Resisting the Bad Boy by Violet Duke Read Free Book Online

the woman managed to look so sexy in a huge beat-up men’s shirt was beyond him. “I’m sorry. I didn’t hear what you just said.”
    Her look told him she knew he was anything but sorry. “I asked why you were so convinced I was a gold-digger. You’re a handsome guy, couldn’t a half-naked woman on your porch step just be after you for sex? The uniform would suggest so.”
    He shrugged. “Most of the ones who’ve shown up have been. But if I were broke off my ass, they wouldn’t have been standing at my door to begin with.”
    “Point taken.” She chewed thoughtfully. “So you’re saying the only women who you deign to let in your home are the ones who aren’t interested in your money at all?”
    “If I did, I’d have to take a vow of celibacy,” he replied honestly. “It’s a catch-22. Typically, the women not interested in my money are also not interested in a one-month arrangement.”
    “Ah yes, the infamous one-month Connor Sullivan rule. Brian’s told me about it. I bet that’s another factor for some of these women who throw themselves at you—trying to become the white unicorn who you one day break your rule over.”
    His jaw firmed. “Never going to happen.”
    The corner of her lips quirked up. “Don’t worry, stud. I’m not submitting an application or anything.”
    Now why did that declaration fill him with a touch of disappointment?
    “Enough about me,” he said gruffly. “Tell me more about you. Something besides your research.”
    She laughed. “Well that narrows it way down. Now that I’m in my final year of my PhD program and done with all my coursework, my dissertation is the only big thing in my life right now. Other than that, there’s really not much to tell.”
    “What about work? Don’t you tutor at Skylar’s school?”
    “Oh, I do that as a volunteer. A couple of afternoons a week for the kids that are struggling.”
    How noble. He couldn’t remember the last woman he’d met whose idea of volunteering wasn’t strictly confined to sitting on executive boards and planning fundraising events. “I could’ve sworn Brian told me you teach English.”
    “I do. I teach English at ASU as a part of my fellowship. I get my tuition covered and get paid a lecturer’s salary, which isn’t much. Thankfully, one of my professors offered to rent out this guesthouse to me—living here costs less than I used to pay for my apartment in Tempe two years ago, and I basically get the entire back half of their ginormous lot all to myself.”
    Connor leaned back, stuffed, surprised at how easy it was to talk with Abby. “Doesn’t sound like you have that much time for yourself. What do you do for fun?”
    She got up to grab them another two beers from the kitchen. “Honestly, I’m a homebody. Never got into the nightlife scene here. By the time I was twenty-one, I was basically babysitting Skylar every weekend, and half my weeknights. Since that pretty much carried on clear until last year, I guess my idea of fun is hanging out with her. Lame, I know.”
    He felt like he was talking to a martian. He hadn’t realized she’d spent even more time babysitting Skylar than he had. And he knew for a fact—from Brian’s complaints about it—that she hadn’t taken a single cent from them for babysitting.
    For God’s sakes, she was just so nice .
    “So you don’t do anything just for yourself? Just for fun?”
    “Well, I have been privately executing my mission to learn how to cook the most beloved dishes from every country in the world,” she returned with a smile. “That’s fun.”
    It was possible baby bluebirds helped her get dressed in the morning.
    She was just that sweet.
    “You’re driving me crazy.” He swept an arm around her waist and lifted her right up onto his lap.
    “Connor!”
    He slid a hand into her hair, rubbed a thumb over her heated cheekbone as he brought his lips to within inches of hers. “I shouldn’t want you this much. You’re everything