“Because I’ve got a tonne of work to do!”
“Like what?”
Like trying to work out if Noah’s a bikie, she thought.And whether he’s gotten better-looking overnight or I’m losing my actual mind.
“Nicole?” Tabby cupped her hands around her mouth. “Earth to Nicole, come in, Nicole. Nicole, can you read me?”
“Yes,” she snapped. “I can’t take a freaking break. There’s a delivery coming and we’re getting our pay system upgraded this afternoon, then I have a Skype call with Francine—”
“Your Adelaide boss?”
“Yes. I need to explain why I’m still in Melbourne instead of at my desk in head office. Then I need to continue to try and figure out why this business almost collapsed three months ago.”
Tabby rolled her eyes. “God, who cares? We’re fine now.”
“That’s not the point! If we don’t know why Silver Daughters almost went under, then it might happen again!”
“Fine, but just lay off the green teas, okay?”
Nicole looked at her mug where a Jasmine teabag was idling. “What’s wrong with green tea?”
“I read somewhere it’s like nature’s heroin.”
“Wouldn’theroinbe nature’s heroin?”
Tabby shrugged. “Maybe there’s more than one kind of heroin. Wow, that’s deep. I should tattoo it on someone. Anyway, I’ll leave you to Type A behavior. Give me a heads up when the ink gets here. I need to restock.”
“There’s nothing wrong with Type A behaviour,” Nicole shouted at her sister’s retreating back. “You should try it sometime!”
Tabby gave her the finger.
Nicole glared after her sister for a second, then her thoughts boomeranged back to Noah. She knew she should talk to him about the biker thing. The question was could she even say ‘biker’ to him after spending last night screwing herself to the thought of him being one?
She hadn’t wanted to do it. She’d tried thinking about grandma DaSilva, about Aaron cheating. She’d even wheeled out that awful trip to the doctors when she was nineteen. It hadn’t worked. She’d let fantasy biker Noah say and do disgusting things to her. Then she’d let him do them to herin front of the other bikers. By 4am she was so miserable and horny and confused, she cried in her bed like a baby. How was she supposed to talk to Noah without any of that mess coming out?
She stood up, mug in hand. She was getting another green tea, and screw what Tabby said. She pushed open the door and saw Noah coming out of tattoo room two, cigarettes in hand. They froze, as if being a man and a woman in a hallway was against the law. “Hey,” she said, trying to sound normal. “Having a break?”
“Yeah.”
She tried and failed to block the fantasy of him spreading her legs in front of the other bikers and going down on her. Not because he wanted her to feel good, but because he knew coming in front of all those men would humiliate her. He’d wanted to humiliate her. To fuck her into a thousand remorseful orgasms.
“Nikki?”
Nicole raised a hand to her cheek. “Sorry, I didn’t catch that.”
“Tired?” Noah’s eyes glinted like two chips of jade. He looked like he knew what she was thinking, though he couldn’t possibly know what she was thinking. That was not a skill he possessed.
“A little.” She raised her mug to distract him from her face. “Cup of tea?”
“No thanks.” His gaze fell to her lower-than-professional neckline. “New dress?”
Warmth fluttered in her chest. “Newish. I haven’t worn it here before.”
“I like it.”
“Really?”
A glance at her tightly belted midsection. “I like you in it.”