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Ruby blanched, knowing she’d overstepped another line. ‘Only a little bit.’
‘That’s amazing.’ Maddy’s face lit with fierce approval. ‘A bit’s more than he’s ever been willing to share with me.’ She took a deep breath, clearly eager to say more, when her gaze shifted and she shot off her chair. ‘Mia, what are you doing?’
‘I love strawbrees, Mummy,’ Mia said owlishly, her face and hands covered in the juicy red stains of her crimes.
‘I know, but you weren’t supposed to eat them all, sweetie. Not yet.’
Ruby chuckled, pushing aside the let-down feeling as she helped Maddy clean up the mess. She’d been eager to hear more about Cal, which could not be good. She shouldn’t want to know more; her curiosity had got her into enough trouble already.
As Maddy scooped up her daughter the little girl squealed and wriggled furiously stretching out her arms. ‘Uncle Cal. My uncle Cal.’
Ruby watched as Maddy put the toddler down and the child raced across the kitchen as fast as her solid little legs would carry her.
‘Hey there, Mia. How’s the birthday girl?’ Cal lowered onto one knee, awkwardly catching his niece as she barrelled into him and threw her arms around his neck.
As Mia babbled away he sent the little girl a crooked smile and brushed her hair back. But when she buried her face in his neck and he lifted her into his arms, his gaze flashed to Ruby.
The emerald green glinted with something dark and dangerous, the line of his jaw rigid with tension.
Ruby swallowed. Exa
ctly how long had he been standing in that doorway?
‘I’ll be back in a minute, Mia,’ he said, passing the child to her mother. ‘I won’t be long, I promise. But I have to talk to my friend Ruby first.’ The frigid anger in his tone had heat prickling the back of Ruby’s neck and rising up her scalp. ‘In private.’
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
‘YOU can let go of my arm now. I’m not going to run away,’ Ruby said with strained patience as she was hauled down the last few stone steps to the beach.
Cal hadn’t said a word as he’d propelled her out of the back door of the house, then marched her down the cliff path. And she’d put up with it. Clearly he was a little miffed about whatever he’d overheard. He’d obviously walked in on her talking with Maddy and he wasn’t too pleased about them discussing him.
But any guilt Ruby had felt about her curiosity was fast being washed away on a tidal wave of annoyance.
Finally releasing her arm, Cal strode ahead, then stopped and braced his feet apart. From the rigid line of his shoulders she suspected miffed might be a bit of an understatement. He remained silent, his back to her as the wind whipped her cheeks and the quiet rush of the surf covered the unsteady beat of her heart.
‘So what exactly is it that you were so desperate to talk to me about?’ she goaded, unable to wait meekly for the explosion she suspected was coming. She didn’t like being ordered about. By anyone.
The vicious swear word echoed away on the wind. She flinched as he swung back round and strode towards her. ‘Don’t ever talk to my sister about me again,’ he said, his face thunderous as he towered over her.
She crossed her arms over her chest, let the indignation stiffen her backbone. Maybe he had a right to be a little annoyed, but this was totally out of order. ‘Don’t bully me, Cal,’ she said, refusing to be cowed by him, or his temper.
‘Bully you?’ He stepped closer, gripped her chin between his thumb and forefinger, forcing her to face the full power of his glare. ‘What I want to do is bend you over my knee and spank you, so believe me, you’re getting off lightly.’
Ruthlessly quashing the dark thrill that shot through her at the passion in his words—that definitely was not appropriate—Ruby twisted her head out of his grasp. ‘And there I was thinking you were far too upright to consider sado-masochism as a lifestyle choice.’
‘This isn’t a bloody joke,’ he snarled, her attempt to break the tension falling spectacularly flat. ‘How much did you tell her?’
The words sliced out, volatile with temper. The veneer of logic, of civilised behaviour had been torn away. Ruby struggled to make sense of the sudden firestorm, trying to quell the wild beat of her heart and the sizzle of awareness that arched between them like an electric current.
What on earth was he so upset about?
‘Tell her about what?’
‘About what I told you last night. About what I knew. About my father and his mistresses.’ He hurled the words at her, but what she saw in his eyes right alongside the anger shocked her more. Panic.
Her heart squeezed in her chest, the rush of tenderness painful in its intensity. ‘You never told Maddy?’
‘Of course not.’
