Page 46 of Bad Boy in Her Bed

“On a podcast.”

Inching her arms around his waist, she held on to him and closed her eyes.“You really do blur the good-guy-bad-guy line.”

“I prefer to think of it as shading my character.”He nuzzled her hair and kissed the top of her head when she scoffed, his hold on her completely enveloping her.“Stay?”

*

Birch trailed hisfingers along the neckline of one of his shirts Jocelyn was wearing, keeping his roving hands Rated-PG while she lay beside him in the dark.

Her trust in him had wavered, and for good reason.It served as the reminder he needed: they weren’t the same breed.They saw their hometown through different eyes, viewed their neighbors through different lenses, lived their lives following different goals and rules.Whether he thought of them as ships passing in the night, intimate strangers, or a long fling, what theyweren’twas permanent.And he had to stop indulging in the idea.

He adjusted the blanket around her shoulders.“The whole only child thing must have been so quiet.I can’t see you being a holy terror as a kid.”

“It definitely had its benefits,” she replied, her thumb tickling his ribs as she aimlessly drew circles on his skin.“My parents were completely dedicated to my activities and school, and they were super focused on making sure they kept an open door to my friends so I wasn’t lonely.But now that I’m older, there’s that little cloud over me reminding me that I’m it.And my parents are it.When they die, it’ll just be me unless I marry into a big family.”

An image of her sitting at his table during the Baker brothers’ loud Christmas dinners flashed through his head and he shoved it back, unable to reconcile that jump with his inevitable future.“I never thought of that.I always thought only kids had it made, since they didn’t have to fight to the death for the last piece of cake or the final fry in the bag.”

“Oh, I’ll fight anyone for the last piece of cake.”She laughed and snuggled closer.“It was totally normal for me growing up, but when I got older, I was so jealous of my friends who had brothers and sisters because they had someone to ‘remember when’ with.I’m also horrific at sharing my space, and I don’t believe I’ll ever grow out of it.”

He tightened his arm, locking it around her.“You’re sharing it pretty damn good right now.”

“Come to my hotel room and move my toothbrush, and you’ll see precisely how territorial I can be.I lived with a roommate once for a month.By the third day, I was looking for a new place because she put things away in the wrong drawers.”She smoothed her hand along his stomach.“I suspect I’m not easy to live with.”

“Winter used to eat cereal in his room and leave the milky bowls under his bed for weeks at a time.Grey takes off his socks, shoves them under the couch cushions, then denies he did it while I’m pulling eight pairs out of the sofa on laundry day.River has never used the same cup twice for water, so he goes through a dozen a day and lines them up beside the sink despite the fact that the dishwasher is right.Fucking.There.”

“And you?”she asked with a laugh as she poked her finger into his bicep.“What’s your bad habit?”

“I’m the easiest guy ever to live with.If you excuse the fact that I push things off the kitchen counter into the closest drawer available every night before bed.”

“You’re a monster.”

Smirking, he nodded.“Yup.But in my defense, I’m the one who goes through the drawers every month or two and reorganizes them, so I don’t think it should count.”

*

Jocelyn could hearthe pounding of rhythmic footsteps closing in on her as she rounded the bend in the path and Birch’s tattooed arms and chest hit her peripheral moments later.

She had snuck out of his bed and his home in the early morning while he slept, returning to her quiet hotel room to shower and change before deciding she needed a run to process the tightness in her throat every time she thought about Birch Baker.

He didn’t say a word as he adapted his pace to hers, his attention straight ahead, oblivious to the three women blatantly checking out his shirtless body while they strolled past them.

There seemed to be an unspoken agreement between them last night when she followed him to his room and accepted the blue t-shirt he handed her.Changing in the bathroom, she crawled into bed beside him in the dark and burrowed under the heavy blanket while his arms wrapped around her.

But he hadn’t made a move on her.And she reciprocated.

“Anyone else can think whatever they want about me, but not you.”

His walls were back, reinforced and strengthened.Although she didn’t feel bad for asking him about the money, she judged and sentenced him in her mind long before she spoke to him.She approached him prepared to hear him stammer and lie his way out of his deception, ready to battle as he fed her excuse after excuse.

Instead, he told her the truth then proved it.

“You really do blur the good-guy-bad-guy line.”

Slowing as they reached the final stretch of the path, she looked over at him, her heart clenching when she saw the hard line of his jaw and the guarded darkness in his eyes.“I’m sorry.”

He kept his gaze locked ahead.“You should be.I hate running.”

Coming to a stop, she watched him continue ahead.“Seriously?I thought you were kidding before.”

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