AllFreeNovel
Share Us
That was more than the truth.
"I have to think about it." Mikayla shrugged, her gaze going back to the desk where the design lay. "Give me a few days, Deirdre."
"A few days." Deirdre breathed heavily. "Maybe in a few days we can actually take a paycheck while we're thinking about this. What do you think about that?" She turned and strode back into the shop, just as the bell tinkled again Mikayla snagged the edge of the door and carefully closed it. She wanted to slam it.
God, she hated this. She felt torn, worn, and completely unsettled. If it wasn't enough that her life had gone completely to hell, now Glenda was trying to push her deeper into the pit.
And she still had to go home and face Nik, since he'd decided he could protect her more easily while staying at her house.
She groaned at the thought. Home. Alone. With Nik. He had moved in, with her family's complete approval, it seemed. Not that her father was comfortable with it. But Nik he was still there. He was making her brain mush, and that made it even harder to deal with Glenda. Because coming up with a reason not to make that gorgeous dress was becoming impossible. Coming up with a reason not to touch Nik was even harder. She was a virgin. She was saving herself for marriage.
Bullshit.
She'd never met a man who made her heart pound, made sweat pop out on her flesh, and her heart race with such pleasure and excitement that she feared it would pound straight out of her chest.
Pushing her fingers through her hair, Mikayla turned and paced to the back of the room. As she stood amid bolts of material, the scent of the luxurious fabrics filling her senses, suddenly it wasn't enough.
87
The shop was her dream. It was her career and her livelihood. But it wasn't her lover. It wasn't the excitement that filled her at the thought that when she left the shop there was more waiting for her at home.
And that was where she was getting ready to get into trouble. She would finish the dress. She would take Glenda's extra thousand on top of the fee she had already quoted and would make damned certain the dress was worth every penny of it.
Mikayla's Creations would make a name for itself. She would have this at least when Nik was gone. She was under no delusions that this had turned into some kind of forever scenario.
A growl tore from her throat.
She was insane.
She wasn't doing this to herself.
She wasn't going to . . .
Was she?
She stared around the room and shook her head again.
She couldn't think about this now. She couldn't think about Nik like this, not right now.
She had a dress to start, a life to live, and once she got home she had a killer to catch.
Nik was living in her house, he had promised to find out what was going on, and that meant he would prove Maddix Nelson had killed Eddie Foreman. And she was going to help.
88
Chapter 9
Nik arrived at the shop at precisely eight o'clock, when Deirdre and Mikayla had finished cleaning the shop and adding up the accounts for the day. They were putting the finishing touches on a new window display when the Harley throbbed to a stop at the curb and the vision of "rough and ready" swung from the seat to rise to his full glorious height.
He pulled the wicked black helmet from his head and gave his head a hard shake, allowing the long strands of pure white thick, luscious hair to fall just below his shoulder blades carelessly.
"My God, do you think men get as hard when they see a woman do that as I just got wet?" Deirdre breathed out in awe at the sight.
Shooting her a disgruntled look, Mikayla forced herself to finish tucking the back of the summer dress over the mannequin and pinning it into place before the bell over the door announced that Nik had entered the shop.
"Are you ready?" His voice was a hard, deep rumble that had Mikayla's stomach flexing in a surge of pleasure.
Deirdre turned, caught Mikayla's eye, and lifted her brows as she mouthed, Oh yeah.
