Page 5 of Bad Boy in Her Bed

So, Birch Baker, do I make you nervous or are you always this tense?

Sitting in his truck, he called in a pizza order, knowing his youngest brother was likely pacing the kitchen at home cursing the nearly total lack of contents in their fridge.

Do I make you nervous?

Women didn’t make him nervous.He was a Baker, and for all the problems the Baker brothers had, women weren’t among them.But sitting across the table from Jocelyn Carter?Yeah, he was nervous.Although some of the guys he knew were suckers for sweet and demure, there was something about a strong woman that served as a powerful aphrodisiac to him.

And everything about Jocelyn was put together, bold, and confident.Including her attention.

While he was aware of every eye turning their way, she spoke to him as though he were the only person in the room.The pureness of her focus built a bubble around them, something he hadn’t noticed until they stepped outside and went their separate ways.

He missed it instantly.

And that?That made him nervous.

Firing off a text to Grey to let him know food was on the way, he turned onto the street.

Are you always this tense?

Of the four of them, he’d always been the most serious of his brothers.More calculated in his movements.He understood actions and reactions, ensured he knew the consequences before he chose his paths.His life to date wasn’t one any rational person would envy, but he’d been the one to plot every step of it since his early teens.

Pulling into his driveway, he tossed his truck in park and killed the engine, grinning when he saw Grey sitting on the steps, scanning the empty street in anticipation of dinner.

“A watched pizza never delivers,” he warned, joining his brother.“You get a decent start on that research paper?”

“All but one chapter in linear algebra.And I need to refuel before I even think about tackling it.Probably going to need your help, too.”His eyes lit up and he hopped to his feet as he spotted the telltale light of the delivery car’s sign.“How did work go today?”

Sliding his wallet out of his pocket, he passed over enough to his brother to cover the pizza and a tip.“Typical Monday, but with the added bonus of year end paperwork to sort.”He stood up with a groan.“I’ll get the table set and we’ll make a list while we eat so I can pick up groceries before I head in tomorrow.”

“Leave me the list,” his brother shot back over his shoulder, jogging down the driveway to meet the driver.“I can run out after my morning session.”

Holding the door while his brother cradled the pizza boxes with care, he shook his head.“No deal.If you’re having trouble with the linear class, I want you putting in an extra hour a day on it.”

Ignoring Grey’s huff of resignation, he collected the textbooks spread across the kitchen table and put them in a pile on the counter.

The younger two Bakers had one job and one job only: make it out.

River made it out of Epson three years ago, living the aspiring actor and model life in LA, his young influencer wife ensuring he was front and center on her social media pages twenty-four-seven.He packed his bags under Birch’s watchful eye immediately after Birch was released from prison.Armed with a one-way plane ticket and seven grand in cash tucked in his wallet, River got out from under the burden of his name, his path paved by his older brother’s sacrifices.

Of the four of them, Winter took the hardest hit, sparing the rest in the only way he could.Grey was nine when their father died and Winter was jailed, the only condition of his guilty plea resting on Birch being given uncontested guardianship over the younger boys.

It hadn’t been easy at eighteen, stepping into the roles of both dad and mom for a bitter fourteen-year-old and a skittish nine-year-old.But it had been a calculated move, a plan put in motion only when every piece was aligned.And with Grey expected to finish his doctorate in engineering in the next four years, they were in the final stretch.

Anything—or anyone—who could derail them now was a threat.

Shaking his head with a smile, he pulled the open pizza box away from Grey.“Were you raised by wolves?Use a damn plate.”

Mouth full, his brother rolled his eyes but obeyed.“Put pickles on the grocery list.And not those sweet ones.The garlic ones.”

With a slice of pizza in one hand and a pen in the other, he assembled a decent list for the morning, glancing over at his phone when it buzzed and seeing a message from a familiar number light up his screen.Flipping his cell over to hide it from his twenty-two-year-old brother’s prying eyes, he folded the grocery list and slipped it into his wallet while Grey cleared the table and slapped his linear algebra text down.

Hunching over chapter four, he ignored Jocelyn’s text reminding him of the route she’d be running in the morning.

He and Winter had survived this long, but River and Grey were going to do more than survive.And he wasn’t going to let the distraction of some gorgeous woman derail him from ensuring his younger brothers made it.

Chapter Three

Jocelyn put herearbuds in and cranked the volume on her running playlist, doing her best to shake off her disappointment with Birch’s absence as she found her rhythm in the early morning sun.

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