AllFreeNovel
Share Us
"I have other things to do," Nik told her.
Eleanor nodded as she headed for the back door. "That's a good thing for Mikayla's heart, a bad thing for the situation itself. I have a feeling, though, if you don't leave you'll only end up hurting her."
Or himself.
Nik watched as Eleanor left the house before he turned back to the window to stare into the soft light of early evening.
He was packed and ready to roll out, though he hadn't figured out why he hadn't left yet.
There was a part of him that loathed walking out the door, nothing in hand but the leather bag he had arrived with. There was something he was leaving behind, but he was damned if he could figure out what the hell it was.
Shaking his head at the thought, Nik went through the house, secured it, then picked up the leather bag that held several changes of clothing as well as the weapons he had brought with him.
He had to force himself out the front door. Hell, walking away had always been easy, especially since his "death." He hadn't known it possible to possess a hunger for a woman the way he did for one tender, sweet little virgin at the moment. He stepped outside, pausing on the porch to stare into the slowly dimming light of a summer evening. Rain was coming. He could feel it in the air, almost taste it against his tongue.
The scent of it reminded him of Mikayla.
He shook his head, trying to shake the regret growing inside him away as he strode to the driveway and the motorcycle parked there.
"Nik."
She stepped from behind the Jeep and moved to the strip of grass dividing the driveways, moving to stand beneath the heavy oak tree growing there. 78
Fairy princess. That was what she was. He couldn't get the idea out of his head. So damned petite and innocent, still believing, somehow, in the good of the world. He could have told her, would have told her, there was so very little good left.
"You should have stayed in the house, Mikayla." He secured the leather bag in the metal saddlebag on the side of the cycle.
"I shouldn't say good-bye?" There was the faintest edge of hurt in her voice now; it matched the hurt he had glimpsed in her amethyst eyes, in her pale face.
" 'Good-bye' is for friends," he pointed out to her as he straightened and stared back at her. "Are we friends, Mikayla?"
It was a challenge and he knew it. She was still angry. That spark of ire still lingered in her gaze, in the tightly controlled curve of her lips.
"Why are you here?" As he moved around the back of the cycle, he knew lingering here was a mistake.
He should leave now, before he was drawn in any further. Before he completely fucked the fragile peace he'd found after all these years.
"I say good-bye." Her fingers were laced together in front of her, her shoulders straight. The heels she wore barely got her to the middle of his chest. He wanted to protect her, he realized. He wanted to wrap her up, protect her from the world, and keep all that innocence and fire for himself alone.
He should be locked up for even desiring such a thing, because he knew how fragile that illusion could be.
"I told you, you say good-bye to a friend," he growled.
"Or someone you wished could have been a friend," she mused softly before pulling at her lower lip with her teeth and nibbling at it nervously for a second. "I won't forget you, Nik."
His stomach clenched; his cock, hard since the moment he laid eyes on her, tried to thicken further. Hell, he'd never been so hard in his life.
"You should." Anger was slipping through the tight leash he fought to keep on it.
"You should forget me the moment I ride out of here, Mikayla. Or do you like it when men lie to you? When they hurt you?"
She flinched, her lips thinning. "Maybe that's why I'm saying good-bye, Nik," she suggested then. "Maybe I'm scared if I just watch you ride away, then I really won't be able to forget you."
That made more sense, but it wasn't going to work. He could tell her himself that there were points in a person's life that couldn't be forgotten. For them, what they hadn't had would always haunt them. It couldn't be helped.
Nik shook his head. "What the fuck do you want from me, Mikayla?" He sighed.
"I told you the truth. You should have your brothers standing here rather than standing here yourself."
