The sexy gravel of his voice was so much lower than usual, hotter. So sexually charged she felt she’d go insane if he didn’t do something, anything to quench this burning fire. She could hardly make out what he was saying. All she knew was that the mere sound of her name had never brought her this far this fast before. It would take just one touch, just one, for her to go up in flames.
It occurred to her she couldn’t open her hands. Eyes closed, mouth still being
devoured
by his, she realized he was restraining her. Preventing her from undoing his belt buckle.
She tore her mouth from his and struggled to pull her hands free. Right now, nothing mattered more than feeling him against her. In her.
He held firm. Frantic now, she twisted, tugged, jerked her body up against his arms, bringing his knuckles right over her sensitized core. Once by accident, the second with a vengeance. She bucked against his closed fist and fastened her lips back on his, tasted the possessed groan rumbling up his throat and nearly screamed when his hand finally, finally opened and turned to cup her heat. The pace was no longer hers. He was relentless, touching her in every way her own fingers could never measure up, taking her higher, harder, until his rough, “
Come for me, Abby
,” sent her shattering into a thousand jagged pieces.
C
ONNOR WAS DROWNING
in a pool of lust. He didn’t have much practice at being the good man but for Abby, he really wanted to try.
So he kept his hands chastely at her hips, his now painfully tattooed zipper fly firmly left closed, and his mind on anything but how she’d looked coming apart just for him.
He found he was really bad at being good.
When she finally stirred from the mini-slumber she’d fallen into, she rubbed her cheek against his chest and said, “You know, I’ve never had sex in a car before.”
Not. Helping.
Her voice, which was always ultra-sexy, was now a full-blown sex kitten purr.
He managed an unintelligible, hoarse sound in his throat. Pretty damn good effort on his part, considering.
“Is that Neanderthal for you haven’t either, or you have loads of times?” She kissed her way up his neck and whispered in his ear, “Because if you haven’t, I really want to show you why my red panties aren’t as conservative as my white ones.”
“I haven’t, I haven’t,” he rasped, so hard now he was in serious danger of passing out from lack of blood in his brain.
She smiled against his skin and tucked a little square packet in his hand before rolling over to the middle of the seat. “Have I mentioned how much I love these seats?”
He was back to speaking Neanderthal again.
While he’d always loved this car, especially the interior he’d had custom restored, the sight of Abby in nothing but her red lace underwear on the creamy leather seats made his appreciation of the car reach new more reverent heights.
Wow.
“You are so beautiful.”
“So are you. I’ve always thought so.”
The way she looked at him, hell, he’d imagined nothing could get him to calm down at that point, but that look did. Because it reminded him he wanted to do this right, take it slow, cherish her.
Then she showed him the nifty ‘all access’ feature of her underwear…
Aaand
, he was back.
In two seconds flat, condom in place, he was trying out that red lacy feature.
Holy hell.
He had to shut his eyes to keep from coming on the spot.
Abby whimpered and arched and basically did everything to make that first gliding stroke completely mind-bending. Hot, wet, and so tight he had to stop for a second to get his bearings, she was all that he imagined and more.
The more being when she took control and slid him to the hilt on her own.
He’d expected nothing less.
He would’ve smiled if he weren’t so busy trying not to come.
Teeth grit, body fighting his brain something fierce, he started a steady rhythm, a
tortuous
rhythm. He dragged her hands above her, pinned them against the leather seats as her tight, slick walls began pulsing around him.
Pumping into her harder, faster he buried himself as deep as he could go. Again and again. His breathing rasped against her neck, “Let me feel it again. Drive me crazy, Abby. Come for me.”
She did.
His mouth came down on hers hard as she gripped him in a hot, liquid explosion that sent him hurtling over the edge right after her.
He must have blacked out there for a minute. Or ten. When he regained enough brain ability to shift his weight off of her, she grumbled a sleepy protest, following him as he rolled onto his back.
Smiling, he tucked her in against his chest, doing his best to ignore the fact that her sweet weight on him was making him hard again—around Abby, his constant arousal was a state of being.
She burrowed into his arms and he held her tight.
Last night, she’d fallen asleep on him during the movie. But rather than carry her back to her room right away, he just held her and dozed off for a bit with her. Now here he was again, ready to fall asleep with her in his arms, liking it far too much than was sensible.
The realization didn’t stop him from dropping a kiss onto her hair and closing his eyes.
He’d worry about letting her go later.
C
HAPTER
S
EVEN
“
S
O WHAT NORMALLY HAPPENS
at the end of the month?”
Connor sighed. These were not normal questions he usually entertained.
“I mean, it’s got to be an awkward last day,” pressed Abby. “What do you do? Shake hands and provide a severance package with references?”
Looks like it was cold-hearted bastard time again. “Most times, I just leave before they wake up.”
Abby’s jaw dropped and he could see she was officially appalled. “You don’t even leave a note? An email or text message? A grocery store flower arrangement with a ‘to whom it may concern’ card?
Anything
?”
Well, when she put it like that.
Her brows went up a notch. “Wow, you’re kind of an asshat.”
He jerked back defensively. “Why? Because I refuse to draw it out and string these women along? I’ve had enough of the post-one-month drama to know how each one of those gestures you just listed could play out. A call or text is always way too awkward because it puts it back on her to reply. And if she does, we’re right back at the start of a vicious loop. Email isn’t all that much better, and actually rather insulting if you ask me. Meanwhile,
leaving
a note is much, much worse. If I leave a note, then it’s like leaving the hope that this isn’t really goodbye for good, that I want each word I’ve written to be analyzed with the magic relationship decoder ring for the secret hidden message.” Oh yeah, he was officially worked up. “And a
gift
? If I send a gift, hell, that’s the same as saying I’ll be back someday so don’t ever forget me.” He looked her square in the eye. “Why do that to them? At least if I leave without a word, they know that’s it. Door closed. The end.”
She was expressionless in her silence.
“Say something,” he grumbled.
“You’ve obviously given this a lot of thought.”
“I have!”
“Everything you said is probably more true than not.”
He’d yet to realign his jaw. She wasn’t getting off that easily.
“I’m sorry for calling you an asshat.”
Finally.
“It’s clear that your logic, though warped and jaded, comes from someplace honest and kind.”
Aaand
, of course. “Do you have any idea how infuriating you can be?”
She beamed. “Oh c’mon, just because you win an argument doesn’t mean I can’t get in some good blows. What kind of fight would that be?”
Choosing to hear only the most important part of that, he puffed up his chest in satisfaction. “So you’re admitting I’m right?”
Her pert little nose went up in the air. “Most certainly not. I’m saying I get why you
think
you’re right.”
Laughing, he kissed the tip of her nose and was just arming up to go another round when the doorbell rang.
He pulled the door open to a less than welcome swirl of Chanel and bright blonde hair.
“Hey, babe.” Victoria took off her suit jacket and popped a kiss on his lips. “If I beg really prettily will you give me one of your magic foot rubs tonight? I had a killer day today.” She pulled off her stilettos one at a time. “In return, I’ll massage any part of your body you want.”
Connor jerked back and took a step away as he silently guided Victoria’s attention over to Abby on the couch.
“Oops! I’m sorry, I didn’t know you had company.” Victoria grabbed his shoulder to slip her stilettos back on her feet, groaning in her usual, unintentionally triple-X way.
He threw a worried glance over at Abby, knowing how bad this looked. There was no way she could possibly know that flirting was basically Victoria’s first language, and that between them, propositions involving body parts never actually meant anything.
It took him a fair amount of restraint not to forcibly shove Victoria’s hand off his shoulder while she was teetering on one ridiculously high heel. He didn’t want her tripping over and showing Abby why she didn’t have any panty lines under that skintight suit skirt.
Not missing a thing, Victoria soon caught wind of his panic and slid a curious smile over at Abby.
Uh-oh.
“I’m Victoria, by the way,” she called out, vying for the crown of world’s slowest suit jacket wearer.
He should’ve let her fall on her ass.
“I’m Abby,” came the quiet, flat reply from the living room. He shot a quick look back her way, tried to get her to meet his eyes. She wouldn’t.
Victoria tilted her head to the side. “You look so familiar. Have we met?”
Connor jumped in on that one. “I highly doubt that. This is my little brother’s friend. She goes to ASU; you two don’t exactly run in the same circles.”
Abby went stiff.
Shit, now what’d he do? He’d only been trying to help by cutting off Victoria’s interrogation. But it seemed he somehow made things worse.
One perfectly arched eyebrow directly at his eye level harassed him without saying a word, told him she wasn’t leaving without at least a little more of an explanation.
“Abby’s staying here for a bit while the place she’s renting is being renovated.” He followed that up with a pointed glare.
Now LEAVE.
But that’s when Abby chose to speak up. “Yeah, thank god for good
old
Connor here. He took pity on a starving college kid and offered to let me crash here.”
Ooh, this was so not good. There was no way Abby ever used ‘crash’ in that context before. He’d have no choice but to forgive the ‘old’ crack. She was clearly pissed.
Victoria, on the other hand, looked like she was ready to crack-up. “I see. Well, like I said, I didn’t know Connor had company so I’m sorry for barging in.”
“No, don’t go.” Abby got up to grab her bag and keys. “I should be heading out anyway.”
What? “You didn’t mention you had plans tonight.”
As slippery as a ghost, Abby shot right past them and yanked open the front door before he could stop her. “A friend invited me to go clubbing tonight so you two can have the place all to yourselves for your massage night.”
“
Abby
.” It came out a feral bark. And had zero effect on her.
She ran straight to her car. “Don’t worry, I have the spare key. Have fun you two. Don’t wait up!”
He glared at her retreating figure, willing her to stop all this and come back to him. When she didn’t, when she actually
drove off
, he grabbed his phone and dialed her number.
Straight to voicemail. Goddamn it!
“Oh my god. You’re completely gaga over a little college kid.” Victoria tsked, sounding both highly entertained and slightly awed. “How the mighty have fallen.”
Not trusting himself to say anything that wasn’t four-lettered, he kept his mouth shut and held the door open for her, foot tapping impatiently.
Victoria snickered as she walked past. “I do hope she comes back. She really is
super
cute.”
He slammed the front door on her.
1:00 AM
With each passing hour, it seemed like the time on the DVR box glowed brighter and brighter.
Mocking him.
Though she hadn’t been dressed for it, and she’d said before that it wasn’t her scene, Connor still couldn’t help but wonder if Abby did in fact end up going to some hot, sweaty club. The thought made his back teeth hurt. Probably from all the clenching.
Picturing her dancing around with other men had him on edge, territorial.
At 1:01 AM, he picked up his phone and unclenched long enough to text her.