Sweet Seduction Serenade Read Online Free PDF Page A

him behind me, before I heard or saw him. All the eyes of the people before me flicking over my shoulder to let me know he was there.
    "Angel," Nick said, in an entirely too seductive voice. His use of the nick-name he gave me that night cutting right through my heart now. No one had called me "angel" the way he did it, as though I was truly an angel brought down from heaven to save his soul. And he was doing it in front of his fiancée.
    I spun on my heel and glared at him.
    " Don't call me angel," I said through gritted teeth, hands fisted at my sides.
    His eyes washed over me, as though we didn't have an audience, as though his fiancée wasn't standing right there bearing witness to this intimate scene. And he was making it intimate. He took his sweet, sweet time. Making sure he lingered on any bare skin, returning to my cleavage for a special amount of attention, then finally coming to rest on my face.
    "Angels are a figment," he said bizarrely and strangely quite angrily. "There one minute, or so they seem, then gone the next. Bringing false hope and then crushing it." I blinked at him. He'd clearly lost his mind.
    I decided to pretend the whole thing wasn't happening. I'd just ignore it. I frowned down at the ground and then shook my head. Then turned to Gen.
    "We can practice here in the evenings? Is that still OK?" We'd needed somewhere to practice other than Gus's garage, Casey was getting pissed off at the noise keeping the kids awake in the middle of the night.
    "Sure," she said, her eyes darting between me and Nick. Poor woman, she was going to have a shit night confronting her loser fiancé, that was for sure.
    "Sweet," I replied, pasting on my best Tennessee smile, then headed straight for the guys who had just finished packing and stowed my guitar in its case.
    We all said said our good-byes, arranged a time with Jane to be back tomorrow evening for practice, Gen watching quietly from the side, Nick nowhere to be seen. Loser. And then slipped out into the night. I kissed Gus on the cheek, hugged Spike and shared a high-five with Gonzo, then grabbed the first taxi that came my way.
    The entire way back to my father's I could have sworn the taxi was being followed. But every time I turned around in the back seat, there was no one there.
    Nick had said angels were a figment. There one minute, then gone the next. I was thinking ghosts from the past fitted that analogy better.
    Nick Anscombe was my ghost and even if he wasn't following me physically right now, he had me thinking that he was.

Chapter 3
What Was Left Of My Tattered Heart, Shattered Even More
    It was only as I was paying the taxi outside of Dad's house, that I realised I hadn't seen Adam when I left Sweet Seduction. He'd simply disappeared. Perhaps that was a good thing. I sure as hell didn't feel like a little lovin' by the time Nick had been through with his weird angel statement.
    I watched the taxi roll away until it disappeared round the bend in the road and then I turned back to Dad's little council flat, guitar case in hand. The lights were on inside, the curtains drawn, but even from here I could smell Aunty Jessie's cigarettes. Thankfully, I couldn't smell anything more exotic. Dad would be asleep, there was no way he would have lasted past nine, and Jessie would be halfway drunk, if not all the way. One of her boys would be on task to pick her up, although they'd likely be just as drunk off their asses as her.
    For a moment I just stood there, unable to muster the courage to go back in. But the sooner I got this over with, the sooner I could strum my guitar out on the back steps and stare at the moon in peace. A moon that looked different here than it did back home. One quick frown down at the ground and then I hoisted my guitar case firmly and strode up to the front door, letting myself in.
    "Took your fuckin' time," Jessie greeted me at the door.
    Clearly she'd been watching my hesitation from behind the curtains. That's why it never paid