Page 23 of Bad Guys Need Love Too

Ren actually chuckled, but Lark didn’t find Neal’s tone funny at all. She raised a brow.

“You mean someone who knows I’m deathly allergic to strawberries and would never order them just because they werehisfavorite? Someone who wouldn’t let himself into my house without knocking using a key he was given for emergencies, then proceed to eat and drink everything I spent an entire weekend meal prepping for myself?”

“Well, that’s—” he sputtered.

But she wasn’t done yet. Not by a long shot.Thiswas the main character energy she needed to embrace more often. “Someone who didn’t give me tickets to a baseball game for my birthday—tickets you got for free from a client, by the way—when Ihatebaseball?”

“Those tickets were worth a hundred dollars!”

She ignored him. “Someone who didn’t abandon me every time I got sick and needed theslightestbit of care because he was afraid to miss work? Someone who didn’t get himself a second credit card on my account without asking me?” Shame on her for letting him run up a thousand-dollar bill before she shutthatone down.

Neal made a dismissive noise. “That’s all so superficial. You’re not a superficial person. There’s no way you’d end a years-longengagement because of any ofthat. This man clearly has done something to trick you into thinking we weren’t happy.”

“Neal,” she said on a disgusted sigh. “I’m not an idiot. I’m telling you I wasn’t happy, and I won’t ever be happy with you. I’m with someone else now.” She let go of Ren’s hand to tug at her engagement ring, which, damn it all to hell, was stuck like she’d glued the damn thing to her finger.

After a few seconds of tugging and grunting, Ren grabbed her hand. She glanced up at him just in time to watch him slowly pull her hand up and…

Suck her ring finger into his mouth.

Holy. Mother. Fucking. Shit balls.

Her mouth dried out (other parts of her not so much) and her heart threatened to pound its way out of her chest as he ran his tongue around the ring on her finger, all while maintaining the most intense eye contact she’d ever had.

When he pulled back, he smoothly slid the ring off her finger and set it in front of Neal without saying a word. She could feel her jaw gaping open like a landed trout, but she couldn’t seem to care. And if the half smile on Ren’s face was any indication, he was enjoying her shock.

“If you think that disgusting display is going to convince me you’re actually breaking up with me and not using him to make me jealous, you’ve got another thing coming,” Neal spit out.

Thatsnapped her out of her Ren-induced stupor. “I have no reason to try and make you jealous, Neal. The only thing I need from you at this point is distance, OK? Please take what I’m saying at face value and know that I’m done.”

He shook his head furiously. “No. No, I won’t accept it. I love you, Lark.”

Everyone jumped when Ren slammed his fist down on the table. “Man, all you’ve done is talk aboutyou. If you actually loved her like shedeservesto be loved, you’d think about whatshewants for once. Consider yourself blessed by the fuckinggodsthat she ever had anything to do with you because she islight yearsout of your league.”

Neal snorted. “And you thinkyou’rein her league?”

“No. I know she’s out of my league. But now that I have an opportunity toearnher, I’m not going to fuck it up like you did. I’ll wake up every day and think about what I can do to make her smile and to keep her safe. I’ll move heaven and fucking earth to make sure she knows how loved she is and how grateful I am that she ever gave me the time of day.That’swhat she deserves.That’swhat she’ll have, you stupid son of a bitch.”

Lark would like to say that what she did next was all part of the plan to convince Neal to leave her alone and never darken her doorstep again. But it wasn’t. It was all about the sincerity in Ren’s voice as he vowed to love her in a way she’d never experienced before. Oh, how she wanted that kind of love…and him.

She grabbed Ren’s face in her hands and yanked him down to kiss the holy hell out of him.

He went still for about half a heartbeat. That was it. Half a heartbeat was all he seemed able to handle before he had to take control.

And, oh, how he took control.

Ren slid his dinner-plate sized hand into her hair and tipped her head to the side to deepen the kiss. She could only hope the sounds of clattering plates and chatter around them were loud enough to muffle the moan/sigh combo she let out when his tongue slid against hers.

He tasted like coffee, bad decisions, and the kind of hot sex that left you sore and dehydrated for days. Never in her wildest dreams (and she’d had a few about Ren lately) did she imagine kissing him would bethisgood.

Lark slid her hands down and two-fisted his T-shirt, then yanked him closer. His answering groan didunspeakablethings to her libido.

If kissing him felt like this, what would it be like in a bed with all that heat, muscle, and intensity laid out for her pleasure?

She’d waited her whole life to feel this kind of passion for someone, and now, only a few seconds into their first kiss, she was legitimately starting to wonder if she could even survive it. It couldn’t be normal for her heart to be pounding like this, right?

But somewhere in the back of her mind (far, far back), she knew this had to stop. Their timing (not to mention the whole reason why they were here together) was totally messed up. They needed to have a few more conversations before she let passion get the better of her.

So, with great effort, she pulled back, panting, trembling, and so damn turned on it actuallyhurt.

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