Nic was frowning, looking impatient with Justine’s spiel…or finding himself hooked on the horns of a dilemma. Inconvenient for him that Serena was still here, if he fancied taking up the invitation subtly being offered. Last night Nic had made her feel indispensible to him…or had she been fooling herself, believing in something that had only been generated by the heat of lust?
‘So you’re off to a luncheon with the people you like mixing with,’ Nic drawled mockingly. ‘Why drop in here?’
Serena’s sluggish heartbeat instantly picked up. It didn’t sound as if he cared for the company at all. Nor was he being receptive to having Justine’s presence thrust upon him.
‘Don’t be like that, Nic,’ she cajoled, pouting with sexy appeal. ‘I’m sorry I left without saying goodbye after my weekend with you.’
‘I took goodbye for granted from the manner of your departure,’ he answered coldly.
They’d had a fight, Serena swiftly surmised. Was Nic’s pride at stake here, or was he truly finished with Justine?
‘I’m sorry. Okay? I lost my temper…’ She raised her hands in apologetic appeal. ‘Put it down to not much sleep because of the dog.’ She forced a smile at Cleo. ‘Now that you’ve got her tamed…’
‘Thanks to Serena,’ Nic slid in and pointedly turned his gaze to her, looking determined that she not be ignored or left out of this conversation any longer.
‘Yes. I can see you’re very grateful to her. Nice of you to invite her for a swim in the pool,’ Justine said dismissively, her eyes glittering green daggers at Serena as she condescendingly added, ‘But you’re not expecting to stay all day, are you, dear? You won’t mind if I carry Nic off to lunch with our friends?’
Nic came in hard and fast. ‘I’ve invited Serena to stay all day and I’m not the least bit interested in joining your party, which I would have told you if you’d called instead of coming here uninvited and making unwarranted assumptions,’ he stated tersely.
Justine sighed and tried a silky challenge, placing a hand on a provocatively jutting hip. ‘Why wouldn’t I think I’d be welcome, Nic? We have been lovers for…’
‘Just give it up, Justine,’ he cut in, the harsh command slightly softened by the follow-up appeal. ‘Okay?’
It wasn’t okay. It produced a sulky protest. ‘I have apologised…’
Angry impatience burst from Nic. ‘That currency won’t buy you back in. I’ve moved on.’ He flashed Serena a look that commanded her compliance with his next assertion. ‘I’m very happy in Serena’s company and have no wish to exchange it for anyone else’s.’
Serena held her breath. Here it was—the situation punched out in no uncertain terms. Nic’s handsome face looked so hard it could have been carved out of granite. Having told Justine where he was at, he wasn’t about to excuse his actions, either. This declaration was a straight slap in the face to any hope or expectation of any intimacy with her being resumed. Certainly not today, anyway.
Retaliation was not slow in coming.
‘Your bed feeling a bit cold, was it?’ Justine mocked, her lip curling up in distaste as she subjected Serena to a contemptuous dismissal. ‘And, of course, you’d be only too happy to oblige him. Panting for the chance, no doubt, just like a bitch on heat.’
‘That’s enough!’ Nic rasped.
‘Oh, for God’s sake, Nic!’ Her hands scissored total exasperation. ‘You can’t be serious about taking up with her! She might be handy for sex and useful for looking after the dog, but…’
‘Serena is a great deal more than that and I am very serious about holding on to her as long as I can,’ Nic cut in with such fury in his voice it startled Cleo into barking again.
‘This is ridiculous!’ Justine glared at the silky terrier, then carried her glare to Nic, returning his fury with all the fury of a woman scorned. ‘You’re turning me down for a common local tart who works with stinky little animals?’
‘Serena happens to be the most uncommon woman I’ve ever met. And be warned about that tart crack, Justine. What goes around comes around and if I hear it repeated in public, you’ll find yourself tagged with something similarly unpleasant.’
Shock had Justine gaping at him. ‘You’d humiliate me…for her?’
‘You start it… I’ll deliver it back to you in spades. What’s more, I wouldn’t carry on about stinky little animals if I were you, because you’re making a nasty stink yourself right now and I’m finding it extremely ugly.’
The ugly word was meant to hit hard and it did. Justine visibly recoiled from the offensiveness of it. Serena couldn’t help feeling justice had been served, considering the offensiveness the other woman had dished out.
Nevertheless, a haughty recovery was quickly effected. An arrogant pride stamped itself on the beautiful face. The glorious mane of hair was tossed in disdain of everything that had been said as she shook her head and proceeded to adopt a mock-indulgent tone.
‘Well, I must admit I’m not enamoured with the dog situation you have here so I’ll overlook this temporary aberration of yours, Nic. Call me when you get back to Sydney and we’ll pick up from there.’
‘It won’t happen,’ Nick told her with emphatic finality.
Justine chose to ignore him, swinging on her heel and swanning off in catwalk mode, taking her own path around the house again, flaunting her message that Justine Knox was not about to be shown the door and she’d still be on call when Nic came to his senses.
It wasn’t only Serena watching her go. Nick’s gaze was glued to Justine’s back until it disappeared from view. Was he wondering if he’d made the right decision? Angry that he’d been caught in a hard place, knowing he’d come off as a real slime if he’d tried to wriggle out of or skate over what had been going on with Serena?
An engine was loudly revved, a decisive signal that Justine was, indeed, on her way out. Nic set Cleo down on the patio, a somewhat premature move since the little terrier went hurtling off around the house to chase the car and bark it off the premises. Nic shrugged and shook his head at the unstoppable action, then started down the steps to the pool level, grimacing his displeasure at having been forced to deal with such a scene.
‘Don’t take anything Justine said to heart, Serena. That was all just bitchy grandstanding,’ he said dismissively.