NFH 03 Checkmate (16 page)

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.

"Can I ask you something?" she said,
destroying all his hopes that she'd forgotten about his little act
of stupidity.

"No."

Of course she ignored him and asked anyway.
"Why are you being so nice to me?" she asked, confusing the hell
out of him.

"What are you talking about?" he asked as he
held back a sigh of relief. As long as she didn't talk about the
kiss they could have any asinine conversation that she wanted.

"What do you mean 'what am I talking
about'?" she demanded, sounding frustrated. "You took care of me
after I fell, held my hand, kept my brothers from making things
worse, spent the last couple of days playing nursemaid to me and
you really have to ask what I'm talking about?"

He shook his head as he took a turn onto
Slade Road, a normally busy road, but at this time of the morning
there were only a few cars on the road. "It wasn't a big deal," he
said, wondering why she was latching onto it. Obviously it was
bugging the shit out of her if it drove her to break into his house
and interrupt his shower.

"It's a very big deal," she snapped.

"Why?" he demanded, taking his eyes off the
road so that he could look at her.

"Because you're confusing me!"

He had to chuckle at that. "You're acting
like no one's ever been nice to you before, Rory," he said, only
realizing after the words left his mouth that there might be some
truth in that. The dark blush that stained her cheeks and the way
she averted her eyes confirmed his words.

"That's bullshit, Rory," he said as he
racked his brain, trying to think of someone or something that
would prove his words wrong.

He knew her family loved her, adored her,
but they tended to treat her like a weaker brother. The only time
they really watched out for her was when some guy stepped over the
line and then they simply beat the shit out of the loser. Her
father was pretty much the same way. From what he'd seen over the
years the man obviously cared for her, but he didn't seem to have a
clue about how to show it.

There was no point in asking about
boyfriends since he knew that they either treated her like shit or
a buddy they could fuck. He'd never seen anyone act sweet on the
woman. Sure they flirted with her and were obviously attracted to
her, but they never treated her like any of the other women in
town. While other women were treated to romantic dates, jewelry,
gifts, adoration and expensive meals, Rory was given sensible
gifts, brought out for a beer or a burger and treated like a
guy.

They were all idiots.

Rory deserved to be pampered, spoiled and
worshiped. Any man that was lucky enough to earn her notice should
make sure that he did all of those things and more for the woman.
He didn't give a damn what she wore, she was still one hundred
percent female and should be treated as such. He'd never gone out
of his way for any of his ex-girlfriends, but at least he treated
them a hell of a lot better than any of Rory’s old boyfriends had
treated her.

He really didn't understand that at all. She
was beautiful, well, more like hot, but the guys around her acted
like they were doing her a favor by asking her out. They were all
fucking idiots. Granted, he knew most of the problem was her
overprotective brothers and asking her out was just as good as
asking to have your ass kicked, but the woman was more than worth
it.

"Just forget it," Rory said with a heavy
sigh as she moved to take a sip of her hot cocoa. He considered
taking it, but somehow managed to resist the urge. She'd probably
try to smack him upside his head with her broken arm again and he'd
be forced to turn the truck around and take her back home. He'd
have to take care of her and he really couldn't afford to lose
another day.

They were two days behind and needed to play
catch up. He hated taking the time off, especially since they
didn't have any time to spare on this project, but he couldn't
leave Rory. Yesterday morning he got up at four, shaved, showered
and got dressed and headed down to his truck to get his ass to
work, figuring that she would call for help if she needed it when
he remembered something very important.

Rory James was a stubborn pain in the ass
and would never ask for help.

While he walked back into his house and
headed for his bedroom, he made a quick round of phone calls. Ten
minutes later he was chucking off most of his clothes, climbing in
bed with her and not a moment too soon. She’d been dealing with a
migraine that left her helpless to move. He helped her take her
pills and crawled back into bed with her and held her until she
fell asleep.

If she hadn't been able to work today he
wouldn't have had a choice in the matter. He had to go to work
today, but he fully planned on sending one of her brothers to help
her after he had a word with them. He also planned on checking in
on her during his lunch break. It was probably a good thing that
Rory was stubborn and was coming to work so that he wouldn't have
to worry about her. If it became too much for her, she could always
curl up on the couch in her office.

He really didn't think she should be going
to work today, but he knew better than to say anything since she'd
just ignore whatever he said and did whatever she wanted anyway.
Well, at least she couldn't get into too much trouble hanging in
the office all day, he reassured himself. He'd have that secretary
of hers keep him updated so he could focus on his work where his
mind should be.

This was a big project, the biggest project
of his career, and he needed to stay focused. Rory James was out of
commission for a few months and probably wouldn't be able to do
much once the cast was taken off. She could go around and play
supervisor when she felt better. At least that would keep the damn
woman safe while he busted his ass to get this project going.

A few minutes later, he was parking in the
makeshift parking lot and preparing himself for the long day ahead.
Rory sent him a barely there nod as she climbed out of the truck
and headed for her trailer. He followed after her, hoping her
secretary was good for something like making a cup of extra strong
coffee and keeping his damn eyes off Rory's luscious ass, he
thought absently as he watched the body part in question sway
slightly from side to side.

The woman had a great ass.

He followed her into the trailer and somehow
managed to tear his eyes away from that beautiful ass and headed
for the coffee cart set up against the wall near the time clock. He
ignored the questioning look her secretary sent him and focused his
attention on finding some damn caffeine before he lost his
mind.

"They canceled the meeting," he heard Jacob
explain softly to Rory.

As he searched the small cabinets he
couldn't help but wonder what meeting her assistant was talking
about, but as he shoved box after box of some weird cocoa product
out of his way he decided that he really just didn't care. He
needed a caffeine fix and all this woman had was cocoa. Oh, they
were going to have to change that pretty damn soon or he'd become
bitchy.

"Did they reschedule?" she whispered,
sounding nervous.

Now
that
had his attention.

He couldn't remember a time when Rory was
nervous about anything. Pissed? Yes, but never nervous. What could
make a woman like Rory nervous? he wondered as he reluctantly
settled on making a cup of hot cocoa and praying that it had a shit
load of caffeine otherwise her secretary was getting a new chore
added to his duties.

"No, I'm sorry, Rory. They sent back the
proposal with an apology. They're not interested," Jacob said with
true regret lacing his tone.

He wasn't too surprised when he heard the
trailer door slam shut seconds later. Hot cocoa forgotten, he
turned around to find her secretary moving to go after her.

"What has little Rory James in a huff I
wonder?" he mused, stopping the secretary dead in his tracks.

"It's none of your business," Jacob said
firmly as he stood his ground.

Connor couldn't help but chuckle as he moved
towards the man. "Did Rory ever tell you what happens when someone
comes between us?"

Chapter 14

"Please don't fire me," Jacob said as she
stepped into the office. She felt her brows damn near shoot to her
hairline when her eyes landed on him. It managed to distract her
from her current problem of trying to figure out how to make McGill
change his mind.

"Why are you duct taped to a chair?" she
demanded even as the answer dawned on her.

Connor.

She wasn't really surprised. Well, actually
she kind of was since Connor tended to focus on torturing her these
days. Sure, he went after the guys she dated, but that didn't
really bother her since they all tended to turn into jerks and
really had it coming. She wondered what Jacob could have done as
she walked over and started the five minute process of making a
double cup of hot cocoa.

"Are you going to release me?" Jacob asked,
sounding unsure which only piqued her curiosity since most of the
men that Connor dealt with would usually be pissed and threatening
to call the police by now.

"How long ago did he tie you up?" she asked
as her eyes shot to the clock on the wall. She hadn't seen Connor
since they came to work so she was going to just go ahead and take
a guess about the time.

"Five hours ago," Jacob muttered
pathetically, confirming her suspicions.

"And what did you do?" she asked casually as
she added a spoonful of vanilla and caramel flavored creamer.

There was a slight telling pause before
Jacob said, "It wasn't my fault."

"What wasn't your fault?" she asked, pouring
a dab of cream into her mug.

"H-he knows."

"Knows what?"

"About the plans, meetings, suites,
everything," he admitted, making everything in her go still.

"Where is he?" she asked in a bored tone as
panic shot through her.

She realized that he would have found out
about the project sooner or later, but she was kind of hoping on it
being later, after she had a signed contract with McGill so that he
couldn't interfere and take over. Now she was going to have to hunt
him down, kick his ass and make sure that he knew that this was her
project and that it was off limits to him. Then she would be right
back to trying to figure out how to convince them to let her do
this. Maybe she could -

"I think you and I should have a talk,"
Connor announced as he stepped into the office, holding a thick
light brown folder.

Thankful that he saved her the time of
having to hunt him down to kick his ass, she grabbed her drink and
headed for her office, knowing that he'd be right behind her.