Page 69 of Return of the Bad Girl (Rock Canyon, Idaho 4)

“Can I finish?” he asked, exasperated.

“By all means,” she said, waving her hand in front of her like a queen.

Satisfied that she would keep quiet for a minute, he released her arm. “I’m sorry about the way I acted after we . . . well, had sex. Intimacy is not my strong suit.”

She looked away from him, brushing her hair off her forehead as she nodded. “Yeah, it’s not exactly mine either.”

“Does that mean we have something in common?” he asked playfully.

“Oh, the horror.”

He shook his head, choking on a laugh. Man, he liked this woman. She was smart and fiery, funny and so damn sexy in her simple navy dress that he had a hard time not coming over the bar and kissing her senseless.

“Yeah, well, I was hoping we could call a truce. Living together is hard enough without feeling like we have to avoid each other. I know you want me to stay out of your business, and I’ve tried, but it’s stupid to walk around pretending we hardly know each other,” he said, adding wickedly. “Especially since that couldn’t be further from the truth. Parts of you I know . . . intimately.”

“And just when I thought you had an ounce of maturity,” she said, trying to step back, but he reached out to touch her hand.

“I’m sorry; it’s a habit. I’ll try to act like a grown-ass man, if you’ll stop pretending I’m some strange acquaintance that you have to run from whenever you see me.”

A moment passed before she reached back into the fridge and pulled out a beer. “We could try that,” she said, popping the top and tapping it against his. “To behaving like adults.”

She tipped the beer back, and her dark hair fell over her shoulder, exposing the clean column of her throat. Gabe’s mind flashed back to kissing her soft skin.

“Yeah, yay for maturity.”

“What was that?” she asked.

“Nothing.”

CAROLINE TRIED TO ignore Gabe’s gaze on her while she danced with Gemma, Gracie, and Callie, but just knowing he was watching had her on high alert. She kept swaying her hips slowly, dipping and turning. Lifting her hair up in a move she’d used hundreds of times to get a guy’s attention, she glanced back at him to see if it worked.

Score one for Caroline. He was watching her, all right, and the expression on his face was heavy with need.

So much for being mature. You’re teasing the hell out of the man.

She couldn’t seem to help it. She was fascinated by him—and not just by his body or the things he’d done to her on Sunday. He was a conundrum, made up of a soft side he hardly ever showed and the snarky asshole that most of the world saw. Sure, most guys didn’t like to show emotion or weaknesses to others, but Gabe had built the freaking Wall of China around himself—and she really wanted to chip away at it, brick by brick.

Despite her insistence that he stay out of her business, there had been a small p

art of her that loved watching him beat the shit out of Kyle. Hell, who was she kidding? She’d wanted to jump in there with him and get a few kicks in herself, but she knew the score. Kyle wouldn’t hesitate to lash out at Gabe, especially if he thought Gabe meant something to her. After all, she had been the one to rock his perfect boat by coming back to Rock Canyon.

Why wouldn’t he try to take away the man she was living with? Someone she cared about?

Of course, Kyle didn’t know the truth, that Gabe and she were just roommates.

But is that really the truth? You know there’s more to it now.

It didn’t matter that she’d been trying to convince herself all week that she didn’t care. The thought of Kyle hurting him made her physically ill. In the end, she realized she’d do whatever it took to make sure Kyle didn’t go after Gabe. Even if it meant staying away from him.

The other part of her, the weak part, had been tempted too many times this week to confide in Gabe about Kyle and why he was targeting her. To lean on him and his strength, but she’d told him she didn’t need him. That she could handle her life on her own, and she could.

But sometimes, she really didn’t want to.

And for some crazy reason, she felt like Gabe could be trusted.

He had scars—just like her, that was for damn sure—but it was the sensitivity he kept under wraps that really softened her toward him. Like when she’d come home from her sister’s house yesterday and found him on the floor, playing with Googlie and Possum, rubbing their stomachs and growling, “You think you’re so tough?” It had been so damn adorable, and she’d hated that he’d stopped when he noticed her.

It had been on the tip of her tongue to tell him everything then, to sink to the floor and let him hold her as she confessed all. But then the insecurities had surfaced. Would he think less of her? He saw her as strong now, but if she admitted how vulnerable she really was, would he see her as a victim?

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