Good at Being Bad

by Codi Gary

Mike stood up straighter, and gave him a warning look.

  “ID?” Bald Guy asked, taking hers then Mike’s. When he handed them back, they walked through the doors and loud, country rock blared over the speakers. They headed for the bar, and pushed to the front until Ellie stood next to a short blonde and Mike was pressed into her back.

  The blonde glanced their way and he recognized Stacy, the woman who thought he had an STD. He could thank Ellie for that lie.

  “Mike! Hey,” she said, awkwardly over the music. She glanced at Ellie and her eyes widened.

  “Hey, Stacy. You remember Ellie?”

  “Yeah, I do.” Stacy frowned at her, but Ellie smiled in return.

  “Sorry for scaring you off Mike. He really doesn’t have any weird spots—at least, none that I know of.”

  “We’re just friends,” Mike added. “She has a sick sense of humor.”

  “I didn’t think that was very funny,” Stacy said.

  “So get a sense of humor,” Ellie said, turning to him. “I’ll get us a table.”

  Ellie walked away, drawing every male eye in the place and when he turned back to Stacy, she was glaring at Ellie’s back.

  “Sorry. She sometimes forgets her manners.”

  Stacy lightened up and laughed, looking him over with appreciation. “There’s something different about you. I like it a lot.”

  Mike couldn’t believe she leaned forward, her eyes lashes basically fluttering at him. “Of course, I’ve always thought you were hot, but your…friend’s joke made me uneasy.”

  Mike glanced Ellie’s way, and noticed she looked annoyed.

  Very, very annoyed.

  Was she jealous?

  Mike wanted to crow, but it was just a theory. A theory that needed to be tested.

  Chapter Sixteen

  A waitress had finally come to take Ellie’s drink order, but she had hardly touched the beer in front of her. She was too busy gritting her teeth painfully as she watched Mike fawn all over that silly blonde she’d scared off at Buck’s.

  Come on, Mike. You can do so much better.

  The woman, Stacy, tossed her hair back as she laughed. Ellie’s eyes narrowed as Stacy put her hand on his arm, and leaned up to whisper in his ear.

  “Hey, sugar, what’s shaking?” a man asked above her.

  She didn’t even bother looking up. “No.”

  Ellie ignored the vile name he called her, and finally took a sip of her beer. One beer wouldn’t kill her. It was the hard stuff that sometimes hit her like a Mack truck.

  The music died down as they announced the band taking the stage, but Ellie continued to watch Mike. Finally, he looked her way and grinned, as though he was pleased as fuck with himself, and she raised an eyebrow.

  Oh, so he was trying to mess with her? She stood up and took off her jacket slowly, sliding the leather down first one arm and then the other. She saw his jaw tighten and she smiled as it fell back on the chair.

  Straightening her off-the-shoulder blouse, she walked out to the middle of the dance floor and started swaying. With her hands over her head, she rocked her hips, her back to him. When she felt hands on her hips, at first she thought it might be Mike, but when she looked back, her gaze met a pair of green-gold eyes in a smooth shaven, handsome face.

  Backing up into his hands, she maneuvered them so she was facing the bar once more and saw Mike scowling at them.

  Not so fun to be teased, is it?

  “God, I love the way you move,” the pretty boy said behind her. She closed her eyes to keep from rolling them, afraid Mike might see. “What’s your name?”

  “Ellie.” She didn’t say more, hoping he’d take the hint that she just wanted to dance, not talk, but Loose Lips McGee wouldn’t shut up. Finally, the song ended and she broke away from his grasp.

  “Thanks for the dance.”

  “What’s your hurry? Let me buy you a drink.” She noticed his eyes were a little glazed and his speech was slow. Had he smoked a bowl before coming out tonight?

  “Thanks, but I can buy my own.”

  The guy didn’t take the hint and held on to her arm. “I thought we were having fun.”

  “We did have fun.” Reaching up, she gripped his thumb on her arm, and bent it back until he yelped. “And now I want to go have a drink. Alone.”

  “Ouch, shit!” The guy jerked away from her and stumbled back into a roughneck-looking couple. The woman screamed and the man grabbed the guy by his shirt, throwing a hard right that sent him flying into a table of cowboys.

  And then all hell broke loose.

  The music died and yelling and cursing were coming at her from all angles. Punches were thrown, the sickening crack of bone and flesh and shouts of pain. She ducked behind two women who were pulling each other’s hair, and ran as fast as her high-heeled boots would take her.

  “Hey, you!” Someone spun her around from behind, and an angry bull of a man with a black beard shouted in her face. “You starting shit in my bar?”

  “That guy grabbed me—”

  She started to explain, but someone tapped the man on the shoulder. He turned and she saw Mike standing there, a head shorter and half his breadth.

  “Hey, man, I need you to let her go.”

  “Fuck you, you little—”

  In three swift moves Ellie couldn’t follow, Mike had the big man lying in the fetal position on the floor, yowling like a scalded cat.

  Ellie stared at him wide-eyed. “How did you…?”

  “No time to explain.” He grabbed her hand and leaned over the table to pick her jacket off the chair. “Let’s go.”

  Ellie laughed as he dragged her out the door and down the steps to his bike. Sirens wailed in the distance and Ellie saw dozens of people pour out of the bar and run for their vehicles.

  It took them less than two minutes to get their helmets on and burn out of the parking lot, taking the long way home through Buhl. They couldn’t talk with the wind and the engine roaring, but Ellie wasn’t sure her heart would ever stop racing. Watching Mike take down a guy to protect her was, well, hot—for lack of a better word. Why was it that her life seemed to hitch into high gear every time she was with him?

  He pulled off down a dirt road and parked in the brush. Ellie lifted her helmet off, looking around the brushy area.

  “Where are we?”

  He set his helmet on the bike, and pulled a flashlight from his pouch on the side of his bike.

  “Have you ever been to Rock Canyon’s secret garden?” he asked.

  “What secret garden?”

  Mike grinned in the dusky light. “Follow me and I’ll show you.”

  Mike led Ellie through the hole in the fence and down the trail. He’d worked at the Jameson’s farm for a while when he was fourteen, and was among the few people who knew about the beautiful garden on the back side of their property. They held family weddings there, but it was closed to the general public because the late Mrs. Jameson had been afraid that people would destroy it.

  It was a special place. He’d never shared it with anyone before.

  He couldn’t keep the pleased-as-shit grin off his face, not after he’d seen the looks Ellie had been shooting him as he’d flirted with Stacy. Their conversation had been innocent enough, but Ellie didn’t know that.

  Of course, he hadn’t exactly enjoyed watching her get pawed, and then when he’d lost her in the chaos of the fight, his heart had stopped.

  “How did you drop the big guy in the bar?” Ellie hissed behind him.

  “Shh, hang on.” They were almost past the grove of trees. The moon added nice mood lighting, and when the brush thinned out Mike exhaled softly.

  “Well?” she prodded.

  “Hang on.” Mike used the flashlight to find the power box, which was on the side of the yellow garden shed the last time he’d been there.

  “Seriously, you were like Jackie Chan.”

  “I’ve been taking one form of martial arts or another since I was eleven. I guess it j
ust kicked in.” He took her hand and led her over to the box. As he turned on the lights, he prayed that the Jamesons were already in bed and wouldn’t see the light.

  Ellie gasped as her eyes scanned the landscaped paradise and Mike squeezed her hand. “What do you think?”

  “It’s gorgeous.”

  “Yeah, it is. Mr. Jameson built it for his wife over a twenty-year period. His wife is a big fan of Jane Austen, and he designed it to remind her of her favorite books and characters.”

  “Oh, my God, that is the most romantic thing I have ever heard!” Ellie walked down the gravel trail that lead to the middle of the garden where a large fountain stood. The pool surrounding the tiered middle as easily two-and-a-half feet deep.

  Unable to tear his eyes away, he watched as Ellie bent over and started unzipping her boots.

  “What are you doing?” he asked.

  She glanced up at him, her long hair veiling half her face. “Dipping my feet?”

  “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

  “You don’t think it’s warm out here?” She shrugged out of her jacket and the temperature notched up.

  “Nah, it’s fine,” he said.

  Ellie reached for the button of her pants and Mike panicked. “Why are you taking off your pants?”

  “They’re too tight to roll up.” As she peeled the black leather down her curvy thighs, Mike forgot how to swallow. She stepped out of them clad only in her red top and a pair of shiny black panties.

  I should turn around and be a gentleman.

  Only she turned around first and he couldn’t tear his eyes away from the black boy-cut underwear playing peek-a-boo with her butt cheeks.

  “I saw you walk out of Jensen’s today, and it’s all over Miss Know-It-All’s blog that you broke up with Forrest.”

  “Yep.”

  “She also mentioned it was because of me.”

  Ellie met his gaze, and shrugged. “Not fully. He tried to tell me what I could and couldn’t do. And I let him know in no uncertain terms that I wouldn’t be owned.”

  “How was he trying to own you?”

  “He told me I couldn’t hang with you anymore, to which I responded, have a nice life.”

  Her words erased all the hesitation and excuses he’d been putting up as roadblocks to keep her at a distance. He was tired of fighting his feeling for her, and he was hoping that maybe she was done playing games, too.

  Ellie glanced around, her gaze never meeting his as she walked through the water. “We weren’t boyfriend and girlfriend, so breaking up is a strong word, anyway.”

  “But when it came down to him or me, you chose me.”

  She hesitated. “If you’re suggesting that I dumped him because I had some kind of overwhelming desire for you, then no, that wasn’t it.”

  “Then tell me what it was.” He advanced on her, moving closer while she stayed glued in the water.

  “He just irritated me, is all, and I realized he wasn’t what I wanted.”

  He was only about a foot away when he asked, “What do you want, Ellie?”

  “What do you think I want?” Her tone was teasing, but he heard the nervous tremor and knew she was on the brink.

  “Don’t play with me.” He was so close now the tips of her breasts grazed his chest. “What do you want?”

  Ellie hesitated, and finally whispered, “You. I want you.”

  Mike wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her flush against him, and took her mouth in a kiss of need, of desperation and passion.

  He nipped at her bottom lip and groaned as her hands clung to his shoulders, kissing him back reverently.

  The world seemed to tilt as they kissed, him on one side of the fountain wall and her on the other.

  And then he realized that the world wasn’t askew. They were falling.

  Right into the water.

  Ellie screamed just as they hit and they both came up spitting and sputtering. Mike wiped the water from his face, laughing as he leaned back on his hands.

  “Well, you wanted to cool off.”

  Ellie glared at him, sending a splash of water his way. He shot a stream right back at her and then she threw herself at him. She kept trying to knock his arms out and push him under, but he managed to get ahold of her hands.

  “Drowning me isn’t nice.”

  “You knocked me into the water!”

  He brought her hands up between them and kissed her knuckles. “No, I lost my balance while kissing you and we both fell over. Complete accident.”

  “And splashing me?”

  “You got me first,” he said.

  “Fine, so we’re even.”

  He released her hands to embrace her. “Are you cold?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Okay. We should get out of here anyway. Someone might have heard you scream, and I’m pretty sure they can see the light from their house.”

  Mike helped her out of the fountain, and while she gathered up her clothes, he shut off the light.

  “I don’t think I can get these back on unless I’m dry,” she hissed.

  Mike thought he heard voices in the distance, and made an executive decision. He gathered Ellie in his arms and took off toward the fence.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Ten minutes later, Ellie finally got her boots zipped and walked over to join Mike, who was watching the cops from the safety of the brush. They’d pushed his motorcycle farther in and sat quietly as the officers walked down the dirt road they’d been parked on, shining their flashlights around.

  “You think they’ll come this way to look?” she asked quietly.

  “No, but it doesn’t hurt to be safe,” Mike said.

  Ellie agreed, especially since she hadn’t really want to get caught with her pants down.

  Or getting swept up in another epic kiss with Mike.

  Which it was, right up until they’d fallen into the fountain. Ellie had been watching and waiting for him to kiss her. Everything between them had been building for weeks, and it would have come to a head eventually.

  Only she had no idea what to do now that it had happened, especially since she wanted it to happen again.

  And a few times more after that.

  But she was trying to change her ways. No more hooking up unless she was serious about the guy and definitely no more breaking hearts.

  What if she hooked up with Mike and then broke his heart? The town would never forgive her.

  Or he breaks mine.

  “I think they’re leaving,” Mike said.

  Ellie followed his gaze and saw that the two police officers were getting back into their car.

  “Thank God,” Ellie said. “The last thing I want to do is explain to everyone who reads the paper what we were doing out here.”

  “What? You’re not going to share the best kiss ever with Miss Know-It-All?”

  “Who said it was my best?” she challenged.

  “Ouch. Considering you were so into me we fell over into the fountain, I just assumed.”

  “You think way too much of yourself. Besides, you were the one who swooned at the mere touch of my lips.”

  Mike chuckled as he pointed at her, and then himself. “Pot, that would be you, meet kettle, me.”

  Ellie’s lips twitched. “I’m factual about my looks, and my skill? And I’ve had a lot of practice kissing.”

  “Again, you don’t pull any punches.”

  “Besides, we just keep playing with fire and we both know this isn’t going to end well, right? I mean, you come from this perfect family and I am the youngest of ‘those Willis girls.’ My reputation’s so wrecked, Lindsey Lohan feels sorry for me. I am not someone a guy like you ends up with, and we should just admit it now before things get complicated.”

  Mike stood there staring at her, and she shuffled her feet, waiting for him to say something, anything. To argue or agree or just change the subject.

  “My parents are far from perfect,” Mike said.

 
; That was his response?

  More than a little frustrated, Ellie said, “But I bet they expect you to find someone you can marry and pop out a bunch of kids with, right? Does my home life say that I’m ready for commitment or kids? I don’t know if I’ll ever be ready for that, but I do know that getting involved with a man that I don’t have the same goals or anything thing in common with is not going to go well.”

  Mike stood there for a minute or two, and she wished he’d say anything. That she was crazy or he didn’t care, but he just headed back to his bike and put on his helmet.

  “Come on. I’ll drive you home.”

  Mike pulled up next to Ellie’s car and took of his helmet, although he didn’t turn around right away. Even when the bike dipped as she got off it, he stared forward, thinking of what he wanted to do or say. He wasn’t used to being bold and taking what he wanted. He was the cautious type that sat back and let things happen.

  But Ellie had barreled into his life and changed all that.

  He had never felt so bold or strong as he had the past few weeks. He liked the changes in him and they were all because of her.

  She wasn’t wrong, though, and whenever he imagined what the future looked like with Ellie, he never got further than making love to her. He couldn’t imagine living with her, and she’d already told him she wasn’t even thinking of kids. Sure, he was only thirty-four, but he wanted them. He knew that. If she wasn’t sure, he couldn’t convince her and it wasn’t fair to try.

  So who says you have to dwell on the future? Why can’t you just live for now?

  Because the future was going to come sooner or later, and he didn’t want to waste his time on a relationship going nowhere. That was why he had changed—to find the girl he’d be with long-term. The rest of his life, even.

  It didn’t make sense to be more than friends with Ellie, no matter how strong the chemistry was between them.

  Mike followed her up the porch steps. He had every intention of telling her good night and walking away, but as she reached for the doorknob, he spun her back around. Cupping her face in his hands, he dipped his head and kissed her softly, longingly, increasing the pressure until she was leaning into him, her lips open under his.