Page 100 of Good Girls Don't Date Rock Stars (Rock Canyon, Idaho 2)

“Do you know where you want it?”

His words were penetrating the fog of desire and she blinked at him. “What?”

Sliding his hand from her lip to over her shoulder, he asked, “Do you want it here?”

It finally registered what he was asking and she said, “I don’t want a tattoo.”

“Are you sure?” he said teasingly. “’Cause I have a binder full of things you might like. Of course, there are some things we could check off the list that don’t involve binders, needles, or tattoos. Let me think . . .”

She needed to move away from him so she could think. She took a breath, but that was a mistake. He smelled amazing, and she was so tired of being good all the time. She was thirty years old and the man she was supposed to spend the rest of her life with had picked someone else. Maybe if she had been more daring and less rigid, Jimmy wouldn’t have dumped her. She would never know now. She couldn’t change the past, but she could let go now, just this once.

Slipping her arms up around his neck and ignoring his wide-eyed expression, she said, “Chase, if you want to kiss me, will you just do it already?”

An Excerpt from

BAD GIRLS DON’T MARRY MARINES

Valerie Willis has always been known as a bad girl around town. Now back in Rock Canyon after a messy divorce, Val just wants to bury her head and wait for the scandal to pass. But when she suddenly finds herself at a single’s weekend face-to-face with the one guy who got away, hiding from her heart—and a sexy former Marine—won’t be that simple.

VALERIE WILLIS WAS reaching up for a bottle of Merlot, located on the highest shelf of Hall’s Market, and cursing the shelf’s discrimination against short people. At just barely over five feet, she had a step stool at home for when she needed something high, but out in public, it was like the world conspired against her.

She’d walked to the end of the aisle, trying to get someone’s attention, but the only person who’d acknowledged her had been one of the checkers, and all she’d gotten from her was a look of disapproval.

It was no secret that the people of Rock Canyon thought the Willis sisters were trashy, despite the fact that their father was the mayor and they came from a very wealthy family with connections in high places. None of that had saved her older sister, Caroline, from being called a man-stealer when she’d barely hit eighteen, or her younger sister, Annie, from picking up a wild reputation. Val had thought she’d escaped the small-town life with barely a dent, but all it took was a very high profile, public divorce, and she became the worst of “those Willis girls.”

She half-wondered if people were standing around the corner with video cameras, watching her struggle for kicks, but decided that no one would be that petty.

Just as she was about to start climbing shelves, a voice behind her asked, “Do you need some help with that?”

Val spun around in surprise and came face-to-face with a very impressive chest. Slowly, her eyes traveled up over the wide expanse of shoulders and a square jawline; a jaw that would tempt even the sanest woman to stroke it. When her eyes passed the wide grin to meet amused golden brown eyes, her brain had a severe malfunction.

It wasn’t like she hadn’t seen Justin Silverton around town since moving back, but it was the first time they’d actually said a word to each other in ten years, not since that night at the high school. And that night they’d done very little talking.

“Valerie? You okay?” Justin asked, that one lone dimple in his left cheek hypnotizing her.

Was she okay? She had been asking herself that question since she’d moved back to town a year ago, holing up like a hermit with only her dog for company. She had tried to avoid her father, the people in town, and any man between the ages of 25 and 45, but she had to come out sometime.

The man in front of her was definitely in the to-be-avoided category. Not only had he made her lose her head ten years ago, but it was because of him that she’d spent her last two years of high school in an all-girls school.

Okay, so it wasn’t actually Justin’s fault her dad hated his guts and had wanted her as far away from him as possible, but still, a man like that was dangerous. She’d been with men, had experienced some crazy nights, but that one night they’d hung out always crept back on her at odd times. She’d been a girl taking her first big rebellious leap, and he’d been on leave from the Marines, just passing the time. The attraction had been instantaneous, like the flick of a lighter, and obviously there was still a spark there or she wouldn’t be standing here like a dummy, speechless.

The concern on his face broke through her dumbstruck daze. “Sorry, Justin, I guess I need coffee this morning.” His gaze shifted to The Local Bean coffee shop cup in her cart and she amended, “More coffee.”

“Gotcha.” He stepped up next to her, and the smell of his cologne was intoxicating. She caught herself before she leaned right in and buried her nose in his chest, but it was a close call.

Why was she acting like a lust-filled Pepé Le Pew?

A few reasons popped into her head, the first being that Justin was grade-A hot male and completely worthy of her drool. Another had to do with the fact that it had been almost two years

since she’d slept with anyone. And finally, of all the guys in Rock Canyon, Idaho, Justin had been the only one ever to treat her like more than Mayor Willis’s daughter, or one of “those Willis girls.”

“Is this the one you want?” Justin pulled down the bottle she’d been trying to reach and held it out to her.

Clearing her throat, she took it with a smile, hoping he couldn’t read the crazy on her face. “Thanks. I couldn’t find a bag boy, and I’m too vertically challenged for the high shelf.”

“Not a problem. You got a hot date?” he asked teasingly.

“No!” Realizing she had almost yelled the word, she wanted to smack herself, just haul off and whack her own cheek, but then he’d really think she was nuts. Dates led to relationships, which led to marriage and from there . . . well, she’d already been down that road. “Sorry. No, it’s just for me.”

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