Page 49 of Bad Boy in Her Bed

Her touch sent shivers through him, the heated desire in her gaze priming his body for another round.“I’ll ask River to look it over the next time he’s in town.”Tracing the outline of the emerald bra she was still wearing, he broached the one topic he’d been avoiding in their brief texts for the past two days.“Before we get back down to business, is there anything else you’ve found in the paperwork I need to know about?”

“More of the same.”She straightened and cupped one of his hands in hers.“I’ll be honest with you, I think it may get very messy for Serpent’s Tongue when the account leaves my desk, and you need to be ready for it.Even though the map is pointing to Ryder, you’re attached to him, and you’ll be scrutinized as much, if not more, than he will.”

Scoffing, he nodded.“Yeah, one of the perks of being a Baker.”

“The other, of course, being the fact that Bakers having the best buns in town.”

Giving her a flat stare, he raised a brow.“Seriously?How long were you holding onto that one?”When she smirked, he lay back and tucked his arms behind his head to admire the view.“Since we’re being brutally honest here, I’m giving myself twenty-four hours to forget that any of that bullshit is happening.But after the fireworks tomorrow, I need to clear my head and make a game plan to survive this.Whatever that looks like.”

She tucked her hair behind her ear and looked down at him.“Will I be a part of this plan?”

Swallowing, he held her gaze and shook his head.“You and I both know it won’t matter if I wasn’t involved in whatever Ryder and Trevor have been up to.When I get dragged through it, I’m not bringing you or Grey or River with me.”

Her lips pursed but she nodded.“Then we better make this time count.”She leaned down and brushed her lips softly against his.“But when you come out the other side of this, find me.”

Chapter Twenty-Two

Jocelyn emerged fromthe bathroom, using a towel to squeeze the water from her hair.She looked between her day’s outfit draped over the back of a chair and then at Birch, who was still out cold on the bed.

Their twenty-four hours were down to fourteen.

Decision made, she tossed her damp towel aside and crawled under the blankets with him, snuggling in close to stay warm and smiling when a tattooed arm wrapped around her and pulled her flush to him.

She hadn’t been blindsided by his words last night, but the sting of them still hit hard.As the picture of what he was facing became clearer, a part of her had known he would eventually pull back those pieces of himself he was slowly baring to her.For a man with his past now facing a precarious future, he couldn’t afford to let down his guard.He needed to do what he had done throughout his life: focus on his survival with laser precision.

This, she understood.

What she struggled to accept was the knowledge the fragments of himself he showed her were simultaneously the reasons she fell hard for him and the reasons she would lose him.His unwavering loyalty to his family, his self-deprecating humility, his morals—even his debatable ethics—drew her to him with a passion she had never experienced before, a passion she was only now allowing herself to accept and hold.

But she had no doubt he would walk away from her tonight.

And she had to let him, because it was what made him the man she trusted.

Raising up onto one arm, she grazed her thumb along his brow.“Hey,” she whispered, smiling when his nose wrinkled and he frowned.“Time to get up.We have a busy day ahead of us.”

*

Birch shoved hishands into the back pockets of his jeans to keep his flexing fingers from giving away how nervous he was as he looked over his booth.“Why did I think this was a good idea?”

With her Serpent’s Tongue Ink shirt knotted at her hip and her lean runner’s legs on display in her denim cutoffs, Jocelyn’s outfit alone should have been distraction enough from his spiking anxiousness.Instead, it was her steady voice and confident words keeping him from jumping in his truck and driving as far from the fairgrounds as he could.

“Because it is,” she stated, her hands on her hips as she studied the placement of his business cards on the display table.“Your closest competition is the mortgage insurer handing out stale lollipops up there on the right.”

“How do you know they’re stale?”

“I had one while you were setting up the chairs and hanging the posters.”She turned and walked over to him, running her hands along the logo emblazoned across his chest.“You’ll do amazing because you are amazing.”

Exhaling, he gave her a tight smile.“Better than stale suckers at least.”

“You’re ten times as good and nearly as sexy.”She rose up and kissed him.“Now go stand under the banner so I can get a picture before you’re too busy and famous to pose for me.”

Scoffing, he obeyed without argument.

Neither of them was acknowledging the ticking clock hanging over their heads.The tightening in his chest every time he thought about it was too much to deal with while the stress of the day sat on his shoulders.As long as Jocelyn was keeping everything together, he could too.

Even if all he wanted to do was pick her up and drive as far away from Epson as they could.

“Smile pretty,” she commanded, stepping up against him and angling her phone to capture a picture of the two of them.“Actually no.Keep the dangerous, brooding thing going.It’s hot.”She snapped a series of photos and lowered her phone, deleting six before he could get a good look at them.“Okay.I’m sending you the three I look best in.”

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