Page 49 of Things Good Girls Don't Do

Emily Wilson had said that after having sex with him in the back of his mother’s van. They had hung out for a little over a month senior year before he’d found out exactly what she really thought about him.

“You’re a hot guy, but I could never really date you. I mean, you live in that run-down trailer and you have no ambition. You’re going to end up stuck in this town with the rest of the losers.”

He came back to the present with clenched fists. Emily had spent a month with him and never knew a thing about him. She’d seen a boy her daddy would hate and a way to make him squirm. She hadn’t even known he was leaving for Berkeley at the end of the summer.

But Katie wasn’t like Emily. She was sweet and she was interested in him, in who he really was. When she wasn’t constantly worried about what everyone in this pissant town thought, she was fun.

More than fun.

But whatever Steph had said had to have been about him, and about the way Katie had changed. If Steph had thought warning him off wouldn’t work, going to the source would have been her next stop. It wasn’t like he didn’t know Katie was just experimenting. He knew she was going to wash the streaks out of her hair and always keep her tattoo hidden from view, and when it was all over, she’d move on with her life.

Without him.

Chase knew this was all temporary. He just got to be the lucky guy in the right place at the right time, but he didn’t like thinking about Katie not being around for him to touch. That she wouldn’t be there to laugh at his outrageous comments or run her hands over his scruffy face.

He liked Katie. Maybe someday it could be more than like, but he would never know.

“All you are is trailer trash, Chase, and that’s all you’ll ever be,”Emily’s voice said, taunting him from the past.

Katie wrapped her arms around his waist and nuzzled his chest. “I’m sorry that I’ve been such a bummer this morning. You want to back out? Find something else to do?”

He looked down into those clear blue eyes and slid his hands into her hair, kissing her softly. “Nope. Nowhere else I’d rather be.”

She snuggled closer. “You say the sweetest things.”

Only to you.

That thought brought with it a rush of panic. He had to stop entertaining these serious thoughts about Katie. Adventurous and ballsy he might be, but he wasn’t stupid. Especially when it came to women, and to putting himself out there. Which is how he had lived thirty-three years without a single broken heart. A few dents to his ego, but nothing that couldn’t be fixed with a couple of beers and a warm, feminine body. But if he let Katie become special to him, he was setting himself up for a whole world of pain.

Come on, man, you’re just fooling yourself. She’s already special.

Breaking the moment, he slapped her ass playfully and said, “All right, since it is already close to ten and I have to open the shop at five, what do you want to do?”

She rubbed her injured posterior with a grumble, “Wow, I cancel my appointments for the day and you can’t even close your shop for a few hours? Nice.”

He saw the challenging look on her face and conceded. “Fine. We’ll put a note on the door as we head out of town.”

KATIE REALLY DIDN’Twant to ride two hours on the back of Chase’s motorcycle, but she sucked it up and got on. The road to Hailey from Rock Canyon was an easy drive on a two-lane highway with lots of open space around them. Chase had brought a helmet for her, though even the extra protection didn’t calm her fears. She held on tight to his waist and tucked her head against his body.

After an hour she was squealing and yelling, “This is awesome!”

Of course she stopped yelling once she got a bug in her mouth, but she still loved the feel of the wind and the warm sunshine.

And the hot, solid man in her arms.

Chase parked along the main stretch once they reached Hailey and she got little tingles when he squeezed the hands she’d wrapped around him. “You okay?”

The helmet got in the way of leaning forward to kiss him, so she just said, “Yeah, except for the one bug who found its way into my mouth. Now I have bug breath.”

He laughed and turned his head to catch her lips in a kiss. When he pulled back, he teased, “You taste fine to me. Not buggy at all.”

Laughing, she reached up to unclasp the helmet and swung off the chopper. Catching his grin, she asked, “Why are you smiling at me like that?”

He slipped his arm around her waist to pull her against him, “Nothing, you just look good in my helmet. Very sexy.”

I’m trying so hard to keep things casual, and then you go and say something like that.

Wrapping her arms around his shoulders, she said, “I’ve always fantasized about a tall, handsome bad boy taking me for a ride on his bike.”

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