LITMIR.BIZ

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by a man and it had stung.

      Having to work closely with him in the intervening time had been fraught despite the professional detachment she practised so well. But given that they both specialised in neonatology, he was hard to avoid.

      It had only been recently that she’d felt they’d moved beyond that dreaded night and slipped into an easier relationship.

      The bidding stalled at eighteen hundred dollars. ‘Come now, ladies,’ the emcee implored. ‘Surely a handsome doctor who spends all his days saving tiny little babies’ lives is worth a little more?’

      ‘Two thousand five hundred.’

      A ripple of excitement ran around the room and Callie craned her neck to see the woman who had made the clear, determined bid that had come from the left. She followed the direction everyone else was looking to find the bidder had risen to her feet—Natalie Alberts.

      Tall, willowy, blonde and gorgeous, the New Zealand paediatric registrar, who’d been pursuing Cade from the moment he’d set foot in the hospital, looked like she was about to get her man.

      Callie glanced at Cade as the emcee enthused, ‘That’s more like it!’

      His toothpaste smile was still firmly in place but Callie, having been at the other end of one of his rejections, had intimate knowledge of that get-me-out-of-here look in his eyes.

      Cade sighed inwardly as he forced his smile to widen and his body language to exude a but-of-course veneer. Who wouldn’t want to pay more than a lot of people earned in a month for the pleasure of his company?

      Holy crap.

      A few hours’ wining and dining a nice woman with a charitable heart was one thing. Spending those hours with someone who’d made no secret she wanted to marry him and have his babies? That had stalker nightmare written all over it.

      He’d come to Australia to reinvent himself. To move away from the man he’d been in the past and the secret shame of it all. This was his second chance and he wasn’t going to blow it by falling into his old womanising ways. He was here for his career—not female companionship!

      ‘Do I have an advance on two and half thousand, ladies?’

      Callie felt distinctly sorry for him. He’d gone from basking in the attention to a forced smile and a guarded look in his eyes that she doubted many could read. But as someone who avoided dates at all costs, Callie could easily interpret it.

      He’d rather swallow the contents of a poisoned chalice than go on a date with the gorgeous Kiwi.

      Or maybe that was just a date with any woman in possession of such robust predatory intent. It could certainly threaten his stringently single status.

      ‘I have two and half,’ the emcee called. ‘Going once.’

      Callie watched as Cade ran a finger along the inside of his collar and stretched his neck from side to side—his smile still firmly plastered in place.

      ‘Going twice.’ The muscle at the angle of his jaw tightened.

      ‘Two thousand six.’

      It was only when all eyes swivelled to Callie that she realised she’d even uttered a word. But apparently she’d done more than that. Not only was she also on her feet but she’d actually upped the ante.

      Natalie’s gaze narrowed and speared right through Callie’s chest. ‘Three thousand,’ she said, glaring with particular vehemence before turning to look triumphantly at the emcee.

      ‘Ah, that’s more like it.’ The emcee clapped as she looked expectantly at Callie.

      Oh, bloody hell. Callie glanced at Cade, expecting to see an even bigger look of dread in his gaze, but to say his relief was palpable was an understatement. He smiled at her—a genuinely huge grin—and everything inside her turned to water.

      ‘Any further advance?’ the emcee asked, looking directly at Callie.

      Cade kicked up an eyebrow and the smile warming his brown eyes caused her pulse to do a strange jitterbug inside her chest. That damned eyebrow told her the ball was in her court.

      Callie sighed, resigning herself to keep going. But he sure as hell owed her big-time!

      ‘Three thousand and one.’ Callie nodded.

      ‘Two,’ Natalie immediately shot back.

      ‘Three.’

      ‘Five hundred,’ the determined blonde countered.

      ‘Six.’

      Callie didn’t take her eyes off Cade the entire time. He’d relaxed now, his head bobbing back and forth between his two bidders as if he were sitting at centre court during the Australian Open.

      ‘Seven.’

      Callie gritted her teeth. ‘Eight.’

      Natalie’s strong, clear ‘Four thousand’ caused a few little gasps around the room.

      ‘Four and a half,’ Callie returned.

      ‘Five!’

      More gasps as the emcee said to Cade, ‘Well, now, Dr Coleman, this is getting interesting.’

      Cade grinned and drawled, ‘Yes, ma’am.’ And Callie swore she could hear the sound of cells sighing as every female in the room leaned in a little closer.

      Callie all but rolled her eyes. Cade was enjoying himself, getting a little too smug now for his own good, and a part of her just wanted to drop him right in it and leave him in the clutches of Natalie. After all, had he helped her out when she’d needed someone to scratch an itch not so long ago?

      Nope.

      He’d politely rejected her. And that itch was still there. If anything, Cade and his bloody tuxedo had intensified it. So quite why she was helping him out she had no idea.

      A modicum of humility might not go astray.

      ‘Do we have an advance on five thousand?’

      Aware of the expectancy pushing in around her, Callie’s gaze flicked to the excitable emcee, who was looking directly at her as she bounced on her toes and shuffled from foot to foot like a toddler with an urgent toilet problem. She glanced sideways at a very hostile Natalie before returning to Dr Full-Of-Himself.

      She didn’t say anything, just met his gaze and let the seconds tick by. ‘Very well,’ the emcee said. ‘If there are no more bids…’

      Callie folded her arms. The room fell silent, as if holding its breath.

      ‘Going once at five thousand dollars.’

      Cade’s pulse spiked on a surge of adrenaline as Callie ignored the emcee’s call for further bids. He knew that the striking redhead didn’t owe him anything. Certainly, after he’d rejected her advances—which had been damn hard when she’d fit just right against his body—she didn’t owe him salvation.

      Then why bid in the first place?

      She couldn’t let him glimpse a way out and not follow through, surely?

      ‘Going twice.’

      He narrowed his eyes as he looked at her. She quirked a sexy arched eyebrow at him.

       She wouldn’t, would she?

      Cade swallowed and reached for his collar, the stage lights suddenly hot again on his skin. Please, he implored with his eyes.

      Please.

      He wished he could speak. Tell her he’d pay her back—every cent. It would be worth the ridiculous amount of cash to keep Natalie’s particular brand of desperation out of his life. She was a nice woman and a competent doctor but she just wasn’t for him—no woman was—and encouraging her in any way, shape

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