Page 46 of So Bad It Must Be Good

“Is microwavable. I want to be inside you, Kayla.” He paused for a second, his mouth a whisper away from hers. He cleared his throat. “You, uh, can tell me not to say stuff like that.”

“I like it.” She nipped at his bottom lip, gratified when he grinned that rare, wolfish grin. Like she could tug down that capable, unfazed facade, just as he tugged down her timid, fragile one.

His hands slid down her arms and then his fingers curled around her wrists. She was pressed up against the counter and he wasn’t just caging her in. He held her hands behind her against the counter so she couldn’t move her arms.

And then he sighed with something very close to disgust in his expression. “I left the condoms at your place last night.”

* * *

Liam was ready to drag Kayla right out the door and head to her apartment. Or maybe a drugstore would be closer, but something about the way Kayla grinned at him made him pause.

“What do you take me for?” she asked, wiggling out of his grasp and grabbing the purse she’d set down. She rummaged around in the bag that was pink and about the size of her head before she pulled out the box of condoms he’d dropped at her place last night.

She looked so pleased with herself, self-satisfied and easy with it, nothing like the woman he’d seen her as not that long ago.

It was kind of amazing he got to see this side to her, because she hadn’t always been that free and easy with it. Maybe it was part of the new path she was blazing, but maybe it had something to do with him. Or them together.

“You do come prepared,” he managed to say, keeping himself from rubbing at the weird tightness in his chest.

“We’ve had a few things interrupt us. I wasn’t about to let that happen again.”

“Come here.” Because if she didn’t come to him, he was liable to lose whatever locks he had on the control it took to keep from simply taking her to the floor and ending this all too quickly. He had no qualms about the floor, but he wanted more than quick and reckless.

God help him.

She arched an eyebrow at him. “In the kitchen?” she returned skeptically.

He returned the arched eyebrow look. “I think we can do it anywhere we want.”

She ran a finger under the top of the box, carefully pulling it open. She pulled one condom out of it before walking slowly toward him. Not even a walk. She downright sauntered, and Liam stood where he was watching Kayla Gallagher walk across his kitchen straight for him. Him.

She held out the condom. “You’re in charge of that.”

He took it from her, and though he wanted to immediately touch her, take her, he simply placed the condom in his pocket and waited. He was too curious to see what her first move would be. Would she be bold? Shy? Would she do that shoulders back, deep breath thing where she mustered up all of her courage and did something clearly out of the ordinary for her?

The funny thing was, he liked all of those parts of her. The shy and the brave. The timid and the bold. All of it made up this woman standing before him, and he was so damn gone over her he could barely see straight.

She reached out and brushed her fingertips over his beard. It never failed to send a shudder through him. She did it when she wanted to comfort him, like when they’d been talking about Aiden. She did it when they kissed. She did it and it was always a certain level of sweet to feel someone reach out and touch him so gently.

It was a . . . rarity. So much of one he didn’t even realize it was rare until she did it. He supposed that was his own fault, as gruff and quiet as he could be. Still, it didn’t seem to faze Kayla.

Though he’d meant to wait and see what her next move would be, he placed his hand over hers on his jaw, unable to resist connection over connection.

“You like it when I do that?” she asked softly.

“Yes.”

“Do you like having a beard?”

He laughed at the odd question. “Well, yes, that is why I have it. Do you like it?”

She grinned and nodded. “I’ve never dated a guy with facial hair before.” Her eyebrows drew together. “I guess technically we’re not dating.”

“I . . .” He didn’t know what to say to that. They hadn’t exactly been on any dates. He should probably rectify that. She definitely deserved dates in nice restaurants and, like, art places or some shit. Stuff she was interested in. He should be trying to impress her, and instead they were always at his place making out in his kitchen.

Which truth be told was his preference, but this wasn’t all about him.

“I didn’t mean to make it weird. It’s not like we have to date. I . . .” She shook her head and did that squared shoulders thing. She opened her mouth, likely to say something more confident sounding, but he didn’t want to let that awkward silence stand enough for her to be the one who had to fix it.

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