Page 38 of So Bad It Must Be Good

Yeah, he didn’t know what that gut twist was at all. “See you tomorrow, Dad.”

Dad waved and headed for the door and Liam stood in his parents’ driveway trying to breathe through the uncomfortable feeling that something was wrong.

But what was there to do about it? The problem with Dad was Liam couldn’t bulldoze him into answers. The more Liam insisted he needed to explain what was wrong, the more Dad would clam up. All Liam could do was step back and wait.

Fuck, he hated that.

He shoved a hand through his hair and turned to his truck parked on the street. Well, he had something to distract him, didn’t he? He glanced at his phone. Kayla hadn’t texted him back, but he still had to find a drugstore and buy some condoms, and then get to her place. It’d take long enough.

So he focused on that, pushing everything his dad had said as far out of his mind as he could. There was nothing to do, no way to fix, not until Dad allowed it. And Liam was shit with things he couldn’t fix so . . .

Well, shit and damn was about all there was to it. He drove to the drugstore and bought the condoms before driving to Kayla’s apartment complex that didn’t fit her at all. He was distracted and vaguely irritated. With himself. With Dad. He shoved his phone into his glove compartment because hell if he was going to let work interrupt this.

He was halfway up her staircase before he realized she’d never texted him back. Luckily he remembered the apartment number she’d given him. He paused briefly, but in the end he figured he might as well knock and see if she was home and if not he’d go retrieve his phone.

When the door swung open to reveal Kayla, fresh faced with her red hair all pulled back into a sloppy ponytail, her mouth curving at the sight of him, every tense, irritable thing inside of him uncoiled.

“Liam. I just called—”

Maybe he should have let her finish, but he couldn’t seem to stop himself. He swooped down and captured her mouth with his, wrapping his arms around her and walking her into the apartment.

She sighed into his mouth, winding her arms around his neck, kissing him back almost as desperately as he’d kissed her. He kicked the door behind him closed and dropped the plastic bag of condoms on the floor, because if he had his way they’d be on the ground soon enough.

“Oh.” She pulled her mouth from his. “Wait.”

Wait? For what? Hell, he was dying. He kissed down her neck, his hands sliding under her shirt and up the elegant curve of her back.

She laughed, giving him the lightest, most ineffective push ever. “Liam. Really.”

“Really what?” he asked before sliding his fingers under the waistband of her pants so he could cup the hot, soft skin of her ass.

She sighed, relaxing for a second before she gave him another half-hearted push. “No. Really. You have to stop!”

So he did, though it all but killed him. He was aching, hard, and desperate for her, and she was telling him to stop. He pulled his hands out of her pants and looked down at her pained face.

She reached up and rubbed her palm against his bearded jaw with a wistful sigh. His chest tightened hard, and he didn’t know what that was either. He was tired of this “not understanding his own feelings” shit, and the only way to fix that was to talk her into bed, he was pretty sure.

“I have company coming.”

Or not. “Company?”

“I forgot all about it this morning. I guess I was distracted, but—”

“Oh.” He untangled himself from her, feeling like a fucking moron. Company. She had mysterious company and he’d thought . . . Well, he’d been a dipshit to think.

“It’s just—” A knock interrupted whatever Kayla’s explanation was going to be, and maybe that was for the best.

“I’m sorry I forgot, but . . .” She trailed off lamely, walking toward the door.

“Want me to hide or something?” Because he didn’t know what else company might mean other than another date. He supposed it could be friends, but why would she call it company if it was just a group of friends?

Hell, it could be Aiden for all he knew. What an awful thought.

She cocked her head. “You don’t need to hide.”

She opened the door and Liam could only stare at the woman on the other side of it. Polished and pretty, he’d recognize Dinah Gallagher anywhere.

Clearly, she recognized him as well. Her eyes widened at the sight of him before returning to Kayla.

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