Beyond Broken (The Bay Boys #3) (8 page)

Caleb had stayed with her until the bell rang for fifth period.
 
She’d mumbled a quiet ‘thanks,’ not quite able to meet his eyes, and then she’d scurried off to class.
 
That was the last time she’d ever spoken to him when they’d been in high school, but her feelings for him had only deepened.

Maddie sighed, wondering if there was still a speck of the boy she’d once longed for in the man she’d been with today.
 
If there was, she had yet to discover it.

She frowned.
 
No, that wasn’t necessarily true.
 
He gave her a ride home the previous night when he didn’t have to.
 
And
he’d given her the bookkeeping job when she couldn’t afford her car repair.

Only to throw it back in your face later
, she grumbled, staring down at her textbook.

Still…maybe there was a hint of the boy in the man.

Maddie was itching to find it.

*
   
*
   
*

“You’re not serious,” Kyra said, her plastic fork paused mid-air over her pasta salad.
 

Caleb
?
 
As in Caleb
Montgomery
?
 
The boy you were completely
gaga
for back in high school?”

Maddie nodded.
 
“Yep.
 
And he’s a bazillion times hotter.”

Kyra was still looking at her, wide-eyed.
 
“I can’t believe you found him.
 
I thought he moved away…you know, after everything that happened.”

Maddie looked down at her half-eaten sandwich.
 
“Well, he’s definitely changed.”

“Did you tell Thomas?” Kyra asked.
 
“Weren’t they close back then?”

“I haven’t.”

“And why the hell not?
 
Don’t you think he’d want to know about one of his old high school buddies?”

Maddie bit her lip.
 
“Caleb doesn’t remember me.
 
At least, I don’t think he does.
 
If he sees me with Thomas, he might guess that we went to high school together and well…who didn’t know about him and his aunt?
 
It would just make things unnecessarily complicated.”
 
Kyra didn’t look convinced.
 
“Besides, it’s not like I’m planning to marry the guy.
 
I’m just working to pay off my car repair and after that, I’ll probably never see him again.”

“Uh huh,” was Kyra’s response, a dark eyebrow raised in skepticism.

Kyra knew her better than her own family did sometimes.
 
They’d been friends ever since they were awkward middle schoolers, bonding over the color of the bands in their braces.
 
Kyra had had a rainbow of color, whereas Maddie had always chosen a subdued pink, not wanting to draw uneccessary attention to herself.

Kyra wisely changed the subject.

“Have you heard from Anne lately?” she asked, taking another bite of her lunch.
 
Anne was their other friend, although she’d moved up to Seattle after they graduated from college.
 
They still kept in touch, but their communication had been less and less frequent of late ever since Anne got a new boyfriend.

“No, I haven’t.
 
You?”

“Radio silence.
 
But I think she’s coming down for the holidays to visit her parents.
 
Maybe we’ll meet the man that’s completely stolen her from us,” she teased.

Maddie could never understand why girls went crazy over boys.
 
A couple girlfriends in college had done the same thing: met a guy they fell in crazy love with and then she wouldn’t hear from them until they either broke up or resurfaced from the honeymoon phase.
 
Maddie supposed it was because she’d never felt that way about a guy before.
 
She’d never felt that all-consuming
need
that made everything else in life seem dull and boring.

“At least I still have you,” Maddie said, smiling.
 
Since Kyra worked in San Francisco, they often met up for lunch between Maddie’s library sessions or seminars.
 
They were near the Ferry Building today and even though it was a little chilly out, the view of the bay and the fresh air was just what Maddie needed.

“Love you too, girlie,” Kyra said, winking.
 
However, if Maddie thought she was getting off the hook, she was sorely mistaken.
 
The change in subject didn’t last long.
 
“So, when are you going to see him again?”

She sighed.
 
“Tonight.”

“Think he’ll be the one you finally lose it to?”

“Kyra…”

“What?
 
It’s a valid question.
 
If he’s, and I quote, ‘a bazillion times hotter’ than he was in high school, I don’t know how you’ll be able to get out of there with your precious virtue in tact.
 
In fact, if it were me, we would have already christened his desk,” she said, waggling her eyebrows playfully.

“Gross,” Maddie said, scrunching up her nose, even when an unexpected flash of jealousy tore through her when she pictured Caleb and Kyra together.
 
Her best friend was gorgeous, with straight black hair and almond-shaped eyes.
 
Caleb would have zero complaints whatsoever.
 
Plus, Kyra was more forward when it came to men.
 
She knew what she wanted and she went after it.

Maddie watched as a ferry slowly made its way towards the pier, delivering tourists and locals alike.
 
Her father had taken her on one of the ferry routes when she’d been little and she’d loved watching the white wake it left behind in the bay.

“You never answered my question,” Kyra reminded her, checking out a cute guy that passed by them.
 
With pure confidence, as always, her friend gave a little flit of a wave and the guy smirked, nodding.
 
If Maddie had tried that, she probably would’ve looked like she’d been possessed.

“For a good reason,” she replied, finishing off her lunch.
 
She checked her watch and saw she had a half hour until her afternoon seminar.

“I’ll bet a thousand bucks that you won’t leave that man unscathed.”

Maddie rolled her eyes and stood, giving her friend a hug goodbye.
 
“You’re a nut.”

But she didn’t take that bet.

EIGHT

Caleb knew Maddie had worn heels again before she ever stepped foot in his office.
 
He’d heard their delicate sound clicking on the metal stairs moments after he heard her greeting to Brian and after Brian introduced her to Peter, the teenager who’d got a job working at the garage from Caleb’s uncle.

The other men usually left around five o’clock, but those two usually stuck around after hours to finish up.
 
Peter, because Caleb knew his home life was fucked up, and Brian, because he actually enjoyed the work, even after all these years.
 
Caleb, too, liked it, or used to.
 
He’d grown up in his uncle’s garage and he’d had black oil under his fingernails ever since he could remember.
 
But he hadn’t been able to stomach working on cars since his uncle passed.
 
Plus, he’d never realized the extent of administrative work required to run this place.

When Maddie pushed open his office door, without knocking, Caleb automatically scowled in her direction, even as his eyes greedily took her in.
 
She had on a light pink blouse and dark denim jeans—another evening of hard-ons,
terrific
—and those damn heels again.

“Good evening, Caleb,” she chirped brightly, swinging the door closed again to block out the radio blasting from downstairs.
 
“How was your day?”

“I thought I told you not to wear heels.”

“You did.
 
I just never said I would listen to you,” she said, in that same tone, as though he’d pleasantly commented on the weather and not attempted to scold her.

Disobedient women never sat well with Caleb.
 
That was why he preferred to tie them up during sex.
 
No surprises.
 
And they were under his complete control.
 
He felt safer that way because disobedient women were notoriously unpredictable.

So why did he feel a strange, savage thrill run through him at her words?

“I told you—”

“Do we have to get into it already?” she asked, swinging her purse down by the door.
 
“I just got here.
 
Surely we can have an argument in, let’s say, an hour from now?
 
It’ll be a nice break.”

Why that little

“Also, I’m eventually going to need a computer today once I get everything organized.
 
Shall I use yours?”

Caleb could feel a muscle ticking in his jaw.
 
“There’s a laptop you can use,” he said, begrudgingly.

“Perfect.
 
Does it have a bookkeeping program on it?”

“Yes.”
 
At least he thought so.
 
His uncle had used it often enough in the office.

Maddie nodded once and then she turned towards the stack of boxes she’d been looking through yesterday.
 
Immediately, she returned to work.
 
And just like yesterday, Caleb watched her out of the corner of his eye, feeling like some crazy, perverted stalker.

As she thumbed through the stacks, Caleb noticed her nails were painted a bright red and his cock hardened.
 
In his mind, he saw them raking down his chest as she was screaming though the force of her orgasm.

That bothered him.
 
For one, he hadn’t had sex with a woman whose hands weren’t bound in some way for almost ten years.
 
Even Charlotte, his high school girlfriend, that treacherous, backstabbing bitch, had allowed him to tie her to the bed.
 
To fantasize about Maddie, freed and uncontrollable, was troubling.

But the image was so vivid in his mind that he cursed, drawing Maddie’s attention, before she turned away again.

Caleb didn’t consider himself a Dom by any means.
 
He was only into the ‘B’ in BDSM and it wasn’t necessarily a kink as it was a necessity.
 
If women were free to touch his body or act on their desires when he wasn’t prepared, he’d, for lack of a better term,
flag
.

None of this answered the disturbing question as to why he had this unnatural obsession with the brunette in his office, however.
 
He gave one last look at her nails and then forced himself to look away.
 
If he acted on his impulses, it would be disastrous.
 
For both of them.
 
So he did the next best thing and
ignored
them.

For an hour, they worked in complete silence.
 
The clock on the far wall ticked to seven and that was when he felt Maddie’s eyes on him.
 
He met her gaze, raising a sardonic brow in question.

“An hour has gone by,” she informed him with a small smile gracing her pink lips.
 
“You may start an argument now, if you’d like.”

His own lips almost quirked up in amusement but then he caught himself.

She mocked gasped.
 
“Did I almost get a smile?”

“Has anyone ever told you how obnoxious you are?"

“My brother tells me almost every day.”

So, she had a brother.
 
Caleb didn’t know why he found himself filing that piece of information away.

“Get back to work,” he grumbled.

She approached his desk.
 
“What, no scathing remark?
 
No complaint about how I breathe too loudly or that I breathe at all?
 
Come on, there must be something.”

Just to appease her, he said, “Now that you mention it, I hate the way you rustle through papers.
 
Fix it.”

“Did you just make a joke?” she asked.
 
Her eyes were twinkling with merriment and Caleb didn’t remember the last time he’d talked to a woman with that look of ease on her face.
 
Sure, he’d socialized with his friends’ girlfriends, but he only interacted with them sparingly, and they knew to keep their distance.
 
“Why, Caleb, I’m shocked.”

The sound of his name rolling off her tongue did things to him.
 
More
things
than what she already did to him.
 
He was glad there was a desk between them because for more than a brief moment he entertained the notion of bending her over it.

Again, that feeling of discomfort came over him.

“Well, you’ll be pleased to know that I won’t be rustling through papers as much.
 
I think I’ve finished organizing and I’ll need that laptop you said you had.”

“You should go home,” he found himself saying.
 
Maybe he wouldn’t feel this way if she was out of his office.
 
Out of his immediate reach.
 
“You can start with the laptop tomorrow.”

She cocked her head to the side.
 
“I’d rather start tonight.”

“Why?
 
I thought you’d love getting out of here as quickly as you could.”

“I’d just like to get a jumpstart while all of this,” she waved a hand behind her at the newly organized and stacked boxes, “is fresh in my mind.
 
Besides, I have fewer lectures tomorrow, so I don’t have a ton of work to finish tonight.
 
Tomorrow night is a different story though and I might be a little late getting here because I have to meet with a professor around four in the afternoon.
 
I forgot to mention that but—”

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