Checkmate anfh-3

by R. L. Mathewson

  "What the hell do you mean they want the 458?" he demanded, trying not to get pissed, but it was pretty damn difficult at the moment. He'd spent all day redesigning the wine room and the rest of the basement and now she was telling him that they wanted a refrigerating unit that not only would need a stronger feed, but it also wouldn't be able to fit in the space he'd designed for it. It also meant that he'd just wasted ten hours of his time for bullshit and that he'd be spending the rest of the night and early morning redesigning the basement to meet the rest of their specifications.

  "It was in the fax," she said with a shrug as she took a big bite of pizza.

  "What fax?" he asked as he considered snatching her slice of pizza away just on principal now. If there was a fax then he should have been told about it, especially before he wasted his day.

  "They sent it yesterday morning," she said, taking another bite of her pizza before she continued. "There's about a dozen changes they want made," she said with a somewhat apologetic smile that did nothing to calm him down.

  "Why the hell didn't you give me the fax?" he asked, giving up on glaring at her and stole the rest of the pizza out of her hand.

  She rolled her eyes as she snatched it back. "Because you weren't there for one thing," she said, taking a huge bite and quickly finishing it off. "And I planned on having the new plans for the basement done last night so there really was no point in telling you."

  "It's my project too, Rory," he bit out slowly.

  Another shrug as she finished off the pizza and his glare returned. It was one thing for him to keep her in the dark, but it was a different story when she pulled that bullshit on him. This was his project and he should have been told about the fax. Hell, she should have delivered the damn thing to him while wearing a smile and something skimpy, he decided. He forced himself to turn around in his seat and stare at his computer screen as he wondered how he was going to adjust the space for the refrigerating unit and not fuck up the rest of the plans.

  "Look, it's really not a big deal. I can fix this," Rory said as she reached out to screw with his fucked up plans.

  "No," Connor said firmly as he blocked her good hand with one of his.

  "Don't be a baby about this, Connor. It's not a big deal. I remember what was in the fax. I can-"

  "No," he said more firmly as he moved his arm to re-block her when the stubborn woman tried to reach past his hand and touch his computer.

  With an annoyed sigh, she reached out once again and tried to touch his computer, but he was ready for her. It was an old move, but one that worked. He palmed her face and gently pushed her back. As she tried to slap his hand away he focused on his plans. Maybe he could readjust the storage unit next to it by a foot and-

  He heard her loud gasp of pain before he registered the weak, yet hard, slap on his arm. He turned in time to see her hug her broken arm to her chest and double over in pain.

  "Shit!" he groaned, feeling like an asshole. He should have realized that she'd forget about her arm when she got pissed enough. Well, there was nothing he could do about it now.

  "Looks like it's time for bed," he announced as he stood and scooped her up.

  "Bastard," Rory choked out between gasps.

  "That wasn't very nice," he mused as he carried her into the foyer.

  "Asshole," of course was the reply.

  "Words hurt, Rory," he said with a heartfelt sigh as he carried her up the stairs. "Words hurt."

  "I wish," she muttered as she turned her face and buried it against his chest.

  Since she was in pain he let it go and focused on helping her on the bed. As soon as she was curled up on her side and burying her face against the pillow he released her and grabbed her bottle of pills.

  "Open up for a happy pill," he said brightly as he held one of the pills in front of her mouth.

  She opened her eyes to glare at him as she did just that. When she swallowed, he considered going back downstairs and calling the office to have that fax emailed to him, but one look at Rory had him crawling onto the bed next to her and pulling her into his arms. He was actually rather pleased when she didn't fight him. That is until she got her revenge for palming her face.

  "Ow! Goddammit, leave my nipple alone!" he snapped, barely resisting the urge to rub it. The damn woman fought dirty, but then again that's what he liked about her, he realized with a smile. Rory James always managed to keep him on his toes and kept it interesting. It was a rather nice quality in an enemy.

  * * *

  "Why did you do it?" she demanded as she yanked back the curtain.

  "What in the hell is wrong with you?" Connor asked as he grabbed the shower curtain and yanked it out of her hand, but not before she got an eyeful.

  The man had a very delicious backside and she was tempted to pull the curtain back to get another glimpse, but she needed to focus.

  "Answer the damn question," she demanded, waiting impatiently for him to finish his shower.

  "How did you get in my house?" Connor asked instead, making her roll her eyes. It really was a stupid question. "I picked the lock. Now focus, why did you do it?"

  Connor sighed heavily as he reached out and snagged the towel off the hook. "I knew you were crazy."

  She impatiently waved that off as if it were a given. "Just answer the damn question."

  "Couldn't this have waited until we got to work?" Connor asked as he pulled the curtain back and stepped out, forcing her to back up or brush up against him. It actually freaked her out a little that she momentarily considered holding her ground just to see if those glistening muscles felt as good as they looked.

  Oh, this was so wrong.

  She was not attracted to the bastard. Okay, so that was a lie. The man was incredibly good looking and he knew it. Normally her attraction for him was easy to ignore since her hatred of him usually overshadowed the rather frightening attraction. Since he'd been taking care of her and been nice to her, she'd been having some difficulty ignoring how handsome he was or how much she liked his body and his smile.

  That was the reason she was here. She needed to confront him and find out what sick and twisted thing could make him do it. As soon as he admitted that he'd taken care of her to screw with her head, she'd be able to go back to loathing him so completely that she'd be unable to notice how hot he was or how much she craved his touch. Then of course, she'd kick his ass for making her think of him with anything other than revulsion.

  "No," she said firmly as she moved to block the doorway and his escape, but then rethought the plan since it would most likely result in touching. So she marched into his room. Once she'd put some space between them she motioned for him to get on with his answer.

  With a sigh, he closed the bathroom door and locked it, leaving her fuming. "That lock won't keep me out you know!" she said loudly even as she had to admit to herself that the likelihood of her breaking into the bathroom a second time while he was naked was very unlikely. She needed to keep her wits about her and checking out his ass no matter how yummy it was, wouldn't help her do that.

  "You going to tell me what has your panties in a twist?" Connor demanded from the other side of the door.

  "You going to tell me why the hell you took care of me?" she snapped back, ignoring the panties comment since she knew that she wasn't overreacting. The man was up to something and she wasn't leaving until she figured it out.

  "I think," Connor said, opening the door and stepping into bedroom wearing only a pair of cargo khaki pants that he left unbuttoned and may have drawn her attention for a moment before her eyes roamed up over a set of well defined abs before she forced her eyes away, "that the better question is why weren't your brothers here?"

  "Because I was fine," she said, waving off the comment in hopes that the man would just focus and answer her damn question so that she could go back to hating everything about him.

  "Fine?" he repeated in disbelief, shaking his head as if he couldn't quite believe what she just said. "You weren't fin
e, Rory."

  "Of course I was," she lied, but the truth was, she was grateful for Connor's help. She would have hated asking for her brother's help mostly because they wouldn't have had any clue on how to go about taking care of her. They were great brothers, but they didn't know a damn thing about taking care of anyone.

  If she needed her car fixed, help moving, or a million other things she wouldn't have hesitated in asking her brothers for help, but nursemaids her brothers definitely were not. They wouldn't have the first clue as to how to take care of her.

  It wasn't their fault. That's how they were raised after all. Each and every one of them was self-reliant. They learned early on how to take care of their own scraped knees and how to threaten the monster hiding in their closets with baseball bats. Their father made damn sure that they could take care of themselves and would never need or expect a handout from anyone. They knew how to manage their money, pay their bills, cook, clean and work with their hands.

  She knew that if she'd asked her brothers they would have tried to help. Actually, if she'd asked her brothers they would have rushed her to the hospital, thinking that she was dying or something. No one in the James family asked for help when they were sick or hurt. It just wasn't done, which made what Connor did for her special.

  No one had ever taken care of her before. It made her feel uncomfortable. She owed him and she hated that almost as much as she hated the fact that she liked being in his arms. It was unnatural and she was here to put an end to it.

  He walked towards her, not stopping until they were practically chest to chest, but she didn't back down. She never would and he knew it.

  "Fine?" he asked, looking down at her as if she were crazy. "You had a concussion, five bruised ribs and you broke your goddamn arm, Rory. You weren't fine and you sure as hell shouldn't have been left to fend for yourself," he snapped, sounding truly angry, which only confused her more.

  "Why do you care?" she asked, propping her hands on her hips as she did her best to out glare the bastard.

  "I don't," he snapped. "But I am seriously considering beating the shit out of your brothers for leaving you alone the other night. What were they thinking?"

  "Well, they-" she started to defend them, but the man apparently wasn't done yet.

  "You shouldn't have been left alone, Rory. They should have made sure that you had your pills and that you were okay!"

  "They called several-"

  "That wasn't enough!" he snapped, getting in her face and backing her up. She was so stunned by his outburst that she didn't even realize what happened until her back hit the wall and he was caging her in.

  "Instead of coming over here and getting pissed at me for something your family should have done, why don't you try saying thank you, huh?" he demanded as he got right in her face and before she could tell him to back off or come to her brothers' defense his mouth was on hers, hard and demanding and god help her but she didn't want him to stop.

  But he did.

  Before she could do something stupid like kiss him back or wrap her arms around his neck he was pulling away, jaw clenched and he looked even more pissed than before. Without a word and before she could think beyond what just happened, he grabbed her by her shoulders and steered her out of his room and onto his patio where the cool morning air brought her to her senses.

  "Thank you!" she snapped, irritated with him and pissed at herself because coming over here hadn't helped one damn bit. Instead of clearing her head of him all she wanted to do was go right back in there and kiss the bastard. That was wrong, so very, very wrong.

  "You're welcome!" he snapped back before slamming the sliding glass door shut and irritating her even more. Would it really kill him to let her have the last word, she wondered as she made her way back to her patio.

  "Stupid, toe curling kissing bastard," she grumbled as she marched into her room, slamming the sliding glass door shut behind her with her broken hand, which of course started a five minute owie dance and a mad search for her bottle of pain killers. By the time she popped a pill into her mouth she was no closer to figuring out what Connor was up to than she had been when she stormed over there. One way or the other she would figure out what he was up to and then she would put an end to it.

  Chapter 13

  "Why the hell did I kiss her?" Connor muttered as he leaned back against his truck.

  Bunny barked his answer, tapering it off with a growl of disapproval.

  He sighed heavily even as he nodded his agreement. "Exactly. Woman fuck with your head, buddy. Remember that," he told the dog who'd given up his search for the perfect spot to mark five minutes ago when Connor walked out of his house to make sure that Connor didn't harass his master, or rather his "mommy" since he'd heard the frustrating woman refer to herself several times.

  "It was a dumb move," he felt compelled to say as he scrubbed his hands over his face, wishing like hell that he could take the kiss back almost as much as he wished he'd never let her go.

  There was no denying that he wanted the woman, had since he first hit puberty, but he'd always known that there would never be anything between them. This strange relationship of theirs pretty much guaranteed that. Even knowing that there would never be anything between them hadn't stopped him from thinking about her over the years.

  There probably weren't many men in town that hadn't fantasized about taking Rory James to bed. She was a beautiful, desirable, sexy woman and he would have been concerned if he hadn't been attracted to her. It didn't matter how badly he wanted her, there would never be anything between them. There was just too much history and animosity between them to take things further, but apparently that hadn't stopped him from doing something incredibly stupid like kissing her.

  One minute he wanted to take her over his knee and the next he wanted her in his bed and before he could stop himself, he’d kissed her. He'd never been a big fan of kissing before, it was one of those things he did to get a woman to spread, but with Rory he could have happily kissed her all day. Her lips were warm, soft, full and felt so damn good against his that it had taken everything he had not to tilt his head and deepen the kiss. He wanted to do that and more, but he knew that she would never let it happen. Rory James didn't want him and the knowledge had knocked some sense into him. It also hadn't hurt that she made no moves to touch or kiss him back.

  She was probably going to kick him in the balls for that little mistake the next time she saw him which would probably be any minute now, he thought as he glanced down at his watch. It was almost six in the morning and if they didn't haul ass they'd be late for work. Maybe he should do his poor balls a favor and let her fend for herself, but just as quickly as the thought flashed through his head he shoved it away. Her arm was broken and she really had no business driving.

  His eyes shifted to her Jeep and he considered yanking a few cables out of the engine to take the choice out of her hands, but knowing Rory, she probably had some backups in the garage somewhere. Then again, she might have called for one of her brothers to pick her up, he realized as he shot a look down both ends of the quiet street. When he didn't spot anything he settled back against his truck door and waited.

  A few minutes later Rory came walking out of her house with a backpack slung over her left shoulder and a large metal thermos that was no doubt filled to the brim with hot chocolate in her good hand. When she spotted him leaning against his truck she noticeably startled. Was that a blush creeping up her beautiful face? It was kind of hard to tell in the early morning light, but he was pretty sure that it was a blush.

  Great, he thought dryly. She was embarrassed about what happened. Nothing like the woman who hated you finding out that you were attracted to her. He'd been an idiot to think that she'd kick him in the balls, although she still might. She was probably going to use her newfound knowledge to bring him to his knees and make him wish that she'd just taken it out on his balls. He really was a fucking idiot, he decided as he walked over to her.

  "What
do you want?" she asked cautiously as she continued to make her way over to her Jeep.

  With a sigh, he gestured to his truck. "I'm driving you to work this morning."

  She shook her head stubbornly. "No need. As you can see I got my Jeep back," she said, giving him a pointed look. "Turns out that there was a glitch in the records."

  He simply shrugged it off. "You can't drive with a broken arm, Rory," he pointed out.

  "I'm pretty sure that I can," the stubborn woman said.

  Connor prayed for patience as he stopped himself from grabbing the woman and tossing her over his shoulder and throwing her ass in the back of his truck. "You just broke your arm, Rory. It probably still hurts, which means that you probably took a pain killer and you shouldn't be driving," he explained with forced patience.

  Rory paused a few feet away from her Jeep, pursing her lips up as she thought it over. Finally with a heavy sigh she nodded. "I'll call one of my brothers for a ride," she said, placing the thermos on the hood of her Jeep so that she could dig around in her bag for her cell phone.

  "No need," he said, snatching up her thermos and headed for his truck, knowing that's all it would take to get the woman to follow and sure enough she did.

  "Hey! Give that back!" she snapped as she followed him, but of course he ignored her as he walked around the truck and opened the passenger door for her.

  "Get in or I drink it," he promised.

  With a glare, she snatched the thermos out of his hand and climbed in. When he went to help her with her seatbelt she slapped his hands away. He let it go since she hadn't rubbed the kiss in his face yet and quickly made his way around the truck and climbed in.

  She didn't say anything as he started the truck or backed it out of the long driveway. Maybe the kiss didn't mean anything to her and she'd already forgotten about it, he half-hoped/half-inwardly cringed as he drove towards the site. Then again, maybe she was just waiting until her brothers were around so that they could get in a good laugh at his expense. He opened his mouth to ask her about it, but snapped his mouth shut. If she was willing to pretend that it never happened then so was he.