NICE GIRL TO LOVE (THE COMPLETE THREE-BOOK COLLECTION)(9)

Jesus, every inch of her fit him perfectly.

Damn it.




“I’M NOT POACHING my brother’s woman,” he rumbled in her ear, his words a hot, rough brand against her skin.

Abby shivered, arched her neck at the sensation. No, of course he wouldn’t poach. Not Connor. She’d been hearing about Saint Connor for years now from both Brian and Beth. A bit of a man whore, yes, but an otherwise great guy.

A noble bad boy.

And all the more irresistible for it.

A large part of her reasoned she should set the record straight right now. Explain that she wasn’t Brian’s woman. Free Connor’s guilty conscience.

Give the green light for the kiss they both wanted.

Instead, she turned her head away. “You should go.”

His sharp inhalation cut the air like a knife as he backed quickly away from her. “Abby, I’m sorry. I didn’t—”

The slamming of a car door had them jumping apart another three feet. Abby shifted her gaze to the driveway and saw Brian bounding toward them, sprinting through the rain.

Geez, when it rained it poured.

“Hey, Brian. What’s up?”

“We just wanted to make sure you got home okay.” He sluiced water off his jacket and pointed back to the SUV.

Seeing Skylar rapid-fire waving at her from the passenger seat, Abby smiled and waved back. “What’s with all the worrying? You’d think this was acid rain I ran home in.”

Instead of replying, Brian slid his attention over to Connor. “Skylar mentioned you might be here. Everything alright?”

“Never better.” Connor’s face was the picture of innocence. “Just checking in on Skylar’s guardian angel here, same as you.”

“Uh huh.” Brian nodded over at her kitchen. “Nice flowers. Who died?”

Abby drew out a forlorn sigh. “The perils of ordering flowers online. Small summer bouquet, my ass.”

Connor’s shoulders shook in silent laughter.

Brian rolled his eyes. “You suck at lying.” He turned on his brother. “What’d you do?”

“Nothing!” Abby broke in, cutting Connor off at the pass. “It was just a small misunderstanding. No biggie.”

Arms folded over his chest, Brian silently looked from her to Connor then back to her. “This misunderstanding wouldn’t have anything to do with you and me would it?”

Abby shot Brian her loudest shut the hell up glare, knowing that the power of telepathy she’d wished for as a kid was still on back order.

“You did the big brother thing, didn’t you?” he sighed, shaking his head at Connor. “Did you grill her ‘til she broke?”

Connor pinned her with a dark look. “I tried. But Abby apparently keeps secrets extremely well.” Suspicion and something…weightier than distrust rolled off of him in waves.

Brian frowned. “Hey, ease up. I asked Abby to play along so you’d stop looking at me with such pity.”

Connor snapped his gaze back over to Brian. “What? I haven’t been doing that have I?”

“Yeah,” Brian said softly, “you have. Look, I get it—my wife died, I’m a single dad of a preteen daughter, and my last date before Beth was at a bowling alley when I was fifteen. If the shoe was on the other foot, I’d be a pain in your ass too. But it’s been a year; I’m doing fine. Better than fine. You’ve got to stop worrying so much about me.”

“Not happening,” grunted Connor. “It’s all a part of the sibling platinum package. And you have a lifetime membership.”

Brian grinned. “I wasn’t asking you to revoke my club card. Just…try to lay off the kid gloves around me, will you?”

Connor gave him another burly, noncommittal grumble that made Abby swoon just a tiny bit. If she were the type to keep a checklist for the dream-perfect guy, ‘being a protective brother’ would now be a top ten criteria. It was incredibly sexy. And their manly bickering was just plain cute. She smiled, half expecting a poignantly awkward bro hug at some point.

Unfortunately, she realized much too late to do any good that she wasn’t just smiling, she was staring. At Connor.

And he was staring right back.

A slow smile transformed his expression, right before he abruptly asked the inevitable, “So that means the two of you…”

“—aren’t really dating,” shrugged Brian.

“Interesting.”

Lordy, Abby had heard of a ‘wolfish grin’ before, but no one told her it’d make her panties catch on fire.

She quickly moved to usher both brothers out of her doorway. “Well, since that’s all settled, everyone can head on home and I can get back to that shower I never got to take.”

Great, there was that wolfish grin again. You just had to bring up the shower didn’t you? Connor was practically eating her up with his eyes. And she liked it. Far too much. So she chose to treat his heated stare like a solar eclipse.

After she blindly pushed both men right off her porch back into the rain, they eventually had no choice but to run back to their cars to avoid getting soaked. The moment they were both out of sight, she rushed through her house to her bathroom, pulling her clothes off as she went.

Screw the shower, she needed a long, hot bath.