Page 49 of Things Good Girls Don't Do (Rock Canyon, Idaho 1)

“You suck! If Kitty knew what was going on, I would die!”

He didn’t like the way she said that. Like she was doing something wrong by being with him. Rational Chase told himself that it was just Katie being modest, but the small part of him that remembered a girl ducking down in his car so she wouldn’t be seen with him was hurt.

Chase pulled away from her and stood up. “I’ll see what I have in my cupboard to eat.”

Grabbing his hand, she stopped him, and he saw the confusion on her face as she asked, “Hey, what did I say? I just don’t want her to think I’m having sex with her on the phone.”

You sure it’s not that you don’t want them to know you’re screwing the tattoo guy?

Trying to swallow his doubt and insecurities, Chase leaned over and kissed her forehead. “I know what you meant. I’m going to see what I can scrape together.”

He picked up his boxers, pulled them on, and left the room without looking at her again. He couldn’t explain why he was making this more complicated. He hadn’t wanted complicated. Hell, she hadn’t wanted complicated. Yet here he was, acting like Mr. Sensitive, getting his feelings sore over nothing.

Get it together, man. So you like her more than you’ve liked any other woman. This thing was supposed to be fun. You need to get a grip on your balls and man up.

UNSURE OF WHAT she’d done now, Katie pulled on her clothes and went to the bathroom to wash her face. Sleeping in her makeup always made her feel grungy the next day, but once she was cleaned up a little, she went out to the kitchen to find Chase with his head in the fridge, cursing.

What had she said to upset him? He seemed to be sensitive about people being ashamed of him, but she wasn’t. If she was, she wouldn’t have told Rock Canyon’s biggest blabbermouth how she had spent yesterday afternoon. Still, Chase had been hurt so bad, and she wanted to fix it. She wanted to show him how special he was, but she also wasn’t going to walk on eggshells around him.

“That bad, huh?” she said as she set her purse on the counter.

He pulled his head out of the fridge, and his grin was sheepish. “Yeah, unless you want one egg. And I’m pretty sure it’s about to hatch into something.”

Whatever had ruffled his feathers, he was acting like he was fine now. Katie toyed with her purse strap and avoided his eyes, feeling awkward as she said, “It’s fine. Do you mind driving me to my 4Runner? I’ll just eat at home.”

She heard the fridge close. “I thought you played hooky to hang with me?”

I did, but you acted like you were irritated with me.

Meeting his gaze again, she said, “You just seemed like you were upset with me, and I didn’t want to overstay my—”

Chase cut off her explanation with a kiss, and she only had a second to think about her morning breath before she was kissing him back. When he finally pulled away, he whispered, “I’m sorry I was an ass.”

“Yeah, you know, the ultrasensitive, sexy rebel thing only goes so far with me,” she said, only half kidding. Maybe as they spent more time together and got more serious, she would be able to help Chase work through his issues.

Wait, what was she saying? The minute he got the idea in his head that she wanted to take things to the next level, he was going to take off.

“I’ll try to work on that,” he said, running his hands down to intertwine their fingers. “Please, stay. I don’t want you to go.”

“Yeah, I got that now,” she said, leaning into him to give him a soft kiss. “Although I don’t know how we’ll survive the day without food.”

Even if he had been grumpy, he was definitely adorable in the morning, half naked, with his hair sticking up all over his head. He seemed younger, even with the dark stubble beckoning to be caressed. He looked like he was thinking hard about their dilemma and Katie laughed. “Okay, don’t strain yourself.”

His fingers tickled her ribs. “I was just thinking that we could go to Boise for the day. Do something there. Get out of town.”

“It sounds wonderful, but . . . isn’t it still raining?” she asked, looking toward the window.

“Nope, the sun is coming out to play and it will be a beautiful day to take a long drive on the chopper.”

Katie gulped a little at the thought of riding on a motorcycle for longer than three minutes. “I need to go home first. Shower and change.”

He sighed. “Okay, I’ll take you to your car and then I’ll pick you up with breakfast.”

Now that sounded perfect.

KATIE TOOK THE fastest shower of her life and wrapped her hair up in a towel. Heading into her bedroom, she decided to spend very little time primping, since a two-hour motorcycle ride would wreak havoc on her hair anyway.

She was just grabbing her light black jacket and her Skechers when someone knocked on the door.

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