Resisting the Bad Boy (7 page)

“Hey!”

“Sorry, that very lovely POS ‘SUV’ out there.”

She kept right on glaring at him. Okay, so maybe it wasn’t entirely necessary for him to have included the quotation marks, but really, the vehicle was more like a very tall car, circa never-bothered-to-be-recorded.

“Face it, that thing is a nine-car pile-up waiting to happen. You shouldn’t take it on that long of a road trip and you know it.”

“Well, it’s my only option right now.”

Something occurred to him then. “Wait, if you knew you were going to be gone for the next two weeks, why did you counter with two weeks?” He detested false bids.

Her bottom lip disappeared between her teeth. “Actually, I meant the two weeks
after
I get back, before my schedule starts getting busy.”

Wow, now he knew how his previous one-monthers felt when he used to schedule them in.

“Sorry, that sounds terrible.”

“No, it’s fine. I’ve actually done the exact same thing before.” And he wouldn’t ever be doing it again. This feeling was flat-out wretched. “Why don’t you just find another place to stay here in town the next two weeks? It’s be simpler than traveling, and we’d still get to have the full month.” Good lord, why was he chasing her?

She looked tempted. Maybe he was wearing her down.

Finally, she shook her head. “I can’t impose on any of my friends for that long. And while I could book a room somewhere for two weeks and end up spending about as much as I would on gas, I’d hate to try writing for that long in a hotel.”

“Then stay with me.”

C
HAPTER
F
OUR

S
TRUCK DUMB
, and apparently deaf as well, Abby opened and closed her mouth once before shaking her head. Hard. “
What
?” She must have heard him wrong. Must have.

“You heard me.”

Did she?

Since Connor looked both pleased with himself and just a tiny bit like he might be ready to barf, she assumed she had.

“I can’t stay with you for two weeks.”

“Why not?”

“Connor, be reasonable.”

“I’m being very reasonable. Were you going home to see your family or just to work on your dissertation?”

“The latter mostly,” she confessed.

“Then do that at my house. I’m not there three-quarters of the time, anyway. And you can head to the library in the afternoons if you’re worried about Skylar bothering you when she comes over afterschool…though it sounds like she and Brian have a pretty strict pact to leave you alone the next few weeks.” He looked at her strangely. “You didn’t tell them you were leaving did you?”

“I was working up to it. We have a fairly unhealthy codependent relationship.”

He smiled. “So it seems. Even more reason to remain close by. C’mon, Abby, say yes.”

“I really shouldn’t.”

“You’ll have your run of the house. I’ll stick to all aforementioned ice cream parameters. And you won’t have to run around searching for that one mechanic in Arizona that might still be able to find parts for your car when you inevitably have to tow it off the freeway.”

The man did make a good, if slightly brutal point.

“You’ll have your own guestroom way on the other end of my—what is it you and Skylar call my house again?”

“The Mini McMansion.”

He chuckled. “Right. Well, you’ll have your very own McSuite.”

“And my own in-house McStud?”

“I do want to ensure you a quality stay,” he deadpanned right back.

“Connor, this is crazy. This goes against everything you base your one rule on to begin with.”

“Tell me the truth,” he pressed, “if you could have a guarantee that it wouldn’t be weird, would you stay? Would it help you with your research, and schedule, and sanity if you could just stay in town instead of driving all the way back to California?”

She sighed, sounding exhausted even to her own ears. “Yes.”

His face changed a little then, gentled, became serious. “Pretend we could rewind the clock back a half hour. You’ve been my brother’s best friend for a decade, basically a second mother to my niece, and the only one outside of family who helped my sister-in-law through her toughest times. There’s not a single person on my speed dial more deserving of an invite to stay in my home than you. Let me do this. Let me help you with a place to stay for a few weeks so you can work on your dissertation and achieve the goals that you’ve managed to work toward in what little time you’ve spared for yourself. Stay with me. I mean it. It won’t be weird.”

So unfair. He was pulling out the noble big brother card and the sweet guy card—the two trump cards—at the same time.

When she still couldn’t quite get herself to agree, he reached in his pocket and pulled out his cell phone.

“Who’re you calling?”

“Brian. I’ll have him convince you.”

Alarmed, she grabbed for his phone. “No. Don’t do that. I’d rather he and Skylar not know about…this.”

A hopeful grin lit his face. “So there’s a ‘this’ between us now?”

She shoved his phone back into his pocket. “It appears there is.”

“Does this mean I can go ahead and start putting your luggage in my car?”

“IF I decide to do this, I’ll be putting my luggage in
my
car and driving over to your place tomorrow.”

“As long as you’re sure your car will make it that far.”

She pinched his arm.

“Ow.” He gave her reassuring smile. “I promise, if you hate it at my house, I’ll have my mechanic look at your car so you can drive it all the way to California.”

“You don’t have to do that.” She didn’t
want
him to do that. She didn’t want him spending money on her the way he did his other women. “My car is fine.”

“I could always call Brian to ask him what he thinks about you driving that insurance risk on wheels over state lines.”

Glaring at him, she huffed, “You don’t play fair at all.”

“Nope. That’s actually the tagline on my business card.” He winked.

A man this hard should
not
have such a playful, sexy wink. What was the universe thinking when they’d allowed that combination in his genetic make-up?

She mulled over the situation. Or at least convinced herself she was, even though deep down she knew she’d already been ready to say yes after his long speech about her goals. “If you’re sure it won’t get weird, I’d very much appreciate you letting me stay at your house, Connor. Thank you.”

He flashed her a huge, almost boyishly happy grin. Abby didn’t see him smile like that very often. It was a good thing too because the effect would almost be overkill on him. With his perfect, soft brown hair that was almost black in this light, and the sexy blue eyes that looked so hauntingly deep at times, the man was a danger to female kind the world over. And if she didn’t take the appropriate measures, her heart would be joining their ranks on the endangered list.

“Just one thing. I’ll only stay if we can agree that there will be no sex while I’m there.”

C
ONNOR ALL BUT JUMPED
out of skin. “Why the hell not?”

“You know why. Do you really need me to go into detail about how hard it’s going to be for me? For you? Every day? What would the next morning in your house be like if we indulged in an all-night mind-blowing sexfest?”

The erection that had been battling for control ever since he’d first pulled Abby onto his lap roared to life, seeking someplace hot and sleek to bury itself. And not just any place. He bucked his hips between Abby’s legs. Because she was straddling him now. To prove her point. He grew another hard inch as her thighs clenched around his hips.

“Because of
this
. Right here. We won’t be able to control this and you know it, Connor.”

He did know it. And it sucked. “Fine,” he agreed roughly, feeling like he’d just signed over the lease to his sanity.

She slid off his lap slowly, the barely tamed, hungry look in her eyes nearly his undoing.

“Then you better not plan on writing the day you’re allowed to move back here, sweetheart,” he growled. “Because after two weeks of
this
, I’ll make damn sure your research is the last thing on your mind.”

“Does that mean you’re still going to give me my wild and fast?”

Her breath broke so sweetly that he found himself groaning, “Fast is going to be a given, honey. At least the first dozen or so times that day, whether I want it to be or not.”

A wobbly laugh escaped her. “I meant is it really okay with you that our one month is going to be different than what you’re used to?”

“It’ll be worth it,” he assured her.

She stared at him for a weighty moment before getting up and scurrying onto the couch, leaving him on the floor, a good two feet away.

That was probably wise.

Didn’t mean he had to like it. He picked up his beer and downed half the bottle. The liquid was already lukewarm. But considering how unbelievably hot he was feeling, it was practically ice cold going down his throat.

“So what kind of case are you working on right now?”

He choked and almost sent the beer down the wrong tube. She wanted to do small talk? Now? One look at her was confirmation enough that she was serious. Sitting there with her forearms wrapped around her legs, knees tucked under chin, and eyes still slightly glazed with arousal, she was seriously asking him about work.

“It’s just that I figured you must be working on some big case or something since your phone has been going off non-stop in your pocket all night.”

Her eyes widened and then focused quickly down at her toes. He almost smiled then. Because they both knew his phone had been on vibrate during all those missed calls. And she’d been sitting on it for a good ten minutes.

“Actually, I have been working on a big case. My most important one this year,” he eventually replied, letting her off from the teasing he was dying to give. Just this once. He turned and draped his arm on the seat cushion beside her, grinning outright when the accidental brush of his fingers against her calf had her eyes dilating sharply. “It’s a corporate acquisition tied to a multi-layered merger that I’ve spent months trying to close.”

She frowned and sat up. “Why didn’t you say something? You didn’t have to waste the last hour eating here with me. And why the heck have you been ignoring all your calls?”

“I’d hardly call the last hour a waste of time. In fact, it’s the most fun I’ve had in a while.”

Clearly, she was unconvinced.

“As for my phone,” he hesitated, and then went with the truth. “My work phone isn’t on vibrate. The phone calls I’ve been ignoring are from my, uh, personal cell.”

“But what if it’s Brian calling or… Ohhh.” She looked away. “
That
kind of personal cell.”

He felt like the world’s biggest jerk. But he didn’t want Abby to have any illusions about him. “The last woman I dated isn’t taking the end of our one month well. But it
is
completely over, I assure you. I’m not dating her or anyone else right now, just in case you were wondering.”

“I wasn’t. I know you wouldn’t be asking me for a month if you were.”

He was utterly curious as to why, how she was so sure of such a thing.

At his questioning look, she shrugged. “You strike me as a monogam
ish
guy. Plus, I don’t believe you’d go through the hassle of enforcing a rule if you weren’t going to follow it yourself.”

There was a good chance he was going to start needing this woman as a valium for his soul. She saw a glimmer of good in even his worst qualities, and didn’t hesitate to call him on the rest. But never without recrimination. If it was possible, she seemed to just like him for being him.

“Hey,” she said, concern latent in her voice. “You okay? You looked a little worried there for a second. Is it your case? Did you want to talk about it?”

She had to stop. He couldn’t take much more of her innate goodness; he didn’t deserve it, didn’t have the first clue what to do with it. “Oddly enough, I do want to talk about my case with you. Hell, I want to share my whole day with you. Which is why I
need
to do this.” So quickly it surprised even him, he swooped onto the couch and lowered his mouth down to hers.

Just one taste.

He just wanted one little taste before his hunger got out of control. Before he started craving things he couldn’t truly have.

Like a nice girl he had no business wanting.

He stopped himself before his lips made contact though. Shut his eyes and took a steadying breath. And then backed away.

Christ, that was close.

Just when he’d gotten a handle on his roiling emotions, however, thought he could be the good guy for a change, he felt two gentle hands smooth over the sides of his face.

And he was lost.