Bad Boy Valentine Read Online Free Page B

and finishing up their lattes, a dingy white van maneuvered into a parking spot along the curb, just outside the front door. CALLAGHAN & SONS was painted on the side, the letters cracked and peeling.
    “See?” Georgie smiled, sweeping her iPad and files into her bag and rising from the booth. “Told you he’d show up. Perfect timing, too. I’m all set.”
    “ Late timing. I’m opening for customers in twenty minutes. I don’t have time to hold any hands today.”
    “Go easy, remember? And breathe.” Georgie leaned down and kissed Kate’s cheek. “Text me later if you need anything. I’ll get the revised comps over to you tomorrow for final approval, then we should be good to go.”
    Kate got up to clear the table, she and Georgie peering briefly out the window to watch the contractor got out of the van.
    “Yum,” Georgie said. “This one looks mighty fine.”
    “Too bad I’m not hiring him for his looks.” Kate rolled her eyes and headed for the counter with the dirty dishes. “Have fun in the Rockies.”
    “You know I will, girl.”
    “Text me some pictures.”
    “Ha! Maybe if we take any G-rated ones.” Georgie laughed as she pushed open the door. “See you soon.”
    “Safe travels,” Kate called out. “Safe sexcapades.”
    “You, too,” Georgie said, wiggling her eyebrows. “Left a little something in your purse, just in case.”
    Kate rolled her eyes. “Cute. Real cute.”
    Georgie was always leaving condoms in Kate’s purse. In the register drawer. In Kate’s bathroom cabinet at home. Kate never needed them—she’d even gone off the pill years ago when it became clear that her sex life wouldn’t be resurrected anytime this century—but Georgie was an eternal optimist.
    Smiling at her friend’s antics, Kate watched Georgie step off the curb and cross the street, flagging down a yellow cab. Mr. Fix-It out there was still struggling to get his shit together.
    Late and disorganized. Great.
    Kate took a deep breath and squared her shoulders, the last shred of her patience evaporating. Cute or not, the man was obviously completely incompetent, and Kate needed to let him know who was boss, straightaway.
    He finally slammed the van door shut, turning toward the door with a large toolbox in his hand, his chestnut hair gleaming in the sun like a shampoo commercial.
    And then, without warning, the world just… stopped.
    Stopped spinning.
    Stopped moving.
    Stopped existing.
    Kate’s heart leapt up into her throat, everything inside squeezing into a tight, painful knot. All of Georgie’s advice flew out the window. Kate couldn’t even breathe.
    The man hadn’t met her gaze yet, but it didn’t matter. Even without seeing his eyes, she knew . She knew the thick, corded muscles of those arms, the hard angle of that jaw, the long slope of neck as it connected with shoulder in a spot she still had deliciously erotic dreams about biting. She knew every line, every curve, all the shapes and edges and spaces that composed him as well as she knew her favorite cookie recipe, and time had done nothing to dull those memories.
    The man was walking toward the front door of her café, shaking the wavy hair out of his eyes, reaching for the doorknob. Any second now, he’d come crashing into her life.
    And no matter what happened after that, nothing would ever be the same.
    Kate dashed behind the counter, her legs suddenly weak.
    Jagger Barnes…
    But that just wasn’t— couldn’t be —possible.
    Jagger Barnes was in prison.

Chapter Three
    J agger Barnes was so fuckin ’ late, he’d be shocked if the owner hadn’t already called his boss to bitch about it. He wished like hell he could just call it a day, go get his Harley and take it up to Bear Mountain, get the hell out of the city. But after fighting through bumper-to-bumper traffic on the Queensboro Bridge, talking his way out of a moving violation, and finding a parking spot right in front of the bakery, he wasn’t about to turn back now.
    He