Welcoming the Bad Boy: A Hero's Welcome Novel

by Annie Rains

  “But I kissed you back. And I’m not sorry about it.”

  Well, hell. “You’re not?”

  She shook her head, her hair scratching along her shoulders. He wanted to see those shoulders bare, below him, above him—hell, he didn’t care.

  “I liked the kiss,” she said.

  “Me, too. But we shouldn’t do this.”

  “Why not?”

  He studied her face. “Because I’m no good for you.”

  She got off the couch and moved toward him, sitting on the floor beside him and Trooper. “And why is that?” she asked, leaning in dangerously close.

  He could rattle off a dozen reasons why, but all were just excuses. “I’m not in a place where I can date right now. I just moved my mother here. She needs my attention. It wouldn’t be fair to you.”

  Her gaze dropped from his eyes to his mouth. “It was just kissing.”

  “It was a lot more than kissing, Val. Or it would’ve been.”

  “That’s pretty presumptuous, Mr. Black,” she whispered, her voice arousing his senses.

  “Am I wrong?”

  She smiled up at him. “Guess you’ll never know.”

  He groaned, running a hand through his short hair. “I’m trying to be good here, and you’re not helping.”

  She grinned again. “Maybe I don’t want you to be good.”

  He lifted his gaze. “I’m beginning to think you’re the one who’s adopted.”

  Val laughed. “I’ve wondered that myself.” She directed her attention to the rain outside the window and took a deep breath, her chest rising and falling. “Fine. No more kissing—for the moment. We’ll do our first training session with Sweet Cheeks instead.” She turned to look at the dog, who was still lying on the couch with her head between her paws. “Come here, girl.” Val patted her lap. “Come here.” She glanced back at Griffin. “If I had one of those treats she’d come.”

  “She needs to learn to come to you even when you don’t have treats. Use a firmer tone of voice.”

  Val patted her thigh again. “Come,” she said a little more forcefully.

  Griffin tried to keep his still-foggy mind out of the gutter.

  “Come,” she said again. Sweet Cheeks lifted her head and stood, launching herself onto the floor.

  “Now praise her heavily for following your command,” Griffin told Val.

  Val patted Sweet Cheeks’s head. “Good girl! You did great. You came.”

  He shifted uncomfortably. She was killing him, all sweet and sexy.

  “I like it when you come,” she said in a singsong voice.

  Griffin stood up abruptly, causing her to turn back, her pouty, kissable lips dropping slightly. “Water. I’m going to go get a glass of water. That was good. The dog is a quick learner.”

  Val raised an eyebrow. “What’s the dog’s name?” she asked, teasing him with her eyes.

  He scrubbed his hands over his face, uttering the name as he did. It came out blunted and garbled.

  “Sweet what?” she asked, grinning widely.

  “Sweet Cheeks, okay?”

  Sweet Cheeks stood at attention, wagging her pointy tail.

  “Aww. She likes it when you call her by her name,” Val said, collecting the dog in her arms.

  Why was everything she said suddenly reminding him of sex? He needed to walk away and clear his head. He went to the kitchen and grabbed the glass he’d used at dinner. Holding it under the faucet, he thought about the things he had lined up for tomorrow. That was enough to dull anyone’s libido. Jaws was one aggressive act away from being pulled from the K-9 unit. If that happened, the powers-that-be would have to determine what happened to his dog after that. Adoption or a little injection that ended it all. Adoption was only a viable option if Jaws was considered safe. That option didn’t sit well in Griffin’s stomach, either. If he wasn’t safe to work in K-9 because he was too aggressive, who’s to say he wouldn’t be the same as someone’s pet?

  “You okay?” Val asked, standing behind him now.

  He turned to look at her. Leaning against the edge of the counter with his glass of water, he didn’t nod or say anything. Saying he was fine would be a lie and he didn’t want to lie. “I liked kissing you,” he finally said. “Something about being with you makes things better.”

  “Maybe you should kiss me more often,” she suggested. Then she reached a hand up and traced a finger over one of the tattoos on his arm—a series of numbers that matched the ones tatted in Jaws’s ear, a way for the military to ID the dog as their own.

  Griffin met her gaze. His mind was telling him to walk away. The storm was subsiding. He could get in his SUV and go home with Trooper now, but he didn’t want to. His opposite arm reached over and grabbed her wrist gently, stopping the tracing of her finger. Her chest stopped moving as she held her breath. He had no idea what he was going to do next. Then, he pulled her to him, holding her gaze all the way. If she didn’t want this, she’d have to stop it this time.

  Kissing her, he submitted to whatever power she had to make the world a better place. Her fingers kneaded into the muscle along his back, pulling their bodies closer. The only way to get closer than they were was if they took off their clothes. He had no objections to that. He started to lift her shirt up, needed to see more of her. To feel more of her soft skin in his hands.

  “Wait,” Val said, pushing him back so that she could look into his eyes. “All I want to do is kiss. No further than that.”

  His cock was about to raise hell. “Kiss,” he repeated, trying to process what she was saying. He’d just given himself permission to let go and now Val was pulling out the take-it-slow card. “Just kiss.”

  She looked away. “Well, we only just met. This wasn’t even a date, so doing more than kiss doesn’t make sense.” She nibbled on her sexy lower lip. “We can’t just skip ahead.”

  “Is this the influence of those romance novels you read with your book group?” he asked, running a finger along her cheek. He couldn’t stop himself from touching her now. He wanted to touch all of her.

  “Maybe if you read a few you’d know the order that things should happen.”

  “Tell me,” he said.

  Keeping her head tipped, she looked up through long black lashes. “Well, ideally the date would’ve come before the kiss. In a romance novel, at least.”

  “But I like breaking the rules, remember?” He pulled her against him again. His cock needed to press into her, even if they had decided to keep their clothes on.

  She gasped a little and continued. “The first kiss should be just that. Just a kiss.”

  “I see. If that’s the case, I should leave now because I’m finding it excruciatingly hard to control myself. I will, though. I’d never press for anything you didn’t want.”

  “The rain is letting up,” she said. Her words conflicted with her eyes. Her eyes told him she wanted to go further than they’d gone. She wanted it almost as much as he did, he suspected.

  He needed words, though, and since she wasn’t asking him to stay, he decided it was time to go.

  He kissed her mouth one more time and broke away from her. “Come on, Trooper. Let’s get home.” He grabbed his keys from the kitchen island and started for the door, turning to face her before opening it. “So if we were to do things the way they do them in a romance novel, what would happen next?”

  She fidgeted with her hands. “Well, we’d have to go back a little and go on a first date.”

  He stared at her, thinking on that. “Good to know. No more kissing until I take you on a date. Got it.” He winked and then opened the door and walked out with Trooper.

  —

  Val awoke with a start. To Sweet Cheeks humping her leg. “Eww!” She carefully removed the dog from her appendage, her body cracking and popping with every movement. She’d fallen asleep at her desk. Her laptop was in hibernation mode in front of her. After Griffin had left last night she’d been feeling very inspired.

  V
al stood and headed toward the kitchen to make a cup of coffee, a smile blooming on her face as she remembered the details of last night’s kiss. The kiss to make all other kisses she’d experienced in the past fall away. Griffin’s kisses had involved facial hair that scraped and aroused her every nerve ending, hands that had touched and teased without disappearing under any clothing. His kiss had taken her to a place she wanted to go again and again.

  Except he’d walked out when she told him there’d be nothing more than kissing last night. “Good to know,” he’d said when she’d told him the proper order of things per romance novels. If he was interested in her, a date was next. Not that she wanted him to be interested in that way. She really didn’t have time in her life for a true relationship, even though he’d inspired a week’s worth of writing in one night. Imagine what he could’ve inspired if she’d let him get to second base. She couldn’t do that for the sake of writing her book, though. And that’s what having sex would’ve been about. Wouldn’t it?

  The smell of hazelnut coffee awakened her senses as it poured out of her coffeepot and into her mug. She had just enough time for an hour of writing before she needed to shower and get over to Seaside Harbor to have lunch with Helen. Val drained her morning cup of caffeine and wrote at her computer, pleased to see that the inspiration hadn’t died when she’d drifted off to dreamland. Then she showered and dressed, pulling her long dark hair into a ponytail. The summer was getting hotter and just walking to her car these days had her dripping in sweat. She packed two lunches and hurried over to Seaside Harbor.

  “Hey, Val,” Louise said, glancing up from a binder at the front reception desk. “You’re looking perky this morning.” She lifted her brows, fishing for information.

  “Two cups of java will do it every time.”

  Louise looked disappointed. “If you’d get your head out of those books you read, you’d have time for a social life. Then I could relive my single years through you.”

  Val laughed, waving as she continued toward Helen’s room. Helen was sitting up in bed when she arrived. Val sat in the chair beside her bed and placed a brown paper bag on Helen’s lap. “Ham and cheese today, with a little bit of lettuce and tomato. There is a slice of banana bread, made by me, if you eat your whole sandwich.”

  Helen stared blankly at her.

  “It’s me. Val Hunt. Remember?” She stroked Helen’s arm nearest her.

  Helen blinked and nodded. “Yes. Of course I remember you,” she said. But Val wasn’t sure she believed her.

  “Good. Open your bag and we’ll eat.”

  Helen obliged. She took out her sandwich and bit into it without giving any argument this time. Val did the same. They ate in comfortable silence. When they were done, Val took out a project that she’d completed after her coffee and writing earlier that morning.

  “Here. I want to show you a book that I brought you,” Val said. It wasn’t the type of book she was used to writing, but she was proud of it nonetheless. “This is a picture book to help you remember a few very important things and people.” Val scooted her chair closer to Helen and draped the book on Helen’s lap. Val had used her personal laminator at home to laminate the cover and pages. On the front cover was Helen’s picture. “Helen’s Book of Memories,” Val read.

  Helen smiled, looking at her. “That’s me. When did you take that?”

  Val shrugged, not wanting to remind Helen that she’d posed for it the last time Val had seen her. She turned the page.

  “That’s you,” Helen said.

  Val nodded. “That’s me. Val. I’m your friend and I love to come have lunch with you. We also do book club together in the community room, right?”

  “Right. A love story,” Helen added.

  Val looked at her and nodded, pleased that Helen remembered. She turned the page and there was a picture of Griffin that she’d taken last night. Her heart lifted and did a little dance at the sight of him. “Who’s this?”

  Helen’s brow lowered, her mouth setting in concentration. “He looks nice.”

  “He is. This is Griffin. He’s…” Val hesitated, not wanting to upset Helen. “He’s your son, Helen. Do you remember him?”

  Helen looked up, surprised. There was also shame and confusion and a thousand other emotions written in the lines of her face. “Griffin. My son,” she said. “My son.”

  Val reached for her arm again. “He’s very nice and he comes here to see you a lot. Remember?”

  Helen nodded. “Yes. Griffin.” A small smile turned on her lips and Val exhaled. Good. This was good. Maybe her idea would work. She continued to turn pages, showing pictures of other staff members in the home. Louise, one of the orderlies, and members of the book club. She ended the book with another picture of Griffin.

  “My son,” Helen said on her own this time.

  Val’s eyes burned with emotion. “I’m going to leave this book with you.” She laid it on Helen’s nightstand. “You can look at it as much as you want and we’ll read it together when I come back.”

  Helen stared at her blankly.

  “I’ll be back tomorrow for our book club, okay?” She headed for the door. “Bye, Helen.” She sucked in a deep breath as she walked back toward the exit of the home, feeling elated that she’d gotten Helen to eat nearly all her lunch and to remember a few people in her life. She waved at Louise on her way out and climbed back into her car in the parking lot. Glancing at her phone, she realized she’d missed a text from her agent.

  CALL ME.

  Val didn’t have a sense of dread this time. Instead, she couldn’t wait to call Nikki and tell her that she was over halfway through writing her book. Thanks to Griffin. At this rate, Val would make her deadline, no problem. She pressed DIAL on her phone and waited for Nikki to answer.

  “Hey, doll. Tell me that blow-up doll I sent you did the trick.”

  Val laughed. “It helped. The advice you offered helped a lot, too.”

  “What advice?” Nikki asked. “Wait. Did you find yourself a man to inspire you?”

  “Maybe.” Flashes of last night’s kiss scrolled through Val’s mind. Oh, yeah. She was definitely feeling inspired. “And you’ll be happy to know that I’m back on track to meet my delivery deadline.”

  “Really? Well, this is good news. I’m not going to say I was beginning to have my doubts, but…”

  Val didn’t want to admit it, but she’d had her doubts, too. “Don’t worry. The publisher will be happy and so will you.” Val turned her little car down Seaside Drive. It was a beautiful day to take a walk on the pier, look out on the water, and just think—one of her favorite pastimes other than writing.

  “Perfect. Continue doing whatever it is that suddenly has your fingers flying across your keyboard.”

  Val smiled. “You got it.” They said their goodbyes and Val got out of the car, grabbing her wide-brimmed straw hat to block the sun from her face. She headed toward the end of the pier, where an aged bench was calling her name. Someone else was seated on the bench this time, though, she realized as she drew closer. Someone with broad shoulders and dark, buzzed hair. He was wearing mirrored aviator glasses, but she remembered well what his eyes looked like, especially when they were heated and focused on her.

  Griffin.

  She considered turning back and leaving before he could see her. Then she noticed that he was reading something. A book. And not just any book: it was a Sophie Evans romance.

  Chapter 10

  “What are you doing?”

  Griffin turned toward the female’s voice and smiled. “Reading.”

  “You’re reading a romance novel?” She stepped closer. Half of her face was hidden behind large black sunglasses and a wide-brimmed hat, but if he wasn’t mistaken, she looked horrified.

  “I realized last night that if I want to keep kissing you, which I decided that I do, I need to learn the rules.”

  “Why that book?” she asked.

  “It’s the one your book club is reading, right?�
�� He studied her. Why did she seem upset right now? “My mother is reading it with you guys, so I thought this was the best choice. Maybe I can have an actual conversation with her about something she remembers.”

  Val nodded slowly, seeming to process this.

  “Is there a reason you don’t want me to read this book?” he asked.

  “No,” she said quickly, shaking her head. “I’m just surprised. You don’t find many men reading romance novels. Especially in public.”

  Griffin leaned back into the bench, draping his arm along the back. If Val was going to sit, his arm would already be out. He wasn’t sure yet what the romance rules were for getting his arm around a woman, but this seemed like a freebie move. “Want to sit?”

  “Shouldn’t you be at work?” she asked instead of sitting.

  “I’m taking a break to think.”

  “To think?” she repeated, smiling softly.

  “Why the smile?”

  “That’s why I came here.” She sat down beside him finally, but didn’t lean back. Instead, she sighed and stared out at the water.

  “What are you thinking about?”

  “Work.”

  “I thought you had the summer off.”

  She turned and looked at him, then shook her head. “I do. No, not that work. I do a lot of work at the church for my father. And I volunteer at the nursing home, of course.”

  “Right.”

  “Speaking of which, I just came from having lunch with your mom.”

  “Yeah? How’d it go?”

  Val adjusted the hat on her head to shield her face from the beating sun. “She ate three quarters of a ham and cheese sandwich and then a piece of banana bread.” She smiled proudly. “Homemade, I might add.”

  “I could kiss you right now.” He said it on purpose, enjoying the way her cheeks darkened. “For helping my mother like that. You’re a saint.”