The Deserving Mistress

His mouth thinned determinedly. ‘I’ll call for you at seven-thirty,’ he repeated evenly.

May’s derision was obvious as she gave him a scornful smile. ‘Effectively ensuring there’s no possibility of anyone seeing us out together at your hotel?’ she taunted.

Jude drew in a deeply controlling breath before answering her. ‘I have no one to hide from, May,’ he rasped harshly.

‘No?’ She raised challenging brows.

He was going to throw caution to the wind in a minute, go back on his earlier decision, and kiss the life out of her—something guaranteed to result in another fight.

‘Your father should have smacked your bottom more when you were a child,’ he bit out tautly, his hands clenched at his sides as he fought the urge to take her in his arms.

She gave a wistful shake of her head. ‘My father didn’t believe in physical punishment for any of his children.’

‘Making their husband’s role all the more difficult!’ he dismissed hardly.

May’s smile deepened. ‘Max and Will don’t seem to have any complaints.’

‘Yet,’ he scorned.

Her smile faded as suddenly as it had appeared. ‘Ever,’ she snapped with certainty. ‘January and March are both lovely young women—’

‘Aren’t you just the teeniest bit prejudiced?’ Jude derided, knowing he had her rattled now with what she saw as criticism of her sisters.

‘And isn’t your nose just the teeniest bit out of joint because your two closest friends are about to get married and break up the bachelor threesome?’ she returned challengingly.

Jude drew in a sharp breath. Not out of anger. Not out of indignation. But because a part of him knew that she was right…

He had been friends with Max and Will for years, the three men often spending huge chunks of time together, playing hard as well as working hard. It was a little unsettling to realise, with Max and Will’s recent engagements, the pending marriages, that time was now over.

And he didn’t thank May for bringing his attention to the fact.

‘Doesn’t that idiom, considering your obvious closeness to your two sisters, apply equally well to you?’ he taunted, instantly wishing his words unsaid as May paled, telling him that his taunt had hit its mark. ‘This is getting us nowhere, May,’ he dismissed, moving away impatiently. ‘Whatever it is you’re trying to do with this conversation, I refuse to play. Okay?’ he added hardly, aware of how he had nearly completely lost his temper.

Something that never happened. As May had so acutely guessed from the beginning, he gave little of himself away, either verbally or emotionally, something that anger was guaranteed to do.

Except that May Calendar seemed able to get under that barrier he had deliberately erected about his emotions, seemingly without any effort whatsoever…

‘I have no idea what you’re talking about,’ she dismissed, moving across to the kitchen window. ‘They’re all coming back now, so—’

‘It’s time for me to leave,’ he finished impatiently. ‘May, considering the favour I’m doing you—not mentioning Melton or April,’ he explained at her questioning look, ‘you could be a little politer to me than you’ve been the last few minutes.’

Her mouth twisted humourlessly. ‘I’m afraid you don’t bring out that quality in me,’ she drawled. ‘Any more than I bring it out in you,’ she added pointedly. ‘Now, if you wouldn’t mind, I have some beds to make up for my unexpected guests…’

Jude’s gaze narrowed. ‘You—’

‘Still here, Jude?’ March Calendar mocked as she was the first of the quartet to enter the kitchen. ‘We thought you would have left long ago.’

‘Then you thought wrong, didn’t you?’ Jude bit out irritably; another Calendar sister who needed her backside smacked. ‘Max, would you mind walking out to my car with me?’ he prompted lightly.

‘No problem,’ his friend dismissed, turning to give January a lingering kiss on the lips before following Jude from the farmhouse.

This was certainly going to take some getting used to, Jude realised ruefully as the two men walked over to his hire car; Max had always been more of the loner of the three men, enjoying relationships but never allowing any female to get too close to him. Obviously that had all changed with his obvious love for January Calendar. No doubt Will was as entranced by March.

‘They’re quite something, aren’t they?’ Max drawled ruefully as he seemed to guess at least some of Jude’s thoughts.

But not all of them, thank goodness—because Jude had just come to the startling conclusion that, if he weren’t very careful, he could end up as bewitched by May Calendar as his two friends were by her sisters.

How the hell had that happened?