Choosing the Right Man - Nice Girl to Love, Vol 3 (Can't Resist #3)(4)

Christ.

Tearing his lips from hers, he fought to draw in a calming breath. Slowly dropping her back down onto the couch, he placed another soft kiss on her lips before pulling away. “Not until you’re sure, Abby. Not until you know for certain who you want kissing you for the rest of your life.”

And though every fiber in his body fought to hold on to her, called him a fool for not doing everything in his power to drive all thoughts of his brother out of her head now before it was too late, he let her go.

It took all the strength he possessed not to follow her as she walked away.

“I love you, Abby,” he said softly as she retreated down the hall to her bedroom, knowing there was no way she could hear him.

Knowing that she would convince herself to come back to him if she did.

Before she disappeared completely into her bedroom, she paused for just the briefest of moments. And in his heart, he swore he heard her say the words back to him, even though the only sound his ears registered was the sound of her bedroom door closing shut behind her.

Grabbing his usual pillow and blanket, Brian dropped down onto the sofa and burrowed in, hoping sleep would take him before all the shoved-aside questions did.

No such luck.

The house was so deafeningly silent, he could hear the hum of every electronic device in the room like a chorus of white noise playing against the symphony of jumbled thoughts crashing around in his head.

It took a full hour for sleep to finally draw him under...and a mere split second to wake up again when the sharp gasp and tortured whimper he’d heard had him bolting to his feet and rushing to Abby’s room.





CHAPTER TWO


ABBY TOSSED AND TURNED, both hypnotized and frustrated with the images swirling in her mind, ebbing her in and out of sleep, forcing her to straddle the edge of reality...and sanity. One minute she was in bed curled up under the covers, and in the next, she was flat on her back on the counter in her kitchen in mindless bliss. Her sheets were wound tight around her legs, binding her in her dreams as a pair of strong hands skimmed under the fabric, higher and higher, edging her closer to the brink.

She bucked and felt the countertop against her skin once again as she dragged her palms over the flexing, sinewy muscles of his back, memorized every granite hard ridge with her fingertips. Her legs were free now but only for a second before he pulled her hips against his and bound her in newer, better ways. His arms wrapped around her like steel bands as he slipped between her thighs and rocked gently against her heat. Over and over until her entire body erupted with sensation.

And then he was gone again.

Her own hands replaced the invisible ones from her dream and she arched her back, silently calling him back to her. She could hear him. Whispering to her. Telling her all of the things he wanted to do, would do. She arched again and felt his lips graze over her belly, and lower.

Her body wasn’t her own to control anymore. Demanding her eyes to open did nothing. While the swipe of his tongue against her flesh kept her legs pinned to the counter.

No, the bed.

A silent scream escaped her as she felt him plunge into her in one long, slick thrust, his entire length buried to the hilt.

Only to have him retreat. Again.

She bucked up and then slammed back against the bed—no, the counter—as the feel of his teeth closing over her nipple sent her spinning, spiraling toward an orgasm she couldn’t reach.

Lifting her head, she tried to see his face but he stayed hidden in the shadows of her mind even as she felt his gaze sizzling a determined path across her skin, branding her, further chaining her to her dreams.

To him.

His name, poised on her lips, scattered into the empty room as he drove into her one more time and slid his hands down the lines of her torso once again. But the fingers slipping between her legs were her own and the sound of his groan splitting the air was her undoing.

Waves of pleasure twisted over her and his mouth caught hers in a kiss that had her coming all over again with a surge of heat. She felt split in two—her body, her dreams.

Her mind, her heart.

Everything crashed together and she felt him pulling away before she was ready to let him go. She fought to open her eyes, panic coursing through her at the thought of losing him, fear of the unknown clawing at her heart at the thought of finding him.

He slipped from her arms completely and she jolted upright in bed.

Breathing hard, the ability to lift her eyelids returned and she adjusted her vision to the darkness.

Her bedroom, not the kitchen.

Her own hands, not his.

And all the questions in her mind were now weighing a thousand times heavier on her heart.

Drawing in the thick air all around her, she thought about getting up to get some water to cool her parched throat. But the idea of facing Brian so soon after that dream had her swallowing down the sandpapery shards of her guilt, filling her lungs with every conflicting thought that was tearing her in two.

Because she just didn’t know.

So she fell back against her bed and drifted back off into another restless sleep instead.

With the man of her dreams whose face she couldn’t see.




HOLY SHIT. Brian paced in the living room and tried to calm the hell down.

She’d been having a sex dream.

He’d left as soon as he’d figured out she wasn’t having a nightmare but good lord. It had been the hottest three seconds he’d ever witnessed.