Bad Boy Blues - Jessica Lemmon Page 0,16

confused.

“To start something with you I couldn’t finish.” Before he could ask what she considered starting and finishing, she added, “My ex wasn’t great to me. He didn’t hit me or anything, but he controlled me with guilt, and sometimes that’s just as bad.”

“Sometimes it can be,” Brady said gently.

“I’m not in Evergreen Cove to date. I’m here to learn how to be independent. To remember who I am.”

“How very Lion King of you.” He winked to show her he was teasing, and she smiled and covered her face with one hand.

“I overreacted, didn’t I?” She let out a muted ugh. “You were being neighborly by offering to show me around.”

“In your defense, I was being more than neighborly,” he admitted.

“So the bolt of attraction I noticed between us didn’t escape your attention.”

He had to laugh. She had a way of surprising him at every turn, which was not common. “Yeah, okay. I noticed that, too.”

She bit her lip and looked past him at the water.

“Look, Elli. Our lake tour isn’t going to end up being more than that unless you want it to. But if it works out that way,” he added with a grin, “that’d be the best news I’ve heard all summer.”

Chapter 9

Elli turned over what Brady said while running her eyes along his exposed arms. Biceps bulged. He had attractive forearms, nice hands. Great knees. She’d never seen him in shorts before. It wasn’t a bad sight.

“You’re thinking about it,” he accused.

She was. She’d surprised herself by admitting her attraction to him, but she was even more surprised to hear that he was willing to act on it. There was only one problem…

“I’m trouble,” she blurted. “I’ve been in therapy.”

“Okay.” He nodded.

“My ex was a narcissist,” she continued explaining. “I went along with his wishes, which was completely out-of-character for me.”

“And you’re worried if we go out that I’ll take over your life given this daunting and immediate attraction?” He wasn’t laughing, so he must not be kidding.

Chewing her lip, she turned the question over in her head. No, she wasn’t worried about him “taking over” her life. For whatever reason, she trusted him. Maybe it was the uniform, or maybe it was her gut, but to her, Brady was a tantalizing combination of safe and exciting. A rare mix.

“Once I stole a magazine from a library,” she told him. “Tucked it into my backpack and walked out with it.”

“Elli—”

“And another time, I didn’t pay a parking ticket for three entire years.”

“Is this supposed to dissuade me?” His eyelids lowered to half-mast as if he were bored. He rested a hand on the railing of her deck like he could stand there all afternoon while she ogled him. Sounded great to her.

Wait, no. Resist.

“You don’t have to build a case for not going out with me,” he said. “Tell me no, and I’ll leave. I won’t make you do anything. I don’t think I could.”

He might not know it, but that was the most flattering thing he could’ve said. That he respected her answer. That he couldn’t sway her once her mind was made up. And he was right. She was strong.

She was just out of practice.

“What if my answer is not yet?” She took one step toward him and then another. Now that he might leave, she wasn’t sure she wanted him to. On the second step, eye to eye with him, she felt the attraction to him tenfold. He must’ve felt it, too. His gaze snapped to her mouth and then back to her eyes.

“Like I said. I can’t make you,” he repeated, “but that doesn’t mean I’m done trying.” His mouth flinched into the barest smile before he touched her, a gentle tip of her chin with his knuckles. “See ya, Bean.”

He turned and strode that long, lean body to the Jet Ski. She watched as he stowed his shoes, lost the shirt and, way too soon, covered his golden chest with a life jacket and climbed aboard. He took off like a shot over the waves. She watched him until the red blur of the Jet Ski was not but a memory. Sweat clung to her skin, either from the hot day or the interaction with Brady.

She wished she would have said yes, climbed on behind him, and wrapped her arms around that marvelous torso…

Good Lord.

She was an indecisive head case. Fresh out of a relationship and on her own for the first time in six years was no time to joyride