Page 29 of Seeking Vengeance
“Oh yeah.” Ian laughed. “He’s got it bad.”
“I do not need this shit from you dickheads right now,” Sean growled, getting up from the corner barstool, where he had parked himself two hours ago.
Jake and Ian howled with laughter. Sean’s scowl deepened considerably.
“What’s so funny?” Taryn asked, walking in with her young daughter Riley.
The little girl immediately put her hands out to Sean, whose face softened instantly at the sight of his niece.
“Unc Sean!” she squealed in delight as he lifted her up above his head, bringing her back down so she could rain sloppy kisses on his cheek.
It still amazed him how she could tell him and Shane apart when most adults had difficulty.
“Sean’s doing the hair thing,” Ian informed Taryn gleefully.
Sean ignored him and blew raspberries on his little niece’s belly, making her giggle.
“The hair thing?” Taryn asked, bemused.
As one, Jake and Ian turned and demonstrated the move in perfect synchronization, causing a wide grin to spread across Taryn’s face.
“Fuair Sean a chroí,” Jake said, laughing.Sean found his heart.
“That’s awesome!” she said. “When do we get to meet her?”
The laughter followed him as he handed Riley back to her mother and promptly left the pub.
CHAPTER NINE
By Saturday morning, Sean still had no idea what he was going to do. He watched Nicki from the shadows of his office as she slid beneath another vehicle. She hadn’t spoken a single word to him—or to anyone else that he could tell—since arriving at dawn. Judging by the dark circles beneath her eyes, she hadn’t slept much.
That made two of them.
Nicki had proven herself more than worthy of the job. Nick hadn’t been exaggerating when he said his sister was great with engines. She was an excellent mechanic and a damn hard worker too. For the most part, she kept her head down, her mouth shut, and her hands busy, which was more than he could say for some of the others.
She was a distraction though—no question about that. Sean hadn’t realized how much time a mechanic spent bent over or on their back before. It was impossible to look out into the bays and not see at least one of the men watching her. Hell, it was hard forhimto tear his eyes away from her. It didn’t help that with each glance, his mind and body conspired together and imagined all the things he could be doing to her. And he swore that if she bent over that low-riding sedan one more time, he was going to send everyone home, shut the bays, and take her right then and there. The woman threatened his control like nothing ever had.
Similar thoughts had probably occurred to his mechanics as well, and that filled him with a possessive rage that bordered on frightening. For the few hours Nicki spent there each day, testosterone permeated the air. She might be getting through jobs quickly, but the others seemed to accomplish very little until after she left. Even Nick was feeling the pressure, spending more time warning off the wolves and waving big, heavy wrenches around threateningly.
Fuair Sean a chroí.The words echoed in his head.
He tried to deny it, but it was becoming increasingly difficult, especially when every fiber of his being hummed pleasantly with the thought that Nicki was his, meant for him and him alone. Just the memory of her body against him had his skin burning, and that had been through several layers of clothing. What would happen once he had her naked beneath him?
He wanted her so badly that it hurt, a physical pain that manifested itself both inside and out. That, more than anything else, was the determining factor in his acceptance of who and what she was to him. It was strange, he thought, how surrendering to that realization almost felt like a relief.
Not so with Nicki. She seemed to have no trouble ignoring—and avoiding—him and everyone else. Given the amount of work she was going through, her mind was as focused and functional as ever. After the little stunt he’d pulled yesterday in his office, he’d be lucky if she willingly got within three feet of him again.
Andthatwas simply unacceptable.
Shaking his head, Sean took a deep breath and tried to sort it out. To achieve an objective, a clear set of goals and parameters was essential.
The ultimate objective: to ingrain himself in every cell of the woman’s mind, body, and soul until he was her world. That was going to take some time, so he focused on shorter-term goals, the first of which was to have Nicki around him as much as possible. That was priority one. She was a hell of a mechanic, a good worker, and was bringing in jobs. Never mind the fact that being in close physical proximity soothed the baser parts of him—sexual desire excluded. It simply made good business sense to keep her on board.
On the negative side, the battle to control his possessive urges was reaching critical levels. More than once, he’d had to stop himself from putting one of his men through the wall for something they’d said or done. He’d almost done the same to a couple of customers who opted to hang around while their cars were being worked on. His customer waiting area had practically been standing room only since word had gotten out about Nicki working the bays. As good as her output was, the others were suffering in her presence.
Sean had never understood thecan’t have your cake and eat it toomentality. What was the point of having cake if you weren’t going to eat it? Nicki was staying—that was nonnegotiable. But the terms of her employment were about to change.
When he locked up the office at noon, he asked Nicki to join him for lunch.
