Seducing Celestine (7 page)

Everything had happened so quickly. It occurred to her that while she was protected, Nick wasn’t. A spear of alarm ran through her body. What if Nick had been hurt? Celestine ran her hands quickly down his back and over his ass. No blood or bullet holes, just fine male flesh.

“Are you okay?”

Nick looked down at the woman beneath him.

“Worried about me, baby?” Nick smiled at Celestine.

“No, you’re big enough and ugly enough to look after yourself.”

Nick grinned down at her. Celestine’s hands were still on his ass.

“Feeling me up then? If so by all means continue.”

Her hands sprang away from his body. Okay, maybe she had been doing that after her initial concern for his well-being had been resolved. Bit it was his fault for lying on top of her like that. Naturally her hormones would react as they were meant to. Jeez, that was just nature.
That
’
s it
,
blame Mother Nature
.

“No, I just thought if you died on top of me I’d be trapped forever.”

“You’re already trapped, Celestine Holt,” Nick murmured, as his lips lightly grazed hers.

Oh no, she didn’t want to be feeling anything when it came to this man. He spelled, added up and promised danger. Sex was one thing, emotion was another. It would not pay to confuse the two. Wanting and needing were not part of her game plan at present.

“Are you going to get off me?” she muttered angrily, trying to push him off her. But he was a big man who could not be pushed easily.

Nick was in no rush to get up. He knew the danger had passed. But he liked lying on Celestine. He braced his body slightly to ease some of the weight on her.

“Someone just drove by and shot a gun at us.”

“Really, Nick? I would never have got that on my own.” Celestine wriggled beneath him to free herself.

“Are you squirming under me to turn me on because I can tell you it’s working.”

“Get off me!” Celestine yelled. “Now you’re just trying to cop a feel.”

“You did, so why not me?” Nick looked at her in surprise. “Are you blushing?”

“No…as if…” This man could tease and confuse the hell out of her.

“Yeah, right…” Nick rolled over and stood up. “I was trying to protect you.”

Celestine’s hair was rioting wildly around her head in a mass of wild red curls as she scrambled to her feet.

“Protection? Is that what you call it?” She brushed the grass from her t-shirt and slapped Nick’s hands from her t-shirted breasts as he tried to brush away nonexistent pieces of grass. “What the hell is this all about?”

“It’s about love, baby.”

“I’m not talking about that.” She actually planned never to talk about that. That one went into the vault. “I’m talking about the gunshots.” Celestine put distance between herself and Nick. Too much touching led to much too much touching. “Who have you pissed off that they decided to take some potshots at you?”

“Why would it be me?”

“Well, it’s not me.”

“I see, you’re saying you’re too sweet to piss anyone off.”

“Damn straight.” Nick did not need to know the list of people Celestine had pissed off in her life.

Nick looked behind them over at her car. His eyes fixed on it. He walked over and touched a spot just above the back number plate.

Celestine followed him over to see what he was looking at. She saw a neat round hole in her paint work.

“It’s a bullet hole all right.” If Nick had doubted what he had just witnessed, this was proof that something was definitely wrong. His face creased with worry. Why would someone be shooting at either of them? Or more specifically, why would someone be shooting at Celestine?

Celestine pushed Nick out of her way to look at the damage.

“That bastard shot my car. He must die!” As much as the car was a trial, no one shot her car and got away with it. But in this case they had, thought Celestine furiously, feeling suddenly powerless. This was not a feeling she was comfortable with. Powerless did not work for her. Yet since meeting Nick Swan it seemed to be something she was experiencing a lot of.

“That’s not the only thing they’ve done.” Nick pointed to the smashed pane of glass on the back passenger left side of the car. “Were there any unusual disturbances around here last night?” Nick asked as he scoped out the modest, timber home with its peeling paint and rickety-looking front stairs.

Celestine looked at him thoughtfully. Maybe that wasn’t a cat she thought she heard last night. But why would someone want to vandalize her car? Didn’t it look as if it had had a hard enough life already? And it was not like she kept anything of value inside.

“So, why is someone shooting at you?” Nick didn’t like it one little bit.

Celestine looked at Nick incredulously.

“Shooting at me? Why do you think it’s me?”

“It’s your home.”

“And you’ve dropped in unannounced. Someone could have followed you and wanted to shoot you.”

“But your car is the one that’s been vandalized.”

“That doesn’t mean it had anything to do with me.” Okay, it was a good point but she did not want this to be her problem. She had enough to deal with, let alone people wanting to shoot her. “But this all started to happen when I met you.”

“If you care to cast your mind back, Ms. Holt, someone tried to carjack you yesterday so I reckon this has everything to do with you.”

Bugger! Nick could possibly be right. Celestine thought back to the incident. She had chosen to believe it was some drugged-out wacko who thought the car was worth nicking. But now, in light of this, she was beginning to wonder if there was something more to it. But it was crazy. Her life was boring. Boring people did not get shot at, did they?

Why was Nick looking at her so strangely?

“What?”

“I was just wondering if you are a spy, Celestine Holt. Is that why someone is shooting at you?”

“Yeah, sure, I’m a spy. I live in Everton Park in an old decrepit house as my cover. I am a master of disguise and yet you have seen through me.” In more ways than one, thought Celestine. However, shoving thoughts of Nick Swan to the side, as impossible as that seemed, what the hell was going on here? Okay, Celestine knew she was not one of the most loveable people on the planet but why would someone shoot at her? Maybe setting fire to her mailbox or stealing her weekend newspaper she could have understood but actual shooting that could kill her? She looked at Nick Swan. Other than sex with Nick, she knew nothing about this man. He could have been the target. He could be bringing danger to her door.

“I still think they could have been shooting at you, moonlight man.”

Nick smiled at what she called him.

“Why would someone shoot at me? I am loveable to all. You know that only too well, baby.”

Celestine snorted out loud at his inflated opinion of himself. That he was right was one thing, that he said it was annoying.

“What about a pissed-off girlfriend? You’re bound to have one of those lurking around.”

“No one is ever upset after being with me. All my ex-girlfriends still love me,” Nick answered charmingly, as he smiled the most dazzling smile at her.

“Excuse me while I puke.” The man was a piece of work, that was for sure.

“Puke later. We need to call the police.” Nick told her.

Celestine knew it was the right thing to do but what would come out of it? It could have just been a random drive-by shooting. Of course, this was rental-mortgage belt Everton Park in Brisbane and not Detroit, USA. Still, crime could happen anywhere. That’s why boffins ran around scaring people with crime statistics. But she still could not reconcile the fact that someone wanted to hurt her. Sure, that blond greasy man yesterday had tried to take her car but he hadn’t actually hurt her. But then Nick had stepped in before anything had happened. Whoa…that was a scary thought. What if he hadn’t? Despite her bravado, Celestine knew she would have had a hard time fighting that man off. She looked at Nick. He was dialing the police.

“I better get changed.” She did not want to be dealing with either Nick or the police in her pajamas.

“I think you look cute in your pajamas. Though you naked also works for me.”

———

After the police had left, Celestine waited for Nick Swan to leave as well. But he had made no attempt to move from the middle of her lounge room where he looked around her home assessingly. She knew what he was thinking. The place was pathetic. Other than one very battered old Fifties Genoa sofa, a spindly armchair and a packing crate with an old black-and-white television it, there was nothing in the lounge room, except for several piles of books neatly stacked against one of the walls.

“Going for the minimalist look?” Nick was surprised at the utter lack of furniture in the lounge room. “So you either do not believe in furniture or you’re flat broke.” He suspected the other rooms of the house were the same.

“That would be door number two.”

“Tell me about it.” His eyes were filled with genuine concern.

“It’s a long, boring story with no happy ending.”

“I still want to hear it, baby.”

Celestine bit her lip and looked at Nick Sawn. He was looking at her as if he genuinely cared. She sighed tiredly.

“My thieving cow of a roommate, Julia Bailey, stole everything I owned and then she took the money and ran. I had some nice stuff too. Hence the reason Julia took it. She hocked anything she could carry out of the house.” Celestine could still remember the day she had arrived home after work to find the place cleaned out. “Then to add insult to injury, I found out she had my credit card number and she ran my credit into the ground.”

“Why did she do it?” Nick was horrified but he knew better than to show pity to this woman.

“I would say it was because she was a greedy bitch but I’m a tad jaded when it comes to her.” Actually “jaded” did not cover it. Celestine wanted to hunt Julia Bailey down and throttle the woman. It wasn’t an entirely rational response but it would, however, make her feel better. “Anyway, what little she left I sold to pay off the debts she accrued under my name. One day after all the debts are paid and I’m back on her feet, I’ll have everything restored.” Celestine blew out a deep breath. One day…when would that be? She seemed to be going two steps forward and ten steps back in her progress out of the mire she was stuck in.

“So how have you been living?”

There was no need for him to know she was down to her last couple of dollars and that the job interview she had yesterday had netted no result. She may feel pathetic but Celestine did not want to look it. She had pride. If she didn’t, she would have gone to her toffee-nosed sister Grace and asked to borrow some money. And that was never going to happen. She would rather have walked naked down the Queen Street Mall than do that.

“I’ve been doing okay.”

Nick knew a lie when he heard one.

“Tess is a good friend.”

Celestine could see that Nick had worked out why she had been staying at Tess’ home.

“Yeah, she is.” The way Nick was looking at her made her want to crawl into his arms and cry. She had been holding so much inside for so long that Celestine was scared she was going to start crying and not stop. But where would that get her other than all puffy-faced and sniffling? She swallowed the sudden lump in her throat. She did not need sympathy. She needed to get a grip.

“You’ve been through a lot.” Nick wanted to hold her in his arms and ease some of the pain.

The simple way he said it and the way he looked at her was so sweet and loving that she wanted to give in to the urge and cry. Add to that the fact that she had been shot at and the police were worried that the shooting and the carjacking were connected and she was feeling very vulnerable at the moment. Vulnerability was not an emotion Celestine did well, if at all. She wondered what it would be like to have someone that you could go to and cry over and feel comforted by. She hadn’t had that in a long time. Not since her parents died and even then she had never felt completely comforted. Her parents tried but they were not very loving people. Celestine and her sister Grace were the same. The Holt family just did not do emotion very well. Because of that, she did not expect comfort and had hardened herself to the fact. But every so often she wondered what it would feel like.

“Yeah well, I survived though. And let’s be realistic here. You really only need one chair to sit on.” Celestine had two. Not of any great quality but she was a hell of a lot better off than some people. Any time an attack of self-pity started, she reminded herself of that fact.

“Experience is a hard teacher.”

“The worst and the lessons suck badly.” And Celestine did not want any more of them but they just seemed to keep coming. She had read somewhere that there was this karmic principle that you kept living your life over and over in the same patterns until you got it right. Surely she had to have gotten something right by now? And if not, why didn’t karma just give her a break and tell her what she was doing wrong and how she could fix it?

“Don’t let it harden you, baby.”

“It already has.” And that’s what scared Celestine, that she would be some bitter old woman too hard to really make any decent attempts to be soft and caring.

“No, you’re still soft where it counts.”

Celestine looked up at Nick. For a moment she almost believed him. But she knew better. She was not the same woman she was twelve months ago. Her level of trust was almost nonexistent. She expected nothing of people. As for Nick Swan, she did not know where she stood with him. Physically he had her but emotionally she was too scared to push it.

“So where are you going to stay?” Nick asked, waiting for the yarn he knew she was going to spin him. “I’m assuming it’s with Tess?”

The police had advised Celestine for her own safety to move out of her home and go live in another location with friends or family. However, Celestine was reluctant to force her presence on the newly engaged Tess, even though she knew Tess would insist she did. Besides, if she was a target as the police seemed to think, she did not want trouble visiting Tess.

“I’ll stay with my sister, Grace, in St Lucia,” Celestine lied, looking Nick straight in the eye. He did not need to know she and Grace hated each other and hadn’t seen each other in months. The last time they did, they had had a knock-down drag-out fight about some trivial memory from their childhood. In reality they had not been fighting about that. It was something deeper that neither of them really wanted to recognize.