Checkmate anfh-3

by R. L. Mathewson

  Connor was a very bad man that she didn't want, who made her life a living hell and was a hell of a kisser, and blackmailed her into a situation where she had to suffer through the hottest kisses of her life and as long as she remembered all of that she would be-

  A startled gasp escaped her as she suddenly found herself turned around and pressed back against the counter and in Connor's arms as he picked up right where they left off. It actually frightened her how fast her arms wrapped around his neck, her chest pressed tightly against his as she welcomed him. How could something so wrong feel so good, so right? It shouldn't. Heaven help her, but this felt too good to stop, but she knew that somehow she'd manage to do just that.

  In a little while.

  Right now she was too busy getting into character as Connor suggested. This was for the good of the project, her dream and now that Connor was gently suckling on her tongue she realized that this was an excellent idea. If they were going to pull this off then they needed to behave like a real couple. What better way to do that then to kiss and he damn well better keep kissing her, she decided as he grabbed her hips and picked her up, placing her onto the edge of the counter.

  If she wasn't so focused on kissing him, she'd probably be horrified at how quickly her legs parted to welcome him and the way she sighed in pleasure as he took her up on her invitation. When he gripped her hips and dragged her the half inch or so until she was sitting on the edge of the counter she might have whimpered. When she felt him hard, heavy and pressed exactly where she needed him, she may have moaned and wrapped her legs around him.

  "No sex," she said against his lips as she struggled against the urge to roll her hips against him. Kissing and enjoying the way it felt to be in his arms was fine, and as long as she remembered that this was only meant to help create the illusion of a relationship, then everything would be fine.

  "No sex," Connor agreed against her lips as his hold around her tightened and he once again deepened the kiss. When he didn't push for anything else or try to argue, she felt herself relax.

  Maybe this deal wouldn't be so bad after all.

  * * *

  "We should get going," Rory said, pulling away only to come right back again and kiss him in a way that should be illegal.

  "Yeah, we should," he said, placing his hands on her hips and helping her move until she was straddling his lap. When she settled herself on his lap he wanted to groan in pleasure at how good she felt and roar in frustration, because he knew that this was as close as he'd ever get to her.

  It was enough, more than enough, he told himself as he did his best to ignore the little moans she made as she struggled not to move on his lap. When her breaths sped up and her grip on his shoulders tightened he had to stop himself from putting them both out of their misery by thrusting up against her. It was difficult, surprisingly even more difficult than it had been last night, but what a night that had been.

  They made out in her kitchen, in her living room after they managed to pull apart and agreed that they'd practiced for long enough. Then he made the mistake of sitting down on her couch and boom, Rory was somehow back on his lap and they were making out like teenagers. Two hours later, Rory pulled away and they said goodnight, from a distance. He was willing to call it a night, but then he spotted Rory out on her patio and one thing led to another and he somehow found himself on her lounge chair and on top of her, kissing her.

  When they finally managed to part, several hours later, they both agreed that they definitely had the kissing aspect of their relationship down and should probably just kiss only when it was necessary. The moment she stepped out of her house this morning he felt that it was very necessary, for appearance sake of course. It hadn't mattered that it was six in the morning and that no one else in their quiet neighborhood was around to witness the kiss, he had to kiss her.

  Once they managed to break apart, ten minutes later, he stole her hot chocolate thermos and once again drove her to work. Well, at least halfway there before he had to pull to a stop at the stop light and just like that they were at it again. They'd probably still be at it at that intersection if Mr. Jenkins, the seventy year old crossing guard who used to blow his whistle anytime the man saw him and Rory walking on the same side of the street, hadn't blown that damn whistle right outside his door.

  After they separated and went to their respective sides, he realized that he was starving and he decided to pick up some coffee and donuts. Once they placed their order-

  "Um, excuse me?"

  With a sigh, Connor pulled his mouth away from Rory's so that he could glare at the pimple faced bastard that interrupted them.

  "Your order?" the kid said, shifting nervously as he held up two white bakery boxes.

  Instead of freaking out or getting embarrassed about getting caught making out in the drive thru line, Rory grabbed the twenty he'd been holding in his hand and passed it over to the kid. She took the boxes of donuts and moved off his lap, their kiss forgotten as her attention turned to the chocolate dipped glazed donuts that she'd demanded he order. He ordered them, but only after she gave him a kiss.

  He waved the change away as he threw the truck into drive and started to drive out of the parking lot when a parking spot near a copse of trees caught his eye. It was well away from the other cars, had decent shade and looked perfect for-

  "Don't even think about it," Rory said, sounding amused as she nibbled on her donut.

  "It's really not safe to eat while driving," Connor pointed out innocently as he headed for that well secluded spot.

  "Then I guess it's a good thing that I'm not driving," she said, laughing as she broke off another piece of donut.

  "Are you planning on drinking your hot cocoa?" he asked, nodding towards her still full canister of hot cocoa.

  "Of course," she said with a snort as she tore off another piece of donut.

  With a sigh, he drove over to the semi-secluded spot and parked. "Then I have no choice but to park here so that you don't spill any hot chocolate and burn yourself."

  "I see," she said, trying to bite back a smile. "You're just trying to save me from a trip to the hospital, is that it?" she asked, dropping what was left of her donut on a napkin and placing it on the dashboard.

  "That's exactly it, Rory," he said, reaching for her as she moved to climb back on his lap where she belonged.

  "This is just to stay in character," Rory explained as she settled on his lap.

  "Of course," he agreed as he wrapped his arms around her.

  "We're not really dating," she said, leaning in and brushing her lips against his. "This is just for show."

  "Exactly," he agreed even though he was pretty sure that no one would be able to see what they were doing, but he wasn't about to point that out.

  "As long as you remember that I hate you," Rory mumbled against his lips.

  "I'll remember," he promised.

  "And you hate me," she reminded him as she continued to caress his lips with light, teasing kisses that had his arms tightening around her and his body trembling with the need to consume her.

  "With a passion."

  * * *

  "We're thinking of having you committed," Bryce announced as he tapped his finger on the clipboard where he needed her to sign.

  "I see," Rory said absently as she looked through the paperwork describing all the lovely problems they were already encountering.

  Thanks to her accident they'd lost two days of work. The day of her accident, all of their men had been ordered away from the manor as the rescue crews worked to get her out of the subbasement. After she was safely on a backboard and on her way to an ambulance, the fire inspector had apparently showed up and closed them down, something she was just finding out about now. The next day her brothers had worked their asses off to get the fire inspector to come back and allow them to return to work.

  He had, but they'd lost most of the day. Her brothers and surprisingly a good majority of Connor's foremen did their best to ke
ep the project going even though they were forbidden to set so much as a foot in the mansion. Instead of working on the roof, gutting the house or the few dozen major things that had to be done immediately, their men worked on clearing the land and tearing up the mile long private road that led up to the old mansion.

  By the time the fire inspector showed up and cleared them to continue to work, it was already late and their men were exhausted. She wasn't happy about the lost time, but there wasn't anything that she could do about it now. She just wished that someone had told her. Starting off a project of this size and two days behind this early in the game was not a good sign. As she looked down at the paperwork authorizing overtime, she was tempted to authorize work on Sunday, something she'd never done before.

  Sunday was supposed to be a day for rest. That was one of many rules that her father shoved down their throats over the years and one that she'd never been able to ignore. Her men worked hard, sometimes too hard. Working seven days a week would not only kill her budget, but it would also exhaust her men, make their work sloppy and increase the chance of accidents. So as much as she would love to make up for those two lost days immediately, she couldn't.

  "Anything else?" she asked, handing the clipboard back over to her brother and pulled on the sling that her doctor demanded that she wear when she worked so that she wouldn't do anything stupid like trying to use her arm.

  "No, that's it," Bryce said with a careless shrug, immediately drawing her attention and making her nervous.

  As far as her brothers knew, she was dating Connor, a man she'd despised since she was a child. Sure, he idly threatened to have her committed, but he'd sounded more amused than anything. Besides, if they were really going to have her committed he wouldn't have said anything. They would have just tied her up and dropped her ass off on the front lawn of a mental hospital with a few grunted "good lucks."

  Since they hadn't said anything or even threatened to beat the shit out of Connor as a standard warning, she was understandably concerned. They always threatened the guys she dated, even if they liked the guy he was well warned, but as far as she knew they hadn't done that to Connor. The fact that she was supposedly dating Connor really should have elicited some kind of rage fueled response, but so far nothing had happened.

  Her eyes narrowed on her brother. "You're up to something."

  "Damn straight," Bryce said with a shit eating grin.

  "Are you going to give me a warning?"

  "The only thing that you need to know is that we have your back and we figured out a way to make up for the time we lost," he said dismissively as he headed for the coffee truck, leaving her with no choice but to follow after him.

  "How?" she asked a minute later when she managed to catch up to him.

  "Don't worry your pretty little head, Rory. We took care of everything," Bryce said with a smug little smile that did not bode well for her or the project.

  It was bad enough that she'd made a deal with the devil and was apparently addicted to his kisses, but now she had her brothers going behind her back and orchestrating something that couldn't possibly end well for her. When did her life start spiraling out of control? she wondered as she turned around and headed for her trailer and a much needed hot chocolate.

  Chapter 18

  "What's going on with you and Rory?" Andrew asked as soon as they were out of listening distance of the rest of the men.

  "We're dating," Connor said with a shrug as he dragged the large barrel the rest of the way to the shoot they had installed after they had the window torn out.

  "Since when?" Andrew asked, moving to grab the bottom of the barrel and help him dump the barrel full of plaster and old horse hair insulation down the long shoot, but a warning glare from Connor had his friend sighing with aggravation and backing away. The man knew better and if Connor caught him pulling that bullshit again he would kick his ass.

  "Why does it matter?"

  "I'd like to know when you became suicidal, that's all," Andrew said as he grabbed the empty barrel and pushed it to the side.

  "What are you talking about?" Connor asked as he walked over to the large blue cooler that he had filled with ice and bottles of water since the last thing they needed was for someone to pass out from this heat or get sick from breathing in all the dust.

  "Her brothers are going to kill you," Andrew explained, shaking his head in disbelief.

  He simply shrugged as he drank his water. Since they hadn't tried to kill him when they caught him kissing Rory behind the coffee truck a few hours ago he doubted that they were going to kill him. Kick his ass? Absolutely, and they probably planned on doing it tomorrow when he joined their old man for fishing and Rory wasn't around to get in the way.

  That was more than fine with him. He'd take a few hits if it meant that he could prove that he was serious about Rory, which he wasn't. It was all part of his plan and so far his plans were moving along rather nicely. He'd use her and then-

  "Honestly, I never thought Rory was that desperate," Andrew said, grabbing his attention.

  "What the hell are you talking about?" Connor asked, tossing the empty water bottle in the barrel as he glared at one of his oldest friends.

  "Well," Andrew mused as he crossed his arms over his chest, "she hates you, she's hot, and did I mention that she hates you?"

  "She doesn't hate me," Connor said with a snort.

  "Then what do you call it?" Andrew asked, grabbing a bottle of water for himself.

  "Severely disliking me to the point that she's actually considered doing me bodily harm?" he suggested, chuckling when his friend flipped him off.

  "It makes me wonder why she'd agree to go out with you," Andrew mused as he lightly tossed the bottle of water and caught it.

  Connor had to snort at that as he reached out and caught the bottle of water. He opened it as he explained, "Because she's desperately in love with me."

  Andrew simply shook his head as he said, "No, that's why you're with her."

  Connor couldn't help but laugh at that little announcement. "Yeah, okay, buddy," he said, taking a sip.

  "Wow, did you actually think that I was going to forget about that faithful little trip of yours to Canada all those years ago?" Andrew asked, cocking a brow in question as Connor choked on his water.

  Yeah, he actually had.

  "A good friend would forget moments of pure stupidity and never bring them up again," he pointed out with a scowl as he tossed the half-empty bottle of water in the barrel. He was heading back towards the rooms on the far side of the mansion where his men were working when Andrew's next words stopped him.

  "She doesn't remember, does she?"

  "There's nothing to remember," he said, forcing his mind away from one of the most painful and dumbest moments of his life.

  "You never did tell me what happened. Did you end up telling Rory?"

  Yes, he had.

  It was one of the most frightening moments of his life, but he'd managed to get the words out of his mouth without making a complete ass out of himself. When the words were finally out, Rory gave him the sweetest smile seconds before all the alcohol she'd consumed during the night made a second appearance. After that rather momentous occasion he spent the rest of the night helping her to the jail cell's toilet, helped her drink water and waited for the moment the effects of the alcohol wore off. When that moment came, the look on Rory's face said it all. She didn't feel the same way and probably wouldn't appreciate hearing that he was in love with her, so he kept his mouth shut.

  "It was just a childhood crush," Connor said with a shrug.

  It was a painful and gut wrenching experience, but one he outgrew with time. He learned to appreciate their little antics, kept an eye out for her, but the palm sweating reaction he used to get just from thinking about her was long gone. It probably also didn't hurt that he'd inadvertently ruined her life that night.

  There were a lot of things that he wished he could change about that night, but following
her out of that bar was not one of them. If her brothers had been keeping a better eye on her, they would have seen that asshole leading Rory, who could barely stand at the time, out the back door. The only thing that he regretted was not getting Rory out of there before the bastard managed to pull a knife on him. If he had........

  Rory's life would be a lot different than it was now. He knew that much at least. He couldn't go back and change things, but he could at least help make her life easier by keeping her safe. He still planned on enjoying himself while he did it and holy hell was he enjoying himself. There really were no words to describe what it felt like to kiss and hold Rory.

  He couldn't get enough of her. He must have kissed her half the night last night and he'd been surprised to discover that he didn't want to stop. He'd still love to get her in his bed, but that wasn't going to happen and he had no plans on trying either. This was more than enough for him. He'd enjoy kissing and holding her until the project was done and then it would be time to move on, for both of them.

  "You don't really believe that, do you?" Andrew asked, grabbing another bottle of water.

  "It's the truth," Connor bit out.

  "Then why did you buy the house next to hers?" Andrew asked with a knowing smile.

  "Because it was within my price range and it was the only house on the market at the time that wasn't built in the twentieth century," he explained, again. The fact that Rory owned the house next door was only a bonus. He loved his house almost as much as he loved giving Rory hell.

  "Okay," Andrew said slowly. "Then why are you dating her if you're not in love with her?"

  "The last time I checked, you didn't have to be in love with a woman to date her. Just want her," he said, not bothering to point out that he really wanted Rory since his friend probably already knew that.