NFH 03 Checkmate (18 page)

"I'm on time," he murmured absently as he
scanned her body and frowned. Why was she wearing a tight baby
green tee shirt and jeans when he specifically told her to wear
something sexy? Sexier, he amended a moment later when he was
forced to shift slightly to the right to accommodate his growing
erection.

"I told you eight," she said, crossing her
arms beneath her large breasts and practically shoved them towards
his hungry eyes. Did she know what that did to him? He sure as hell
hoped not.

"And I told you seven, Rory."

She simply shrugged as she gestured to the
flowers in his hand. "What are those?"

His irritation forgotten, he frowned down at
the woman. "They're flowers."

She rolled her eyes at him. "I meant, what
are they for?"

"For you."

"Why?" she asked, eying the roses as if they
were going to attack her.

Christ, she was acting like she'd never
received flowers before and it took him a second to realize that
she probably hadn't. If he didn't want her brothers to come work
for him so badly he'd be tempted to kick their asses for this
bullshit.

"Because that's what I do for my dates," he
lied. He'd never bought a woman flowers before, but for Rory he
made it a point to pick up the flowers on his way home even though
it meant that he had to rush to get ready. It just felt wrong not
to get them for her.

"I'm not really your date, Connor," she
pointed out as she took the flowers, looking and acting like she
didn't care, but he didn't miss the pleased little smile or the way
she smelled the flowers as she turned to place them on the small
table next to the front door. Now he was kicking himself for not
stopping off and getting her a box of chocolates. Next time, he
decided as he stepped aside so that she could lock her door.

"Um, what are you doing?" she asked as she
looked down.

"Holding your hand," he said, enjoying the
feel of her smaller hand in his. He'd never been one for PDA, but
with Rory he was willing to make an exception, especially if it got
him what he wanted.

"Why?" she asked, trying to pull her hand
away, but he simply ignored her as he walked with her around his
truck and opened the door for her. With an eye roll and a muttered,
"I could have done that myself," she climbed in and buckled up.

He had to bite his tongue as he closed the
door for her. It always irritated him when he saw other men
treating her like she was one of the guys, but it absolutely pissed
him off that she had such low expectations of how she should be
treated. Well, he'd fix that. He'd use this time to show her
exactly how she should be treated so that when he was through with
her, she would at least know that she deserved better. It was the
least he could do for her after all, he decided as he climbed into
the truck.

"Would you stop doing that?" Rory asked a
minute later as she tried to carefully pull her hand free, but he
ignored her since he knew that she just didn't know any better, but
she'd learn, he promised himself.

"No."

"No?" she asked, giving up on trying to free
her hand to glare at him.

"No, so you'd better get used to it, Rory.
For the next five months you're mine," he said, liking the idea
more and more. It really was too bad that sex wasn't involved in
this deal, but he'd have to settle for the small bonuses like
holding her, touching her, and kissing her.

"Ah, no. For the next five
months, I'm going along with this sick and twisted charade while
we're in
public
to
get my project, which by the way I'm going to start soon since I've
more than earned it by the way," she informed him, yanking her hand
back and trying to take him off guard, but he'd been ready. He had
her hand firmly in his and he refused to let it go.

"When it's just the two of us I don't have
to do anything but try to figure out how to get rid of the body
without the police figuring it out," she said, giving her hand one
more good yank that he easily ignored before she gave up.

"No, I have to hold your hand to help stay
in character," he said with a shrug as he turned into O'Malley's
busy parking lot. He'd planned on taking her out to a nice
restaurant and then out for a drink, but Rory apparently had
different expectations for the night judging by her attire. That
was fine, more than fine actually. He'd help build up her
expectations so that when the next guy came around, and he'd
probably beat the shit out of him just on principle alone, she
wouldn't put up with cheap assholes that refused to go out of their
way to treat her the way that she deserved.

"Stay in character?" she said slowly as if
she couldn't quite believe what he said.

"Exactly," he said absently as he drove
towards the back of the large parking lot since he didn't feel like
wasting twenty minutes waiting for a prime spot to open up.
Besides, he didn't like taking those spots. He'd never feel right
if he took a spot up front and forced a woman to park in the back
of the parking lot where the street lights didn't quite reach and
where any asshole could be hiding in the woods that bordered the
property.

"I think we should set some ground rules,"
she said absently as she shot an anxious look over her shoulder
towards the busy restaurant.

Rory James afraid? He never thought he'd see
the day when that happened and he couldn't help but feel satisfied
that he was responsible for it. She was always trying to be tough
and act as though nothing ever fazed her. It was nice to see her
act human for a change.

"You're absolutely right," he said with a
firm nod of agreement. When she opened her mouth, no doubt to cut
him off and start sprouting off a bunch of rules that he would only
ignore, he decided to save them both a lot of time and aggravation
by just explaining to her how this was going to play out.

"For the next five months you're going to
play my sweet, loving girlfriend. I don't expect sex," but he sure
as hell wouldn't turn it down from her. "I do expect you to act
like you enjoy being with me. If that means that I'll have to suck
it up and hold your hand, have you sit on my lap, and kiss you in
order to do that then that's just what I'll have to do," he said
with a careless shrug that he knew would just piss her off.

"Look," Rory practically hissed, "there's no
need to continue with this sick and disturbing plan of yours. We
can just call a truce and move on and eventually everyone else will
as well."

He pretended to think that over. "You really
think so?"

"Yes!"

"I guess we could do that......," he said,
purposely letting his words trail off and biting back a smile when
she sighed with relief. She really should have known better. "But
we're not going to."

"I. Hate. You."

He chuckled as he opened his door. "You'll
have to do better than that if you want that little project of
yours," he reminded her before he shut the door.

It wasn't exactly a surprise that she sat
there fuming as she glared at him, her expression clearly telling
him what she'd liked to do to him, but he simply ignored her since
he was in such a good mood. He was just too pleased with himself to
care. For tonight and for the next five months, Rory James was
his.

The only thing that would make this whole
arrangement better was having her in his bed, but that would never
happen. If she didn't like him before, and really at this point
there was no questioning that, then she absolutely hated him now.
In fact, he was willing to bet everything he had that she was even
now considering the pros and cons of kicking him in the balls and
being done with it.

Then again, he knew that she would never
risk her project. If her assistant hadn't spilled everything he
knew about the project while Connor duct taped him to the chair
then her designs sure as hell would have. They were meticulous,
detailed and well presented and they'd made him feel guilty until
he managed to once again shove it aside and focus. He knew that
once he had McGill on board that his plan would work.

It took some time convincing McGill to take
the chance on Rory's plans, but once he did, Connor knew the James
boys were as good as his. He'd been foolish to think that he could
win the James boys over on his own. They might have refrained from
tying to kick his ass over the years, but that didn't mean that
they liked him anymore than their sister did.

The looks they gave him when he climbed out
of the hole and went to help the paramedics, reminded him where he
stood with them. Then again, the fact that they shoved him out of
the way and scowled in his direction any time he got too close,
meaning within twenty feet, of Rory told him that his plan would
never work. He knew then that if he continued this little war with
Rory that he wouldn't have a chance to get to the James brothers
and convince them to come work for him.

Now, as Rory's boyfriend........

That was a different story all together.
They'd be suspicious and rightly so, but it would get his foot in
the door and that's all he needed. If they saw him treating Rory
with respect and taking care of her the way that she deserved then
he'd win them over.

Not that it would be a hardship treating
Rory like a queen, it wouldn't. Sure he screwed her over and
enjoyed making her life a living hell, but he always made sure that
she was okay, always. When they were seven and a bunch of stuck up
little girls made fun of the way Rory dressed and acted, he made
sure that those three girls had a run in with the large mud puddle
in the playground. Over the years he lost count of how many little
boys, teenagers and grown men he'd taken care of for her after they
treated her like shit. It probably made him a hypocrite to enjoy
screwing with her and then beating the shit out of anyone who hurt
her, but he just couldn't stomach the idea of Rory being hurt in
any way. Not that he would ever tell her that, especially since she
wouldn't believe him.

That was also why he didn't even bother
trying to trick her into dating him. Not that she'd go for it, she
wouldn't, but he didn't like the idea of hurting her. Stringing her
along so that he could get her brothers to come work for him, just
felt wrong. At least by blackmailing her, he was honest with her so
that he was free to enjoy screwing her over without any guilt.

He opened the door for the furious woman and
didn't bother hiding his grin as she muttered a few violent words
about his balls as she shot another nervous look at the
increasingly busy restaurant as she climbed out of the truck. She
looked cute when she was nervous, still hot as hell, but cute.

"Um, maybe we could," she noticeably
swallowed as she took a step back, "do something else?"

"Would that make you feel more comfortable
with this arrangement?" he asked, sounding concerned and biting
back a smile when she noticeably relaxed as she gave him a quick
nod, never taking her eyes away from the restaurant.

It was really pathetic that she didn't know
him by now. Then again, knowing that she didn't want to do this
just made the situation too damn irresistible to ignore.

"Fine. We can go home," he said, biting back
a smile when her shoulders slumped in obvious relief and she moved
to open the truck door. "Right after we eat, play a few games of
pool and hang out for two or three hours," he said as he took her
good hand in his and headed for the door, not really caring that he
was practically dragging her behind him.

He had a game plan after all and she was the
key to making it work.

"I really hate you," she muttered, but he
decided to ignore that since it was just her crankiness and her
severe disliking of him talking.

Chapter 16

"H-h-how many?" Amber, the hostess and a
woman who'd graduated two years ahead of them in high school, asked
as she noticeably struggled to tear her eyes away from the sight of
Connor holding her hand. That was understandable because right now
Rory was struggling with a nervous breakdown.

Connor O'Neil was holding
her hand, in public, on purpose, and she liked it, a little too
much, but sadly that wasn't the worst part. The most frightening?
Yes, but not the worst part. No, the worst part was that every
single person in the bar had stopped talking, eating, dancing, and
drinking to stare at them. It was actually a little bit unnerving
to be able to hear the jukebox playing Kelly Clarkson's
Mr. Know It All
, which
she normally liked, but right now it was creeping her out as
everyone stared at them as if they couldn't quite believe what they
were seeing.

They were never going to be able to pull
this off. Not that she really cared. She really didn't. Although,
it would be nice to be able to go a day without someone pointing at
her or being asked to leave a store or restaurant because Connor
was already there and the damn establishment was one of fifty-seven
that had the damn rule about not allowing both of them inside at
the same time. It was really an inconvenient little rule and one
that she wouldn't mind having lifted. Having the banned and no
trespass orders lifted wouldn't exactly hurt either, but none of
that was worth this little nightmare.

Unfortunately for her, Strawberry Manor was
worth it. Otherwise she wouldn't be here at the moment. She'd
probably be back at the site putting in a couple more hours before
calling it a night. Not that she could do much with her arm broken,
but it was still enough to bring them one step closer to their
goal.

If they didn't meet the deadline not only
would their reputations be marred, but they'd lose the bonus money
and she wasn't about to let that happen. She'd worked her butt off
for years building her reputation for running a dependable company
and she wasn't about to let the project of her dreams change that.
They would finish this project on time along with those suites and
Shadow Construction's reputation would be set for life.