Bad Boy Valentine by Sylvia Pierce Read Free Book Online Page A

Kate’s.
    Kate cracked up, her whole damn face lighting up with it. “Graceful as always, I see.” She slid her glass toward him, still laughing her lush little ass off.
    Fuck if he hadn’t missed the sound of that. He used to make her laugh all the time. Especially after she came.
    Do it again. Just keep laughing, just a little longer…
    But the moment passed, and Jagger wasn’t quite ready to burn himself again just to amuse her. Give her an orgasm, though?
    Now there’s an idea that’ll get you in deep shit, asshole.
    He took a sip of her water to douse the pain—the one in his mouth and in his balls—then slid the glass back to her, their fingers brushing.
    “How’s your hand?” he asked.
    She flexed her fingers. “A little sore, but I’ll live. How’s your face?”
    He gave her a devilish grin. “Haven’t had any complaints.”
    She was laughing again, a sound he wished he could put in a damn bottle. But like most of the good things in his life, that sound came to its fucking end faster than it should have, and the uncomfortable silence crept between them once again.
    This is how it is now. You did this to her, fuckface. Deal with it.
    He shoved in another bite of sandwich, only marginally less hot than the last, but good as hell. They ate in silence for a few minutes, stealing looks at each other across the table like a couple of kids on a first date, both trying to pretend the situation was anything other than completely fucked.
    Jagger had demolished his sandwich and was already working on his fourth cookie when he felt the energy between them shift again. Kate took a breath, let it out slow, took another one. Her fingers tapped against the edge of the table.
    “Just say it,” he said, trying to catch her eye. She refused to look at him.
    “I just… look. I really am sorry about yesterday.” Kate stopped drumming on the table just long enough to tuck her hair behind her ears, her blue eyes glued to a spot on his shirt. “I shouldn’t have hit you like that. I… It was like seeing a ghost, Jagger. You were the very last man I expected to walk through that door.”
    “No shit.” Now he was the one laughing, but there was nothing happy about it. He still couldn’t believe he’d ended up here at Kate’s, of all places. It was like the damn universe was conspiring against him.
    Kate finally stopped fidgeting and met his gaze, unblinking, and what Jagger saw there nearly knocked him over. The look in her eyes was so vulnerable, so sad. He realized then how much she’d aged in his absence. Not with wrinkles or gray hair or laugh lines, but something in her eyes. A crushing, bone-deep weariness.
    Jagger’s name was stamped all over it.
    Jesus, Kit-Kat.
    Anger flared suddenly in his chest.
    He dropped a half-eaten cookie on his plate and jabbed his finger toward the door. “You think I expected to walk through that door yesterday and find you on the other side? Last time I saw you, you were working your ass off at that bookstore. Now you have your own place. This bakery. A life. Damn, Kit-Kat.”
    She opened her mouth, probably to scold him for using her nickname, but then she let it pass.
    His feelings were a tangled knot of wires inside him, all crisscrossed and shorting out. He wanted to tell her that he’d never doubted her. That he was proud. That he was so happy that she’d moved on with her life, even though it shredded his heart.
    But he was pissed, too. Pissed that she’d wasted even a minute pining for him. Pissed that she’d let his bullshit put that look in her eyes. That she’d let him get away with that shit instead of just forgetting about his ass.
    But nothing made sense in his head. All the words got jumbled up, and there was no point in saying them anyway.
    I should’ve been here with her. Right by her side.
    “I never thought I’d see you again,” Kate said. “I spent a long time trying to convince myself you were dead. I have a life, Jagger. And then you show up