An Ellora’s Cave Romantica Publication
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Seducing Celestine ISBN 9781419911576 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Seducing Celestine Copyright © 2007 Amarinda Jones Edited by Helen Woodall. Photography and cover art by Les Byerley. Electronic book Publication November 2007 This book may not be reproduced or used in whole or in part by any means existing without written permission from the publisher, Ellora’s Cave Publishing, Inc.® 1056 Home Avenue, Akron OH 443103502. This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the authors’ imagination and used fictitiously.
SEDUCING CELESTINE Amarinda Jones
Dedication To Promptel for unwittingly allowing me to use precious work time to write my books. What can I say? I enjoy being bad. Rules? What rules?
Acknowledgement Lyrics from “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” by The Rolling Stones: written by Mick Jagger, Keith Richards July 1969.
Trademarks Acknowledgement The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of the following wordmarks mentioned in this work of fiction: Barbie: Mattel, Inc. Batgirl: DC Comics Warner Communications Inc. Batman: DC Comics Warner Communications Inc. Betty Boop: Fleischer Studios, Inc. Brady Bunch: CBS Studios Inc. Ltd. Ferrari: Ferrari S.p.A. Joint Stock Company Guinness Book of Records: Guinness Publishing Limited Hallmark: Hallmark Licensing, Inc. He-man: Mattel, Inc. Holden Astra: General Motors Corporation Kmart: Kmart of Michigan, Inc. Monopoly: Hasbro, Inc. Nancy Drew: Simon & Schuster, Inc. Tim Tams: Campbell Soup Company Zorro: Zorro Productions, Inc.
Seducing Celestine
Chapter One “Oh God, don’t stop…please do not stop…” Celestine Holt moaned as she clutched the man’s head to her breasts. His mouth was so hot and insistent as his lips sucked down hard on her nipples while his fingers gently stroked her clit. Her whole body was on fire! Celestine cried out loud and spread her legs wider to accommodate him. Whatever this man wanted he could have. She was totally and utterly his. This was one hell of a dream and there was no way she wanted to wake up now and ruin it by denying him access. It occurred to Nick Swan that the woman writhing hot and naked under him was not who he initially thought she was. He thought when he climbed up the trellis and in though the darkened bedroom window of Tess Mackenzie’s home, he would find his sometime lover Tess in this bed. That was only logical. After all, it was her home and he had climbed through her bedroom window many nights before to take what they called a “moonlight ride”. But this time was different. In the dim moonlight that shone through the windows, he knew these luscious, full curves beneath him did not belong to his sometime lover. Intriguing… Nick should have known the legs he was lying between did not belong to Tess. But it was dark and he hadn’t seen Tess for a while so he just assumed she had gained some weight in some provocative, sexy areas. Nick knew bodies had a habit of expanding and contracting. And the naked body beneath him was everything a man could want— big, suckable breasts, a wet, accommodating pussy and soft, strong thighs that could draw and hold a man immobile as he thrust hard inside this woman. So while he had been surprised and pleased at the generous curves that met his hands, it was not until the woman moaned out loud that he realized his mistake. However, encouraged by the woman’s response, Nick wasn’t inclined to stop. “Please…” The hard, long cock that pulsated against Celestine’s inner thigh was so real and full that she wanted it inside her now. If anyone woke her from this dream before her dream lover fucked her she would kill them. She was on fire with wanting this man. “Please what, baby?” Nick crooned as his lips slid up the soft skin of her neck. Celestine shivered in response. “I want you…” Nick slid his fingers inside her vagina. She was wet and slippery and more than ready for him. Whoever she was he wanted her now. “How badly do you want me inside you?”
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“Real bad…” The fingers gently thrusting in and out of her body felt awfully good and fantastically real as she bore down on his hand, wanting to suck him inside. Nick could barely see the woman in the moonlight yet the shape of her shoulders and her breasts as she arched toward him, eager for his touch, had Nick entranced. He leaned forward and kissed her. As his tongue slid into her mouth, Celestine groaned. “Best kiss ever…” Her eyelids fluttered open to look at her dream lover. She had to make sure she remembered this man. In lieu of a real lover in her life, this dream alone would keep her sexually satisfied for days. Dark hair, broad shoulders and…as her eyes opened fully she saw the lustful gleam in his. This seemed awfully real what with the taste of his lips on her and his fingers moving insistently inside her. Why couldn’t she feel like this in all her dreams? Wait a second. Should she be feeling all this? His mouth, his hands, his cock against her leg? It was a dream, wasn’t it? Couldn’t be anything else…could it? “Oh baby, you are something else.” Nick’s mouth went back to suck down hard on her swollen nipple. His free hand caressed her other breast and down the swell of her hips. He was longing to slide his cock inside the hot core of her. Celestine put her hands on her dream man’s awfully real shoulders. Warm, smooth and strong. She ran her hands down his chest to feel his heartbeat…heartbeat? Did you feel heartbeats in dreams? Uh-oh…what if… “You’re not a dream…” It was a both statement and question. She wanted to be rational and logical but the intense aching need between her legs made her open to suggestion. If he was a dream then the sleeping pill she took earlier should be prescribed to every woman on the planet if a man like this was going to visit their dreams. “I’ll be whatever you like.” Nick leaned forward and kissed her again. Okay, that sounded not only sexy and promising but also very lifelike. Celestine pushed against his chest, breaking off the kiss. Her mind was whirling. Was this dream or reality? If it was a dream it shouldn’t matter what she let her dream lover do. If it was real life then this man had a lot of explaining to do and she was going to be as frustrated as hell. “Tell me what you like, baby.” Nick’s mouth went back to her breasts. “Well, that most definitely for starters,” she almost said. When he sucked her like that she could not think especially when there was a real, live and awfully large cock against her inner thigh. Celestine pinched herself. Sudden pain, followed by horror and embarrassment, rocketed through her. “Holy crap, you’re real!” Celestine yelled out loud as she tried to scramble out from beneath the large naked man. “Stop sucking me!” She pushed his head from her breast, breaking off the suction of his mouth. What the hell was she doing? What was he doing? She wasn’t like that. Well, she hadn’t been for a long time and she wasn’t going to start with some stranger. “Get off me!” 6
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Nick realized what had happened. She thought he was a dream. He started laughing as he rolled off her and onto his side. “It’s not funny! Do you always wander naked into an unknown woman’s bedroom and try to have sex with her?” Celestine wished she had had the sense to put on a nightshirt but it had been so hot when she went to bed and she wasn’t expecting someone to wander in and start sucking on her naked body like that. “There was no ‘try to’ about it. You were willing.” “I thought I was dreaming!” Okay, not really a great defense when she had been urging him to take her. “So that makes a difference, huh?” Nick leaned over and gently flicked one of her pink, swollen nipples and watched it bounce. “Stop that!” Celestine slapped his hand away. She reached over and snapped on the bedside light. “Bloody hell!” The first thing her eyes riveted on was the largest cock she had ever seen. That he wanted her was in no doubt. He was erect and hard and ready to go. She wondered how she would ever fit him inside her. Not that she was going to. She didn’t have sex with just any man. It was just one of those e equals mc squared questions your mathematics teacher always warned you would need to answer when you became an adult. Who knew her teacher had been referring to situations like this? Damn shame, she flunked math. Not that her lack of mathematical ability would have stopped her from e equals mc squaring this man if she wanted to. And she didn’t…well, she did. But that was wrong. Not that Celestine Holt had made a habit of always doing the right thing. Celestine dragged her eyes from his cock and up his body to the lean abs and Celtic-looking tattoo on his chest. Under different circumstances she would have asked about that tat but the moment did not call for general chitchat. She looked at his face. This was no pretty boy. This was a man’s man with strongly sculptured features of a dominant chin, a wide, sensual mouth and intelligent blue eyes that looked at her in amusement. “This is not funny!” Celestine looked around for a sheet to cover herself. Nick watched her frantically scrabbling around for something to hide her naked body. He grabbed the sheet from the bed and threw it on the floor. He looked at her body and smiled. “You have an incredibly fuckable body and I want to slide on inside and make you scream when you come, baby.” “I…what? You…what?” Celestine was lost for words for the first time in her life. She tried to sit up but the man quickly moved his leg to gently rest over her hips, holding her down. “I don’t want you.” Well, she did. But it was his alter dream ego, the harmless one she wanted to have dream sex with, not the real, big, muscular man that had his eyes locked on hers and looking like he knew her every thought and desire. She was pretty certain he knew how to fulfill his promises. Some men just had that look about them. 7
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Celestine knew she should really be fighting him off, pushing him away and possibly screaming in outrage but there was something about him that made her want to pull him inside her and wrap her legs around his waist and urge him to do whatever he wanted with her body. Maybe it was the heat or the sleeping pill or that she hadn’t had someone hot and hard inside her for so long that she was having complete and utter slut-like thoughts. “Yeah you do.” Nick ran his hand between her legs, feeling the slick, wet folds. He felt her body tense and he knew the blue-eyed woman with the curly red hair and soft, kissable lips would grant him access. “Come on, you enjoy me touching you. You’re wet for me and I want you.” “I don’t want you.” Nope, that didn’t sound any more believable than the first time. “Liar, liar, pants on fire…” Nick said softly as his fingers went once again back to her clit. “I don’t have any pants on.” And something was most definitely on fire. “And I like that fact.” Celestine crossed her arms over her breasts. It was a little late as he had felt and seen everything. She knew she could easily push his leg off her but there was something about his skin against hers that felt so good. And that hand between her legs was killing off any good girl brain cells she had left. If she felt any threat at all it was from herself as common sense battled desperate need. “What are you doing here?” “Indulging in a moonlight ride.” Nick stroked her clit slowly. The way he said it made her think this was not a one-off occurrence and that he was not some pervert climbing into windows looking for naked women. Or was she hoping he wasn’t a pervert so she could justify the way she acted and still wanted to act. Oh, the tortured thoughts of the sex-starved. “Who did you think I was?” Celestine knew she should be alarmed at what he was doing to her but it was hard to be alarmed when something felt so good and she did not want him to stop. “I thought you were Tess.” He did this to her best friend Tess? Part of her was horrified, the other part was jealous and annoyed that Tess had never told her. What a thing to keep from your best friend! She felt his fingers slowly move inside her body. Celestine closed her eyes for a moment and said a silent prayer of thanks to the devil for sending this man to her and one to the angels seeking the sense to push this man away from her as any good girl would. Not that she was good but she had pretensions to be. And, at this moment, the devil appeared to have the upper hand. Go the devil. “When did you last see Tess and take your fingers out of me.” Just the gentle friction of them inside her as he stroked her clit made her want to grab his cock and see just how doable sex was between them. She was sure the heat and size of it would beat his fingers any day.
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“It’s been six months or so.” Nick’s eyes locked with hers. “I’m not removing my fingers because you’re nice and tight and wet and I like being inside you.” Was that a compliment? If so how did one respond? “By all means then stay inside?” “You being inside me is not the point.” “What is?” Celestine could feel the hot, hard point of him against her thigh. She pulled his hand out from between her legs, instantly feeling a strange emptiness. Yep, she was clearly a borderline slut. “Tess is now engaged. What would you have done if I was her?” “Depends what she wanted me to do, baby.” Celestine was speechless for a moment. She had never met such a confident, sexy man before. She wasn’t offended, she was just stunned, aroused and wondering about going for a ride in the moonlight with him. “You’re a…” She stopped and searched for the appropriate word to describe this strange man. “What is the male equivalent to slut?” “Gigolo,” Nick supplied with a husky chuckle. “No, that makes you sound interesting and exciting but you’re not.” This was a big lie of course but one more on her rap sheet would not mean much. “Don’t you find this exciting?” Nick ran his hand up the soft swell of her body, feeling her shiver at his touch. That she had not run screaming from the bedroom in terror made him aware she was as turned on as he was. “No.” Another lie. She so knew that she would be having to defend her actions big time if she made it to heaven’s gates. Well, you see he was there and I was there and it just seemed like a good idea at the time so I thought why not? Nick knew she was excited. He could feel it in her response. Lips could lie but bodies did not. “Why do you sleep naked? Were you waiting for someone?” “None of your business.” How could she be embarrassed and so turned on at the same time? “Oh but it’s going to be.” Nick rolled over and lay back within the cradle of her thighs. “I’m Nick Swan.” “Well, Nick Swan, get off me!” Celestine was pinned to the bed under him and she liked it. Common sense told her to scream and to struggle but common sense sucked when you had hot sexy man between your legs. “You don’t mean that.” Nick grabbed her hips and pulled her forward against his cock. “But I do. You weigh a ton!” And most of that weight was in the cock that had unerringly stationed itself at the gateway of her pussy, impatiently awaiting entrance.
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“Don’t fight it. You want me. You’re wet with wanting.” Nick placed a wet, sucking kiss on her midriff. He smiled as he felt the shiver run through her body. “Tell me your name.” Celestine had to refrain from automatically locking her legs around the hard male body above her. It felt weirdly natural to have this man so close and hot, having him inside her seemed a logical progression. “Does my name really matter to you?” “Yes,” Nick murmured as he dropped his head and licked one taut pink nipple slowly. “It mattered a lot,” he nearly said. This one was different. Celestine had never been able to concentrate when anyone touched her breasts. And this man’s mouth was driving her wild. “Celestine…” she hissed out softly, her hands pulling his head back to her breasts. Nick looked at the woman in his arms. He vaguely remembered Tess mentioning a “Celestine” but he never pictured a woman like this and that name together. “What sort of a name is Celestine? It sounds like it belongs to a maiden aunt.” Nick grinned down at her. Celestine pushed him away again. This man was both disturbingly sexy and annoyingly arrogant. “Well, what sort of a name is ‘Nick’? It sounds like a verb.” His laughter would have been nice if Celestine hadn’t felt so out of kilter with everything that she was feeling and sensing. “You know, like ‘nick yourself shaving’.” Nick leaned forward and kissed Celestine’s nose playfully. “Or saved in the nick of time.” “Or why don’t you nick off.” “You’re cute.” Nick placed soft wet kisses down the curves of her face. “Yes and I am sure you say that to all available women you’re lying on top of hoping to fuck.” She felt his cock side slowly back and forward over the entrance of her vagina. Pure liquid heat ran through her body. “Stop that,” Celestine moaned. “What?” “That.” She grabbed his cock to push it away. Nick growled hungrily as her soft hand latched onto the one part of him he had no real rational control over. “Push me away then or take me inside, it’s up to you, baby.” Celestine knew she should have let go of his cock as soon as she had grabbed it but it was so hard and long and it made a girl wonder… “Other than your name and that you make a habit of creeping into women’s bedrooms at night… I don’t know you.” Somewhere, in some old-fashioned place within her, Celestine needed to justify what she knew she was about to do. That or have some logical reason come into her mind that indicated why she could not have sex with
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this stranger. It would not necessarily be a reason she would actually follow but it would make her feel better later on when she thought about this man. “Well, let’s get to know each other.” Nick’s mouth descended hotly on hers. “I…” Celestine pushed him away momentarily. “This is way too fast,” said the woman who still held the stranger’s cock in her other hand. “Come on, baby, you know we’d be good together.” “I don’t.” But she did. Some things you just knew. She reluctantly let go of his cock. There was no way she could look or sound convincing about not having sex if she still held on. “So if I put my head between your legs right now and licked you, you would feel nothing?” Celestine stiffened at his words. Wild excitement coursed through her at the thought of complete stranger doing that to her. It was like a fantasy coming to life. “You’re not going to do that…” Dual personalities fought over wanting him to do that. The bad girl was “yes please” and the good girl was like “Do you think you should?” The bad girl snapped back. “Shut up and go back to your knitting, good girl.” The pushy bad girl won. “Dare me, baby…” Could she? Should she? Would she? Hell, yes… “I dare you…” Celestine whispered. Who was she kidding? She wanted this man, dream or no dream. He was hot, she was hot. It was a done deal they were going to burn together. Nick moved back and threw her legs up onto his shoulders, exposing her wet, hot core to his mouth. The minute his tongue touched her clit, Celestine screamed. There was no way she could have kept that in. No one had ever licked her like this. She had wanted them to, hoped they would but she had never asked. Now this man, a stranger, was licking the cleft between her legs with a gentle, yet determined ruthlessness just because he wanted to give her pleasure. It was a moment to die for. “So you want my cock inside you?” Nick stopped licking her and looked the writhing woman in the eye. He was going to enjoy this one. She was made to be fucked. “Yes…God, yes…” Celestine moaned, no longer caring what happened to her as long as this stranger was inside her. “Say it.” Nick wanted her complete submission. “Shove your big fat cock inside me now!” Celestine was completely out of her mind and she liked it. She clutched at the man before her. Nick threw back his head and laughed. He could not have waited much longer. He grabbed her hips and pulled them up against his thighs and penetrated her in one long stroke.
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“God, you are so tight!” Celestine yelled. He was so large she could feel him hot and hard up into her stomach. She groaned as he pulled out and pushed into her at a steady pace, never quite letting the head of his cock leave her body. It was a completely different sensation from any she had felt before. “Oh, Nick…” Celestine whimpered softly as intense pleasure tore through her body. She clasped Nick to her and held on as he drove them both on to a wild climax. Celestine screamed and Nick groaned out loud and fell forward into Celestine arms. “Bloody hell…” Celestine panted softly as she tried to catch her breath. She had never felt an orgasm like that before. Wild sex with this stranger was definitely worth any possible damnation to hell. “You are beautiful, baby.” Nick smiled down at the woman under him. They were both hot and sweaty and he had never felt more alive in his life. He sighed heavily. “I can’t stay.” Nick rolled onto his back. “What?” A minute after earth-shattering sex and he was announcing he was leaving. Okay, she wasn’t expecting a wedding ring but this seemed kind of hasty after what they had just done. And yeah, maybe she had hoped for more. Nick leaned over and kissed Celestine with a thoroughness that they both enjoyed. “I just came for the ride.” He slid out of bed and started pulling on the clothes he had discarded earlier. Celestine sat up and watched him. What a fascinating yet irritating tease of a man. It seemed kind of sad she would not see him again. Sad and frustrating also that she would never had sex like that again. Bloody typical…nothing good ever lasted. “I see, now it’s over, you’re like Zorro or something. You have to leave and fight evildoers or have sex with another woman.” “I only want you now,” Nick almost said. There was something about this woman that made him want to do that. That was not what he had planned when he had climbed onto this bedroom. “Next time I’ll bring a condom.” It was completely unlike him to be unprepared for a moonlight ride but then he hadn’t been prepared for Celestine. “Ain’t going to be a next time, moonlight man.” Nick laughed softly and left through the window. Now Celestine understood why the villagers in all those B movies asked “Who was the masked man?” as he swept through a village, saving the day and riding off without a word. Although she could see his eyes, she knew Nick Swan was wearing a mask. But then, most people did. She also knew she should be mortified at her actions. It was wrong and bad and she would probably go to hell in a handbasket but damn it was good.
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Chapter Two “You know I can’t hide out at your place forever, Tess,” Celestine said as she handed her best friend a piece of tape to secure the cascade of silver ribbons from the large dining table in the middle of the lounge room. When Tess Mackenzie decided to have her engagement party on the Australia Day weekend she went all out. No expense was spared. But then she was marrying into money and that made a hell of a difference. Her doting fiancé Brad was more than happy to place his credit card at Tess’ disposal. And Tess, in turn, had run around decking out her Brisbane home, turning it into a showplace of love, commitment and the benefits of marrying into money. But Celestine couldn’t fault Tess. A man loved her and wanted to share his fortune with her. That did not happen every day. Hell, she would cut loose as well. “I need you here to help me with the engagement party preparations.” Tess tugged at the ribbons so they fell exactly as she wanted them. The theme was silver and white. Why? Just because that was what Tess wanted. If the engagement party was such a production, Celestine wondered what was planned for the wedding. Maybe a pumpkin carriage with doves being set free while an orchestra played on as the bride made very other woman there look like crap, as was the bride’s right. “I need to find a job.” It was Celestine’s current mantra in life. Find job, get money and de-stress. “That can wait. I need you here.” “No, you don’t. You insisted I stay to give me a break from my own dingy home and all the problems that go with it.” Tess was a good friend and Celestine appreciated it. She would have been lying if she said she had not enjoyed staying in a home that had a full fridge of food and more than a couple of bits of furniture. “No, you’re right but I want you here, Cellie. Every time I think about what Julia Bailey did to you I want to hunt her down and throttle her.” “Well, stand in line.” Celestine had dibs on any possible throttling when it came to their mutual ex-friend Julia who had stolen Celestine’s money and credit cards, and sold all her household goods then scarpered, leaving Celestine with nothing but bills and credit problems up to her ears. “Were you comfortable last night?” Celestine stiffened at her friend’s innocent words. Up until this moment she had decided to write last night and Nick Swan off as a dream, a very real dream but still a dream. Though the pleasant ache between her legs was hard to ignore.
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“I…ah…was very comfortable.” She toyed with the idea of mentioning her “moonlight ride” with Tess. After all the man had come to see her. “About your bedroom…” Celestine stopped as she heard footsteps coming toward them. She did not want the prospective groom to hear of his intended’s past nighttime liaisons. “Nicky!” Tess shouted and ran forward as Nick Swan came into the room with her fiancé Brad Williams. Bloody hell! Nick Swan! What was he doing here? Celestine looked at him critically in the bright sunlight. He was all that and everything that she remembered from the night before. His blue eyes locked with hers as he hugged Tess to him. “Cellie, I don’t believe you’ve ever met Nick Swan.” “I…ah…” What did she say? “I met him, I fucked him and liked it so much that I would not be adverse to having him inside me again. Please leave the room so we can have wild sex again.” Probably not appropriate to go with those words. “Um…” Yes, “um” seemed like the better alternative to go with as it was an “um” moment. Celestine had an overwhelming urge to look in the direction of Nick Swan’s groin just to see if he was as large as she believed he was from last night. But that wasn’t a ladylike thing to do or explain away so she kept her eyes on his. After all, it was just sex they had. She could be sophisticated enough to look calm even if she did not feel it. Nick smiled at Celestine as if he knew exactly what she was thinking. He caught her hand in his as Tess introduced them. Celestine was intrigued and slightly relieved he did not mention their previous meeting. She was not ashamed of what she did. She just did not want everyone knowing her business. If Tess could keep Nick a secret, so could she. “I’m glad you’re here, Nicky, as I want you to have a look at the kitchen and tell me if you can add those extra shelves for me straightaway.” Tess turned to Celestine in explanation. “Nick is not only a dear friend but he also runs a construction company. He’s doing me a favor putting in some extra shelves in the kitchen for plates and stuff. Isn’t he sweet?” “He’s a darling,” Celestine responded overly sweetly. It was weird being with him and Tess in the same room, knowing what they had all done. “Can you show Nick to the kitchen, Cellie? I want to show Brad some of the engagement gifts that have arrived.” Tess dragged her man out of the room. “Show me the kitchen, baby.” Nick moved to stand close beside her. “I’m not a baby.” He did not seem so tall last night. Celestine was overwhelmed by the size of him. He was a man mountain. Nick leaned down and whispered close to her ear. “You’re sweet and cute and cuddly.” “Whatever.” Celestine wanted to sound calm and unaffected but that was kind of hard with hot breath on her neck bringing back memories of last night. The man was still imprinted inside her body.
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“You know you’ve got a love bite on your neck.” The reddish mark on her neck stood out like a beacon to Nick. This woman was marked for life, she just did not realize it yet. Celestine put her hand to her neck and scowled at him. She had thought she had covered that up with concealer. But of course he would know it was there. “Do you want to look at the kitchen, or what?” “Lead on and I shall follow.” Nick stuck close to her heels. He would see to “or what” when he got into the kitchen. “You don’t have to stand so close. Are you afraid you’ll get lost?” Celestine pushed through the swing doors of the large modern kitchen and tried to distance herself from her large companion. He was so close to her the she could feel the contained tension of his cock against her ass. Nick had no plans on being outdistanced. He knew the minute he came into this house this morning he was going to fuck Celestine Holt again. One time with her would never be enough. “No, I just want to be close to you.” Nick crowded her up against a kitchen bench. “Why?” She knew why but wasn’t about to go down that path again. That path was sexually fantastic but where was it going to lead to? “What are you doing?” Celestine slapped at the large hands that moved under the skirt of her light sundress. “I want to touch you.” “We’re in a kitchen where anyone can see us.” Celestine struggled to keep her panties on. His big hands seemed to be everywhere. “So?” Nick asked as if he did not find the fact at all significant. He pulled her panties down despite her protests. “Don’t wear panties anymore.” He slid them into his pocket. “What?” Just the husky way he said it made Celestine wet. “I need to have access to you at all times.” Nick’s hand slid straight in between her legs. He felt her jump in reaction. That she was wet already pleased him. The man had one hand on her pussy and the other on her ass, kneading her cheeks, and Celestine felt utterly helpless to move. She was held in place by their mutual lust. “You’re awfully sure of yourself.” She gasped as his fingers circled her clit slowly. Celestine felt a familiar surge of heat run through her. Her head fell back in pleasure. “Baby, you and I are just meant to be.” Nick was turned on just watching her reaction. “We can’t do this now.” Though lord knows she wanted to. The need to have Nick inside her again was overwhelming. “Why not?” Nick asked as he placed his hand around her waist and lifted her up onto the kitchen countertop, spreading her legs to accommodate the width of his body.
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As Nick slid the shoulder straps of her sundress down, Celestine knew if he touched her breasts she would be lost. Oh hell, she was lost from the moment she met him. “Anyone can walk in right now.” Just the thought of her being caught naked with Nick inside her was wildly exciting. She had never felt this way before with any other man. She never allowed anyone to have control over her until now. She was playing by Nick Swan’s wild rules. “Tell me to stop.” Nick pulled her bra off completely and put it into his other pocket as another keepsake. His large hands descended on the breasts. “Stop,” Celestine choked out softly as his fingers circled her nipples. “Say it like you mean it.” Nick’s head lowered to suck her breasts. “I…” Whatever extremely rational thing she had been planning to say dissolved under the hungry suction of Nick’s mouth on her breast. “Oh God…” She clasped his head to her. “Undo me…” Nick lifted his head and whispered against her mouth. As his mouth once again descended on her breasts, Celestine gave up any pretense of not wanting to have sex with Nick and unzipped his pants. She wanted him. What was really wrong was that? Nothing that she could see. And, yeah, sure, the fact they were about to have sex in the kitchen was probably not a wise thing to do but being smart was not the be-all and end-all in life. Pleasure rated highly as well. “Oh sweet mercy…” Nick’s cock sprang forward and overflowed her hands. Was there a Guinness Book of Records measurement for cock size? If so Nick Swan had to be in the running for the title. He was huge. Celestine licked her lips in anticipation. “I’m glad you approve, baby, as you and my cock are going to be spending a lot of quality time together.” Nick grabbed her hips and pulled her forward. “We can’t do this here!” It was only a halfhearted plea for rationality as she wrapped her legs around his waist in response. “Why not?” “Someone will see us.” “Do you care?” “Don’t you?” “Not particularly. It’s just a simple fact that I want you and I plan to have you.” Nick breathed the words against her mouth. He smiled as he felt Celestine shudder in response. “Do you want me?” There was a bleedingly obvious answer to that. Hell, yes, and do it now! Celestine was wet with wanting. “Yes.” “Then that’s all we need to worry about. Reach into my back pocket and get a condom.”
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Celestine did as requested and found the foil packet. She ripped it open with her teeth and slowly sheathed his tight cock. “Hold on, baby, it’s going to be hard and fast.” Nick pushed inside her. Last night she was unsure how his cock would ever fit inside her. Today, she knew he fit and she wanted all of him inside her now. Celestine put her hands on his ass, urging him in and on. She moaned as he filled her completely. She had never felt anything as good as Nick hard and hot inside her body. Nick slowly starting thrusting in and out of her, building up the pace as his lips devoured hers in a hungry kiss. Celestine didn’t know whether it was the man, or that they were doing it in a room anyone could walk in to but her orgasm was building up swift and sharp as he started pounding into her with an urgency that matched her own need to come. “Oh…oh…” Celestine screamed as the orgasm started to overwhelm her. Nick laughed. “I like a woman who shows her appreciation. Come for me, baby.” He thrust several more times and felt the tremor rip through Celestine’s body and his own as they came together, Celestine crying out his name incoherently. “Is everything all right, Cellie?” Tess called out very loudly as she approached the kitchen. “Bloody hell!” She was in a kitchen being screwed by a god and her best friend was just about to walk in. Celestine pushed Nick from her body and jumped down from the bench. She quickly pulled up her shoulder straps and smoothed down her skirt. She was completely aware that she was braless and she hoped Tess did not notice. “Are you okay?” Tess looked from Celestine to Nick. “I heard a scream.” “Celestine thought she saw a mouse.” Nick looked at Celestine solicitously. “In my kitchen? No way! Brad, darling, can you and Nick check the kitchen out for this mouse. I need to talk to Cellie.” Celestine found herself being dragged her out into the lounge room. “You had sex with Nick, didn’t you?” Was it that obvious? Okay, maybe the scream did give it away. It certainly wasn’t an “oh dear, there’s a nasty mouse” scream. It was more a “oh, this man inside me is going to split me in two but I don’t care” scream. “I did not have sex with Nick!” she lied, as if affronted at the accusation. “Liar!” Tess grinned at her friend. “Am not!” Celestine was not sure how she thought about the whole Nick thing so she wasn’t really ready to discuss it with anyone, let alone Tess. “You have no bra on.” “So?” Celestine crossed her arms over her breasts, feeling her nipples harden in memory of Nick’s mouth.
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“Your face is flushed, your lips are swollen and you look like you have been well and truly shagged.” Tess shook her head teasingly “So tell me about your moonlight ride last night. Seems it’s flowed over into the daylight.” “What?” Innocent look number three hundred and twelve from Celestine Holt. “I heard you scream last night and it wasn’t in fear.” Celestine flushed red with embarrassment. “Why didn’t you say something?” Tess grinned at her obvious discomfort at being caught out. “What could I say other than way to go?” The two women broke into a conspiratorial fit of the giggles. “That man has a huge cock!” Celestine hadn’t meant to say that but she felt the leftover heat of Nick inside her body. “I know.” Tess smiled in memory. “There is a strong possibility that I have slut-like tendencies. I get wet just looking at Nick and I have never come so fast in my life.” Tess threw back her head and laughed. “I tell you if I wasn’t engaged—” “But you are,” Celestine interrupted quickly. She suddenly did not want to think of Nick with anyone but herself. Yep, completely rational after having sex with the man twice. “Are you jealous?” Celestine snorted at this remark. Of course she damn well was. She was a woman, for God’s sake, who just had the best sex of her life. She was entitled to feel a little possessive. But she also felt the need to lie as well. “No, as if! It’s just a fling.” “Maybe, maybe not. Nick never took me in the daytime.” “It doesn’t mean anything.” It meant something, Celestine just wasn’t sure what. “We’ll see,” murmured Tess, unconvinced. She grinned wickedly at her friend. “Can you walk?” “Just.”
***** As engagement parties went it was a hit. Plenty of food, alcohol and people in high spirits as they toasted the happy couple. Celestine was pleased for Tess but personally over the whole thing. Why would you want to get married if you had to go through all this hoopla? Wasn’t the point of getting married to be with someone and not whether you had a big party? Or maybe she was just a jaded bitch.
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“Yeah, that would be it,” Celestine muttered to herself as she made her way upstairs to escape the noise and crush of people. Free food and alcohol brought out friends you hadn’t heard from in ages. “Running away?” Celestine stiffened and turned to face Nick Swan. She had been trying to avoid him all night but it was damn near impossible. He seemed to dog her footsteps, turning up beside her or behind her and always touching her lightly yet caressingly, making her aware of him at all times. He only had to be in the house for Celestine to be aware of him. “Just getting away from the hungry hordes.” “Yes, people like to party, especially when it’s free.” Nick moved in close to her. “You smell great.” Celestine gulped loudly. She knew where this was going. Hot, fabulous sex. She had half sort of decided she did not want to go there again as there was no future in it. Not that she was looking for a future with any man, let alone Nick Swan. To be honest, she had no idea what she wanted anymore. Though wild sex with Nick Swan was hovering at the top of her to do list. “I should go downstairs and…” And what exactly am I going to do downstairs that’s going to keep you away from me? “I think you should stay upstairs with me.” Nick caught her to him, his hands pulling her hips to settle firmly against his already hard cock. “You’re wearing underwear.” Nick could feel the outline of it under her dress. “So?” A shiver of wild anticipation ran down Celestine’s spine. “I told you not to wear panties.” “Don’t be ridiculous. Like I’m going to do what you say.” Even as she said the words, Celestine knew he was going to make her take them back. Nick smiled down at the woman in his arms. “Take your panties off.” Just the way he said the words made Celestine wetter than she thought possible. She wanted to drop her panties to her knees. But she also wanted to see what Nick would do if she didn’t. “No.” She knew this would be an instant challenge to Nick. “Then I’m going to have to punish you, baby.” Nick picked her up in a fireman’s lift over his shoulder before Celestine had a chance to speak. “What the…” Her head was flung down against Nick’s firm ass as he carried her toward a nearby bedroom that was being used to house people’s coats. Celestine tried to struggle and to fight but to be honest it was only a halfhearted attempt. “You are the sort of woman that needs a good spanking.” “You wouldn’t…” It would be humiliating—and exciting.
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“Oh but I would.” Nick reached a nearby bed and dropped her on it. Before Celestine had a chance to escape Nick was on her, dragging her across his lap so she was lying facedown on the bed. Nick grabbed the hem of her dress and whipped it up, uncovering her lace-covered ass. “That you wear a bra I understand because you’re so big and suckable and I wouldn’t want any man looking at you. But panties, you don’t need them.” Celestine felt the tug of lace tearing as he pulled them from her body. It was replaced by a series of light smacks to her backside. “It’s just underwear! What’s your problem?” She could feel his problem getting harder by the second under her stomach. Nick continued smacking her plump, rounded ass lightly and lingeringly, his fingers dipping into the cleft making her spread her legs a little wider in response. “You are not to wear underwear because I want to be able to do this anytime I want.” Nick stopped and slid his fingers down the cleft of ass into the hot core of her body. “You’re so tight and wet.” He started stroking her from front to back, feeling her squirm in response. Celestine had been wet all day thinking about him. Now all she wanted to do was have him inside her making her come. Wearing or not wearing underwear was just a vague side issue. “You want my cock inside you, don’t you?” Nick slid his fingers inside her, mimicking what his cock would do. “Yes,” Celestine hissed as his fingers rhythmically slid in and out of her. “Will you ever wear underwear again?” Nick growled, demanding a response. “No…” Oh, she was so on the edge of coming. “Never?” “Never…” Oh, how she wanted him. “Okay then.” Nick pulled his fingers out of her and slapped her ass once and slid out from under her. His cock was so tight and full he thought he would explode. But he had no intention of taking Celestine now. He wanted to drag out the anticipation between them. “I’ll drop by later tonight for our ride.” He stood up and looked down at her as she breathlessly and indignantly tried to control herself. “You’ll want me really badly after this.” “Not likely.” Celestine was so close to coming that it would take no effort at all on her part to release the tension within. And after that little episode, she wasn’t about to ask him to fuck her. “I can look after myself.” Celestine slid her fingers down to her clit. Maybe if Nick watched her touching herself he would finish the job he started. Nick was inclined to stay and watch her pleasure herself but that would have been torture to himself as well.
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“Not as well as I can, baby.” Nick grinned and left the room. There would be plenty of time later tonight.
***** “Nick?” Tess asked when she saw her friend come downstairs, “Yep.” Celestine was so tight with the need to come fully that she knew her own fingers were only capable of doing half the job. The man was right. She needed him. “That man can ruin a woman for life.” “He didn’t ruin you.” “That’s because we only were an occasional thing. You and he are clearly not occasional.” “It’s not going to last.” Celestine knew nothing good ever did. Tess looked at her assessingly. She knew both Nick and Celestine. Neither did anything without a reason. “You don’t know that.” “I do. Nick Swan is not a keeper.” “I think he is. He just hasn’t found the right woman to hold him.” Celestine knew where this conversation was going. Why was it newly engaged people had this obsessive need to pair others up? “I’m not looking for a man.” “But you found one anyway.”
***** Celestine was sweating something chronic. It was the middle of an Australian summer and she was wearing a long cotton nightgown that covered her body from neck to ankles. Tess had not questioned her need to borrow the nightgown, instead she had looked at her and just shook her head as if to say “it’s not going to work with Nick”. Okay, maybe it wouldn’t but he couldn’t have it all his own way. “Why, hello, Grandma,” Nick said as he came in through the window and saw Celestine done up like a vestal virgin. “Did you think that would turn me off?” He asked as he started stripping off his clothes. “I’m just tired and I want to sleep.” “Yeah, right,” Nick murmured, not believing a word of it as he joined her on the bed. “You look kind of hot in that get-up.” He lay down beside her and placed his hands under his head and contemplated her. Celestine was boiling but she wasn’t about to let on. She wanted to come across as cool and unaffected by him. That was the plan. It didn’t have a hope in hell of succeeding but it was still her plan.
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“Are you mad at me, baby, because I left you all hot and bothered?” “No, not at all.” She was furious that she had lost control over a man she barely knew. What was that about? “Come on, you’re pissed off at me.” “Yes,” Celestine hissed. Calm was not a natural state of being for her and the plan was instantly thrown out the window. “So what are you going to do about it?” Nick pulled his hands out from behind his head and rested one on her cotton-covered hip. “Don’t touch me.” “Or what?” Nick’s hand slid onto her stomach. “I’ll hit you.” Nick chuckled at her words. “You wouldn’t do that.” Though Nick sensed she would certainly try. He could see it in her eyes. “You want me.” Celestine turned her head to look at him. He was as sexy as all get-out and of course she wanted him but that was not the point. “You are so arrogant thinking you can climb through a window and take any woman.” “You’re not just any woman and I’ll take you again.” That was all Celestine needed to hear. The cocky confidence that she was his for the taking. Well, she was in control now. Celestine launched herself at Nick, landing hard on top of his body, pummeling his rock-hard chest and ignoring the amused laughter from him. “You do not control me!” Celestine snapped as she sat astride him, feeling his cock instinctively seeking the wet heat of the body that presented itself. “Baby, don’t be so uptight.” Nick’s hands slid up under her gown to her naked hips. “Don’t tell me what to do!” “Okay, you call the shots.” Nick could feel her wet pussy against her cock and was more than happy to play the game her way because the end result would be the same. Mutual satisfaction. Celestine stopped and looked at him. She could call the shots? “Do what you want to me.” This man had left her all hot and wanting. It might be a nice idea to return the favor to see how he liked it. She tugged off the hot nightgown and threw it over her head to the floor. Instant cool relief assailed her body. “Don’t move,” Celestine whispered as she leaned forward and licked Nick from the top of his chest to the edge of his groin and back up again. She smiled as she heard him growl low in his throat. This was better. She had some power now. She started licking 22
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his body slowly, stopping every so often to place wet, sucking kisses over his nipples and abs. She licked the Celtic tattoo just above his heart. “What does this mean?” The intricate knot woven in navy blue was beautiful against the tanned flesh of his skin. “It is a Celtic heart that has no beginning or end. It symbolizes eternal love.” “You believe in that?” It was not what she expected of the moonlight man. True, she knew little about him but it seemed wildly romantic for a man who seduced women in the moonlight. It also made her feel strangely warm inside. “Yeah, I believe that.” Celestine kissed his tattoo and continued licking down his body to his cock. She stopped and looked at the man beneath her. She grabbed his cock in both hands. She smiled as he groaned. Excellent. “Shall I suck you until you come or just toy with you a little?” Celestine leaned down and licked the head of his cock. “Oh God.” Nick grabbed her head to pull her closer to his bulging cock. Celestine pushed him away. “Don’t touch or I won’t suck you.” The power to drive him insane was hers. Given that alternative Nick dropped his hands to the bedding. “I’ll behave for now.” “Good boy,” Celestine murmured as she licked him slowly up and down the straining shaft, massaging his balls as she went. She could feel under her hands just how on edge Nick was. Perfect. She took his cock into her mouth as far as he would go and sucked down hard. “Oh baby…” Nick felt like he was going to explode. Celestine never knew sucking a man could be like this. It was incredibly intimate yet intensely powerful and she liked it. The buck of Nick’s hips let her know he wanted to come. Too bad. She wasn’t going to let him. She took her mouth off his cock and looked at it gleaming in the moonlight. “Do you want me to ride you, moonlight man? Do you want me to grind down on top of you all tight and wet, taking every inch of you inside me?” “God, yes!” His hands reached for her hips, wanting her on top of him now. Celestine slid down on his cock, feeling his hot, hard heat inside her. Damn, he felt good. It was a shame to waste that but that’s what she was going to do. The man had to be taught a lesson. “Oops…I don’t have a condom. I guess we can’t have sex after all.” She lifted off Nick’s cock and crawled off the bed. Leave her all hot and wanting, would he? I don’t think so. Celestine walked toward the door. Nick laughed out loud at her actions. He knew what she was doing. He jumped out of bed and tackled lightly her to the ground.
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“Oh, I have a condom.” Nick pulled her to her knees. “I’m not interested now.” Celestine was on her hands and knees with Nick pressing tightly in behind her. “But I am and I think I can interest you.” Keeping one arm around her waist, he reached for the trousers he had discarded earlier. He had several condoms in there for the specific purpose of fucking Celestine Holt. Nick let go of her for a moment to put on the condom. Celestine scrambled forward on her hands and knees to escape him but Nick caught her easily to him. They both knew it was only token resistance on her part. “You’re so much fun, baby.” Nick spread her knees wide apart. “You can take control any day.” “This is hurting my knees.” She could feel him sliding in from behind. She pushed her ass back toward him. “I’ll make it worth your while.” “Talk is cheap. I want action now.” “I am commanded.” Nick penetrated her in one thrust. “Oh, Nick!” Celestine gasped as he deeply and slowly pumped in and out of her body. The feeling was so intense she found it hard to catch her breath. “Faster…” “Yes, ma’am.” Nick increased the speed and force of his thrusts. Celestine bit her lip, trying not to scream. She had never before been a screamer when it came to sex. Usually she yawned and was grateful when it was all over and done with. But Nick Swan made her want to scream and shout and bless the day the man was born. “I love you!” Even as she yelled out the words she knew they were really wrong. What the hell possessed her? Nick stiffened momentarily at her words. “What?” Had he heard correctly? “Uh…um…” It was really hard trying to think up a good comeback with Nick hot inside her and all she wanted to do was concentrate on coming and not covering up her mistake. “I…ah…I said I love this.” Celestine screamed as she came. She collapsed on the ground under Nick as he came hard inside her. Nick rolled her over and looked at her thoughtfully. Celestine did not like that probing look. It was looking for answers she did not have. “I, ah, suppose you’ve got to go now.” Where the hell did the “L” world come from? She had never told anyone before that she loved them. Freaky… “I can stay.” In fact Nick wanted to stay and try to work out what it was with this woman that affected him like no other. Celestine sat up and wrapped her arms around her legs.
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“Why ruin the mystique? I’m sure I’ll see you ‘round.” Actually she was going to make a point of not seeing him. Nick Swan was fabulous to have sex with but he was way too confusing. Or maybe she was the one confusing sex with something else. “You can count on seeing a lot of me, Celestine Holt.”
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Chapter Three “Thank you once again, life!” Celestine yelled as she flung her handbag down in utter, angry despair and kicked the tire of her 1985 white lump of crap car. She swore viciously at it, at herself and at every other thing else she could think of. She had woken up as cranky as hell. Last night’s moonlight ride with Nick had been fabulous. Fabulous enough that she lost her mind and screamed out she loved him. What was that about? She didn’t love anyone, let alone a man she had known for only twenty-four hours. Celestine kicked her car tire again as if it would magically start the car working. She had been on her way home to get clothes for a job interview. She was planning to return to her own dismal house in Everton Park, a northern suburb of Brisbane, the following day. She agreed to one more night at Tess’ but that was it. Though she was grateful for the reprieve from her normal existence, reality was that she had to get her life back in order. And that included dealing with her piece of crap car. “Frigging car!” It had the car equivalent to PMS. Contrary, bitchy and in no mood to make anyone’s life easier. But Celestine knew after her slip-up last night nothing was going to be easy this morning. Firstly, the magic started when the car wouldn’t start without great effort. After much swearing from her and amusement from Tess, the car finally gave in and decided to cooperate. Then as she started to reverse out of Tess’ driveway she nearly ran over her cat. Okay, Celestine was not a cat lover, but she would have felt bad at running down Tess’ feline. This excitement was then followed up by nearly getting hit by another car that was not obeying a stop sign. A dull throbbing pain between her eyes indicated to Celestine that maybe today was not going to be the best day for a job interview. This was confirmed when she, a native of the north side of Brisbane, got lost twice trying to find her way from the south side of Brisbane to her home. Then her car stalled seven times on its journey over the hump of the Gateway Bridge. This was followed up by the knob falling off her antiquated car radio, leaving just the harsh sound of static to drive her insane, and the air conditioning deciding, in sympathy, no, it would not work either. Perfect. 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.
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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 everincreasing 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. 27
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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
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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
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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. 30
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“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. “I’ll follow you home.” “That’s not necessary.” The last thing she wanted was to spend any more time with Nick. She knew where that would lead to—her flat on her back with her legs wrapped around his waist begging him to make her come. And, while that was an excellent possibility she did not want to become infatuated with this man and his cock. Nick shut the door to her car and leaned inside the open window.
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“It’s not up for discussion, Betty Boop.” Nick winced as she fired the car’s engine into life. The grating sound it made was maddening to the senses. Celestine also winced at the sound of her engine. Well, what did she expect for eight hundred dollars? An engine that purred like a cat or an engine that sounded like it had swallowed a mad cat that was now fighting tooth and nail to get out? “I am perfectly capable of getting home by myself.” Celestine did not doubt for a second that the car would stall several times on the way home, making her want to yell and swear at it in frustration. However, she wanted to be alone when that happened. She did not need to provide a floor show for Nick Swan. “You may be capable but your car’s another story.” Nick pointed out to her, his eyes challenging her to dispute the obvious. “Are you worried you’re not going to be able to control the impulse to have sex with me? After last night, I wouldn’t have the heart to stop you.” Nick grinned charmingly at her. “No one has ever quite sucked me like—” “Shut up!” Celestine interrupted him. “But, baby, I can’t forget it.” Neither could Celestine and that was the problem. “You were awesome.” Yes she was but then so was he. However, she did not want to be thinking about sex with Nick. It made her all hot and bothered and there was only one really good way to relieve that feeling. “I don’t want to discuss sex with you, Nick.” Nick smiled down at her tense expression. “Yeah, doing is better.” Celestine knew she could end this conversation just by driving away. But there was something about Nick Swan that made her want to stick around and do stuff she shouldn’t. “Is sex the only thing you think about?” “When it comes to you, yes.” The man had a smile that could entice angels to run wild. “You’re perverted.” “But you love it.” Yeah, she did. But she had to get back on track. “I will be fine to get home. Now leave me alone.” “I don’t know if I can do that.” “Try, moonlight man.”
*****
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Celestine shot the handheld shower spray full force between her legs, needing the hot pressure of it to take away the constant craving for Nick. But there was no way it could compete with the real thing. The man and his cock were unique. Both fit her perfectly. “Just get over it, woman,” Celestine muttered to herself as she slid soapy fingers between her legs and started to massage her clit slowly. What was it with her at the moment? She seemed to be constantly in heat. Celestine flung back her head and pushed her ass back against the tile as she tried to find release. Nick watched as Celestine worked her way toward an orgasm. He did not want her to do that without him inside her. “I would be much better between your legs than that shower spray.” Celestine jumped at his words and her fingers slid inside her body. Well, of course, Nick would turn up just when she wanted him the most. “The shower spray is less complicated.” She pulled her hand from between her legs and turned the spray off. She didn’t need an audience watching her desperation. Nick started removing his clothes. “How am I complicated?” “You just are.” That he was going to join her in the shower was a given. Could she have stopped him? Maybe. Did she want to stop him? Not really. “What are you doing here?” Yep, it was an obvious question but she still felt the need to ask it. “It’s your last night at Tess’ so I thought I’d drop by and give you an appropriate sendoff.” The last of his clothes dropped to the floor as he reached for shower door. “I’m trying to have a shower.” Celestine felt Nick’s hard body slide in behind hers. “I want you to leave.” “Is this about the love thing again?” Nick grabbed the soap and lathered up his hands. “I don’t love you.” It was easy to say when she wasn’t facing him. “Right, you love sex.” Nick’s soapy hands moved to her breasts. Celestine’s head flung back against him. “Right.” Was that what she wanted to say? Did she love sex or just sex with Nick? And how could she think clearly when he was massaging her breasts like that? It was impossible. “What are you doing? I’ve already washed myself.” However, his hard cock against her ass was making her think some mighty dirty thoughts. “Just relax, baby,” Nick crooned against her ear. “I’m not having sex with you.” “We’ll see…” His hands drifted down her body to the place where she needed him most. As Nick’s hands slid between her legs, Celestine whimpered in relief. Maybe having sex with Nick again would not be such a bad thing…
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“Nick…” Was it a plea to stop or to continue, or what? Who was she really kidding? Celestine knew that answer. She needed this man with a desperation she had not thought she was capable of. But was that love? She doubted it and she had to remember that. It’s sex, sex, sex…yay! Nick turned Celestine to face him. He had been hot and hard from the moment he saw her put her hands between her legs. “So are we having or not having sex?” His hands slid around the grasp her ass and pull her toward him. The feel of his long, rigid cock against her stomach was all the answer she needed. “This is the last time…” “Sure, it is…” Nick put his hands under her ass and lifted her into his arms. Celestine wrapped her legs around Nick’s waist as she felt her back hit the shiny tiled wall behind her. As he leaned into her, Celestine grabbed his cock and guided it inside her. The relief of it made her moan. Nick adjusted his stance and slowly thrust in and out of Celestine’s body. He kissed her lingeringly and deeply. “Oh, Nick…” Celestine murmured against his lips. This was the best feeling ever. She grasped Nick tightly to her as he continued his gentle assault on her body. This time was different. It was slower and softer yet it had a deeper impact. Celestine looked into his eyes. God, it was true. She had gone and fallen in love with the moonlight man. How dumb was that? “What?” Nick sensed something more than just physical was going on. “Just make me come, Nick.” She needed one last time to remember him by. Nick increased his pace and started pounding inside her like he could not get in deep enough. Celestine threw back her had and cried out loudly as the muscles of her body convulsed around Nick’s cock and drained every last drop of his essence inside her. “I love you, baby…” She stiffened at his words. Uh-oh…this was not what she wanted to hear. This was going to complicate things. It was different when she had said it, as she had been out of her head and was capable of ignoring her feelings for her own sanity and survival. Nick, however, looked completely sane and able to survive anything. Celestine slid down and off Nick’s body. She looked into his eyes. What was it she saw? Was it love or just the afterburn of lust? What did she know of love? Was it possible two strangers could fall in love so quickly? Nah, that only happened in romance novels. “You only said that because I did.” Celestine pushed away from him. “I mean it…” “No you don’t…you should go.”
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“What are you scared of?” Nick could not leave it like this. This was too important. “Nothing.” Everything, she added silently to herself.
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Chapter Four Celestine cursed softly after stubbing her big toe against the overgrown rockery on the front path of her Everton Park house, as she dragged her trash can out onto the nature strip for the garbage men to pick up. It was six in the morning. It was only the loud rumble of the Brisbane City Council garbage truck going down the other side of her street that alerted the half asleep Celestine that she had not put her garbage bin out the night before. Bugger! So she had crawled out of her bed and stumbled outside in her oversized purple t-shirt and pink-and-green-striped sleep shorts to put the bin out. Once the trash can was where it supposed to be and she had assured herself she had not missed the garbage pickup, Celestine ran the palms of her hands over her face and through her tangled curly red hair. She was so tired. She had barely slept a wink last night. Thoughts of Nick Swan had kept her awake. Although she knew she had made the right decision leaving Tess’ home after sex in the shower with Nick, it had not meant she was any more comfortable in her own home. Celestine looked around the front yard of the rental house she occupied. It looked bare and dismal. If she owned the house she would have painted the parched, flaking timber and put in a nice garden. But as she did not own the three-bedroom former housing commission home, she did not have to worry about. It was merely a temporary home until she could afford something better. Whenever that would be. Life had to pick up sooner or later. “Yeah, right, Pollyanna,” she muttered cynically to herself. Celestine thought back to the noise she had heard last night. What had that been about? Rattling, crashing and scraping. Has she imagined it? She did not think so as thoughts of Nick had kept her tossing and turning all night and she had not been asleep long enough to dream it. She looked around her. Nothing appeared to be displaced. No one had magically come and pulled the abundant weeds out of the garden or fixed the crack in the steps. It probably had just been the neighborhood cat on the prowl. Still, Celestine had gotten up several times in the night, trying to work out where the noise had been coming from. But when she didn’t see anything she had gone back to bed each time, wondering. Celestine was not the nervous sort. She could quite happily live alone and did not jump at every night sound. But last night had been unusual. Yet nothing looked out of place or abnormal. Except her heap of junk car. It would look abnormal in the weirdest place as it was just that sort of car. It did not fit in anywhere. But then, neither did its owner so maybe they were well matched. Celestine looked at the ugly metal beast that was still parked under the carport as if it had every right to be there and would move only if it wanted to.
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Celestine was about turn to go inside her house when she saw a white work truck drive up her street. Celestine dropped her head back tiredly. She knew the ute. She had seen it only yesterday. She knew who the driver was. Nick Swan. She wasn’t really that surprised. He was not the sort of man who gave up easily. The constant dull throb between her thighs reminded her of that. “Great,” she muttered to herself in frustration. He was the last person she wanted to see. His declaration of love was still replaying in her mind. She told herself it did not mean anything, that it was just words that had been flung out there. Yeah, right… Nick Swan smiled as he walked to where Celestine stood eyeing him warily. He took in the exposed pale flesh of her legs, her cute satin boxer shorts and the words “Kiss me” that were written directly under a jaunty-looking crown-wearing green frog emblazoned on the front of her purple t-shirt. Nick looked into the tired blue eyes of Celestine Holt. Those eyes shot out a most definite warning. “Morning, baby, you look awfully cute.” She looked and felt like crap and flattery was going to get this man nowhere he wanted to go. “What are you doing here?” It was a dumb question but it was one she felt she had to ask. She knew he was there to tease and tempt her until she begged him to take her. Celestine sighed. She had never been this easy or transparent before. “I asked Tess where you lived.” Nick looked at the words on her t-shirt. Well, of course Tess had told him where she lived. Pushy best friends did stuff like that. “Don’t even contemplate it,” Celestine warned as she pushed some tangled red curls from her face. The last thing she wanted was Nick Swan thinking she was inviting his kisses. That would only lead to her plastering her body to his and trading kiss for kiss as they slowly undressed and…whoa! Don’t go there! “What do you want?” Celestine’s bare foot tapped, impatiently awaiting his response. He was dressed in snug-fitting worn work denims and boots. He looked all hot and male and she was determined not to go there again either. Nick smiled at her obvious impatience. Celestine Holt was a hard woman to charm when she was cranky. “And it’s good to see you too, Celestine. I was thinking about…” Nick’s words were cut off mid-sentence by what sounded like a gunshot whizzing past their heads. Gunshot? Nick and Celestine looked at each other in open-mouthed surprise. As another shot bit into the dirt at their feet, Nick reacted quickly and he pulled Celestine to the ground. “What the—?” Celestine gasped on hitting the ground hard with Nick’s body covering hers. She heard the loud sound of popping and struggled to get up and see what was happening. But she was pinned down and there was no way she could shift Nick’s weight.
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Nick looked quickly around to see where the shots were being fired from. Celestine squirmed under Nick. His cock was lying hard in the cradle of her thighs and it was patently obvious she had no bra on. That meant her bare breasts were rubbing through the thin cotton between their chests. A surge of heat flooded her. Great. They were in danger and she was turned on by the man lying on top of her. Though in her defense, Celestine defied any woman to lie under Nick Swan and not get turned on. Not that she was about to let any woman have Nick until she was ready to give him up. The sound of car tires squealing as one last shot hit the dirt beside them made Celestine grateful for the protection Nick offered. It was sweet and caring and a bunch of other stuff she did not want to think about in case she was tempted to use the “L” word again without thinking. 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.
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“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.
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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. 40
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“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
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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
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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. Nick knew Celestine had promised the police she would stay with friends. But Nick had a feeling she had no intention of moving out. He could see the stubborn gleam in her blue eyes. “You have a sister in St Lucia?” he said, repeating the words as he looked into her clear blue eyes. He suspected she was lying but he could not be sure. He had discovered she was very good at hiding her feelings. “Do you get on well with her?”
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“I can honestly say that Grace and I have deep, unchanging feelings for each other.” Celestine knew their dislike of each other was deep and unchanging. They had never understood each other and she doubted whether that would ever change. She could just imagine Grace’s carefully made-up face if she arrived looking to stay with her. Grace would never turn her away but it would be damned uncomfortable for both of them. “So you’ll be okay?” “Sure.” False bravado was always the way to go. Nick shook his head and smiled. “Liar.” “You don’t know me enough to call me out.” “I know more than enough.” Nick looked at her significantly “I’m here if you need me, baby.” She needed him now but she was too damn stubborn to admit that. She would, as usual, draw on her own resources. It was less painful that way. “I don’t need anyone and I don’t want sex right now.” That was a lie on both counts. But lies for self-survival were acceptable in these circumstances. “I’m not just offering my body for sex.” Nick held out his arms to Celestine, willing her to walk into them. It would be so comforting to walk into his arms and collapse against his strong chest. But where would that get her? She needed… What the hell did she need? She needed him to leave before she became all soppy over him. “You should go.” Celestine watched as Nick dropped his arms. He did not look surprised at her request. She had the eerie feeling that he did indeed know more about her that she thought he did. That was dangerous. “I’m available anytime for you, baby.” If she knew nothing else, Celestine knew this was one man who would swim the raging sea and climb the highest mountain if she asked. But was she courageous enough to ask? The answer was no. She would muddle on and get by as she always did. “You’re not going to ask for help, are you?” “No.” “Are you going to stay with your sister?” “Yes.” “And do you love me?” “You have to be quicker than that to catch me out, moonlight man.”
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Chapter Five Celestine screamed as the man came through her window. She jumped out of her bed and grabbed the cricket bat beside her old chest of drawers, ready to knock this intruder’s block off. She was no weak-kneed victim and he would be made to both see and feel this. Celestine lifted the bat above her head and took aim in the dim light of her bedroom. “I knew you would still be here.” Nick’s voice came out of the darkness. “You told me you would stay at your sister’s place. You are such a bloody liar, Celestine Holt.” “Goddamn it!” Celestine yelled at him as she swung the cricket bat away from Nick. She had come awfully close to whacking him in the head. She was on edge already because of the shooting and she did not need Nick Swan appearing out of the night to scare her silly. She had been prepared to beat the crap out of her intruder. The shooting had scared her more than she cared to admit. And the more she thought about the carjacking, the more she knew that was no coincidence either. But again, why her? And why was Nick climbing through her window? Hadn’t she made it abundantly clear to him that she did not want him? What more did she was to do? An interpretive song and dance act? “You have crap security here.” Nick saw Celestine standing naked in a shaft of moonlight and he was entranced. Celestine snorted indignantly at his words. “Well, you shouldn’t be breaking in. Normal people don’t climb into people’s windows unannounced. They ring the doorbell and ask to be invited in.” Nick grinned at her charmingly. “I’m not normal.” “Really, Nick? I am so shocked to hear you say that,” Celestine responded cynically. “Anyway, would you have invited me in?” “At the moment I would have ignored the doorbell.” “Hence the reason I used the window.” Nick started stripping off his clothes. He had most definite plans with Celestine. “I wanted to see you, baby.” He unzipped his jeans and shucked them off. “And here you are naked and holding a cricket bat…very sexy.” Celestine looked at the now-naked Nick. What was it with this man? His cock always seemed to be in a constant state of arousal. Was that normal? Already it was jumping up hard and thick against his stomach. Her pussy became wet just looking at his cock. She threw the bat to the floor.
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“It’s hot and it’s my bedroom so I can be naked if I want.” Celestine licked her lips as she looked at his cock. In a lot of ways it was quite fascinating this man had a cock that was always ready to go. “Do you always have a permanent hard-on?” “Firstly, I have absolutely no objection to you being naked, in fact I insist in it,” Nick answered as he prowled toward her. “And secondly, just seeing you makes me hard.” Okay, Celestine had to admit that was sweet and flattering and the correct answer. However, she suspected this man would probably turn on like a light bulb at the thought of sex with any woman. Though admittedly she was better that just any woman. “I am so not in the mood for one of your midnight rides.” Another lie to contend with on judgment day. Nick stopped before her and placed gentle hands on her tense shoulders. “I can get you in the mood.” Celestine did not doubt that for a second. The warm, massaging action of his hands and the hot rod of his cock against her stomach made her certain he was right about his ability to put her in the mood. “I don’t need this, Nick.” She did and badly. But was this all she had with Nick? Sex? She thought she was falling into love with him but was it just the sex that made her think that? How did other people have relationships and not get all screwed up? And why was she even thinking a couple of tumbles with Nick constituted a relationship? “You don’t know what you need.” Nick’s hands gently caressed the swollen mounds of her breasts. He smiled as Celestine moaned softly. He knew what her weaknesses were. “You’re confused and in danger. You’re also being stubborn and perverse as hell staying in the one place the cops said you shouldn’t. You are a pain in the butt to deal with, Celestine Holt.” “If you are trying to sweet-talk me, Nick Swan, you suck at it.” Celestine pushed her hands against his chest. She wanted him. How on earth had she become so needy? Nick picked Celestine up in his arms and dropped her on the bed. He looked around him in the dim light. “What are you doing?” Celestine snapped on a nearby bedside light to watch him. A naked Nick Swan was a fascinating thing. “I’m looking for sometime to tie you up with.” There wasn’t much in her bedroom. Like the rest of the house her furniture was sparse. He grabbed a nearby bra and sock that were draped over a chair. Celestine sat up in shock. Tie her up? Was he kidding? And if he was just joking why did she suddenly feel disappointed at the thought? “You are not going to tie me up!” She tried to scramble off the bed. Okay, Celestine had fantasized about someone tying her up and having sex with her but the fantasy wasn’t as scary as the reality. She wanted Nick to do it but the loss of control scared her.
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“You’ll enjoy it, baby.” Nick joined her on the bed. A struggle ensued. In the end Nick sat astride Celestine and held her down as he looped the bra over one of her wildly flailing hands. “Punch me and I won’t make you come.” Celestine knew she was going to be tied up regardless of any struggle she put up. Nick was bigger and stronger than her. However, the struggle with Nick sitting astride her and leaning over her to tie her up was wildly exciting. His body rubbed back and forth against hers, making her squirm in anticipation of what he was going to do to her. The thought of that cock inside her making her come made her hesitate momentarily before lashing out again. She didn’t want him thinking she was that easy to tame. “I don’t want this!” One of her hands was tied above her head to the wooden vertical slat in her bed headboard. “Yeah, you do.” Nick looped the sock around her other hand. “Don’t tell me you’ve never fantasized a man doing this to you.” He secured her other hand above her head. Yes, Celestine had but she never actually dreamed it would come true. She secretly liked the idea of being totally unable to stop anything this man may do to her. Only her legs remained free. “You tell me I am supposedly confused and in danger and yet here you are tying me up?” “It’s for your own good.” Nick lay down beside her, stroking his hand up the inside her leg. He felt the shiver that that ran through her body. “How is that?” Nick’s hands were so strong and yet soft as he caressed her. Maybe it was for her own good. “You need to relax.” Nick’s hands reached the place he was aiming for. He stroked the wet curls between her legs softly. Celestine licked her lips hungrily. “How can I relax when you’re touching me like that?” Her legs opened wider of their own accord. “How am I touching you?” Nick asked huskily as his fingers pushed through the curls to the slick folds within. “You know…” Celestine moaned. “Do you like it?” “Yes…” She liked anything this man did to her. Nick’s hands slid up her body massaging softly. “Go back!” She wanted his fingers on her clit and inside her. She was aching for him. Nick chuckled at the desperation in her voice. “Oh, I’ll be going back, baby.” His hands moved up over the soft skin of her rib cage. “What do you want me to do to you?” “Anything…” Celestine cried out softly. The fact that she had no control and could not touch him with her hands only heightened her pleasure.
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Nick grinned as Celestine writhed beneath his hands. “Do you trust me?” His eyes locked on hers. Celestine could see the answer was as important to Nick as it was to her. “Yes.” The smile he gave her was worth the response. It was the kind of smile that made her want to do anything for Nick. “Good.” Nick’s fingers started up the slope of her breast. “Suck me…” Celestine needed his mouth on her now. “Where?” “Anywhere…” It did not matter as long as his mouth as he was on her. Nick leaned over and licked one pink nipple. “Oh, Nick…” Celestine gasped as he sucked on her breast. She loved it when he sucked her like that. Nick continued sucking as he rolled over between her open legs. Celestine pulled her legs up with her knees bent and wide apart to allow him full access. “I want you so much, baby.” Nick rubbed his body slowly up and down against hers as he licked her nipples. Celestine wanted that cock inside her now. “Please take me, Nick…” “You want me to fuck you?” “Yes please…I want your cock inside me now,” Celestine panted under the onslaught of his tongue on her breasts. “Right now, baby?” “Yes. “I think I need a drink of water…” Nick removed himself from between her legs. “You what!” Celestine shrieked. This was not the plan. The plan was for him to be inside her now. She needed him now, damn it! “You can wait a bit, can’t you?” Nick walked out of the room. “Bastard!” Celestine squirmed in frustration. She couldn’t even touch her clit to alleviate the aching need as her hands were tied. And after the one yoga lesson she had attended with Tess, there was no way she could was supple enough to put her toes to any good use. But then the man knew that. He had left her wanting. But if she was wanting, so was he. “Nick! Get in here!” she yelled but there was no answer. Celestine yelled again. Nick appeared. He smiled at her. “A little tense, are we?”
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“By the look of your cock I would say I’m not the only one.” His cock stood out club-like against his stomach. She looked at the bottle in his hand. “What have you got there?” “I had hoped you had whipped cream in the fridge but alas you didn’t.” Nick climbed onto the bed beside her. “So I decided if I could not lick cream off your body then I would massage it in.” Nick flicked the lid of her frangipani-smelling body lotion and squirted a large dollop on her stomach. The cool cream made Celestine jump. The hands that spread the cream made her moan softly. Nick slowly massaged the cream into her stomach. Instead of continuing on up to her breasts, Nick detoured south and started massaging the cream into her feet and legs. “Are you trying to kill me?” “No, I’m trying to make you love me.” Too late, she was already there. Nick spread the cream on the insides of her thighs and Celestine let them fall apart in invitation. Yet Nick avoided the area that needed his urgent attention. He did, however, skip up to her breasts, spending a long time massaging the mounds until Celestine felt like she was boneless. She was incredibly relaxed on one hand and intensely aroused and ready to explode on the other. “Please, Nick…” If Celestine had to beg she would. She wanted him. No pretense, no games, just Nick inside her, how it was meant to be. Nick reached up and untied her hands. As soon as Celestine was free she pulled him down to kiss him. When her tongue touched his she knew this wasn’t just sex. This was making love. Her body shook at the emotional intensity of it. Nick pulled her legs over his shoulders and his cock slowly entered Celestine’s body. They both watched as it sank in to the hilt. “Make love to me.” Celestine saw the swift look of realization in Nick’s eyes. She knew instinctively what he was going to say. It was the same thing she felt and wanted to say. It was “I love you”. Celestine put one finger to Nick’s lips and the other to the tattoo over his heart. “Don’t say it.” It was too soon, too quick and too scary. She needed to feel it fully before she said or heard the words again. “Why not?” Nick pushed slowly in and out of her body. “I just want to feel you inside me.” Nick leaned forward and kissed her tenderly. “You are beautiful, baby.” There was something so intense and beautiful about their joining that when they came together, Celestine knew whatever happened between them she would never forget this moment.
*****
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“Nick told me what happened,” Tess said, her concern evident over the telephone line. “Why would someone shoot at you?” “I don’t know why but I’m okay.” Celestine stood looking out her kitchen window, thinking about Nick. She had been shot at and that was frightening but she could only think about the man who had only just left her after spending the night in her bed. She felt more alive than she had in a long time. Yep, she was in love. She knew should feel happy, elated and a bunch of other Hallmark emotions but she didn’t. She was mainly confused. Was it just sex to Nick? Could she believe it was more? What the hell did she know about love? “Earth to Celestine…are you still there?” “Yeah…just thinking…” “About Nick?” Tess guessed accurately. “He spent the night.” The silence on Tess’ end of the phone was deafening. “You mean like waking up in each other’s arms type of thing?” “Yeah.” It had been awfully nice to see his stubble-covered face next to hers and his arms wrapped around her. She had never felt so safe in her life. “Nick stayed the whole night?” Tess asked, making sure she understood the situation completely. “Yep.” “Wow, this is serious!” “It’s just sex, Tess.” It wasn’t “just” anything to Celestine but a brave, jaded face was better than looking all gooey and foolish over a man who may or may not be the one for her. “Is it?” “What else could it be?” Please tell me it’s more. Please tell me he loves me. Please slap me before I start doodling “Celestine Swan” like some love-struck teenager. “Nick’s a love ‘em and leave ‘em type of guy. I’ve never known him to spend the night with any woman.” Tess’ voice was thoughtful. “You mean something to him.” Celestine felt a surge of hope. Yep, she was pathetic. But then she had heard the possibility of love did that to you. She always suspected it and now she knew it was true. “You love Nick, don’t you?” “I…ah, I’m not sure…yeah…possibly…I don’t know.” So came the less than definitive answer from the confused Celestine Holt. “Wow!” Tess was both surprised and pleased. “Yeah, it’s a ‘wow’ moment.” “Does Nick know?” “Sort of…I’m not real sure of anything at the moment.” 50
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“Are you scared?” “Of Nick?” Celestine thought about the man in question. “I’m terrified of the whole love thing.” The unknown was always scary. Tess chuckled softly at her words. “I actually meant the about the shooting. Blind Freddie could tell you’re terrified of being in love with Nick.” Admittedly being shot at gave you an idea where you stood with someone. Shooting implied an intense dislike or a need to get rid of someone. That was a lot easier to understand that the thing she may or may not have with Nick. “I’m fine with everything. I always get by, you know that, Tess.” “You can stay with me.” “Thanks but I have picked up a couple of shifts waitressing so I don’t expect to be home much tonight anyway.”
***** Celestine groaned as she drove toward her house and saw Nick Swan’s car pulling into her driveway. “Bugger!” She just was not in the mood for dealing with him. It was one a.m. and she had just come off the second split shift of her temporary waitress job. Her feet ached, she smelled of food and she didn’t want to deal with any more human beings that night. Ten hours of slinging hash and putting up with customer complaints about food and bills and God knows what else was enough to make Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm go postal. Celestine got out of her car and trudged up to Nick as he got out of his car. “Do not even think about sex. I am way too tired.” Not even Nick’s fantastic cock could stimulate her enough to raise her blood pressure at that moment. And that was a shocking thought. However, she felt like a dead woman walking and unless zombies had sex it was not happening tonight. “Sex would relax you, baby,” Nick said as he walked toward her. It was only the pain from her sore feet that was keeping her awake and upright. Once those shoes came off it would be good night, sweetheart. “I would fall asleep.” “Not with me.” “You really do have a high opinion of yourself and your abilities, don’t you?” Though she had to admit he had every right to. Nick Swan was something else and sex with him was awfully good. Maybe she wasn’t that tired… “Hell, you know I’m good.” Nick grinned at her, his eyes soft and tender. “You look knackered.”
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“I am beyond knackered.” Celestine walked by Nick to the door. She wanted to go inside, eat the leftover medicinal fudge brownies she knew were stashed in her kitchen cupboard and then collapse comatose on her bed without changing or removing her makeup. There was probably a special hell for women who did not follow the so-called rules about makeup removal but Celestine would contemplate that when and if hell came calling. At the moment she was too tired to care. “You’ve been through a lot. You should have given yourself a break, baby.” “I need the money.” It was like her mantra in life…get money, pay bills, get by. Who on the planet did not understand that other than the multimillionaires and they probably weren’t happy anyway. Yeah, right, what a load of crap. “I’ll help you with money.” Yeah, Celestine had a feeling Nick Swan would. He did not strike her as someone who made empty promises. Another point in his favor. But she did not want his or anyone’s money. This was her problem to sort out and she would. Somehow. “That’s a sweet offer, Nick and I…” Celestine stopped mid-sentence and looked up at her front door. “Uh-oh…” Her front door was open. This was not how she left it this morning. She knew that as she had to slam it hard to close it because the doorframe was warped, like the rest of the house. So an open door was not a good sign. “Bloody hell, what now?” Celestine hissed out in angry frustration as she started up the stairs. She wanted to go to bed. She did not need uninvited people in her home. These people must be kicked out now. Nick jumped forward and grabbed her arm. “What are you doing?” He pulled her back toward him. “Someone could still be inside.” Celestine collided back into the warm, solid front of Nick Swan. “I hope they are because I’m going to kick their ass from here to next week!” Nick put both arms around Celestine to stop her from breaking from his hold and charging inside. “Ssshh, be quiet.” “Why do I have to be quiet?” Hello? She wasn’t the one in the wrong here. Said house-burglar-type person was, though what she had left to steal was beyond Celestine. Other than her brownies not a great deal meant anything to her. And if they had taken those they were dead meat. “We don’t want them to know we’re here.” “Why not?” As far as Celestine was concerned this was not a time to be rational. Her home, such as it was, was under threat and that entitled her to a heavy dose of irrationality. “Because I want to call the police and make sure whoever it is gets caught.”
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Despite her anger, Celestine had to admit she kind of liked the way Nick’s arms felt around her body. She felt incredibly safe and protected and it was a weird but nice feeling. She could get used to it—if she allowed herself to. “Well, you call the police and I’ll be loud and go kick their ass.” Nick chuckled softly against Celestine’s hair. “We are not charging in there, Batgirl.” Nick was not worried about himself. He would take on anyone. “Well, what do you propose we do then, Batman?” That someone had the gall to break into her home and do who knew what in there was just not acceptable to Celestine. She had been carjacked and shot at and this was the last straw. Time for those powerful female hormones to be put into full effect. Nick kept one around Celestine’s waist as he pulled out his cell phone from his back trouser pocket. “We call the police and then I go up and check.” “With me.” She did not intend to stand around waiting for Nick to give her the all clear. Nick punched out the numbers on the phone for the police. “Could I stop you?” “No.” Nick quietly gave the details to the police and finished the call. “You’re a fierce thing, baby.” He kissed the side of her neck lingeringly. “You have no idea.” Celestine felt Nick’s cock hard at her ass. Even though a couple of layers of clothing separated their bare flesh, Celestine could feel the heat of him scorching through to her. She shivered at the memory of him inside her. But this was neither the time nor place to be thinking about Nick being hot and full inside her. “I cannot believe you are turned on by this.” “Anytime you’re near me I want you.” “You can let me go now.” “Scared?” “No, I just don’t think it’s appropriate at the moment to have my ass and your cock in such close proximity.” Nick ground his hips slowly against her ass. “You don’t like it, baby?” He smiled as he felt Celestine’s butt push back in response. Hell, yes, she liked it but having sex on her front stairs when a burglar was inside possibly ransacking her home was doable but not rational. “Let’s just say it’s an issue of timing.” She pulled her hips forward to break the contact. What was it with this man? She seemed to be permanently in heat around him. “Promise you won’t kick ass until we can at least assess the situation?” 53
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Celestine thought about the words for a moment. She wasn’t big on compromise but she would have a go at it. “I can live with that.” Nick removed his arm from around Celestine’s waist and linked her hand in his as he started up the stairs. “We have to be very, very quiet…” “Are we hunting wabbits?” Celestine whispered back. Nick turned and grinned at her. “You’re a piece of work.” “I know.” Celestine grabbed his hand tightly. She could have said it was to make sure she did not stumble on the darkened steps but that would have been a lie. It just felt so good to be skin to skin with Nick Swan. “I can’t hear anything. Don’t burglars usually smash stuff just because they can?” Wasn’t their some burglar book of rules that listed smash and grab as a thing to do? Nick reached the top of the stairs and pushed the door open warily. “You don’t have stuff to smash, baby.” “Well, there is that.” Celestine followed Nick as they went inside. There was only the sound of silence in her shabby rental home. “Holy frigging hell!” Celestine stood and stared at her lounge room wall. We know you have it. Give it back was written crudely in red spray paint down her wall. “What the hell am I supposed to have other than sore feet and a headache?” As far as Celestine was concerned whatever “it” was they could have it. Surely she had other “its” in her life that one less would not be a problem. Nick stood and looked at another bunch of words spray painted onto the wall. Suffer the conquests. “I have a feeling they probably meant ‘suffer the consequences’.” Celestine turned around and looked at the words. “Great, so I have some nitwit burglar after me who cannot spell and most likely has access to illegal firearms. Can life get any better?” She looked at what was left of her belongings. What furniture and goods she had were shattered and upended throughout her house. It scared her that someone had been watching her and that she had been oblivious to it and to what these people were after. “Are you sure you haven’t pissed off anyone of late?” “Well, you’d have to be a little more specific, Nick. I am who I am. I have been known to piss off lots of people off but not enough to actually threaten me like this.” It was a damn shame whoever had done this was still not around as she would have liked to have asked them just what the hell their problem was with her. She looked at the chaos around her. Whatever they had been searching for it was big enough for them to
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upend her old heavy-assed Genoa sofa. Celestine sighed. “Do I know how to have a good time, or what?” “The cops are here.” An hour and a half later after statements had been taken and damages assessed, Celestine was dead on her feet. “You are full of crap, Celestine Holt.” Nick had just seen the police to the door. It was just after two-thirty in the morning and he had just listened to woman he loved babble on with the biggest load of lies to the cops he had ever heard. “Gee, tell me how you really feel, Nick.” She knew what this was about. But a lie here or there was usually not such a big thing. Well, not to her anyway. “You told the police you were going to stay with your sister and I know that’s a lie.” He walked over to where she stood looking small, tired and defenseless. Had the man not heard of white lies? They were completely permissible as long as she did not hurt anyone. “It’s no biggie. Nick, I’m staying here.” Where she would sleep she wasn’t sure as her bed had been tossed across the room and she really wasn’t in the mood to drag it back and make it up. Nick shook his head as if to indicate there was no way that he was going to allow Celestine to stay in her trashed house. “No, you’re not staying here.” Celestine was momentarily down but she was certainly not out and she wasn’t about to be pushed around by Nick Swan. She raised herself to her full five foot two inches and stared up at him defiantly. “Don’t be getting all He-man on me.” “There is no way I am going to allow you to stay here.” “Allow me? I’m sorry, what year is this? Have we time traveled back to the 1800s?” “Don’t be a smart-ass.” “It’s a natural reflex when it comes to you.” Celestine did not want to fight with Nick Swan. She just wanted to fall down on her nice soft bed and sleep. Scratch that. Fall down on a blanket on the hard floor and be pissed off all night because she was too uncomfortable to sleep. Whatever. It would still be her choice and not an order she had to follow. “Where am I supposed to go? I have no money. You know the stuff that makes the world go ‘round.” “Stay with me.” It was the perfect solution for Nick. “Nuh-uh.” That was asking for trouble as sex was sure to follow and that would not help her confused state of mind—but it also wouldn’t hurt it. Decisions, decisions. Meditative, solitary contemplation of her situation or wild sex with the handsome man? In the long run Celestine knew the safest option seemed to be to sit with her back against the wall of her trashed home, cricket bat in hand, and wait for morning to assess her options. That was if she had any. 55
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Nick contemplated her silently as if deciding on the best course of action. “If you won’t stay in my house, I have a small apartment out the back of the house you can use until you sort yourself out.” He saw her eyebrows arch suspiciously at this suggestion. “No strings attached—just a friend helping a friend.” “Are we friends?” Could she be friends with the gorgeous man who made her scream with wanting him? Was that friendship or just really fabulous chemistry? “What else could we be, baby?” Nick smiled at her as if to indicate he knew exactly what they were. Lovers. “I’m not sure on that one.” Celestine was but she wasn’t going there as she wouldn’t be able to get back in a hurry. “You are but you won’t admit it.” Nick wanted to go there and as quickly as possible. Celestine smiled up at the man mountain beside her. She was too tired to fight him tonight. “No strings?” “No, not unless you want them.” Celestine wanted something but she wasn’t sure what. “Shut up and show me this apartment if yours.”
***** “Wow, you’re rich!” One of the few things Celestine could remember her mother saying was always act as if nothing surprises you and then you will fit in anywhere. Of course, as an adult Celestine did not really care about fitting in. That was a needy high school thing she had dropped off years ago. But she did believe in remaining cool and aloof when out of her comfort zone. But sometimes it just wasn’t possible. Nick Swan’s house in the northern Brisbane suburb of Aspley was, in a word, perfect. As they drove her piece of crap car up the long winding driveway she knew she was no longer in the trashed-out rental belt. It was almost sacrilegious that they were in her junky vehicle in such plush surrounds but Nick had insisted on leaving his pick-up at her house and driving Celestine’s car. As they approached the house, security lights instantly lit up as if to say, “Look at me, I am the house you want.” It was prime real estate and did not require the pest controllers to come out every three months to kill mutant cockroaches. Nick got out of Celestine’s car and opened the door for her. It was not that he was he was trying to do the gentlemanly thing. If a woman wanted a door opened for her he would do it, if she didn’t that was fine also but in this case it was more that Celestine was stunned at her surroundings and needed to be shown the way. That made Nick Swan smile. Celestine Holt was not as tough as she made out. “So, you think I’m a catch?”
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“I think you’re many things but whether I want to catch you is up for debate.” She got out of the car and looked at the house before her. Big, brick, two-storied and you could just bet there were no roaches. It was the sort of home Celestine fantasized living in but knew she could never afford. The garden alone was amazing. Not a weed in sight. Was that natural? “You love me, baby, and you know it.” “All I know is I have to get out of these bloody shoes before my feet turn to pulp.” She followed Nick as he walked to the back of the house. “This is where you’ll be staying.” Celestine squinted into the shadows behind the house. All she could see in the darkness was the vague outlines of Australian bush land. Where was this apartment? Was “apartment” some cute euphemism for something else? She looked into the darkness and saw the shadows of large gum trees swaying in the evening breeze. A horrible thought struck her. If Nick thought she was camping out he could think again. Celestine hated camping. Her argument was if people were meant to camp why were hotels invented? She did not camp out ever. It was unnatural. “I refuse to camp out.” That was just not up to discussion. She would sleep in a subway or on a park bench but among nature and the unknown—nuh-uh, not going to happen. Celestine was deadly serious about this. One disgustingly uncomfortable campout during her ill-fated career with the Girl Scouts at ten years of age cured her of the desire to venture out and enjoy the great outdoors. She was a woman whose feet did not leave concrete willingly. “I would rather eat dirt than camp out.” “That’s dramatic.” “You have no idea how dramatic I can be.” Nick raised his eyebrows at her militant tone. “No camping and no eating dirt tonight.” Strangely enough, not for one second did Celestine Holt seem the outdoorsy type to him. He moved further into the shadows and a light automatically illuminated the area around him. A small brick building appeared out of the darkness. Okay, this looked better. It was a small house attached to the main house by a long covered walkway. Celestine followed Nick as he moved forward and unlocked the door on the apartment. He turned on the lights and waited for her to come and look inside. Celestine peeked inside the abode. To call it an apartment was an understatement. It was like a mini hotel room with its small but practical kitchen, clean, efficient bathroom and startlingly huge bed that seemed to instantly attract her attention. Who needed a bad that large? Celestine looked at Nick Swan. Had he used this bed before? And why she should she care if he had anyway? Change the subject, Celestine. “So, how did you come by this house?” That safe subject alone could have her talking all night. The house and the apartment were picture perfect. It made her wonder about Nick. Other than Grace and the fact that Tess was marrying into money, Celestine
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didn’t really know anyone that had money. It would have taken a lot of money to have bought this house. Nick didn’t strike has as the typical renter. “I built it.” There was evident pride in Nick’s voice. “Do you like my home?” Celestine was impressed. She remembered how Tess had mentioned Nick had a construction company. “From what little I’ve seen, I do. I’d be interested in having a look around tomorrow.” Of course Celestine had no intention of actually being at his home tomorrow. This was just a quick overnight stay. It was a pity, though, as she would have love to have the grand tour. “It seems like a big house for one person.” It had never occurred to Celestine until that moment that Nick may not be single. Tess had not come right out and said it, so Celestine just assumed he was, especially after having sex with him over the last couple of days. But then what did she know about the moonlight man other than his predilection for seducing women into having sex despite their best intentions not to? What if there was a wife or a girlfriend? What if she was just the bit on the side? If he was now going to tell her about a wife and kids she was going to puke. Celestine did not cut in on anyone’s relationship. It was just wrong. “Do you just rattle around in the big old house by yourself, moonlight man?” “Is that a quaint way of asking if I am single?” Nick looked at her in amusement. “Well, I assume you are, otherwise it would be tacky to be sleeping around with anyone who was not your wife or partner.” “I take it you don’t believe in sharing.” “Hell, no.” Was Nick going to tell her, or what? The longer he held off, the more worried Celestine became. “So have you got a significant other inside that house waiting for you to come home and warm the bed?” Please say no. “Is it important to you?” “I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t.” Celestine caught her breath and waited. It was not like she was waiting for the lotto numbers to be drawn but it was a lot more important. “I only have you in my life, baby.” Celestine let go the breath had been holding in. Okay, so she wasn’t a home wrecker and he wasn’t a heartless bastard who needed to be castrated for screwing around. Nick smiled at her relief. “You kind of like me, huh?” “You have your moments.” Celestine looked again at the large bed that dominated the room. “What?” Nick’s eyes were locked on her as Celestine turned away from the bed. Look away…avoid temptation…you are too tired. “Nothing,” she murmured which actually meant everything but the less Nick knew or supposed the better in Celestine’s books. “So, you’re leaving now?” She assessed the man before her. Drop-dead gorgeous, stunningly delicious and but basically a stranger 58
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who made her feel safe. How could that be? Or was it just fatigue playing with her mind? The hungry look in Nick’s eyes made her feel instantly wet and aching between her legs. So it was definitely not fatigue then. What was it about this man who stole in through women’s windows for a moonlight ride? Was it just sex or something else? Celestine wanted to believe it was the former but she knew it was just more than sex. But to admit it aloud scared her. “I can stay if you like.” Nick started removing his clothes. Wasn’t she going to be allowed a chance to respond? “You’re stripping off.” Was this a host-like thing to do? Barely show the guest around then start removing your clothes. “You’ve seen me naked.” Celestine had and she had enjoyed it but that was not the point. “You said you could ‘stay if I liked’. That indicated that you were giving me a choice.” Nick was undoing his trousers and Celestine knew that any good-girl intentions she had of not having sex with Nick Swan were going to fly out the window in the space of a heartbeat. Nick dropped his trousers and stood naked and erect before her. Celestine gulped loudly. It would be insane to let that cock go to waste and she wasn’t a wasteful person. “Do you want a choice, baby?” Nick moved toward her and started removing her clothes. “I can remove my own clothes.” Though his hands felt awfully good on her body and she was tired after all. There was probably a bucket-load of other excuses she could use as well to justify him undressing her. “You’re tired. I’m helping you,” Nick told her as her clothes started dropping at her feet. Yes, she could have tried to fight him off but didn’t Celestine Holt deserve to feel good? That hard cock promised much enjoyment. And what would one more night with the moonlight man hurt? “How does getting me naked help me?” She looked down as Nick gently removed the shoes from her battered sore feet. Okay, it was official, this man was a keeper. But could she or should she keep him? Nick dropped her bra to the ground and placed his hands over her breasts. “Do you want me inside you?” “Are you this fast at getting to the point with everyone?” Of course she wanted Nick inside her but she did not want to come across as easy. “You’re not just anyone.” Nick dropped his head to put his mouth on her nipple. He sucked down hard and listened as Celestine moaned in response. He smiled and let go her nipple with a smacking sound that made it bounce wet and pink before her.
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“You love it when I suck you, don’t you?” Nick said the words, not needing confirmation of a fact. “Yes, God, yes…” Celestine pulled Nick’s head back to her breast. She almost said she loved everything Nick did to her. But she did not want to come across as pathetic or needy or desperate for sex with Nick. She may well have been all three of those but he did not need to know that. Though she suspected he may have a clue. Anyway, all coherent speech was beyond her when Nick’s mouth was on her breast. And yes, maybe she was easy. But was that a bad thing? “So why fight me, baby?” Why indeed? Celestine reached down and grabbed Nick’s cock as it lay hard and ready against her stomach. She slowly ran her hand up and down the softly coated hardness in a milking action. The man at her breast growled hungrily and sucked harder. Was she tired? It seemed not. “Fuck me…” Who cared if she was easy? She wanted him. Celestine would wonder about semantics later. “Aren’t I supposed to be a friend helping a friend?” Nick’s lips captured hers in a hot, insistent kiss. Celestine whimpered in response. Yep, she was definitely over her tiredness. “There is no law that I know of that states one friend cannot have sex with another.” “I don’t want to take advantage of our friendship though.” The overly sincere sound of Nick’s voice made Celestine look him in the eye. There was nothing friend-like between them at that moment and they both knew it. “If you do not take me now I will scream.” “Well, I can’t have you waking up the neighbors, baby.” Nick reached down into his discarded trousers and pulled out a condom and handed it to her. Celestine ripped the packet open and grabbed Nick’s engorged cock and slowly rolled the condom on. “How on earth do you find rubbers to fit you?” Was there a big and tall shop for condoms? That was an intriguing thought. Nick chuckled and moved Celestine over to a curtained window. As he pulled back the curtains, a large picture window showcased the night sky. “We can’t wake the neighbors but they can watch us having sex?” Not that Celestine gave a rat’s ass about what the neighbors thought at that moment. She just wanted to be hot and tight with Nick again. Celestine allowed Nick to position her facing the window as he stood and moved in close behind her. Oh yeah, this was going to be good. Stuff the neighbors. “I want us to look at the stars as we make love.” Nick pulled her ass close to his stiff cock. “Besides, do you really care who sees us? Would it stop you from having my cock inside your body?” 60
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Celestine spread her legs and thrust her ass back against Nick in response. Just the way he said it made her want him more. “As long as you are in me I don’t care.” Celestine shrieked as Nick slid hard and fast inside her vagina. Nick’s hands cupped the wetness between her legs as he pulled in and out of Celestine’s body slowly. Celestine let her head drop back against Nick’s shoulder as his hands teased her clit as he fucked slowly and sweetly. The stars twinkled before them and Celestine knew the truth. She loved the moonlight man.
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Chapter Six “Of all the rotten, scheming, pushy people!” It was six in the morning. Celestine’s plan was to leave before Nick got up. After their hot moment of star-filled sex Nick had tucked her into the big bed and left her to sleep. At the time she had thought that was so sweet and caring of him. Now she had other less generous thoughts about Nick. The man had made it impossible for her to leave. “That ratfink!” Had he known she was going to get up a couple of hours and make good her escape in her kicked-in car? Was she that transparent? Was she losing her touch at being deceptive or was it just Nick Swan she was so obvious to? Celestine hated being manipulated. It was okay if she did it but someone else doing it to her was unacceptable. Initially when Celestine had thrown on her clothes from the previous night and crept out of the apartment and gone to her car, she had realized Nick had driven it last night and he still had the keys. For a moment Celestine felt thwarted until she realized she always carried a spare set of keys in her handbag. She laughed in weary triumph as she got into the car and turned the key in the ignition. Nothing. No sound, no familiar death rattle or shudder of annoyance at being asked to perform its car function. The piece of crap car just sat and did nothing. It was then that it occurred to her that maybe this was not the car just being a cranky bitch. Maybe this was a man-made problem. “Bloody man!” Celestine thumped the steering wheel in frustration. She knew Nick had disabled her car somehow. She popped the hood and got out of the driver’s seat. She lifted the bonnet up and stared at the engine vaguely. What the hell she looking for under the hood, she had no idea. Something had to be lose or missing. The car was temperamental but it had never before flat-out refused to work without a good deal of noisy protest. Silence for this car was unusual. Celestine slammed the hood down. Okay, what to do now? She had no money and no workable car. She could go inside Nick’s house and demand he fix whatever he broke but she figured that would get her pretty much nowhere. More than likely the man would want to have sex again. “Not ever going to happen again,” Celestine muttered to herself as she started tramping down toward the driveway of his home. Against her better judgment, Celestine knew she would have to try to hitch a ride. It was a really dumb thing to do but her options were limited. She had precisely one dollar and fifty cents in her purse. Not even enough to get a bus ticket to get her home. She groaned as she realized she still had to face the real estate agent she rented through about the mess to the house. It wasn’t her fault but she doubted they would take it so kindly. After all, business was
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business and the fact that some uneducated nutcase was after her was not their problem. “Give me strength,” Celestine muttered as she started down the driveway. “Going somewhere?” Nick called as he came out of the house. “Rack off!” Celestine shot a look at him that would have made a lesser man balk but Nick just smiled. She stopped and looked at his fresh clothes and shaved face. She looked like a limp dishcloth compared to him. “What did you to my car?” Celestine wasn’t in the mood for pleasant small talk. Nick looked at her in a pleasant, vague manner. “Your car?” Nick asked, knowing exactly what she was talking about but feigning ignorance for the moment. “Won’t your car start?” “You bloody know it won’t.” Celestine stalked over to him and poked him in the chest. She had the urge to jump on him and pummel him into the ground. However, she knew it would probably not do anything much to him other than make him laugh and get him aroused and then she would again not be wanting to waste that cock of his. Celestine blew out a tired sigh. She decided to try another approach with the man. “Please fix whatever it was you did to my car, Nick.” Her tone was soft and pleading as her eyes looked at him beseechingly. She could suck up if she had to. “You’re sweet but I’m not fixing your car.” “Pig!” Celestine snapped, wondering why she even bothered to attempt to be nice to him. She turned back and continued down the driveway with Nick following casually beside her as if they were on a stroll. “Don’t fight this, baby. I intend to help you even if it drives you insane.” “I don’t need your help.” “I want to find out why someone is after you. I think it has everything to do with your car.” Celestine snorted at his words. “Yes, only last week Paris Hilton asked if she could borrow it and I said ‘no way, Paris, get your own piece of crap car’.” Nick grabbed her arm gently and stopped her from moving. “Think about it. That man wanted your car, you get shot at and someone damages your car. Then last night, some rocket scientist trashes your house and demands you give something back.” “I paid for that car fair and square. No one but me owns it.” Nick scratched his head in thought. “What other reason is there?” “Gee, Sherlock, I don’t know.” Celestine looked at the man before her. Realistically she knew Nick wanted to help her. That was nice. That was sweet. She should not be a bitch about it but old habits died hard. “I have to get home.”
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“I’ll make you breakfast.” Nick slowly moved in closer to her as his hand dropped to rest low on the back of one of her hips. Celestine was starving. She could not remember that last time she had eaten. And her rumbling stomach indicated her body did not seem to want to live off its fat deposits as nature intended. Typical. “Why is your hand on my ass?” Celestine felt the slow massaging squeeze of Nick’s hand and her body reacted according. She had never thought she was a highly sexed person before. But that was in the pre-Nick Swan days. The man had her wet at a touch. “Don’t you like it?” “I thought you were offering me breakfast?” Nick’s other hand went up to cup her breast. “I’m offering lots of things, baby.” “I bet you are.” Nick’s hands were now unbuttoning Celestine’s blouse. “We cannot have sex in the middle of your driveway.” “Why not, it’s early and no one’s around.” Her blouse dropped to the ground and he leaned forward and licked the deep cleavage of her breasts. The shiver that ran through her body made Nick only too aware that their desire was mutual. “But I know you’ll scream your head off when you come and I don’t want to share that moment with anyone.” He grabbed her hand and moved her over to a latticed gazebo that offered some privacy. “I do not scream my head off.” Celestine tugged at her bra and pulled it off. Who was she kidding? She wanted Nick’s mouth on her breasts now. Yes, she was still annoyed at him about the car but his tongue on her body would go a great way to alleviating that annoyance. And she could still go home after sex with Nick. It was a win-win situation. “You do and I love it.” Nick pulled her skirt off as she tugged at his trousers. Celestine dropped her panties as any pretense of modesty was gone. Nick was annoying and pushy but he was also damned hot and she craved him like oxygen. To deny herself that vital element seemed crazy. Celestine looked around for somewhere to sit. She spotted a large metal table and pulled Nick toward it. As she sat back on a table the metal was cold under her ass. But she knew she would be hot soon. She spread her legs wide. Nick smiled at the sight of his woman ready and willing. “God, I love you, Celestine Holt.” “Prove it, moonlight man.” “Yes, ma’am,” Nick growled huskily as he grabbed her hips and slid his cock in to the hilt in her. Celestine moaned in pleasure as she grabbed Nick’s ass and urged him in and out of her body. She knew she would scream her head off but what the hell.
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***** “I’m still wondering if this sudden job offer from you has anything to do with sex,” Celestine asked as she sat down before the computer inside Nick’s office. The inside of his home was simple, neat and incredibly masculine. She was glad there were no feminine touches. She knew the man wasn’t a virgin but she didn’t want to think of some woman having the sort of influence over him to change and shape his home. It was not exactly jealousy she was feeling. It was more that for the moment this was her territory and no other woman was having a piece of her man. It had everything to do with possession. Nick Swan was hers. Maybe that sounded an awful lot like love. Maybe she was just a jealous bitch. Who knew? The jury was still out on that. Did great sex and love go together or was she just being misled by a powerful cock and her own libido? And if so was that a bad thing? “Do you think I’m shallow enough to give you a job just because we made love?” Nick grinned at her skeptical eye roll. “I like you around. Is that a problem for you?” “No.” Celestine felt a warm surge run through her body at Nick’s words. It was nice to feel wanted. Nick had offered her a job, handed her some of his clean oversized sweats and made her feel at home. It was something indefinable but not exactly a problem. “Besides, I desperately need the help. I have invoices for building supplies coming out of everywhere and I need to get them sorted and paid.” Nick dumped a buffcolored folder full of invoices on the desk before her. “I can do that. I believe I would be very good at spending other people’s money.” Celestine watched as Nick sat down on the edge of the desk she sat at. “We are not having sex in this office.” “Did I say we were?” “No but I know that look.” Celestine picked up a wad of invoices and tried to ignore Nick. This was virtually impossible as he was always on her radar. “I have work to do and so do you.” “Okay, baby, but later…” “I’ll think about it…now shoo, moonlight man.” After three hours of sorting and imputing invoices, Celestine was pleased at her progress. Nick’s business was quite fascinating. Clearly he was a successful man. The invoices alone told her that. The work had taken her mind off Nick Swan and what she was going to do with what she felt about him. Love or lust? Which was it? Her biggest problem was she had never been loved by anyone in any way, shape or form, so how did she even know the difference between the two? That they were fantastic sexually was lust. That she was starting to get all gooey and girly when she thought about Nick—which was often—she suspected was love. Celestine sighed tiredly. “I don’t know…” “What don’t you know?” Nick asked as he came into the office.
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“What to do about you.” Why try to hide it? The man confused the hell out of Celestine. Nick came over to where she sat and looked at her softly. “What do you want to do? Run away?” How was it Nick always seemed to know her thoughts? “It’s an option.” “I’d miss you.” Celestine could see his heart in his eyes and she blinked momentarily to stop herself from doing something dumb like crying. “Would you, Nick?” “Yeah, I would, baby.” Celestine tilted her head at an angle and assessed him thoughtfully. “Are we talking just sexually?” “In every way.” Nick pulled Celestine to her feet. “I think we need to go for a drive and clear our heads.” He saw the look of surprise in Celestine’s eyes. “You muddle me up something chronic, baby.” “Please! Compared to you I’m piece of cake.” “Whatever you like to think…” chuckled Nick as he led Celestine from the office.
***** After an hour’s drive, when she truly doubted whether her car would make the distance, Celestine and Nick were on the boardwalk at Caloundra, staring at the deep blue ocean and sandy yellow beach. It was the kind of small beach community, north of Brisbane, which had resisted the tacky lure of commercial enterprise and retained its seaside charm. “Thank you,” Celestine said sincerely to Nick as he strolled along beside her, his hand in hers. This was what she needed. A break. It did not solve her money problems or the threat of danger she was under but it gave her a chance to catch her breath and realize there was more to life. “So tell me your life story.” “It’s pretty boring.” “I’ll be the judge of that,” Nick replied, pulling her close toward him. “Okay, I was born in Brisbane and I am now walking along a seaside boardwalk with a man who I’m not sure what I want to do about.” Did she want to get into deep and meaningfuls with Nick Swan? Not really. They always turned out messy. “Elaborate on the first bit and we’ll work on the second bit later.” Nick pulled her close so their sides touched as they walked. “Tell me about your family.”
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Celestine sighed tiredly. Her family. She tried not to think about that subject too often. However, she had a feeling Nick would nag her until she spilled her guts anyway. “My parents, who are now deceased, were complete opposites who for some reason got married and then produced two children who were again opposites in every way. All four of us had no idea how to get on with each other and I often just assumed I had been switched at birth but blood tests indicated otherwise.” She looked at Nick’s thoughtful expression. If he was expecting the Brady Bunch he was going to be disappointed. “Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t a horrible childhood. It was more like four people who were related by blood but for some reason just could not be a successful family when all put together.” That summed it all up, thought Celestine. The Holt family nicely packaged up in a box that could be put away and opened only if you chose to. It was better though to leave it closed. “Sounds kind of lonely.” Nick wrapped his arm around her shoulders. That felt awfully nice to the girly side of Celestine. “We had our moments. Usually strained and coldly calm. I am fairly sure I loved my parents but I never felt they were really at ease with each other. There was just this general lack of interest that just shone through. And that seemed to flow to Grace and myself. Unfortunately that hasn’t changed even in adulthood.” “Would you like it to?” “You know I tried with Grace, though probably not hard enough.” Celestine remembered the surprise on Grace’s face when she had turned up one year with a birthday present on her birthday. They had both just felt awkward. “I don’t know how to be a sister. Besides, we were all just complete opposites.” Celestine vividly remembered the wild hair pulling, name-calling fights she and Grace had had. That had just progressed into the cold politeness of adulthood. It was not Grace’s fault. It was not her fault. It was just some genetic quirk that did not allow any of the Holt family to really get on with each other as a normal family did. No one in her family seemed to handle love very well. So they choose instead to avoid it. Hence the confusion of what she felt for Nick. Did she have the ability to love someone? Or would she end up like her parents? Coldly indifferent to her partner. Nick shook his head sadly. He could not imagine not having a close relationship with his family. But it explained a lot to him about the woman at his side. “And what about Grace? Are you going to try again with her?” Celestine blew out a frustrated sigh. “I don’t know. I doubt it. I really don’t think anything can bring us together now. We’re just too uneasy with each other.” Celestine wanted to get off this topic. It was uncomfortable. Her eyes moved along the boardwalk, following the colorfully dressed holiday makers. She felt bland in her borrowed oversized sweats. She stopped suddenly. “Un-frigging-believable!” Celestine hissed as her hands clenched tightly at her side. 67
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“What?” The soft mood was most definitely broken. Nick looked in the direction of Celestine’s angry gaze. “That woman!” Celestine jabbed her finger in the direction of a blonde in tiny white shorts and a yellow tank top. “It’s Julia Bailey!” She looked at Nick’s confused expression. “My ratfink ex-roommate. I have been searching for her for months.” Celestine tore off in the direction that Julia was taking, “Julia!” Celestine yelled out loudly, not caring who heard her. She was determined to catch up to her big fakeboobed quarry. The surprise in Julia Bailey’s eyes at seeing Celestine was quickly masked as she stopped dead in her tracks. “Celestine Holt, how are you?” Julia asked, her eyes locking on the gorgeous man beside her ex-friend. Celestine snorted derisively. “Don’t pretend you care, Julia.” Celestine felt Nick’s hand gently descend onto her arm. Was it in support or was he worried she was going to inflict bodily harm on Julia? “What’s wrong, Celestine?” Julia had the look of a woman who knew only too well what was wrong. Celestine pushed up the sleeves of the oversized top ready for battle. “Oh gee, where to begin, Julia? Let’s see, you stole my television, stereo, jewelry and credit cards. Then you proceeded to rack up enormous debts under my name because you are a lying, thieving cow. Does that cover it all?” “Oh,” Julia responded quietly. The woman was trapped and she knew it. “Yes, that is the inadequate half-assed response I would expect from you, Julia.” Nick watched the two women silently. This wasn’t his fight. He would help if she asked but until then he would stand back, watch and admire the way Celestine handled herself. The woman was fearless. “I’m sorry, Celestine, I just hit a bad patch and I didn’t think you’d mind helping me out,” Julia said, as if this excused her actions. Celestine barked out a harsh laugh. “What a load of crap. If you are in trouble you ask, you don’t take and screw up someone’s life.” “Yes, of course, you’re right. I’ll write you a check right now to cover anything I owe you.” Julia reached into her shoulder bag to do just that. Celestine had been stung by Julia’s rubber checks before. “Thanks, but I prefer and must insist on cash when it comes to you.” “That’s not very trusting, Celestine,” Julia replied coolly. “Fancy me not trusting you? How shocking,” Celestine murmured cynically. To be honest she was skeptical about getting anything back that Julia had stolen but it never hurt to try.
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“I don’t have cash on me at the moment…” “Of course you don’t, Julia. What a shocker that is.” Julia looked at her thoughtfully. “Are you still living at Everton Park? I can come by and drop the money off to you. I swear I will,” she insisted, sounding like she might mean it. “Yes I am. And may I say your promise instantly puts my mind at rest—not.” Celestine also gave Nick’s address to Julia who wrote it diligently down and then left them, promising to return some of Celestine’s money. “Do you think Julia will give you back the money?” “No and they’re fake.” “What?” Nick asked, looking puzzled. “Her breasts. You were staring at them.” “It was hard not to. But yours are so much better, baby.” “And that, luckily for you, is the correct answer.” Nick’s hand caught hers. “So you’re staying with me?” “For the moment.”
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Chapter Seven “Let’s see, I now own Park Place so that means you owe me,” Celestine calculated the vast sum of Monopoly money Nick Swan had to fork over to her, “two thousand dollars.” She gleefully held out her hand to accept the vivid orange play money. “Damn shame this is not real money.” It had been a day since the visit to Caloundra and they had spent some enjoyable, non-sexual moments together. It had been nice and relaxing. Clearly they could be together without having sex. “Well, I’m broke now,” Nick informed her in mock disgust. “I can’t help it if you suck at this game.” “No, I don’t suck. You cheat.” “So?” Celestine responded not the slightest bit guilty about some of her Monopolyplaying maneuvers. The aim was to win. There was nothing specifically in the rules that said you could not cheat and if there was it was probably in fine print and no one read that. “You still owe me five hundred dollars.” Nick held out his empty hands. “I am strapped for cash. But I can pay you in another way.” He pushed the board aside and pounced on Celestine before she had time to react. “What the…” Celestine was suddenly on her back with Nick between her legs pushing up her skirt and pulling down her panties. “You have to stop wearing underwear, baby.” Nick flung the panties over his shoulder. “What are you doing?” Dumb question for a woman whose legs were up in the air and spread wide open. As Nick’s tongue licked the deep cleft between her legs Celestine shrieked. To be honest she did not care what other things he planned to do as long as he did not stop what he was doing at that moment. “I’m paying you back in kind and I’m expecting change.” Nick slowly slid his tongue in and out of her body, pulling out to flick her clit every so often to make Celestine squeal. “I have to make sure I play Monopoly with you more often. You’re a fantastic loser.” She panted as she tried to fight back the orgasm that burning deep and uncontrollably inside her. She wanted Nick to be inside her when she came. Celestine reached forward trying to pull him toward her. “What do you want, baby? Do you want to come?” Nick licked her ruthlessly. “I’m going to come in your mouth.”
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“So?” Nick murmured as he continued tonguing her clit. His fingers slid deep inside her, thrusting in and out, urging her to come. Celestine hesitated no more. She screamed as the pleasure hit her, her vaginal muscles instantly clenching around his fingers. “Damn, you are good, moonlight man,” Celestine panted as she slowly came back to earth. Nick pulled Celestine onto her knees and gently pushed her until she was leaning up against a nearby chair. He unzipped his trousers and freed his erect, impatient cock. “I want to be inside you now, baby.” “Permission to enter granted.” Celestine spread her knees wider and shoved her ass back to receive Nick. Her fingers were good but his cock was so much better. She sighed as he sank deep into her body. Nick thrust slowly and steadily in and out of her body, allowing all but the tip off his cock to break contact with her tight wet entrance. “Oh, Nick…please…harder…” Celestine was instantly rewarded as she felt him slam hard into her body, his balls slapping against her ass. “Put your hands between your legs. I want you to feel how well we fit together.” Celestine could feel their joining and it made her even hotter. “Come for me now, baby,” Nick demanded on a growl as his own hands covered hers. Celestine pushed back hard against Nick to make sure she had every inch of his cock inside her as she came. She felt him come at the same moment she did. As the tremors of their coming slowly subsided, Nick kissed the back of her neck tenderly. “I believe that was worth five hundred dollars.” “And then some…” Although her knees hurt, Celestine did not want to move from having Nick still inside her. “I think… What was that?” Celestine tilted her head to listen. “Did you hear that sound? What could that be?” It sounded as though a person was moving around outside. “I have no idea but I’m going to find out.” Nick pulled out of Celestine. It sounded like it was someone outside, on his private property at night. That was not on. Nick hasty zipped up his trousers and pulled Celestine to her feet. “I’ll go with you.” “You have no pants on, baby.” He looked at the red, damp curls of her pussy, wishing that had not been so rudely interrupted. “I thought you like me without pants?” Nick kissed her lingeringly as his hands played with the curls between her legs. “I do but I’m not about to share you with some intruder outside. Stay put. I won’t be long.”
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How long was long? Was it okay to be impatient after ten minutes? Celestine thought so. Besides, she had her skirt and underwear back on so as far as she was concerned she had waited long enough. She went outside looking for Nick. “This had better not be some weird joke, Nick Swan.” Even though the outside security light instantly came on, it seemed awfully dark to Celestine. She called out, trying to sound confident but feeling anything but. She was no weak-kneed wimp but she also wasn’t someone who thought wandering around in the dark a smart move either. Suddenly there was a sound to her right as a figure sprang up in the darkness. Celestine yelped in fright as it darted off away from her. What the hell was going on? She was pretty sure she had not scared whoever that was away. What the hell was going on? “Nick!” Celestine yelled loudly, wondering where he was. Celestine heard a low groan. “Bloody hell.” She ran in the direction of the groan and found Nick on the ground lying beside her car. She dropped to her knees, her heart pounding frantically. There was just enough light to see the blood in his hair and he was lying awfully still. “Oh, Nick, please speak to me,” Celestine urged frantically as she cradled him in his arms. She rained frantic kisses on his face and lips as if they would somehow restore him to her. She could not possibly lose him now. Not when she was at the point of no return with her feelings for him. Celestine kissed his lips softly, feeling a slight return response from him. “Did you just kiss me?” Nick asked, his voice groggy as he tried to focus on her. Celestine ignored the question. “What the hell happened?” “I feel like I’ve been hit by a truck.” “I didn’t see any truck but I did see someone.” Celestine felt the relief surge through her on hearing his voice. “So what about that kiss? It seemed awfully desperate to me.” Nick tried to sit up but sank back wearily into Celestine’s arms. “You’re delirious,” Celestine responded softly as if it was highly unlikely she would have kissed him. She looked again at the blood in his hair. The wound was gently seeping bright red blood. Celestine pulled a clean handkerchief from her pocket and pressed it gently to the wound. She had to get help. “And you’d take advantage of that fact to kiss me?” It was the first time she had made the first move and they both knew it. “You could have waited until I was fully awake.” “Then you would have taken advantage of me.” “But you like it when I do, baby.” Yeah, she did. And what had just happened to Nick made her very aware of what else she liked about the man. 72
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“I was concerned about you. I was checking to see if you were alive.” “By kissing me?” “Haven’t you heard of the kiss of life?” Celestine remembered the cell phone Nick always carried in his hip pocket. She reached into the warmth of his pocket, feeling him squirm as she pushed her hand in to get the phone. She felt his cock instantly tighten at her touch. Unbelievable. The man had been injured but he was ready for sex. “I like how you show concern… While your hand is there…” Celestine squeezed his cock gently then retreated with the phone in her hand. “Dream on. You’re in no condition to be having sex with me, moonlight man,” Celestine told him with a chuckle as she managed to pull the phone out. “I’m calling an ambulance.”
***** “Oh good God…” Celestine groaned in discomfort as all her muscles protested as she tried to sit up straight in the chair she had been sprawled awkwardly in. When had she fallen asleep? All she could remember was Nick had been attacked, that they were now at the Royal Brisbane Hospital and he had stayed overnight for observation. Okay then, so why was she still there? That was the tricky part. Realistically, Celestine told herself she had no way to get home as she had not thought to bring her purse with her when they left in the ambulance. Added to that, she felt responsible for what happened to him. If he had not been protecting her, he would not have been attacked. Yes, that was it. Celestine stayed at his bedside because she needed to make sure Nick was okay. That sounded logical to her. If she kept to that line of reasoning she would be fine. She didn’t want him thinking there was more to her staying than there was. Celestine looked over at the man in question. Nick Swan lay asleep on the crisp white sheets of the hospital bed and looked decidedly calm and relaxed. Celestine was glad that he had been able to have a private room. Ah, the expensive miracle of private health insurance. She stood up and walked over to him. She ran a soft finger along his stubble-covered jaw and wondered if she would ever have the guts to admit she loved him. Celestine looked at the five stitches that had closed the wound on his head. Who the hell had done this and why? If they just told her what they wanted she would bloody give it to them. “Bastards,” she hissed softly under her breath. “Who’s a bastard?” Nick asked as his eyes opened and locked on hers. “So you stayed? Why?” The look on Nick’s face indicated to Celestine that he knew the answer, he just wanted her to confirm it. Too bad for him that she was perverse. “I had no way to get home.” “My wallet was in my pocket, you could have used that money.” Damn, logic. Who needed it? 73
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“Maybe you stayed because you love me.” Nick’s hands sought hers. “Climb on board.” He tossed the sheet off his body. He was clothed only in a hospital gown. “What?” Nick surely wasn’t suggesting that they have sex now…in a hospital? Yet, strangely, the idea of hard, fast sex in a public place had Celestine all wet and aching. Would there ever be a time she did not want Nick? “We can’t.” “Why not?” “This is a hospital…” “So?” Whatever point Celestine was trying to make Nick wasn’t going to buy it. “You’re been injured, for God’s sake.” It would be irresponsible agreeing to have sex with a sick man. Good but irresponsible. “Baby, my cock is just fine and it’s aching for you.” When Nick said things like that Celestine found it hard to think about doing the right thing. But what exactly was the right thing in this case? Not have sex with Nick and make him be a good patient and rest? Or did she have sex with him to improve his morale while being banged up in hospital? Everyone needed their morale boosted. She really owed him that much. When she looked at in that light it seemed perfectly reasonable to honor his request. “What about your head?” “That’s not the head I’m thinking with at the moment. Pull the curtain around and take off those clothes. I want you naked now.” If it was anyone else, Celestine would have said it was the drugs talking. But this was Nick Swan. And he liked sex at any time or place. She looked down at his cock. It was pushing up through the cotton of the gown. Could she? “Come on, you want me as much as I want you. Now strip.” Celestine pulled the curtain around and quickly tore off her clothes until she stood before him naked. At the insistence of his hands, Celestine scrambled awkwardly onto the bed and sat astride him. “This is so wrong,” she said as she flung up the cotton gown and grabbed his stiff cock in both hands. Nick grabbed Celestine’s hips and urged her onto him. “If it’s so wrong why have you got your hands on my cock?” His fingers slid into the wet core of her body. “Because I am going to suck it inside me, so please move your fingers out now.” Celestine impaled herself onto his straining shaft and leaned forward to allow him to hungrily suck her breasts. “What are you going to do if a nurse arrives now and sees you sliding up and down on my cock with your breast in my mouth?”
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“Continue riding you until you come, moonlight man.” Celestine ground up and down on Nick’s cock, enjoying the hot feeling of him deep inside her. She quickened her pace and her head fell back as the spasms of pleasure tore through her body. As Nick shot up inside her, she bit back the scream that came to her lips. Instead she leaned forward and kissed Nick hard. “Bloody hell, I’m cured.” Nick caught Celestine as she collapsed against his chest, his cock still buried deep within her. They lay quietly wrapped up in their thoughts. “Tell me, baby, other than you and me, who else knows you were staying at my house?” Celestine looked into his eyes and thought about it. “Well, only Julia Bailey knew where I was as I gave her this address to return the money she owed me.” “Yeah, that’s what I thought. Would Julia be mixed up with whatever these people are chasing you for?” Celestine knew only too well the scruples of her cow of an ex-roommate. Greed was her god. Anything she had to do to get her money, Julia would do. “Julia would sell her grandmother if the price was partway decent.” Could Julia Bailey be involved? What were these people after and how long had she had it? Had it been when Julia was her roommate? The timing did not seem to fit as it all started a week or so ago. “All this happened after Julia ran off with my stuff.” “What if Julia somehow found out what these people were after and what if she agreed to help them?” Julia was greedy and grasping so it was not beyond reasonable doubt that she was somehow involved but how? “Okay, so Julia, the ratfink, finds out that someone is after me for something. She makes a deal with them and gives them your address.” Celestine ran the possibilities through her mind as she said the words. “They then come to your house to get whatever it is I am supposed to have that they want and you get clobbered.” “Which leads me to believe, Nancy Drew, that whatever they want is portable and you have it with you.” “I only have my clothes and the car from hell.” Neither was valuable or fashionable enough to make anyone want to pursue her for them. “I think it’s the car.” To Nick, it was the only thing that made sense. Nick had mentioned the car before. It still seemed like a crazy conclusion to her. “Yes, I keep forgetting it is a priceless object.” Celestine placed her hand over Nick’s brow. “Are you feverish and hallucinating?” Nick put his hands on her ass to keep her firmly on his cock. The beast was stirring again. “Think about it, baby, it all comes back to your car.” Nick’s lips nuzzled at Celestine’s neck. “It’s something in the car. Maybe something is hidden inside.” 75
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Wow, that sounded dramatic to Celestine. Other than gum wrappers and the environmentally friendly shopping bags she kept forgetting to use when she went shopping she could not think what someone would want out of her car. “Like what?” Celestine eyes opened wide as she felt Nick’s cock stiffen inside her. The man was insatiable. But then so was she it appeared as she still had his cock inside her when she could have lifted off a while ago. Nick’s hands caressed the mounds of her breasts. “I don’t know what could be in the car but I suggest we pull that car of yours apart. But first…ride me hard, baby.”
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Chapter Eight Celestine walked around her car, opening all four doors wide. One door hung on an awkward angle but Celestine did not worry about that. The whole car was awkward, what was one flaw among so many? She had already checked out the boot. Other than a tire that need inflating and container of oil nothing appeared to be exciting enough to make someone want to steal it. “So what should we be looking for?” She turned to look at Nick. He had insisted that they search the car as soon as they returned from the hospital. “We won’t know until we find it.” “Yes, I love cryptic comments—not.” “Are you still upset at the nurse coming in and catching us?” Nick smiled at Celestine’s embarrassment at being caught just as she came on top of him. Though it hadn’t stopped her sucking every last drop from him. “Gee, I can’t think why, Nick. I was completely naked on top of a patient who was supposed to be resting.” “I always feel restful after sex with you.” “That excuse did not work with the nurse. Though she did seem impressed with the size of your cock.” The woman had looked at it a little too long for Celestine’s liking. Nick grinned, recognizing jealousy when he saw it. “Most women are. But don’t worry, baby, it’s all yours.” “Of course it damn well is…” Celestine muttered softly under her breath. She wasn’t about to share that with anyone. “What was that?” Nick had heard her and was both amused and pleased at her possessiveness. “Nothing of importance.” Celestine crawled into the backseat and reached in and under the back of one of the front seats. Nothing but an umbrella and a paperclip. She stretched over, lying on her stomach, to search under the other front seat. Nick stood and watched as Celestine wriggled her body, totally unaware how enticing her rounded, plump ass looked. He wanted to be all hot and tight between those cheeks. Nick moved into the backseat to join her, pinning her down beneath him. Celestine felt his cock prodding hard into the cleft of her sweatpants-covered butt. “You’re kidding me? Now?” Nick pulled down her sweatpants and was pleased to see no panties standing in the way of what he wanted. He flung them out the door.
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“Why not?” His fingers moved under her and dipped into the wet curls between her legs. “You’re wet already.” “I’m always wet around you.” It was the truth. Celestine saw no reason to hide it. She heard Nick unzipping his pants. She wanted him inside her and she wasn’t even going to pretend otherwise. She arched her ass up toward him. “I want you take me in the ass this time, Nick.” Even as she said the words she felt hot. She had never had anyone take her in the ass before. She wanted to know what it felt like. Nick was ready to take this woman any way she wanted but he knew without lubrication that was going to hurt. “I need cream or something.” “Hand cream in the glove box.” Celestine turned on her side and watched as Nick squeezed through the front seat and wrenched the glove box open in his rush. His impatiently dancing cock was strained to the breaking point. “Let me put it on.” Nick handed her the tube and faced her. Celestine liberally slathered on the smooth white lotion, enjoying the slippery, hard feeling of his cock in her hands. “That’s enough. I’ll come in your hands if you keep doing that.” “We can’t have that.” Celestine threw the tube to the floor. She got onto her knees and arched her butt toward him. She felt him pull apart the cheeks of her ass. As he entered the virgin territory, Celestine tensed momentarily at the tight invasion. But the further Nick pushed gently in, the more Celestine became accustomed to the feel of him in her ass. “Are you okay?” “Hell, yes…” Celestine panted softly as Nick moved slowly in and out of that tight entrance until she had taken him fully inside. To have Nick inside her like this was a completely different sensation and she liked it. “Harder.” “Any way you want, baby.” Nick pulled her hips firm against his as he increased the pace and pounded inside her. Celestine bit down on the upholstery as she felt the pleasure roar through her body. “Howdy, Nick, I heard you’d been in hospital and…” A man’s voice stopped dead as he took in the sight before him. “Oh, man, I’m sorry…I’ll…uh, leave you to it…” Celestine heard Nick chuckle out loud. He did not stop thrusting inside her. “Who was that?” “My next-door neighbor, Steve.” Celestine wanted to say she was embarrassed but she was more annoyed that someone had interrupted them when she was so close to coming. Besides, what had this Steve person seen? Just her ass with Nick buried inside. She arched her butt against him. She needed completion here. “Make me come.” Celestine shrieked as Nick pulled all the way out then slammed back in, making them both come instantly. “Oh God…that was…ouch!”
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“Not the response I expected,” Nick said as he finished pumping away inside her. It was that last slamming action into the springs of seat that made Celestine realize there was something under the seat. She felt something uncomfortable and lumpy pushing into her stomach. “We need to get this seat up.” Nick pulled out of Celestine and helped her up and out of the car. As Celestine pulled on her sweatpants, Nick started pulling at the bottom backseat. Once clothed, Celestine went around to the other side of the car and started to pull the seat up from her side. As Nick gave one almighty wrench, the seat flew up and Celestine lost her balance in the momentum and fell over backward, landing on her ass on the ground. A pleasant soreness still throbbed through her butt. “Wow!” Nick exclaimed in amazement. “Wow what?” Celestine scrambled to her feet and looked inside the car where the backseat had been. “Holy hell!” Her eyes widened in astonishment as she took in the sight before her. Under the backseat of the car was money. Stack upon stack of it. What a glorious sight to one who was starved for it. “I don’t believe it!” It was more money than she had ever dreamed of seeing in her life. One-hundred-dollar notes, fifty-dollar notes and twenty-dollar notes were bundled one upon the other in haphazard stacks and those stacks covered almost the entire space under the backseat. That much money en masse was mind-boggling to Celestine. Just a quarter of that money would get her out of her financial trouble. What was that saying about possession being nine-tenths of the law? Surely that had some bearing here? Celestine’s greed was of a different nature to Julia’s. Celestine’s greed was motivated by pure survival. “How much do you think there is?” Celestine asked as she continued staring at the money as if mesmerized. “It would be hard to stay but it looks like it’s in the tens of thousands of dollars,” Nick speculated. He grinned at the look of enthrallment on Celestine’s face. Celestine licked her lips in thought. “So I have been driving around in a broken-down car that is basically worth a fortune.” She could not remember the last time she had seen a one-hundred-dollar note. It was like being surrounded by chocolate and knowing you couldn’t eat it because you were on a diet. But then people were known to break their diets and would anyone really know if the odd hundred-dollar bill got misplaced? “This is clearly what these people have been after.” Celestine nodded her head at Nick’s words. She thought back to the dirty-looking blond man that attacked her. “How would they know I had the money when I didn’t even know?” There were a lot of people and cars in Brisbane. It would be hard to track down one woman with a car.
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“Maybe they saw you buy the car or suddenly saw you drive past in it,” surmised Nick, thinking about their next move. The sooner the money was out of Celestine’s possession the safer she would be. “We have to tell the police.” “Oh, yeah, absolutely,” murmured Celestine, not sounding entirely like she meant it. She knew calling the police was the right thing any upstanding citizen to do. This amount of money obviously came from a crime of some sort. There were laws and rules to obey. And although she knew it could never be hers, it did not stop her from wanting to look at it, maybe touch it. The last year without money had been awfully hard and a little fantasy never hurt anyone. “You are way too honorable to take this money, baby.” “Yes…of course…” Celestine murmured in a half-assed manner. She wondered what would have happened if Nick had not been with when she had found it? Would she have been so honorable? “I’m going to call the police.” “I’m just going to stand and look at the pretty money.” Celestine saw the amused look Nick gave her. “I swear on a packet of double choc-coated Tim Tams I will not touch this money.” “Uh-huh,” Nick murmured, eighty-eight percent certain Celestine meant it. “I won’t be long.” Celestine just nodded and stared at the money. She half heard the footsteps behind her. She assumed it was neighbor Steve back for another look. “You are a complete and utter pain in the backside, lady,” a harsh male voice snarled at her. Celestine looked down at the hand that clamped cruelly around her arm. Not neighbor Steve. She looked up at the man beside her. It was the blond man who tried to steal her car. He looked pissed off. Now she knew why. “I have been called worse,” replied Celestine coolly as she tried to break his hold on her. But he held firm and grabbed her other arm as he tried to push her into the car. However, Celestine was not about to be pushed anywhere without a fight. She dug her feet in to stop any forward motion, hoping to delay any action this thug had planned to allow time for Nick to appear. “How did you find me?” She knew she was fighting a losing battle. The man was bigger and stronger than her. “I have been tracking you for days.” The man pushed her toward the front passenger seat. “Get in the car.” He jabbed his finger in the direction of the car and pulled out an ugly-looking gun, shoving it in her face for added encouragement. Stalling for time versus a gun in your face. Her options seemed limited. “Why? You don’t need me.” Celestine knew by the look in his eyes this man would kill her if he had to. “Just take the money and I’ll say nothing.” “I need a hostage.” The man leered sickeningly at her as his eyes roamed over her body.
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Well, that was a look that made her want to puke or shower. It was a look that bespoke only trouble. And she wasn’t going to be a hostage for anyone who looked at her like that. Though no cunning plan to avoid being taken as a hostage came to mind. “Why do you need a hostage?” Where the hell was Nick? How long did it take to tell the police you had a gazillion dollars in your possession that clearly came from a crime? “Because, and shut up!” he barked simply as he grabbed Celestine by the shoulders and shoved her into the front seat of the car. Celestine started to get out of the car but the gun to her head stopped her. “Where are we going?” “Stop asking stupid questions and drive.” He pushed her over the handbrake and into the driver’s seat. “And don’t do anything stupid.” It was too late to warn her about doing stupid things. Stupid had been buying the car two weeks ago. Stupid was not going inside the house with Nick while he rang the police. Stupid was quibbling with a madman holding a gun. Still, she couldn’t stop her natural instincts if she tried. “I still don’t get why you need me when you have your money.” Celestine turned the key in the ignition, willing the car to refuse to start. But being the perverse bastard of a car it was it started straightaway. Damn Nick for being such a good guy and fixing the car like he promised. She drove slowly down the driveway. She looked in the rearview mirror and saw the door to the house open. Nick was looking at the car driving out. Celestine hoped to God he would work out she wasn’t leaving because she wanted to. He had to know it was under duress. “Step on it!” the man snarled. How dumb was he? This car was not built to “step on it”. Celestine watched in the mirror as Nick started to run toward the car but she knew he would not catch them. As much as Celestine wanted to slow down so Nick could catch up with them, she did not want to get shot for doing it. She also did not want to get Nick shot. He had suffered enough because of her. “I’ve been watching you. I reckon your boyfriend looks like he would pay to get you back. And your friend Julia seems to think your rich sister may be persuaded to come to your aid.” The man smiled evilly at her as his gun remained trained on her. Bloody Julia! Celestine cursed in her mind as she trotted out all the nasty words she could think of to call that woman. Of course that ratfink, scheming cow was involved in this. She had been stuffing up Celestine’s life ever since she had met her. “My sister hates me and she will not pay any ransom for me.” Celestine knew this for a fact. Grace was indeed rich. And many times in the last year Celestine had come close to swallowing her pride and asking Grace for money. But she had never become quite that desperate. She could just imagine Grace’s face when they asked for money to save her. It would be “Why? Is Celestine worth it?” Grace would ask in the debutante voice of hers.
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“Your boyfriend will pay then.” The man barked out a series of directions to Celestine. They were heading north along Gympie Road and heading out of the city. “He’s not my boyfriend.” Celestine did not know exactly what Nick Swan was to her. She did know that he was the type who would pay to save her. If she knew nothing else she knew that. “Yeah, right, not your boyfriend. I saw the two of you before on the backseat getting all hot and heavy. You like it shoved in from behind, do you?” The man’s foul breath was close to her ear. Ewww…the thought that this man had watched her and Nick made her skin crawl. He was icky and dumb and Celestine was beginning to wonder if he was the brains of this situation. How many people kidnapped someone they thought they may get a ransom for on that word of a liar like Julia Bailey? Surely it would be less of an aggravation to leave the intended captive behind and take the thousands of dollars. But then again this man was most likely the one who had written “Suffer the conquests” so how bright could he be? Sure, he had a gun but Celestine would rely on natural rat cunning to survive. “You’re insane and you have bad breath.” “I have a gun on you. I will win any insult contest between us so shut the hell up!” Okay then, not a game she could win just at the moment. However, if she remained calm and collected she could look for her chance to escape. “So where am I going?” The car continued on to the Bruce Highway. It was the same route she and Nick had taken only the other day when they went up to the Caloundra. “Do you always talk so much?” The man looked at her in frustration. He had no patience for idle chatter. “Pretty much,” murmured Celestine, beginning to see he may not be as threatening as she thought if he could be aggravated by mere talking. “Well, shut up and keep driving.” After thirty minutes, the man directed her to follow a dirt road off the side of the highway. They stopped fifteen minutes later at an old weather-beaten house that looked like no one had lived in it for a while. The paint had all but peeled off the dry wooden boards and the garden was a nightmare of weeds. The blond man ordered Celestine out of the car. She wondered fleetingly if this was the last place she was ever going to see. People killed for money. Would she ever see Nick again? Had she screwed up her last chance of any sort of happiness by not admitting to her feelings for him? Was this some karmic payback? Celestine was pushed inside the house and onto the dirty floor. As she landed with a thud she looked around her surroundings. Dirty, dismal and no phone on the wall. The chance of escape appeared to be zip. She tried to fight the ropes that the blond man was applying to her hands and feet but this guy was bigger and stronger and he had a
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gun so the ropes were put on despite her struggles. As the ropes cut into her skin, she knew for the moment there was no escape. “This is not very comfortable.” Celestine tried to sit up but her legs were bent in front of her and her hands were behind her back. She saw the frustration in the man’s eyes. “I don’t care,” the man snarled as he kicked shut the door they had come through. “Well, I was just thinking that if you are going to ransom me you have to look after me.” Celestine wiggled around trying to get comfortable on the hard, dirty floor. “For God’s sake, shut up!” the man yelled at her. “I don’t want to shoot you but you are pushing it, lady!” That was all the information Celestine needed. The blond man was not as tough as he made out because if he really wanted to shoot her he would have done it already. “Who are we waiting for?” Celestine suspected it was Julia. She was a completely different kettle of fish from this man. She was completely ruthless. If Julia wanted something it would not matter to her what she had to do to get it. “Why do you think we are waiting for someone?” the man asked in exasperation as he looked down at her on the floor. “Just a feeling.” Celestine decided to try being his friend, not that she would ever be. But she could pretend to be to save her ass. “If I was in your position, I would just put me back in the car, drop me at the nearest service station and take off with all the money. Why share it with anyone else? There must be thousands in the car.” Celestine looked at him as if this was a great plan that he should take up instantly. The man looked at her thoughtfully as if weighing up her words. “Fifty thousand to be exact.” Oh, what she could do with that money! “Wow! Did you get it in a bank robbery?” Celestine tried to sound interested, hoping she could to talk the blond man around to her way of thinking. “Yeah, it was at…” The man stopped and scowled at her in irritation. “Why am I even discussing this with you?” he asked, more to himself than Celestine. “Maybe because you like me,” Celestine responded with just the hint of an encouraging smile. However, she did not want to encourage too much friendship from him as the bottom line was that he was a lowlife scumbag. “What?” he snapped as if she had lost her mind. His attention remained focused on her as he could not believe she would not shut up and be frightened as any normal hostage would be. “Well, you haven’t shot me. That must be a good sign of friendship.” “Are you nuts?”
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“No, I just think you should take the money and forget about Julia. I swear I won’t tell a soul what happened here.” Plus, it would annoy Julia no end to know she missed out on fifty thousand dollars. That was a bonus in itself. “Sure, and I’m Little Bo Peep,” the man snarled sarcastically, as he leaned down to look at her. If Little Bo Peep had bad breath, dirty clothes and greasy facial hair, thought Celestine, trying not to cringe at the smell emanating from him. “So what’s your name?” “It’s Le—right, shut up or I will shoot you!” the man warned in a tired, harassed voice. Clearly he was losing any patience he had. “You can see why no one is going to pay a ransom for me. I’m too annoying. You may as well let me go.” The man considered this for a moment as if he did agree with her assessment. “I’m going outside where it’s quiet. You can’t escape so I suggest you sit still and be quiet.” He wrenched the door open and slammed it shut behind him in his need to get away from her. Interesting, thought Celestine. This man was not a killer. He would rather go outside than deal with her any further. It gave Celestine hope.
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Chapter Nine “We’re calling your boyfriend. He needs to know what we want from him.” “How do you he will give you what you want?” “Because no man is going to willingly let go of a woman that begs him to shove his cock up her ass.” Any theories Celestine had about trying to ingratiate him into her way of thinking had just disappeared. “Nothing to say to that?” The man smirked at her as he dialed Nick’s phone number. “Other than you are a disgusting prick, no…” Celestine mumbled under her breath. She wondered who the hell had sex with people like this man. Could any working girl be paid enough to screw him? “How did you get Nick’s phone number?” “I’m not as dumb as I look.” “That’s lucky for you then.” The blond man looked at Celestine, unsure whether he had been insulted or not. “Just shut up for five seconds and listen to what I want you to tell your boyfriend.” Celestine listened. It sounded like the standard stuff kidnappers on television said. The man had no imagination. He must drive Julia insane. At least that was a bonus. The man handed her the phone and looked at her as if he would gladly slap her if she said anything the slightest bit wrong. As Nick’s voice came on the line, Celestine felt her heart soar. “Nick. It’s me.” She grasped the phone in her hand and tried to sound cool and in control despite the fact that she was neither at the moment. She was more cranky and frustrated than anything at the situation she was in. She hated feeling helpless. The fact that Nick sounded so relieved to hear from her made her feel a little happier. “Baby, where are you? Are you hurt?” There was an edge of desperation in Nick’s calm voice. “Nick, I’m okay and I have no idea where I am. Ouch!” Celestine yelped as her captor yanked hard on her hair to get her attention. She glared angrily at the blond man. “I am to tell you that the blond, greasy carjacker…” Celestine turned to the man beside her. “Well, you are and don’t pull my hair again. Hey! Don’t look pissed off at me ‘cause I’m not real happy with you either, mate,” she snapped at him. “Anyway, Nick, he wants fifty thousand dollars for my release. He has some insane idea that my
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sister Grace will fork it over.” Celestine turned to her captor who cursed at her furiously. “Well, she doesn’t like me, I already told you that.” “Baby, don’t piss the man off.” There was both concern and admiration in Nick’s voice. “Too late for that…” The phone was snatched from her hand. “Listen, Swan,” snarled the man into the phone. “Her sister may not like her and I am beginning to understand why but I know you do so I suggest you get that fifty thousand together immediately unless you want to see your ladylove hurt.” “You already have the other money. Why not leave her alone and flee while you can?” “Because you can never have enough money, Swan. You have forty-eight hours to get it together.” He snapped the mobile phone off and looked down at Celestine, shaking his head in a mixture of anger and wonder. “You’re just plain annoying. I was thinking of having a little fun with you myself seeing as though you were so accommodating with Swan but now I wouldn’t fuck you if you begged me.” He tightened the ropes around her hands. “Sticks and stones,” murmured a relieved Celestine under her breath. The ropes cut so tightly into her skin that she gasped with pain. But that fact that he did not want her body negated any pain she felt. Being annoying did pay off sometimes.
***** Twelve hours later Celestine was still wriggling around, trying to get into some sort of position of comfort on the hard wooden floor of the shack. In all that time she had remained rigidly awake. Her captor had only released the ropes three times to let her go to the disgusting bathroom in the shack. Each time she looked for her chance to escape but the bathroom offered none and there was no way she wanted to remain in that bathroom any longer that she had to. “So, are you going to feed me, or what?” Celestine was not the slightest bit hungry. She just wanted to keep up the idle chatter that she knew annoyed her captor so much. She had to make sure no thoughts of sex crossed his disgusting mind. Twelve hours together had done nothing to improve relations between the oddly matched pair. He wanted Celestine to shut up and be quiet and Celestine, knowing this, perversely chose to do the opposite. She had worked out long ago his threats toward her were empty ones. Celestine was still hoping he may just let her go if he got frustrated enough with her. Only one thing concerned her and that was Julia and what she planned. She was the wild card in this setup. “There’s no point letting me starve. No one is going to pay ransom money for a skeleton, you know.” She was doubtful Grace would pay regardless if she was skeletal or not. Grace would probably think she looked better with less flesh. Celestine could not imagine being able to scrape up five hundred dollars, let alone fifty thousand, to pay a ransom. In all honesty, Celestine could lay her hands on fifty dollars in a pinch. 86
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But she knew in her heart that Nick Swan would pay whatever amount was requested. He was just that sort of person—damn him. Like she could avoid loving him even if she tried. She had fantastic sex with a man who had a good heart and loving soul. Women all over the world would kill for that. Celestine just had to get the guts to say it. “You have got some mouth on you.” Her captor shook his head in frustration. “Celestine always talks back and she has always been annoying. It’s part of her personality,” came a very feminine voice Celestine knew only too well. Julia Bailey had come unnoticed into the house and now stood looking down in distaste at Celestine’s tired and rumpled form. “Well, Julia Bailey! Fancy meeting you here. I don’t suppose you brought the money you owe me?” Celestine greeted her sarcastically as she took in the neat, pale blue linen pantsuit Julia was wearing. Celestine knew she looked like a bag lady compared to Julia. Not that she gave a rat’s ass about what her ex-roommate thought of her. “Is this your boyfriend?” She indicated the blond greasy guy. “Your smart mouth will get you in trouble one day, Celestine. Oh wait, you’re already in trouble.” Julia smiled at her tartly. “So listen up, I’m in charge and you will do what I say.” Celestine did not doubt for a second Julia was in command and not the blond man. “So, Julia, why all this?” Celestine already knew the answer. It was greed. Good old-fashioned “I want something and I am going to get it at any cost” greed. Julia laughed as she dragged a chair over to where Celestine sat on the floor. “Well, the money of course, Celestine.” Julia sat down crossing her legs daintily as if at a tea party. “After seeing you at Caloundra, I did, I must admit, have one very small moment where I actually decided I had done you wrong and would give you back some of your money.” “Well, hell, Julia, you must be slipping. This conscience thing is so unlike you.” Celestine was amazed that Julia even admitted she had thought about doing the right thing. Obviously she had quickly gotten over that urge when she realized the benefits of throwing in her lot with the blond man. “Oh Celestine, I know you don’t believe it but you were good to me. You took me into your home at a time I needed help.” The look on Julia’s face clearly indicated she remembered a time that was not pleasant for her. “And naturally to pay me back you ripped me off.” Celestine had tried to help Julia. She had met her on the street, literally. Julia had one battered suitcase and was standing on the street, her face bruised and cut up after ending a relationship with a boyfriend who beat her. Celestine, on hearing that she had no place to live and having a soft heart despite all the protective walls she had put up since, allowed Julia to move in with her. It was a big mistake and it had got her to where she was now, sitting on a dirty floor with her hands and feet bound. So much for being nice and taking in strays. It was the mongrels that always turned ‘round and took a bite out of you when you were most vulnerable. 87
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“It’s my nature, Celestine. You can’t change what you are,” Julia said softly, almost making Celestine believe for one second she was sorry about it. But it was only a second as Celestine knew better. “Anyway, after meeting up with you at Caloundra and having my conscience momentarily pricked, I went back to the house at Everton Park to see you. However, I ran into Lester at the house, looking for you.” Julia indicated the blond greasy man that had been Celestine’s unwanted companion for the last day or so. “After a few tense moments and some pertinent questions, Lester saw the advantages of me helping him to get the money.” Julia’s eyes roamed over Lester momentarily in disgust. Lester, in turn, seemed oblivious to her feelings toward him. “Who knew you would buy such a bomb and lead me to such money, Celestine?” “So where did this money come from?” “Lester and his partner robbed one of the banks at the Chermside shopping center.” Celestine lived no more than fifteen minutes away from that shopping center and the car yard she bought the piece of crap from was two blocks down on Hamilton Road in the same suburb. It did not take a genius to realize Lester had stashed the money, waiting for the right time to collect it. “What happened to Lester’s partner?” Was there a third crazy person she had to deal with? “Lester killed him.” “He tried to take all the money for himself,” Lester said angrily. Okay, Lester was back on the most likely to kill list. “So Lester here stashed the money in your car with every intention of retrieving it when it was safe.” “Until I unwittingly purchased the rust bucket.” God, you had to love how life came together like that. “So, Lester,” said Celestine, turning to the blond man, thinking the name suited him perfectly. The name was creepy and so was he. “How did you know I had the car? Have you been following me since I bought it?” “After the robbery my ex-partner Carl, may the devil torment his rotten soul, decided to stiff me out of the money. We were supposed to split the money in half and go our separate ways. But one night I found him sneaking out of our hideout. I followed him to the used car lot. I knew he was going to take all our money and leave me with nothing. When I found out what was going on, I dealt with Carl. However, the next day, before I could retrieve the cash, you were buying the car. I didn’t think anyone would be stupid enough to buy such a bomb, so I thought I had more time.” “I wasn’t stupid,” said Celestine defensively. “I was desperate. There is a difference, you know.” Celestine ignored the “oh yeah?” look Lester shot at her. Celestine turned her attention to Julia thoughtfully. Was there any way to get through to the woman? The memory of Julia’s bruised and bloodied face, when she first met her, came to her mind. Julia had been through a lot of tough times herself. There must be some spark of goodness somewhere in the woman. “We used to be friends once, Julia.”
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“We were never friends, Celestine. You were useful to me. Once the money dried up you were no longer of any use to me.” The coldness in Julia voice chilled Celestine. It was all so cut and dried to Julia. Use, abuse and move on. There was no human decency left in her. Celestine felt incredibly naïve for taking her in as she did. “I see, silly me for thinking we were friends.” “We never were and yet you just did not get that until it was too late. I thought you were smarter, Celestine. But obviously you’re not.” Julia smiled at her suddenly. “I will say something for you, Celestine. That man of yours is something else. You know we watched him take you that night he fucked you on your knees. You should really have closed the curtains. And that cock! He’s enormous. I wouldn’t mind sliding down on him myself. In fact I nearly did after Lester hit him but you came along and ruined it.” Julia sighed at her missed opportunity. “I think we need to ring him again. I want to bring the time forward on this. He needs to know we are serious.” Lester was pleased at this news. “Thank God! She is annoying the hell out of me.” Celestine arched her eyebrows at his tone. He was clearly a man on the edge. It could not just be from spending time with her, surely? “We’ll give her lover only another twelve hours to get the money. When we call we talk quickly and get off the line. Swan may have already spoken to the police. We can’t risk the chance that his calls are probably being traced.” “Nah, it won’t be a problem,” replied Lester confidently. “I’ve seen on television where you only talk for a couple of minutes and they don’t have time to trace the call.” Both Celestine and Julia exchanged looks that were identical. Lester was clearly not smart and that was being polite, thought Celestine. She knew it must drive Julia insane to be involved with such a dipstick of an accomplice. Celestine smiled smugly at her exroommate. “Fine, whatever, just make the call quick.” Julia looked annoyed that Celestine had guessed her thoughts about Lester. She watched him dial the number. “You now only have twelve hours, Swan.” “Let me talk to Celestine,” Nick demanded quietly. The only thing he was interested in was Celestine. All the money in the world could not replace her. Celestine felt the phone shoved against her ear. “Hi,” she said to Nick, feeling the ridiculous urge to cry when she heard his voice. That was so not like her. It was probably the rope burn making her want to cry and not that she wanted to see him again. “Hi yourself.” Nick’s voice was soft with concern. “Are you okay? I am longing to see you, baby.” The softness in Nick’s voice made Celestine swallow hard. The last thing she needed was for Julia to think she was weak. 89
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“I’m as fine as I can be.” She had an overwhelming longing to see him and to be held by him. “Do you know where you are?” “Possibly the Sunshine Coast—owww,” Celestine yelped as Lester finally gave in and slapped her hard across the face, making her head spin and her teeth cut into her bottom lip. “Stupid bitch!” Lester snapped after hitting her. He grabbed the phone from her. “Baby! Are you okay?” Nick shouted frantically through the phone. Celestine knew she had taken a huge chance on disclosing their whereabouts. But she was so over this greedy little game. Julia snatched the phone impatiently away from her accomplice. “We’ll see you in twelve hours. Have the money or she’s dead.” Nick listened to the line go dead. He knew who owned that voice. He had heard it once before. It belonged to Julia Bailey.
***** “Grace, she’s your sister.” Nick was completely losing his patience. He had tracked down Celestine’s sister Grace Maxwell, thinking that maybe she would be interested in her sister’s welfare. But the only thing that seemed to concern Grace was the amount of money the kidnappers were demanding. “I know but fifty thousand is a lot of money,” Grace Maxwell said, completely agitated by Nick’s tone. “I don’t know what to do.” Nick was beginning to understand why Celestine had as little as possible to do with her sister. Grace Maxwell was either a complete and utter, uncaring bitch or she was an airhead who just didn’t understand what Nick was telling her. He had gone to the trouble of tracking her down through Tess. Tess had told her that she was a piece of work but Nick wanted to believe somewhere deep down inside she cared for Celestine. But the fact that Celestine, her younger sister, was in trouble did not seem to mean much to Grace. And the thought of spending fifty thousand dollars to free her sister seemed exorbitant to her. She sounded like someone who would probably spend that much on clothes in a month. “Once again, Grace, I’m not asking you to pay it. I am telling you to be aware that Celestine is in danger and that these people know who you are.” Nick spoke to her almost as if she was a child. He had had enough. His duty was done. Nick would look after Celestine himself. “I do care for Celestine.” “You have a damned strange way of showing it, lady.” “You don’t understand…” Grace’s voice trailed off as if she knew there was no way she could make this man understand her.
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“No, I don’t and at this moment I am not even going to try to understand you. You’re not important to me, Grace.” Nick hung up the phone and rang his banker.
***** Celestine was pushed to the dirt floor of an old shed. They had to move locations because Celestine had given up their Sunshine Coast location. The Sunshine Coast covered a large and wildly diverse area and so that trying to find them it would be like trying to find the proverbial needle in a haystack. However, Julia intended on taking no chances. There was money involved, after all. So, they were now back in Brisbane, Everton Park to be precise, back in Celestine’s own backyard, literally. Her house at Everton Park had an old, dilapidated, tin shed out the back. It was somewhere that Celestine, and she was sure Julia, had never ventured inside of in her whole tenancy of the house. She had peeked in once when she moved in. However, the assorted spiders and cockroaches had been enough to stop her from venturing farther inside or utilizing the old shed. Celestine wasn’t scared of spiders but cockroaches were just plain repulsive so she had just developed the need not to have a use for the shed. So, it had sat in its festering state until now. “Julia, don’t you think bringing me back to Everton Park is a little obvious?” Though Celestine had to admit that sometimes hiding in plain sight was the best way to hide. Julia was greedy but she wasn’t stupid. Celestine reluctantly had to admire Julia’s thinking. However, the woman was still a conniving ratfink in Celestine’s eyes and if she could make her doubt the wisdom of her decisions then even better. Maybe she would slip up. Julia turned on Celestine angrily. “Don’t you think you should shut up before you get hurt further, Celestine?” Clearly thievery and kidnapping were evidently taking their toll on Julia. She had been snappy all the way to Brisbane. And she was right, Celestine had been hurt enough. The skin on her wrists and ankles was torn and bleeding from the restraints they had put on her, though thankfully now only her hands were bound. They had decided to untie her feet as they no longer considered her a flight risk. And they were right. Celestine’s legs were cramped from lack of circulation. Her left cheek and eye were swollen and blue from the blow that Lester delivered when she had given away their location. She was dirty and tired but given half a chance Celestine would still try to make an escape. Besides, she wasn’t going to shut up just because Julia Bailey wanted her to. That would be like giving in. And she had no intention of doing that. “Is the money really worth it, Julia?” Who needed this much aggravation for a couple of bucks? Julia snorted in the most unladylike way at her question. “You ask me that after I took everything you had? How do you feel when you have no money, Celestine?” Julia knew full well the frustration Celestine had to feel. Celestine decided to try another tack with Julia. She would appeal to her greed. 91
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“What about Lester? Can you trust him? After all, he killed his partner.” She hoped Julia would give some thought to Lester as a threat. Lester was not with them. He had gone to what he called the little boy’s room. If he was inside her house using her bathroom Celestine knew she would never be able to use that room again. “I can handle Lester.” “Can you? What if he does to you what he did to his partner? All the money in the world can’t help you if you’re dead, Julia.” Celestine looked at her significantly. “Besides, where is he now? It doesn’t take that long to go to the bathroom. I hope the car is safely locked otherwise you’ll be saying goodbye to that money.” Julia laughed harshly at her words. “I know what you are trying to do, Celestine. You’re trying to divide and conquer. The car is under my control and Lester is as dumb of box of rocks. But I’m not. There is no way I’d be stupid enough to either trust him or be sucked in with your words.” Celestine wasn’t surprised by Julia’s response. Julia was a selfish manipulative survivor. She made no excuses for it. She knew what she wanted and she took it. You had to admire that in anyone. However, you did not have to like it. “I take it you’re going to cheat him out of the money from the car?” It was a statement not a question and both women knew it. “You’re not dumb, Celestine. What do you think?” Julia said, looking down at the bedraggled creature before her. “So Lester is going to get screwed over by you and he’s too dumb to realize it. Nice work, Julia.” Celestine wondered when the cosmic wheel of karma would come around and strike Julia onto her ass. The sound of the tin door opening stopped any further conversation between the two women. Lester stepped inside the shed, the gun in his hand. “It’s nearly time,” he told Julia, as he yanked Celestine to her feet. The pain in her wrists and ankles cut through Celestine like a knife. She bit back on the cry that sprang to her lips. She would not show any weakness with this pair. “I’ll ring Swan and tell him where to meet us.” Julia punched in the now-familiar numbers of Nick’s cell phone, into her own phone. “Okay, Swan, here’s the deal,” began Julia in a hard, controlled voice. “I agree to nothing until I speak to Celestine,” returned Nick, his voice as cool and as in command as hers. Julia sighed and put the phone to Celestine’s ear. “Prince Charming wants to speak to you. Don’t say anything stupid, Celestine.” “Are you hurt, baby?” “I’m fine,” Celestine lied, knowing she was in pain and felt anything other than fine. But there was no point worrying Nick any further than she had to. She had put him through so much since she had come into his life. Celestine had to wonder whether she was worth it. Why would he go to so much trouble for her?
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“I love you,” Nick told her, his voice true and firm, answering her unspoken thoughts. “Nick, I…” A loud bang and a howl of pain interrupted anything Celestine was going to say. “Oh my God,” she gasped, as she realized the gun had gone off in the shed. Nick heard the shot and was frantic with worry. “What was that? Celestine! Celestine!” he cried out in alarm. Celestine looked to where Lester was lying on the floor of the shed, screaming in agony. “What the hell happened?” she yelled, as Julia yanked the phone away from Celestine’s ear. “Bloody Lester saw a blue-tongue lizard and decided to shoot at it,” cursed Julia, looking at Lester with intense dislike. “The idiot appears to have shot his big toe off.” Both women looked down at the blood pooling on the ground near Lester’s foot. The canvas shoe on his right foot had the front blown out of it, blood was pouring out. “I thought it was a snake!” Lester howled in pain. Even though Lester was a lowlife creep who had caused her nothing but trouble, Celestine could not leave him bleeding. However, having her hands tightly bound together did not allow her to help him. She looked at Julia to give him aid. Julia looked like she would rather kill him than help him. “Listen up, Swan,” said Julia, into the phone, ignoring Lester’s cry of pain. “Meet me at that park beside the Everton Park library on South Pine Road and there had better be no police.” “Who was shot?” Nick demanded to know, praying it was anyone but Celestine. “Just shut up and listen.” Julia was not interested in anything but her own cause. “Not until you tell me,” snapped Nick angrily, knowing that he had never before contemplated hitting a woman until Julia came on the scene. Julia sighed out a loud, aggravated sigh. “Celestine is alive and if you want to keep her that way you have fifteen minutes to get to the park with the money.” Julia snapped off the phone and reached down to the gun that Lester had dropped after he accidentally shot himself. Celestine did not like the look in Julia’s eyes. Surely Julia did not contemplate killing him. “We’ve got to help him, Julia. He could bleed to death,” Celestine implored her. Lester was a pig but he was also a human being…sort of. “Who cares?” Julia yelled, grabbing Celestine by the arm and dragging her out of the shed. “He’s an idiot trying to shoot a lizard in the middle on the day on a Sunday when a gunshot can be heard everywhere. We have to get out of here now.” She half pulled, half dragged the still-bound out Celestine out of the shed, leaving Lester to rot.
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Chapter Ten Julia swore angrily fifteen minutes later as they drove past the small park beside the Everton Park library, in Celestine’s old white car. “I can see police!” Julia slammed her hands down angrily on the steering wheel. “I told your boyfriend not to bring the police into this!” They circled the block and pulled up in a side street behind the library. Julia yanked up the handbrake and swore loudly. “This is not part of the plan!” Celestine looked at her cynically. She, personally, had never known a time when a plan had come together as expected. Had Julia really expected kidnapping and robbery was something that would be easy to pull off? Was she living in some fantasy world where people said and did everything they were promised to do? “Gee, Julia, fancy someone not honoring your dishonorable demands.” Celestine barely felt the quick, hard slap that Julia delivered to her bruised face. That the woman was pissed off was only too evident. However, Celestine’s face, hands and feet were so numb from the pain that she had already endured that the slap meant nothing. “What now?” Celestine pressed her head back wearily into the seat headrest. Lord, she was exhausted. She just wanted this all over and done with. She wanted to go back to her normal boring life where the only thing she had to think about was the pursuit of money. And then there was sex with Nick…she wanted to be able to do that again. “Will you shut up! I’m trying to think.” There was a definite edge of hysteria to Julia’s voice. Celestine was encouraged by the slight sound of defeat in ex-roommate’s tone. She decided to utilize it to her own advantage and maybe get herself out of this mess a lot quicker. “If it was me, Julia, I would just dump me and cut your losses.” Celestine turned her head to look at the blonde woman who was deep in thought. Lester’s gun rested on her lap. Celestine knew for a fact that Julia was a manipulative, cold-hearted cow but she wasn’t a career criminal. She was clearly out of her depth when it came to successfully handling a robbery and kidnapping. It was completely different from ripping off the person you lived with. Celestine had every intention of trying to influence Julia’s decision-making process any way she could even if it meant another slap on the face. “Take the money from my crappy car and scarper, Julia. You already have a guaranteed fifty thousand dollars hidden in the backseat. There is no guarantee that you are going to get any money for kidnapping me. Is it really worth the risk of getting caught? Let’s just end this now.” Julia snorted at her as if she believed Celestine did not have a clue what she was talking about. 94
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“What do you know, Celestine? You’re such a smart-mouthed, goody two-shoes. Why the hell would I want to listen to the likes of you?” Celestine did not care to be thought of as a goody two-shoes. Okay, smart-mouthed she would accept and she would even admit to being a pain in the ass. However, she was not a goody two-shoes. It was strange that Julia thought of her so but then Julia held the gun and Celestine didn’t so Julia had the edge when it came to name-calling. “Julia, I know that as strong as your greed is for money, you really don’t want to get caught and go to jail.” Greed was good but prison just sucked. All those prison movies alone indicated that. And who wanted to be stuck with an unwanted girlfriend in prison? That alone should be enough to make you walk the straight and narrow. “You already have enough money hidden in this car for your needs.” “I need more.” “We all need more money, Julia! You think you’re alone in that? Snap out of it!” Celestine had to remember that Julia had the gun and picking a fight with her was not the smartest thing she could do at the moment. “It’s another fifty thousand, Celestine.” Julia looked at Celestine as if she was speaking some strange language she could not understand. “With the money I already have from the car, I’ll be rich.” Then what? How much was too much? What did you risk for more than enough? Hell, Celestine loved and adored money. But there was a price for everything and the game Julia was playing did not seem worth it. And what if she got caught and got nothing? Did Julia ever think beyond her greed? Or did she live for the greed of the moment and to hell with the consequences? “Nick and the cops may even not have the money with them, Julia.” Celestine pointed out the obvious to her. Not everyone could come up with a huge sum of money just like that. Though even as she said it, Celestine knew instinctively Nick Swan had that money with him. How? She just did. The man could entice her to have sex by a mere look and have her begging for more. Nick was wild and crazy yet despite this he was solid and dependable and one of the good guys. Some guys just did not walk around with a white hat on their head to prove it. In the short time she had known him, Celestine realized she knew Nick better than anyone else in her life. Yeah, she was in love with the guy. And she may just have the guts to admit to him that if she ever got out of this thing with Julia. “It may be a bluff.” “It’s an expensive bluff with your life, Celestine.” Celestine wondered if Julia remembered when they had first met and what she had been like. Julia had been shy, quiet and wounded both physically and mentally. Had her treatment at the hands of so vicious an ex-boyfriend killed any spark of decency in her? Or was she so hardened to everything that the battered, desperate woman she had once been was now looking for payback any way and on anyone she could? “I don’t believe you really want to kill me, Julia.” Celestine was ninety-five percent certain she was right. But there was always that five percent that was the wild card.
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Julia sighed loudly, a tired, thin smile creased her lips. “Do you ever shut up, Celestine?” she asked, in a wry, strained voice. “Rarely ever. You know that, you lived with me for almost six months.” Celestine could almost feel the other woman rethinking her plans. “Come on, Julia. You know the fifty thousand under the backseat would set you up nicely somewhere. Hell, I’ll even throw my car for you to drive off into the sunset in.” Realistically Celestine knew the car would probably only get her twenty miles away before it threw a hissy fit and refused to budge. Celestine could see the corners of Julia’s mouth turn up at her less than gallant offer. “Your car is a time bomb on four wheels, Holt.” “Yeah but it’s a classic. They don’t make ‘em like this anymore.” Celestine thumped the dashboard with her bound hands and a split formed under the tacky gray vinyl. “A piece of tape will fix that nicely.” She could see by the look in Julia’s eye she was so close to giving in on the kidnap idea. “Take the money, junk the car if you want and just let me go.” Julia was greedy but she was never dumb. “They’ll catch Lester and all the blame will be placed on him.” Poor, dumb, smelly Lester. Julia sat quietly for a moment, her expression indicated that she was weighing her options. “If I do let you go, you’ll tell them about me.” Celestine felt her heart leap with hope. Woo hoo! The end was near! “Come on, what do I really know about you, Julia, other than you’re greedy and a manipulative bitch that I would be happy never to see the back end of again?” That was all she wanted to know of Julia Bailey. Possibly she had a good side and displayed finer, nobler feelings but Celestine doubted it. “To be honest, Julia, I do not give a rat’s ass what happens to you once we part.” Julia smiled at her words as if what Celestine had said had struck a chord with her. She turned the ignition on in the car. The car rolled forward, heading back toward South Pine Road and the front of the library. “You know something, Celestine Holt, you are a pain in the backside,” Julia told her, her eyes alight with a sudden spark of decision. “But you are also right. Get ready to jump.” “What?” Jump? Jump where? And how? Her hands and her feet were once again bound. “I’m going to let you go but I’m not going to stop long enough for the cops to get me. So you’ll have to jump from the car.” Julia looked at Celestine critically. “You look like you’d have a lot of cellulite. If you land on that you will be fine.” Celestine looked at the woman disbelievingly. Was it that obvious she had cellulite? “I retain water really easily.” That was her defense and she was sticking to it. Frigging bitch. Julia laughed out loud.
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“You’re more pissed off that I called you fat than by jumping out of a moving car. You are weird, Celestine Holt.” “So speaks the woman with the fake boobs…” Celestine muttered tiredly. She had to get back on track. Name-calling was all well and good but she had to convince Julia to let her go without the dramatics. “You want me to jump, or more likely fall, from a moving car?” Celestine was no daredevil or even the slightest bit athletic. She knew falling out of a moving car onto the road would hurt like hell. “I was hoping you would undo me and let me walk away. You know, be nice to me, for old times’ sake.” “Nah, I don’t do nice.” Julia grinned as if she was enjoying Celestine’s predicament. Julia had solved the problem of what she was going to do. It was now Celestine’s problem to stop herself from getting too badly hurt when she fell. “I will slow the car and you can fall out. That’s the best I can promise, Celestine.” “God, you are a selfish cow!” Jeez, Celestine just knew she was going to have some serious gravel rash. Julia slowed the car enough so she could to reach over, one hand on the steering wheel as she undid Celestine’s door. Once undone, she grabbed Celestine’s arm. “I hope they catch you!” Celestine snarled as she felt the door fly open beside her. The ground sped by at an alarming rate. This was what Julia called slowing down? “See you around, Celestine,” Julia said in careless farewell. She pushed her out of the car, not bothering to either shut the passenger door or look back to see how Celestine fared as she gunned the car and sped off. Celestine fell hard onto the asphalt, rolling and swearing loudly as she went. The momentum of her body finally flung her to slam hard into a gutter. She felt like every bone in her body had been broken as she lay in an undignified lump. She was in agony. At least it proven she did not have enough fat to break her fall. “Yay. A bright side,” Celestine groaned as she rolled into a ball as the pain hit her. She was not numb anymore. Celestine could see people running toward her. Her head started to swim dizzily. Just as Nick reached her and she knew she was safe, she gave in to the urge to faint.
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Chapter Eleven “You are not checking out of this hospital, Celestine Holt.” Nick’s voice was most definite on that score. Celestine arched her eyebrows at Nick’s commanding tone. She did not do orders. It was a genetic quirk of hers to instantly do the opposite of what everyone expected. Besides, she felt fine. Well, maybe not fine. More like passably okay. The painkillers that the doctor had prescribed were mighty fine and they were kicking in nicely. Other than the odd twinge she was good to go. Granted, she looked like crap but no one could be picture perfect all the time. However, bruises faded and cuts healed. The important thing was that Celestine was still standing, albeit in a wobbly fashion and there was no reason for her to stay in hospital. “I am perfectly okay and as I am no longer in danger, I just want to go home.” Well, as much of a home as her rathole of a house was. But more importantly, she needed to get out of hospital. She had lain awake the previous night listening to the soft voices of the nurses and the whining of patient call buttons, thinking about Nick and what to do about him and her feelings. The fact that she could not stop thinking about how they had had sex in this very hospital did not help. It only made her horny and confused. Was sex all they really had between them? Was she mistaking lust for love? The answer came to her at four o’clock that morning. It was she did not frigging know and lying in an uncomfortable hospital bed was not helping her. It was a less than definitive but that was the best she could come up with. Nick paced in frustration before her. “I could not believe it when the nurse told me you had signed yourself out. You are supposed to stay in another night for observation.” “Well, I’m supposed to do a lot of things I don’t do.” Exercise regularly, eat properly, control swearing, not speed through amber lights…the list was bloody endless. So, in the scheme of things, leaving hospital of her own accord seemed such a small thing compared to everything else. So why didn’t the nurse come back with her prescription refills so Celestine could get out of having this conversation with Nick Swan? Every minute she spent with him was one minute closer to throwing herself in his arms. If and when she did do said throwing, she wanted it to be for the right reason. Love—not just lust. Although lust was awfully good, Celestine wanted more. “You have your mind set on this, don’t you?” “Yep.” Celestine tried to pretend the moment of wooziness she was experiencing wasn’t happening. She did not need an “I told you so” moment with Nick. She casually sat back on the bed behind her as if nothing was wrong. Nick shook his head at her actions. 98
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“Blind Freddie can see you’re not well. If you insist on leaving come and stay with me.” “No thanks.” Now that Celestine was no longer in danger, she could go home. The real estate agent had already repaired the damage to her house. Apparently it still looked like crap but it was livable. Celestine knew she could relax and recover better in her own space and her own bed. Having Nick around would be too much of a temptation. The man could seduce her with a look and while that was exciting it did not help with her confusion over what to do with him, other than having sex with him. “Why not?” Nick looked at her as if he really was having trouble working out what was going on in Celestine’s mind. “Because…” It was a totally inadequate response but it was the only one she had. “Nick, this is not up for discussion.” Of course Celestine knew instinctively they were actually heading for an argument and not a discussion anyway. She pushed her hair back from her face with gravel-scraped fingers. Her hair had been nightmare of knots and tangles when she had first arrived at the hospital. A kind nurse aide had helped her untangle it. But now that she was clean, bandaged and untangled, she was ready to go home. “I know what I’m doing.” “Do you really, Celestine? You’re battered, bruised and can barely walk.” Nick gave her a look that told her he believed she did not have a clue about her actions. “But I can see you’re basically going to politely listen to me then disregard everything I say and go your own sweet way. That was pretty much her plan in a nutshell and Celestine knew Nick wouldn’t be thrilled about it. But there it was. “I have everything under in control. I will be fine.” Or I will make it up as I go along. “What a load of crap.” Nick did not believe her for a second. “Tell it like it is, why don’t you?” “I always do. How about you?” Mostly Celestine did when she knew what she was doing. She didn’t have a damned clue at the moment. “I need time to think.” Nick crossed his arms over his chest and looked at her searchingly. “What about?” And this was why she needed time to think. She couldn’t think straight with Nick standing in front of her like that with his biceps bulging. It made her want to look at other places on his anatomy that also may be bulging. “You…me…this thing between us.” “You mean the ‘thing’ that we love each other?” “Do we?” Nick’s eyes softened on her.
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“What are you scared of, baby?” Pretty much damned everything when it comes to you. “I just need time alone.” “To hide from what you’re feeling? Don’t be like your parents. Just because they could not get along, it doesn’t mean we won’t.” “How do you know I’m not like them?” Her parents had clearly married in a mad minute and lived to regret it. Genetically she had the same “dumb” genes they did. “Because you are a warm, sensitive, sensual woman who gives without expecting anything in return.” Nick’s eyes locked on hers, giving his words extra meaning. “Yeah, making love with you is the best thing that ever happened to me but it’s only because it’s you and I love you. And before you say it or think it, I don’t just love you because of the sex.” Celestine wished she was so certain about her feelings. One minute she knew with dead-set certainty she was in love with Nick. The next she did not have a clue. If she was going to do the love thing, Celestine wanted to do it right. Maybe it was a storybook ideal but to her love meant long-term commitment and sharing and compromise. If she could not do that right, she did not want to do it at all. What if she had children who turned out like her because of the childhood she had? Kids needed to understand love. That came from their parents. “I care for you—” “You care for me?” Nick interrupted, as if he could not believe her words. “What a coward you are, Celestine Holt.” “All we have is sex.” “You know we have so much more.” Nick ran an irritated hand through his hair. “Yes, sex between us is fantastic.” “I agree but I don’t really know if it’s love.” “Would you have sex with any man? Would you kiss him like you kiss me? Or spread your legs wide and beg him to make you come? How about drop to your knees and suck his cock to drive him wild?” “No.” Even as Nick said the words, visions of them together doing just that shot into her mind and made her instantly wet. “You love me.” Nick moved toward her. Celestine held up her hands to stop him. Oh God, if he touched her now, she knew she would be pulling the curtain around her bed and sucking that cock of his inside her. And as good as that would be, it did not solve her problem. “That’s just it, Nick, I don’t know if I love you. In the last week, with everything that has gone on, I haven’t known what the hell I was doing from one moment to the next, let alone knowing whether I am in love with you.” The hurt in Nick’s eyes stabbed her to the core. But she had to be true to herself. “It may not be fair to you. It may not be what you want to hear.” How the hell did she make him understand? “I don’t want to 100
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hurt you but I need time to think. I don’t know what I feel and you demanding that I make a decision or a commitment is not helping me. The decision I make has to be right for me. I can’t be pressured into it.” Nick shook his head and laughed sadly. “Do you care what I think at all?” Celestine cared for Nick and his opinions more than he would ever know. Couldn’t he see that if and when she came to him it would be for the right reasons and forever? Nick deserved a woman who was totally firm in her love for him. “Of course I do but by the same token, this is something I need to do.” She stood up as if to illustrate her point. “I’m a big girl and I am capable of looking after myself. I know what my limits are.” “You haven’t got a clue what your limits are, Celestine Holt. They are so rigid and unchanging that just out of sheer stubborn stupidity you will pass up the greatest love in your life.” That was very much on the cards but they were her cards to play. “Well, Nick, that’s very dramatic, I’m sure.” “I knew you would do this, Celestine.” Nick sighed. He was a man that knew he was getting nowhere with the woman he loved. “If you knew that, why did you bother coming?” “Baby, you know why I came. I love you.” Nick leaned forward and kissed Celestine softly. “Think by all means. Just don’t screw this up for us.”
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Chapter Twelve Celestine stood in the lounge room of her home and wondered what the hell she was doing there. The taxi dropped her off at the house all of two minutes ago and it seemed like a foreign place to her. Although the damage had been repaired, this house was no longer her home. The memories it evoked were not ones Celestine cared to remember or live with anymore. She knew there was no way she could stay. So what to do now? What to pack? Where to go? Did she love Nick or not? Was she being stupid or not? The answers came back as don’t know, don’t know, most likely, you stubborn wench and yes, you are stupid. “Yay, life…can you get any more confusing?” Celestine muttered to herself. PreNick all Celestine had to think about was the pursuit of money to pay her debts. Now she had that problem mixed up with all the others. Not that Nick was a problem. He was more like a temptation mixed up in a dilemma with a twist of confusion added for angst value. Or more precisely, she was the actual angst value. “Okay, time to get a grip, woman.” Standing and staring at her sparse furniture was getting her nowhere. Celestine sighed and started off in the direction of her bedroom. What the hell shape would the bed be in? She really needed to lie down…maybe with some chocolate biscuits. Celestine stopped and detoured into the kitchen. Chocolate was excellent thinking food. The sound of a car door slamming in the driveway made her swear out loud. It had to be Nick. Pushy, sexy bastard. Celestine stomped to the door, ready to give him a piece of her mind. However, she had to stop mid-stomp as her head was spinning and it felt like a piece of her mind might actually fall out through her ear. She grabbed the nearby doorjamb. The drugs were fabulous for pain but she felt as woozy as hell on them. A soft knock sounded at her door. Okay, not Nick. He would have bowled straight in or kicked the door down. Celestine shuffled slowly to the door and opened it. “Holy snapping ducks!” Her mouth dropped open in amazement. “What are you doing here, Grace?” Her sister never willingly sought her out. What the hell did this mean? Was it like some omen of doom? Or maybe it was like the first flower of spring. Nah, with their track record it had to be doom. Celestine watched as her sister gingerly stepped over the threshold in a pair of shoes she just knew did not come from Kmart during their thirty-percent off footwear sale. Her whole outfit would have cost more than Celestine’s monthly rent. Celestine knew objectively her strawberry-haired sister was beautiful to look at. Celestine wasn’t jealous of that. She knew that outside beauty was just a shell and that it was what was inside that counted. The problem was neither of them really knew what was inside the other.
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Grace grimaced at the bruising to her sister’s face. She positively blanched when she saw the bandages on her wrists and ankles. “Oh God, Celestine.” Grace swayed on her spiked heels and gasped at her in horror. “You look awful, Celestine.” Celestine smiled at her sister’s words. If it had of been anyone but Grace she would have been offended. But the one thing that they did have had in common was they often said things without thinking of the consequences. “Gee, thanks, Grace.” Celestine had redressed in the same clothes at the hospital she had been wearing for days. She knew she was not a pretty picture at the moment but then her looks had never been of paramount importance to Celestine. To someone like Grace, a person who was never anything but immaculate, she must look like a bag lady on a bad PMS day. “Oh no, I don’t mean it like that.” Grace hastily corrected herself, her hands fluttering in apology. “It’s all been such a shock. The kidnapping, your injuries and everything.” “Well, I’d agree with that.” This was kind of weird. Grace never usually cared one way or the other about Celestine. That was their relationship. It wasn’t horrible. It just was what it was. This sudden appearance looking like she actually cared was weird. “So, why are you here, Grace?” What exactly was the reason for her sister to appear? It was not like Celestine had anything she could possibly want. “Your boyfriend Nick.” Celestine looked at her uncertainly. What did Nick have to do with this? Was he her boyfriend? There was nothing boylike about him. “Uh-huh…” Celestine murmured, waiting for the other shoe to drop. “He rang me when you were kidnapped. He seemed to think I did not care about you.” “Oh yes?” Well, this was a surprise. Clearly whatever Nick had said to Grace had shaken her up enough to haul her ass to her trashed home to see her. “I know we’ve never really gotten on, Celestine, but in the last couple of days I have been thinking a lot about us.” Okay, this was now freaking her out. People like Julia she could deal with as you always knew where her sort was coming from. But Grace was an unknown quantity to her. “Really?” There had to be something more to this visit. Grace was looking at her all sincere and sisterly. Had the drugs she had taken for pain put her in some weird bizarro world? “Yes and do you know what I’ve realized, Celestine? We are exactly alike.” Are frigging not, thought Celestine, her eyebrows arched in disbelief at her sister’s words.
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“We both act shallow,” Grace announced as if it was an important discovery for her. As if! “I’m shallow, Grace?” Celestine was tired, in pain and did not need insults from her sister, the Queen of the Shallow. “Yes, you’re shallow because you don’t want to get involved with anything or anyone so you glide on the surface of life.” “Do not…” Celestine muttered. This woman was related to her by blood but not understanding or knowledge. “Where’s Nick now?” “I just needed time to think about him…us…but that does not mean I am shallow. It means I’m being careful.” Anyone could see that was there was a difference. Okay, maybe not much of one but still a damned difference. “Why do you feel the need to be careful?” “It’s complicated.” Celestine hated being put on the spot to counter questions she knew she only had half-assed answers to. “Do you love Nick?” Celestine blew out a tired sigh. “It’s not that simple, Grace.” “What’s the problem? Scared of getting involved? Scared that you may turn out like our parents?” Grace knew she had hit the nail on the head. “Yes, damn it!” That was the crux of Celestine’s problem. “Aren’t you?” Grace nodded in simple understanding. “I was for the longest time until I met Ben.” “I’ll be honest, Grace. Your husband is the one thing I like about you.” Grace laughed out loud at her words. She was not offended. Celestine smiled in amazement. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard you laugh.” It was a nice sound. “Do you want to know why I’m shallow and a lot like you…and no, not for whatever reasons you are dying to interrupt with.” Grace looked at her sister meaningfully. “I’m shallow because I pretend not to care about anything but the superficial. We both act shallow so we don’t get hurt. We learnt that from our parents at a young age and never really learnt to snap out of it.” “They probably tried to be good parents.” Celestine wanted to believe they had. “But not enough,” Grace responded. “No, probably not.” Their parents were gone and blaming them was pointless. “After I spoke to your Nick about the ransom money—”
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“He’s not ‘my’ anything,” Celestine interrupted her. “And, I’ll be honest, Grace, I wouldn’t have forked out ransom money for you straightaway either.” Which really didn’t mean a lot because Celestine was stone broke and walking anyway. “Whatever…” Grace raised her hand as if it was of no consequence now. “So after Nick called and had a go at me, Ben then turned on me, telling me what an awful sister I was. I was stunned but I thought about what he said and I suddenly realized, in the midst of everything else that was going on, that we are both alike. We’re both scared of screwing up something important so we pretend we don’t care.” Celestine could not deny a word of what Grace had said. It was all true. Celestine was scared of screwing up what she had with Nick so she kept telling herself it was just sex and it would not last. She was basically sabotaging any chance of her own happiness because she was scared. “I can’t remember the last time we ever had a real conversation, Grace.” “I think it would have been when we were six or seven and you butchered the hair of my Barbie doll and swore blind it would grow back.” “I lied, get over it. Besides, that Barbie had some kick-ass attitude going on.” Celestine laughed as she remembered back to when she and Grace were kids. Grace shook her head, a sudden sadness coming into her eyes. “We don’t converse well in our family, do we? We have to change that, Celestine. I’m not saying we’re going to become best friends and close sisters overnight but I want to give it a try.” “Wow!” Sisters? She and Grace? It was a thought that came out of left field. Maybe they could be. It would not be easy. They would both have to change and compromise for it to work. Problem was change and compromise was not handled well by either of the Holt girls. “What?” Grace saw the surprise on her sister’s face. “I’m not a complete cow, you know.” “Well, no, not a complete one,” returned Celestine overly sweetly. “And you’re not exactly the sweetest, most biddable person in the world either, Celestine.” “No, it’s a shocker but I can be an utter bitch.” Celestine’s words prompted them both to suddenly laugh at the absurdity of the situation. Two people who avoided each other for most of their adult lives, now attempting to make amends. The situation had the potential to crash and burn or to slowly rise to something better. But it was something worth taking a chance on. “So how did you and Nick meet?” “He climbed in through the window of my friend’s house looking to have sex with my friend but got me instead.” “Uh…” Grace had no idea how to respond to that. “The sex was earth-shattering.” 105
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Grace shook her head and smiled as if she wasn’t sure where to go with that answer. “Are you happy, Celestine? Are you in love with Nick?” “The happiness question I’ll have to get back to you on.” Celestine wasn’t really sure what constituted happiness. That Nick made her smile and feel good was possibly the best measure of happiness she had. “As for loving Nick, the sex is fantastic but how did you know you loved Ben?” Grace’s eyes lit up as if remembering how she realized she loved her husband. “I have to admit I did not want to love Ben. But he was so persistent and loving. It was so overwhelming to someone who had never really been loved in any way before.” Yep, Celestine knew that feeling. “Nick’s like that.” “And you want to run and hide?” Grace guessed accurately, seeing Celestine’s surprised reaction to her words. “See, we are alike. I wanted to do the same thing. But then, look at our parents, they were not good role models to teach us about loving. They were cold people.” Yeah, they were. However, both she and Grace were adults now and could not blame everything in the past for decisions made in the present or future. “Do you ever get scared you’ll hurt Ben?” That was what worried Celestine most. After being alone and looking after herself for so long she was scared she would not be able to handle being with Nick, that she would hurt him. “You have to take a chance.” Celestine tilted her head on an angle and looked at her sister as if really seeing her for the first time. “Are we in a parallel universe or something, Grace? Is it really you and me standing here talking like actual sisters? Are we—” Celestine stopped suddenly as she heard a noise from the bedroom. “What was that?” Grace asked in alarm, a carefully manicured hand going to her chest in startled surprise. Celestine started to walk toward her bedroom to check out the noise. “In light of everything that has been happening to you, shouldn’t you call the police before you go looking for trouble?” Grace followed reluctantly behind her. “Nah, I’m sick of being a victim. I want to kick ass first and ask questions later.” Celestine was bruised, cut and battered but she had had enough. “What more can happen to me, Grace?” She walked defiantly to her bedroom. She looked inside at her bed. “Holy frigging hell!” It wasn’t Goldilocks on her bed. It was Lester and he was way too ugly and smelly to be part of a fairy tale. He looked like death. His hair was matted to his head, he was
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pale and shivering and his bloody toe had bled all over her bedspread. Celestine remembered how the police reported they had not caught him yet. He had obviously been in the house all along. On her bed. A bed she would now have to burn after Lester’s disgusting personage had been on it. She looked down at Lester. He did not look good normally but now he looked positively awful. Celestine guessed a mixture of blood loss and infection was the cause. His foot was a bloodied mess. “Oh yuk! Who is that?” Grace yelped in disgust when she saw Lester. “This is Lester, my kidnapper. He shot his toe off…don’t ask. It’s a long, stupid story.” Lester sat up woozily and waved a knife at them. In the state he was in he could barely be able to cut bread, let alone attack someone. “I want the money.” “Now, Lester, you know Julia took off with the money and left you to rot.” Celestine just wished he had not decided to do it on her bed. “But it’s mine and I want it!” Lester part roared, part groaned but mostly drooled out. “I believe the Rolling Stones summed it up best with the lyrics ‘You can’t always get what you want’.” But… “you get what you need”…and Celestine needed Nick. “I’ll kill you.” If Lester was going for threatening he was failing badly. “So scared—not.” “I mean it.” “Sure, you do.” Celestine leaned over the bed and took the knife easily from his loose handhold. It was a knife from her own kitchen. It wasn’t a good choice for menacing. It was okay for peeling potatoes but that was about it. She looked over to where Grace was punching in a number on her mobile. “You have an interesting life, Celestine,” Grace murmured, then spoke quickly to the police, advising them of the situation. “Until I bought the car from hell several weeks ago my life was boring. I had never been carjacked, shot at or kidnapped. The most daring thing I did was to allow a bill to remain unpaid for a couple of weeks until I could scrounge the money together.” “And you’d never been loved before either.” “No and it’s on a par with being kidnapped but not as painful.” “And there is the bonus of ‘fantastic’ sex.” Grace looked at her sister speculatively. “Did Nick really come through the window and have sex with you?” “Yeah, he calls it a ‘moonlight ride’. And it’s worth every damn penny.” Celestine looked down at Lester. He was asleep, dead or comatose. None of the three particularly interested or worried her. That would teach him for shooting at a poor defensive lizard.
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“So what are you going to do about Nick?” Grace looked at her sister with a mixture of admiration and query. “You are pretty fearless when it comes to dealing with this bloke but what about someone who matters?” Yes, that would be Nick…hmm… “I think I’m going to have to borrow a ladder.” “You’re not going to…” “Yeah, why not? I think it’s time for a ride in the moonlight.”
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Chapter Thirteen Who knew breaking into someone’s home was this damn difficult? Of course it did not help that Celestine was still aching from her ordeal. But to be honest, even if she wasn’t it was doubtful that it would have made it any easier. She was pathetically inadequate at climbing ladders, let alone hoisting herself through a window even when totally fit. Having Tess and her fiancé holding the ladder and giving her a boost up did not make the experience any easier. But she was grateful for their assistance in getting her to Nick’s home and providing the ladder. As Celestine fell through the open window she swore softly. Actually this whole operation had required a lot of swearing on her part. Thankfully she knew some excellent swear words to use. So much for Julia calling her a goody two-shoes. Celestine looked over at the bed. She could see the naked male form of a man in the moonlight that shafted through the window. She hoped like hell this was the right bedroom and the right man and that no one else was staying over. Unlike Nick, she was picky who she took her moonlight rides with. Celestine crept forward. She was unable to see the man’s face. Her eyes traveled down his body. It was Nick. She’d know that magnificent cock anywhere. Celestine started to strip off her clothes. As she approached the bed, Nick sat up and looked at her. “I could hear you swearing all the way up.” Oh! Damn man! Why couldn’t he have been asleep? “This supposed to be a surprise.” “Oh, trust me, I’m surprised, baby.” Nick flicked on the nearby bed light and grinned at her. “How did you get up the side of the house?” “A ladder.” Suddenly Celestine felt slightly inadequate. Her body was covered in purple bruises and gravel rash. How appealing was that? Maybe this was a big mistake. Nick nodded his head in approval at her words. “You’re naked. What were you planning?” Oh yeah…big mistake. If Nick had to ask why she was naked, it indicated a lack of interest. Celestine looked down at Nick’s rigid and ever-expanding cock. Or maybe not. Excellent. “I want a moonlight ride.” Celestine approached the bed and looked down at him. She was wet already in anticipation. “What makes you think I’m interested?” “Ah, that.” Celestine pointed to his fully erect cock. She climbed onto the bed and slid her hand over it.
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“I’m not easy.” “Yeah, you are.” Celestine pushed him back on the bed. This was her ride and she would have it her way. “Okay, you’re right, I am.” Nick lay back and watched her. Celestine leaned forward and licked the tip of his straining cock. She wanted to give something back to Nick for the crap treatment she had dished out at the hospital. And sure, she would enjoy herself in the meantime but essentially she wanted Nick to know she loved him until she could say the words freely. Nick growled as Celestine licked his cock with long, determined strokes. “I thought you didn’t want me. You pretty much said that in the hospital.” His hips bucked under her mouth. “Oh, I lied. I want you.” Celestine slid her mouth over his cock, taking him inside. She sucked hard and heard him groan. She felt powerful, in control and ready to ride. “Oh, baby…” Nick squirmed under her, his hands on her head as she continued to drive him crazy. Celestine let his cock pop out wet and shiny from her mouth. She licked her lips. “Do you want me?” She leaned forward and licked the tip of his cock once. There was no answer. She licked again. Only strained silence was between them. She looked up at Nick’s tense face. The man was speechless. Excellent. “Cat got your tongue?” Celestine certainly had a firm hold on his cock and she wasn’t letting go until she was ready. “If I speak I’m scared I’ll explode.” “Gee, I can leave if it’s all too much for you, Nick.” Celestine reluctantly let go of his cock and started a halfhearted crawl off the bed. Nick grabbed her thigh. “You’re not going anywhere, baby. I want you.” He looked at her skin. “What’s this?” The small dark blue tattoo was an exact replica of the one Nick had on his chest and it still stung like hell. It had probably not been the smartest idea to get it done when her body hurt all over from the fall but Celestine wanted to get it done to show Nick how much he meant to her. “Do you like it?” She watched as Nick’s hand gently caressed her skin. “Why?” His eyes glowed with hope. “Why do you think?” She reached for his cock again. Nick’s hips bucked with tension. Celestine smiled in lazy triumph. The man was putty in her hands. Well, not literally but certainly metaphorically. “I think you love me, baby.” “You could be right. Do you want to come now?” “Hell, yes.” 110
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Celestine took his cock into her mouth and sucked him dry. Nick pulled Celestine into his arms. “What changed your mind?” Celestine rested her hand lovingly over his tattooed heart. “Grace.” Nick looked at her in amazement. “Your sister? She’s kind of weird.” “Oh yeah, but so am I.” “But in a good way.” “And that is the correct answer to give.” Celestine felt incredibly at home in Nick’s arms. Why the hell had she been fighting this? “Anyway, she turned up and we attempted a sisterly bonding moment.” “How did that go?” Nick’s lips lightly grazed the soft flesh of her neck. “Not great, but okay.” Celestine shivered as his lips slid along her skin. “But I realized we are a lot like each other—scared to love, scared to let go of control.” She looked into his eyes. “I was scared of us.” “I know.” Nick kissed her lingeringly as his hands started moving caressingly on her breasts. Celestine sighed. The man had the ability to touch her like no other. “I’m not scared now.” Nick chuckled softly. “I guessed that, baby.” Celestine licked her lips and knew it was a now or never moment in her life. “I love you.” Nick pulled her tighter against him. “I got that as well.” “So…” Nick had better start saying something soon or Celestine knew she was going to feel awfully silly. “What?” Nick looked at her as if puzzled. He wasn’t. Celestine slapped his chest lightly. She knew the man was game playing. “Haven’t you anything to say to me?” “Are you going to be one of those women who want to hear ‘I love you’ all the time?” “No.” It would be nice but she wasn’t that needy. “But hearing it now would be good especially as I have just committed myself to you.” “Have you, baby?” Nick smiled softly at her.
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“You know I have.” She felt Nick’s hands slide down over her stomach to between her legs. She automatically parted them to allow him entrance. “You do know that means marrying me.” “Scary but doable.” Normally the idea of marriage would have freaked Celestine out. But maybe it had something to with the fact she loved Nick or maybe because his fingers were massaging his clit slowly. Either one worked for her. “I love you, Celestine Holt.” “About bloody time.” Celestine rolled on top of Nick’s body and kissed him. “Hey, I wasn’t the one who had a problem saying it.” Nick gently kneaded the flesh of her breast, smiling as Celestine moaned. “Take me.” Celestine leaned over so Nick could lick her nipples. “You’re hurt.” “I’m not that bloody hurt.” She sighed softly as the suction from his mouth tightened the ache between her legs. “Or do you think you’ll have trouble keeping it up?” Nick’s cock sat like an iron bar against her stomach. “Baby, I can keep it up as long as you can.” Celestine smiled. It was going to be a long, interesting night then. She lifted herself slightly from his body and started rubbing the wet, open cleft of her pussy back and forward against the head of Nick’s cock. “Come on down, Celestine Holt,” Nick murmured huskily as he grabbed her hips and directed her to slide on down the length of him. As Celestine slid down over the hard heat of Nick’s cock, she knew this man was hers forever. She slowly rode up and down, not wanting this moonlight ride to end. “This is for keeps.” “I can do forever.”
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Epilogue “I got a postcard from Julia.” Celestine held up the card that had been redirected from her old house to Nick’s. The last three months had been the best in Celestine’s life. Despite her fears she and Nick had taken to living with each other pretty well. Oh, they fought and argued over silly things only to make up with great enthusiasm and dexterity in the bedroom later. Celestine admired the view of Nick standing wet and naked behind the clear glass shower screen in the bathroom. She dumped the postcard on the floor and started stripping off her clothes. A girl could never be too clean. Besides, a wet, naked Nick was not something she could pass up. “She’s in Morocco.” Celestine dropped the last of her clothes and opened the shower screen door to slide in behind Nick. She grabbed the soap and started lathering it between her hands. “Where was she last week?” Nick groaned as her hands slid softly and slowly over his ass, massaging as she went. “Spain. The girl gets around.” The muscles in Nick’s ass tensed and flexed. Celestine moved forward until the front of her body was tight and flush with his back. “She’s a piece of work.” Celestine slid her soapy hands down to the thick, long shaft of his cock. Already it was jumping with anticipation. She soaped him slowly, grabbing and releasing his cock every so often to drive him to the edge they both enjoyed jumping over. “Oh hell, yeah, she’s a nasty cow but she’s really making that fifty thousand stretch.” Celestine herself was making something of her own stretch at that moment. To hell with money. Despite beliefs to the contrary, it could not give her an orgasm. “She would have ripped someone else off by now.” Nick had totally given in to the hands that roamed gently between his legs, massaging his balls and gripping and releasing his cock. “I wonder what she did with my car.” Who was swearing at it now? “You’re kidding me? It was a piece of crap, baby.” “I know.” Celestine slid her hands along the muscled skin of Nick’s thighs. She smiled as he moved her hands back to his cock. His wish was her command. She wanted the cock primed and ready when it slid in side her. “I heard Lester got a prison term and he lost his toe. Go the lizard!” Somewhere in Brisbane there was a blue-tongue lizard that was pretty damned pleased with itself. “Isn’t Grace supposed to be coming over soon?”
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“Along with Tess and Brad. What’s your point—apart from the one growing so nicely between your legs?” “Should we be starting this now?” Nick personally could not care if he ever saw anyone ever again as long as he had Celestine. “They know we have sex.” Celestine rubbed her pussy slowly against Nick’s ass as she continued soaping up his cock. “Your sister always looks at me weird.” “She probably still can’t believe you used to climb through windows and have sex with strange women.” Though that was most definitely the past. “Yeah, you were strange.” “Damn straight. If I wasn’t I would have yelled my head off and demanded you leave.” “But you yelled and begged me to make you come.” “I seem to remember you did all right out of it.” Celestine slapped his ass lightly. “And I still do. You know if you continue doing that I’m going to have to spin you around, pin you to the wall and shove my cock up your ass.” Celestine licked her lips in anticipation. “Why do you think I’m doing it, moonlight man?” “I love you, baby.” “And I love you. Now spin me.”
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About the Author Amarinda Jones believes anything is possible and sometimes just asking for the impossible will surprise someone enough that they will give it to you. Writing is like that. Put it out there and wait for a response. There is always the possibility you may fall on your ass, but after all, that’s what cellulite is for. Amarinda believes in taking chances, speaking her mind and aging disgracefully. Twenty years from now she plans on being the neighborhood witch that all the kids are scared of. But then, everyone has to have a hobby. Amarinda welcomes comments from readers. You can find her website and email address on her author bio page at www.ellorascave.com.
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Also by Amarinda Jones Because I Can Maid for Death Thief of Mine
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