NFH 03 Checkmate (13 page)

Her smartass remark helped ease some of his
worry, but that only made way for the anger that had been simmering
in the background. Now he couldn't hold it back any longer. She'd
scared the shit out of him when she disappeared through the floor.
Then when she didn't answer him and he couldn't get to her fast
enough he'd feared the worse.

"What the hell were you doing down here by
yourself in the first place?" he demanded as he continued to look
her over, ignoring the way his hands shook at the memory of her
falling through the floor.

"My job," she said tightly as she sucked in
another deep breath.

"You had no business being down here, Rory,"
he said, noting the way she shivered. He pulled his long sleeve
shirt off and laid it over her, leaving him in a white tee
shirt.

"McGill called up and asked me to look into
making the wine storage room bigger," she explained with a tremor
in her voice as she did her best to hold it together.

"Then you should have waited for me, Rory,"
he snapped, feeling like an asshole yelling at an injured woman,
but he couldn't help it. He knew he was taking it out on her, but
god help him, he really just couldn't help it. He'd never been so
frightened in his life.

"You were kind of tied up at the moment,"
she said, smiling weakly.

"And if you weren't interfering with my job,
Rory, I would have been here!"

"Stop yelling at me, you insensitive
bastard! You had it coming and you damn well know it," she said,
forcing her eyes open to glare at him, then immediately winced and
closed them right back up again as she assumed her grimace of
pain.

"All I know is that better be the last time
you pull a stunt like that, Rory. Whether you like it or not, this
is my project and if you want to stick around then you're going to
start doing things my way and that includes not taking bullshit
chances," he bit through clenched teeth as he fought against the
urge to pull the infuriating woman into his arms and comfort
her.

"Doing my job is not taking
chances and this is my project as well so you need to get the hell
over-
ow
!" she
cried out, turning her face towards the dirt floor as if she were
trying to hide from the pain.

"Rory?" Brian yelled down the hole.

"She's fine!" Connor yelled back, never
taking his eyes off her. Not knowing what else to do at the moment,
he reached out and took her good hand into his and held it. He was
surprised when she didn't try to pull her hand away, but instead
gave his hand a squeeze.

"This is my project too, Connor, and if you
can't accept that then we're going to have some serious problems,"
she said evenly after a minute as she continued to clasp onto his
hand like a lifeline.

He sighed heavily. She was right of course.
They were going to have problems.

* * * *

"I'm going to kick his ass," Craig said,
earning approving nods from the rest of her brothers who were
lounging around her bedroom.

"I told you," she said, sucking in a breath
as sharp pain shot up her left arm and raced around her ribs as she
slowly made her way from the bathroom to her bed, "he didn't do
this."

Her brothers grumbled something, but quickly
they let it go, which she would forever appreciate. Her head was
pounding, her side hurt, she was starving and her arm was killing
her. She couldn't wait to get into bed and take a few of the
painkillers the doctor had given her.

As soon as she made it to the bed she let
out a sigh of relief and proceeded to take her pills. She
considered asking her brothers to get her something to eat, but
that would mean having them stick around longer. Unfortunately for
her, her brothers weren't exactly known for their domestic skills
or their ability to be quiet and right now peace and quiet were the
things that she craved more than anything.

Carefully, she laid down and closed her
eyes, releasing another sigh of relief. Sleep, she just needed a
little sleep and she'd be fine, she decided as she felt the first
tendrils of sleep pull at her.

"Who's staying the night?" Sean asked,
yanking her right back to reality, but since she was comfortable
she decided not to bother with opening her eyes as she said, "No
one is staying. Now get the hell out so that I can sleep," she
mumbled around a loud yawn.

Her brothers weren't the coddling type and
took her at her word. Craig took Bunny home with him for the night
and they promised to give Dad an update so that he wouldn't worry.
Not that he would. If it wasn't serious enough to warrant a night
in the hospital then it wasn't serious enough to worry about, was
her father's motto. He'd checked up on her at the ER, spoke with
the doctor and when she told him that she was fine, he took her at
her word.

Her brothers weren't so easily dissuaded,
but giving her a ride home was pretty much the extent of their
nursing abilities. They made her promise to call them if she needed
anything, but other than that they left her to get a good night's
sleep. That was all she needed, she thought as she drifted off.

It was pitch black when she woke up, biting
back a cry of pain. Why did it hurt so much? It hadn’t hurt this
badly when it broke and that had definitely been a memorable
occasion. Her head pounded and with every breath she took, her ribs
screamed in protest

Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to send her
brothers away, she realized as she turned slightly to bury her face
against her pillow and let out a scream of agony. She needed her
pills or at the very least have someone knock her out so that she
didn't have to experience this much pain.

"Shhhhh."

She barely heard the whisper or registered
the large strong hands on her shoulders as she was turned over onto
her back and pills were pressed against her lips. Once she accepted
them into her mouth, the rim of a water bottle quickly followed.
She swallowed her pills as she struggled not to scream out against
the pain.

This was too much. She couldn't handle this,
couldn't do this, she realized, panicking at the thought that there
would be no escaping from this pain. She would have to-

"Shhhh, I've got you," the deep familiar
voice said soothingly as she was carefully shifted until she was
lying on her right side with her injured arm resting across a firm
stomach. Her face was pressed against a warm shoulder as a strong
arm came up behind her and pulled her closer.

"Connor?" she whispered softly, but
apparently not softly enough since the sound tore through her
already throbbing head.

"Go to sleep, Rory," he whispered against
the top of her head.

If Connor was taking care of her, it could
only mean one thing.......

"How long do I have?" she asked, squeezing
her eyes shut against the pain.

She felt him go still beneath her. "How long
do you have for what?"

She scoffed even as she adjusted herself so
that she was lying tightly against him, accepting the comfort he
offered during her last hours on this earth.

"Before I kick the bucket. What the hell do
you think I'm talking about?" she snapped, immediately regretting
the action when it sent sharp pain through her skull.

"That really depends on how much you piss me
off," he sighed as he pulled her impossibly closer as if he needed
the comfort as much as she did.

She thought over what he said and could only
come to only one conclusion. "So it'll be soon then?"

He chuckled softly. "Probably."

Chapter 11

She was so damn beautiful, he thought as he
gently pushed her hair away from the small cut on her forehead that
hadn't needed stitches. He hoped it didn't leave a scar, not that
it would lessen Rory's appeal, but it would be a constant reminder
of the time that he failed her.

Instead of stubbornly standing there
yesterday while she worked, he should have taken over. Then it
would have been him falling through the floor and not her. He'd
take a broken arm and bruised ribs over the scare she'd given him
any day.

After she was placed on a backboard, hoisted
up through the hole and placed in the back of the ambulance, he
forced himself to walk away like it didn't bother him. He spent the
rest of the night thinking. Rory was stubborn, holy hell was she
stubborn and no matter what he did or said the damn woman wasn't
going to stay away from the job site even with a broken arm. He
could either fight with her and waste precious time and energy or
he could give in, with a few conditions of course.

Rory needed someone to watch over her and
since her brothers were too damn lazy to do it, that left only him.
Not that it bothered him. He'd been doing it for most of their
lives after all. At first he did it because he hadn't liked the
idea of anyone else tormenting her and of course it did make it
easier to make her life a living hell, but later on when they were
both adults he did it out of guilt. He'd fucked up her life, big
time, and he couldn't stomach the idea of her ever going through
that much pain again, not because of him.

He'd tried to apologize several times, but
she wouldn't listen to him. She hated him and he couldn't blame
her. He'd done it for her own good, but he knew there was nothing
that he could say to get her to see that. So instead, he kept an
eye out for her and if anyone hurt her, he stepped in. A few of her
boyfriends hadn't treated her right. They treated her like shit,
cheated on her left and right, and just made her miserable.

A few of them, her brothers stepped up and
handled, but there were a few that slipped their notice. He
noticed. The asshole that shoved Rory in the parking lot over on
Harrison after she dumped his ass ended up in the hospital later
that night when Connor caught up with him. The asshole that bragged
to his buddies that Rory was a bad lay ended up taking back every
last word through a mouthful of broken teeth. He did his best to
make up for what he’d done and this time would be no different.

He'd watch after her and keep her out of
danger. Keeping an eye out for her would add to his workload, but
if it meant keeping her safe then he'd do it. He owed her that much
at least. If he hadn't interfered all those years ago she'd
probably be head of the PTA by now with a dozen or so kids at home
fighting for her attention instead of the pain in the ass dog with
a fucked up name. Thanks to him that's not how things turned out.
Thanks to him, she was doing a job that she had no business doing
and was alone.

Not that he took the entire blame for her
being alone. He didn't. Rory was easily the sexiest woman in town.
Every man in town with two working eyes agreed. She was Playboy
level hot. Great body, beautiful long hair with natural highlights
and a face meant to take a man's breath away and she knew it,
too.

Rory James knew how hot she was, but didn't
care. Her focus was on her company and that was the problem. If she
stepped back or let her brothers take over, she'd be able to find a
decent guy to settle down with. Not that he was going to push for
that. Oh hell no, she was his to torment. He might watch over her
because of the damn guilt that racked him, but that didn't mean he
didn't enjoy their daily antics. He did and he fully planned on
continuing with them until she either slapped a restraining order
against him or a doctor called his time of death.

Until this project was over, he would have
to keep an eye on her and while he did that he would continue to
work on winning her brothers over. They'd gotten off to a rough
patch, but now he knew what he had to do. Thanks to her father's
invitation to join them this Sunday it was just a matter of time
before the James boys ditched their sister and came to work for
him, hopefully taking Rory's best employees right along with
them.

If Rory needed a job after she lost her
business because her best employees came to work for him then he'd
consider letting her be his assistant. She could fetch his drinks
and food all while wearing a tight Highland Construction tee shirt
and tight jeans that showcased her ass perfectly. He'd be able to
keep her safe, keep her close by to torment and really, that was
all that mattered.

* * * *

"What the hell are you doing?" Rory demanded
as she sat up, a little too quickly, she realized a few seconds
later when the dull ache above her temple protested.

Without taking his eyes away from the laptop
on his lap, Connor reached over and grabbed the prescription bottle
off the night stand and handed it to her. "I'm working, Rory. What
does it look like?" he asked distractedly as he looked at a file
that he had spread open on the bed next to him.

"It looks like you're half naked in my bed!"
she said, screeching just a tad bit.

He simply shrugged one wide shoulder as he
grabbed a bottle of water and handed it to her. Since her head hurt
and her arm felt like someone was shoving hot pokers into the bone,
she decided to take her pills before she killed him. She took the
pills, never taking her eyes off of him while she did it. Connor
simply ignored her as he continued typing away at his computer,
only pausing long enough to absently scratch his bare chest.

Her eyes darted down to the pair of charcoal
colored sweatpants he wore and back up to his bare chest and then
finally to his face, confirming her first observation, the man
truly was half naked in her bed.

"Get out," she said, inwardly cringing when
pain radiated up her arm as she slowly climbed off the bed and got
to her feet.

"Can't," he said, keeping his focus on his
computer while she looked around for something to throw at him.
When she spotted her boots she considered throwing them, but they
really wouldn't get the job done so she settled on glaring at him
while she made her way to the bathroom.