by Dawn Ryder
Even if she was headed for a crash-and-burn.
Chapter 8
Nartan sent flowers to her work this time.
A rather amused secretary carried the large vase filled with star lilies and roses into Celeste’s office.
“This smells divine,” Sandy commented before flashing Celeste a smile and disappearing.
The arrangement was colorful and the star lilies, with their pink and cream colors, did have an amazing fragrance. Celeste reached for the card with a happy little smile on her lips.
Is it quitting time?
Her smile grew brighter and it felt like a bubble of happiness was lodged in her chest.
“That’s a new look for you,” Marcus said from the doorway, his expression pensive as he contemplated the flowers and the look on her face. “Who’s the guy?”
Celeste lifted one eyebrow and went back toward her desk with the card clasped securely in her hand. “Maybe it’s a girl.”
Her boss’s lips twitched before he pegged her with a hard look. She knew from experience that there was no escape. Marcus would keep at her until he gained what he wanted.
“Nartan Lupan,” she supplied.
“As in the owner of Angelino’s and the adjacent spa?”
Celeste lost a little of her composure. “I didn’t realize he owned the spa.”
“And golf course, as well as all those new condos along that stretch of coastline,” Marcus fired back. “Some women would be ecstatic over how loaded he is.”
Celeste shrugged and looked at her laptop. But she realized she was avoiding the topic. She looked up at her boss. “I met him up at Sabra’s wedding. He’s Tarak Nektosha’s buddy.”
The moment the words were out of her mouth, she realized she’d made an error. Marcus’s face tightened.
“Did you come back early to be with him?”
Marcus was always direct and nosy.
“Jury is still out,” she said, settling on something that wasn’t a flat-out lie. Marcus would see through one anyway.
Marcus also knew when she avoided giving him a direct answer. He looked back at the flowers and nodded. “Just be careful. If you need him out of your life, you know who to ask. But your timing is good. Your ex is out of prison.”
A tingle touched her nape as she saw the hard glitter in Marcus’s eyes. He left silently, leaving her with the unshakable knowledge that he knew exactly what was in the police files concerning her and Caspian.
Of course he did.
Who was she kidding?
She drew in a deep breath and blew it out. Marcus was likely more comfortable looking at classified documents than he was working with civilian ones. What on earth had made her think he wasn’t fully aware of her past?
She was holding the little card so tightly that the corners were cutting into her. She released it and looked at the card again.
She tapped the interoffice button on her computer screen and selected Marcus’s icon.
So what else do you know about Nartan Lupan?
***
Class was hard.
But she liked it that way.
There was no way to get stuck dwelling on her personal demons. If she wasn’t fully focused, she was likely to get dumped on her butt. Celeste wiped the sweat on her sleeve, and before the night was finished, her uniform was wet. She plopped down on a bench near the back door, grateful for a moment of rest while she drained her water bottle. Master Lee was locking up the front of the studio and starting to flip off the lights.
She took another drink as the light above her went dark. It was suddenly easier to see through the open back door into the parking lot. They left the door open most of the time to air out the studio. Most of the lowlifes in the area had the sense not to wander too close. Curious people would stop near the front windows when class was in session, but the back door was attached to a short hallway that made it hard to see into the studio.
Celeste lowered her water bottle, looking out into the night because someone was watching her. He stood just far enough away to make her strain to see his features. She stood up and pushed her feet into her shoes, but the guy didn’t move.
“Good night, Instructor Connor,” Master Lee said.
“Good night, sir.”
She reached for her gear bag and fished her car keys out. Her car was parked just outside the door, but her belly knotted with tension as the man continued to watch her. She slipped behind the wheel and pushed the key into the ignition. Putting the car in reverse, she tried to ignore the urge to look over at the guy. But she lost and turned her head.
A street lamp was casting light down on him through the branches of a tree, illuminating a face that was thinner than she recalled, but still just as chilling.
He was watching her, his lips curving with satisfaction, before she pushed down on the accelerator. She hadn’t quite made out his features, so she couldn’t be absolutely sure who it was.
Her heart was pounding as hard as it had been during class, but the sweat coating her skin felt cold. Icy dread gripped her as she drove through the streets while checking the rearview mirror.
You’re overreacting.
She’d only taken a quick look at him. There was no reason to think it had been Caspian.
But it might have been. He was out of prison.
Still, the back parking lot of the strip mall where the studio was located was hardly his sort of place.
You’re making excuses.
When it came to Caspian, she was good at that. But there was something calming about telling herself it might not have been him. A sort of victory against letting him control her.
And if it had been?
There was nothing to do. She’d given up that right when she refused to testify against him. She didn’t have a restraining order.
There were times when she was a fool.
***
“Finished at last?”
The driver closed the door with a soft touch that sent only the briefest sounds through the limousine. Caspian settled himself before looking toward the female sharing the ride with him. She was scantily clad, showing off her sculpted figure.
“Your body gives me pleasure. Make sure your personality doesn’t dilute it. You are here because I desire it. I am the master. Never forget it.”
She stopped working the emery board along the edge of one fingernail. Her lips pressed into a pout as a temper snapped in her eyes, but she remained silent and slowly worked the file along her nail again as she smiled at him.
Disappointing. She had no spirit.
Caspian drew a smartphone out of his pocket and made a notation. The driver pulled the car onto the city street and began the journey back toward the exclusive mansions nestled in the Hollywood Hills. It would be a good hour before they made the distance.
He’d have to make sure Celeste understood how little he liked having his precious time wasted. The state had already robbed him of too much of it. Now that he was free, he didn’t intend to let a moment go unused. That was the only reason he was sharing his limo.
“Take your dress off.”
There was another snap of temper in his companion’s eyes, but it lasted only a moment before she uncrossed her legs and pulled her dress up and over her head. That was a shame. But then again, Celeste was one of a kind. A creature with a rare spirit, the sort that renewed no matter how far he bent her. The creature crawling across the limo toward him was nothing compared to his wife. She would be amusing on the ride home but that was all. She reached him and slid her hands along his thighs to his groin, rubbing his cock and purring as it hardened behind the fine wool of his pants.
He leaned his head back as she began to open his fly. As the night air touched his cock, he closed his eyes and let Celeste’s face fill his mind. He’d gotten very good at imagination while in pr
ison. When a pair of lips closed around his cock, all he saw was Celeste.
Ah yes. His wife.
His.
***
Nartan was waiting for her when she got home.
She recognized the Jeep, but didn’t see him until she made the turn into her driveway and found him sitting on her porch. She wrinkled her nose because she reeked from two hours at the studio.
“Thanks,” he remarked.
“I’m not at my best,” she offered as she disarmed the security system.
Nartan followed her into the house and surprised her by wrapping his arms around her and pulling her back against him, wet uniform and all.
“You smell hot,” he said next to her ear.
“Yuck.” She squirmed.
He buried his head in her half-wet hair and inhaled.
“Double yuck!” she insisted. “I need a shower, Nartan.”
He chuckled and released her. “Since you put it that way…”
She looked over her shoulder at him and found him grinning. “What way?”
“If your plan is to get naked, I’m happy to let you go.”
“Ha, ha.” She started up the stairs, her legs complaining. She peeled her uniform off and stepped into the shower. It was the oddest feeling, knowing Nartan was near.
It made her feel secure.
Relief swept through her. She hadn’t realized until that moment just how tense and knotted her insides were after that non-encounter in the tae kwon do studio’s parking lot.
Nartan appeared in the doorway carrying a large candle, which he set on the bathroom vanity. A moment later he killed the lights, leaving Celeste and himself in only the yellow glow of the single flame. She forgot what she was doing as he stripped down, revealing the hard body she’d found impossible to forget during the day.
He pulled open the shower and stepped in. The candlelight made the water golden. Her imagination was running rampant with ideas of how his ancestors would have looked by firelight. It was suddenly very easy for her to understand how captive women had fallen in love with their warriors.
“Your thoughts are racing.” He captured the bar of soap and began to rub it along her arm.
“Yes.”
He made a low sound of male disapproval. She shrugged. “I keep trying to understand why I’ve let you into my life so quickly.”
“Starting a relationship wasn’t on my calendar either.” He lathered up her torso, cupping her breasts and smoothing the soap along her skin. “I’m not complaining.” He turned her so that the water washed the soap down her body, and pressed a kiss against her neck. “I feel more alive than I have in years.”
It was an admission, one that sounded like it came from the deepest part of his soul. She reached for him, splaying her fingers out on top of his hard thighs, leaning back against him, surrendering completely.
“Me too.”
She shivered, the intimacy of the moment shaking her to her foundation. But he was just there, folding around her, surrounding her until she didn’t want to know where either of them ended. She couldn’t stop touching him, didn’t want to move away. He forced the breath from her body with a climax that made her scream.
He provided dinner again. She hummed with enjoyment as they sat on her bed with only the candle and some music from his smartphone going. Eating five-star cuisine while they sat cross-legged.
“I’m going to need double workouts if you keep feeding me like this.” She savored a last bite before reaching for a glass of dark wine that reflected the candle flame.
“You’re addicted to your workouts,” he accused. “And if I never eat another blackened excuse for food again, I’ll die happy.”
He popped something in his mouth, and his eyes closed with enjoyment. “But my shower is bigger.”
She looked around the master bedroom. “I know it’s small.”
“You could afford more.”
“It’s plenty big enough for me.”
“That’s not the whole reason.”
She used the excuse of biting into a breadstick to avoid answering immediately. Nartan continued to watch her, his expression giving her no hint of backing off. He was just so there in her life. It was unsettling, but in a way that made her giddy.
“Okay, I didn’t want to have all my assets tied up. In case I needed to leave quickly.”
Nathan’s face tightened. “You think he might come back for you?”
She reached for her wine and took a sip, gathering her courage. “That’s not Caspian’s way.”
Nartan straightened up. “Meaning what?”
She bit her lower lip as she swallowed the first thing she wanted to say. Running wasn’t the answer.
“He has a fascination with submission. That’s the only reason I ended up married to him. I was the girl who wouldn’t chase him. Somehow, I became a challenge to him. The ultimate challenge.” She watched his eyes narrow. “He’d find a way to force me to bend to his will if he wanted me back.”
A chill touched her nape. The man in the parking lot flashed through her mind.
“He was convicted of assault.” She frowned, but Nartan wasn’t repentant. “Yes, I checked into it.”
“You and Marc, it would seem.”
Nartan didn’t even offer her a shrug. “Why don’t you have a restraining order?”
“Because a bondage date night gone too far landed him in prison, not a domestic dispute turned violent.”
Nartan’s eyes narrowed. “You’re saying he didn’t hit you?” His tone told her he didn’t believe it.
“I already told you I’d convinced myself it was a rough patch.” She drew in a deep breath. “I was young and stupid and thought I wasn’t sophisticated enough to understand mature sexual games.”
“Bullshit,” Nartan cut in. “He was a predator looking to exploit you.”
“I married him when I was fresh out of law school. Who knows what they want at that age? By the time my marriage was sinking, I had too much pride to admit what sort of colossal mistake I’d made.”
Nartan had the good grace to nod in agreement. “Pride is tough to swallow. Tell me how he landed in prison if it wasn’t you who turned him in.”
“Caspian expects the world to jump at his command, or suffer his wrath.” She reached for her wineglass again, needing something to cover how dry her mouth had become. “Whenever I had my period, he’d spend that week with someone else. I cried about it for the first few months, but it turned out to be my saving grace, because he went too far once with one of his liaisons and she went to the police. Sabra’s father was largely responsible for talking some sense into me and introducing me to Marcus, who handled the divorce while Caspian was in prison.”
But now he was out…
The man outside the studio filled her mind. Her heart started hammering. Something touched her elbow and she jumped. “What?” she squeaked.
Nartan was watching her through narrowed eyes. “What’s wrong, Celeste?”
“Nothing.” Her voice squeaked.
He reached out and pressed his thumb against her chin gently to make her release the lower lip that she’d set her teeth into.
Shit.
“Why do you notice things like that?”
He chuckled softly. “Because you’re my drug of choice. Like any addict, I focus on my fix. Now tell me what you’re hiding.”
“Nothing, really. It’s just the nature of the topic.”
He wasn’t buying. Nartan watched her, pegging her with a hard look that sliced right through what she thought she wanted.
“Just some guy that was watching me outside the studio tonight as I left. My oversensitive emotions tried to make me think it was Caspian, and this conversation has me connecting dots that aren’t in the same line.”
His expression hardened.
“But you didn’t get a close enough look to know for sure?”
She shook her head.
She stood up, unable to sit still. “He wouldn’t waste his time looking for me. I was nothing more than a wound to his pride. Caspian needs challenges.”
He made a low sound before unfolding his legs and standing up. “Like getting you to put his ring back on your finger of your own free will?”
Her throat felt like it was tightening, her mind working frantically to recall the features of the man outside the studio. He’d been looking at her; there was no way to ignore it.
“You’re jumping to conclusions.” She felt so exposed that it was almost impossible to resist the urge to hug herself.
“You know in your gut that he might come back for you. That’s why you’ve walled yourself off.”
“I’m not walled off.”
Nartan picked up his pants and stepped into them. “Sabra is your only friend. You work for an ex-JAG officer who was a Navy sniper before earning his law degree. The sort of guy who would welcome anyone who wanted to start something, because he’d have the legal excuse to kick his ass.”
“I have other friends,” she defended as he put on his shirt and buttoned it.
“All masters of martial arts and well connected with lots of other black belts.” He zipped his fly and killed the music. “In short, not the sort of people you want to start something with, or one of their numerous relations will finish in the event you get the best of them. Get dressed and pack a bag.”
“Excuse me?”
He tapped a text message into his phone before answering her.
“Pack a bag, Celeste. I don’t want to sleep with one eye open. We’re going to my place.”
“I’m not sure that’s necessary.”
“You said yourself he wants submission from you.”
She nodded. The topic was too uncomfortable to keep talking about. “I doubt it was him.”
“I don’t. You have sharp senses but are still in denial about being a victim. If I set eyes on him, Marcus is going to have a tough time getting me out of a murder charge because I won’t wait for him to start something new.”
