Read Online Bad Boy Valentine by Sylvia Pierce - Free Book Online Page B

gone. Years of love, of shared secrets, of passion, of hopes and dreams, all of it vanishing in a single night. Maybe even in a single minute—the moment he’d made the decision to walk out their bedroom door that night.
    For more than a decade, Jagger had been the first thing on Kate’s mind every morning, the last every night. She’d be lying if she said that still wasn’t the case.
    There was a hole inside of her the exact same shape of him, and nothing else could ever fill it. She’d missed him so much over the years.
    She missed him still.
    “Jagger,” she said softly, unable to meet his eyes. In a trembling voice, before she could talk herself out of it, she whispered a single plea. “Take me with you. Please.”
    The room had fallen silent, and when she finally looked up, she found him watching her, assessing. She couldn’t tell whether he was trying to talk himself into something or out of it.
    Say yes. Just say yes.
    “You comin’, or what?” His jaw was clenched, his mouth set in a grim, severe line.
    But there was fire in his eyes.
    The hint of a dimple.
    And finally, there it was, the full-on Jagger Barnes smile.
    “Yes!” Kate had to stop herself from jumping up and down like a little girl. “Give me five minutes to put on some jeans and lock up.”
    “We talkin’ regular person five minutes,” he said, still smiling, “or Kate Molina five minutes? I don’t have all day, you know. My boss is kind of a—”
    “Hey!” Kate laughed, all the tension between them gone. “Regular person minutes, okay? And let’s make it three instead of five.”
    Maybe even two.
    She had a date on the back of a motorcycle with Jagger Barnes, and she wasn’t about to waste a single minute of it.
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    “ H old on real tight ,” Jagger said, pressing her hand against his rock-hard abs. Kate was wedged in behind him, straddling the bike, her arms wrapped tightly around his waist. His voice was muffled by the helmet he’d insisted she wear, but she could still hear him. “When we turn, lean into it with me. And try not to smack me in the back with the face shield.”
    “I remember all the bike passenger etiquette,” she said.
    “Yeah? What else do you remember?” Jagger asked.
    She felt the deep rumble of his laugh and knew exactly where his mind had gone, because hers had already beaten him there: their first ride together. Kate’s first time. Her real first time.
    Kate closed her eyes, losing herself in the pleasure of the sweet, sexy memory. She’d just finished out her junior year of high school, and Jagger had just graduated, the hot as hell bad boy all the girls simultaneously feared and dreamed about. He’d grown up in Red Hook, but had transferred to her school for his last year after getting kicked out of his own school for starting one too many fights, a last chance kind of deal. On the outside, he was a hardass, the guy with nothing to lose, the guy no one fucked with. But Kate? She knew the true size of his heart. His endless capacity for love. His fierce loyalty. His silly side.
    They’d been together all that school year, and that night, after a campaign months in the making, he’d finally convinced Gran to let her go for a ride on his motorcycle. He’d taken her up to Bear Mountain, to a perfect little spot in the park where they could be alone and just unwind, away from the crush of the city, from their friends, from Gran and his Uncle Max. He’d even packed a picnic, made a whole playlist. It was so damn romantic. After the picnic, they’d gotten back on the bike and rode to a secluded overlook to watch the sunset. He’d told her he loved her, that he wanted to spend his life with her.
    She’d straddled him right there. Right on the bike. It was magic. Awkward and uncomfortable, of course. But magic, full of passion and laughter, full of fire that only got stronger—not to mention a hell of a lot sexier—with each passing year together.
    In the hundreds of Harley rides she’d