The plan was to start over, not fall in love...
🌸The Bad Boy Next Door🌸
by Jody Holford
Shay Matthews moved to Boston for a fresh start…new apartment, new job, new routine. After too many years being coddled by her overbearing older brothers, Shay’s ready for some freedom and maybe a nice, easygoing guy. She wasn’t expecting to literally run into the scowling, brooding, (and unfairly smoking hot) guy next door.
Fresh off a haunting undercover assignment, detective Wyatt Daniels is jaded about life, relationships, and especially happily-ever-after. But there’s something about the independent and beautiful Shay that makes him want to dig deeper. Or stay away, which is definitely the smarter option of the two.
But the more Shay tries to convince herself that her sweet building manager, Brady, is the guy for her, the more Mr. Completely Wrong-for-Her Wyatt invades her mind and her heart.
What were they doing here? It was some weird version of chicken, and at the moment, neither of them were blinking.
“I don’t need you to take care of me.” Best to remind them both of that.
“I know,” he said, his tone both serious and solemn.
His hand stretched out, and his fingers caressed her cheek. Shay let her eyes drift closed while she breathed
slowly through her nose. Taking a deep breath, she opened her eyes and stepped back. She didn’t mean it as an invitation, but that’s how he took it. He closed the door behind him and leaned against it.
“I told you I was going to be shit at this friend thing.”
Shay clasped her hands together to keep them from reaching out and stroking his body. They very much wanted to do that because they didn’t understand, the way her brain did, that it would be a worse idea than him being here.
“You’re actually very good at it. You’re funny and kind. A bit overprotective, but I think that’s got as much to do with your job as your nature,” she said.
Wyatt’s lips pursed together like he was holding back a sarcastic retort. “Thanks. I guess I meant I’m not very good at it with you.”
Her heart skittered to a stop. “Oh.”
Had he come to tell her he didn’t even want friendship? He clearly didn’t want more, since he’d all but turned away from her when she kissed him.
“I can actually see your brain turning over a bunch of wrong ideas.”
Crossing her arms in front of her, as if that gesture could protect her heart, she continued to stare at him.
He stepped closer. “I don’t want to be friends.”
Like a knife through a tire, his words slashed her heart. “Fine.”
Another step. Shay took one backward as he warned, “I’m no good for you.”
Her hands dropped to her sides. “So you’ve said.”
“Friends don’t generally think about each other nonstop.”
How did he know she did that? Or did he mean him? “I don’t think about you that often. You’ve got a big ego.”
Another step forward for him and another back for her. His lips tipped up in amusement. “I mean me. I’m not
thinking of you like a friend.”
Shay paused mid-step. “Oh? Just like an annoying neighbor?”
He smiled now. “No. Not that either.”
They were standing in the hallway center. If she moved to the right, they’d end up in her living room. The left would lead them to her bedroom.
She stood still. “Then what?”
“I’m not sure yet, but you should probably tell me to get lost.”
Shay’s lips twitched. “I don’t want to,” she admitted.
This time, when he stepped forward, she didn’t move. “I don’t want you to.”
The air between them was a heavy blanket of lust she wanted to crawl underneath.
Jody Holford is a multi-published author who has a soft spot for happily ever after. So much so, she tattooed the words on her arm. She’s a mom and a wife, a friend, sister, daughter, teacher, and book-lover. Her stories have a little bit of heat and a lot of heart. And maybe, some swoon-worthy moments that will make you smile.
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