Page 3 of Bad Guys Need Love Too

As if their entire relationship, the engagement, the wedding planning, hadn’t been done according tohistaste without a single thought given to whatshewanted. Neal was a selfish jerk. Always had been, probably always would be. If he really loved her, he’d listen to her every now and then.

This was it. She was going to end it. She couldn’t waste another second dealing with this—what was that thing Sherry called that angry customer last week?—dunder-headed cuntmuffin.

She took a deep breath. “Neal, I?—”

And that’s when her doorbell rang.

The primal scream she let out only happened in her head. She knew because Neal was already ignoring her. He’d pulled out his phone and was aimlessly scrolling. He didn’t even make an effort to see who was at the door for her. Because why would he? This wasn’thishouse, he was fond of saying when it came to picking up after himself or replacing groceries he’d eaten.

“Oh, no, let me get it,” she muttered under her breath, trudging to the door.

But because she was a polite, people-pleaser at heart, Lark went ahead and put on a sunny smile and opened her door. It wasn’t her visitor’s fault she was trapped in a loveless engagement to a selfish douchebag, after all.

That’s when she noticed there was a giant on her porch.

Seriously, the guy was so huge he blocked out the sun that usually flooded her porch with its warmth every morning. Larkwas five-nine barefoot, and this guytoweredover her. He had to be at least six-four, maybe six-five. He had his back to her…his ridiculously broad, muscle-y back. And it looked like he could crush watermelons with his tattooed biceps.

Then he turned around.

Eyes as black as Satan’s soul locked on hers with an intensity that made the smile fall right off her face. She gulped.

Holy hell, he wasgorgeous.

Not gorgeous in the clean-cut, chiseled kind of way Neal had going. This guy was rough around the edges. Wild looking. Even the longish dark hair sticking out from under his ball cap looked untamed. Hard features and hard eyes.

But he had the softest looking, pillow-y lips Lark had ever seen in her life.

“Are you Lark Shaw?” he asked.

Her knees went a little weak. Hisvoice…sweet merciful crap, his voice was sexy. She could listen to that deep, raspy baritone for the rest of her life and never get tired of it.

Wow. She hadn’t missed sex in a long, long time, but damned ifthisguy, this stranger on her porch, wasn’t making her miss the hell out of it.

“That’s hot,” she whispered. Then let out a hysterical hyena giggle when she realized what she’d just blurted out. “That’sme, I mean.”

She mentally slapped herself across the face.Pull yourself together, woman! This is embarrassing.

His dark brows pulled together as he stared down at her. “I’m with the city. Your neighbor across the street reported a gas leak. I didn’t find anything over there, but would it be OK if I checked the meter in your basement? Just to be safe?”

As stunning as this man was, Lark was not an idiot. She’d seen more than her fair share ofLaw and Order SVU. “Do you have some ID?”

He gave her the weirdest look. Almost like he was proud of her, which made no sense whatsoever. But he did pull a city lanyard out of his pocket. At the end of it was an ID that did, in fact, have his picture on it. “Bill?” she read off the laminated card.

“That’s me.”

Huh. He didn’t look like aBill. He looked like a construction worker that moonlighted as a Magic Mike dancer. But that was neither here nor there.

She had one more test for Bill the Gratuitously Sexy City Worker. “You said the neighbor across the street reported something? Mrs. Laningham?”

There was no Mrs. Laningham. If he said she’d been the one to call, Lark would know he was up to no good and would call the cops.

His brow furrowed. “No, Mr. Luther.”

Well played, Bill the Gratuitously Sexy City Worker. Well played.

“Nice to meet you, Bill,” she said, putting on a smile again. “Come on in.”

CHAPTER 3

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