Choosing the Right Man - Nice Girl to Love, Vol 3 (Can't Resist #3)(12)

Cheeks flushed, she withdrew her hand and stepped back instantly. “I’m sorry. I just—”

“Honey, don’t ever apologize for reacting to me,” he caught her hand and slipped his fingers back between hers. “Sanity is overrated.”

Glancing down at their intertwined fingers, she smiled shyly, “Okay, I give. So what were those chaste date activities you had in mind?”

He opened the door to the walk-in pantry and showed her the world map he’d put up on the far wall.

She peered at it and then looked up at him questioningly.

“Pick a country you haven’t visited yet on your culinary tour. I figure for starters, you and I can travel on your culinary tour together—you pick the country, we’ll research the recipes we want to try out and do our best not to screw them up.”

“Really?” Pleasure infused her features so candidly that he simply stood there, transfixed.

She threw her arms around him and gave him a laughing hug. “That would be great!”

It took every ounce of willpower he possessed to resist pushing her back against the wall and drinking in that laugh right from her lips.

Damn.

Unable to help himself, he caught her chin between his fingers and tilted her face up to his.

“It’s taking all the control I have not to kiss you right now, Abby. Every second I’m this close to you, my brain is imagining at least a dozen ways to make love to you.” He leaned forward and felt his control slip another notch at the feel of her breath against his lips. “Tell me you still think about me too.”

Her eyes dilated with a speed that tested his resolve even more.

So much better than a yes.

But before either of them could go down a path they wouldn’t be able to come back from, she pulled away. At the very last second. And the only salve to his bleeding heart was that she’d looked just as torn and disappointed as he felt when she did.

He drew back from the temptation of her soft lips, and rested his forehead against hers. “You asked me what sort of things I almost called you about? This was one of them. I wanted to call you to tell you that I was thinking about you, about kissing you and stripping every inch of clothing off of you so I could take you right then and there. And tonight, I’m going to pick up that phone and not call you again, not call to tell you that I wish you were asleep next to me in bed so I could hold you, kiss you awake in the morning, and spend the entire day thinking about you and missing you...”

“Just so I could come home to you and start the whole process all over again.”





CHAPTER FIVE


SHE’D ALMOST KISSED HIM. Sugarplums, who was she kidding, she’d almost stripped all her clothes off for him right there in the kitchen. Sure she had pulled back at the last moment, and yes, they’d called it a night shortly after, but it was over a week later and that non-kiss was still sizzling away in her brain.

The all-determining coin toss had never looked so appealing.

Granted, Connor had been kidding about having applied it to their dating arrangement but still, the idea held merit. Mostly because it was the only one she had.

After spending a week with Connor and a week with Brian, Abby was no closer to making a decision than she’d been at the beginning of this insane joint custody agreement.

Because as intensely as Connor could make her heart race, Brian could just as quickly make it melt.

Brian had requested this past week for his date week because he and Skylar had the week off of school for spring break, just as she had. And in true Brian fashion, he’d planned the perfect vacation. He took them up north for three days of sledding and rabidly competitive snowman building, and three nights of toasting marshmallows in front of the fire and drinking hot cocoa.

“You said you’d always wanted a snow day during school when you were growing up,” he’d explained when he and Skylar had revealed the surprise. “And since this is officially your last semester as a student, ever, I thought we’d better get that snow day in.”

Heartmelting man.

Which was precisely why she was right back between a rock and a hard place.

Every time she thought she was leaning one way in her decision, something would happen to swing her vote right back.

“Your move, Abby.”

Shaking her head, Abby glanced up and saw a pair of dice rattling in front of her face.

“Earth to Abby,” called out Skylar with a grin. “It’s your turn.”

Abby looked down at her nearly depleted Monopoly money pile and then over at the overflowing stacks of bills on both Brian and Skylar’s ends of the table. Like father, like daughter. With a sigh of defeat, she rolled the dice and waited to see which triumphant hoot and egging holler she’d hear when the numbers landed.

3 - 2 - 1...

Soprano it was. “I win!” Skylar bounced up and down in her chair.

Starting about two years ago, when it was clear that even Skylar as a ten-year old could whip Abby’s butt in Monopoly, they’d decided they needed a new end-point to their board game nights since playing with only two people wasn’t any fun. That was the birth of the whoever’s-winning-when-Abby-loses ruling.

To be fair, she and Skylar had a similar ruling when they played Jenga against Brian with his bear-like paws.

Brian chuckled and gave Abby a consolation kiss on the forehead. “You lasted almost an hour. That’s a new record.”