Seducing Celestine (5 page)

But the real dramas decided to kick in just as she had just driven over the hump of the Gateway Bridge that linked the north and south of Brisbane together. That was when her car started to make sounds that even to Celestine’s untrained mechanic’s ear warned of doom. It was not unusual for her car to cough and splutter dramatically but these sounds were exceptionally dramatic and Oscar-worthy. She managed to nurse the car as it chugged and spluttered its way past the main traffic into a quiet street off Sandgate Road. As the car stopped, an ominous vent of steam rose majestically from under the hood, as if to let it be known that this was the climax to a fairly lousy day. And this was the moment, Celestine leapt out of her old white car and flung her handbag angrily to the ground and gave vent to her feelings.

“Bloody stupid car!” Celestine yelled as she kicked the nearest tire, giving in to true redheaded anger. She had a sudden urge to cry, which was totally unlike her. It wasn’t just all that had happened that day or with Nick Swan and the spontaneous mentioning of the “L” word. It was really all that had happened in the last twelve months. God, what a sucky year it had been!

Celestine had lost her job when the company she worked for had gone bankrupt. Her once-trusted roommate and supposed friend Julia had scarpered after stealing Celestine’s television, computer and anything hockable but not before she managed to rack up a mountain of bills using Celestine’s name. Then due to her money problems, the normally diligent Celestine had let her insurance policy on her two-year-old Holden Astra lapse a week too late. So, when an unlicensed, uninsured nineteen-year-old man ran into her suddenly uninsured, reliable Astra, totaling it, Celestine had been forced to buy this 1985 car from hell. Probably an incredibly good car in 1985 but unlike wine it did not age well.

In the two weeks since Celestine had had the car, it had been a challenge. And no, unlike some, Celestine did not need personal challenges to be presented to her. She preferred to live an easy life. If only she had forgone food to pay the car insurance—she could afford to lose a dozen or so pounds—she would not have had to have bought the traveling buckets of bolts she was driving now. If only she had seen into the black heart of her ex-roommate Julia quicker and stopped her thieving actions sooner. And if only she could get a job that paid more than minimum wage so she could clear her ever-increasing debts. But then, Celestine knew you could not live on “if only”. They were just part of life and life happened when you least expected it. She kept telling herself she was better off than most. She knew she had the necessary discipline to knuckle down and budget to her make her money go as far as possible and she still had what was left of her sanity.

“Just…” Now she had to add Nick Swan into the equation or subtract him out. “Yep, that would be easier.” But so much less exciting. Anyway, he was problem four hundred and seven and she would deal with him later. She had to deal with problem number one, the car, first.

After letting go a good, cathartic scream and inflicting more violence on her car, Celestine had calmed down sufficiently for rational thought to seep through. She picked up the handbag that she had flung down so wildly before and reached inside for her mobile phone. She needed to call the auto club so they could help her with whatever drama her car was experiencing now. Thankfully she had had the foresight to keep her membership with the automobile club up to date.

“Woo hoo! One thing Celestine Holt has done right…” she muttered cynically to herself.

Celestine turned on her mobile phone or tried to. The keypad did not light up reassuringly as it normally did. She switched if off and on a couple of times. Nothing. She swore silently under her breath. It was then she realized it probably had not helped the phone any when she had flung her handbag down in such a rage. Clearly she had broken the phone.

“Perfect…excellent…just what I need…idiot!” Celestine cursed herself angrily, telling herself not to give in to the tears that were starting to prick at her eyes. She was not the crying type. She did not normally fall to pieces in adversity. And she did not believe in self-pity as that was a pointless exercise. It had to be just one lousy day out of several lousy months that got her to the point that she wanted to sit down on the roadside and cry. Celestine leaned against the car, her elbows on the roof of the car as she thought about what to do. While she was contemplating her options, she heard the crunch of gravel behind her. She whirled around and came face-to-face with someone she instinctively knew was not going to be her savior.

The man was about forty years old, dressed in dirty-looking clothes and had blond greasy hair and ugly-looking stubble. Not your stereotypical white knight type. Celestine instantly tried to look less defenseless, standing taller and making her gaze direct and cold. The look the man was giving her was not one of a friendly passerby. It was the look of someone who wanted something and was prepared to take it by whatever means he could.

“You need help, lady?” The rough voice was anything but helpful-sounding. He eyed her up and down assessingly.

Celestine wished she was at least a foot taller and looked more menacing in her black leggings and Betty Boop t-shirt. But you could only look so fierce while wearing Betty.

“I’m fine.” Of course it was a lie. She wished she could call upon some white knight, in shining armor to come to her rescue her now. Nick Swan’s face came instantly into mind. “My boyfriend will be back in a moment.” Her bright blue eyes looked straight into the man’s evil black eyes, daring to call her a liar.

“You’re lying.” The man loomed over her. “You ain’t got no boyfriend coming back for you.”

So much for lying, thought Celestine cynically. She looked around her slowly. They were in a side street off Sandgate Road, in an industrial area in the northern suburb of Nundah. It was broad daylight. What was the man planning to do? she wondered. He could have her handbag and the fabulous sum of twenty dollars it contained. He could not rape her in such an exposed location and she sure as hell was not going to allow herself to be dragged somewhere else to be abused without putting up one hell of a fight.

“Why would I bother lying?” Celestine considered her options. She was pretty sure she could outrun him as he did not look particularly fit with that expanse of gut hanging over his dirty jeans. And fright mixed with survival was a great motivator for her. But he was in front of her, blocking her exit. That was a problem. She just had to get the chance to make her move. Until then, she would not act like a victim. She would remain cool and calm and await her chance.

The man looked at her calculatingly as if he considered her no threat. He smiled a greasy smile at her.

“I saw your car limp over here. I didn’t see no boyfriend get out.”

Celestine wasn’t at all surprised that several of his front teeth were missing. He just seemed to be the type. Only just above Neanderthal. Intact teeth would spoil the look he was going for.

“What exactly is it that you want?” She was pleased her tone sounded commanding and imperious.

“I want your car.” The answer was barked out at her. He leaned forward, giving her no chance of escape.

“What?” Of all her possessions, this man wanted her bomb of a car. Not her handbag. Not her body. He wanted a twenty-something-year-old rust trap. Was he insane? He said he had seen the car rattle to its undignified stop so it was not like it was a Ferrari he wanted to possess. “Why?” Was he on some hallucinogenic drug that made him see the world and her car through rose-colored glasses?

The man lurched over her, his foul breath polluting the oxygen around Celestine, forcing her to hold her breath from inhaling the poisonous fumes.

“Just give me the damn keys!”

After the two weeks of car hell that Celestine had experienced, most people would have given up the car and not questioned why fate had decided to relieve them of their burden. But not Celestine Holt. Despite the problems with the car, it was still her car and her only mode of transport. She was damned sure she was not going to let this creep take it. She had to have some measure of control over her life.

“No keys for you, ugly boy.” Looking as tough as her curly shoulder-length red hair and freckled nose would allow, Celestine pulled the car door open and proceeded to get inside. If she could just get the door locked and maybe coax the car to another location, she would be okay.

“It’s not up for discussion,” the man snarled as he grasped her wrist and pulled her away from the car in one vicious pull.

Celestine was caught off balance and fell hard to the ground, jarring all the bones in body. Sheer anger drove her back onto her feet and made her jump like a wildcat up onto the back of the man who was trying to get into her car to drive off. He swung around uselessly as he tried to dislodge Celestine from his back. Celestine in turn pulled his sparse hair and scratched at his face in attack.

“Get off me, you bitch!”

Celestine yelled her head off and continued to pull the man’s hair as her fingers sought to poke him in the eyes. She was now so angry at him, her car, Nick Swan and everything that had happened to her in the last twelve months that pure aggression drove her on. Celestine was no victim and he would be made to see that even if it took every ounce of energy she had.

Celestine did not hear the other man who came up silently behind them. But she did feel the strong hands that grasped her around the waist and pulled her, kicking and screaming, off the man’s back. As she was dumped unceremoniously on her backside, cursing all the way down to the ground, hair in her eyes, she did not see the other man punch the first man. It was only when she scrambled up ready to fight anyone in sight that Celestine realized that Nick Swan was fighting the Neanderthal.

Where the hell did Nick spring from? Celestine watched as Nick slugged it out with the blond, greasy man. It did not take long for the man to realize Nick could kick his ass from here to Cairns. He ran as soon as he got the chance.

“What the hell are you doing here?” She knew it was not the most grateful way to thank her savior but she was annoyed at the possibly he had followed her from Tess’ home.

“I’m saving your life, baby.”

“You were following me.”

“Well, of course. Tess called me after your car dramas and told me the route you would most likely take. Good thing I came along when I did.”

Bloody over-helpful, pushy friend Tess.

“I could have handled it.” She knew she would have eventually exhausted the man by jumping up and down on his back. Celestine was no lightweight to carry around.

“You were pretty magnificent jumping up on his back like that.” Nick chuckled at the expression on Celestine’s face. She was angry and clearly shaken by what had happened and she had every right to be. It was not a pleasant thing being attacked by someone. “It reminded me of how you attacked me last night.”

Celestine snorted in an unladylike manner.

“I did not attack you. You tackled me to the ground and…”

“And what? Fucked you until you screamed?”

Celestine did not want to be reminded of last night. Just thinking of Nick hot inside her made her thighs sweat in anticipation of having that cock inside her again. But that was not going to happen. Not after the “L” word. What else would she scream out as she came? It was too risky—satisfying but risky. It was better to keep her legs firmly together and her mouth shut.

“This your car?” Nick asked as he took in the rust in the door panels and the radiator fluid pooling under the car. Celestine Holt was either broke and desperate or mechanically challenged and insane to be driving such a heap.

“Gee, you’re quick.” Why was everyone so interested in her car? She was starting to become quite possessive of it, almost as if it were some stray dog she had to protect.

“I can be nice and slow when the time calls for it.”

Oh, Celestine just knew he could.

“I don’t have time for this.”

“What?”

“Sexual innuendo from you.”

“Let’s go straight for sex then. We’re good at that.”

Celestine rolled her eyes at him. Good? They were damned excellent.

“Never going to happen again, moonlight man.”

“Is this because you’ve fallen in love with me, baby?”

Oh God! She was hoping he forgotten that.

“Dream on…” Celestine muttered.

“Oh I will…” Nick murmured softly to himself. “Pop the hood,” he ordered.

Celestine hated being ordered by anyone. It was a genetic quirk of hers. But she wanted to get the car going so her options were limited. She reached in under the dashboard on the driver’s side and pulled the lever to open the hood.

Nick lifted the hood up and smiled in amusement when he realized there was no arm to hold the hood up. But it did not matter, he could see what the immediate problem was. The radiator was on its last legs. It needed to be refilled if Celestine wanted to be able to get home. “How long have you had this car?” Nick asked as she came around to hold the hood up with him.

“It’s a family heirloom,” Celestine returned coolly, daring him to say something derogative about her purchase. After two weeks of driving it she knew the car was a bomb and she did not need anyone saying it to her. The only one allowed to pick on her car was her.
Piece of crap car
…

“I see,” replied Nick noncommittally as he left her, holding the hood up, to go and get some water from his pick up truck. He suspected that Celestine Holt was well aware of the shortcomings of her car and did not need to be told them. He returned quickly and filled the radiator up, slamming down the hood as he finished.

Celestine was surprised the car did not fall to pieces at this action.

“Thank you.” Celestine could be gracious when she had to be. The man had fended off that nutcase attacker. Her thoughts went back to that man. Why had wanted her car? That was just plain weird. Was it some random occurrence? What else could it be? Whatever it was it was over now and she needed to get home. Celestine slid into her car.