Serena didn’t mind the delay. In fact, she made sure Muffy’s owner had everything she needed within easy reach before she left. If she missed seeing Nic, so much the better. It saved her from the torment of facing him again.
Except she wasn’t spared anything.
The red Ferrari was in the parking area when she returned home and Nic was leaning on the post and rail fence that enclosed the grazing paddock, watching Erin riding her pony around the makeshift jumps course. As Serena brought the van to a halt outside the salon, he turned to wave at her, a happy grin on his face.
She closed her eyes, wishing she was a million miles away. He hadn’t given up. He wasn’t letting her go. And this was all too hard. It wasn’t fair, either. Couldn’t he see it wasn’t fair? A surge of angry rebellion against Fate and Nic Moretti’s persistent pursuit of her demanded affirmative action. He had to be told in no uncertain terms they were going nowhere and he had to stop impinging on her personal life.
As this determination shot her out of the van, Nic swung around to walk towards her, a perfectly groomed Cleo on her leash trotting beside him, a pink ribbon around her neck, and a pink ribbon tied around a large cellophane cone which looked suspiciously like a sheaf of flowers resting in the crook of his arm.
Flowers…to lead her down his garden path!
No, no, no! She wasn’t going to be bought, wasn’t going to be seduced…
‘Nice place you’ve got here,’ Nic greeted her.
The comment hit very raw nerves. ‘You mean this property is worth quite a bit in real estate terms,’ she bit out, coming to a halt and folding her arms in belligerent self-containment.
He halted, too, cocking his head in a quizzical fashion. ‘Actually I wasn’t putting a dollar value on it. The grass is green, the old gum trees are marvellous, the cottage garden around this country style house is very pretty. I was simply thinking what a nice place this is.’
Which completely wrong-footed her, but Serena was not about to be moved from a full frontal attack on the wealth issue. ‘Well, it’s not mine. I have no equity in it at all. Nor in any other property. And it wasn’t bought with family money. There is no family money. Our parents died when I was sixteen and the farm they’d owned was heavily mortgaged. We inherited nothing. What you see here was mostly bought with the compensation payout when Michelle’s husband was killed in the line of duty.’
Her outburst succeeded in forcing Nic to pause for thought. He eyed her with an air of grave consideration, weighing her emotional agitation and her strongly negative body language. Whether what she’d said had shattered some pipe dream of his, Serena had no idea, but at least he couldn’t argue against the truth of her situation, which meant he had to take stock of it and deal with it openly and honestly.
Finally, to her intense frustration, he said, ‘I guess you’re making some point here, Serena. Want to tell me what it is?’
Her arms flew out of their fold into a scissor movement of total exasperation. ‘Don’t tell me you can’t work it out! Our backgrounds are chalk and cheese, Nic. You turn up here in a Ferrari. You have an apartment at Balmoral. You’re a top of the tree architect. And the Moretti family is…’
‘Always in my face,’ he cut in with an ironic grimace. ‘Makes me wonder sometimes if it’s an absolute hindrance to what I want for myself.’ His dark eyes mocked her argument. ‘Being a Moretti is a two-edged sword, Serena. At least you know you’re wanted for yourself, not for what your family can provide or the influence they can wield. You have no concept of how much that can taint.’
Somehow he’d completely shifted the ground on which she’d made her stand, turning it all around so that he was disadvantaged by the wealth issue, not her. Serena shook her head, hopelessly confused about where she should be heading with him now.
He sighed, his expression changing to one of wry appeal. ‘You know, for once I’d really like it to be left out of the equation. Could you try that with me? I’ll keep on driving the Cherokee if it helps.’
Serena was still desperately trying to sort herself out. She’d wound herself up, completely blinded by the negative side of his wealth for her, only to be suddenly shown there was another negative side for him. And maybe she was doing him a terrible injustice, judging from a prejudice that Lyall had fed to her.
‘I’m sorry…’ Her hands fretted at each other as she struggled to get her head together. ‘I guess I feel a bit lost with you.’
‘So why don’t we take the time to find out more about each other?’
More time with him…yes, that was what she needed. All her instincts were clamouring for it. Maybe she nodded. Before she could construct some verbal agreement, he pursued the idea, offering another invitation.
‘While I was at the council today I saw a poster about a new exhibition at Gosford Art Gallery. It opens Friday evening. We could take it in and go out for dinner afterwards. I hear the restaurant right on Brisbane Water, Iguana Joe’s, is very good. I could book us a table…if you’re free that night.’
A proper date, she thought, not an easy drop into bed at his sister’s home. ‘Yes. I’d like that,’ she heard herself say, all the fight having drained out of her, leaving the still simmering desire to have what she could of this man.
He smiled and stepped forward to present her with the sheaf of flowers. ‘I passed a rose farm on the way here. Thought these might say more eloquently that I want to be with you, Serena.’
The perfume flooded up from what had to be at least two dozen roses, a random selection of many varieties and colours. ‘They’re lovely. Thank you.’ She offered him an apologetic smile. ‘I’ll try not to be so prickly in future.’
He laughed and wrapped an arm around her shoulders as they turned to go back to the parking area. Serena was instantly swamped with memories of how physically intimate they’d been and she knew it would happen again. There’d be no stopping it. But she no longer cared where it might lead or how it would end.
Nic Moretti had just become a part of her life she had to live, regardless of the consequences.
‘Got her back, Cleo!’ Nic grinned triumphantly at the little dog riding in the passenger seat of the Ferrari. ‘A bit tricky there, but I turned it around and reeled her in.’
He was buzzing with exhilaration and wished he could put his foot down and feel the power of the car. Impossible on these local roads and he didn’t really need the speed. He was riding a high, anyhow, having broken the barrier Serena had erected between them.