Tossing her hair over her shoulder, she stalked off to her Porsche. “In a way, I’m actually glad he’s slumming it for his last fling. It’ll make him that much more appreciative when he’s finally with me. So thanks for that.”

Abby stood there, frozen in place. Unable to get her feet to move. Once in her car, the woman slid the driver’s side window down and yelled out, “By the way, nice dress. Though it looked way better on me before I donated it to the thrift store…probably because it actually fit me.”

With that, she drove off the property and Abby had to grip the doorframe for support. She felt like vomiting. Never had anyone been so intentionally cruel to her before. The awful woman’s words clung to her like a web of venom, numbed her, made breathing next to impossible.

“Abby? Abby, what’s wrong!”

A dozen beautiful red roses scattered across the doorstep at her feet.

Blinking slowly, Abby realized Connor was standing there holding her up, helping her back in the house.

How long had she been standing out there?

* * * * *

“ABBY, HONEY? Talk to me. What happened?” Connor was officially freaking the hell out. He’d come home for lunch to surprise Abby with flowers when he saw her white as a ghost 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—

He pinned her back up against the passenger door. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

Abby looked stunned. Her fun, flirty smile faded completely and Connor mourned the loss. But he was too on edge now to shift it into reverse. “What are you trying to prove with this stunt?”

He yanked her panties out of his pocket and waved it at her furiously. “That you can be just like the other women I’ve slept with? Just another one-monther?” He slid his free hand up between her thighs, punishing them both. “Is this what you want? For me to treat you how I treated them?”

His fingers met her wet heat. God, how was he supposed to walk away from this tomorrow? From her?

The question was one he’d asked himself a hundred times over the past few weeks, but it wasn’t until tonight that he finally had an answer. It had killed him to see how broken down she’d looked after her encounter with Gabriella. Abby deserved better. She deserved to be happy. To be herself.

And if that meant letting her go, he would do it...because he’d gone and done the once unimaginable.

He’d fallen head over heels in love.

With a woman he couldn’t keep.

Emotions now in overdrive, he went from teasing her slick flesh to plunging his fingers into her core, torturing himself with the memory of how hard she’d come against his mouth last night, knowing that he’d never get the chance to taste her again.

Not after this.

When he felt the telltale pulsing of her inner walls, he pulled her hair back and clamped his mouth over the soft skin of her throat, marking her intentionally, wanting to have some small claim on her for however brief a time period. Something to stamp her as his.

Before he had to let her go.

* * * * *

ABBY WAS HORRIFIED at how her body was letting, begging Connor to keep going.

Keep telling her goodbye.

Keep punishing himself for having to do it.

Untamed and ruthless, his hands seemed to be everywhere all at once, using the secrets he’d learned about all her pleasures against her. For her. To drive her higher and higher…

His lips found hers just in time.

Saved the world from knowing that she was screaming her release in the middle of a crowded club parking lot.

Afterward, after she felt him cradling her to him gently, she drifted for a while. In and out on that lusty, floating bubble between repletion and awareness…until the boisterous laughter of a bunch of college kids walking past their car brought her crashing down to reality.

“I want to go home,” she whispered, unable to meet his eyes as she scrambled back inside the car. She shut herself off from him before he could say another word.

When he climbed into the driver’s seat and turned her way, she stared out the window, silently begging him all over again. For a different kind of release. Please, please. Just drive. Give me that much, Connor.

Finally, he did.

She closed her eyes to keep him from talking to her, to keep the tears from flowing. Because she knew what that was back there. That was Connor preparing to close the door on one of his one-month flings.