by Violet Duke
And it was a big one.
CHAPTER SIX
SHE COULDN’T BELIEVE she was doing this.
She felt like she was going to hurl.
“Relax, Abby. You have nothing to be nervous about.”
Easy for him to say. “Are you sure this dress is formal enough?” She checked her reflection in the mirrored walls of the elevator once again while Connor pushed the button for the top floor. Though she’d searched high and low, her favorite thrift store did not have a section for ‘corporate mixer cocktail dresses.’ So, she’d gotten the dressiest thing she could find that didn’t look like it belonged at a music award banquet.
“I should have gotten fancier heels.”
He came up behind her, his rock solid frame nearly molding against her as he leaned in to whisper, “For the hundredth time, you look beautiful.” He met her eyes in the mirror and raked his heated gaze slowly over every curve of her body. “But, if you need me to convince you in other ways…” Splaying his hands on her hips, he pulled her back against him. Close, but not nearly close enough. “Does that tell you how gorgeous I think you are?” His voice was hoarse, tortured, and the brush of hard evidence outlining his ‘thoughts’ were tempting her to reach over and pull the stop key to bring the elevator to a halt.
And it had nothing to do with the fact that she was afraid of getting out on the top floor.
When he caught her eyes flickering over to that red button on the electronic panel, he groaned.
“You’re killing me here, Abby. At this rate, I’m going to stop this elevator right now, if not for every last reason you have in mind, at least to avoid walking out of here with the granddaddy of all erections in front of everyone I work with.”
It was on the tip of her tongue to tell him to do it.
Until the elevator chimed and the doors slid open on the ballroom floor.
Saved by the bell.
He backed up a step and shoved a hand in his pocket uncomfortably. “You’re hell on all my good intentions, woman.” Drilling her with one more sizzling hot look, he slid a hand on the small of her back and led her out of the elevator. “And if you don’t stop biting your lip, I’m going to pull you in the nearest bathroom and pretend we’re back in that elevator. Twice.” His hand slipped an inch lower, daring her to rise an inch higher and prove that a bad boy with good intentions…
Was still a bad boy.
She swiped her tongue over the teeth marks on her lower lip in response to her own thoughts.
And a low, sexy growl rumbled out of his chest.
“Connor! There you are. We’ve been looking for you.”
Abby finally let out the breath she’d been holding.
Connor’s assistant came running up and flashed a warm, contagious smile at her. “Hello, you must be Abby. It’s so nice to finally meet you.”
“Likewise.” Abby smiled back at the chic older woman, liking her instantly. “Thank you for the two flower arrangements you’ve ordered for me in the past, by the way. They were beautiful.”
Laura looked both charmed and surprised. “Why, you’re quite welcome. But I only ordered one set of flowers for you.” She glanced over at Connor with a raised eyebrow. “He must have ordered the second one himself. Although to my knowledge he’s never once stepped foot in a flower shop before.”
Abby turned back to Connor and found him avoiding her questioning gaze, focusing instead on fiddling with his watch rather intently.
Adorable man.
A chirp from Laura’s phone had her jumping and grabbing Connor by the elbow. “I hate to do this to you, Abby, but I have to steal Connor away for about five minutes. I was hoping one of the other assistants would be free to keep you company but it appears you’ll have to mingle on your own for a bit.”
“Not a problem. I’ll be fine.” Yeah, big talk. She flashed them both a bright white smile.
Connor cast her a worried glance.
“Go, before you give Laura an aneurysm.”
As the two quickly made their way to the other end of the room, Abby contemplated finding a quiet table in the corner and pulling out her ereader. But she remembered her purpose for coming here tonight and stuck to the plan.
If she was going to seriously consider being with Connor, she needed to be able to exist in his world.
Eyeing the different groups of people around the room, she had no idea how to even strike up a conversation with any of these strangers.
“Hi, are you here with Connor Sullivan?”
Okay, well that was easy.
Abby turned around and did her best to keep her smile on her face when she saw who was speaking to her. It was the vampire-like woman who’d warned her away from Connor at his house party last summer. Great. Following up with a similarly cheerful voice, Abby replied, “I’m his date for the evening, yes. So nice to meet you.”
“You look so familiar—” The woman tapped one extravagantly manicured nail against her lower lip. “Oh I know! We met at one of Connor’s parties, didn’t we?”
Wow, if the woman wasn’t an actress by trade, she was seriously missing her calling.
“Yes, I believe we did. I’m afraid I don’t remember your name, however.”
“I’m Cassandra, and these ladies here—talk about standing in the woman’s shadow—are Janelle, Deborah, Elizabeth, and Clarissa.”
Abby nodded politely at each of the ladies, who were in turn, each looking at her like she was a mutant they wanted to dissect and run experiments on.
They descended on her like a circle of vultures.
“So you’re the one who’s taken Connor off the market,” sniffed the Deborah woman, looking down her sharp pointy nose at her.
Ah, so it was going to be one of those conversations. Well, here goes nothing. “Off the market? You make him sound like real estate for sale.” Abby tipped her head back and did a terrific imitation of Cassandra’s laugh.
Cassandra did not look amused.
“Oh, it’s a compliment,” reassured the one with the eye-blinding overabundance of jewelry draped on her like a vault had just exploded. “No one has been able to tame him yet.”
Abby resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Instead, she tossed out without a thought, “Well then all his other women are simply doing it wrong.” She cupped a theatric hand to her mouth for a stage whisper, “It helps if you take turns at it.” Impressively, she kept her laughter at bay.
When she looked up, she saw Connor nearing their group, a grin curving one corner of his mouth up.
Darn the man and his bat-like ears.
“Abby’s right, it’s way more fun that way,” he broke in. “Though I have to say, I much prefer Abby undomesticated.” Sliding his arm around her waist, he pulled her away from the group. “Ladies. Always a pleasure.”
A silent giggle attacked her middle as they made their way across the dance floor.
He whispered quietly. “Very nice. You effectively shut those women up. I’ve never seen anything like it.” Skimming a kiss over her cheek, he asked, eyes laughing, “So I take it you’re not so nervous anymore?”
No, she wasn’t.
She knew now that she could hold her own with this crowd and survive these parties.
The only question was if that’s really the life she wanted to live.
“Did you see that woman Connor brought tonight?”
Abby froze and silently sat back down in the ballroom restroom stall; Connor would just have to think she’d had some bad shrimp because she’d had just about all the snippy conversational warfare she could take tonight. These women were vicious.
“Was it that bitchy lawyer he brings sometimes?
“No, this one has this whole adorable wide-eyed, gollie-gee-whiz thing going.”
Ouch. How the woman managed to make that into a biting insult was precisely why she was keeping her butt in the stall.
“Seriously? Connor? Are we talking about the same man who wore out the Hanley twins? Because from what I hear,
he’s into some kinky stuff.”
“Really? I thought he was pretty vanilla. We only had sex a few times because of that stupid one-month rule of his but…meh, it was alright. I tried to get him to go to a bondage club with me but like I said, he wasn’t into it.”
Abby felt bile rising up in her throat.
“Well, he must be doing something right because he’s slept with half of the women out there tonight and most of them are still fawning all over him.” A syrupy sweet giggle. “Maybe he’s into the innocent virginal type now. A lot of these high powered guys like doing the whole role playing thing. Maybe corrupting the really pure ones gets the kinky side to come out.”
A toilet flush effectively drowned out their voices for a few precious seconds before the clacking of stiletto heels brought with it a voice she vaguely recognized. “Oh god, I’d let him dress me in braids and a schoolgirl outfit if that’s what it would take.”
Janelle. One of the women she’d been talking to earlier. Wasn’t she married?
“Well if he’s into threesomes, why don’t you just ask his date to let you join in? She probably lets Connor do whatever he wants.”
Abby couldn’t breathe. Bracing her hands against the stall walls, she tried to keep the room from spinning even more than it was.
“Ooh, ooh! I heard Rachel got him for a one-nighter by just showing up at his house in a trench coat and crotchless panties. Ohmigosh, can you imagine his date wearing something like that?”
The women laughed.
Abby shut her eyes and fought the waves of nausea slamming into her. She could hear her own heartbeat thrumming in her ears, a gray haze blanketing her vision.
All those women…
One by one, she heard the women leaving. But she couldn’t get their voices to leave her head.
All those women…
And now she was trying to become one of them.
After emptying her dinner in the toilet, she went to the sink and stared at her reflection. Turning on the faucet, she cupped handfuls of water and splashed her face over and over again.
But no amount of water could wash all the ugliness of the past ten minutes away.
She grabbed a napkin and wiped away every last trace of the cosmetics on her face. Pulling a hair tie out of her purse, she jerked her hair back up into a ponytail. Half of it was drenched anyway.
Even if Connor didn’t want to leave yet, she was getting the hell out of the building.
“Abby, there you are.” Connor dropped his phone back into his pocket. “I was starting to think you abandoned me for the night.” He smiled, studying her hair. “Hey, you pulled it back. You look cute.”
Cute. As in gollie-gee-whiz adorable. The walls started closing in on her again.
His grin faded. “Are you okay, sweetie?”
“I’m feeling a little sick. Do you mind if I head home already? I’ll call a cab.”
“Don’t be silly. I’ll drive you.” He quickly took her purse and put a steadying hand on her back. “Do you want to sit down for a bit more? You look really pale.”
“No, I just want to go. Are you sure it’s okay for you to leave already? It’s not even nine o’clock. What about the party?”
He shrugged. “What about it?” His worried gaze deepened as it drifted over her face. “If you feel faint, let me know. I’ll carry you the rest of the way.”
For some reason, that caused a riot of laughter to hit her in the belly. And she couldn’t stop it. Her head started spinning again but this time it felt like it was floating away.
“Abby, I’m calling an ambulance. This looks serious.”
Finally the giggle fits stopped. “No, I’m fine. I just…have a really bad headache. It’s making me a little loopy.”
He opened the car door for her and gently helped her in.
Abby’s head was in complete disarray. How could this man be the same one the women were talking about earlier? It’s not that she wasn’t aware of Connor’s past. His one-month rule alone was a good indication. But just the sheer numbers were hard to wrap her brain around. After being with all those women, how could one woman ever be enough for him? She pressed her fingers into her temples.
“I don’t want you to stay alone tonight, Abby. If you’re not comfortable staying at my house, I can sleep on your couch and keep an eye on you there.” He paused for a beat before adding quietly, “Or I can drop you off at Brian’s if you’d prefer.”
She heard the hurt in his voice when he offered the last option and though a part of her was tempted to choose it, she shook her head. “I’ll be fine, Connor. Alone. But if I need to talk to someone, I promise I’ll call you.”
And while this was yet another fib to add to the stack this joint custody dating was racking up, this one, she truly wished she could deliver.
CHAPTER SEVEN
ABBY WAS ALREADY HALFWAY ASLEEP when she dropped down into bed to turn in for the night. And she was down to only a quarter consciousness when her phone rang.
“Hello?” she muttered sleepily into the receiver.
“I almost forgot how sexy you sound on the phone.”
She jolted awake in a flash. “Connor?”
“Glad to know you remember my voice,” he smiled over the phone line. “I was planning on waiting in bed all night for you to call me but then I remembered that I have fingers that can dial a phone number too.”
She valiantly fought back a smile. The man was entirely too charming for his own good. “Connor, really, I’m fine. I must have just eaten something funny.”
“Okay, then how about you keep me company on the phone. We can play a round of Twenty Questions,” he bulldozed right along. “Or rather, just the version where we have to answer each other’s questions no matter what.”
Oh, that was tempting. Not the answering part but the asking part, definitely.
“There are no off-limit questions…” he anted up lightly.
That sounded like a dare. What was it about talking on the phone that made things seem less dangerous than they probably were? “Okay, let’s play.”
“True or false?” he fired off quickly. “Everyone deserves a second chance.”
Geez, he was intending to play down and dirty stickball. Warily, she answered, “True.”
“Interesting. Okay, your turn.”
She asked the first question that came to mind. “Do you like strip clubs?”
He chuckled. “Depends.”
“Hey, no fair.” She glared at the phone. “That’s not an answer.”
“It is too,” he decreed. “You just need to make your questions more specific if you don’t want vague answers.” The last came out as a taunt.
Huffing, she sat up fully in bed. Now, it was on. “Fine. Your turn.”
“Yes or no? Do you still use that pink vibrator we played with in the tub that one night?”
She gasped. “Do you really expect me to answer that?”
“I’d reply, but then I’ll have to count that as one of your twenty questions.”
Argh! “Fine. No, I haven’t. I…can’t seem to bring myself to.”
A long pause, and then a gentle, “Your turn.”
“Have you slept with anyone since September?” Without realizing she was doing it, she held her breath.
“No, I haven’t,” he answered softly. “I haven’t wanted to, either.”
Oh. “Your turn.”
“Do you miss me?” Now it sounded like he was the one holding his breath.
“Yes,” she admitted. “As much I did the day you left. More, maybe.”
For a while, neither of them spoke.
And then he broke the ice again, “It’s your turn to ask me a question, sweetheart.”
Heart in her throat, she asked the question she’d wondered over more days than she cared to admit. “If I’d come to you during the months you stayed away, what would you have done?”
He didn’t even hesitate. “I would’ve locked you in my house and asked you to nev
er leave again,” he replied quietly.
Holy swizzle sticks.
“My turn. There was a day last fall when I saw you as I was getting some Chinese take-out in town. Did you see me, too?”
She sucked in a sharp breath. So he had seen her. “Yes. And I jumped into a Brazilian wax shop to avoid you.”
“I know,” he let out a weary breath. “You don’t know how many nights of sleep I lost thinking about that day.”
“Really? Why?”
“Honey, the shop you ran into had a poster advertising 30+ different wax designs. I can guarantee you that I had at least 30+ hot nights being tormented by the possibilities.”
She flushed. Right, of course. The designs. The shop had a flipbook of photos they’d shoved in her hands that day and she’d had to pretend to flip through them while she was hiding out.
Most awkward day ever.
Speaking of awkward. May as well ask the question that had been plaguing her all night.
“Yes or no. Do you truly believe one woman would be enough for you…someday?”
“Yes. If it’s the right woman.” His voice dropped an emotional octave. “And if it’s the woman I’m thinking it is, I believe she’ll be more than just ‘enough’ for me.”
Wow.
A weighty pause, and then he came back with, “Do you ever think about that last time we slept together?”
Darn him. “No.”
“Liar.” The playful tone was back. “You know, there are penalties for lying in this game.”
“Okay, fine. Yes.”
“Too late. It’s time to pay your fine.” He was doing an impressive job sounding matter-of-fact about this.
Covering up the smile in her voice, she asked warily, “What’s the fine?”
“Describe that night for me. I want to see it in your eyes.”
“Connor—” They were treading dangerously close to crossing a line.
His voice sobered then. “I took it too far, I’m sorry honey. Let’s go back to the game.”
But it was too late. All the vivid memories of that night came barreling into her brain, one after the other until it was all her mind’s eye could see. “I-I…I remember you kissing the inside of my thigh…” Her heart raced just recalling the image.
