Diary of a Bad Boy(72)

He quiets me with a finger to my mouth. “Don’t apologize. Just know you helped me that night.” He plays with my hair, and I love how affectionate he is when his personality seems the exact opposite. “Whenever you’re around, I feel at ease.”

“Are you flattering me, Roark?”

“Telling the truth.” Sitting up, he lowers me to my back where he hovers above me. “What am I going to do about tomorrow?”

“What do you mean?”

“There are going to be all these teenage boys at the ranch, and I don’t want them thinking they can stare at my girl however they want.”

I roll my eyes. “Don’t be ridiculous. They’re going to be staring at my dad the entire time. Believe me, I’m chopped liver whenever my dad is around.”

“You don’t plan on wearing that crop top, do you?” He lifts a questioning brow.

I chuckle softly. “No, that was only to drive you crazy. I actually waited in my room for you to open your door so I could run into you in the hallway.”

His eyes narrow. “You fucking tease. I knew it. I knew you were driving me crazy on purpose. And Josh?”

I shrug. “He’s just a nice guy, and it helped that you were crazy jealous around him.”

He drags his hand over his face and then shakes it. “Do you realize you almost gave me a coronary these last few days?”

“If you weren’t so stubborn, maybe I wouldn’t have had to drive you crazy.”

“I don’t believe that for a second. I still think you would have tortured me.”

“True.” I laugh. “I would have.”

“Strangely, it’s one of the reasons I’m drawn to you. You give me shit.”

“Only when you deserve it.” He laughs. Leaning down, he presses a soft kiss against my lips, his hand tangling in my hair. When he pulls away, he says, “Will you take that white top back to New York? I want to see you shower in it.”

“Is that so?”

He nods. “Yeah, I totally jacked off in the shower thinking about you in that, all wet and sexy.”

“You masturbated in the shower?”

The laugh that drags out of him is sexy and entirely too much trouble. “I’ve had my hand on my cock every goddamn day I’ve been here, sometimes twice a day.”

My eyes widen. “Are you serious?”

“Don’t be so na?ve, Sutton. Do you really think I could be this close to you and not be affected? If I wanted to be able to walk straight, I had to do something about it.”

“You should have asked for help.”

He shakes his head. “There is no way I can get close to you like that here, not with your dad in the same house. I almost lost it this morning. I can’t have another incident like that. We shouldn’t even be out here right now.”

“He can’t see us.”

“Doesn’t matter, it’s too close for comfort. There won’t be any fucking until we’re back in the city.”

Well, that doesn’t sit well with me, and he must notice because he places a kiss on my lips and then connects our foreheads. “Don’t worry, when we’re back in the city, I’ll make sure I make up for all these lost days.”

“Promise?”

“Promise.” He lowers his head and presses one more kiss across my lips before rising to his feet. He pulls up his low-hanging jeans and then takes my hand in his to help me from the ground. Together we shake the blanket out and then fold it up. We walk toward the ranch hand in hand, and it feels sublime. Such a small thing, but finally being able to hold his hand feels so right.

We reach the wooden stairs and Roark turns toward me. His thumb drags over my lip before he bends down and kisses me softly. It’s intimate and everything I’ve ever wanted from him. I feel all my muscles turn to mush.

When he pulls away, my body aches for more. “Good night, Sutton. I’ll see you in the morning. Tomorrow is your big day.”

“Couldn’t have done it without everyone’s help and your epic shit-shoveling skills.”

“Smart-arse.” He kisses me one last time and heads toward the front door. For the first time, I don’t mind watching him walk away. With his narrow hips, broad back, and sexy swagger, it’s absolutely not a hardship. Never in a million years would I have believed I’d want a guy like Roark—arrogant, cocky, rude—but once I peeled back his first layer, I found a kind, caring, and sweet man. A man I can’t wait to learn more about. A man who wants to be with me. A man who wants us to be an us.





Chapter Sixteen





Dear Gerald,

I’m going to preface this by saying in the past I’ve stated I don’t want to treat this diary as a place to gush like a teenage girl in puberty, but . . .

HOLY FUCK can Sutton kiss.

I knew those lips were going to do damage to my tough exterior, but I didn’t think they’d knock down every wall I ever erected. With one tiny press of her mouth against mine, everything crumbled around me, leaving me exposed, vulnerable, and begging like a desperate lust-struck boy.

It’s the way she carefully cups my cheek and then slowly moves her hands through my hair. It’s the lightness in her kiss even though her tongue is demanding. Light and then hard, light and then hard. Fuck, if she can about throw me over the edge with only her kisses, what else can she do with that sinful mouth of hers? I bet some really wicked things.