Page 97 of You're so Bad

“I’m on birth control.”

He stares at me for a second. “I’ve never—” He swallows. “I’ve always used one.”

I’m about to tell him it doesn’t matter, but then I realize there’s something like fear behind his words.

“What’s wrong?” I ask.

He swallows. “Being careful is important to me. I can’t bring a kid into this world. I guess I should tell you that too. My parents fucked me up but good. I won’t do that to someone else.”

I know he’d never treat another human being the way his parents treated him, certainly not a child. But right now he needs levity. He needs something sweet in his coffee.

“Aren’t you getting ahead of yourself?” I ask, and he barks a laugh.

“I suppose I am.” He’s still holding me to him, cradling me like he can’t bear to let me go. “I told you I don’t know what I’m doing.”

“I get why you feel that way.” I squeeze my legs around his hips so he knows I’m not going anywhere. “But I’m in no hurry to pop out kids. So I don’t think that’s something we have to worry about. If you want, we can get in my car and speed all the way to the pharmacy to get some condoms.”

He doesn’t speak for a long moment, his gaze locked on the back wall as if it’s got answers to all the big questions in the universe. Then he says, “No. I need you like this.” He carries me toward the worktable. “I want to feel you clench against my cock with nothing between us.”

“Thank God, because I was going to feel really impatient in that car.”

He sets me down on the edge of the table.

“Take off your shoes,” I say.

His eyes are dancing. I’ve heard that expression plenty of times before, but I’d never really seen it happen before I met him. “You gonna boss me around tonight?”

“Yes.”

He leans down to unlace his shoes, which is when I realize he’s got on work boots.

“You ran in boots?”

“Reese stole my sneakers. Haven’t had time to get new ones,” he says as he takes them off and then removes his socks. I wince at the sight of the raw spots.

“Didn’t that hurt?”

A harsh laugh escapes him. “They feel like ground beef.”

This man is so maddening, so childish, soendearing. “You didn’t have to do that, Leonard. You didn’t need to hurt yourself to make a point.”

“I did.” He takes a step toward me in his T-shirt, shorts, and bare feet. His hair is messy, the wave brought out by the humidity. He looks like every fantasy I’ve ever had poured into a cocktail glass and shaken up, and I want to suck him down.

“Now, what do you want me to do, Tiger?” he asks, his voice low and husky. “I’m yours to command.”

He says it with an expression that’s half challenge.

Neither of us can back down from challenges. Maybe it’s because we’re used to them. For me, it was being the girl with parents who didn’t care and then parents who were dead. For him…

God, everything was a challenge.

We need something lighthearted, something fun, so I take out my phone and turn on “Pony” fromMagic Mike XXL, streaming it to my Bluetooth speakers. “Why don’t you give me a little show?”

His smile expands to fill his whole face. “All you had to do was ask.”

He starts moving to the music. I meant it mostly as a joke, but he’s good enough that he could have been an understudy for one of the actors in the movie.

He dances closer, pulling off his shirt in a sexy tease before throwing it into my lap. I hold onto it as I watch his muscles shift with his movements and take in his thick, tattooed arms. He’s slightly sweaty still, and the overhead lights glisten off it, making him look golden. I’m uncomfortably turned on, squirming on the hard table. “Be honest. You were an exotic dancer in one of your lives.”

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