Sweet Seduction Sacrifice (17 page)

That woke me up. "No. No, don't do that. Jase doesn't need to know. He'd go ballistic. You know how he is and besides ASI are handling it, I'm safe at Dominic's, there's nothing for you or Jason to worry about. It would be a futile waste of time to let him know."

"Genevieve," Kelly said, using my full name as a weapon of mass destruction. "I've been watching this play out for the past eight years, a good portion of that with my heart in my throat and my cuticles bitten all to hell, all because you fell for the wrong guy. Tell me now, that you have woken up to this fact. Tell me and mean it, and I won't bring in the military elite, I'll leave your brother out of it."

"I've woken up to it, Kelly. Of course I've woken up to it. Why the hell do you think I went to a lawyer?"

"That was a knee jerk reaction to Brett threatening your store. For Sweet Seduction you would do anything. What I want to know is if you would do anything to save yourself?"

I was silent. She knew me better than anyone. She knew my dreams, my hopes, my desires. She knew I would sacrifice everything to keep Sweet Seduction safe.

"Shit," she muttered. "I'm hanging up now and calling Jase."

"Please don't," I whispered and there must have been something in my voice because suddenly Dominic was there, his warm hand wrapped around the back of my neck, his nose buried in the side of my head, lips resting on my temple. I leaned back into him accepting the support he offered freely, not even thinking about what I was doing.

"I'm sorry, hon, you know I love you, but this has to stop." The line went dead before I could formulate an argument.

"Ah, crap," I muttered. My best friend had just betrayed me. I couldn't believe that she was doing this. Things were getting sorted, I had a Trespass Notice out against Brett - granted that seemed to be failing, but it was a step in the right direction - I had a lawyer and a private investigations and security firm working to keep me safe. And I had god-like Dominic Anscombe on my side. Couldn't she see I was doing the right thing? Couldn't she believe in me for a little longer? Just a few more days and it would be settled. How, I had no idea, and even though I knew that everything I had just thought was true, I also knew me.

And so did Kelly.

Sweet Seduction was my life, if Brett did force my hand, I knew I couldn't walk away from my dream to save
me
.

"Breathe, sweetheart," Dominic whispered in my ear. I took a breath in and then suddenly I was hyperventilating. It happened so fast. One minute holding my breath, the next breathing too quickly. My life was spiralling out of control. I was going to lose everything that mattered to me. I knew it. I just friggin' knew it.

Katie appeared before me with a paper bag, Dominic swung me back to face him, his eyes holding mine, soft words being murmured to calm me, but I wasn't listening. I was picturing Sweet Seduction being torn apart. The coffee machine repossessed, the furniture being sold off at auction, chocolates in the bin, and the kicker, the signage out the front being replaced with a lingerie company's logo. My customers wandering over the street to a generic opposition, LPs and CDs littering the street at their feet.

Dominic held the bag against my face, forcing me to re-breathe my air, rubbing my back in a large circular movement, laying his lips against my temple in a soft and caring caress, somehow breaking through the panic and making me slow down.

"I'm OK," I whispered and we all knew it was a lie.

"Why are you worried she'll tell your brother, who is he?" Dominic asked, confirming he and Katie had heard both sides of the conversation quite clearly.

"Captain Jason Cain. He's Army based at Trentham. I think he's some sort of elite special ops, SAS or something, but he doesn't talk about it. He scares the shit out of me. But I love him and he loves me, which is kind of the point. He'd kill Brett if he knew what had happened and he'd lock me up in an ivory tower until it was over."

"I like him already," Dominic quipped. I just glared at him, but my heart wasn't in it. His fingers came up and brushed my hair off my face. "Lets worry about Captain Cain if Kelly carries out her threat. She doesn't strike me as the kind of girl to corner her best friend."

I let a small unnatural sound out in a bubble of sarcastic laughter. "She didn't strike me as that either, but Kelly can be very determined once she gets an idea in her mind. Friggin' Rottweiler." He smiled down at me.

"You should eat something," Katie offered from across the bench, pushing a plate of sandwiches and a glass of Ginger Beer towards me. I offered her a small smile as thanks and forced myself to nibble on the corners of a sandwich, my appetite gone. But it was close to twenty-four hours since I last ate and my headache was back, my nose hurt like buggery and my stomach was beginning to cramp. There was only so much a girl could take.

I managed two sandwiches and half the glass of Ginger Beer before my phone rang. I had it sitting on the bench beside me, so it only took a glance down to see who was calling. The screen said,
Jason Calling
, the ring tone was Inner Circle's
Bad Boys
. Jase always loved that song. I stared at it for so long it went to voice mail. I let a relieved breath of air out and took another sip of my drink.

It started ringing again immediately. I reached over to switch it off and Dominic wrapped a hand around my wrist to stop me.

"You should talk to him, he'll be worried. I'd be worried sick if someone had just told me all of this about Katie."

I looked up at his face and saw he meant it, but all I could do was stare at him with too wide, scared eyes, breathing a little too quickly again. I couldn't do it. I couldn't face my brother's heated concern.

Dominic reached over me and picked the phone up, flipping it open before it stopped ringing, his eyes holding mine firmly.

"This is Dominic Anscombe, I believe you're Genevieve's brother?" He waited for Jason to reply and then said, "Broken nose and shaken up, but she's holding it together well." He did
not
just tell my military trained brother I had a broken nose. "Anscombe Securities and Investigations has taken on her case." Another pause. "No, my brother." Then, "Twenty-four hour surveillance, she's not returning to her loft. They're hot on his trail now." Another longer pause, somehow my brother managing to talk low enough I couldn't hear a word that was being said. Kelly must have been yelling. "My house." Then, "You're welcome, I would do anything for Genevieve." His eyes still held mine, I sucked in a little breath at the conviction I saw there. "I'll try, one moment."

He removed the phone from his ear, "Sweetheart, he wants to hear your voice. Talk to him." He held the phone out to me, but I just sat there, not wanting a bar of hearing my brother rant and rave at me. "Genevieve,"
That
voice again. "He knows you're in good hands, he's calm. He's a professional." That's what I was afraid of. "It's going to be OK."

I blew a breath of air out and reached for the phone, Dominic's fingers brushing mine as he handed it over. Heat washed up my arm, a most inappropriate response given the situation, but the man could melt me with a look alone, touching in any way was just damn lethal.

"Jase," I said softly into the phone, my eyes glued to Dominic for support.

"I'm coming home tonight, expect me at Anscombe's after dark. This sonofabitch is not going to last another twenty-four hours, I promise you that, Genny."

"Jase, please," I said, but he'd already gone.

I closed the phone numbly, biting my bottom lip in contemplation for a moment.

"You're so wrong," I finally told a slightly stunned Dominic, who'd obviously heard Jason's words - supersonic hearing as well as silent feet. "Nothing's gonna be OK now."

Captain Jason Cain was not to be trifled with, Brett was so screwed, but I couldn't figure out yet what that meant for me and my dream.

I wanted to hope, but hope was no longer in the room with me.

Katie stayed for a while. I'm not sure if that was out of genuine concern or as a buffer between Dominic and me. Not that she seemed displeased that her brother couldn't stop flicking glances at me while I cleared the rest of my messages - purposely ignoring the Unknown Caller, but ensuring Jane at Sweet Seduction was OK. She smiled every time Dominic's attention swung my way, as though it was the best TV show she'd ever watched. I'm glad we were of some amusement to her.

Finally, Dominic had obviously had enough of her company and started dropping hints that she should leave.

"Don't you normally call in on the folks on a Saturday, Katie?" he asked, sipping a coffee whilst reading the
Herald
.

"I'll call in after dinner, Dad's playing golf today and I think Mum's out shopping with her Mahjong friends," she replied, flicking through her own magazine without a care in the world.

He returned his attention to the newspaper for a few minutes, then tried again.

"Genevieve looks tired, Katie, I think we should let her get some rest."

Katie flicked a glance in my direction. "She looks fine and we're all resting, nobody's causing a scene, but you," she pointed out. She was wrong though, my head was pounding and my nose hurt so much I was constantly swiping tears from my eyes. Not necessarily an unusual thing, but as I wasn't watching a moving DVD or reading a Hallmark card it was kind of out of place.

Dominic sighed and got up out of his chair, only to return a few moments later with a large glass of water and some painkillers. I blinked up at him, swiped some more tears and took the offered panacea with a small smile. Katie watched the entire exchange with an open mouth.

"Maybe she does need rest," she announced. "But I'll be back tomorrow to check on you," she said directly to me.

I got the impression it was to be reassuring, I wasn't sure why. Was she afraid to leave me with Dominic? Or maybe she was worried about my brother turning up. Either way it was nice to think she was in my corner, so I nodded my thanks and gave her a smile that would let her know I appreciated it. She beamed back at me, leaned down and kissed my cheek and then let Dominic lead her out to her car.

By the time he came back I was lying down on the couch, having simply let my body fall sideways in defeat. I
was
exhausted. He hadn't been wrong. I ached all over, my face and head the worst of all, but my heart wasn't fairing much better. Which was ridiculous really, I didn't love Brett anymore, so it took a while for me to ascertain where that heartache was coming from. Finally, I settled on the fact that he had hurt me, or had me hurt, both physically and emotionally. I never thought he'd had it in him to do this. To abduct me. To blackmail me using Sweet Seduction as the threat. Kelly had seen it coming, but I hadn't and it made me feel foolish and naive and stupid. And that hurt my heart.

Not to mention my ego.

Dominic stopped inside the door to the lounge and looked at me for a few seconds, then walked over in a gorgeous glide of muscles and masculinity. Those jeans should be illegal. I blinked away tears, which had been silently spilling out the sides of my eyes and down my cheeks onto the leather of the couch, and watched his approach. Heart no longer hurting, but thundering in my chest. He sat down on the edge of the sofa, his body sitting flush against my waist, my hips bracketing him. I could feel his heat, through his jeans and through the balloon track pants I was still wearing. It felt good.

He reached up and softly brushed my hair back from my face, but didn't stop there. His fingers stroking through the strands. I hadn't tied my hair back or straightened it, so it would have looked a kinked and no doubt frizzy mess. That didn't seem to stop him being enamoured by it.

"You should go to bed, sweetheart. Get some sleep."

"I shouldn't need sleep, I was out most of last night and well into today."

Something dangerous flashed through his eyes at the reminder that I had been knocked out. Something even more dangerous than killer lawyer. Something that made my body still, not exactly in fear, but in self-preservation. Like a deer would if a lion had spotted it.

"You didn't clear all of your messages," he said out of nowhere, the moment of danger suddenly gone as though he'd flicked a switch. And how he knew I hadn't cleared all my messages, I did not know.

"They can wait," I hedged, not wanting to go anywhere near the Unknown Caller/Brett.

"They could help us find him," he said, evenly, watching my face for a reaction. He got one. I bit my lip and noticed it was trembling.

I really was a pathetic wimp.

"Sweetheart," he said softly. "It must be done. Will you let me clear them for you?"

I thought about that for a second and decided he was right. There was no way I wanted to hear what Brett had to say, but it could help ASI locate him. I was still so confused about how to proceed. Let ASI - and my brother, by the sounds of it - track Brett down and have him arrested, trust that they could accomplish this and not stuff it up. Or not take the risk, knowing if they did stuff it up, Brett would strike back and attack Sweet Seduction.

It was a battle that was fought internally, but from the look on Dominic's face, was being played out in my expressions. I never really thought about how much of my emotions I wore on my face. But obviously I wore them all unchecked, because his eyes flashed; first dangerously, then softly - as though he was feeling my confusion along with me and sympathised wholeheartedly - and then quickly back to dangerously again. He might have recognised I was having trouble deciding how to proceed, but he didn't necessarily agree with the sentiment.