NFH 03 Checkmate (28 page)

"It really was though," he said, leaning in
and brushing his lips against hers. "Whenever you use my body for
sex-"

"For the agreement," she quickly added, not
wanting him to get the wrong idea that she wanted him or
anything.

He ignored the interruption as he continued,
"-then you have to sleep with me."

"What if we have a quickie during lunch?"
she asked, wondering if he was planning on making up the rules as
they went along. She really should call veto, and she would just as
soon as he said something that didn't secretly please her.

"Then you have dinner with me, stay the
night and have breakfast in the morning," he explained, turning
over onto his back, taking her with him and gently laying her on
his other side so that she could curl up against him and rest her
injured arm across his chest. With a put out sigh, she did just
that.

"Why exactly do I have to do all that just
to have my way with you?" she asked, closing her eyes and snuggling
up against him.

"How else are we supposed to convince people
that we're madly in love," he murmured softly as he placed his hand
gently over her injured hand.

"Good point," she said, closing her eyes and
pretending that his words didn't make something inside of her
ache.

Chapter 24

"I really have to go," Rory said even as she
tugged him down for another kiss.

"Then go," Connor said as he wrapped his
arms around her and raised her off the ground so that he could give
her a proper goodbye kiss before he left.

They'd barely managed to get an hour of
sleep before his alarm went off, reminding him that he really
needed to move his ass if he had any hopes of pulling off his plan.
As much as he wanted to stay in bed with Rory and hold her for the
rest of the day, he had to leave her. He had to take her father up
on his offer so that he could get some time in with her brothers
and that meant leaving her.

It didn't hurt that he knew that she
wouldn't be too far away while he was getting in a little male
bonding time with her brothers. While he was fishing, she'd be up
at the house with her brothers' girlfriends doing whatever the hell
it is that they did. Knowing that he'd be able to sneak off and
steal a kiss or two was the only thing that got him to move his ass
and get in the shower before he did something stupid like say to
hell with his plan and focus on keeping Rory in his bed.

He was actually pretty proud of himself this
morning. He managed to beat the shit out of his alarm clock, get
out of bed and into the shower without giving into temptation. He
may have lingered in the shower for a few minutes on the off chance
that Rory decided to join him. She had an injured arm after all and
might be in need of an extra hand or two to help soap up her
incredible body. It was a sacrifice, but one he was willing to make
for her.

After a few minutes, he gave up and started
getting ready. When he stepped into his room, he didn't even bother
to bite back his disappointed sigh when he found his bed empty.
He'd been hoping that she'd be there, giving him the excuse that he
needed to focus on her. A wave of exhaustion hit him and he'd been
tempted to crawl back into bed, but without Rory lying in his arms
he hadn't seen the point.

He'd just been resigning himself to spending
a few hours without kissing her when he spotted her walking towards
her Jeep, carrying her backpack and thermos. When their eyes
locked, a hot current shot through his body, shooting straight to
his heart and stealing the air out of his lungs and before he knew
it, he was making his way across their yards and pulling her into
his arms.

She went willingly, more than willingly,
which still stunned him considering that only a month ago she would
have gone for her pliers. He'd dated plenty of women in the past,
but none of them made him feel the way that she did, complete. On
some level she'd always made him feel that way, but after making
love to her, something inside of him clicked. He didn't understand
it, but he wasn't going to fight it either.

He was done fighting with her.

When this project was over, he was keeping
her, deal or no deal. She belonged with him. They were so much
alike that it was a little frightening, well, to everyone else.
Years ago he knew that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with
her, but he'd convinced himself that they were both better off
without the added complication in their lives. It wouldn't be easy
convincing her to take a real chance on him, but he didn't care.
This morning he had a taste of what it could be like between them
and he'd have to be out of his fucking mind to give that up.

He was still going to steal her brothers out
from under her and run her out of business, but now he planned on
doing it with a little more finesse. Instead of watching her
business go under, he was going to step up when the time came and
buy her business. That way Rory wouldn't feel like a failure and
leave town so she'd be able to spend the day working for him and
her nights moaning his name in his ear.

"Tonight," Rory said, sounding out of breath
as she pulled her lips away from his.

"Tonight, what?" he asked in a daze as he
moved in to pick up where they left off, but Rory had other plans.
With a teasing smile, she pulled her lips further away from him,
but quickly made it up to him by wrapping her legs around his
waist

"We'll have to continue this tonight,
because I really have to go now or I'm going to be late," she said
with a sigh as she tried to pull her legs away from his waist, but
he wasn't having that.

He moved his hands from her waist to her ass
and kept her right where she was so that he could lean in and steal
a kiss before they clarified one or two things. "You're having
dinner with me, right?" he asked, even though she really didn't
have a choice in the matter.

"I usually meet my brothers for dinner on
Sunday," she replied against his lips as her hold around his waist
tightened and he was tempted once again to say the hell with
everything and take her back to bed, but he had work to do, sad,
but true. If he wanted to keep Rory in his bed on a permanent
basis, and he did, then he was going to have to learn to
prioritize.

Plan and work first and then amazing sex
second.

"You're having dinner with me instead," he
informed her, since she seemed to think that she had a choice.

She didn't.

But that didn't mean that he was going to be
a complete prick about it. "You can pick the place. I don't care if
you're brothers are there, but you're going with me."

He wasn't too surprised when Rory pulled
back, looking more amused than anything. "And if I don't?"

For a few seconds, he considered threatening
not to put out, but then he remembered who he was dealing with and
decided that it would probably be best not to take a chance of her
calling his bluff. Instead, he carried her the rest of the way to
his truck as he said, "You will."

"What if I pick the most expensive
restaurant in town?" she asked, tilting her head slightly to the
side, studying him as she waited for his answer.

"That's fine with me, Rory," he said,
leaning in to steal a quick kiss before he carefully set her on her
feet. "You can have whatever you want."

"For the deal, right?" she asked, eying him
curiously as she held onto him until her feet touched the
ground.

"Yes," he answered, knowing that was the
only way that she would accept what was going on between them right
now.

"Of course," she mumbled as she looked
away.

It was hard to tell in this early morning
light, but he could have sworn that she looked a little
disappointed. He should just let it go, especially since he
couldn't risk her figuring out just how much she was coming to mean
to him, but he couldn't. He didn't want her to think that she
wasn't worth everything that he could give to her and then
some.

"I would take you anyway, Rory," he
admitted, feeling like a dope.

"Why?" she asked, looking and sounding as
though she couldn't understand why any sane man would happily die
for the chance to put a smile on her face.

"Because you're worth it," he simply said,
cupping her face as he leaned in to kiss her, but her next words
gave him pause.

"Because I'm beautiful?" she asked with a
touch of acid lacing her words.

He didn't even want to imagine how many
times she'd heard some asshole compliment her on how beautiful she
was. They probably thought that's what she wanted to hear. It
wasn't. Not for a woman like Rory who knew that she was beautiful
and didn't care. They really were fucking idiots.

"Yes," he said with absolutely no hesitation
and when she tried to pull away from him, her expression a
combination of hurt and disgust, he held onto her and continued to
move in to kiss her. "But I'd take you because you're the best part
of my day, Rory. Always have been and always will be."

He planted a quick kiss on her stunned lips
before pulling away from her and opening the passenger side door.
"You can decide where we're going for dinner while I drive," he
said, gesturing for her to climb in and she must have been a little
shocked, because she did just that. By the time that he climbed
into the truck, carrying her bag and thermos, she'd worked her way
out of her stunned silence.

"I have somewhere to be," she said, taking
her things as he turned the truck on.

"I know," he said with a shrug. "Buckle
up."

"I can drive myself," she pointed out, only
looking slightly confused now as she reached for the door
handle.

"You're going to your father's, right?" he
asked, throwing the truck into reverse and taking the matter out of
her hands.

"I go every Sunday," she said, frowning, but
she did buckle up.

"Well, today you're going with me," he
explained, taking her injured hand gently into his.

"Umm, why?" she asked, lacing her fingers
with his.

"Because your father invited me."

* * * *

"What the hell are you doing, woman?" Connor
demanded, chuckling like she was playing around.

She wasn't.

"Oh my God, Connor, turn around! It's a
trap!" she demanded, desperately looking around for somewhere to
turn the truck around.

"Relax, Rory. It's just fishing," he said,
throwing her a wink as he took a left onto Chestnut Road.

"No, Connor, you don't understand," she
said, trying not to panic, but this was bad, very, very, very bad.
"Only family is allowed at my Dad's house on Sunday."

"Afraid they'll kill me?" he asked,
teasingly.

"Yes!" she snapped, wondering what the hell
was wrong with him. He'd known about her father's family only
Sunday rule since he was a kid. He used to get a kick out of
sneaking onto the property and tormenting the living hell out of
her on most Sundays. She'd lost count of how many times he got her
butt in trouble by letting her father see him. To this day she
still couldn't figure out why her father punished her over Connor
when the man knew how much she hated him, which brought her right
back to the problem at hand.

"Connor," she said calmly, trying not to
panic, "you cannot go to my father's house. Do you understand? Just
bring me home and let's pretend that this never happened."

"Having a nervous breakdown, are we?" he
mused, still smiling like this was all some big joke.

"Connor, my brothers hate you and my
dad-"

"Is the one who invited me today," he
finished for her with a shrug as if he hadn't just confirmed her
suspicions.

They were going to kill him.

"Connor," she said, sounding a little
panicked and not really caring, "you are the last person that my
father would invite to the house."

"Yet, he did," he pointed out, sounding
amused as he took a turn onto Red River Road.

She continued as if he hadn't interrupted
her. "There are no witnesses. The closest neighbor lives a mile
away. There will be no one to hear your screams for help."

"Except for the women at the house," Connor
said, making her frown.

"What women?" she couldn't help but ask,
temporarily distracted from her mission to save Connor's ungrateful
ass.

"Your father said that if I brought anyone
that she'd have to stay up at the house."

"What the hell are you talking about?" she
demanded before another thought occurred to her. "Why would he
think that you were bringing someone along when we're supposedly
dating?"

"I got the invite before we started this
plan," he explained as he turned onto her father's road.

She didn't bother correcting him on the
whole "we" part about who started this plan since she'd gone back
into panic mode. "I am begging you to turn around, Connor."

His answer was an amused chuckle as he
turned onto the long, secluded private dirt driveway that led to
her father's house and suddenly reminded her of slasher films. This
was crazy! Surely the man realized that he was walking into a
trap.

"Connor, please turn around," she said,
forcing herself to remain calm.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd think that
you'd miss me."

She opened her mouth to tell him that she
wouldn't miss him, but she couldn't get the words out. She would
miss the big jerk. Somehow he'd gone from being an annoyance, an
entertaining one at that, to....

Well, she really wasn't sure what he was
right now since she was too busy trying to save his ass. When she
spotted the old oak tree that she'd once tied Connor to with her
jump rope, she realized that if she was going to change his mind
and save his obstinate ass that she would have to do something now.
Begging, pleading and reasoning hadn't worked and she considered
going for his nipples, but that might cause other problems like him
veering off into the woods so that left just one thing.