Page 34 of Good at Being Bad (Rock Canyon, Idaho 8)

“You were being a tease.”

Ellie caught the twitch at the corner of his mouth, as if he was trying not to laugh, and she might have agreed with him, if her ass wasn’t stinging.

And if a small part of her didn’t like that he had surprised her.

But you hate surprises, don’t you?

“You’ll pay for that.”

“Probably,” he said, releasing her hand. “But it was worth it.”

And as he strode past her toward the bathroom, she rubbed her posterior. It didn’t hurt any longer, but she had never been spanked. And even if she had thought of it once or twice, she had never imagined a sexy-as-hell, slightly nerdy nice guy being the one to dish it out.

Wait, back up, since when did she start thinking of Mike as sexy? Well-groomed and nice to look at, sure, but panty-soaking-can’t-resist-him-sexy?

She realized he’d left the bags in the living room and hollered, “I have your clothes out here!”

“So bring them back,” he hollered.

She grabbed her bags and walked down the hallway, ignoring the shaking in her legs. She was completely thrown by her knee-jerk reaction to Mike.

“I can’t believe you agreed to go for a drink with this woman.”

“I told you, she’s hot and it’s just a celebratory drink.”

She scoffed loudly. “That was just an excuse to get you to go out with her. And after what you just pulled, I should just abandon you to the woman who is going to lock you up in a room, tie you to a bed, and probably sledgehammer your ankles.”

“You should stay away from Stephen King movies. Your imagination runs away from you.”

Ellie set the bags down on the bathroom floor and pulled out the jacket. “I got this for you, but now I’m not convinced you deserve it.”

“That looks expensive,” Mike said, frowning.

“I am an expert shopper, so it wasn’t as much as you’d think.”

“Still, I’ll pay you back. Or, instead of paying me for fixing your laptop, we can call it square.”

“Sure, fine, whatever, but what about theses pants?” Ellie held up a pair of boot-cut jeans.

“They look like jeans.” Mike picked up the other bag, and pulled out the boots, setting them on the counter. “Those are okay.”

Ellie rolled her eyes and reminded herself that men just didn’t seem to have the same reaction to clothes that women did.

Mike paused for a second and then pulled up the chaps with a grimace. “Please tell me you did not pay money for these.”

“Oh, come on. Those will be hot over the jeans and—”

“And there is no way in hell I’m wearing them.” Mike grabbed the jeans and stepped into them. As he lifted one leg and then the other, Ellie watched his leg muscles bunch and twist until he pulled them up and over.

As he buttoned and then zipped, he said, “Okay, show me your shirt choices.”

Ellie emptied the contents of her bag on the counter, even the clippers.

“What are the clippers for?” he asked.

“I just thought if you wanted to clean up the sides a bit. I could help you out.”

He picked up the army green T-shirt with wings and a slogan on the front, pulling it over his head without answering right away. The shirt hugged his pecs and shoulders, barely loose around his waist.

---