Page 58 of Bad Girls Don't Marry Marines (Rock Canyon, Idaho 3)

She stood there for a few minutes, watching the door before she decided to head back to the hotel room to sober up. She didn’t feel like walking back in there with Kyle and all of those other people looking for their perfect someone to sweep them up.

Perfect someone, ha.

She walked down the steps, irritated that Justin hadn’t taken her. Everyone kept saying she needed to get some, and as Justin had told her over and over, he wasn’t asking to date her. Things didn’t have to get weird. She’d been waiting, ready and willing.

Are you kidding? After all the back and forth you’ve done, I’m surprised he’s even talking to you.

She had to admit the voice was right. Every time something happened between them, it was because he’d made the first move. She’d been pushing him away because she didn’t want to get attached, so she could understand his actions.

Didn’t mean she wasn’t still irritated.

She made it back to her hotel room and dropped her jacket on the back of the chair. As she kicked off her boots, the adjoining door caught her eye, and her mind started racing. She padded across the room and turned the knob, finding it still unlocked.

She smiled with anticipation as she pushed the door open and started stripping. If Justin was waiting for her to make the first move, boy was he going to be surprised by the leap she was taking.

Go big or go home, right?

Chapter Fourteen

* * *

A LITTLE OVER an hour later, Justin opened the door to his hotel room and tried the switch, but it wasn’t working. “Great.”

Dorothy had caught him as he was coming back into the community center and told him she’d figured out the mix-up. He had hardly been listening to her, though, his mind had been so filled with Val and the way she’d looked as she’d waited for his kiss. But Justin didn’t want to keep kissing her. He didn’t want to keep putting himself out there for her to shoot down. If she wanted him, she was going to have to prove it.

When he’d finally escaped Dorothy, he’d grabbed his coat and seen Kyle chatting up a pretty blond woman. Walking up behind him, he’d tapped his shoulder.

Kyle had turned around and his eyes had widened. “What?”

Justin smiled around at the woman. “Can you give us a minute?”

She shrugged and left. Alone at last, Justin glared down at the small man.

“If you bother Val again, I will end you. Do you follow me?”

Kyle swallowed but otherwise stood his ground. “I work for her father and my dad is a U.S. senator. Threaten me

again—”

“And you’ll what? Sue me? Tell Daddy on me? You want to intimidate a woman half your size, you little pussy?” Justin was tempted to punch him, but with all the witnesses watching, he didn’t trust the coward not to press charges. “If I find out you’re messing with her anymore, you won’t get a chance to do anything. Take me at my word or you’ll see me again.”

After that, he’d left the community center and taken the long route through town, trying to clear his head. There must’ve been a history between Val and Kyle; he didn’t think they’d dated, but no one hated someone that much unless it was personal.

But for tonight, he was just going to sleep and not think about what would happen with Val. He walked over to the lamp in the corner and felt for the little knob. Light filled the room, and he had just started to unzip his coat when he caught sight of a pair of jeans at the end of his bed. He took a few steps closer and saw a sheer black top dropped next to them and he swallowed hard as his gaze rose to the woman in his bed.

Val was in his bed, and by the looks of things, she was fast asleep.

And very naked.

He sat on the edge of the bed and watched her. The round, pale skin of her shoulder above the blanket, the column of her neck exposed as her dark, short hair spread across the pillow. Dark lashes rested against her cheeks and her pink lips parted. The soft sound of her even breathing made him smile.

She’d been waiting for him but had fallen asleep. She’d made a move.

He brushed back her hair and trailed his hand across her cheek, whispering, “Val.” She moved under the blanket, and he continued to stroke her as she turned and squinted at him. When her lips spread into a breathtaking smile, he said, “I think you’re in the wrong room.”

She sat up and looked around, the blanket falling to her waist, and sure enough, she was naked. He had a hard time taking his eyes from the pert, round breasts until she cleared her throat, and he forced his gaze to meet hers.

“I think I’m exactly where I want to be.”

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