Ballet Shoes and Engine Grease (22 page)

“
It’s foul out there,” she said.

So, t
hey were talking about the weather now. The thought made
Nick wince. He really was lousy at relationships. He should be
leaping up to his feet, pulling her into his arms for a friendly
hug that would be acceptable in the workplace. And later, when he
gave her the bad news, he should cosset and comfort her, shield her
from the blow.

He’d never been good at it. Even with
Marcela.
The squashed
frog incident sprang to mind. Marcela had spotted the splattered
remains of the slimy creature one evening as they crossed the road.
She’d promptly burst into tears. He’d been at a loss. It was a
frog, right? Frogs got squashed by cars. Worms got chopped up by
lawnmowers. Birds got killed by cats. But, every time Marcela came
across one of nature’s little cruelties, she’d break her heart and
he’d never understood how to stem her flood of tears.

What was that old fashioned word? Cherish.
He
didn’t know how to
cherish a woman. So, instead of even trying now, he decided to just
give Crimson the cold, hard facts.

“
I’m afraid we have problem. The cables on
the Spur were cut. It was not an accident. The insurance company is
refusing to pay. We’ve just lost half a million
dollars.”

B
rown eyes wide with shock, Crimson stared at him. And then
she rallied. Her eyes narrowed into determined slits. “Cut? Who?
How?”

“
Vandalism. Intent to destroy.”

She sank
in her seat, the initial surge of adrenaline
ebbing. “Who would…those beautiful cars…on purpose?” Her gaze
searched his, as if he could give her all the answers.

“
We don’t know,” he told her.

“
Have the police been?”

“
Not yet. So far, just the insurance
investigators, and we’ve made a report to the health and safety
authorities. When it was thought to be an accident, it didn’t seem
necessary to involve the police.” Nick made a rhythmic rap against
the desktop with his fingernails. “Think, Crimson. This has made a
serious dent in the profits. It will be almost impossible to meet
the profit target. Who will benefit?”

“
Sports charities?”

H
is restless fingers fell silent. “Forget charities. Too
impersonal.”

“
David Ballard?”

Nick gave a grim nod.
“If he wants the company, he needs you to
fail. According to the lawyer, my father negotiated a deal with
him. David Ballard will have expectations. But, if he is behind
this, he must have recruited someone inside the company. Someone
who has access to the premises. Either he is paying an accomplice,
or someone thinks they’ll be better off under Ballard Automotive
than they are under Constantine Motors.”

He c
ould tell the exact moment when the idea of a traitor hit
Crimson. Her throat rippled and her nostrils flared. Her mouth drew
into a tight line.

“
No,” she said. “It can’t be. I mean…yes.
Peter was the acting CEO for a while, and he may resent losing the
position. And Hank loathed me to start with, but he’s come around.
And Jorge has ambitions for a bigger job than we can offer him, but
Ballard Automotive…would he really want to work for a parts
supplier?”

“
I don’t know. But if we bring in the
police, there’ll be talk. It will poison the atmosphere within the
company. It will start gossip and speculation within the industry.
Both will impact business. It might be better to just take the loss
and let it slide.”

Crimson
frowned. “How can the insurance company refuse to
pay? Does our policy not cover acts of vandalism?”

Nick shifted one shoulder, as if
attempting to nudge away the
burden of telling her. “The insurance company has come up with
their own theory. We’ve made full disclosure of all relevant facts,
including the prospect of putting the factory on a four day week.
To them, it seems a little too convenient to have two accidents
that destroy cars when we can produce more cars than we can sell.
They’ve raised the possibility of insurance fraud.”

Anger flashed across her
delicate features. “They’re
suspecting
us
?”

“
So it seems.” He shuffled the papers on
the table, searching for the relevant letter. “The one piece of
good news is that they have agreed not reopen the case of the fire.
That’s accepted as an accident, and we can keep the payout.
”

“
But this means…the profit target…it will
be impossible…” Crimson stared at him, confusion and distress
battling on her face. “
We’ll lose the company,” she said, giving her head a small,
defeated shake.

Nick
didn’t speak. Tension bunched in his muscles, making his
spine rigid, his jaws tight. He’d given it some thought—a lot of
thought, in fact, in the past three days. He could straighten out
the situation by marrying Crimson. The company would be his, free
and clear, and he could take care of her, and both their
mothers.

No, Nick, I don’t trust you.

That
was what Crimson had told him. And if she now found out
that he had rejected her as a marriage partner, even at the cost of
losing his birthright, she’d muster up every scrap of hate inside
her and fling it into his face. She’d never accept that he hadn’t
rejected
her
. Just the
idea of marriage to her.

Nick sighed. In his experience, women
loved to get mad at men. He’d never known a woman to pass by an
opportunity to vent her fury when she found even the slightest
excuse to claim that a man had insulted her. Crimson would blow a
casket, guaranteed. She would scream and shout at him, telling him
to forget the idea of marriage.

And then she would never trust him
again.

Damn. He watched her
sitting beside him at the table, looking
adorable as she bristled with indignation at the world. It moved
something inside him, the way this valiant woman tackled impossible
challenges. She was clenching her tiny fists now, mentally
preparing for a fight, as if she, with her hundred and ten pound
ballerina frame, could take on the incredible hulk and batter him
to smithereens.

There was only one thing he could
think to do in their situation.
Put his worries aside for a moment, enjoy what they had between
them. Forget tomorrow, think of now, this minute, this hour.
Carpe
diem
, seize the day. And
that was exactly what he would do.

Take her home and make love to her.

****

Nick darted
into his Panther through the pouring rain and
stopped outside the office block entrance to let Crimson in. She
had insisted on speaking to the management team and checking the
repair schedule for the damaged cars before they went
home.

Aching
with the need to touch her, to kiss her, he drove with
fierce concentration through Longwood. A bit too fast, but he had
the skill, even on the waterlogged roads, with mud splashing
beneath the wheels. The patter of rain on the canvas top filled the
tense silence, as both of them sat without talking, equally aware
of the reason for his haste.

Despite the rain, he left the car
out in the driveway.

“
Are you sure the top is waterproof?”
Crimson asked

“
If it leaks, you’ll find my complaint on
your desk,” he said with a smile.

The rain drenched him as he
circled the car, pulled her
door open and ushered her up the terrace steps, one arm around her,
trying to shield her from the deluge. In the hall, he could see the
two mothers up on the galleried landing, lowering lengths of fabric
over the banister. Nick slammed the front door shut, sending the
colored streamers of material fluttering in the draft, blues and
reds and yellows flashing and mingling.

“
What’s going on with those two?” he
muttered to Crimson. “It’s like having a bloody schoolgirl slumber
party in the house. They giggle all night and get drunk on
champagne. What’s happened to my mother’s cool reserve?”

“
I know. It’s odd. I never expected they’d
get on.”

“
Yeah,” Nick said, shaking his head. “They
might have started at the opposite ends of the social scale but now
your mother looks like she belongs in the country club and my
mother in roaring around in a pickup truck. It’s like they’re
converging. If they continue, they’ll meet in the middle and fuse
into one.”

His mother peered down.
“Nicky,” she said in a demanding
tone.

Nick
raced up the stairs, pulling Crimson behind her.

His mother hurried forward.
“I need to—”

He cut
her off. “Later. Tell Soames we’ll want supper in my room.
Tell him to leave the tray outside the door. We don’t want to be
disturbed.”

“
But Nicky—”

“
Hush
, Myrtie.” Esmeralda’s stage whisper would have
carried to the back row of any theater in the world. “I think our
children want to play doctors and nurses.”

“
Oh…”

Nick tried not to laugh. He’d never seen
his mother look so stunned. Crimson was blushing, bright enough to
light up the landing. He yanked his bedroom door open and bundled
her through. After he’d locked the door behind them, he stalked up
to her.

“
It was torture in the office, not being
able to do this.” He cradled her face between his hands and kissed
her. Deep, hungry kisses. As if they’d been separated for weeks
instead of three days. His hands slid down and found her breasts,
fingers splayed to caress their soft shape, to weigh and knead and
tease and brush across the tightening nipples.

“
Nick, we can’t…not here.”

“
Hush,” he said. “Of course we
can.”

Despite her scandalized
whispering
, and her
flapping hands that oscillated between helping him and hindering
him in the effort, it didn’t take Nick long to strip Crimson naked.
Appearing to overcome her scruples, she joined him in the task of
getting him equally bare.

As the last of
their damp garments fell into a soggy heap on the
carpet, Nick kicked the bundle of fabric aside and reached out for
Crimson. He’d dressed in formal clothing that morning, to impress
the insurance assessors, and it occurred to him now that the Armani
suit might be ruined if not hung up properly.

He didn’t care.
Didn’t care about anything but Crimson. His hands
settled at her waist, slid down the curve of her hips and back up
again. She was warm and smooth, her skin very pale, with a light
tracing of blue veins beneath. One day, when he was not in such a
hurry, he wanted to follow those faint lines like a map.

Reaching his arms around her,
h
e plucked at the knot
at the nape of her neck until it unraveled. Gently, taking care not
to tug too hard, he ran his fingers through the long tresses and
spread her hair to flow down over her breasts and her
back.

“
You are an amazing woman,” he
murmured.

“
Nick, we can’t, not here…they’ll
listen…”

“
With a champagne flute pressed to the
wall.” He grinned at her as he pushed her backward until she
toppled down on the quilted bedspread. Never in is life had a
woman’s body held such fascination for him. He wanted to kiss every
inch of her, touch every inch of her, wring from her a depth of
emotion she had never experienced with any other man.

He crawled on top of her, his movements
languid, as playful as a tiger with his mate. Dipping his head,
took the rosy peak of a breast into his mouth. With consummate
skill, he nibbled and tasted and suckled until he drew a low moan
of surrender from her.

“
That’s it,” he encouraged her. “Make
noise.”

Th
e hot wave of color that he always found so delightful
flared up on her skin again, all the way from her breasts to her
hair that now fanned in a swirl of platinum on his
pillow.

“
You’re terrible,” she protested. “Stop
it.”

He let the wicked glint in his eyes
be
the only answer.
Adjusting his position on the bed, he straddled her hips and sent
his fingertips dancing on her belly. At the first flurry of
tickles, she burst into a high pitched squeal, something between a
startled shriek and laughter.

“
They’re…listening…don’t do that,” she
whispered. “They’ll hear.”

“
Good,” he said. “Scream. Otherwise they’ll
think I’m not doing it right.”

That
caused her to dissolve in giggles. He used her moment of
inattention to stretch out over her and fumble in the drawer of the
nightstand. Smiling down at her, he pulled out a box of condoms and
rattled it in front of her flustered face. “There’s five in here,”
he told her. “And I promise you, I won’t rest until we’ve used them
all.”

By the time he’d made
good on his promise, the first fingers of
dawn were sneaking trough the curtains, and the supper tray Soames
had left outside the door served as breakfast.