Page 387 of Summer Heat
“So, I made a decision. I cashed out my entire savings, along with the trust fund from my grandfather that I’d just gotten control over after turning twenty-one, and bought Brian a house. I told him it was a property investment that I wanted him to live in and take care of for me while I was away. Simple enough and pretty much true. But that still left the issue of Brian’s tuition. I was tapped out at that point and Brian didn’t have much of a savings to speak of to cover schooling on top of day to day living. And with a baby on the way, I didn’t want them to be buried in student loans when he had a perfectly good trust fund just like mine to cover his tuition and incidentals. So, I went to my father and asked him to invoke his power as trustee to release the funds to my brother even though it was three years premature.”
He glowered. “My father, of course, refused. Held it hostage.”
“Until you made a deal with him,” Abby guessed. God, their father was a bastard.
“Yep. The agreement was that I’d follow through with all the plans he set forth for my future in exchange for that one piece of paper.”
She couldn’t believe it. Connor basically bargained away his entire life for his brother. For her best friend.
Voice thick with emotion, she whispered, “You’re incredible, you know that right?”
A wary cloud passed over his expression. “Abby, I told you not to do that. Don’t build me up to be someone I’m not.”
Tears prickled in her eyes. Why couldn’t he see how wonderful he was?
Frowning, he stroked her cheek. “Stop, honey. Don’t cry over—”
Not wanting to hear him dismiss his actions or himself yet again, she stubbornly fused her mouth over his and just let go, allowed herself to sink into a kiss that held everything she was feeling but wouldn’t dare say, everything she knew to be true about him that he simply wouldn’t accept.
Emotions tangled, soul ripped bare, she started taking as much as she gave until eventually, he was kissing her back just as desperately. Threading his hands through her hair, and transforming this all into so much more than just a kiss.
Gasping, she sat back.
When had she ended up on his lap?
No matter. It was one less step for her to take. She flung off her shirt and reached for the hem of his. Skin and heat, and muscles that were tensing just from the touch of her fingers—she needed to feel it all. Now.
Two large hands trapped hers and held her tight against his stomach, stopped her from dragging his shirt open, from sliding her hands any higher over the rock-hard muscles of his abs.
So she moved lower instead.
“Christ, Abby. Not like this.”
The sexy gravel of his voice was so much grittier than usual. Hotter. So sexually charged she felt she’d go insane if he didn’t do something, anything to quench this fire building inside her.
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.
That’s when it occurred to her that she couldn’t open her hands. Couldn’t budge them at all. Eyes closed, mind half gone, mouth still being devoured by his, she finally realized he was restraining her, preventing her from undoing his belt buckle.
And she lost it.
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, effectively 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 and harder.
Until his rough, “Come for me, Abby,” sent her shattering into a thousand jagged pieces.
