Page 45 of Return of the Bad Girl (Rock Canyon, Idaho 4)

“Service animals serve handicapped people. She didn’t look like there was anything wrong with her.”

“There isn’t,” she snapped.

“Then why does she need a service animal?” he asked, coming around the couch to face her. Caroline was beautiful in pajamas, looking tousled and sleepy, but in a black tank top that showed a generous amount of cleavage and blue jeans hugging her thighs, she was hotter than the blazes of hell. It was all he could do not to push her back on those plush pillows and take that full frowning mouth with his.

But seeing how she currently had her hands occupied, and he was pretty sure she’d bite him if he tried, he refrained.

“For post-traumatic stress. And before you ask what happened, I don’t know, and I wouldn’t talk to you about it if I did, ’cause it’s none of your fucking business—or mine.”

Gabe watched her extract the bottle from the sleepy kitten’s mouth and place him back into a cardboard box by the couch. Getting up, she tried to move around Gabe, but he stopped her with a hand on her arm. A hand she immediately tried to shake off.

“Let go,” she snarled.

Tightening his grip, he said, “You might not like me, princess, but we are living together, so what you do and who you bring into this apartment is my business.”

“Oh yeah? So I have to explain who my guests are, but you can take advantage of drunk girls in your room, and I can’t say anything?”

“First of all,” he said, rage clipping his words, “I didn’t take advantage of anyone. I would never hurt a woman, and I definitely wouldn’t take advantage of her. But I’m also not going to leave some girl too drunk to take care of herself at a bar or her apartment and take the chance of her choking on her own vomit or something worse. So I let her stay here.” And just because he resented her accusations, he added, “And the reason why she slammed out of here all pissed off? When she woke up, hung over, and tried to start something with me . . . sexually, I told her no thanks.”

He could tell she was struggling with whether to believe him or not, and it made him wonder how many men had hurt her. How many had taken advantage of her in some way to make her t

hink the worst of him?

“I am not perfect, but I can promise you, I would never hurt a woman—physically or otherwise,” he said, loosening his grip on her arm. “But not everyone is like that, which is why it’s important to be careful who you bring home.”

“You never answered me, though,” she said. “Why is it any of your business?”

“Because if you bring the wrong guy home and he starts hurting you, I’m the one who is going to handle him.”

She burst out laughing, shocking the hell out of him. “You think you’re going to have to rescue me?” Caroline stepped into him, as if trying to back him up against the wall, but he stood his ground. Their bodies were almost touching as she looked up at him and whispered teasingly, “I thought you weren’t a hero, Gabriel.”

Gabe knew she was baiting him, and it worked. White-hot desire prickled his skin as he leaned into her body. Her smell wrapped around him like a blanket, lemony sweetness making his mouth water. “I’m not. I’m a bad man who has done things that would make sweet little girls like you quake in their boots.”

“I’m not wearing boots.”

“I’m saying, if you know what’s good for you, you’ll back up out of my face.”

“Let’s get one thing straight. You don’t—”

He’d given her a chance, but as he’d said before, he wasn’t a nice man. Wrapping his arm around her waist, he pulled her flush up against his body, and before she could finish her startled “What the—” his head dipped down as he claimed her mouth in a hard kiss.

Caroline’s whole body stiffened, and he felt her tiny fist shove at him, but he held fast, sweeping his tongue out to trail across her lips. Suddenly, he felt her hand splay out against his chest and her body soften, her mouth opening and her breath mingling with his.

Gentling his hold on her, he slipped his tongue inside, the warmth of her mouth drawing him in further. She was everything he had imagined, soft breasts pressing into him as his hands trailed down to rest against the small of her back, just above her ass. He itched to cup her and bring her closer, but he didn’t want to spook her. Deepening the kiss, he ran his hands up her back, a thrill shooting through him when her own hands slipped up to his shoulders. He caught her low moan in his mouth and lost all worry that she didn’t want him. Despite his resolve to stay away from Caroline, he couldn’t stop, not when the reality of having her in his arms was so much better than the fantasy.

To his surprise, Caroline broke the kiss, her hands gripping his shoulders hard. “Stop. What are you doing?”

Her voice was husky, and her eyes were still half closed, but the question was like a bucket of ice water. What was he doing? What were they doing? She had kissed him back and thoroughly enjoyed it too.

Gabe took two steps back to give his raging cock some room. Just the brief press of her curves had given him a full-on erection, and he cursed himself for being weak, but she just kept challenging him, pushing him. He thought he’d outgrown his rash behavior years ago, but apparently, a leopard just couldn’t change his spots.

The taste of her lingered on his lips, and just he was about to lick them, she came fully out of her stupor.

And slapped him—hard enough to knock his head back.

“Don’t you ever touch me again,” she said.

Rubbing his cheek and jaw, he tried to ease the sting. “You kissed me back.”

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