He ran over and pulled the door open to a less than welcome swirl of Chanel and platinum blonde hair.

“Hey, babe.” Victoria took off her suit jacket and popped a kiss on his lips. “If I beg really prettily will you give me one of your magic foot rubs tonight? I had a killer day today.”

She pulled off her designer stilettos one at a time as if they were singlehandedly responsible for all modern torture techniques. “In return, I’ll massage any part of your body you want.”

Connor jerked back and took a giant step away as he silently guided Victoria’s attention over to Abby on the couch.

“Oops! I’m sorry, I didn’t know you had company.” Victoria shrugged and grabbed his shoulder to slip her stilettos back on her feet, groaning in her usual, unintentionally triple-X way.

He threw a worried glance over at Abby, knowing how bad this looked. There was no way she could possibly know that flirting was basically Victoria’s first language, and that between them, propositions involving body parts never actually meant anything.

It took him a fair amount of restraint not to forcibly shove Victoria’s hand off his shoulder while she was teetering on one ridiculously high heel. Partly, because he didn’t want her tripping over and showing Abby why she didn’t have any panty lines under that skintight suit skirt.

Not missing a thing, Victoria soon caught wind of his panic and slid a curious smile over at Abby.

Uh-oh.

“I’m Victoria, by the way,” she called out, vying for the crown of world’s slowest suit jacket wearer.

He should’ve let her fall on her ass.

“I’m Abby,” came the quiet, flat reply from the living room. He shot a quick look back her way, tried to get her to meet his eyes. She wouldn’t.

Victoria tilted her head to the side. “You look so familiar. Have we met?”

Connor jumped in on that one. “I highly doubt that. This is my little brother’s friend. She goes to ASU; you two don’t exactly run in the same circles.”

Abby went stiff.

Shit, now what’d he do? He’d only been trying to help by cutting off Victoria’s interrogation. But it seemed he somehow made things worse.

One perfectly arched eyebrow directly at his eye level harassed him without saying a word, told him she wasn’t leaving without at least a little more of an explanation.

“Abby’s staying here for a bit while the place she’s renting is being renovated.” He followed that up with a pointed glare that shouted, Now LEAVE.

But that’s when Abby chose to speak up. “Yeah, thank God for good old Connor here. He took pity on a starving college kid and offered to let me crash here.”

Ooh, this was so not good. There was no way Abby ever used ‘crash’ in that context before. He’d have no choice but to forgive the ‘old’ crack. She was clearly pissed.

Victoria, on the other hand, looked like she was ready to split a seam laughing. “I see. Well, like I said, I didn’t know Connor had company so I’m sorry for barging in.”

“No, don’t go.” Abby got up to grab her bag and keys. “I should be heading out anyway.”

What? “You didn’t mention you had plans tonight.”

As slippery as a ghost, Abby shot right past them and yanked open the front door before he could stop her. “A friend invited me to go clubbing so you two can have the place all to yourselves for your massage night.”

“Abby.” It came out a feral bark. And had zero effect on her.

She ran straight to her car. “Don’t worry, I have the spare key. Have fun you two. Don’t wait up!”

He glowered at her retreating figure, willing her to stop all this and come back to him. When she didn’t, when she actually drove off, he grabbed his phone and dialed her number.

Straight to voicemail. Goddamn it!

“Oh my god. You’re completely gaga over a little college kid.” Victoria tsked, sounding both highly entertained and slightly awed. “My, how the mighty have fallen.”

Not trusting himself to say anything that wasn’t four-lettered, he kept his mouth shut and held the door open for her, foot tapping impatiently.

Victoria snickered as she walked past. “I do hope she comes back, Connor. She really is super cute.”

He slammed the front door on her.

* * * * *

1:00 AM

With each passing hour, it seemed like the time on the DVR box glowed brighter and brighter.

Mocking him.

Though she hadn’t been dressed for it, and she’d mentioned before that it wasn’t her scene, Connor still couldn’t help but wonder if Abby did in fact end up going to some hot, sweaty club. The thought made his back teeth hurt. Probably from all the clenching.

Picturing her dancing around with other men had him on edge, territorial.

At 1:01 AM, he finally picked up his phone and unclenched long enough to text her:

>> HAVING FUN?

His phone beeped back a half a minute later and he exhaled in relief. At least she was still talking to him.

>> SURE. ARE YOU?

No. He’d missed the hell out of her all night. Tonight had been anything but fun.

>> VICTORIA LEFT RIGHT AFTER YOU DID.

Pause.

>> OH. SORRY IF I RUINED YOUR PLANS FOR THE EVENING.

He let out a frustrated breath.

>> IT’S NOT WHAT YOU THINK. I HAVEN’T SLEPT WITH HER IN YEARS.

Her reply was instant.

>> HOW DO YOU KNOW WHAT I THINK?

Replaying the look in her eyes as she’d left the house, he texted back:

>> YOU SEEMED UPSET.

The sound of musical chirping coming from outside his room led him out to the hallway where Abby was standing at the top of the stairwell with her phone. “Damn right I was upset.”

“I told you—”

“Not over you and Victoria,” she snapped. “If you want to date other women, that’s your prerogative. What I am pissed about is being reduced to a peon in the presence of two oh-so-great attorneys. Call me a relative stranger, call me the girl you’re banging, I don’t care—but don’t ever make me out to be anything less than I am again! I’ve worked hard to achieve the goals in my life. I’m not some young college kid bumming on your couch. How the heck would you feel if I’d referred to you in that way during your last year of law school?”

God, she was magnificent when she was angry. “I see your point. I’m sorry.” He got within arm’s reach of her but kept his hands in his pockets. Barely. “If it helps, you did a good job getting me back. I’ve been going out of my mind wondering if you really were out dancing up on a bunch of guys while I was sitting here all alone. Jealous.”

She jutted her chin out at him. “Good. Serves you right.”

Taking extra measures not to touch him, she cleared a wide path around him and headed for her room. “I’m not sleeping with you tonight, Connor.”

Huh, he didn’t think she was the type to hold sex hostage.

When she turned back to face him, a touch of vulnerability marred her features. “I’m not being a shrew. I just…don’t want to be sloppy seconds to Victoria.”

“I swear I didn’t lay a finger on her.”

“But you still had your lips on another woman tonight. Right in front of me.”

“She kissed me. And I backed away as soon as I could.”

“It doesn’t matter. I’m sure you wouldn’t care about this sort of thing if the positions were reversed, but—”

“Hell, if the positions were reversed, I’d make damn sure to kiss you silly until I wiped every last trace of any other man’s kiss from your memory completely,” he growled.

That familiar Abby light returned to her eyes. “I can see how that’d be…ah, effective.”

Seeing her gaze travel down to his lips and then shoot back up again, he took a cautious step forward, teasing lightly, “Want to try that tactic with me?”