Captivation

Captivation Part 7

The crowd dispersed slowly, talking quietly but animatedly about what had just transpired. The evening has certainly been far from dull.

In silence Jared and Douglas reached for their trench coats. Both had a lot to think about.

It was Douglas who broke the silence after a few long seconds. "I think your concept of ice queen and mine are different." Douglas slid his arms into his coat sleeves. "Never thought I'd ever say this to you, but you've made one hell of a mistake tonight." Jared poked his tongue in his cheek and tried not to dwell for too long on his friend's comment. But Douglas was not done. "You seriously turned down a date with her?" Douglas murmured, as he revisited the conversation and the way she had managed the old guys and handled Jared, "You're an idiot."

"I don't think she was after a date." Murmured Jared, but he too was starting to wonder whether going out with Caitlin might have been worth the experience.

She was wholly unexpected. The way she behaved was unexpected. Her fair play ethos was unexpected. He'd never had any woman go in to bat for him the way she'd just done. He'd made her the centre of gossip, tarnished her reputation, and still she hadn't let people accuse him unjustly. Being on the receiving end fair play where women were concerned was a new concept for Jared. Most were only too happy to find a reason to try to ensure he was indebted to them in some way or form.

Douglas quirked a brow, looked over at his friend and pointed out what he considered to be obvious, "She's got class." Jared threw him a warning look. The last thing he needed was a lecture right now. Douglas ignored Jared's glare and continued to list Caitlin's good points as if Jared had noticed them. "She's gorgeous, has spirit and plays fair." He told his friend as if those virtues were what interested both men.

"She's a conservative prig. To spare her blushes she probably only gets undressed in the dark." Jared snapped, his mind still on the fact that she had defended him. Jared figured he ought to stop revising his view of her. The last thing he wanted was to feel guilty. It was bad enough that hearing her defend him made him seriously reassess her.

After all that had happened this evening, she had still gone in to defend him. In public. Everyone knew he'd distanced himself from her and his opinion of her had circulated like wild fire. Despite that, here she was, standing up for him.

Douglas glanced at his friend with more than a hint of speculation in his eyes as he considered Jared's unfair comments. His friend seemed to be over-reacting.

"Even my grandmother wouldn't be caught wearing what she was wearing." Jared grumbled loudly. Caitlin was dressed conservatively, but then, given most of the women in Jared's circle tended to dress to flaunt their assets, anyone who covered more than strategic elements would be conservative! Jared knew he was being hypercritical.

"She's pretty damn beautiful, so what she wears is immaterial." Douglas told Jared with a snort of derision for his friend's obstinacy, "And your grandmother was..."

"Doug." Jared warned as he shrugged on his coat hoping to put an end to the conversation.

"Just calling it as it is." Douglas shrugged as he stated baldly.

The two men had known each other for years, so being honest was not an issue. But what was starting to register with Douglas was the fact that he and Jared appeared to be seeing the woman differently. That was unusual. For they were both usually good when it came to understanding characters and they usually saw the same thing.

They walked out to the car park and as luck would have it they had to pass by Caitlin's car to get to theirs. The four old guys were making heavy work of getting the spare tyre out of the boot Caitlin was standing by watching them. It was obvious she could have managed a lot better and a lot quicker without them, but it was equally obvious that she wanted them to feel they had helped her this evening. Once again Jared found himself wondering what made this woman tick. She was clearly very kind hearted. That just made him feel even worse. For his harsh treatment must have come as quite a shock to her.