Seducing the Wolf (24 page)

The hostess blushed and mumbled, “Yes, ma’am.”

As she bustled away, Manning raised a brow at Caitlyn. “Was that necessary?”

She shrugged dismissively. “Just being proactive. If you don’t let them know you’re in a hurry, they take forever.”

“I’ve eaten here many times, and I’ve never had a problem with slow service.”

“And you won’t today, thanks to me.”

Manning shook his head at her.

“Oh, dear,” she mocked, rapidly fluttering her lashes. “Have I offended your Southern sensibilities? Is there an unwritten rule here in the genteel South that you’re never supposed to insult the help?”

“
The help
?”

She blinked. “What else do you call people who make a living waiting on others?”

Manning snorted in disgust. “You sound ignorant as hell right now. I suggest you quit while you’re ahead.”

Caitlyn’s mouth tightened. “How nice to know you care more about the feelings of flirty hostesses than the feelings of an old friend,” she said bitterly.

“Ah,” Manning murmured knowingly. “So now we get to the reason for this little temper tantrum of yours. This is about last night, isn’t it?”

“First of all,” Caitlyn huffed, “I’m not throwing a temper tantrum. But now that you mention it, I
didn’t
appreciate the way you blew me off last night.”

“I didn’t blow you off. Something else came up. And it’s not like you were forced to eat alone. Saul was there.”

“Oh, please. Don’t even get me started on
him
.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I’ll tell you what it means,” Caitlyn jeered. “Your general counsel spent the whole evening flirting shamelessly with me and ogling my damn breasts.”

Manning frowned. The behavior she’d just described wasn’t characteristic of Saul Rutledge, a man so devoted to his wife of fifteen years that he’d agreed to leave a job he loved to fulfill her dream of living in England. Though Caitlyn was an undeniably beautiful woman, Manning couldn’t see Rutledge hitting on her. The guy was among that rare breed of men who seemed totally impervious to temptation. But perhaps Manning had misjudged him all these years.

He doubted it.

“I suppose I should just be grateful that you took time out of your busy schedule to meet me for lunch,” Caitlyn continued, her voice dripping with sarcasm. “I didn’t know if you’d even reply to any of the messages I’d left you, so imagine my surprise when your secretary called to give me the time and place for lunch. It would have been nice if
you’d
made the call, but I suppose beggars can’t be choosers.”

Manning’s frown deepened. He was spared from responding when their waitress arrived to deliver his drink and take their orders. The way she waited on Caitlyn—all saccharine smiles sprinkled with sugary helpings of “Sure thing, hon”—made it clear she’d received Caitlyn’s rude message and didn’t appreciate it one bit.

Caitlyn stared after the departing waitress, her eyes narrowed with suspicion. “That little bitch better not spit in my food,” she muttered.

Manning grinned into his glass. “It’d serve your ass right.”

Caitlyn turned her glare on him, but he just laughed and drank his scotch.

She watched him for a moment, tapping her perfectly manicured fingernails against her wineglass. “So who was she?”

“Who?”

Caitlyn snorted. “You know who I’m talking about. Don’t forget that I was married to not one but
two
cheating bastards. I know what it means when a man cancels on you with the excuse that ‘something else came up.’ That ‘something else’ usually has perky tits and a bottomless pussy.”

The crude remark drew scandalized stares and whispers from other diners.

“Could you be any louder?” Manning muttered through clenched teeth.

Caitlyn ignored him. “Who’s the bimbo you were with last night? The one you blew me off for. Who was she, Manning?”

Leaning back in his chair, he contemplated her with narrowed eyes. “What’s going on with you, Caitlyn? Where’s all this venom coming from?”

She smirked. “Nice evasion.”

“I’m not evading anything,” he countered mildly. “Contrary to what you seem to believe, I don’t owe you an explanation for where I was or who I might have been fucking.”

She flinched, her face reddening. Casting a sullen glance around the restaurant, she tossed back the rest of her wine and set the glass down with a sharp clink.

“You’re right,” she muttered, staring at the table. “I was out of line.”

“Yes,” Manning calmly agreed, “you were.”

Her eyes lifted to his. “It’s just that…”

He waited an impatient beat. “What?”

She pouted. “Well, I can’t believe I’ve been in town for three days and you haven’t fucked me yet.”

Manning grimaced as heads swiveled in their direction again.

Striving for patience, he leaned across the table and said evenly, “I know you may find this hard to believe, but I’m not interested in becoming your fuck buddy.”

“Good.” She met his gaze directly. “Because I want more.”

He frowned. “Caitlyn—”

“As I told you yesterday, I didn’t come here looking for a revenge fuck. I’m no longer satisfied with us hooking up every eight or nine years, then going our separate ways again. I want more, Manning, and I want it from you.”

He held her impassioned gaze for a long moment, then leaned back in his chair and shook his head at her. “I don’t know what you want me to say, Caitlyn. I haven’t seen or spoken to you in nine years, and then one day out of the blue you just reappear and expect me to—what? Put a ring on your finger?”

“What would be so crazy about that?”

He just looked at her.

“I’m not asking for a huge rock or anything.” She paused thoughtfully. “But then again, given your net worth, it’d
better
be a big ass boulder.”

The joke brought some levity to the conversation and made them both laugh.

Caitlyn sighed, shaking her head at Manning. “We could make such beautiful babies together.”

He smiled, picking up his glass. “I’d say you managed that just fine without me.”

“True. Ally
is
gorgeous.” She smiled. “But I’d love nothing more than to give you a son, Manning. A handsome, strapping boy who’d look just like you.”

Manning was silent, sipping his scotch. There was only one woman he wanted to bear his children, and it wasn’t the woman sitting across the table.

Caitlyn heaved another sigh, running her finger around the rim of her empty wineglass. “I’ve been thinking about karma lately,” she mused.

“Karma?” Manning repeated.

“Yeah. Remember when we ran into each other at that student leadership conference? Remember how we went for coffee and ended up having a quickie in the bathroom?”

Manning nodded, setting down his drink with a low, sheepish chuckle. “Guess we were kinda horny that day.”

Caitlyn smiled faintly. “I prefer to think we were just happy to see each other.”

Manning didn’t refute her. It would have been heartless to do so.

“Anyway, Josh—my first husband—said I was different when I caught up to him later that day. I never told him the truth, of course. But I did feel guilty for betraying him. Oh, sure, I tried to justify it by telling myself that we weren’t married, so my infidelity wasn’t as egregious. But I never really believed that. So I’ve been thinking…what if Josh’s affairs were payback for what I did with you that day? What if having not one but two unfaithful husbands is the universe’s way of punishing me with bad karma?”

Manning frowned, pondering her words. He couldn’t help thinking of Taylor. Did she regret cheating on her boyfriend last night? Had her conscience been wracked with guilt ever since she’d left Manning’s office? Though he’d never set out to hurt her or cause her any trouble, he couldn’t pretend that he regretted making love to her. While he’d been stroking deep inside her, taking her body as his own, he’d given no thought to her relationship with another man.

Did that make him an unconscionably selfish bastard?

Probably.

Did he intend to give up his pursuit of her?

Not a fucking chance.

“You’re a guy,” Caitlyn continued, pulling him out of his musings. “You don’t have to deal with the consequences of being someone’s secret lover. Once the affair or hookup is over, you can walk away unscathed. There’s a reason women—not men—are labeled homewreckers.”

Manning frowned. “That’s not true.”

“Isn’t it?” Caitlyn challenged. “I respectfully disagree. In fact—”

“Listen.” Manning reached across the table, covering her hand with his own.

She fell silent, staring at him.

“I’ve never claimed to have great philosophical wisdom or insight,” he said. “I don’t know why fucked-up things happen to good people. I don’t know why happiness eludes some more than others. What I
do
know is that it’s not your fault your husbands cheated on you and betrayed your trust. Don’t give those weak, shady motherfuckers any more power over you by blaming yourself for their shortcomings. Were we wrong for hooking up that one time while you were dating Josh? Yeah, maybe. We were young and impulsive, but that doesn’t make us terrible people undeserving of love. I don’t believe for one damn minute that you’re the victim of bad karma. If anything, you’re the victim of having shitty taste in men.” He paused. “Including me.”

Caitlyn smiled tremulously, her eyes misting with tears as she gazed at him. “You’re the only man I’ve never regretted falling for,” she confessed.

His lips quirked with grim humor. “Then you’re even crazier than I thought.”

As they shared a small laugh, Manning gave her hand a quick squeeze, then sat back in his chair and casually glanced around the restaurant.

Suddenly he froze.

There, standing at the hostess station waiting to be seated, was Taylor.

And she was staring right at him and Caitlyn.

18

Three minutes earlier

“
T
his place has great food,” Ken Huang told Taylor as they approached the entrance to the restaurant where he was treating her to lunch that afternoon. A tenured music professor at Emory, Ken had recently returned from attending his grandfather’s funeral in China, the details of which he’d shared with Taylor on their way downtown.

“I would have taken you to Wolf’s Soul, but you said you’ve already been there.”

“I have, and it was wonderful.” Taylor smiled. “I’ll definitely have to make another stop before I leave town.”

Ken grinned. “Just say when and I’m there.”

Taylor laughed. “It’s a date.”

As they entered the posh restaurant, the hostess smiled brightly at them. “Table for two?”

“Yes, please,” Ken answered.

As the pretty brunette checked for available tables, Taylor glanced through the crowded dining room.

Her heart plummeted at the sight of Manning and a gorgeous woman seated at a table positioned against the backdrop of a vine-draped courtyard. They were holding hands across the table, gazing into each other’s eyes and laughing softly.

As Taylor stared at the couple, she felt a sudden chill of recognition.

The woman having a tender moment with Manning was none other than Caitlyn Spencer—her former high school nemesis and the first girl Manning had ever slept with.

Sour jealousy rose like bile in Taylor’s throat.

Her mind flashed on a memory of the day she’d come upon Caitlyn and a group of her friends gathered around Caitlyn’s locker. As Taylor had approached with her books clutched to her chest, Caitlyn had taunted loudly, “I still don’t know what the hell he sees in her. She’s barely cute, she’s got the body of an adolescent boy and she dresses like a circus freak. Just watch. When his fine ass gets bored with her, he’s gonna come running back to me. But I’m gonna make him grovel before I give up the goodies again.”

Someone had snickered. “But you
will
give it up, right?”

“Hell, yeah! I’m not crazy!”

Taylor’s face had burned as Caitlyn and her friends shrieked with laughter. She’d never told Manning about the incident because she’d been too humiliated, and part of her had secretly feared that he
would
eventually leave her for Caitlyn’s greener pastures.

Seeing them here together, after all these years, hurt Taylor more than it should have. She couldn’t help wondering if Manning made a habit of sleeping with all of his former girlfriends and lovers who came to town. Clearly there was a pattern here.

At that moment, he turned his head and saw Taylor standing across the room.

He went still.

She quickly averted her gaze.

After locating an available table, the hostess scooped up two menus and smiled at Taylor and Ken. “Right this way, please.”

Tame Taylor wanted to head straight to her table and pretend she hadn’t seen Manning and Caitlyn. But Tempestuous Taylor suddenly surfaced, and
she
was a wildcard.

“You go ahead without me,” she told Ken. “I want to say hello to someone.”