Page 10 of Housekeeper at His Beck and Call

Mashing her lips together, Liv made a noncommittal sound.

‘The WI has come on a long way since our mothers’ day,’ Cade said innocently. ‘It isn’t all cake-baking now, you know.’

And wasn’t it just her luck to encounter a group with iron in its belly instead of Victoria sponge! She was being forced to jog on the spot just to keep from freezing to it. But at least she didn’t have long to stay out here. ‘Talking of food, I’d better get back to the house so I can start warming up the soup in readiness for your return—’

‘You’re not going anywhere. You’re part of this exercise, soldier.’

‘You can’t be serious?’ Liv exclaimed hopefully, gazing up at Cade.

‘That’s just what I am.’ It was hard to hold back his grin. He hadn’t expected victory to be quite so easy.

‘No problem.’ She shrugged nonchalantly. ‘I like a challenge.’

His eyes narrowed. ‘Okay, that’s just what you’ve got, sweetheart.’

There was not a jot of romance in his gaze, Liv thought, gritting her teeth against the flecks of hail. She marched the short distance with Cade to greet their visitors. He appeared impervious to cold, and had in Liv’s view overlooked the fact that a bivouac in a field wasn’t nearly enough protection. Catching hold of Cade’s sleeve, she tilted her chin at the angle required to give him her firmly held opinion with both barrels. ‘You’ll n-n-n-n-need a b-b-b-brazier to keep the ladies w-w-warm next t-t-t-time you d-d-d-do this.’ Okay, two stuttering barrels.

Liv’s heart turned over as Cade’s bayonet stare pinned her. And why, exactly, was she hanging onto his arm? Snatching her hand back again, she dug it deep inside her pocket.

‘Good thinking, soldier,’ he told her briskly. ‘Add brazier to your list.’ He turned on his heel, striding out across what Liv could now see was a full army assault course.

‘Are you completely mad?’ she demanded, catching up with him.

‘If you’re not up to it—’

‘I’m not worried for myself.’ Liv glanced at the group of women huddling beneath the temporary shelter Cade had erected.

‘Lead by example,’ Cade advised. ‘That’s what I teach my men.’

Liv thought it only right to point out that these were women and some of them quite elderly.

‘That’s what makes me so proud to lead them. Don’t worry, I’ll ask them to go easy on you as this is your first time round the course.’

‘You’ll do no such thing.’ Too late. She’d seen the glint in his eyes and knew Cade was out to test her to the limit. The question was, why? She might have been brought up to iron sheets and fold towels neatly, but if he thought she was a simpering weakling, he was in for a big surprise.

‘Ms Tate is new to this,’ he was explaining before she could get to him. ‘So I’m asking you all to go easy on her.’

‘There’s no need.’ She threw him a determined glance. ‘I’m looking forward to it.’

‘That’s the spirit,’ several of the women chorused.

Liv sprinted to the start line, determined to show Cade what she was made of.

Sugar and spice and all things nice, Cade concluded as Liv lined up alongside him. In fairness, this wasn’t going strictly according to plan. He should have considered how sexy she would look in fatigues—and how much better out of them.

‘Cade?’ she growled at him. ‘Are you ever going to start the race? Only we’re going to freeze in this position if you don’t get on with it.’

She looked so good with the wind tossing her hair around and her tiny hands clenched into fists. Her face was a picture of determination. Hell, her face was a picture—

‘Go!’ Liv yelled at the top of her voice.

Honestly, what was wrong with Cade?

Having made a better start than she had expected, Liv held back. It didn’t seem right for one of the hosts to win the race, but Cade was soon jogging along at her side, urging her on. ‘You made a good start, now keep it up.’

As Cade shot off ahead of her, Liv reckoned the other women in the race must have at least twice her level of fitness. After her initial burst of speed she was feeling the pace. She watched the older ladies staggering gamely through the tyres, hoping Cade would chase after them so she could skirt round that part of the course, but he waited for her to catch up.

‘If you can’t handle it, just say so—’

‘I can handle it.’

‘Pace yourself,’ Cade suggested helpfully, jogging alongside her backwards.

Calling back something equally helpful, Liv made a break for freedom from the tyres and carried on.

Cade drew alongside. ‘Why, Ms Tate, I had no idea you knew such language.’

‘There’s a lot you don’t know about me.’

‘Clearly…’

Her toes might have curled at Cade’s wicked tone if they hadn’t been crammed into trainers.

‘Slow down. Anyone would think you were trying to run away from me.’

‘Whatever would give anyone that idea?’ Did he really intend to keep this up? Chatting while running was draining her energy.

No, Cade was doing that, Liv realised. Seeing how effortlessly he used his body was a real turn-on, and did she need jelly legs now?

‘Tell me, Ms Tate, how does a track suit compare aerodynamically to a wedding dress?’

‘Are you finished?’ Panting, she stopped to rest her hands on her knees. ‘Honestly, Cade, I think you want to jinx this trial for me.’

‘Anything but…’

His voice had changed. She looked up. Streaks of sensation shimmered down her spine. Was Cade flirting with her? There was a tree directly behind her and, standing up, she leaned against it to catch her breath. Which refused to be caught. ‘You go on without me,’ she suggested, desperate to be left alone until she’d calmed down a little.

‘I’m fine right here.’

Her gaze dropped to his lips. She wanted to taste them again. She wanted to feel them crushing the life out of her, right here, right now, out in the open where any of the women might have seen them. In fact, the element of danger only added to her lust for Cade.

He could see the heat in her cheeks and imagine the rest quite easily. He wanted her now, here in the mud with twigs breaking underneath them as he pressed her to the ground. He wanted to roll with her until her bright hair was filled with leaves, and kiss her until those swollen lips pleaded with him to forget the wind and the rain and just take her. He wanted to slake the hunger he felt for her—but as that might take some time—

‘Cade?’

He smiled, and then turned back to her. She didn’t want him to go, and that told him more than a thousand conversations. ‘What can I do for you?’

Liquid fire rushed through her belly as Liv considered the possibilities. What could Cade do for her? How badly she wanted to tell him. How firmly she had to tell herself not to.

‘I’m in no hurry…’

She swallowed, nervously. ‘You don’t need to hurry because you can easily catch up—’ The words choked off as Cade strolled towards her. He came to a halt in front of her, and as their breath mingled in a cloud her senses were filled with his warm, musky man scent. Her mouth turned dry as Cade’s slow-burning smile wrought havoc on her virginal body. What would it be like to have him touch her intimately? Her body was way ahead of her in anticipating that effect. Even so, it couldn’t come close to the real thing, Liv guessed, snatching a breath.

Resting his fist on the tree behind her, Cade stared into her eyes. ‘Why are you in such a hurry to get away from me, Liv? No comment? It isn’t like you to be lost for words…’

Not like her to feel this level of arousal either, Liv thought as her gaze dropped to Cade’s lips. She could practically taste them, and the imprint of that one deliciously punishing kiss would remain on her mouth for life.

Closing her eyes, she willed him to take hold of her and do it again, but instead he said flatly, ‘You’re right, I’d bette

r go.’

As her eyes flashed open it was to see Cade’s lips curving in a knowing smile. He knew how much she had enjoyed that kiss, and how she was feeling now. He was enjoying this virtual foreplay too much. She quickly rearranged her features, going from erotic stupor to fierce determination in the space of a breath, before turning her face into the wind and the next part of the course.

‘And this time, pace yourself,’ Cade advised, backing off. ‘The last thing I need is you collapsing on me.’

Brushing the possibility of a double entendre from her mind, she assured him firmly, ‘There’s no chance of that.’

Liv started off jerkily as Cade loped away. Her legs were shaking so much it was a wonder she could put one foot in front of the other without falling down. After a close encounter of the almost amorous kind with Cade, she needed comfort food and comfort bathing, not this trial by wind, rain and sexual frustration.

Cade had arranged for them to have a pit stop halfway through the course for refreshments, and Liv was as grateful as the rest of the women to find flasks of hot tea along with a selection of cake and biscuits. Still trembling from fatigue and cold and other things, she crammed as much food into her mouth as she could get away with, while making sure everyone else got some too. All the ‘my body is a temple’ malarkey she’d been spouting for years went up the spout. She had been such a prissy stuck-up kind of girl, Liv concluded, nursing her mug as she chatted with the other women about the merits of wash and wear man-made fibres for this type of event. Muscling into the heat of the group, she buried her face in the steam from her mug until Cade ordered them back onto the field of combat.

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