Return Of The Bad Girl
by Codi Gary
New York Times bestselling author Tessa Bailey
“A take-no-crap heroine and a sexy, delicious small town vibe – I loved this book!”
Blurb:
Bad girls don’t forgive.
Bad girls don’t forget.
Bad girls don’t fall in love.
Caroline Willis may be known for causing trouble, but she is NOT about to become homeless. So when she learns that her perfect apartment has been double-booked—to a dangerously hot bad boy—Caroline’s bad-girl reputation comes out in full force. He may be sexy as sin, but she’s not afraid of him … or his panty-melting smile.
Rock Canyon’s got room for only one bad attitude—and Gabe Moriarty was here first. Still, starting over means playing it smart, so while sharing his new apartment is less than ideal, it’s worth getting his dream business off the ground. Not to mention that it means shacking up with a sexy wild child. Caroline may be giving him the cold shoulder, but Gabe always was good at starting fires …
Caroline vows to keep things professional with Gabe, but as close quarters begin to ignite the sizzling chemistry between them, she’s left wondering: Bad boy plus bad girl equals nothing but trouble … right?
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Deleted Scene:
A Bonus Scene from Codi Gary’s Return of the Bad Girl
Warning: Contains spoilers!
Caroline stopped to take off her spiky heels halfway up the stairs to her apartment. She’d
been in in Boise the last few days, meeting with potential clients and schmoozing until all hours.
In the end, she’d signed one night club and two bars up for her consulting services, but after
wearing nothing but heels for days, she was ready for her slippers. She’d left the hotel at seven
am and had grabbed several bottled coffees when she’d stopped to fill up her tank, which were
hitting her now. She had to pee like a racehorse, her feet and back were killing her, and hitting a
rainstorm on the drive home hadn’t helped. The high winds had made her tense and left her stiff
after driving for two hours. All she wanted to do now was walk into her nice, clean apartment,
grab a cup of tea and her favorite bubble bath mix, and relax in her tub.
Then she wrinkled her nose as she realized Gabe had most likely used the shower today.
She’d better scrub it first. Lord knew she loved the man but she did not want to soak in a tub of
his dead skin cells and shaving cream.
They had been living together for three months as an officially committed couple, and
Caroline had been surprised at how well she’d settled in to being someone’s girlfriend. They
cooked dinner together (okay, so he mostly cooked; she tried not to burn shit), they cleaned, and
they watched TV together—even his crappy action movies.
But the best part had been the surprise of Gabe and her father actually getting along.
They’d been over to her dad’s house several times for family dinner, and something had just
clicked between Edward Willis and Gabe. Gabe had even hung out with her dad alone, one-onone.
It was weird and wonderful, all at the same time.
Everything was great, except for one thing: they still hadn’t talked about what to do with
Caroline’s old room. She didn’t want to rent it to someone else and there was no way she wanted
to move back into it, but it was being wasted as a home for her clothes and the cats’ litter boxes.
But Gabe hadn’t brought it up since they got together, and after their rocky start, she was
afraid she might spook him. Despite how solid they seemed, they had only been together for
three months. What if he hadn’t brought up the room because he liked having the safety net?
Or he thinks you’re hanging onto it because you’re going to bail any minute?
But Caroline had done everything in her power to prove to him she was all in. He
couldn’t still doubt her. He probably just wasn’t really thinking about it, too much other stuff on
his mind.
At least, she hoped so.
All that aside, life was good. In fact, maybe she’d skip the bubble bath and sneak into the
house, put on the new bustier she’d bought, and climb into bed with Gabe. He wasn’t expecting
her home until tomorrow, so when she woke him up with her mouth around his cock, he was
going to be happy.
Very, very happy.
Walking through the door, her smile dissolved and she dropped her heels.
What. The. Fuck!?
There were beer bottles all over the coffee table along with what looked to be a plate of
melted cheese and a bowl of what must have once been guacamole—except that it now looked
like greenish shit. Two bags of chips lay on the table while one rested on the floor, a familiar
gray tail and fuzzy butt sticking out of it.
Caroline walked over to the bag and pulled Googlie out. His face and whiskers were
covered in salt which twitched as he purred.
“Has Daddy been starving you? Is that why you’re foraging like a street cat?”
He head-butted her in response, and she set him down, her hands shaking with rage.
Seriously? Couldn’t he have at least picked up after himself?
Her blood boiled hotter when she saw poker chips scattered over the kitchen table along
with crushed potato chips and drops of salsa. Playing cards were spread out in front of the four
chairs, and a package of Oreos lay open, one row gone and the rest going stale.
She headed into the kitchen, praying it was untouched—at least it should’ve been since
all of the dishes seemed to be scattered throughout the house.
Nope.
How in the hell had they taken the entire fridge door off?
Alongside the broken fridge, pizza boxes lay strewn across the counter and—was that the
Dutch oven her father had bought them? It was just sitting on the counter, caked with who knew
what. Other pots sat piled in the sink and on the counter were two or three empty ice trays that
had been left, instead of being refilled and put back in the freezer. Two garbage bags were
propped in the corner, rather than having been taken out to the dumpster—which was just down
the stairs and to the right.
Possum, their other cat, was licking something out of a bowl on the counter and looked
up at her with curious blue eyes. He was sporting a Santa beard of…whipped cream? Sour
cream? Curdled milk?
It didn’t matter, it was disgusting, and cats did not belong on the counter.
“You get your fuzzy ass off my counter right now, mister.”
Possum seemed to consider the order before he went back to lapping at the bowl.
Caroline put him on the ground, then sniffed the bowl.
It smelled like ranch dressing.
“Morning, Trouble.”
Caroline jumped a mile, sending the ranch dressing flying. It hit the wall with a splat.
Eric Henderson stood at the edge of her kitchen, looking out of it. Under normal
circumstances, she would have been glad to see him, since they’d practically grown up together
and she loved the big bartender like a brother.
Only she had a little bit of ranch dressing dripping off her ear.
And he was totally fucking naked.
If she’d been in a better mood, she would have been giving him a rash of shit for being
hung over and maybe even a nick name like, “The Rock Canyon Flasher.”
But she was in a pretty fucking bad mood and couldn’t even manage a hello. “Eric.”
“Sorry about the nudity, but I didn’t think you’d be home yet and I just wanted some
water.” He grabbed a bottle from the second shelf of the open fridge, like they weren’t standing
in the middle of her destroyed kitchen and he wasn’t letting his boys fly free. “Gabe said you
were coming back until tonight.”
“Surprise.” Caroline grabbed one of the empty pizza boxes and handed it to him. “Do
you mind covering up? Seeing your…junk…is a little unsettling this early in the morning.”
“Sorry.” He held the box in front of him. “I guess I should grab my clothes and take off.”
“Yeah, that would probably be best.”
“Good to see you.”
He turned around, and she got an eye full of his ass as he left the kitchen. Obviously he
was too hung over to realize that if he didn’t move the pizza box from front to back, it wasn’t
effective.
She got to the hallway just as he was closing the door to what used to be her room, which
meant that Eric’s naked body had been all up in her bed. He’d probably drooled and farted and…
Damn it, she was going to have to burn those sheets.
Stomping down the hallway to the room she shared with Gabe, she went inside and
slammed the door behind her with a thud.
Her beautiful man, who had been sleeping on his stomach with the sheets riding low on
his back exposing his tattoos and gorgeous muscles, jerked awake and started to roll over. He
stopped when he saw her and gave her that warm, panty dropping smile. Her traitorous body
responded, despite the homicidal womanly wrath inside screaming that he was the enemy.
“Hey, baby. You’re early.” Gabe rose to his knees, exposing her favorite parts of him, but
she would not be distracted by his raging hard-on, no matter how much she loved it.
“You know, that is the second time a naked man has said that this morning.”
“What?”
“Can you explain to me exactly what happened to our apartment?”
An oh, shit look flashed across his face. “It was supposed to be cleaned and fixed before
you got home.”
“But it’s not just a mess, Gabe. It looks like you had the fucking Avengers and Justice
League over at the same time, and they couldn’t control their powers! And have you even fed the
cats, because they’re acting like they’re starving!”
“Of course I fed the fucking cats!”
“And who was the Hulk who broke the fridge door?”
Gabe grabbed his boxers off the floor and pulled them on before he answered. “That was
an accident. Justin pulled open the door and slipped—”
“Justin? Val’s Justin?”
“Yeah, Justin, Chase, Jared, Eric—”
“Oh, I know Eric was there because he’s still here. Naked. Sleeping in my bed.”
“He was too hammered to drive, so I told him he could crash in your room. Jared drove
Justin home and Chase had to have Katie come get him. That’s probably why the cats are
hungry; Eric probably shut the door on them.”
“You do realize that their litter box is in my room, too, right?”
“Ah, hell.” Gabe ran his hands over his head and grimaced. “I’m really sorry, babe. We
were just celebrating and having a guy’s night.”
“Yeah, it looks like you guys had a great time. I’m surprised there isn’t a tiger in the
closet.” She tried to calm down, taking deep breaths. “So, Justin slipped and took the door down
with him?”
“Yeah. You know that door was barely hanging on anyway, so I figured I’d go buy a new
one and surprise you.”
“Oh, I’m surprised. I’m surprised that you’re thirty four and can still party like a sixteenyear
old whose parents are out of town!”
Gabe’s face darkened into a scowl. “You’re blowing this out of proportion. I only had
two beers but I was just exhausted, Caroline. I’ve been working ten and twelve-hour days trying
to get these orders out and I just needed to blow off a little steam. Why are you getting pissy over
something I can have cleaned up and fixed in a few hours?”
“Because I’m tired too, Gabe! I’m tired and I’m sore and I wanted to come home and
relax. But how can I relax when the place looks like a frat party gone wrong?”
“Like I said, I’ll clean it up in no time and we can take a trip to Home Depot—”
“No, you know what? Pick out the damn fridge yourself!”
Caroline spun away and yanked open the bedroom door, bumping into Eric as she came
around the corner. He was fully clothed and hunched over with a garbage bag, gathering trash off
the floor.
“Hey, look, I wasn’t eavesdropping but—”
“Just stay out of it, Eric!” She pushed past him toward the front door, but Gabe’s
sarcastic tone stopped her cold.
“That’s right princess, storm out in a tantrum.”
Caroline picked up the plastic bowl of browned guacamole and threw it at his head. She
missed, but Gabe jerked as the projectile gobs of splash back hit his back.
“Do not call me princess.”
TXB1
Gabe could feel the guacamole smearing across his back. He tried to get the shit off, but
it was impossible without help. He left Eric alone in the living room to take a shower but not
even the cool water could calm his temper. Not when his muscles were aching from the grueling
work he’d been doing all week. Even with the additional guys he’d hired to help him with the
custom motorcycles, they still had more orders to fill this month than Gabe had had in the past
two. He’d just needed to relax, which was why he’d invited the guys over for some friendly
poker.
It turned out they had all needed a break from life. Justin, who was celebrating the news
that he was going to be a father, had gotten a little drunk. Everything had been cool though, even
after the fridge incident, and they’d started trickling out around one in the morning, but having
whiskey after the beers had been a mistake for Eric. Gabe hadn’t minded letting him stay over,
figuring he’d help him clean up the mess in the morning.
If he’d had a choice, Gabe would have much rather come home last night to Caroline
waiting for him, naked in their bed. But he knew she needed to travel for work and was
understanding whenever she had to scope out whatever bar or dance club she was consulting for.
He never blink when she called him with loud music in the background or talked about how the
three drinks she’d tried had been terrible, much too strong. But it wasn’t like he had the guys
over every weekend and was constantly thrashing the house.
Damn it, why was he trying to convince himself that he wasn’t an asshole?
He climbed out of the shower and wrapped a towel around his middle. If she had called
and given him a heads up that she was coming home, he would have dragged his ass out of bed
and gotten shit done, but she’d said it would be until at least tonight, if not Monday morning.
Maybe she missed you and wanted to surprise you?
Gabe went back to their room and got dressed. As he pulled on his shirt, he dwelled on
everything she’d said, how she’d freaked out about Eric in her bed. She hadn’t even slept in that
room for months, so what did it matter?
Maybe she’s worried this thing between you two could still go south?
Fuck, he hated that his mind went there, but he had to admit: it still bothered him that
they hadn’t talked about turning the other bedroom into an office or a craft room or hell, even
just a cat room filled with those stupid wood and carpet trees and play domes for Possum and
Googlie. They could shift the furniture around in their room so she could fit her dresser and then
she wouldn’t have to go down the hallway to get dressed every morning. He loved to watch her
just out of the shower, drying off all those beautiful curves and slipping on her clothes like she
was doing a reverse strip tease just for him.
Of course, it would be easier to enjoy if he didn’t have to walk down to her room to see
it.
Back in the living room, he began silently helping Eric clean up the bottles and dishes.
“Dude, can I say something?”
Eric’s question was surprising, considering they’d been friends since Gabe had moved to
Rock Canyon, and the guy had never before had a problem saying exactly what was on his mind.
“If I said no, would that stop you?”
“Why don’t I finish up here and you go talk to her?”
Gabe looked at Eric like he’d lost his damn mind. “Because she needs at least two hours
to calm down before she’s reasonable again, and I’m not entirely chill myself.”
“I think something else might be going on with her, and today was just a manifestation of
her frustration. Maybe if you just—”
“Have you been reading fucking Cosmo or some shit?”
Eric scowled at him. “I was just trying to drop some knowledge on your dumb ass.”
Gabe burst into laughter. “Drop some knowledge on me?”
Eric ignored him and gathered up the two bags of trash from the kitchen before pausing at
the door.
“All I’m saying is, if the woman I loved was blowing up about something simple, I’d get
to the bottom of it.”
Gabe wanted to argue, but the part of him that figured maybe Eric was right kept his
mouth shut.
“And while you ponder that brilliant deduction, I’m going to take out the trash.”
The door closed behind Eric, and Gabe gathered up pizza boxes, deep in thought. Was
Caroline unhappy? Did she want out of the relationship and this was her way of picking a fight
with him? Was that the real reason she’d come home early?
Suddenly Gabe couldn’t breathe, his heart squeezed so tight it was painful. Not after
everything they’d been through. They were happy, he knew that, was sure of it.
He just had to remind her.
TXB1
Caroline sat in her sister’s bath tub, wiping at her tears silently. It had been five hours
since she’d flown off the handle, and at first, she’d headed over to talk to Val. But Val had
thought she’d overreacted too.
“I’ve left dishes in the sink sometimes or a mess for a few days when I’m tired, but I get
to it eventually, and Justin does the same thing. Sometimes circumstances crop up, but it’s no
excuse to act like a freakazoid. What is going on with you?”
Caroline had thrown her hands up when Val hadn’t agreed with her, but during the drive
to see Ellie, she’d started to doubt her justification. There were times she left things until the last
minute, right before Gabe got home, because she was tired or lazy or whatever. Maybe she had
acted like a jack ass.
“Ya think?” Ellie had said when she’d told her the whole story. “Caroline, I love you, but
if you scare that man away because you didn’t take your happy pills this morning, you are out of
your damn mind.”
Caroline had grumbled her way to the bathroom where she’d used half her sister’s Sweet
Pea bubble bath and slid in to think.
Sure, she had been tired and irritated, but Gabe had left messes before and though she
usually said something, it had never been like this morning. Maybe her sisters were right, and
she was bottling up some kind of resentment because she felt like there was an imbalance of
power. Right now, she was living in Gabe’s room with Gabe, but it wasn’t really their room.
Leaning her head back, she resolved to get out of the tub and go home. She was going to
bring up the room and hope they were on the same page. Maybe apologize first for acting like a
crazy bitch and give him a little sugar.
There was a knock on the bathroom door.
“I’ll be out in a minute, Ellie.” The doorknob turned, and she didn’t even bother opening
her eyes. “If you have to pee, hurry up.”
“I’m good, thanks.”
Caroline flew up to a sitting position, splashing water and suds everywhere. Gabe was
just closing the door behind him, pressing the lock on the knob. “Why don’t you lock the door?”
“Because it’s my sister’s bathroom, and I wasn’t really expecting her or anyone to come
barging in!”
“I knocked.”
“But what are you doing here? I thought you’d be at home griping about me to Eric.”
He sat on the edge of the tub and put his elbows on his knees, his t-shirt stretching across
those shoulders and arms she loved so much. “To tell the truth, I couldn’t figure out why you
were so pissed at me. Then Eric pointed out that it might be about something else. I just wanted
you to know, if you’re looking for a way out of this—”
“What? No!” She scrambled up to her knees and sudsy hand or not, she touched the back
of his neck, turning him around to look into her eyes. “I love you, Gabe. I don’t want out and I’m
sorry I made you feel like that.”
Suddenly Gabe pulled her up and across his lap, his lips slamming down on hers. With a
raw moan, Caroline wrapped her arms around Gabe’s neck, cuddling into his warmth and
meeting his passionate kiss with everything she had. When he finally pulled away, she protested,
her lips still tingling from several of his love nips.
“Hang on. Before I forget where we are and take you on the bathroom floor, why did you
freak out? If it wasn’t because you were picking a fight, then what?”
Caroline wasn’t good at relationships, but he knew that. Taking in a strengthening breath,
she said, “I want to move into the bigger bedroom with you for good. I want to sell all my
furniture and maybe get another dresser that matches your set, or buy a new set that’s ours. I just
don’t want to feel like I’m a guest in our room.”
Gabe looked surprised and then he burst out laughing. Furious he would laugh at her,
Caroline tried to get up off his lap, but he held her firm.
“Stop it. I’m not laughing at you. I’m laughing that I’ve been pissed off about the same
thing but neither of us wanted to talk about it.”
Caroline stilled. “You have?”
“Yeah. Do you think I like that we aren’t sharing a room? Even though we’re technically
living together? I hate having to walk twelve feet to get you, just so I can drag you back down
the hall to our room to make love to you.”
Grinning, Caroline cupped his face with her hand. “I guess we still have a lot to learn
about communication.”
“We’ll learn.” She leaned into his hand as he pushed some of her wet strands of hair off
her cheek.
“So, what do you propose we do?”
“Well, first,” he said, adjusting her on his lap until she straddled him. “I think I need to
get all of these suds off you so you can get dressed.” As his hands spread across her naked
breasts, pushing the bubbles away, she threw back her head and arched into the quivering
pleasure that rocked her body.
“I meant about the room, Gabriel.”
“Oh, yeah.” His mouth dipped down and he took her right nipple into his mouth, sucking
and tugging on it until a deep throb started between her legs. He pulled away and blew across the
hard peak before answering. “I was thinking, let’s sell the furniture and make a cat room.”
“A cat room?”
“Well, more like an office for you, but I was thinking about getting one of those giant cat
trees when we go into town to get the fridge. Give Googlie and Possum a place to hide out and
play. Plus, it might just save my chair from them.” Gabe’s fingers slid into her hair and held the
back of her head, his obsidian eyes boring into hers. “What do you think?”
Caroline pulled against his grasp and kissed him. “I think you are a major softy and I love
you for it.”
“I love you too. And I’m sorry, too, for being an ass—”
Caroline wrapped her legs around his waist and ran her nails over the back of his neck. “I
forgive you.”
Squeezing his waist between her legs, she laughed when he groaned and kissed her again,
his tongue sweeping inside to mingle with hers. As he stood up with her in his arms, she held on
tight, the soft cotton of his shirt was driving her wild. Gabe pressed her back against the door of
the bathroom making her jerk as the cool wood hit her back, but the bathroom heat combined
with Gabe’s body soon chased away the chill. He pulled away when her hands slid between their
bodies to find the belt of his jeans.
“If you do that, I’m not going to stop.”
Caroline slipped the leather from the buckle and met his gaze head on, a siren’s smile on
her lips.
“If you stop now, I’ll kick your ass.”
Gabe’s laughter echoed in the small bathroom and when she ripped open his zipper, he
helped her push his jeans and boxer briefs off his hips.
Just as his cock found her entrance and pressed forward, there was a knock on the door.
“Hey, Caroline, sorry to interrupt your…well, whatever, but do you see my purse in
there?”
Caroline bit her lip, smothering a moan as Gabe filled her up. She looked past his
shoulder and saw Ellie’s black purse on the counter.
“Yes.”
“Can you hand it to me?” The door creaked a little as Gabe thrust into her with shallow,
even motions.
“Um, can you give us a few…minutes?”
Ellie mumbled something, but Caroline heard the outer bedroom close behind her with a
thud.
Caroline closed her eyes as a rush of light-headed pleasure spread up into her lower belly
and her orgasm built.
“Maybe we should—oh, God—”
“What, baby?”
But she couldn’t say anything as she came, waves of relief ringing cries from her. Gabe’s
rhythm grew uneven and she sighed when she finally felt him jerk, his release filling her up. His
groan was a raw, erotic rumble that vibrated against the skin of her neck where his mouth was
buried.
When he finally let her slide to the ground, she laughed. “You know, this is the second
time we’ve had make up sex in one of my sisters’ rooms.”
Gabe’s hand slid down to give her ass a pinch as he grinned. “What can I say? I’m a
sentimental guy.”
About The Author:
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