Shakin' It For Daddy (The Panty Droppers) Read Free Page A

hypnotically from side to side. It had taken everything in him, not to reach out and tap her on the ass with his open palm.
    After ordering his meal, he watched her walk away again, and it broke his heart. It seemed that every time he’s seen her, she was walking away. Even with the thought that he loved to watch her leave, Degan knew he had to come up with a plan to get her to talk to him—not as a stranger ordering breakfast in the diner she worked in, but as the football team captain she’d ignored all through high school. He watched her while she worked at the counter, at different tables. He saw the way people whispered when she walked away.
    What’s that all about?
    Still he waited until she brought his meal and placed it before him to take the next step. “Could I ask you to sit with me for a moment, Mika?”
    Her eye brows snapped upward. Her eyes widened and she instantly smoothed her hands over her hips. “I didn’t ask you to marry me. I simply would like some conversation.”
    “There’s a strip club down the street on the left,” she replied. “They are more than willing to have conversations—providing you pay them enough, that is. I’m working, I don’t have time for conversations.”
    A smirk tugged at Degan’s lips. She was feisty—he liked that. “This won’t be long, I promise.”
    The way she was staring at him, Degan knew she was sizing him up. It was obvious she had no idea who he was which made the reason he was there even harder. “Please?”
    “Fine.” Her chest rose and fell heavily. She slipped into the booth across from him and tucked her hands beneath the table in her lap. “What do you want to converse about?”
    “You.”
    “Me?”
    “You really don’t remember me, do you?”
    “Is this some sort of joke?” she asked. “Because if it is I really don’t have that kind of time or patience to deal with it at the moment so simply send me a Polaroid.”
    Mika was pushing from the table, but Degan caught her arm. “No, no joke. I swear.”
    That took the wind from her sails. He could tell because she slipped back to her seat and leaned forward to stare at his face.
    “I don’t remember you.”
    “I can tell. My name is Degan Moira.”
    Perhaps it was something he said or the way he said it, but he saw it the moment she recognized him. She shoved roughly from the table causing him to quickly grab his glass of orange juice so it wouldn’t tip over.
    “I have to go!” she blurted out and was almost running from him.
    “Mika!” he called.
    Instead of stopping, she yanked off her apron, slammed it on the counter. The overly large man from the kitchen stuck his fat head through the serving counter and yelled after her, but she darted out the door. Degan ran after her, but didn’t make it in time. She was gone.
    When he entered again he saw the man staring at him.
    “What did she say to you?” The large man questioned.
    “I think, sir, you should be asking, what I said to her.” Degan frowned. “It is nothing she did, but completely my fault.”
    “If you say so,” the fat man said.
    Feeling ill, Degan removed money from his wallet and placed it into the man’s hand. “For my meal,” he said plainly.
    Without another word, he exited Mingy’s diner and sat in the front seat of his luxury rental SUV. That wasn’t the reaction he was hoping for from her. Though he couldn’t understand it, Degan was left feeling as though his lover had rejected him.

Chapter Four
     
    Mika sat behind the building, hyperventilating and trying desperately to steady her beating heart. The one day she thought nothing could possibly get any worse, Mika was wrong. Degan proved no matter how bad Mika’s life is—it could always get worse. She knew then why smokers had to light up after something stressful. She wanted a cigarette and she didn’t even smoke. Running a hand over her face, she looked around, ensuring he hadn’t followed her.
    Degan Moira?
    What the hell, man!
    That