Sweet Seduction Sacrifice
Book One in the Sweet Seduction Series
By Nicola Claire
Copyright © 2013, Nicola Claire
All Rights Reserved
Kindle Edition
ISBN: 978-0-473-23570-3
http://nicolaclaire.blog.com/
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and incidents are products of the writer's imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organisations is entirely coincidental.
All rights are reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the author.
More books by Nicola Claire:
Kindred Series
Kindred
Blood Life Seeker
Forbidden Drink
Giver of Light
The View From Here: Volume I
Dancing Dragon
Shadow's Light
Entwined With The Dark
Mixed Blessing Mystery Series
Mixed Blessing
For:
All those people, like me,
who have fallen in love
at first sight.
(It really does happen).
Chapter 1
Get a Grip!
It was the fifth time I had opened my front door to this. Twice this week alone. He was upping his game tactics, despite my latest threat to go to a lawyer and get things finalised once and for all. I thought changing the locks and reprogramming the security code on my apartment alarm, would have been enough of an indication it was over, but Brett was stubborn. Stubborn, secretive and crazy. Not what I had fallen in love with, he'd hidden that side of himself well for over seven years.
Seven years of my life gone. Poof! In a flick of an eye seven years had passed and what did I have to show for it? A loft apartment in the city, in one of the less opulent buildings. And my shop. My pride and joy. My dream come true.
I didn't really care about the apartment. Brett and I had shared it for over four years, before I kicked him out the first time, just over twelve months ago. There were already too many memories there for my liking, but as Brett had squandered all of our savings and I had thrown him out, I stayed in the apartment, took over the mortgage and continued to work in my store.
My store I did care about, though. I'd worked hard to realise my dream and Sweet Seduction was the spot to go for a delicious coffee, nibble on a decadent chocolate treat and grab the latest divine music in the form of a CD, old school vinyl and downloadable MP3. Seduction of the senses, that's what my dream was to me.
But I was beginning to see my dream was in jeopardy. Imminent disaster on the horizon, my Mum would say. I admit, I've spent the past year denying it, but the writing was on the wall before I kicked Brett out that first time. We'd grown apart, hardly spent any time together anymore. He had his mates and seemed to be working more and more late hours. But I couldn't walk out on six years of a relationship without at least trying.
The trying became yelling, which quickly declined into slamming of doors and hours spent ignoring each other and then took a nose dive right into mistrust and secrets and non-verbal messages that didn't invite trying any more. After trying for six months I kicked him out.
But that's not the worst of it.
I should have taken a second mortgage, sold my wardrobe of designer clothes, begged a loan off my parents, anything to cover the mortgage myself. What I shouldn't have done was let Brett Elliott back in the door. 'Cause once you do that, it's harder to say no again.
Four more suitcases packed and locks changed on the door. Four more will sapping, confidence crushing, stupid, idiotic weak mistakes. I had even begun to despise myself. But Brett is Brett. And the Brett I fell in love with was caring and funny and cute boy-next-door gorgeous and always knew exactly what I wanted to hear.
The last time I kicked him out was it. Locks changed, alarm reset, cellphone number replaced and a Trespass Notice filed. That final one was a shocker. I'd never gone to a police station in my life before, but my best friend Kelly made me do it. Said I had to take this separation seriously and there is nothing more serious than a legal document backed by the might of the New Zealand Police Force.
But, despite my drastic measures... now this.
I was already running late. Kelly and Lucas were opening the shop for me, but I was due at the lawyers' firm in half an hour. It would take me that long to walk there, but now I'd have to deal with this... this crap. Hundreds of dollars worth of roses left outside my door. He can't afford to help pay the rent this week, but he can somehow drop off - inside his no go area - six dozen red roses beautifully presented and expertly wrapped.
I stood there for several seconds wondering where the hell I'd discard them. They were not getting inside my home and I couldn't bear to look at them in the shop all day. My neighbours; a young professional couple, had taken the last lot, but my other neighbours consisted of a single guy, an old cranky biddy and a gay couple. The gay couple it was then.
I stomped down to Wayne and Edward's door and banged a couple of times. The flowers were too big to drag with me, they'd probably need a forklift to get them down this end of the hallway in one go.
The door opened and Wayne leaned a hand casually against the frame above his head, reading glasses halfway down his nose, checked shirt open and baring a well muscled chest, top two buttons of his faded jeans undone. He was munching on a piece of toast.
"Reading the paper over breakfast again, Wayne?" I asked and watched as he quickly removed the offending give-away glasses and shoved them in the pocket of his shirt.
"Hey, Sweetie. Aren't you late for work?"
"I'm late for a meeting with my lawyer," I replied and Wayne instantly perked upright.
"Finally," he muttered. I didn't give in to the discomfort of his words. "What can I do for you, Gen?" he asked with a smile.
"Um... I don't suppose you and Edward would like a little floral enhancement in the apartment, would you?"
"Floral enhancement?"
I turned slightly and nodded back down the hallway. Wayne leaned his head out the door of his apartment and nearly choked on his piece of toast. After coughing a few times he returned watery eyes to me.
"Brett?" he guessed.
I just nodded and bit my bottom lip. It was one thing to rely on your neighbours to water your plants, when you had to go out of town on a coffee shop convention, it was a whole other thing to ask them to be the receptacle of something you thought was only good for the trash, but couldn't afford the inner city garbage clearance bill.
"Leave it to me, Sweetie," Wayne said coming to my rescue, not for the first time either. "I'm sure Edward's bank would love to spruce the place up with some red roses. Red goes with electric blue doesn't it?"
I smiled, despite myself. Edward was the bank manager at the Queen Street branch of the Bank of New Zealand, whose chosen colour scheme was a bright electric blue.
"It'll look avant garde," I suggested, not sure what avant garde actually looked like, but it sounded good anyway.
Wayne chuckled and followed me back down the hall. We both came to stop by the behemoth display.
"It's such a shame," Wayne murmured.
I took a breath in thinking he was about to delve into dangerous waters, a bouquet of flowers like these shouldn't be sneezed at, I suppose.
"If only he'd pricked himself on a thorn or something, but it looks like the florist de-thorned them all. Ah well, dreams can't always come true."
I should have laughed, or at least smiled at him, but his words hit hard. My dreams o
f a loving relationship hadn't come true and now Brett was threatening the only other dream I had ever had.
My fingers automatically went to my purse hanging over my shoulder, slipping inside and feeling the envelope hidden within. The envelope that had forced my hand, made me file a Trespass Notice and consider hiring a lawyer. He wouldn't win, he couldn't. If I lost Sweet Seduction I would lose all that was left of me.
I nodded at Wayne and made a hasty retreat down the hall and into the lift. The moment the doors closed, sealing me in the metal box, my body sagged. I wasn't sure how much longer I could go on pretending to everyone that everything was OK. It wasn't, I knew this. But saying it aloud would make it more real and for just a while longer I wanted to pretend.
To pretend my dream wasn't over yet.
Auckland shone bright and clear when I made out onto the pavement outside my apartment complex. Summer in the city was always the best. Emily Place was already buzzing with the promise of a new day, I could even hear birds in the Pohutukawa Trees across in the park. Our building may have been a warehouse conversion done on the cheap, but it was prime real estate. I loved living here.
I started up the hill towards Queen Street, my walk would take me past the entrance to High Street where Sweet Seduction is, but the lawyers' offices were on Queen itself. I dreaded to think what they would cost. I knew what commercial rent in the city cost and although High Street is the place to be for fashion and food, Queen Street is all about business. Legal firms, accountants, investment companies, banks. Anything that requires location to boost its clientèle base, resides on Queen Street.
Anscombe, Drake and Kline was one such firm. The big stylised ADK out the front of the building left you in no confusion as to who the main occupant was. A list inside the granite floored entrance noted a few additional firms, all complementary, or at least on par with the legal company that took up three of the five floors. Wow. I was so not going to be able to pay for this. What the hell was I thinking?
I bit my bottom lip and stood stock-still in the centre of the foyer, contemplating leaving and flicking through the phone book back at the shop. I'm sure there'd be something more within my budget out West. The lift doors pinged off to the side and I jumped slightly. The sound echoing in the tall ceilinged room. I was five minutes late already. If I missed this lift, I'd be later. Still I just stood there, breathing a little too quickly and feeling well out of my depth.
I finally shook my head and decided I'd head back to the store, there was nothing else for it. I simply could not afford to pay my mortgage, pay my latest supplier's bill and pay for a lawyer like this too.
"Are you getting in?" came a deep, silky, masculine voice from inside the elevator. "Or am I holding this door open for no reason?"
I leaned over slightly to get a clean line of vision into the lift compartment itself. The most gorgeous, thirty-something-year-old man I had ever laid eyes on stood with one hand holding the door open and the other holding both a take-away coffee cup and a briefcase. The cup was on a lean and threatening to spill. It wasn't one of mine.
His blue-blue eyes flicked up to mine and I thought I saw them widen slightly, but if they did, it was too quick to be sure. He looked a little impatient now and the coffee cup was tipping even more over, in an angle that did not mean good news for the cleaning crew at all. Still, it wasn't one of mine, it probably tasted like crap.
He sighed, which looked absolutely divine - making his broad shoulders flex and drawing my eye to his large and obviously well maintained physique - and a bubble of laughter sprung up uninvited from my chest. Expensive suit clad god was impatient all right. His lips twitched slightly at the edges when I laughed.
"I'm running late, sweetheart, climb aboard." I wasn't sure if he had meant that to sound so provocative, but I couldn't stop the slight blush that crept up my cheeks.
He watched my face as I walked stiffly into the elevator, unable to think of refusing his instructions right now.
I turned and stood on my half of the lift, facing the closing doors. I could see his hand hovering over the floor buttons, I wondered why.
He cleared his throat. "What floor?"
Oh. "Um... fifth." His hand returned to his other, taking the coffee cup and lifting it to his lips. I tried to get a look at the logo, but there wasn't any, the cup was a cheap generic one. Ours were black with hot pink writing, proclaiming to one and all, Sweet Seduction on High!
I was supremely amused to see him grimace when he swallowed the opposition's product down.
"What's so funny?" he asked in a drawl.
"You don't look like you're enjoying your coffee much," I answered immediately and then cursed myself internally for several beats. Why couldn't I just keep my mouth shut? Who gives a toss about whether he enjoys his coffee or not?
He leaned against the side of the lift and looked at me, his body now full on to my side. I was determinedly looking at the closed doors, my hazy reflection depicted there making me look a little squat. I'm not that short, but it didn't do me any favours.
"It's not that great, you're right." His answer was so slow in coming, I thought he had decided to ignore my ridiculous remark.
"You should try Sweet Seduction on High," I offered, then was instantly mortified to be touting my wares like some street hawker inside this plush building, on my way up to probably the most expensive lawyers' office in town. And to a man who looked like a god and dressed like he owned half the city.
My eyes flicked up briefly to catch his expression. It was amused. I blinked and watched as his mouth widened in the sexiest smile I had ever laid eyes on. He had a dimple, in the cleft of his chin. Oh my God. I realised my mouth was hanging open slightly, so quickly snapped it shut and turned back to the doors. The man didn't say anything, thankfully and just then the doors opened to Anscombe, Drake and Kline's main office.
I took a deep breath in and walked out of the lift, realising belatedly that the god-like man was following two steps behind. I stopped and looked over my shoulder at him. He was still smiling. His blue-blue eyes and short midnight dark hair framing an obviously quite amused handsome face. He held his arm open indicating the reception desk.
"You first. I'm still finishing my god-awful coffee that isn't as good as Sweet Seduction's on High, I believe."
I paused, then decided to hell with it and smiled at him. I saw it then, the widening of his eyes. I was watching his face when I smiled and I swear his eyes got larger. Then swiftly returned to a half-mast state that would look great in bed.
My smile was still on my face when I approached the girl at reception, sitting behind a highly polished wooden desk. ADK in bold embossed lettering centre front.
"Hello," she chirped, giving me a wattage overloaded smile in return which somehow managed to look fake without being obvious. Her eyes trailed down the length of me, in my normal work attire. Black slacks, crisp untucked white fitted blouse over the top and flat black leather shoes. Who wants to stand on heels behind a coffee counter all day or get coffee grounds and melted chocolate on their designer wardrobe? She was quite clearly unimpressed by my presentation skills though, obviously not the firm's normal clientèle. Maybe it's a girl thing. Girls just know when other girls are being insincere and judgemental. Or maybe she was just that much of a bitch it wasn't too hard to miss.
"Hi," I said a little too deliberately. Kelly always said I couldn't refuse a bitch moment when presented with one. This woman just had bitch written all over her expensive clothes and way too much jewellery. "Genevieve Cain for Finn Drake."
She ducked her head down and looked at something on her screen.
"Your appointment was for 9am," she remarked curtly, obviously trying to not-so-subtly point out I was ten minutes late.
"Sorry about that, had to get rid of a truck-load of red roses. You know how it is, there's only so much room you can spare for the blasted things."
She frowned at me and then reschooled her face into a faux smile when the god-like
-man I had forgotten all about behind me, coughed. Or it could have been laughed, it was difficult to tell.
"Take a seat." She indicated a set of couches in the corner for me to sit on. "Mr Drake will be with you shortly."
I nodded and turned around, only to find the god-like man was standing right in my space. I stepped to the side to walk around him at exactly the same moment he stepped to the same side to avoid me. We collided, his hands came up to steady me, briefcase and I'm presuming near-empty take-away coffee cup as well. He was close, I could feel this amazing heat coming off his body in waves. It made me feel a little dizzy. I think I might have swayed.
Coffee tipped out of the take-away cup and fell to the cream carpet on the floor.
"Oops," I said before I could stop myself. "That looked like black coffee, so blotting it with cold water should do the trick, no need for a laundry detergent," I added helpfully and then cringed. What the hell? Shut up, Gen. "Bit of a waste." My mouth seemed to be permanently switched on. My brain wasn't though. "Shouldn't waste good coffee." My motto, come to haunt me.
He smiled at me. It was beautiful. "It wasn't good coffee," he admitted quietly, as though it was a secret and he only wanted me to know.
I leaned into him, somehow drawn to an invisible magnetic force and whispered back, "I won't tell anyone you didn't shop for coffee at Sweet Seduction. I promise."
He stared at me for a moment and then muttered something under his breath I couldn't quite catch. It broke the spell, whatever the hell the spell was in the first place. But I was suddenly lucid and quite possibly in trouble of winning the title for most ridiculous banter on earth.
I quickly untangled myself from his grip and rushed over to the couches, immediately grabbing a random magazine off the coffee table and burying my face in its pages. I didn't dare look up, but I knew he was watching me. I could feel it, which is ridiculous, but true. His eyes bore into me as though they were physically able to reach inside my skin. I concentrated on breathing, unable to take in the glossy mag's pages before me.
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