Without Limits: Austin (Rugged Riders Book 4) Read Free

to pick it up. When he turned to face me again, I knew from the pained expression on his face that he’d read the note.
    I took the notecard from him and snatched the door open.
    “Really?” Rick shook his head. “Is this why you’ve been trying to get rid of me the whole time?”
    I swallowed. “No, Rick. It’s not what it looks like.”
    “I find that hard to believe. How long have you been talking to him?”
    “I haven’t been talking to him.”
    “Austin Clark invites you to dinner and I’m getting tips that he may be back in town, and you want me to believe that you haven’t been talking to him?”
    I held up my left hand and pointed to my ring finger. “You see this? This is what the freedom to do whatever the fuck I want with whoever the fuck I want looks like. And for your information, I didn’t even know Austin was back in town. Get out! I was having a semi-perfect evening until you showed up and ruined it.”
    “Do you know what I think of Mr. Hot Shot Austin and this lame attempt to get with my ex-wife?” He grabbed the note from my hand and tore it into several tiny pieces before laying them out on the table in my foyer. “Trash.”
    “You bastard.” I shoved him toward the door. “Stay far away from me. The next time I see you, I won’t be able to control what I do to you. Don’t come back!”
    He opened his mouth, but I shut the door in his face. I vowed that day that I would never answer my door to anyone unless I was expecting them.
    My semi-perfect evening had turned into a horrid night. I took a very cold shower and called it a day, leaving my work unfinished.

3
    M onday rolled around quickly . After spending the entire weekend, reminiscing on all the bad decisions I’d made over the past several years and drowning my sorrows in chocolate and wine, I started off the week rough. I was a hopeless wreck, but if there was one thing that motivated me more than being surrounded my patterns, fabrics, and spools of thread, it was making enough money to make ends meet. I didn’t have time to wallow. There was work to be done. And neither Rick nor anyone else was going to stop me this time.
    Rebecca had already called me this morning to let me know that she’d be in a little later to close the shop. She would probably be here at any moment demanding a reason for me not showing up on Sunday. I felt kind of bad for flaking out on the pool party, but I wasn’t up for pretending I was in a really good mood when I really wasn’t. And Rick’s bitch move had turned my whole weekend upside down. I had to admit that I hated seeing Austin’s dinner invite ripped to shreds.
    “I’m looking for something a little less…revealing,” the customer said, as I followed her down a row of evening gowns. “I understand you have custom work too.”
    “Yes, of course.” I nodded and led the woman over to a display of my newest evening gowns. “I can hand sew just about any design here in the store if you’re looking for a little more customization.”
    “I think I’d like that. Do you mind if I look around for a bit at some of the dresses you’ve sewn?”
    “Sure. Let me bring you some catalogs to look at too.”
    As I left the customer to move to the front of the store where I stashed my booklets near the cash register, the door chimed again. As I always do, I glanced up with a bright smile to greet what I suspected was another customer.
    Instead, Austin Clark stood in my doorway. His presence took my breath away. Partly because I hadn’t seen him in person in years, and partly because he was fine as hell. He held a motorcycle helmet in one arm and the other hung by his side. He was dressed down in a rugged looking pair of jeans that hugged his muscular thighs and a white t-shirt, which was pulled taut across his chest. Almost every inch of his arms was covered in tattoos. His hair was disheveled and tossed around as if he’d torn off his helmet and hadn’t even attempted to straighten up his