She Who Dares (13 page)

She was in the office stark naked and Sebastian was on the other side of the building, fully clothed, with Ella. Holding a fist against her mouth, Nic silently screamed.

Then she grabbed a pile of folders from the top of the filing cabinet and flung them across the room. They slapped against the wall and exploded, invoices fluttering through the air like white-winged butterflies.

Her skin goosebumped, her nipples tightened against air that felt unpleasantly cold, and anger started to give way to the sickening slide of reality. One look at her clothes on the floor and Ella would know that she’d walked in on something. One look at Ella and Sebastian would be on his knees and ready to beg. Quick as a shot, Nic pushed the office door closed and locked it.

She didn’t care what happened. But she was never leaving this room ever again. She had coffee, and thanks to Sebastian’s stash of jelly sweets in the top drawer, she had a food supply. She’d quite happily stay in here until she shrivelled away to nothing and if that made her a drama queen, so be it. Because now she’d caught a glimpse of what it was like to not be the ugly sister, she’d rather stay in here forever than go back to the way things were.

‘Ella. What a surprise.’ Sebastian tucked his hands in his pockets and hoped his hard on wasn’t too obvious as he watched his ex-girlfriend float around the workshop. ‘How are you?’

‘Good,’ she said, wafting over to the Ferrari and giving it the once over. She turned and glanced at him over one tanned shoulder. She was just as blonde and pretty as he remembered, in a flowery dress that drifted around her ankles, and did absolutely nothing for him. ‘Where’s Nic?’

Naked in the office. ‘She just popped out for a minute. Listen, Ella, do you think you could…’

Ella turned back away from him, ran a hand over the bonnet. ‘And how is she?’ She sounded odd, he thought. Something was up. Mentally kissing his chance of hot and inappropriate desk sex goodbye, Sebastian wondered when he’d become such a good guy. ‘She’s fine,’ he shrugged. ‘She’s Nic.’

Pale blue eyes stared straight into his. ‘Right,’ Ella said simply, a don’t mess with me look on her face. ‘Are you sleeping with her?’

The truth seemed the least problematic option. ‘No.’

‘Are you thinking about it?’

‘Right now I’m trying not to.’ Sebastian scooped up Nic’s clothes from the floor, hiding them behind his back. ‘Satisfied?’

‘Not really.’ She turned on her heel and started walking towards the office. ‘Nic, get out here!’ She got silence as her answer. ‘I know you’re in there!’

Sebastian fell in alongside Ella, touched his fingers to her arm and stopped her. ‘Why don’t you go on up to the flat, make yourself a drink or something, and I’ll tell Nic you’re waiting when she gets back.’

Ella narrowed her eyes. ‘I know she’s in there.’

‘Now really isn’t a good time.’ Sebastian positioned himself in front of the office door and stared down the woman who had been his lover. Where Nic was dark and pale, Ella was blonde and tanned, curvaceous and confident. She was his type in every way, and yet it was Nic he was defending. Nic he was thinking about. Nic he wanted.

Ella pursed her lips, a strange look on her face. ‘I knew this would happen if I left the two of you alone. Tell Nic to meet me upstairs.’ And with that, she turned on her heel and skipped off.

Sebastian breathed in the silence for a moment, trying to work out what the hell had just happened, other than that he’d been about to have the most exciting sex he’d had in a long time, possibly ever, and he’d been interrupted and he wasn’t too happy about it.

He set his hand to the office door and knocked. ‘Time to come out, princess.’

‘I am never leaving this room ever again!’

‘You’re going to have to.’

‘Why?’

‘Because I can’t have sex with you through the door.’

He heard something that sounded like a scream before the door opened a couple of inches and a slender, pale hand poked out. ‘Can I have my clothes?’

Frustrated as he was, Sebastian recognised that picking up where they’d left off wasn’t going to happen. Not with Ella upstairs, and the all too obvious strain in Nic’s voice. ‘Are you okay?’

‘I don’t want to talk about it,’ she said. ‘Please just give me my clothes.’

He did as she asked, handing through her knickers, shorts and t-shirt followed by her boots. The door slammed firmly shut and opened again less than a minute later. Combing her fingers through her hair, Nic angled her way rapidly past him, shoulders slumped, gaze locked on the floor.

‘Hey,’ Sebastian said, his fingers grazing her shoulder. Her hands came up, and she dodged away from him as if he was something repulsive.

‘Just…don’t.’ There was such raw emotion in her words that he pulled back, even though every male instinct he possessed told him that what she needed right now was his tongue in her mouth and his hands on her arse and the hot, hard comfort of his body rocking in to hers.

He wanted to give that to her, but he knew that it wasn’t what she wanted. So instead he stepped away and watched her make her way towards the stairs that led up to her a flat like a criminal making her way to the gallows.

Her hands shook and she had to force herself to take the stairs, her legs a dead weight. Pausing by the door to her flat, Nic drew in a shuddering breath. What was she so afraid of? She hadn’t done anything wrong. Ella was the one who had run away. Ella was the one who should be feeling sick with anxiety.

But things weren’t as simple as that. Standing there in the hallway, Nic was forced to accept she didn’t know her stepsister at all. The woman on the other side of that door was a familiar stranger. Only one person in the building knew either of them and he couldn’t be part of this conversation.

Pulling in a deep, steeling breath, Nic opened the door and walked into her flat. She hadn’t seen Ella in weeks and she’d missed her. Okay, so maybe they’d never been close, and for the past few years had been work colleagues and not much more, but they were still family. They’d always got on okay, hadn’t they? Nic had worked damn hard to make sure that they did, always biting her tongue, never letting her true feelings show. She didn’t expect hugging and crying and shrieking or a big TV drama reunion, but she didn’t want this to be horrible and awkward, either.

She found Ella in the kitchen, filling the kettle. ‘You look well,’ she managed awkwardly, saying it before looking at her stepsister and realising it was true. Ella’s hair had lightened to a stunning white blonde, and her skin glowed. She looked disgustingly healthy. ‘California obviously suits you.’

The kettle wobbled, sending water spraying everywhere. Ella set it down with a curse, grabbed a tea towel from the drawer and dabbed at the worktop. ‘Nic, we need to talk.’

‘What about?’ Nic picked up the kettle. ‘Do you want tea? You must have missed it while you were away. I’ll make some. I’ll make a pot, actually.’

‘I don’t want tea.’

Nic gripped the handle of the kettle tightly. She set it back down. A sudden sense of appalling anger took hold of her, and she stared at the small white tiles on the wall until her eyes felt like they might bleed. Too many years of never getting mad with Ella stood in front of her, a brick wall built of habit and fear, and finally the injustice of it took hold.

She spun round. ‘Then what the hell do you want? And while we’re asking questions, Miss Perfect, why don’t you start by explaining what the hell you were thinking? How dare you disappear like that and dump me in it?’

‘Because I was sick of my life! I hate this stupid place, all the dirt and noise and people treating me like a second class citizen because I work in the office and don’t know the first thing about cars!’

Nic had to grab the edge of the worktop to keep herself upright. ‘What?’

Ella slumped back against the sink and folded her arms. ‘It’s not rocket science, Nic. You’re the one who knows the business. I was never anything more than a spare part. I got up one morning and realised I either did something about it now, or I’d be stuck with it forever.’

‘But…but…it was your family’s business! Your dad gave it to you!’

‘No, he gave it to us, because he’s too soft-hearted to give it all to you. You’re the daughter he always wanted. You’ve got more mechanical skill in your little finger than I have in my entire body.’

‘And what about you?’ Nic challenged, shocked at being made out to be the bad one. ‘What do you think it’s like having someone so damn perfect as a stepsister? I could never compete with you. Never. I know what people used to call me at school, Ella. How they used to look at me.’

‘I never wanted a sister,’ Ella snapped.

‘That makes two of us. But we’re stuck with it.’

The two of them glared at each other, only the small space between them and years of practising restraint stopping the fight from becoming physical. Nic stared hard at the stepsister she’d known for more than half her life, and saw someone she didn’t recognise. Not the teenager she’d been so sickeningly jealous of, but a woman she barely knew. ‘You cut your hair,’ she said softly. ‘Why did you cut your hair? It was so beautiful.’

‘You dyed yours.’

Nic put a hand up to her hair. ‘It went a bit wrong. Were you really jealous of me? When we were teenagers?’

‘Hated your guts.’

‘Oh.’ She stood in silence as she digested this bit of information. ‘Just so you know I didn’t like you either.’ Her skin prickled, and she realised that Sebastian was standing in the doorway.

‘Wow. Sisters fighting,’ he said. ‘This could only be hotter if you were twins. Or if you were wearing bikinis and wrestling in mud.’

‘Shut up Sebastian.’ The two of them said in unison.

‘Do you want him back?’ Nic said suddenly, staring at Ella, seeing her clearly for the first time. ‘Is that why you sold him the business? Is that why you’re here?’

‘No, I don’t want him,’ Ella scoffed. ‘Don’t be ridiculous. And let’s face it, Nic, even if I did, I could never compete with you.’

Nic thought that was quite possibly the most insane thing she’d ever heard. ‘Did you forget to pack your brain when you left California?’

Ella stuck out her elfin chin. ‘Nope. Clearly yours isn’t fully functional though, if you still haven’t worked it out.’

‘I don’t want to fight with you,’ Nic said slowly.

Ella sighed, and wrapped her hands around her waist. ‘Me neither,’ she said. ‘But don’t you think it’s way past time we were honest?’

Nic knew she was right. Ella was always right. And now that she was back, she’d be able to take her place in the Misses and Motors contest, and everything would get back to normal. But instead of feeling relieved, Nic felt sick with jealousy.

The next morning, she felt worse. Jealousy combined with a lack of sleep sat greasily in her stomach as she sat opposite Ella and a Californian marine biologist called Adam and forced herself to play nice.

Every concerned touch of Adam’s hand on Ella’s arm made it worse. The way he looked at her, as if he couldn’t quite believe this was happening to him. The casual, yet protective way he sat. The man was besotted, which was nothing new as far as Ella and men were concerned, but there was something more, something deeper.

Something, Nic realised, that she wanted for herself. She wanted someone to fall as madly in love with her as Adam had with Ella.

Only she didn’t know how the hell to make it happen.

Sebastian leaned over and stole a slice of bacon from her plate, and gave her a wink. If someone was going to fall in love with her, she wanted it to be him, but it was like wishing for snow at Christmas. Guaranteed to end in disappointment.

‘So, are you ready for Misses and Motors? It’s on Sunday, isn’t it?’ Ella asked, as she stirred a second sachet of sugar into her tea. ‘I saw the Ferrari. Looks amazing.’

Nic blinked. ‘Well, you’re here now, so I thought you would want to enter.’

‘No way,’ Ella laughed, but there was no humour in it. ‘Been there, done that. It’s your turn to suffer.’

Nic didn’t quite know how to take that. ‘I’m not exactly ready for it,’ she pointed out, shuffling a little in her seat. ‘I’ve got nothing to wear, for starters. And then there’s my hair, and my nails. And the rest. I haven’t got time now. I guess I’ll just have to give it a miss this year.’

‘I’ll make a deal with you,’ Ella said, resting her elbow on the table and propping her chin on her hand. ‘I’ll help you sort your hair and your clothes and all the rest of it, if you show me how to fix something on a car.’

And then everyone fell into conversation, Nic included. They talked about everything and nothing, and she learned a little more about the man that her stepsister had fallen in love with. When Sebastian looped his arm loosely over her shoulders, she didn’t pull away, although some part of her knew she should, that this pretence that there could be something real between them would hurt her in the long run. But she didn’t snuggle into him either, though she wanted to.

‘Stop fidgeting,’ he whispered. ‘Relax.’

‘I am relaxed,’ she protested, tucking her hair behind her ears.

‘Liar,’ he said, adjusting his position on his seat so that his thighs spread a little wider and his knee nudged hers. ‘Bet I can think of a few ways to relax you though.’

Ella and Adam disappeared to the counter to pay the bill, leaving the two of them alone, and Nic saw her chance. ‘We’re not together, Sebastian. We haven’t even had sex. So stop trying to make out like we’re together. We’re not.’

His eyes narrowed to emerald green slits. ‘You want to have sex? Let’s go. I’m sure your sister and Adam won’t mind if we disappear for an hour.’

‘Don’t you think that if we were actually meant to have sex, we’d have done it by now?’

‘No,’ he replied, sliding a hand across the nape of her neck and stroking the sensitive skin there. ‘I think that every time it doesn’t happen, you get that little bit more desperate. I like you desperate.’

‘I am not desperate!’

‘Oh, but you are,’ he said. ‘It’s tying you up in knots. I know you want me, Nic. But you just have to relax and let it happen.’

The touch of his fingertips on her skin was driving her mad, but she couldn’t tell him to