Chapter 8

Chapter Eight

A riel tried to slam the door in Cooper's face but took a moment too long. The lying cretin stuck one of his shoes in the doorjamb and as tempted as she was to amputate it, she couldn't afford a lawsuit on top of everything else at the minute.

"Get out!" Ariel jiggled the door, hoping he'd take the hint with the way she'd shoved him out the door.

"Let me explain—"

"Explain what? That you're a miserable, lying snake or that you're so desperate you'd take off your clothes to get inside info for your proposed takeover?"

She planted her hands on her hips, fury surging through her body at being taken for a fool. Living on the streets as a youngster, people had assumed she was stupid, equating a dowdy appearance with nil intelligence, and she'd hated it.

She'd shown everyone and then some.

Exactly how she would show Cooper whatever-his-name-was after giving him a verbal flaying he'd never forget.

"He took his clothes off?" Chelsea's eyes bulged as she plucked off her beanie and ran a hand through her short, spiky, red hair. "That is desperate."

"It wasn't like that," Cooper said, a faint pink flushing his tanned cheeks as his bashful gaze focussed on hers. "I tried to tell you the truth a few times but you always shot me down, talked over me, or didn't want to know."

Ariel rolled her eyes. "Give me a break. Guys like you can talk underwater with a mouth full of marbles for business, and you think you couldn't get the message across because I wouldn't let you?" She snorted. "What a load of crap. You kept your big mouth shut because you wanted to sleaze your way into my good graces."

"That's telling him," Chelsea murmured, and Ariel shot her a quelling glance to keep out of it.

While Ariel was grateful for her star pupil outing the rat, she could fight her own battles. Always had, always would.

"Can we talk in private?" Cooper's steady gaze locked on hers, urgent, compelling, willing her to listen.

Too bad for him, she'd listened to enough of his lies already.

She shook her head. "I'm not interested in anything you have to say. Now, if you don't mind removing your big foot from my door and shoving it back into your mouth, I have work to do."

"This isn't the end," Cooper said, his earnest expression meaning business as he removed his foot from the doorway.

"That's what you think."

Ariel slammed the door, grateful for the double reinforced glass. It saved her from shattering the windows and afforded a fantastic view of the look on Cooper's face.

If she didn't know any better, she'd say he appeared ashamed.

But that couldn't be right. Guys like him didn't have a conscience and they never took no for an answer. They wheeled and dealed their way to the top regardless of the little people trampled in the process.

Well, she had news for him. This little person wouldn't let him near her place again let alone allow him to buy it and ruin her plans for the future.

Cooper the marauding model could develop some other property to acquire, preferably in Timbuktu.

"That was awesome," Chelsea said, slapping her on the back. "You sure showed him who was boss."

Fatigued, Ariel watched Cooper march up the street past the organic fruiterers, the vegan takeout stand, and the Nepalese homewares, before turning the corner where he'd probably hidden some fancy sports car.

Lying jerk.

Damn lying jerk that had gotten under her skin in two short meetings. And to make matters worse, she had to work from memory to finish the portrait when the last thing she felt like doing was resurrecting memories of the jerk's body and how great it would look on canvas.

"You okay?" Chelsea asked.

"Yeah. How did you know who he was?"

"I've seen him around the Fitzroy area over the last few months. Mr Fancy-Schmancy works for a company that is responsible for ousting the Ng's from the corner grocer's, the Bortelli's from their café, and closing down the old Irish pub, all in the name of development ." Chelsea held up her index fingers on both hands and made inverted comma signs. "I hate guys like him. They've never done it tough. They don't know the first thing about the area or locals like me who live in it. They bulldoze their way in and rip lives apart. Tell me you won't let them get the gallery."

"Not if I have any say in it," Ariel muttered, knowing she'd be in for the fight of her life if Cooper set his sights on her gallery.

Chelsea threw her arms wide and did a three-sixty. "I love this place. All the local kids do. Barb made it more welcoming than any halfway house and you've continued the tradition. You can't let those bloodsuckers take it."

Ariel managed a weary smile, buoyed by Chelsea's enthusiasm but more afraid than she'd ever been. She'd known about the property developers buying up every last piece of prime Brunswick Street land, but to hear Chelsea verbalise it somehow made the threat all the more real.

"Don't worry. I have no intention of letting them anywhere near Colour by Dreams ."

Chelsea clapped her hands like an excited child. "Good, because my first showing is here in a week and I want the world to see my brilliance."

"And your modesty," Ariel said with a wry grin, trying to banish the threatening image of Cooper's final glower before he marched away out of her mind and what it could mean for the gallery. "Now, how about some tea and you can tell me why you dropped by?"

Chelsea lead the way out the back, bouncing with vitality, her pashmina trailing in her wake like a bright flag. Ariel followed, knowing it would take more than herbal tea to dispel her anxiety at the moment.

"Wow!"

The minute Chelsea laid eyes on the preliminary portrait sketches Ariel had done of Cooper, her red suede boots flew across the floor to stop dead in front of the easel.

"I'll take that as a compliment to my artistic skills and not the subject in question," Ariel said, busying herself making tea and hoping she had enough sketches to create a final portrait from.

Chelsea grinned, tearing her gaze from the sketches for a second. "Don't get me wrong, I think you're the best artist this side of the Louvre, but wowee. That guy might be a slime-ball but he is one hot slime-ball."

"I should've known he was too good to be true," Ariel said, trying not to scald herself as she poured boiling water into mugs, her hands shaking in anger at how Cooper had fooled her. "Model, my butt."

"Unfortunately, doesn't look like you got to that part, worse luck."

Chelsea winked as Ariel handed her a mug of steaming lemongrass and ginger, the young woman's favourite, while she tentatively sipped at her peppermint brew, the steam heating her cheeks.

Or was that the thought of Cooper's butt? The same butt she should've kicked given half a chance.

"Shouldn't be a problem. I can improvise." Sadly, Ariel knew her imagination wasn't that good.

"Whatever."

Chelsea shrugged and took a seat on one of the ruby sofas, curling her long, legging-clad legs beneath her while she cradled her mug.

"What's with the long face?"

Ariel didn't need any more problems right now. She had enough of her own to keep her busy into the next century.

"Do you really think I'm any good at all this art stuff?" Chelsea's large hazel eyes radiated doubt and Ariel smiled, confident she could solve this problem easily.

Taking a seat next to the nineteen-year-old, she said, "Do you trust my judgement?"

"Yeah."

"And you know how tough it is to get a showing in a gallery in Melbourne?"

The corners of Chelsea's mouth turned upward. "Yeah."

"Plus you know how busy I am, right?"

Chelsea grinned and sat up straighter. "Right."

"You're a smart girl. Do you think I would waste my time if I didn't think you're talented and inspired and are going to be the next big thing?"

"When you put it that way…" Chelsea plucked Ariel's mug out of her hand, deposited it next to hers on the floor, and flung her arms around her. "You're the best. Barb was so lucky to have someone like you take over from her."

"I'm the lucky one," Ariel murmured, blinking back sudden tears.

If only she could keep the likes of Cooper from taking away the only place she'd ever known as home, she'd be very lucky indeed.