Read Blake, Abby - Keen Inclination [A Bride for Eight Brothers 4] (Siren Publishing LoveXtreme Forever) for Free Online Page A

don’t want to chance it.”
    “Maybe we should bring her into the meeting,” John said casually, maybe a little too casually. When he saw Brock’s expression, he started to explain. “She’s got a quick intellect and a good mind for business. I think it would help her to be more involved.” Brock just stared at his brother for a few moments. There was no doubt Mikayla was intelligent, and she’d proved she could cope with pressure when she’d been thrust into the middle of Peter’s court case, but did she really need the stress of the family business when she’d had so much to cope with lately?
    John must’ve interpreted his hesitation correctly because he added, “I think she needs to feel part of the business as well as part of the family.”
    Brock nodded slowly. He didn’t want Mikayla stressing over the family business as well as her family, but he could see John’s wisdom. It wouldn’t really hurt for her to feel more involved in the business side. They’d both heard her whispered confession to Tracey, and it had taken every ounce of strength not to burst through the door and yell at her for her foolish assumptions. Only Tracey’s fierce rebuttal had calmed his shrieking nerves. He couldn’t lose Mikayla. He wouldn’t allow it.

    * * * *

    John looked at his brother and wished he could read minds. Brock was always so controlled that even when he was on the verge of losing it, he still seemed calm. Ever since overhearing the conversation they should not have been listening to, John had wondered how to give Mikayla another reason for staying with them. Giving her a more personal stake in the family business was probably a little selfish in some ways—it was one more reason for her to hesitate if she chose to leave them—but John felt the good outweighed the bad in this case.
    Before they could go into more detail, Mikayla stepped out of the fitting room and headed back to them. She went to put several of the outfits back on the rack, but Brock stopped her.
    “They’re uncomfortable,” she said as she tried again to hang them back where they belonged.
    “Uncomfortable how?” Brock asked with a broad smile.
    “Uncomfortable as in I would rather wear a suit of armor.”
    “Perfect.” Brock grinned as he snatched the outfits away from her. “John and I want a fashion show tonight. You can point out the places these outfits are making uncomfortable, and we’ll kiss them all better.”
    She smiled and threw her hands in the air, but John didn’t miss the way her eyes darkened with arousal or the way she moved her legs as if to quell the tingling between them. It was almost like the real Mikayla was emerging once more. It was only now when she was starting to be herself again that he realized just how much she’d withdrawn in the last six months. Taking a year off even thinking about baby making, per Tracey’s suggestion, was a great idea. But how could they convince Mikayla without letting on that they’d heard the conversation?
    The meeting with their lawyer went better than expected. Mikayla bought up a few points that John hadn’t even considered, and their lawyer had seemed fairly confident he could convince the mining company that the contract was void due to the current working conditions. Their lawyer also made a few discreet enquiries about the medical consortium and discovered that they had indeed been relying on Lachlan’s war hero status to keep their staff safe instead of hiring security of their own. Their lawyer had every intention of playing the two companies against each other and winning a favorable outcome for the Davidson family.
    “We’ll be in California for another week,” Brock said to their lawyer as they left the office. “Then we’re planning to head home, hopefully with a new security team on board.”
    “Just make sure they’re all female,” the lawyer said with a grim smile. “I don’t even want to think about the legal ramifications of employees