Bad Boy (Invertary 5)

Of course it was. “Please thank Lawrence as well. Is he coming over this morning?”

Victoria frowned. “He’s busy.” Abby thought the topic was closed, but her sister surprised her. “He has some fool notion he’s chasing.”

“Oh?” Was it possible Victoria was trying to have a conversation with her? Had the sky fallen?

Victoria shifted nervously. “He’s talking to his partners today. He wants them to buy him out of their practice. He’s got the idea into his head of moving to Invertary and starting a smaller practice here.” She looked bewildered. “He wants to learn how to fish.”

Abby didn’t know what to say. She wasn’t sure what this news meant. “The town does need a lawyer. We don’t have one.”

“That’s what Lawrence said.” Victoria stared at the wall. Abby thought the conversation was over. “He wants me to move here with him to run the office.” The statement was so soft Abby wasn’t sure she’d heard it. “Of course, I told him his idea was preposterous. Mother would never allow it.”

“Does she have to allow it?” What am I doing? Do I want a permanent spy living in town? She looked at her sister and knew the truth. If she could have family nearby, if she could have a chance to get to know Victoria properly without their mother getting in the way, she wouldn’t hesitate. “It’s your life. It’s up to you.”

Victoria gave a most unladylike snort. “This hasn’t been my life for years.” She seemed startled when the words came out of her mouth.

Before Abby could say anything else, Katy ran into the room and straight to her aunt. “I have glitter, and colour, and hair clips, and ribbon, and face paint, and glue.”

“Glue?” Victoria said.

Katy rolled her eyes. “In case we want to keep the hair in a nice shape.”

“I’ll get hairspray.” Abby smiled at her daughter. “You confiscate the glue,” she told Victoria.

Victoria nodded as Katy continued to talk a mile a minute. Abby left them to it as she headed upstairs to fetch the hairspray. As she passed the front door, someone knocked. Thinking it was Lawrence, she opened it. And found Flynn standing on her step. Her heart raced. Her cheeks warmed. And part of her, a secret part, softened just at the sight of him.

His jeans were worn and scuffed with age. They fit him like a second skin. The material of his shirt looked so soft she wanted to rub her face on it—right over his pecs where the fabric strained. He thrust his hands into his back pockets and rocked on his heels. He seemed nervous and unsure, which was kind of endearing.

“I was worried,” he snapped, as though the statement was an accusation. He frowned at her. “About you.”

Abby was bewildered. From his attitude it seemed he wasn’t pleased to be worrying about her. Or maybe he just wasn’t used to someone other than himself taking up space in his head.

“Thanks?” she said.

Flynn gave her a look of chastisement, took his hands from his pockets and walked into the house. As though he belonged there. Without thinking, Abby shut the door behind him. Seemed he wasn’t the only one who thought his presence in her home, and life, was normal.

He turned towards her, crowding her space, making her back up against the front door.

“Are you okay?”

“Yes?” Why was everything coming out as a question?

He trailed a finger from her cheekbone to her jaw. “You said you needed time to process. Have you had enough? Because I really want to kiss you again.”

Something inside her melted at his confession. She blinked up at him as her body swayed towards him. Her body didn’t need time to process. Her body had no problem letting Flynn loose with it.

“I know how hard it is to move on from something you thought you’d have forever. I know you’re confused about letting another man near you. But I’d really like the processing time to be over. Is it over, Abby? Can I taste you again?”

The way he whispered the words, not a hairsbreadth away from her mouth, made her wonder what kind of tasting he meant. Heat rushed through her body, followed very closely by desire. He was staring at her. He seemed to expect an answer.

“My sister is in the living room.”

“We’ll be quiet.”

“Then I’m okay,” she whispered. She couldn’t tear her eyes from his.

“Thank you, Lord.” He cupped her jaw in his huge hands, tilted her head and captured her mouth with his.

Every time Flynn was near, every time his scent engulfed her and his strength bracketed her, she turned to mush. Delighted, happy mush. One of his hands flattened against the small of her back to pull her into him. Abby softly moaned her approval into his mouth. Her arms felt weightless as she wrapped them around his shoulders. Her fingers entangled in the golden hair at the base of his skull. All the while, his lips and tongue teased, entwined, duelled with hers. Bliss. Mind-stealing bliss.