NFH 03 Checkmate (23 page)

He reached out and picked the cup up, afraid
that she'd burn herself, and gestured towards her office. "You can
attack it in there while we go over some paperwork," he said,
smiling when she pouted. When she reached out for it, almost as if
she couldn't help herself, he raised the cup higher and moved to
step around her.

Rory being Rory, of course tried to reach up
and take it away from him, but he simply shook his head and sighed
as he raised it higher and moved past her. He didn't bother to look
back to make sure that she was following him since he knew that the
little addict wasn't about to let the cocoa out of her sight. As he
stepped around her desk he placed her mug of cocoa down and sat in
her chair.

His ass barely touched the chair when Rory
was climbing onto his lap, sitting sideways as she picked up her
mug of cocoa and took a slow sip as she settled against him. As he
put his arm around her and gently cupped her hip, he couldn't help
but wonder if she even realized how comfortable she was around him.
Considering their history, the woman should be a nervous wreck
whenever he was within a fifty foot radius of her. Then again, Rory
James never reacted the way he expected her to, he thought with a
smile as he leaned in and pressed a kiss against her neck,
chuckling when she let out a little moan of pleasure.

"That good, huh?" he asked, keeping his hand
on her hip as he leaned forward, careful not to disturb her, and
opened the manila folder that McGill sent over earlier.

When Rory settled herself more comfortably
on his lap and threw her injured arm around his shoulders so that
she could turn slightly and look over the files with him, he had to
force his mind away from how good it felt to have her here like
this with him. Granted, she was only doing this because he was
blackmailing her, but that was just a minor detail and he chose to
ignore it.

"Did you see this?" she asked, pausing
mid-sip to nod in the direction of the file.

"No, I didn't get a chance to look at it
yet," he said, pulling the file to the edge of the desk so that
they could both get a better look and when he saw McGill's new
request he forced himself to go back and read it again, sure that
he was mistaken. "Are you fucking kidding me?"

"He wants us to rearrange the entire wine
cellar again and-"

"Turn the subbasement room that you fell
down into another storage room for wine," Connor finished for her,
letting out a frustrated breath as he sat back in his chair.

"That's going to make things a little more
difficult," Rory grumbled, taking another long sip of her
cocoa.

"Just a little," he said, dryly, mentally
calculating the time and cost this addition just added to the
project. The materials would be covered by McGill, but this new
request could kill this project.

"We're going to have to go overboard on the
overtime just to meet the deadline," Rory said, worrying her bottom
lip as she placed her mug, which he didn't need to check to know it
was empty, on the desk.

With all the other things that needed to be
done in under five months that was an understatement. Even with all
the men their companies employed, they were already going to have
to bust their asses to make that deadline. He already figured the
amount of overtime that his company could afford on a weekly basis
that would allow them to finish this project and not suffer a loss.
With this added little project they'd be lucky to break even.
They'd get paid more, that wasn't the problem. The problem was
labor. That was if they managed to make the deadline.

If they missed the deadline.......

Hell, he didn't even want to think about
that. They both had so much invested in this project. Not only
would they lose the bonus, but they'd also lose their reputations.
The only thing that would save his company's ass would be his plan
to steal the James brothers. Even though he planned on running Rory
out of business, he didn't want to do it this way.

If this project bankrupted her, she'd lose
everything including her house and he wasn't about to let that
happen. She'd probably hate him for the rest of her life once this
project was over and her brothers left her to come work for him,
but that didn't mean that he wanted her out of his life completely.
Christ, he didn't even want to think about going a day without
seeing her. He still planned on having her come work for him, but
it wouldn't be the same if it was because she'd lost everything.
There would also be no guarantee that she would come work for him
or even stay in town if that happened.

That meant that he was going to have to
figure out a way to finish this project so that they didn't end up
losing everything they had and unfortunately for Rory, he knew
exactly how to do it. She was going to argue it, but in the end she
would see that this was the only way.

"We're not going to make the deadline with
this new addition," he explained slowly, trying to figure out the
best way to break the news to her.

"If you have any suggestions, I'm all ears,"
she said with a sigh as she removed her arm from around his neck,
picked up the file and stood up. He almost stopped her, but decided
that space would probably be for the best right now.

He waited a minute before he decided to just
get it over with. "Rory?"

"Hmm?" she said, absently, never taking her
eyes away from the file as she paced the length of the office.

"We're going to have to postpone building
your suites," he explained, knowing that was the only way that they
were going to cut back on overtime and supplies and be able to meet
the deadline with the new project.

She paused mid-stride to shoot him a frown.
"What are you talking about?"

"Your suites, Rory. They're going to have to
wait until after we finish this project," he explained once again,
getting to his feet. "We can't spare the men or equipment right
now. Once we get the manor done, we'll complete the suites, Rory,"
he explained, knowing that it was going to cause a problem, but not
really caring. They needed to finish this project and he knew that
Rory would be understandably upset, but she'd pull it together and
they'd focus on the manor. Once that was done they'd turn their
attention to her project. He hated doing this to her, but there
really was no other way.

"Let me get this straight," she said,
tossing the file on the desk. "You want me to wait until after all
the renovations are done to build my suites?"

"It's the only way that we're going to get
this project done, Rory," he explained, again.

She met his gaze head on as she said, "No,
it's not."

Chapter 20

"What the hell do you think you're doing?"
Connor demanded.

"What does it look like I'm doing?" she
asked as she picked up her tool belt and dropped it on her
desk.

"You're not working," Connor gritted out,
from what sounded like clenched teeth, from behind her.

"It's not your choice," she pointed out as
she walked around her desk and pulled off her shirt, revealing a
black sports bra. She dropped the shirt on her desk chair and
leaned down to open the bottom desk drawer to grab a grey tank top
when she suddenly found herself swept off her feet. Before she
could so much as gasp, she was plopped down on the edge of the desk
with her legs hanging over the side and Connor standing between
them.

"You really think that's true?" he asked as
he slapped his hands down on either side of her hips and leaned in.
She almost leaned back, but fought against the urge, reminding
herself just who she was dealing with here. She would never back
down from Connor. Okay, so she did that one time, but that didn't
count.

She forced herself to ignore the hard glint
in his eyes, the clenched jaw and the fact that he looked close to
throttling her and moved into him. The move put their faces a few
inches apart and heaven help her, but she wanted to close the
distance and kiss that firm line away from the lips that she found
herself thinking about more than she should.

This was just supposed to be a deal between
them, just one more game. He shouldn't be affecting her like this.
No, she should be royally pissed that he pulled this crap on her
and part of her was, but there was another part of her that was
glad to have the excuse to touch and kiss him. This whole thing was
crazy. Only yesterday she was contemplating murder and now it was a
struggle to stay mad at the man and not wrap her arms around his
neck and pull him in for the kiss that she was craving.

There was no doubt in her mind that more
than two decades worth of hate was responsible for this. They say
there's a fine line between love and hate and for the first time in
her life she truly understood what that meant. As much as she hated
him, and she really did, she tried to tell herself, she also loved
being close to him, touching him and kissing him. As long as they
had this deal, she was free to do all those things and last night
she decided that for the sake of her project and to put an end to
the town drama that she would have to do just that. That didn't
mean that she planned on allowing the man to call the shots.

"We might have a deal for the project," she
said, placing her hands on his chest and ignoring just how good the
man felt beneath her touch, "but that doesn't mean you have the
right to tell me what to do, Connor, and if you think it does then
you're going to be in for a surprise."

She kept her eyes locked on his as she
pushed him back, getting to her feet in the process. He allowed it,
but she did notice his eyes narrowing even further as his jaw
clenched until the vein in his jaw was doing double time. Deciding
that she'd made her point, she turned around, grabbed a shirt out
of the bottom drawer and moved past him, not even sparing him a
look as she headed for the door.

"Then let's make a new deal," he said,
drawing her attention.

"A new deal?" she asked, slowly turning
around even as she prepared herself for the next blow. Oh, she had
a pretty good idea of where this "new deal" was heading and knew
that it would probably cause her to go for his nipples. If he tried
to use this project to control her, she was going to-

He cut off her slightly murderous thoughts
with a soft kiss and a chuckle that she refused to find sexy. "Hear
me out before you go for the pliers," he said, taking her hand into
his and giving it a slight tug that had her grudgingly following
after him.

"I was planning on going for your nipples,
not your ass," she felt obligated to point out.

"That's good to know," he said, sitting down
in the middle of the couch and with another slight tug that had her
rolling her eyes, she climbed onto his lap.

"If you want to talk then why do I have to
sit like this?" she asked, sighing in exasperation as Connor's eyes
dropped to her sports bra encased breasts and stayed there.

"Cause I think better with you in my arms,"
he murmured, letting out an appreciative little sigh that had her
lips twitching.

"They're just breasts, Connor," she said,
pretending that she didn't like his answer. She loved being in his
arms, she shouldn't, but she did. She only let him pull her onto
his lap for the plan of course. She really didn't want to sit on
his lap as she looked into his handsome face.

She really didn't.

"That's blasphemy, Rory," he said, sounding
pleased as she moved closer, for safety sake of course. Falls from
this height could be very dangerous, she decided as she moved
forward until she was sitting directly over his lap, her hands
resting on his chest and his warm breath fanning her skin. For a
moment, she forced her mind away from just how good he felt and
focused on the issue at hand.

"What's this new deal, Connor?"

With a sigh, he looked up and met her eyes,
but immediately looked back down, sighed heavily again before
finally looking back up. Once his attention was on her face she
couldn't help but notice that his expression became even more
pleased, looking as though he was truly happy with what he saw.

"Put all the focus on the main project for
three months and I promise you that we'll get those suites built by
the deadline," he swore softly as he wrapped his arms around
her.

For a moment all she could do was to stare
at him in shock. Finally, she managed to choke out, "Are you high?"
as she tried to climb off his lap, but he wasn't having that. He
tightened his arms around her, keeping her right where she was.

"Just listen to me for a minute, Rory. If we
put all of our extra resources towards your suites right now, we'll
screw ourselves over and even if you manage to finish them on time
it won't mean a damn thing if the rest of the hotel isn't completed
by then," he explained, making sense.

Damn it!

"You know that I'm right, Rory."

She let out a frustrated groan as she once
again settled into him. She'd always hated it when he was right and
this time there was no question about it. It didn't matter if she
got her suites built. Without the hotel being fully functional in
time they would mean nothing.

"Give me three months," Connor said, leaning
forward and brushing his lips against hers, "and I will make sure
that you have everything that you need to get those suites done,
Rory."

"Fine," she whispered against his lips.

She'd give him three months to get the hotel
going and when the time came he better keep his word. Until then
she should focus all of her attention on the job, she decided as
she tilted her head to deepen the kiss even as her brain screamed
at her to stop. This was just a deal. She shouldn't be doing this.
They had to stop, she reminded herself, moving to get off his lap,
but she couldn't do it.