NFH 03 Checkmate (36 page)

“
Fine,” she said, sounding
tired as she buckled up. “Can we please stop for a cup of hot
chocolate before we head home?”

“
That’s a good idea,” he
said, not mentioning that he’d already planned on doing just
that.

To be honest, he was exhausted as well. It
had been a very long night and it was barely eight-thirty. All he
wanted to do was enjoy this quiet time with Rory, steal her hot
cocoa and hold her in his arms for the rest of the night, but he
knew that the night wasn’t over quite yet. There were a few things
that they needed to clear up before any misunderstandings formed
and screwed with his plans to make Rory his wife.

Keeping his eyes on the road, he reached
over and carefully took Rory’s broken hand into his. When he felt
his ring on her finger he couldn’t help but smile. It had been a
long time coming and to be honest, he never really expected this
day to come. Granted, he had to earn her agreement to marry him,
but he would. Now that he knew that she cared about him, nothing
was going to stop him, not even the stubborn woman that he
loved.

“
We’ll move your stuff into
my room tomorrow night,” he said quietly, hoping that she was too
exhausted from the hell her cousins put her through to catch what
he said, but of course this wasn’t going to be easy.

“
Why would I do that?” Rory
asked, pulling her hand away from his so that she could toy with
her new ring.

“
I just thought it would be
easier,” he said offhandedly as he took a right on Oak
Street.

“
Why would that be
easier?”

“
I just thought it would be
easier if you started to move in with me now. That way we wouldn’t
have to worry about moving you out and selling your house after we
get married,” he calmly explained as he pulled into Brennigan’s
parking lot.

“
Ah, I’m not selling my
house, Connor and I’m not moving in with you,” Rory stubbornly
argued.

“
Rory,” he said, sighing
heavily as he shut the Jeep down, “keeping two houses after we get
married doesn’t make sense. I suppose we could rent it out, but
that’s a pain in the ass.”

“
I love my house, Connor.
I’m not selling it,” Rory said, shooting him a glare as she threw
open her door and jumped out.

He chuckled darkly as he climbed out of the
truck. “I know that you don’t expect me to sell my house,” he said,
shutting the door behind him and moving to join her on the
sidewalk.

“
That’s exactly what I
expect if you want me to marry you,” Rory said with a shrug,
effectively dismissing him and headed for the small coffee shop,
leaving him to trail after her as he did his best to reign in his
temper.

He should sell his house?

Bullshit.

That was not happening. He’d worked his ass
off for that house. He’d taken on extra jobs to pay for it and to
fix it up. Did she have any idea how hard he worked to restore his
house? She had help, he hadn’t. He’d worked his ass off and he
wasn’t about to sell his house. But for now, he’d drop it. There
was plenty of time to deal with the simple misunderstanding after
they were married. Right now it was more important that he
convinced her to take a chance on him and if that meant biting his
lip and keeping his mouth shut until she was his, then that’s
exactly what he was going to have to do.

* * * *

“
Large hot chocolate?” Beth,
the senior barista, asked as Rory stepped up to the
counter.

“
Make it an extra-large
please,” Rory said, pulling a ten dollar bill out of her pocket and
tossing it on the counter. “I’ll be right back,” she said, fighting
back a yawn as she headed for the bathroom.

As soon as she got home, she was going
straight to bed. She’d deal with Connor and her cousins tomorrow.
Normally she’d be worried that her cousins were hitting a buffet so
close to home, but tonight she just didn’t have the energy to care.
She’d worry about how she was going to keep them in line tomorrow.
Tonight she was-

“
Oh my God, did you hear the
news?” a vaguely familiar feminine voice asked, sounding excited
and drawing Rory’s attention as she went to push open the women’s
bathroom door. She looked down the small hallway and realized that
she was alone and that she was hearing a private conversation
coming from the manager’s office behind her. Deciding that it was
none of her business and that she really didn’t care about the
latest town gossip, she moved to open the bathroom door when the
next words stopped her dead in her tracks.

“
Connor proposed to Rory!”
the excited woman practically squealed, making Rory cringe as her
eyes shot down to the ring on her finger. She should have taken it
off before she went out. She cursed softly when she realized that
her father and brothers probably already heard the news. That was
just great.

“
No, he didn’t,” a voice
that she knew all too well said, laughing off the news.

Cindy, one of the most annoying women in
town, was unfortunately the manager of this place. Not because she
had a degree, had experience or had worked her way up to the
position. No, Cindy became the manager of the best coffee shop in
the area for one very simple reason, she screwed old man
Webster.

Rumor had it that old man Webster called
Cindy into his office on her very first day, within the very first
hour because customers and staff alike complained about her
attitude and inability to get off her ass and do anything. As soon
as old man Webster finished firing her, Cindy started negotiations
to keep her job and kept it up until Mr. Webster stumbled out of
his office a half hour later, smiling and looking more relaxed than
he had in years. Cindy walked out of the office looking smug and
still very much employed. A year later, Cindy was the manager and
still hadn’t served a single cup of coffee and Mr. Webster no
longer bothered coming to the coffee shop since Cindy started
making house calls. Normally she didn’t pay attention to rumors,
but a few years ago she’d walked in on Cindy giving the owner of
the Donut Shack a reason to smile.

“
Megan called and told me
that she saw Connor and Rory at Sam’s Club and that Rory was
wearing this really tiny diamond engagement ring.”

“
So?” Cindy demanded with a
sneer.

“
So? So, everyone knows that
she’s been dating Connor! What do you mean so? This is huge! It’s
also so sweet!” the other women gushed. “Don’t you think it’s
sweet? I wonder how long they’ve been in love.”

Cindy let out an indelicate snort as she
demanded, “And what makes you think that they’re in love?”

“
How could you miss the way
he looks at her?” the other woman asked, sounding
confused.

“
Oh, and just how does he
look at her?” Cindy demanded, mockingly.

There was a slight pause before the other
woman answered, “Like she’s everything that he’d ever dreamed of
and he can’t quite believe she’s real.”

“
Oh my God, you’ve been
reading too many of those romance novels! He doesn’t look at her
like she’s anything special!” Cindy said with a sneer.

“
You’re the only one that
doesn’t see it then.”

“
Really? If he loves her so
damn much then why did he fuck me last week?” Cindy
demanded.

Rory stood there for another moment, feeling
numb and barely registering the rest of the private conversation as
her mind worked through everything she’d heard. When she settled on
a decision, she turned around and walked back down the hall to
confront Connor.

* * * *

When he saw Rory walk out from the back
hall, looking determined and pissed he knew that he was in deep
shit. That was confirmed when Rory ignored the cashier trying to
hand over an extra-large hot cocoa and headed for the door, not
even looking at him as she passed him.

“
Great,” he muttered,
sighing heavily as he walked over to the counter and took the hot
cocoa from the stunned cashier, who was probably wondering if hell
had frozen over. Everyone in town knew that hot cocoa was Rory’s
weakness and as far as he knew, she’d never passed up a
cup.

He couldn’t exactly say that he was
surprised to find Rory waiting for him when he stepped outside.
They’d been playing this game for over twenty years so he knew by
now what to expect when Rory was pissed at him and she was damn
well pissed right now. That little murderous glare that she shot
him as she gestured for him to follow her told him everything that
he needed to know.

She didn’t wait to make sure that he’d
follow her as she walked over to her Jeep, climbed in the driver’s
side and slammed the door shut behind her. Any sane man would
probably walk the ten miles home instead of facing this woman’s
wrath, but he was in love with this woman so that pretty much
negated the sane part, at least for the moment.

Resigning himself to whatever Rory had in
store for him, he took a sip of her cocoa, walked over to the Jeep
and climbed in. Without a word, he handed over her keys and settled
back, sipping her cocoa as she started the Jeep and drove off.
Still she didn’t speak and to be honest, he was in no rush to have
his ass chewed out right now. It had been a long day and an even
longer night and all he wanted to do was go home, climb into bed
with this cranky woman and-

“
Where are we going?” he
asked when Rory suddenly took a right into their old high school’s
parking lot, their old high school that had handed them each a No
Trespass Order along with their diplomas on the day they
graduated.

Rory didn’t answer him as she drove around
the back of the building and parked in the empty, dimly lit parking
lot. He was in no mood to spend the night in jail and opened his
mouth to tell her just that when she started to take her clothes
off. Once she started to pull her pants down, he lost all ability
to think, never mind talk.

“
You and I are going to have
a little talk, Connor, and clear a few things up before I decide
whether or not to take a chance on you,” Rory calmly explained as
she hooked her thumbs in the sides of her panties and pulled them
down, revealing chestnut curls between her legs that had his breath
catching in his throat.

“
Are you going to answer my
questions, Connor?” Rory asked as she straddled his lap just as she
finished pulling her bra off and dropped it to the side, leaving
her naked and gorgeous.

When he didn’t respond fast enough, she
settled herself comfortably on his lap and teasingly ground her
pussy down against the erection that was begging to be freed from
his pants. She didn’t bother asking him if he agreed again, but
simply started asking her questions.

“
Do you love me?” she asked,
cutting right to the chase which was part of the reason that he
loved this woman. She didn’t play any of the bullshit games that
other women played, didn’t use drama to get what she wanted.
Granted, she was using his dick against him at the moment, but he
was fine with that.

“
Yes,” he hissed out as Rory
ground down hard on him.

“
Since when?” she asked,
placing her bad hand on his shoulder to steady herself as she
continued to rub her pussy against him, teasing him and driving him
out of his fucking mind with pleasure.

“
Since the moment that I saw
your father drag you into daycare, looking cute and mean as you
tried to glare the man down,” he admitted as he placed his hands on
her hips and dragged them up her sides until he was cupping her
beautiful breasts. When she made no moves to stop him, he caressed
her breasts as he dragged his thumbs over her nipples until they
hardened.

“
You really want to marry
me?” she asked, moaning as she reached between them with her good
hand and started working on his fly. His right hand quickly
abandoned her breast as it joined her in freeing his
cock.

“
Yes.”

“
Did you sleep with Cindy?”
she asked, pausing with his zipper between her fingers.

“
Hell no. She offered sex
last week to get out of her bill,” he explained, leaning in and
pressed his lips against hers, because he felt like he would die if
he didn’t kiss her.

“
Then you have less than
five months to convince me to marry you, Connor. Don’t fuck up,”
she said, sounding almost desperate as she struggled to yank his
zipper down. It was difficult to get his fly open with her still
grinding on him, but he wasn’t complaining. He didn’t want her to
stop. It felt so fucking good, but it felt better a minute later
when they managed, with a lot of yanking and pulling, to clear his
fly and get his dick out.

Once it was free, Rory wasted no time in
raising herself up and taking the tip inside. They both groaned as
she slid down, welcoming him into her swollen, wet sheath.

“
If you fuck this up, I’m
gonna have to kill you,” Rory swore, leaning in to kiss
him.

“
I’m not gonna fuck this
up,” he promised as he met her lips in a hungry kiss.

“
Good,” was the last
coherent word that came out of her mouth for a while. By the time
he pulled her off and positioned her on the driver’s seat so that
he could lick her out, she could barely manage to say his name.
Even when the police showed up and banged on the window she was
barely able to speak, but after she calmed down from the third
orgasm he’d given her just as the banging started and they were
being read their rights, she managed to say a few colorful words
that had him grinning.