Текст книги "Resisting the Bad Boy"
Автор книги: Violet Duke
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Table of Contents
Title Page
COPYRIGHT © 2013 VIOLET DUKE
OTHER BOOKS BY VIOLET DUKE
A NOTE ON “SERIAL” ROMANCES
BOOK DESCRIPTION
DEDICATION
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
Also by Violet Duke
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
R E S I S T I N G
THE BAD BOY
BOOK ONE
of the
Sullivan Brothers
“Nice Girl” Serial Trilogy
(THE CAN’T RESIST SERIES)
VIOLET DUKE
COPYRIGHT © 2013 VIOLET DUKE
All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, this book and any portion thereof may not be reproduced, scanned, transferred, or distributed in any print or electronic form without the express written permission of the author. Participation in any aspect of piracy of copyrighted materials, inclusive of the obtainment of this book through non-retail or other unauthorized means, is in actionable violation of the author’s rights.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, media, brands, places, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or events is purely coincidental.
The author acknowledges the trademarked status and registered trademark owners of all branded names referenced without TM, SM, or (R) symbols due to formatting constraints, and is not claiming ownership of or collaboration with said trademark brands.
Copyedits and Proofreading by Victory Editing, Danielle Romero, and Margaret Rainforth
Ebook ISBN-10: 098916330X
Ebook ISBN-13: 978-0-9891633-0-9
Praise for NYT & USA Today Bestselling Author
VIOLET DUKE
"Violet Duke made me laugh and cry in this incredible romance. One of the best I've read this year. Emotionally charged with wonderful characters, I just couldn't stop reading until the very last page!"
–New York Times Bestselling Author J.S. Scott
“A fast-paced, heartfelt, and fun read!"
– New York Times Bestselling Author Lauren Blakely
"Heart-melting and guaranteed to make you laugh and cry before you finish the last page."
– New York Times Bestselling Author Sawyer Bennett
"A unique trilogy and spin-off that will take you on a roller coaster of emotions. I couldn't put these books down!"
–New York Times Bestselling Author Carly Phillips
OTHER BOOKS BY VIOLET DUKE
The CAN’T RESIST Series
RESISTING THE BAD BOY *
FALLING FOR THE GOOD GUY *
CHOOSING THE RIGHT MAN *
FINDING THE RIGHT GIRL
*Serial trilogy, also available in the NICE GIRL box set
The CACTUS CREEK Series
LOVE, CHOCOLATE, AND BEER
LOVE, DIAMONDS, AND SPADES
LOVE, TUSSLES, AND TAKEDOWNS
LOVE, EXES, AND OHS
The UNFINISHED LOVE Series
Book 1 & 2: Caine & Addison (Summer 2015)
Book 3 & 4: Gabe & Hannah (Fall 2015)
Book 5 & 6: Drew & Skylar (Winter 2015)
Book 7 & 8: Max & Kennedy (Spring 2016)
– Coming in 2016 from Penguin Random House –
The FOURTH DOWN Series
JACKSON’S TRUST (March 2016)
BENNETT’S CHANCE (July 2016)
DONOVAN’S HEART (September 2016)
A NOTE ON “SERIAL” ROMANCES
To reiterate again, just in case you missed it from the online product description, this is NOT a standalone novel. This is the first book in a THREE-BOOK SERIAL ROMANCE.
A serial is different from a series. While books in a series can each standalone, books in a SERIAL do not. They are like episodes in a TV season that build on the episode prior. As a SERIAL trilogy, Abby’s story will continue in Book Two: Falling for the Good Guy and then come to a complete end in the finale, Book Three: Choosing the Right Man.
In contrast, Books 4, 5, and 6 in this series are not serial books–they are standalone novels that follow different couples in this series.
Note that all three books are also available together in a boxed set (Nice Girl Trilogy Boxed Set) for readers who are not a fan of separate serial books with cliffhangers and would rather have all three books bundled as one piece. Thanks for reading!
BOOK DESCRIPTION
“A fast-paced, heartfelt, and fun read!"
– New York Times Bestselling Author Lauren Blakely
The book that started it all. Book One of the Sullivan Brothers “Nice Girl” trilogy, the acclaimed three-book serial that began the New York Times, USA Today, and international bestselling CAN'T RESIST series.
Abby Bartlett is the quintessential nice girl. Between teaching, volunteering, completing her PhD, and helping her best friend raise his daughter, Abby never gets the chance to be anything but nice. That is, until the all-wrong-for-her man she's only ever known from afar starts daring her to simply take that chance for herself. His sage advice? Try something wild and fast.
Preferably him.
An unbridled, hotshot attorney with a not-so-little black book, Connor Sullivan has earned himself quite the bad boy reputation. But in his defense, he's a very conscientious one. He knows far too well that sometimes in life, love isn't enough...or worse, not even a factor at all. To avoid that misery—and repel the drama—Connor always makes his one and only rule crystal clear right from the start. Absolutely nothing more than a month.
Turns out, a whole lot can happen in one month.
DEDICATION
To my wonderful husband and two amazing kids.
CHAPTER ONE
GLANCING ACROSS THE ROOM at his guests, Connor Sullivan was pleasantly shocked to see his brother Brian arrive at the party with a date on his arm.
As most everyone in his house tonight could attest, Connor wasn’t used to failing. He was one of the most sought-after corporate attorneys in the Western U.S. with a courtroom reputation even his friends referred to as notorious—due in part to the impressive number of times and ways he’s been held in contempt for his clients.
So sue him, he enjoyed the rough and tumble victories. He fought hard for his wins, and he did it well.
But when it came to helping his little brother cope with being a widower at the age of thirty, Connor had no clue who to fight, or how to win.
Aside from paying off a decade’s worth of hospital and care facility bills from his sister-in-law’s battle with early-onset Huntington’s, and creating a scholarship in Beth’s name for youth plagued with the debilitating disease, Connor had felt useless to Brian after her death. All he’d been able to do was give him space, the only thing Brian insisted he needed.
For nearly a year.
Logically understanding that Brian had to tackle this on his own didn’t make it any less of a bitch for Connor; it just made him craftier about how he snuck in the big brother thing.
Luckily, it was summer in Arizona, he had a pool, and Brian had a pre-teen daughter. Simple as that. After a month of regular family cookouts, it was no longer uncommon for Brian to show up at the house unannounced, grab an unoffered beer, and plant himself on the couch to catch a game uninvited.
It was nice having his brother back.
For the better part of a decade, Brian’s singular mission had been to give his wife a lifetime’s worth of happiness every day, while hiding his own anguish over her heartwrenching physical and psychological decline. Connor knew it used to kill Brian to watch Beth gradually give up raising her own child the worse her motor functions became. Even before she’d become bedridden.
That’s when Connor had begun jumping in to watch his niece Skylar as much he could, mainly since the eldest Sullivan matriarch had about as much experience being a warm grandma as she’d had being ‘mom’ instead of ‘mother’ when he and Brian were kids.
In fact, she’d specifically asked to be third in the caretaker line-up—meaning in dire asteroids-falling-from-the-sky cases only—following Brian’s friend from college, a nice girl Connor vaguely recalled meeting years ago.
Between the two of them, they were never in the same place at the same time, but somehow managed to take the place of one full-time secondary caretaker whose sole mission was to shield Skylar from what was happening to her mom.
There had been no shielding Brian, however.
Truth be told, while Connor had always admired Brian’s extraordinary, wholly nonhereditary capacity for love, he’d been a little glad to see the tragic love story finally come to an end.
Awful as that sounds.
He’d adored his sister-in-law, really. But the time was long past for Brian to move on with his life.
Tonight, it looked like he was finally starting to.
“I’m going over to say hi to my brother. Do you want to come along or are you good here?” Connor asked his date for the night, the always stunning Victoria, a divorce lawyer from a rival firm who just happened to be between men this week.
“Brian’s here tonight? How wonderful,” replied Victoria with her token radiant smile, the most effective tool in her arsenal to detract attention from her constantly wandering eyes. “Give him my best will you? I’m going to mingle. The Adonis in the gray pinstripe is looking mighty lonely there in the corner.”
Connor rolled his eyes. “Alright, have fun. Just be sure to stay away from the men at my firm…the women too, for that matter. Last year alone, you sent our sweet, bright-eyed bankruptcy fifth-year into a funk and later had two of the probate guys ready to kill each other.”
He frowned in remembrance of that catastrophe. “Actually, you know what? Check where they work before you even start speaking to them at all.”
“No promises,” she sang out as she sashayed off.
He sighed. Despite the very real threat her refusal to behave was sure to present, Connor still found himself smiling after her. Victoria was the only constant female in his life for four years running now. How that managed to happen was one of life’s great mysteries. He supposed she fell in the friends with benefits category, though calling her a friend was a bit of a stretch…and he’d politely stopped all transactional ‘benefits’ after the first month.
Okay, so she was more of a trophy-date-on-demand with a well-advertised rolling re-enrollment policy on lapsed benefits.
That aside, they actually had a very nice thing going. She’d accompany him to black tie functions to save him from vapid socialites on the prowl, and he’d reciprocate if ever she needed.
Fortunately, her revolving dating door spun faster than his did so he rarely had to carry out his end. Not that she wasn’t a nice enough woman. But her glib old money view on the world was a bit much to take at times.
Hearing the unmistakable peal of Victoria’s flirt-giggle carry across the room, Connor found himself mildly curious about who she was trying to close, so soon in the game. Peering over, he snorted out a laugh when he saw it was none other than Clay Gibbs, the man who put the ass in pompous.
The only reason Connor let his assistant invite the privileged nitwit tonight was because Clay was a third generation firm client on a very short leash. With him here, the bail money they kept in the safe for him actually had a fighting chance to remain there.
“Oh, what a surprise, Victoria didn’t stay to say hi.”
The long lost sound of Brian busting his chops had Connor beaming ear to ear—it’d been a while since he’d heard him do it. “Yeah, well, you know Victoria.”
“Nope, I sure as hell don’t. And I prefer to keep it that way.”
Connor chuckled. “I’ll be sure to tell her there’s a man in Arizona inexplicably immune to her charms. Glad you could make it out tonight, man. And with a lovely date, no less.”
Looking over at the pretty brunette standing beside Brian, Connor had to work hard to keep his reaction in check. Seeing her vintage pin-up girl figure from across the room earlier, he hadn’t expected the face accompanying the voluptuous body to be so…sweet.
Wholesome even.
“I’m Connor,” he said smiling, thrown a bit by the quick glimmer of humor he saw flash in her eyes.
“Hi, Connor. It’s nice to see you again.”
Again? Crap, did he know her?
He carefully scanned her fresh-faced features once more. Wide, guileless eyes—a charming novelty he was positive he hadn’t encountered in years—untinted lips, a light tan that actually appeared to be from the sun, and deep, dark reddish brown locks done up in a ponytail more comfortable than fashionable.
There was no way in hell he knew her.
She was the very definition of a buxom beach babe brunette, if such a category existed, with an appealing blend of innocence and intelligence behind a pair of unaccountably sexy, cliché-free glasses. Definitely not his usual type.
Pity.
“I’m so sorry, have we met before?”
Brian glared at him, looking more than a little disappointed. “Dude, it’s Abby. Abby Bartlett?”
This was Brian’s friend from college? Wow, she sure grew up. In a nice girl with a hot halo sort of way.
“Abby, of course. My apologies. We met in the hospital right after Skylar’s birth.”
Those deep brown eyes of hers were outright laughing at him now. “And maybe a couple more times since then.”
Well that just ratcheted his chagrin up to full-blown guilt.
Her quick hey-don’t-sweat-it smile didn’t help one bit…the playful brow tilt that followed soon after, however, did. “Relax, Connor. How about this—the next time you introduce yourself to me again, I’ll be sure to pretend I know what the inside of your house looks like for ‘other’ reasons. Be all indignant. Make you squirm a bit. That ought to square us.”
Surprised laughter built in his chest. How about that? Talk about intriguing. Before he could banter right back, however, a nearby voice broke into their conversation, “Professor Bartlett, is that you?”
Professor?
Spicy upgrade from cute librarian. Connor was hooked.
The line and sinker came when he then proceeded to witness Abby scold—actually scold—his firm’s best civil litigator.
“How many times do I have to tell you to cut that out? My PhD is not a done deal, Jim.”
“Oh hush, young lady.” James T. Holt came over to give Abby a formal peck on the cheek. “As far as I’m concerned, ‘ABD’ stands for all but done. You may as well get used to being called a professor.” Jim turned to bring Connor up to speed. “I’ve known Abby here for years. She’s a miracle worker. Thanks to her, my son was actually able to move on to high school this year.”
“Reese was not that bad,” defended Abby, hands on hips.
“Says the woman who only had him in small doses,” replied Jim dryly. “I’m just glad you started tutoring at his school when you did. I was really starting to get worried.”
“That you’d have to dust off the ole grammar knowledge you ‘misplaced’ to attempt to help him with his homework?” ribbed Abby.
Connor blinked. Seriously, who was this woman?
Jim chortled heartily. “You caught me. Thank God for well-written paralegals and first-years.”
“Hence my stand on standardizing a more rigorous business and technical writing curriculum in core education.”
Abby threw an I-told-you-so grin over at Brian. “Brian, this is James Holt, one of the greatest legal minds in the city…well, next to your father and brother of course. James, this is Brian Sullivan of those Sullivans,” she editorialized behind an impishly cupped hand. “He’s the rebel son who chose the career path of teaching business economics over lawyering.”
Brian and Jim shook hands and immediately launched into conversation over current commerce affairs.
Never had Connor felt so invisible.
“You can get back to your party now,” said Abby in a conspiratorial tone. “No worries, I’ll keep an eye on Brian for you tonight.”
The innocuous words hit him like a bucket of ice on his lap, shriveling his growing interest in the woman right up. Reality check, jackass—she was Brian’s date.
Brian’s smart, captivating, completely off-limits date.
He took a blatant step away from the all too fascinating Abby and fumbled for a recovery, “I, uh…thanks. For taking care of it for me. Him, not it...Brian, that is.”
Rendered idiotic by the amused, utterly female smile curving her plump lips, he finished lamely, “You’re good for him.”
“Thanks, Connor.” She grinned. “I’ve always thought the same of you.”
Lord, he could listen to the way she said his name all day, her husky teacher voice an inspiration for instant fantasies of the lusty sex-in-the-classroom variety.
Yep, he had to get the hell away from her. Fast.
“You’re right, I should return to my guests. It’s been a pleasure, Abby. Enjoy your evening.” With that and a cursory nod, he excused himself like a bat out of hell, waiting until he was safely at the other end of the room before allowing himself one final glance back.
Just in time to see Brian whispering in her ear, of course.
CHAPTER TWO
“YOU WERE GETTING READY to hit on Victoria.”
“What?! No!”
Abby snickered at the degree of horror in Brian’s voice as she recounted the party events from two nights prior. “Yup. It was a close call, too. I got you out of your brother’s house when you started saying how hot she was.” She tsked into the phone. “I told you all that expensive liquor Connor keeps would sneak up on you harder than the cheap stuff we drink.”
“Still. Victoria?”
She could almost hear him shuddering.
“Good god, I’m glad you saved me when you did. I knew it’d be a good idea to bring you to that party.”
“Except now Connor thinks you and I are dating.”
“So what if he does?” queried Brian indifferently. “Maybe now he’ll stop giving me those pitying looks he thinks I don’t see. You don’t mind playing along, do you?”
She thought about it for a second. “No, I guess not. I only see the man every few years or so.”
And he evidently only remembers me every ten.
The pity party from that depressing fact was quickly broken up by the blaring school bell over the phone line. She checked the time. “Is that the end of lunch for you?”
“Yeah, but I have a prep period next.”
“Nice. So, how’s the first day going so far?”
“Great if you don’t count how many rabid alpha students I have again this year,” he grumbled, though affectionately. “I swear, some of these kids think they’re getting their MBAs. If their term projects weren’t coincidentally due right before winter ball and prom, I’m pretty sure they’d turn in fifty-page papers.”
Coincidence. Sure.
If she had a penny for every time she’d had to help him grade papers at the last minute, she’d be loaded. Though a brilliant teacher, Brian had astonishingly little regard for assessments.
“Oh hey, speaking of school dances,” Abby grinned finkishly, “I hear Skylar can look forward to her first one in the spring. You freaking out yet?”
Brian groaned. “Don’t remind me. My blood pressure is not ready for a preteen daughter going to a dance with boys. Did she call you specifically to complain about my lack of joy in all this?”
“Actually she told me when I was over there yesterday.”
“You came over?”
“During the four hours you slept off your hangover, yes.”
“Ah, that solves the case of the missing dirty dishes.”
“Guilty. Oh, and I tasted the culinary genius you made her before you went back to bed by the way. I thought the Cajun flavored eggs had a superb crunch.”
“Why, thanks. Charred shell bits give it an extra zing, I think.”
“Not to mention added protein, too…which went well with the waffles I made her.”
He sighed. “Have I mentioned how much I love you?”
“Often. Why just the other night, I recall at least a dozen instances. The fact that they were all localized to my chest area as I dragged your drunk butt into your house didn’t diminish the heartfelt sentiment behind the words one bit.”
“Shit.” The horror returned to his voice. “Okay, that’s it, no more of the devil’s juice for me. I clearly can’t handle the stuff.”
She gasped in mock alarm. “You mean our MMA fight nights will be limited to pizza and soda?”
He paused. “Good point. I guess I’ll have to keep beer on the list of acceptable beverages. Just for you.”
“Aw, you’re so good to me,” she chuckled as she checked the time again. “Shoot, I better get going. I’m meeting with a few teachers about expanding my tutoring roster this year.”
“I thought you weren’t going to start volunteering until September,” he admonished sternly. “Abby, you can’t keep putting off your dissertation. Those kids can get by without you.”
“Just setting things up, I promise. Fear not, I’m sticking to my plan. Just me and my laptop ‘til I go back to work next month.”
“Good. I already instructed Skylar to gather her friends and chase you out of school if you show up over the next three weeks. We also blacked out every day on the calendar until ASU is back in session to remind us to leave you alone.”
“No need to go that far. I won’t be writing the entire time. And since my teaching line is straight freshman comp again this semester, I’m all set with my syllabus and lesson plans already. I’m sure I’ll have pockets of time to hang out here and there.”
“Well, then you can go get reacquainted with your colleagues and the other equally brainy candidates in your program. Go get all academic again. Skylar and I have been monopolizing your time way too much lately. If you’re not careful, you’ll find yourself in front of your doctoral defense panel dropping Skylar’s OMGs and my far more delightful f-bombs.”
Oy, her professors would think she was having a seizure and send her back to pre-dissertation comp exams for sure.
“Besides,” he continued, “we’ve already begun the detox process to do without our Abby fix for a few weeks. Sure, we’ll be strung out since you’ve gotten us all addicted to your greatness, but we’ll be fine,” he assured softly. “Really.”
A wash of tears stung her eyes. “Okay. Well you tell Skylar I’m never too busy for her. Or her dad.”
“Sure thing.” The awkward pause that followed had him quickly clearing his throat. “Alright, my prep period’s almost up so I better finish eating. Happy writing, babe.”
Abby hung up the phone with a pinch of sadness. Three whole weeks without talking to Brian on a daily basis?
Huh.
Ten-to-one odds he’ll crack first.
* * * * *
ABBY EYED THE OMINOUS black clouds that had appeared out of nowhere sometime during her last meeting of the day.
“Great,” she muttered, rubbing her bare arms. Arizona’s unpredictable monsoon season at its finest.
In a mocking curtsy, Mother Nature smoothly edged out the last tiny bit of blue in the sky and dumped a city-dousing waterfall of rain onto the ground within a six-second window.
Lovely. Not even a nice drizzle to give her a head start. At least she had on sneakers today.
“Don’t you even think about it!”
Abby spun around to see Evelyn Ramirez, the English department head, running down the hall with a fire hydrant yellow Piñon Pine Middle School rain cloak. “You were going to run out in that downpour, weren’t you?” she accused as she slapped the school spirit poncho into Abby’s grateful hands.
Abby smiled sheepishly. “I don’t live that far away.”
A disapproving headshake was all she got back as she donned the thin plastic, glad that it was long enough to cover the book bag at her hip. “Thanks Eve. I’ll return it tomorrow.”
“You most certainly will not. You’re not coming in, remember? That dissertation isn’t going to write itself, missy. And if you come around after school one day with your big bleeding heart, these kids will pounce and suck you dry.”
At Eve’s fierce look, which was at least half serious, Abby laughed. “Okay, I’ll keep it as a reminder of just that.”
A crash of thunder made them both jump. Eve studied the courtyard through the sheets of rain coming down. “That’s a storm, alright. You better just make a break for it now.”
Abby was thinking the same thing. After a final thanks, she darted out into the pounding rain.
Exiting the school premises, she cut to the shortest route back to her house, resigned to splash through ankle-deep road puddles to save time. With just under a block left to go, however, she slowed down when she spotted a girl huddling under an anorexic sidewalk tree, trying in vain to stay dry.
“Skylar?” she called out, wiping the water out of her eyes to make sure she was seeing correctly.
The girl’s guarded stranger-danger expression dissolved into a relieved smile. “Abby, hi!”
Running over, Abby again cursed the fickle Arizona weather when she saw that Skylar was similarly not dressed for the rain. “Why aren’t you at your Uncle Connor’s? You promised your dad you’d walk straight over there right after school.”
“I stayed back after school for a little bit to sign up for some clubs. But then out of the blue, it started pouring like crazy. I’ve been trying to call my dad because I figured he and Coach Bill canceled fall football tryouts today but he isn’t answering his cell.”
“Your dad had a faculty meeting before practice today so he probably doesn’t have his phone on.” Without thinking twice, Abby immediately yanked off her new sunbright rain barrier and slipped it over Skylar’s head.
“What are you doing?”
“I have way more padding than you, hon. You need this more than I do to stay warm.” While Skylar was busy trying to find the poncho’s elusive armholes, Abby rustled around in her bag for one of the plastic bags she usually kept in case she needed to carry library books when she was doing research.
Finally fnding one, she wrapped up her book bag to protect it from the rain. “Okay, there are no two ways about it, we just have to make a mad dash for your uncle’s house.” She gripped Skylar’s hand. “Ready?”
Skylar’s wary ‘not really’ was still hanging in the air under the tree when Abby yanked her out into the rain and started them on a frantic six-block sprint uphill in the opposite direction of her own home.
By the time they got to Connor’s mini McMansion, Abby was sure she looked like a drowned stray cat. She certainly felt like one.
Racing up his absurdly long driveway, she wordlessly pointed to the side yard, knowing she’d never be heard over the drumming rain. Skylar just nodded and followed her around the house to the back porch. The night of the party, Abby remembered seeing a mudroom of sorts at that entrance. As waterlogged as they were, she didn’t want to go near the grand front entry.
“OMG! That was insane!” screeched Skylar when they finally managed to dive under cover.
Chortling in agreement, Abby clutched her side and tried to catch her breath.
A long distance sprinter she was not.
As soon as she was physically able to speak without gasping, she pushed Skylar into the house. “Go in and get warmed up. I’m sure your uncle has an old t-shirt and drawstring swim trunks you can borrow while you throw your wet clothes in the dryer. If he doesn’t, or if they look to be made out of some fancy materials worth more than your iPod, text me and I’ll drive back over here with some spare clothes.”
“Wait, you’re going? You can’t walk back to your house in all this rain. Come in and wait it out.”
Abby shook her head. “I don’t think it’s going to let up, kiddo. I’ll be fine. A few more minutes of rain won’t kill me.”
“Well at least let me find you an umbrella. I’ll go check the closets.” Skylar bounded down the hall, clearly knowing where she was going in this museum of a home.
“Don’t track water onto the carpet!” Abby hollered after her, marveling over the echo that bounced off the crown molding and pristine marble floors.
Why a hardcore bachelor like Connor needed such a huge, extravagant house was beyond her.
Realizing that she was dripping all over the nice flagstone porch, she went over to the covered walkway near the garage to wring out about a gallon of desert rain from her hair.
Normally, she loved having long, thick hair that could knock out an innocent bystander if she attempted to do a shampoo commercial hair flip.
Today was not one of those days.
Bent over and focused entirely on squeeze-drying the wet blanket of hair cloaking her face, Abby almost toppled onto her head when a voice sounded out from above, “What are YOU doing here?”
Abby shut her eyes and shivered.
Not because she was soaked and freezing her ass off. But because she was suddenly hot. Very hot. Tear-your-clothes-off broiling. And the dangerous spike in her temperature had everything to do with that low, raspy growl.
Or rather, the man behind the growl.
Connor.
She dragged in a slow breath and let the heat of his deep voice warm her like a luxurious fire for a beat…until it occurred to her—a few brain-foggy seconds later—that his clipped question earlier had been absolutely dripping with disdain.
Startled, she looked up to confirm her suspicions.
Sure enough, Connor was standing there positively glaring at her, his lips curled in a contemptuous sneer, well into the territory of hostile.
“Don’t worry, Abby, I’m not going to introduce myself to you again today.” He eyed her up and down. “So what’s the story behind all this? Did you somehow get lost on the way to Brian’s? Or did you perhaps follow the yellow brick road here thinking it was paved with gold?”
Her jaw dropped. “Excuse me?”
“Honestly, after how Brian’s gone on and on about you over the years, I never figured you for a brother-hopper. I can’t believe you’d do this to him. What was the big plan? Sneak back onto my property and attempt to seduce me in that trampy get-up?”
His eyes dropped mockingly to her drenched chest, which was basically naked under the now transparent fabric plastered to her body like shrink-wrap. “Did you really think that was going to tempt me enough that I’d forget you’re dating my brother?”
He scoffed coldly and drilled her with a glower. “Let’s face it, honey, you’re not exactly the wet t-shirt type.”
Trembling with an equal amount of outrage and hurt, Abby shot him with the most lethal look she could muster before scrambling back to the porch and grabbing her book bag on the fly.
Without another word—though she had a few choice ones in mind—she turned and took off down the driveway.
Away from that colossal asshole.
