Page 39 of Never Kiss the Bad Boy

I pray he doesn’t say ‘something fancy’ because I don’t own anything like that. If he says ‘anything’, I will show up in fuzzy house shoes and my bathrobe, happy to shoot myself in the foot to prove a point.

“Jeans and closed toe shoes for the bike,” he says, practical and not putting anything on me with it. “And to be clear, you haven’t said what you’re looking for, you’ve just said you don’t want a lot of the same things I don’t want.”

Huh, that’s something I’m gonna have to process because he might be right. I do frame what I want in terms of not wanting what the women in my life have and not doing what they do.

“Okay, I’ll see you at seven, then?”

He stretches his arms out in front of him, his hands gripping the fence between us, and his smile is so wide that he looks like a toothpaste commercial. I can’t remember the last time I was the cause of a smile like that. Usually, I’m quite the opposite—the smile stealer. Or it seems that way, with my parents always frowning in disappointment and Xavier constantly nagging. But not Kyle. He’s happy about tonight, and as he turns around, going back to his crew with a new pep in his step, I find that I’m excited too.

I have a date.

CHAPTER 14

KYLE

Not to be cocky, but more often than not, I’ve got women chasing after me, so I have literally never had to work so fucking hard to get a woman to spend a few hours of her time with me. But everything in me is saying Dani’s worth the work she takes. Hell, I’d do more if I had to, just to get a look from her dark eyes, an insult from her wicked tongue, or a moment of her undivided attention.

Maybe it’s true that you want what you can’t have because every time Dani throws a verbal bomb, sidesteps me, or flat out shuts me down, I can feel her hook digging in deeper and my interest growing.

However, when me and the guys finish the pool recheck at Kathy’s, of course not finding a damn thing wrong with it, I time my exit for the moment Dani goes inside to grab her next order, sneaking my bike out between the two lines of trucks. Why? Partially because I know she’s in the middle of her busiest rush hour and I don’t want to interrupt her, and partially because I don’t want to give her a chance to say she’s changed her mind about going out.

At home, I take a shower, telling my nearly constantly hard dick that he’s gonna have to behave. Tonight is not a fuck-and-done deal, not with Dani. I wouldn’t mind fucking her—hell, I’d love to—but there’s something about her that makes me as eager to know her mind as I am to learn her body.

I heard her today, all the baggage she’s carrying weighing down her every move. I can help with that. I’m good at making things lighter, if only for a little while, and I think Dani needs that.

I pull on fresh, non-work jeans and one of my nicer black T-shirts before plopping down on the couch. I open my phone, thinking about what Dani and I should do tonight. A ride always clears my mind, and I think that would be good for her, and then, dinner, of course. But where should we go?

I scroll through a mental list of a few places I like, considering what Dani might enjoy. I don’t think she’s the expensive French cuisine type, nor do I want to take her to a dive bar, so somewhere in between. I flip through options, rejecting one after the other.

I let my head fall back on the couch, staring at the ceiling as if the answer will appear there. Surprisingly, it does.

Dani seems particularly concerned that I’m not able to care for myself, going so far as testing me with her questions last night, which were not subtle at all. So, I’m going to show her that I can.

I hop up from the couch, scanning my living room, kitchen, and dining room, which are all visible in the open floor plan. It’s clean, but it could be cleaner, so I get to work. It doesn’t take long until everything is sparkling.

Next? I peer into the refrigerator, making sure I have everything I need. I want to make an amazing dinner, so I need to pick something I know I’m good at and won’t screw up.

Very quickly, I see I need to go to the grocery store. I’ve got ninety percent of what I want, which would be fine for just myself. But Dani doesn’t get ninety percent of me tonight. She’s getting the whole thing, done right.

A quick check of the clock shows that I have a few hours to get everything just right because tonight has to be perfect.

I pull up to Dani’s house at seven on the dot. I put down the kickstand, turn the bike off, and stride to her front door like a man on a mission.

Mission: Impress Daniela Becerra.

Three quick raps on the screen door, and I wait. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her main door closed, but it is now, and I find it only entices me to want to see the woman on the other side more.

When the door opens, it’s like someone just plugged my spine into a light socket, energy flowing from there to my brain to explode in a cascade of lights and colors. I look from Dani’s pretty face to her feet, and back up again.

She’s wearing green Adidas tennis shoes, bootcut jeans that fit her like a second skin and have distressing that gives little peeks of her thighs, and an oversized, gray cropped tee with a green floral design. The shirt also shows a sexy sliver of her stomach that my hands instantly itch to reach out and touch. Her brown eyes are made up with smoky liner and mascara, her full lips are glossy, and her dark hair falls in a long, sleek curtain down her back.

“Goddamn, Dani, you look fucking gorgeous.”

“You don’t clean up too bad yourself.” Her eyes are tracing over me too, and I fight the urge to flex for her.

She locks her door and walks up to my bike, which is parked in her driveway behind her car. As I take the helmet from the handlebars, I realize that her hair is going to be a tangled mess from the wind with it down like it is.

She grins as she tells me, “I knew I’d have to braid it but I wanted to see that look on your face when I opened the door.” Her fingers are deftly making quick work down the length of her hair, and she finishes it with a simple cloth band from around her wrist.

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