Page 410 of Summer Heat
on the front porch looking ready to faint.
“Are you feeling sick? Do you need me to take you to the ER?”
Abby shook her head.
He exhaled in relief. “Did something happen today?”
Slowly, very slowly, the color returned to Abby’s face, and became replaced by…fury?
“That horrible woman! How could you ever have been with someone that vile?”
Shit. This did not sound good.
She picked up the flowy skirt of her dress, looked at it sadly, and then proceeded to rip the stretchy dress up off her body. “How can you live like this, Connor? These people…” She flung the dress on the ground and stared at it.
He couldn’t tell if she was still sad or just plain livid now. “Sweetheart, tell me what’s going on. Did someone come by?”
She laughed bitterly. “Oh, just some woman who said you two had sex recently. I believe she referred to herself as your future wife.”
What?! Once wasn’t enough. “What?!” his mouth echoed his brain.
“Tall redhead in a Porsche? The one who called me the cheap, fat pity project keeping you warm for her, before your upcoming feature-page nuptials.”
“That goddamn bitch!” he shouted. “That’s Gabriella, the woman who was all over me at the charity ball.” Rushing over to Abby, he swept her up in his arms. “I am so sorry she did that to you. You can’t believe a single noxious thing she said. She’s working with my father on some harebrained scheme.” He rested his forehead against hers. “She hurt you to get to me. And I’m so sorry for that, baby. So, so sorry.”
Abby sagged against him. “I keep telling you to stop apologizing for these people. They’re the ones at fault, not you.”
But I’m the one dragging you into all this.
He kissed both her eyelids gently, thankful she hadn’t wasted any tears on a whack-job like Gabriella. But the lines of strain on her face worried him.
This is exactly what he’d been afraid of.
Abby didn’t belong with him. She was too good. Too nice. His world would undoubtedly kill her spirit, break her down and scrape away everything that was so special about her.
His father was right.
Abby was far better off with a man like Brian.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
“ABBY, WE DON’T HAVE TO do this. We could’ve just stayed home,” Connor repeated for the tenth time as he pulled into the parking lot of the club.
“No. We were looking forward to going dancing tonight. I don’t want that über bitch from today to ruin this for us.” She unbuckled her seatbelt, looking determined to stomp into that club and dance away their last night together.
Keep pretending that everything was okay.
Meanwhile, Connor just wanted to hold her, keep her for himself for just a little while longer. Not just to ease her hurt, but to ease his as well. To preserve the part of him that she brought out, celebrated. Loved.
Even if it was for just a few more hours.
Knowing there was no convincing her otherwise, however, and knowing she was doing this as much for him as she was herself, he got out of the car and went around to open her door.
She beat him to it though, and was waiting for him with a sweet, sexy kiss. He took it greedily, drew strength from it and sank into it at the same time. Deepened it into something not so sweet. And a whole lot more sexy.
Mid-kiss, he felt Abby slip something into the pocket of his pants.
What the—
