by Codi Gary
Good at Being Bad
Codi Gary
Copyright
This ebook is licensed to you for your personal enjoyment only.
This ebook may not be sold, shared, or given away.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the writer’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Good at Being Bad
Copyright © 2017 by Codi Gary
Ebook ISBN: 9781943772902
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
No part of this work may be used, reproduced, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without prior permission in writing from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
NYLA Publishing
350 7th Avenue, Suite 2003, NY 10001, New York.
http://www.nyliterary.com
Also by Codi Gary
The Rock Canyon, Idaho Series
The Trouble with Sexy
Things Good Girls Don’t Do
Good Girls Don’t Date Rock Stars
Bad Girls Don’t Marry Marines
Return of the Bad Girl
Bad for Me
Good Girls Don’t Kiss and Tell
Good at Being Bad
The Loco, Texas Series
Crazy for You
Make Me Crazy
I Want Crazy
The Men in Uniform Series
I Need a Hero
One Lucky Hero
Hero of Mine
Holding Out for a Hero
Bear Mountain Rescue
Hot Winter Nights
Sexy Summer Flings
Standalones
How to be a Heartbreaker
The Something Borrowed Series
Don’t Call Me Sweetheart (August 2017)
Kiss Me, Sweetheart (February 2018)
Be Mine, Sweetheart (August 2018)
Dedicated to
Natanya Wheeler for being absolutely fabulous and taking care of all my NYLA releases! You are a sweetheart!
Chapter One
Eleanor Willis might be turning over a new leaf, but that didn’t mean she’d retired her bitchy side.
As she walked down Oak Avenue, she silently rehearsed the phone call she was going to make as soon as she got home. She’d taken her stupid failing laptop to Twin Falls for repair two weeks ago. The guy’d had plenty of time to work on it and when she picked it up yesterday, he’d had told her he’d fixed the problem.
Fixed was complete bullshit. The screen fell completely blank the moment she powered it up and now she had a few choice words for him. So much for taking a recommendation that started with “he’s a good guy.” Those words never worked out for her. Nice or good guy were code words for “appearances can be deceiving.”
Half the guys in Rock Canyon were perpetrated to be good guys and they’d all turned out to be dick holes. Every. Last. One. Didn’t leave her with a lot of faith in men in general.
Ellie turned the corner, heading down to Bits and Pieces Computer Repair. The owner, Mike Stevens, was another good guy, but at least she knew from experience that he could fix a motherboard. The guy didn’t like her and the feeling was completely mutual. He thought she was a troublemaking drama queen. A dumb kid.
At least, that’s what he’d called her the one-time she’d come on to him.
Almost two years ago, back when she was still drinking heavily and partying hard, she’d been at Buck’s, drunk out of her skull, and spotted Mike sitting at the bar alone. He’d looked damn good through the whisky haze, so she’d sidled up to him and asked him if he’d wanted to buy her a drink.
She hadn’t expected him to curtly ask if she was old enough to be there.
So she’d said the only logical retort that had come to her blitzed mind: “Can’t you tell a grown ass woman when you see one?”
“All I see is a dumb kid trying to get into trouble. Go home.”
She’d left, all right, but she hadn’t driven. She’d learned that lesson far too well, and set her sights on an easy lay. She’d gone home with Rip Colotta and took her frustrations out on him in the best way possible.
Mike’s words had stuck in her craw, though, especially after everything she’d put her sister, Caroline, and Caroline’s boyfriend, Gabe Moriarty, through. She’d hit another car when she’d driven home drunk from a party. She was under age and scared, and she’d taken off. When she confessed everything to a guy she’d grown up with, he’d blackmailed her into collecting shady secrets about her dad. She’d gone along with it at first, but as he became more violent and demanding, she’d shut him down.
Then he’d beaten her bloody and only stopped because she’d agreed she would name Gabe as her attacker.
Ellie had done it to keep her secret, but watching Caroline’s pain had been unbearable. She’d come forward, complied with court-ordered house arrest and community service, and had been trying like hell to clean up her act since. She’d almost lost her sister and put an innocent man in jail, albeit temporarily. Still, the four days Gabe had sat in the cell ate at her, especially since he had a record, must have been awful for him and nothing she did or said would ever fully make up for that. She could make amends for a thousand years and still it would not be enough.
Even though she worked nights at Buck’s Shot Bar and had alcohol literally at her fingertips, she abstained. Most of the friends she’d grown up with had drifted away from her because she wasn’t fun anymore. She’d started throwing herself into helping the town of Rock Canyon. She’d been cleanup crew at every function over the last year, and volunteered at the domestic violence shelter on Pine Ave.
But the people who held on to all the terrible things she’d done—announced for all the town to see in the local gossip column, Small Town Scandals—didn’t seem to want her helping hand.
Another thing she’d given up? Sex. It had been over a year since she’d gotten any, and she did miss it. She wanted more than sex, though. She wanted what her older sisters had; men who loved them despite the reputations they couldn’t shake. Once upon a time, the Willis sisters weren’t the type of girls mothers wanted their sons to bring home.
Now, Val was a respectable farmer’s wife and Caroline…
Well, Caroline didn’t care what anyone thought of her.
Unlike Ellie, who always seemed to be searching for approval. Which is why asking for help from someone who obviously thought very little of her was rough, but today she was just going to have to suck it up. She needed her computer fixed and he was the man to do it.
As she pulled open the door and stepped inside the repair shop, she saw him at the back of the store, hunched over his work desk. He was wearing thick-framed Buddy Holly glasses, and she silenced the rogue thought that appreciated how adorable he looked in them. When he glanced up at her as she approached, the glasses magnified his warm brown eyes. His full lips turned down at the corners. Obviously, he was as happy to see her as she was to be here.
“Can I help you?” His voice was deep and pleasant. He straightened up, and her eyes rolled over his broad shoulders and tapered waist, thinking that if he looked this good with his shirt on…
Sure, she knew he was not her type personality-wise, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t admire how well put together his outsides were. True, he wasn’t as tall as she preferred her objects of lust to usually be, but when she’d first seen him, she’d thought maybe he would be worth a roll in the sack.
Of course, that was before he’d opened his mouth.
Stop eye-banging him and remember he is a jerk. This
is a necessary evil, nothing more.
“Yeah. My computer’s on the fritz and I need you to take a look at it.”
He let out a heavy sigh that grated on her nerves.
“Look, if you don’t want my business, I can take it elsewhere,” she said.
“Would you relax? I just remembered I forgot to make copies of our diagnostic forms.” He pulled open the first drawer of the metal filing cabinet and looked at her with a smile. “I find making copies tedious and hate doing them, so I procrastinate. Thus, the sigh.”
“I hate procrastinating. I think it’s lazy.” Okay, so that wasn’t true. She was the queen of procrastination, but she wanted to nettle him.
He glared at her briefly before he went back to looking for the form. “Found them. And I have three left, so I can be lazy for one more day.”
The sarcasm oozed across his words as he slammed the drawer and held out a form. “Leave the laptop and cord over there on the work table with this sticker on it” —he scribbled her name down on a sticky note— “and fill out this form and bring it back to me. Got it?”
She took the form and sticker with a jerk. “Um, yeah. Anyone ever mentioned that your customer service sucks?”
“Your people skills aren’t exactly stellar, so I wouldn’t be casting any stones, honey.”
Ellie’s temper flared and she tried counting down in her head as Mike turned his back on her. Man, it would be so easy to grab something off one of the shelves or the side table and hurl it at his stupid back. He was a poo-faced douche monger.
Gee, are you having a brain fart today or what? That’s the best you can do? Me thinks we need more coffee.
She realized she was crinkling the paper in her fist and relaxed her hand, thinking of puppy breath, guinea pig whistles, and functioning laptops, just a few of her favorite things. Why did she antagonize him and let him get under her skin? It was juvenile and she knew better.
When her homicidal urges subsided, she walked over to the table and bent over, arching her back. She could feel him looking her way, and she smiled slyly to herself. She knew what she looked like, had no illusions. Boys and men had been admiring her since she was twelve and her curves blossomed. The first time she’d seen the movie RENT, she’d connected with Maureen as she’d sung about everybody staring at her.
Of course, she hadn’t really minded. She liked the attention, and had dressed to garner more. Crop tops, low cut halters, and painted-on jeans. As the youngest of the Willis sisters, she’d seemed to be the child who could get away with almost anything.
Or maybe it was just that her father had given up trying to control her when he hadn’t been able to control Caroline or Val.
She knew that her dad loved them in his own way, but he was never going to be one of those warm TV dads she’d dreamed about after her mom died. He was too selfish for that.
So, she’d gone looking for love in all the wrong places. Or something like it. But she had the worst taste in men. Every time she trusted someone new, he would prove to be just like every other asshole. Brag about how great she was in the sack. Ask her to agree to a threesome The list went on and on. Everyone had blamed her for the Thompson boys fighting over her and busting up their barn, but the truth was she hadn’t been dating them both. She’d broken up with Cody months before, when he’d gotten a little too possessive. And Tommy had just offered to take her for a ride on his tractor; they weren’t even doing anything yet.
But in a small town, if two Neanderthals start a fight over a woman, it’s automatically her fault. Sexist bullshit.
The front door opened and Ellie turned to find Gracie Henderson stumbling inside with a white plastic bag and a drink cup in one hand and a baby car seat in the other. Her five-week-old son, Ian, was sleeping soundly, looking like a miniature version of his father, Eric Henderson. The petite blonde was dressed in a hot pink sweater dress, black leggings, and a pair of soft-looking back boots that laced up her calves. Her four-year-old daughter, Pip, walked beside her in a nearly identical outfit and Ellie smiled. The Hendersons had adopted Pip last year, and Ellie babysat her whenever Gracie and Eric needed a date night.
Pip saw her and ran full tilt toward her. “Ellie!”
Ellie caught the brown-haired cherub in her arms and swung her up. “Ooof! You’re getting too heavy for that.”
“No, I’m not!”
Ellie hugged her tight. “You’re right.”
“Hey, Ellie, what’s shaking, baby?” Gracie panted as she passed her and set the baby carrier down. She shot Mike a disgruntled look. “Don’t help me or anything. Not like I don’t have my hands full.”
Ellie laughed, her dark thoughts chased away by Gracie. Ellie had never had a lot of girlfriends, preferring guys’ straightforwardness to women’s catty passive aggressiveness. But it was hard not to like the vivacious coffee shop owner.
Ellie leaned over to accept Gracie’s hug, Pip wrapping her arms around her mom’s neck as they pulled away. “Nothing much. Just need to get my computer fixed.”
“Well, you came to the best. Is he being nice?” Gracie looked between the two of them, but her skeptical expression focused more on Mike than Ellie.
“No,” Ellie said.
Mike said, “Yes,” at the same time.
Gracie’s full lips pursed into a pout. “I wish you two would just get along.”
Mike growled. “Give me my food, and stop meddling.”
“Why are you cranky, Uncle Mike?” Pip asked, innocently.
Ellie snickered at Mike’s surprise. “I’m not cranky, sweet pea. Your mommy is just being a pest.”
The little girl wiggled down from her mom’s arms and put her hands on her hips. “That’s not nice to say! You need to say sorry.”
“Yeah, say sorry,” Gracie teased.
Mike shook his head. “I am getting sh…I mean, guff from every woman today.” He bent over and tapped Pip’s nose. “Even the pint-sized ones.”
Pip giggled and threw herself at him, obviously forgetting she had been cross with him not thirty seconds ago. Ellie watched him lift the little girl up and tickle her until she was squealing.
He’ll make a good dad someday.
Ellie wasn’t sure why she was thinking about Mike and his future offspring. They would probably be mini self-righteous jerks, like their dad.
“Why don’t you stop acting like you’re so cool,” Gracie said, dropping the bag on his desk with a thunk. “Cause you’re not.”
Ellie hid a smile as she turned back to her paper, filling it out as she listened to the three of them with one ear.
“How’s Mr. Ian?” Mike asked.
“Sleeping and if you wake him up, I will destroy you.”
“Whatever. Didn’t you bring any fry sauce?” Mike’s voice was dark and irritable, and Ellie hated that she liked it so much. Why did he have to be so hot?
Because that’s the way it is. All the ones that seem like a catch lure you in and spit you out.
“No, they only gave me one and I used it for Pip’s food. You know, your adorable goddaughter? Would you really take fry sauce from a baby?”
“Sweet pea, you ate my fry sauce?” he said.
“Yep, and it was yummy.”
Ellie laughed softly, her back still to them. She loved Pip’s sass.
Ellie completed her paper and brought the paper back to Mike. He took it from her slowly, the tips of his fingers brushing hers. She gritted her teeth, denying the spark that warmed her hands, and rubbed them against her jeans.
“I have to pee,” Gracie announced loudly. “Watch my babies, will you?”
Ellie glanced her way briefly, but Gracie was already heading toward the back of the store.
She turned back to Mike, flustered by the shock and awareness of him. What was it about him that despite everything she knew about him, she still felt this pull? This connection.
Maybe one good bang with him would get it out of your system?
And the sad part was, he didn�
�t know what kind of affect his accidental graze had on her. He set her paper aside, reaching out with the other hand to grab a fry from his foam container and popped it into his mouth. As he chewed, she couldn’t help noticing the salt sprinkling his lips and wondered if she kissed Mike right there, would he be salty with a little hint of sweet?
Why was her mouth suddenly so dry? She watched his tongue slip out, collecting all the white crystals, and her legs turned to jelly as raw lust traveled from her breasts to her stomach.
She shouldn’t be this attracted to him or horny in general. She’d just started talking to Dale Ranney, who was good-looking, had a steady job and although he could be an ass, at least he was honest. True, they hadn’t had sex yet, which could be why her hormones were raging, but it wasn’t like she didn’t take care of her needs on a regular basis.
“You want one?” Mike asked.
“What?” She blinked and looked away from his mouth until her gaze met his.
“The way you were watching me eat, I thought you might be hungry.” He was smiling in a way that worried her, as if he knew exactly what she’d been imagining.
“Um, no thanks. I can get my own. Besides, I have no idea where your hands have been.”
“Probably in his nose,” Pip chimed in. “All the boys at preschool pick their boogers. And sometimes they wipe them—”
“Okay, sweet pea, I’m trying to eat here,” Mike broke in, looking a little green.
Ellie was never more grateful to the little girl. It was one thing to have Mike bark and grumble at her, but smile? Nearly flirt and be friendly?
That just wouldn’t do.
“Just give me a call when my computer is ready, okay?”
“Of course,” Mike said, sitting down at his desk with Pip in his lap. “Why else would I call you?”