NFH 03 Checkmate (17 page)

"Hey, what about me?" Jacob asked, but she
ignored him. "Seriously, I have to use the bathroom. If you could
just make a little tear in the tape I'm pretty sure that I
could-"

Connor closed the door behind him and walked
past her to sit in her chair, but she was quicker. She sat down and
couldn't quite bite back the smug little smile that came along with
besting the man. It seemed as though this meeting was starting off
on the right track, she mused seconds before he snatched the hot
cocoa out of her hands, placed it on her desk, grabbed her good
hand and gave it a yank.

"Hey!"

He ignored her as he took her seat and
yanked her back onto his lap. Once he had her settled, meaning
trapped, he reached around her and picked up her cup of cocoa.

"Don't even think about it," she warned
evenly as she struggled to get off his lap, but the arm he had
wrapped around her waist held her right where he wanted her.

He ignored her and finished off her cocoa as
she was forced to sit there, watching as her precious cocoa was
stolen. Once he was done he placed the coffee cup back on the
desktop with a little more force than she felt was necessary and
shifted her on his lap so that she was facing him.

"Anything you feel like sharing?" he asked
as he leaned back in her chair, clearly making himself comfortable
as he studied her.

"You're an ass."

"Anything else?" he asked in a deceptively
calm tone, but there was no missing the anger in his eyes.

"Yeah, stop touching my cocoa," she said as
she tried to climb off his lap, but he didn't release her.

"No. Anything else you want to tell me,
Rory?" he asked, reaching up and pushing a damp strand of hair away
from her face.

"I hate you?" she offered with a sweet
smile.

For a moment he didn't say anything as he
studied her, finally he leaned forward and grabbed the folder he'd
dropped on the desk and handed it to her.

"What's this?" she asked as she cautiously
opened it, this was from Connor after all.

"My bargaining chip," he said, sounding
arrogant, a little too arrogant for her comfort.

With a feigned casualness, she opened the
envelope and pulled out the crisp white papers inside. She ignored
him as he shifted her on his lap and looked over the papers. With
one glance she knew that she was looking at a contract and a few
seconds later she knew that it was a contract from McGill. When her
eyes landed on the third paragraph she felt her brows pull together
and her jaw pop.

"You.....son......of.....a.......
bitch
!" she bit out with barely
controlled rage as she jumped off his lap and whirled on
him.

"Checkmate, sweetheart," Connor said with a
wink and that sexy grin of his that had her seeing red.

"
Checkmate?
" she repeated in a
strangled tone as she fought against the urge to jump him and go
for those damn nipples that she was becoming so fond of. "You stole
my project, you son of a bitch!"

"Did I?" he asked in a bored tone as he
leaned back in the chair and appeared to think it over. "I think
you just might be right about that, Rory," he said with a
shrug.

"You've gone too far this time, Connor," she
said, slamming the papers down on top of the desk as she continued
to glare at him.

"Oh, but I'm not even close to being done,"
he drawled as he reached out, picked up the contract and made a
show of looking it over.

"What are you talking about?" she asked,
reminding herself that this was the way the game was played and
that she couldn't make her move until he laid all the cards on the
table. When he was done, she was grabbing her pliers and going for
his balls this time.

He'd done a lot of horrible things over the
years, but stealing her project was by far the worst thing he'd
ever done, besides ruining her life that is. How was she supposed
to explain to McGill that this was her project and that Connor
stole it from her without sounding whinny and creating a lot of
drama? There probably wasn't, so she was just going to have to
settle for using the pliers until Connor promised to back out of
the contract so that she could take it over.

"You arranged a meeting and tried to go
behind my back, altering my project. For that," he paused to meet
her glare, "you're going to have to pay."

"It's my project, Connor. I worked my ass
off designing those suites and I had every right to go to McGill
and present them. Those are my designs, Connor, and you had no
right stealing them!"

"Do you want to yell some more or are you
ready to cut the shit and get down to business?" he asked and god
help her, but she considered slapping that smug little smile right
off his face.

"Yes," she grated out.

"The project is yours, Rory."

"For what price?" she asked, already knowing
that Connor was going to make her work her ass off for it and
probably put her through hell and if she didn't want this so badly
she would have just shrugged and walked off, but she did. She might
have to share Strawberry Manor with the jackass that she'd
mistakenly started to like, but those screwed up feelings ended the
moment he made a play for her project. This was her baby and hers
alone.

"I'm glad you asked," he said with a content
little sigh that had her right eye twitching and her hand inching
towards her tool belt.

"I have a few conditions of course,-"

"Of course you do," she said dryly.

"-but once you've completed them to my
satisfaction then you can start building your suites, have full use
of my men and equipment and Shadow Construction will get full
credit for it," he explained as he watched her expectantly.

Having the use of his men, the ones she hand
selected of course, would help as would having the use of his
equipment. It would save her time and most importantly, money. This
was a good deal and she'd have to be an idiot not to see that. Then
again, she didn't know what he wanted from her or if she could even
go through with it.

"And in return, Rory, you're going to be my
dotting girlfriend," he announced and just like that he found the
deal breaker.

"I'm not sleeping with you, Connor. I'll
find another way to get my project back," she said, shaking her
head in disgust as she reached out, snatching the contract away
from him and headed for the door. Maybe her lawyer could find a
loophole or she could just flat out sue the bastard and get an
injunction to stop him from starting work on the suites. It would
take time, but hopefully she could get this cleared up before
Strawberry Manor's deadline.

"This has nothing to do with sex, Rory, so
relax," he said, making her pause as she reached the door.

"Then what is the point of this little
scheme of yours, Connor?" she asked, not even trying to hide her
skepticism or her revulsion. This was a new low even for him.

He stood up and walked around her desk only
to lean back against it as he explained, "I'm sure you've noticed
that this little relationship of ours has caused a lot of.....," he
pursed his lips up thoughtfully before he said, "problems."

That was an understatement if she ever heard
one. Their relationship, or rather their hatred for one another had
caused them to be banned, gawked at, betted on, and blamed
admittedly for a lot of damage that they did inadvertently cause
and also for things that had absolutely nothing to do with them.
She was still pissed about the summer that she was banned from the
town pool because someone blamed them for busting the slide. It was
broken before she even managed to tackle Connor and pants the
jerk.

"You're going to play my loving, dotting
girlfriend and help turn all of that around, Rory," he said with a
shrug as if it wasn't a big deal.

It was a very big deal!

She was more likely to kill him than dot on
him and he damn well knew it.

"No, sorry, not going to happen," she said,
shaking her head emphatically with each word. "Come up with
something else."

"This isn't up for negotiation, Rory," he
said firmly. "You will play my girlfriend in public and make sure
people believe that you not only like me, but love me and in return
you get your little project."

Her jaw nearly dropped to
the ground with that declaration. "You expect me to act like
I
love
you?"

"Mmmhmm, to the point that you can't keep
your hands off of me."

"They'll be firmly wrapped around your
throat, you jerk!" she snapped. "Why do you really want to do this,
Connor?" she demanded as she moved towards him and gestured with
her broken hand in the direction of Strawberry Manor, "you don't
care what anyone thinks so why are you screwing with my plans?"

He smiled tightly. "My reasons are my own,
Rory. All you need to know is that if you want this project you'll
do as I ask. You'll go out with me, hang on my every word and
public displays of affection are not only encouraged but expected
and you'll keep this deal of ours between us," he announced as he
headed for the door. "You have one hour to make your decision. If
you don't, then Highland Construction will be building three very
elaborate suites and getting all the credit," he said with a wink
as he left, shutting the door behind him and leaving her
fuming.

She let out a scream of frustration as she
kicked her desk and then spent the next two minutes muttering
"owie" as she hopped around on one leg. When the pain dulled, she
dropped down on her chair and groaned. She could not believe that
he did this and she sure as hell couldn't believe that he wanted
her to play this little game. She'd known that he was up to
something and unfortunately that something had just kicked her
ass.

This project meant everything to her. It was
going to be Strawberry Manor's signature attraction and now Connor
was dangling it in her face, leaving her with no other choice but
to go along with this sick and twisted plan of his. She was going
to have to play along, she realized with a pathetic whimper as she
forced herself to get to her feet and walk out the door, knowing
that what she was about to do went against nature, but for this
project she would do it.

"If you let me go I'll make you a triple
chocolate hot cocoa," Jacob offered, sounding hopeful, which was
really kind of pathetic.

"Consider this your punishment for having
such a big mouth," she snapped, knowing that she was letting him
off easy by leaving him tied to his chair, but she couldn't help
it. The man did make a delicious cup of hot cocoa.

"He made me tell him!" Jacob whined as she
headed for the door.

"Uh huh, you can sit there and think about
what you did, mister," she said sternly as she opened the door,
"and just so you know, I'm not changing my shirts in front of you
for a year for this."

His shocked gasp was rewarding enough as she
closed the door behind her and headed towards the lunch truck where
Connor was talking to some of his men, to do the unthinkable. She
marched right up to him, ignoring the curious looks his men were
sending her and reached up, cupping the back of Connor's neck and
yanked him down for a kiss that sent shivers down her spine. She
ignored her response to the man, the startled gasps around her, and
the whispers of people wondering if hell had frozen over as she
pulled away.

"Pick me up at eight," she said, moving to
walk away so that she could go kick something.

"Seven, and wear something sexy,
sweetheart," Connor said with that damn cocky tone that was going
to get him bitch slapped.

Chapter 15

Oh, he was going to hell, but what a way to
go, he thought with a chuckle as he grabbed the bouquet of baby
pink roses off his coffee table and headed for the door, pausing
only long enough to check his hair in the antique mirror hanging in
the foyer.

Admittedly, he hadn't been in a good mood
when he discovered what Rory was doing behind his back, but once he
realized the possibilities he hadn't been able to stop smiling. He
owned her ass now. He had something that she wanted and he was
going to use her to get what he wanted. He was also going to enjoy
everything he put her through along the way.

For the past week he'd been wracking his
brain trying to come up with a way to win over her brothers and
lure them over to his company and Rory, bless her little
backstabbing, betraying heart, just handed him the solution on a
silver platter. He'd get to her brothers through her, not that he
wouldn't enjoy having Rory on his arm, he would, but she was simply
a means to an end.

Finding out that she was lying and going
behind his back to deal with McGill was the wakeup call that he
needed. Over the past couple of days he'd been hoping that they
could put their little feud behind them and call a truce, but
obviously he'd been foolish to think that Rory could ever let go of
the past and move on.

If she wanted to continue playing these
games then that was more than fine with him, because he would end
this bullshit once and for all. Once Strawberry Manor was done and
he had the James boys working for him then he was going to sit back
and enjoy the show as Shadow Construction went out of business. It
would be the final blow and the end of this game of theirs.

A minute later, he was knocking on her front
door and more than eager to start the final chapter. He was also
looking forward to having free reign to touch her and holy hell,
did that make it all worth it. Well, that and the fact that she had
to pretend to adore him. Really, could life get any better? he
thought as he knocked again.

"You're early," Rory said with an annoyed
sigh as she opened the door.