Chapter 12
Nikki
“Night, Bos.”
“You sure you don’t want me to follow you home?” he asked.
I shook my head and pulled my keys out of my pocket. “Nah, I’m fine. Richard would be dumb to kidnap me today. I look like hell, and I feel like crap.”
“Well, get on home and get some rest. It’s probably for the best you have the next three days off.”
I slid into my car, and Bos waited ‘til I started the car and pulled out of my parking spot before he headed around to the back of the restaurant. Work had been slow tonight, and about mid-shift, I started getting a scratchy throat and stuffy nose. I was not in the mood to get sick. Although, was anyone ever in the mood to get sick?
I navigated the short trip home and parked in front of my garage.
A bike and pickup truck were parked on the other side of the driveway, and there was a guy sitting on the porch. I couldn’t see his face because it was dark, but I could see the end of his cigarette light up.
Well, this was going to be interesting. I sat in my car, trying to look like I was searching for something while I tried to catch a glimpse of my new neighbor. I’m sure he was probably seventy, smoked six packs a day, and smelled like an ashtray. I just hoped his smoke didn’t blow into my open windows because I hated smoking unless it was a certain someone doing it.
I highly doubted this guy had anything on Pipe. God didn’t make two men like that.
I gave up trying to catch a glimpse and decided I was either going to have to pull up my big girl panties and introduce myself to my new neighbor, or just haul my cookies in the house. “Get out of the car, Nikki,” I mumbled.
Wallet in hand, and a takeout container of leftover chicken noodle soup in the other, I pushed open my door and decided I was just going to get this over with. “Evening,” I called as I slammed my door.
The cigarette glowed in the dark, and I squinted trying to get a glimpse of the man. He shifted in the dark and came into the light.
Son of a gun.
Pipe Marks stood on the porch, cigarette in hand, looking like he had just stepped off the page of some motorcycle magazine.
And dammit to hell if my first thought was me wishing I was that damn cigarette.
“Evening, sugar.”
*
Pipe
Well, she at least didn’t look pissed off. Shocked was a better word for it.
“How was work?”
Her jaw moved up and down, but no words came out.
“Hey, I’m gonna head out, man. I gotta be up early for a run, and I don’t feel like working off of a few hours of sleep.” Maniac walked out the duplex and slammed the door shut behind him. He skidded to a stop when he saw Nikki standing on the other side of the driveway. “Oh hell,” he muttered.
I didn’t need him to see whatever the hell was going on with Nikki and me. “Sounds good, brother. I’ll be rolling in around noon tomorrow, I think. Wrecker said he had some shit I need to take care of.”
Maniac nodded and clapped me on the shoulder. “See ya tomorrow then.” He ambled down the steps, nodded to Nikki, and backed out of the driveway.
My gaze fell back on Nikki, and I could tell she was struggling to figure out what was going on.
“What…why…what in the hell are you doing here?” she finally got out.
I looked up over my shoulder and shrugged. “As of yesterday, I live here.”
The bag she had in her hand dropped to the concrete, and her jaw dropped. “You live here? As in, right next to me?”
I ran my fingers through my hair and inhaled deeply. The smoke curled around me as I exhaled, and I shrugged. “I’d have to say that was the main selling point.”
“Have you lost your ever-loving mind?”
“Last I checked, no.”
“Well, you better check again because if you moved here because of me, you better get back on your bike and get the hell out of here.”
I shook my head. “Not yet.”
Nikki snatched the bag she had dropped off of the ground. “Well, then I better be the one looking for a new place to live.” She stomped to her door, fumbling with her keys in one hand, and stabbed the key into the lock. “I don’t know what the hell you’re up to, Pipe, but I can tell you right now, I don’t want any part of it.”
“You didn’t say that before when I wanted a part of you.”
She laughed, but it was flat and annoyed. “Oh, you definitely got a part of me last time, Pipe, and I can tell you right now, I will never make that mistake again.” She shoved open the door, glared at me over her shoulder, and slammed the door shut.
“Well hell,” I mumbled. I inhaled deep on my cigarette and watched her lights come on through the window. She hadn’t shut the curtains before she went to work today so I could see straight into her living room.
We were going to have a talk about her closing up the house when she went somewhere. For now, though, this was working in my favor.
Nikki was working herself up into a tizzy as she slammed the white bag she had down on the counter and raked her fingers through her hair.
God damn, she was gorgeous. Even in that hideous uniform she wore, she was still sexy as fuck. Long, auburn hair flowed down her back, almost touching the curve of her ass. I remember grabbing handfuls of her hair when I slammed into her from behind, and her gasps and mewling each time I hit bottom. Fuck, she was the best I ever had.
Her fingers went to the buttons on her top, and my heart stopped. Holy fuck, she was taking off her shirt with the whole neighborhood watching. I should go pound on the window, or her doorbell to tell her to shut her curtains, but my feet were cemented to the porch.
She slipped the shirt off her shoulders and down her arms, dropping it on the floor. Her fingers went to the waistband of her skirt, and she tugged it down, kicking it off to the side.
Fuck me running. Nikki was standing in her living room in black panties that molded to the curve of her ass and a black bra. She had her back to me so I couldn’t see her sweet tits, but I knew from memory what they looked like, and how soft and lush they were.
I glanced over my shoulder to make sure I was the only pervert watching. I looked back in the window, and Nikki was crouched down on the floor next to the skirt she had kicked off and pulled her phone out of one of the pockets. She put the phone to her ear and plopped down on the floor.
I shouldn’t be standing there watching her, but I couldn’t take my eyes off her. This was the Nikki I wanted. Uninhibited, doing whatever she wanted, and looking like a fucking angel doing it.
“Karmen,” she shouted into the phone. Obviously, the soundproofing on the duplex was less than stellar. I could hear her conversation word for word.
“Did you know he was here?” she demanded. She stopped talking for two point five seconds before she went off, ranting. “Pipe fucking Marks is living in the duplex right next to me. You’re telling me you had no idea this was happening? I find that hard to believe since you’re having his best friend’s baby.” She glanced out the window, but I was standing far enough off to the side to where she couldn’t see me. “I call bullshit, Karmen.”
Nikki stood up, moved to the window, and I took a step further into the dark losing my view of the window, but I didn’t want Nikki to see me. I sat back down in the rickety chair that had been left on the porch and tossed my cigarette butt onto the driveway. It smoldered on the ground, and I pulled another one from my pack.
“I don’t know why he is here. This doesn’t make any sense. I walk in on the man getting his jollies with some other woman, and now bam, he’s moved in right next door to me. What the hell am I supposed to do with that?”
Thankfully, I could still hear her talking. I lit the end of my cigarette and inhaled deeply as she continued to tell Karmen every reason why she thought me moving here was a bad idea.
“What the hell is he going to do here? There aren’t any jobs for an MC badass.”
I couldn’t help but chuckle at her words. Nikki always had a funny way putting things.
“Why are you laughing? I'm dead serious.” Obviously, Karmen thought Nikki was pretty funny too. “No, this isn’t what I wanted, Karmen. I wanted to live far away from the man and never see him again. This is the exact God dang opposite.”
I kicked my feet out and leaned back in the chair. Nikki had just confirmed the fact she had moved because of me. If that didn’t make me feel like a piece of shit, I didn’t know what would.
“Look, I’m going to go to sleep and wish like hell this is all a nightmare, and I’m going to wake up with Pipe living in Weston and me in Kales Corners where our paths will never cross again.” Nikki’s voice faded, and I knew she had moved away from the window to another part of the house where I couldn’t hear her.
I sighed and ran my fingers through my hair. It was only half past nine, and I knew there was no way in hell I was going to be able to go to sleep yet.
Living in Kales Corners was going to be a huge adjustment for me, but as long as Nikki was here, I wasn’t going anywhere.
*