NICE GIRL TO LOVE (THE COMPLETE THREE-BOOK COLLECTION)(103)

And a low, sexy growl rumbled out of his chest.

“Connor! There you are. We’ve been looking for you.”

Abby finally let out the breath she’d been holding.

Connor’s assistant came running up and flashed a warm, contagious smile at her. “Hello, you must be Abby. It’s so nice to finally meet you.”

“Likewise.” Abby smiled back at the chic older woman, liking her instantly. “Thank you for the two flower arrangements you’ve ordered for me in the past, by the way. They were beautiful.”

Laura looked both charmed and surprised. “Why, you’re quite welcome. But I only ordered one set of flowers for you.” She glanced over at Connor with a raised eyebrow. “He must have ordered the second one himself. Although to my knowledge he’s never once stepped foot in a flower shop before.”

Abby turned back to Connor and found him avoiding her questioning gaze, focusing instead on fiddling with his watch rather intently.

Adorable man.

A chirp from Laura’s phone had her jumping and grabbing Connor by the elbow. “I hate to do this to you, Abby, but I have to steal Connor away for about five minutes. I was hoping one of the other assistants would be free to keep you company but it appears you’ll have to mingle on your own for a bit.”

“Not a problem. I’ll be fine.” Yeah, big talk. She flashed them both a bright white smile.

Connor cast her a worried glance.

“Go, before you give Laura an aneurysm.”

As the two quickly made their way to the other end of the room, Abby contemplated finding a quiet table in the corner and pulling out her ereader. But she remembered her purpose for coming here tonight and stuck to the plan.

If she was going to seriously consider being with Connor, she needed to be able to exist in his world.

Eyeing the different groups of people around the room, she had no idea how to even strike up a conversation with any of these strangers.

“Hi, are you here with Connor Sullivan?”

Okay, well that was easy.

Abby turned around and did her best to keep her smile on her face when she saw who was speaking to her. It was the vampire-like woman who’d warned her away from Connor at his house party last summer. Great. Following up with a similarly cheerful voice, Abby replied, “I’m his date for the evening, yes. So nice to meet you.”

“You look so familiar—” The woman tapped one extravagantly manicured nail against her lower lip. “Oh I know! We met at one of Connor’s parties, didn’t we?”

Wow, if the woman wasn’t an actress by trade, she was seriously missing her calling.

“Yes, I believe we did. I’m afraid I don’t remember your name, however.”

“I’m Cassandra, and these ladies here—talk about standing in the woman’s shadow—are Janelle, Deborah, Elizabeth, and Clarissa.”

Abby nodded politely at each of the ladies, who were in turn, each looking at her like she was a mutant they wanted to dissect and run experiments on.

They descended on her like a circle of vultures.

“So you’re the one who’s taken Connor off the market,” sniffed the Deborah woman, looking down her sharp pointy nose at her.

Ah, so it was going to be one of those conversations. Well, here goes nothing. “Off the market? You make him sound like real estate for sale.” Abby tipped her head back and did a terrific imitation of Cassandra’s laugh.

Cassandra did not look amused.

“Oh, it’s a compliment,” reassured the one with the eye-blinding overabundance of jewelry draped on her like a vault had just exploded. “No one has been able to tame him yet.”

Abby resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Instead, she tossed out without a thought, “Well then all his other women are simply doing it wrong.” She cupped a theatric hand to her mouth for a stage whisper, “It helps if you take turns at it.” Impressively, she kept her laughter at bay.

When she looked up, she saw Connor nearing their group, a grin curving one corner of his mouth up.

Darn the man and his bat-like ears.

“Abby’s right, it’s way more fun that way,” he broke in. “Though I have to say, I much prefer Abby undomesticated.” Sliding his arm around her waist, he pulled her away from the group. “Ladies. Always a pleasure.”

A silent giggle attacked her middle as they made their way across the dance floor.

He whispered quietly. “Very nice. You effectively shut those women up. I’ve never seen anything like it.” Skimming a kiss over her cheek, he asked, eyes laughing, “So I take it you’re not so nervous anymore?”

No, she wasn’t.

She knew now that she could hold her own with this crowd and survive these parties.

The only question was if that’s really the life she wanted to live.




“Did you see that woman Connor brought tonight?”

Abby froze and silently sat back down in the ballroom restroom stall; Connor would just have to think she’d had some bad shrimp because she’d had just about all the snippy conversational warfare she could take tonight. These women were vicious.

“Was it that bitchy lawyer he brings sometimes?

“No, this one has this whole adorable wide-eyed, gollie-gee-whiz thing going.”