Chapter 10
CHAPTER TEN
NICK
The second the car rolled to a stop and I saw Austin’s car still parked in the carport, I was out the door and heading up the path. The plan was to get in and out of there as quickly as possible. No loitering. No emotional conversations. No getting pissed at Austin. Keep it simple and leave.
I was just about to knock when raised voices stayed my hand. Or rather, one raised voice in particular. Austin’s. Chloe’s responses were a background murmur at the most.
“I don’t understand,” Austin whined. “What possessed you to invite them in?”
Chloe’s reply was too soft for me to hear.
“I’m not angry, I’m just . . . concerned,” he continued to protest. “It’s not safe, Chloe.
This is another example of what we’ve been trying to tell you.
You’re not making good choices. Safe choices.
You’re putting yourself at risk. It’s why we want you to live with us. It would be easier for everyone.”
“Not for me,” Chloe grumbled, her voice louder, like they’d moved into the hallway. “I don’t want to live with you. I’m fine here. This is my home.”
Well, that was clear enough.
“It was Dad’s home,” Austin corrected a little snippily. “And you’re not safe on your own.”
“Rubbish,” Chloe dismissed the notion. “You make it sound far worse than it is.”
“Because it is worse.” Austin’s voice rose. “You can’t see it because half the time you’re not thinking clearly. We can’t keep coming over every day to check on you.”
“Then don’t,” Chloe huffed angrily. “If I need help, I can pay for it. I already have Patrick helping me with the gardens. I have money, you know.”
“You have Dad’s money,” Austin pointed out.
My hackles began to rise, not liking Austin’s tone or the insinuation.
But Austin wasn’t done. “Paying Patrick to do the garden is a waste of Dad’s money. I’m sure he’d rather you sold the place and moved in with us.”
“Don’t start that again.” Chloe sounded close enough to be on the other side of the door. “And Brendon wouldn’t want that. He wanted me to be independent.”
Austin huffed dismissively. “Only if you could manage. Otherwise, Dad wanted me to look after you, and I can’t stand by and watch you fritter his life savings away simply because you’re too stubborn and confused to see sense.”
“I am not confused.” The door handle jiggled as Chloe answered.
My heart leaped into my throat and my double knock stopped the heated conversation in its tracks. It was either that or have Austin open the door and find me standing there eavesdropping.
The door swung wide and a red-faced Austin glared out at me. Confusion briefly crossed his face, quickly replaced by irritation. “What do you want?”
“Austin, behave,” Chloe reprimanded.
Austin rolled his eyes.
I ignored the irritating younger man and focused on Chloe. “I’m sorry to disturb you again, but I think I left my glasses on your sofa.”
“Oh. Let me get them for you.” Chloe turned for the lounge, almost toppling when her foot dragged on the carpet.
I leaped forward to steady her, but Austin beat me to it, effectively blocking the doorway. He grasped Chloe’s elbow and pinned me with a glare. “You stay there.” He steered Chloe into the lounge and returned seconds later without her. “Here.” He held my glasses out for me to take. “Now go.”
I studied Austin’s cool blue eyes. The man was truly beginning to grate on my nerves.
The spiteful part of me wondered if he’d be acting this way had he known I was Chloe’s son.
That same part wanted to enlighten him just to fuck with his day, but Chloe’s ongoing silence in the other room stayed my hand.
This wasn’t my fight, and I didn’t want to make things harder for Chloe.
But I wasn’t going to be just herded out of there either.
“Thank you.” I schooled my expression to a calm determination. I’d dealt with many jerks like Austin in my lifetime, and a lot worse. “But I’m not leaving without saying goodbye to Chloe.”
Austin opened his mouth to protest, but I simply pushed past him and headed for the small lounge. I opened the door just enough to stand in the gap, careful to block any view from behind. Austin’s furious glare burned fiery holes in my back. Like I could give a fuck.
“Chloe.”
She looked up in surprise; her frown caught somewhere between confusion and frustration.
“I’m heading off,” I told her. “I just wanted to check that you’re okay.” I flicked my gaze sideways, indicating Austin standing somewhere behind me to make my point.
Chloe gave a tight smile and nodded, but her expression told another story. “Yes, thank you. I’m perfectly fine.” Her gaze flicked over my shoulder, then back to me. She rolled her eyes and tapped her cell phone very deliberately with one finger. Call me later.
I got the message. “That’s good. We’ll talk again sometime.”
“That’s enough.” Austin sounded suddenly very close and I turned to find him almost on top of me. “I’ll see you to your car.” He stood back and waved me toward the front door. “After you.”
I stayed where I was for a couple of beats, making it clear he didn’t intimidate me.
When his eyes slid away from mine, unable to hold my gaze, I tried not to smile and made my way slowly out the door and back along the path.
Petty? Maybe. But it felt really fucking good.
When I reached the rental car, I turned to face him again.
“You obviously have a problem with us. Care to enlighten me?”
Austin frowned at my bluntness, looking a little less sure of himself than he’d been a few minutes earlier.
He glanced over his shoulder to the house, then back to me, maybe weighing how much I might’ve overheard before I knocked.
Some of the meanness left his expression, replaced by something more like concern.
“Look, I appreciate you wanting to visit and all that,” he began, “but Chloe’s not doing so good and we’re worried. I won’t have her harassed or pressured in any way, even if you mean well.”
“We were hardly—”
“How do I know what you were doing? I have no idea who you are,” he talked over me. “For all I know, you could be trying to scam her, and I won’t have her taken advantage of.”
I blinked. What the hell? Trying to measure my response, I took a breath and replied calmly, “Chloe told you who I am. She knows me. And she seemed perfectly able to decide for herself whether she wanted to see me or not. I appreciate that you’re protective.
I would be exactly the same in your shoes.
But whatever is wrong with Chloe, she was alert and in good spirits today.
She knew exactly who I was—” She asked me to come, you arsehole.
“—and we had a lovely walk down memory lane.”
Austin sneered, his eyes narrowing. “So, you’re an expert now on Chloe, are you?
Well, for your information, she has Parkinson’s.
Her brain and her memory are affected and it’s only getting worse.
Some days she can seem almost okay, like today.
But those days are getting fewer and farther between.
Not long ago her neighbour called to tell me he’d seen her wandering down the street in her dressing gown.
And it wasn’t the first time. I’ve had to go looking for her three or four times. ”
“Why don’t you have her wear a locator?”
Austin ignored my question. “Regardless of what Chloe told you, she isn’t well, and I’d appreciate it if you didn’t contact her again. When her routine gets upset, it only makes things worse. It will take her days to recover from your visit.”
There was a lot I wanted to say to that, but I held my tongue. Our visit had rattled Austin for sure, but I wasn’t convinced that it was only due to concern for Chloe. Then again, maybe I was reading too much into it. Wouldn’t I feel exactly the same way in his position?
Austin continued, “With that in mind, I’d appreciate it if you left Chloe alone. Otherwise, I might need to involve the authorities. Do I make myself clear?”
Whoa. The authorities? Mads caught my eye through the driver’s window, his eyebrows in his hairline. So, it wasn’t just me.
I answered carefully. “You’ve made yourself more than clear.” Doesn’t mean I’m going to comply, dipshit.
Austin’s shoulders relaxed a little. “Good. Now, I’d appreciate it if you left. This driveway is private property.”
Call me stubborn, but I didn’t move or answer, simply held Austin’s gaze until his cheeks blazed and he spun on his heels and headed back to the house, slamming the front door behind him.
Standing in the bay window, Chloe opened her hands in an apologetic what-can-you-do manner and blew me a kiss.
I returned it without thinking, then settled myself in the passenger seat and breathed out a heavy sigh.
“What the hell stick is up his arse?” Mads glared past me to the townhouse. “What a jerk.”
I followed his gaze. “Agreed. Is it just me or was something really off in that conversation?”
Mads turned his attention to me. “No, it’s not just you. Although he’s clearly telling the truth about the Parkinson’s, and we really don’t know whether we did just catch her on a good day. Still, something doesn’t feel right.”
“Agreed.” I stared at the townhouse one more time. “I’ll give her a call and see if she still wants to meet up. Hopefully she does; otherwise we could simply talk more on the phone. I have some questions I want to ask her about our friend Austin.”
Mads nodded. “Sounds like a plan. But right now, I’m going to whisk you away for an excellent meal and a glass or two of stunning wine. After that, I’m driving you back to our cottage and licking you from top to bottom until you come like a train.”
Well, shit. Heat pooled in my belly and I was suddenly a lot less hungry. “Or we could go straight to the licking part and bypass all the unnecessary preamble.”
Mads slapped my thigh. “You wish. But there’s a proper order to these things, and sustenance comes before fucking if a memorable fucking is to be . . . sustainable.” He laughed at his own joke, and I snorted, keeping my eye on the townhouse as he swung out of the car park and headed down the drive.
“You and your damn rules,” I grumbled. “I don’t know about your fucking, but I can assure you that my fucking is more than sustainable with or without food.”
“The operative word in my statement was memorable.” Mads turned and looked me up and down, licking his lips in a way that sent goosebumps popping over my skin.
“And trust me. I fully intend this particular fucking to be . . . memorable.” He planted his foot and there really wasn’t anything more to add to that.
Three hours later, Mads had pulled two orgasms from my eager body, and I was still riding the high.
The first orgasm was down to nothing more than the skilful use of his tongue, as promised.
The second, thirty minutes later, came after he’d laid me across the cottage’s king-size bed with its stunning view of the vineyard and schooled me in the art of edging until I was begging him to finish me off.
For a polite man with a lot of rules, Mads knew how to ditch the restraint when it was called for.
A truth I thanked the universe for every single day.
With the bed linen a tangled mess on the floor and no pillows in sight, we lay at an angle across the bed, sated and sweaty in each other’s arms. Mads traced his finger over the owl on my chest, humming softly, while I pressed kisses to his forehead and anywhere else I could reach.
“I do love a man with a plan.” I tipped his chin up for a final kiss.
He huffed in amusement. “Told you. Rules are good. Rules can be fun.” He propped himself up on one elbow and stared down at me. “And rule number one above all others is—Madigan always has the best ideas.”
I lifted up and licked his nipple, just because I could. He jolted like he’d been hit with an electric current and his soft cock twitched against my thigh. “Quickly followed by rule number two—Nick breaking Madigan’s rules, is even more fun.” I winked and fell back onto the bed.
Mads smirked. “Which only plays into my reasoning that rules are important.”
I groaned. “You really are impossible.” Before he could answer, I changed the subject. “How about we skip dinner and watch movies instead. That goat curry hasn’t gone anywhere yet.”
Mads patted his belly. “It was the apple and cinnamon tart that really did me in. Which reminds me, what happened to the salad I ordered instead of those artery-choking dauphinoise potatoes?”
“Which happened to be delicious.” I waggled my brows. “Remember, I went to the bathroom?”
His mouth dropped open. “You didn’t?”
“Oh, I did. The waiter thought it was an excellent adjustment.”
A comment which prompted an eye roll of epic proportions. “That’s because barely legal waiter boy was eyeing you like his favourite ice cream from the minute we arrived. I was waiting for him to call you Daddy. It was coming, believe me.”
I screwed up my nose and shot him a horrified look. “Really?”
He smirked as he handed my phone to me. “Really. Now, why don’t you give Chloe a call and see what she wants to do. Meanwhile, I’ll make some flight enquiries and check with the owner of the cottage. We’re supposed to fly back tomorrow but we might need to change that.”
I frowned. “I really don’t want to put Chloe in a bad spot if Austin finds out.”
“Then we’ll be careful,” Mads agreed. “We’ll park down the road and won’t stay too long. It’s Monday tomorrow, so Austin should be teaching.”
When I hesitated, Mads took both my hands in his. “Are you saying you can head back to Auckland not knowing what’s actually going on?”
He had me there. “No. Chloe’s my mother, regardless of what she did. But just because I don’t like Austin doesn’t mean he isn’t trying to do his best by her. I just need to know.”
Mads leaned forward and kissed me. “Agreed.”
While Mads went to the lounge to retrieve his own phone, I tried to ring Chloe. The call went straight to voicemail. I waited a minute or so and tried again. Same thing. And again. And again. I frowned at Mads who was watching me from the sofa, buck naked.
“No answer?”
I shook my head. “I’ll try later.”
When later came, I tried several times more, all with the same result. I drummed my fingers on the table, feeling strangely unsettled. “I don’t like it, Mads.”
“No shit.” Mads handed me an open beer. “And we both know your instincts are pretty much on the money. You’ve proved that more times than I can count this year.”
Always there. Always having my back. And he was right. “Call back the owner of the cottage and take those extra nights while I change the flights. If Chloe still isn’t answering in the morning, we’ll head over to her place anyway. Fuck Austin.”
Mads clinked his bottle against mine. “There’s my boy.”