Page 85 of Things Good Girls Don't Do (Rock Canyon, Idaho 1)

Closing the door again, he padded toward the bed and Katie said, “He loves you now.”

Shrugging as he climbed in and pulled her close, he said, “Or he just knows who’s boss around here.”

They snuggled under the covers and she whispered, “Have I told you what a good father you are, Mr. Trepasso?”

His heart squeezed and he held her tighter. “A few times, Mrs. Trepasso.”

“It’s really sexy.” He felt her hand start to drift.

Grinning in the dark, he said, “I thought you were too tired?”

Her hand started doing extraordinary things and she responded, “What can I say? Being here with you does things to me.”

Sliding his hands into her hair, he said, “Me too, Firecracker. Me too.”

See how the romances of Rock Canyon began!

Continue reading for an excerpt from Codi Gary’s

THE TROUBLE WITH SEXY,

available now in Kiss Me:

An Avon Books Valentine’s Day Anthology.

An Excerpt from

“THE TROUBLE WITH SEXY”

Available in Kiss Me: An Avon Books

Valentine’s Day Anthology

She’s got a hot new makeover . . . and a boss to seduce! For prim and proper Ryan Ashton, sexy has always been an elusive quality. But with a little help from a new friend, she just might snag the one man who can set her seductive side loose . . .

GREGG CAME AROUND the corner and nearly swallowed his tongue. Ryan was wearing the same type of wool slacks she wore to work most days, her flame-red hair pulled back into a no-nonsense bun and her face free of any makeup. Her nose had a little bump on the bridge, and she had a heart-shaped face with full lips. His eyes traveled down to where her buttoned-to-the-neck top should have been and instead, in its place, a slinky white camisole showed a lot more than it covered. It was usually hard to discern what her figure looked like under her drab clothes, but in the tight top tucked into the slacks he could see that her breasts were firm, more than a handful, and it made his palms itch to reach out and cup them. Her waist was slim and indented, and if he had to hazard a guess, they probably flared quite nicely under the sexless pants.

His imagination was taking a dangerous turn and his mouth dried out as he pictured her in nothing but that sexy little see-through top. When he opened his mouth to speak, it came out a little ragged. “What happened to your shirt?”

“Oh good, you brought my sweater.” Oblivious to his pained expression, she grabbed the cardigan and slipped it over her arms and shoulders. She buttoned the sweater, covering the upper portion of bare skin he’d been admiring, and said, “While Cammie and Joel picked out the pictures they wanted, I offered to hold Dylan, and the little booger puked on me. I tried to just wipe it off, but apparently baby puke is toxic. I couldn’t get the smell to go away and it was making my stomach turn.”

He tried to forget about what he’d seen under the dowdy black sweater, and choked out, “So is it just the puke you object to? Or is it the actual kid you find distasteful?”

She shook her head and walked around him. “No, I love kids. I would love some of my own someday, lots of them, but the only puke I want to clean off me is theirs. Or my husband’s, depending on how much I love him.”

He wasn’t sure he’d ever love anyone enough to let them puke on him. He tried imagining Ryan sitting in a rocking chair surrounded by a dozen little cherub faces, and the scene made him smile. She’d make a wonderful mother, being so patient with the kids who came into the studio.

“So how many is a lot?”

She smiled as she sat down at her computer. “I don’t know, maybe four? I always wanted a big family. My mom had complications when she had me so she could never have any more kids, and it was

always kind of lonely by myself. We didn’t live in a neighborhood, so I didn’t really get to have friends until school, and I had a few really great ones but I was always a little . . . awkward.”

Gregg knew that Ryan had a hard time talking to people outside of her job, and it always puzzled him. She had been a little nervous during her interview with him when she responded to his help-wanted ad, but she warmed up quickly. Of course, they had been talking about photography, which Ryan was very passionate about, but after that he hadn’t had any trouble having a conversation with her. In fact, she was actually really funny and could give as good as she got.

This wasn’t the first time Ryan had brought up her awkwardness, and for some reason, the thought that she couldn’t see herself the way he did bothered him. To him she was funny, sweet, and easy to talk to. Their constant banter was one of the things he looked forward to most days.

He leaned over her shoulder and whispered, “Well I don’t know if it counts for anything, but I think that you have definitely grown out of your awkward stage.”

---