taxi. Bye, honey, love you!” And
with that, she kissed him on the cheek, turned, and opened the door
to the taxi that had pulled up to the curb behind her.

Sassy’s eyes
narrowed.

“Oh yes,” Tim
said, “
Our
taxi. Bye, Sassy.” And he dived in after Cindy,
unceremoniously shoving her across the seat as he slammed the door
after him.

He didn’t look
at her as he buckled his seat belt and sank back against the
backrest.

Cindy gave the
startled taxi driver a cheerful wave. “Hey, Bernie.”

“Hey, Cindy.”
Bernie looked at Tim warily in the rear view mirror. “He’s with
you?”

“Apparently.
For now, anyway.” Cindy laughed, long and loud.

Tim
scowled.

“Oh, come on
honey, don’t be such a grouch.” She hit him lightly on the arm with
the little beaded purse.

“You enjoy
watching me sweat, don’t you?” Folding his arms across his chest,
Tim scowled at her.

“I have to get
my entertainment where I can.”

He shook his
head. “And you’re Maddy’s best friend. I just don’t get it.”

“Hey, you’re
Mike’s best friend and I don’t get that, either.” She winked.
“Guess it’s true what they say, huh?”

“I know I’m
going to regret this but - what?”

“Opposites
attract.”

“Is that the
best you can do?”

A guffaw came
from the front seat.

“Bernie thinks
it’s good.”

“Sweetheart.”
Bernie chuckled. “Most things you say are good.”

Personally, Tim
thought that was greatly exaggerated, but he shrugged and turned
his gaze out to the night to stare unseeingly at the traffic and
buildings as they flashed past.

Idly he
listened to Bernie and Cindy chatting. Her voice was light, a hint
of gaiety underlying the tones as though she found most things
amusing. He much preferred husky tones on women, the hint of
sexuality and decadence.

Light and
fluffy just wasn’t his style. Nor was light and sly, as he was
starting to think Cindy just might be. She certainly had a
mischievous side to her that liked to watch him squirm.

A sudden
realisation popped into his head. He had squirmed back at the pub.
He’d been so caught up in Cindy’s lies that he’d actually dived
into the taxi after her rather than bid her a cool goodnight, given
Sassy a careless wave, and gone on to find his own taxi.

Cripes, when
had that happened? Why had it happened? He never squirmed, and
certainly not where women were concerned. He was the one who loved
them and left them, who shook the fragments of their tattered
hearts from his shoes and walked off without looking back. He
coolly avoided any and all who tried to cling to him or get their
claws into him, and he’d never -
never
- run from a woman
before…before Cindy came along and tied him up in bloody knots.

Broodingly, he
stared out into the night. It was downright embarrassing. The
sooner he got rid of her, the better. And tomorrow he was going to
ask Mike about his beloved Maddy’s sanity in having the
bubble-headed blonde as her best friend. He just had to know what
the attraction was, because he sure as hell couldn’t even begin to
guess.

The taxi rolled
through the night and finally turned into a tree-lined driveway,
going through high gates and up a winding road. Rounding a curve,
Bernie drove the taxi right up to the front of a really big house.
Or a small mansion. It actually teetered between being one or the
other, falling into neither category. Not many lights lit the
front, so Tim couldn’t get a good look at the grounds. The only
light was that above the door that stood at the top of four wide,
stone steps. A big veranda swept above the door and disappeared
around each side of the house.

“Thanks for a
great evening.” Opening the door, Cindy swung one leg out.

The split in
her skirt enabled Tim to see a quite a lot of thigh, the silk of
her stockings holding a shimmer that made it appear as though her
whole leg shimmered with colour. And now he could see that tiny
butterflies dotted the stocking, lacy wings spread in perpetual
flight. Good grief.

Avoiding the
sudden urge to reach out and test for himself just how silky that
leg was, he muttered, “Glad I could be of amusement.”

“Oh, you have
no idea.” Amused, she got out of the car, shut the door and went to
Bernie’s window.

Tim saw
Bernie’s eyes go straight to Cindy’s ample cleavage as she bent to
peer into the window. “Thanks, Bernie. Here’s extra to take my
unexpected, non-existent boyfriend home. Be kind to him, he’s had a
rough night.”

Bernie laughed,
got another good eyeful of that mouth-watering cleavage, bid Cindy
what seemed to Tim to be a totally unnecessarily affectionate
‘goodnight’, gunned the engine in a bid to prove his manly
presence, and then drove off down the drive in a careful manoeuvre
that had Tim rolling his eyes.

He couldn’t
resist one last glance backward through the rear window to see
Cindy’s lush body outlined briefly in the light of the doorway
before the door closed and cut her off from sight.

It had to be
the luckiest thing to happen to him tonight.

With a sigh,
Tim leaned back in the seat and gave his address to Bernie. As the
taxi glided along, the soothing sounds of the tyres on the road and
the passing traffic relaxed Tim slowly and his annoyance slipped
gradually away. Now he was able to think of the evening with a
little more clarity and he knew part of his annoyance was at
Sassy’s brazen attempt to get her claws into him. The other part of
his annoyance was due to Cindy’s dig at his non-existent STD, and
the fact that she’d played him up to teach him a lesson.

His lips
quirked in reluctant amusement. Yeah, the blondie had had the last
laugh, all right. He was just glad that he didn’t see her very
much. The odd time he’d caught sight of her at Mike’s house, but it
had been fleeting meetings. Frankly, that was more than enough for
him.

Chapter
Two

Sitting in the
window seat and enjoying the cool breeze that blew through the open
window, Cindy gazed out towards the city lights and thought about
Tim Clarke, Veterinarian and son of one of the wealthiest people in
Western Australia, the prestigious paediatrician, Dr. Margaret
Clarke.

Many sons would
be basking in the glory of old money and working for the family
business. However, Tim worked as a vet and that, she knew, galled
his mother. It was what she described as a working class position
and not befitting a Clarke.

Personally,
Cindy admired Tim’s chosen profession. Animals didn’t get half the
help they needed.

Maybe she
should look into doing something with animals. She loved them but
since her old cat, Bast, had passed away four months previously,
she had no pets. Maybe it was time she got another cat. She missed
not having a fur-ball romping and sleeping around the house. A
house just wasn’t a home without some cat hair.

She wondered if
Tim had a pet. Somehow she doubted it. He seemed to be out most
times picking up dubious women, loving and leaving them in his
typical cavalier way. From her understanding, and what she’d seen
of him in the distance at clubs, pubs and more upper crust parties,
the women he chose were hard in nature and no strangers to climbing
the ranks of the rich by sleeping and clawing their way there. It
was just that none had managed to capture Tim in a web of marriage,
which seemed to be his main aim.

So why the hell
he hung around with them, she’d never understand. She’d certainly
never had much to do with him apart from a nod of recognition at
parties, and once or twice a couple of words when she met him while
visiting Maddy. That was more than enough for her.

Shaking her
head, Cindy rubbed the cocoa butter into her arms. There were more
things to think about than that ass. Such as her cousin’s wedding
and the fact that she had no one with which to go. Well, she could
take her housemaid/cook, but even her mother, as sweet as she was,
would shake her head and empathically declare “No!”

Darn it.

Yawning, she
walked across to the dresser and sat down, reaching for the face
moisturiser and massaging it into her cheeks. The scent was lovely
and she made a mental note to buy Maddy some for her birthday.
Plaiting her hair into a long braid, she went to bed.

~*~

Stumbling into
the kitchen the next morning, she squinted at the bowl of diced
fresh fruit topped with a dessert spoon of cream. “Wow, fruit and
dairy, two of the main food groups.”

Sam, her very
crotchety housemaid/cook, glared at her from where he stood at the
kitchen sink. “Fruit is good for you.”

“Never said it
wasn’t.” She sat down and picked up the cup of tea. Taking a
mouthful, she almost gagged. “What the hell…?”

“Green tea.
Lengthens our lifespan.” Sam placed one gnarled hand on a scrawny
hip. “Got a complaint about it?”

“Yeah, I have.
I want my regular tea.”

“Can’t. All I
bought is green.”

“Geez.” Cindy
placed the tea cup back on the dainty saucer and stood up. “I’ll
have orange juice.”

With a grunt of
disgust, Sam crossed to the table, picked up the tea cup and
swallowed the contents in several gulps. “There. Now I’ll live
longer than you.”

“I doubt that.”
Cindy poured the orange juice into a tall glass. “You’re seventy
years old already. I’m less than half your age.” She saluted him
with the glass and a grin. “So I guess I win.”

Grumbling to
himself, Sam took the cup and saucer to the sink and commenced
washing it with renewed vigour.

The door opened
and the tall, thin, angular body of Ruth, Cindy’s gardener and wife
of Sam, entered.

“Take those
boots off!” Sam barked out. “My floor is clean.”

Ruth sourly
toed off her boots on the mat.

Cindy continued
eating, not really taking notice of the morning ritual in her home.
It was played out on Ruth and Sam’s three work days a week.

Padding across
the floor, Ruth sat down at the opposite end of the table in front
of the bowl of fruit her husband placed in front of her. Sam put a
generous dollop of cream atop it and returned the cream pot to the
‘fridge. “Want a cup of tea, Ruth?”

Ruth looked
across the table at Cindy, who shook her head. Taking the hint, she
replied in her slow drawl, “No thanks. I’ll have orange juice.”