Wow, now he knew exactly 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 very 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’d be simpler than traveling, and we’d still get to have the full month.”

Good lord, why was he chasing the woman?

Though she did look supremely tempted, after a moment of thought, she still shook her head. “I can’t impose on any of my friends for that long. And while I could just 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.”

He studied her for a second before coming to a decision.

“Well...then stay with me.”

CHAPTER SEVEN

STRUCK 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 hurl, 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 after school…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 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 over 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.”

He gazed into her eyes with open honesty and candid respect. “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 playing 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.

He chuckled and gave her a 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.

Sugarplums, 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 makeup?

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 moving 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 boyishly happy grin, one Abby hadn’t seen on him yet. Thankfully. Because the effect was almost overkill on the man.

With the contrast of his sexy, espresso dark hair—almost black in this light—and his shockingly blue eyes that looked so hauntingly deep at times, the man was a danger to female kind the world over.

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.”

* * * * *

CONNOR ALL BUT TORE 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 slick to bury itself.

And not just any place.

Unable to help himself, he bucked his hips between Abby’s legs in reflex. Because she was straddling him now. To prove her point.

“Because of this. Right here, Connor.”

He grew another hard inch as her thighs clenched around his hips.

“We won’t be able to control this and you know it.”

He did know it. And it sucked.

“Fine,” he agreed roughly, feeling like he was signing over the lease to his sanity with the concession.

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

“If that’s going to be the terms of your stay, 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.”

A look of hope lit her eyes. “Does that mean you’re still going to give me my wild and fast, after the fact?”

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