Read Online Seducing Celestine by Amarinda Jones - Free Book Online Page B

did well, if at all. She wondered what it would be like to have someone that you could go to and cry over and feel comforted by. She hadn’t had that in a long time. Not since her parents died and even then she had never felt completely comforted. Her parents tried but they were not very loving people. Celestine and her sister Grace were the same. The Holt family just did not do emotion very well. Because of that, she did not expect comfort and had hardened herself to the fact. But every so often she wondered what it would feel like.
    “Yeah well, I survived though. And let’s be realistic here. You really only need one chair to sit on.” Celestine had two. Not of any great quality but she was a hell of a lot better off than some people. Any time an attack of self-pity started, she reminded herself of that fact.
    “Experience is a hard teacher.”
    “The worst and the lessons suck badly.” And Celestine did not want any more of them but they just seemed to keep coming. She had read somewhere that there was this karmic principle that you kept living your life over and over in the same patterns until you got it right. Surely she had to have gotten something right by now? And if not, why didn’t karma just give her a break and tell her what she was doing wrong and how she could fix it?
    “Don’t let it harden you, baby.”
    “It already has.” And that’s what scared Celestine, that she would be some bitter old woman too hard to really make any decent attempts to be soft and caring.
    “No, you’re still soft where it counts.”
    Celestine looked up at Nick. For a moment she almost believed him. But she knew better. She was not the same woman she was twelve months ago. Her level of trust was almost nonexistent. She expected nothing of people. As for Nick Swan, she did not know where she stood with him. Physically he had her but emotionally she was too scared to push it.
    “So where are you going to stay?” Nick asked, waiting for the yarn he knew she was going to spin him. “I’m assuming it’s with Tess?”
    The police had advised Celestine for her own safety to move out of her home and go live in another location with friends or family. However, Celestine was reluctant to force her presence on the newly engaged Tess, even though she knew Tess would insist she did. Besides, if she was a target as the police seemed to think, she did not want trouble visiting Tess.
    “I’ll stay with my sister, Grace, in St Lucia,” Celestine lied, looking Nick straight in the eye. He did not need to know she and Grace hated each other and hadn’t seen each other in months. The last time they did, they had had a knock-down drag-out fight about some trivial memory from their childhood. In reality they had not been fighting about that. It was something deeper that neither of them really wanted to recognize.
    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?”
    “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,