“And this bad-boy boyfriend?”“Bad boy?”“Yeah. The type you apparently avoid now.”Oh, right.” I laugh. It’s one single bark of bitterness. “Ummm, he fell into a wood chipper?”“Poor guy. And the one before that?”“Eaten by a shark?”“And before that?”“Kidnapped by a travelling circus?”He chuckles. “Wow. Your life’s like a cautionary tale.”“Future suitors be warned.”“I’m willing to take my chances,” he says with a wink.”

“What now?”“You’ve never ridden a motorcycle before?”“Nope.”“What kind of bad-boy girlfriend are you?” I ask in mock dismay.“Evidently a terrible one.”I swing onto the bike and grab my only helmet. “Nah, you just haven’t met the right bad-boy.”

“You’ve never ridden a motorcycle before?”“Nope.”“What kind of bad-boy girlfriend are you?” I ask in mock dismay. “Evidently a terrible one.”I swing onto the bike and grab my only helmet. “Nah, you just haven’t met the right bad-boy.”

“Wrapped up in him, in his bad boy ways and his good guy heart, is my whole world. Somehow, while I wasn’t looking, I fell. And I fell hard. For my soul mate. For the love of my life. For my hero.”

“Well, at least it was the brother and not the one you practically molested.”I slap Shawna’s arm. “I did not practically molest him!”“No, but you wanted to.”“I most certainly—”“Don’t even lie to me, you wench! I know you too well. He had that whole bad boy thing going on. I’m surprised you didn’t wrap your legs and your lips and everything else around him right then and there.”

“He’s the embodiment of the one thing in life I need like a hole in the head—another bad-boy love interest.”

“I could always make you.”The way he says it sounds dark and dirty and infinitely pleasurable. All I can think of is what I’d like for him to make me do.There’s an unsavory term for that—a guy forcing a girl to do sexual things. But what is it they say? You can’t rape the willing. And I’d be willing. Oh, how I’d be willing.”