NFH 03 Checkmate (24 page)

It didn't matter that none of this made any
sense and that they hated each other, always had, always would. The
only thing that she cared about at the moment was that she wanted
this man so much that just the thought of putting space between
them made her body want to scream in agony.

Why did it have to be him? she wondered,
threading her fingers through his hair as she struggled not to
press down and take what he was offering. She'd always been
attracted to Connor. Over the years she'd been able to ignore it
thanks to the animosity they shared, but now she was struggling not
to give in and take what she wanted.

Him.

This whole thing was crazy, but knowing that
wasn't stopping her from wanting him. She'd never been this turned
on by a man before and if she didn't stop now, she knew that she'd
cross a line and she'd end up hating herself. It didn't matter that
over this past week she'd come to enjoy spending time with him,
found him funny, charming and surprisingly sweet. She just couldn't
push past the fact that this was the man who'd changed her entire
life one night with his typical bullshit. She was also reminded of
one very important fact.

This was all just a game to him.

Not that she could or even would cry or
complain about that since she was a willing participant in this
game of theirs, but that didn't change things. This didn't mean
anything and as long as she remembered that, then everything would
be fine.

It would help her deal with the changes in
Connor which she admittedly liked, but were unnerving. He was just
getting into character, she reminded herself as she slowly slid her
tongue across his, earning a sexy growl that left her aching for
more. Perhaps that was the way to look at this.

She needed to kiss, touch and enjoy every
inch of his incredible body, for their deal of course. Not that she
was dying to run her hands over him or anything. She had to do this
for the good of the project, she thought, releasing a little gasp
of pleasure as she allowed herself to settle more comfortably on
his lap. Not only for the project, but to stop the town drama, she
reminded herself with a moan as she adjusted herself on his
lap.

"Have dinner with me tonight," he murmured,
brushing his lips against hers as his large, warm hands soothingly
ran over her back.

It actually surprised her how badly she
wanted to say yes, but she couldn't. "Can't. I have plans tonight,"
she said against his mouth, because she really saw no reason to
stop kissing him so they could have this conversation.

"Break them," he said, pulling her bottom
lip between his lips and gently suckling, his hands never ceasing
as they slowly learned every inch of her back, shoulders and
arms.

"I can't," she grumbled against his lips,
sounding truly disappointed, which kind of frightened her a bit so
she just assumed that she was doing a wonderful job of getting in
character. That was good, she thought as she ran her hands down his
chest, loving the way his crisp cotton shirt felt over his
impressive chest and stomach, but loving his groan a lot more than
she probably should. She didn't even think twice about unbuttoning
one of the buttons on his shirt and slipping her hand inside so
that she could enjoy running her hand over his warm skin.

"You really can," he said, his muscles
rippling beneath her touch.

"Nope," she said on a sigh when Connor broke
off the kiss and trailed his mouth down her neck, "I really
can't."

"We had a deal, Rory," he said as his mouth
trailed lower and the thought of stopping him never even entered
her mind as she sat up on her knees to make it easier for him. She
could feel his heart start to race as his lips caressed the top
swells of her breasts.

"And I'm upholding my end of the deal," she
managed to get out as she had to remove her hand away from Connor's
chest to get it out of his way. She slipped her good hand beneath
the shirt collar and held onto his shoulder as Connor kissed his
way to her cleavage.

"No, you're not," he said hoarsely before he
ran his tongue between her breasts, earning a choked "oh, God" from
her as her grip on his shoulder tightened.

Unable to help herself, she looked down and
met his beautiful emerald eyes as he did it again, robbing her of
the ability to think beyond what he was doing to do her. He kept
his eyes locked on hers as he removed his hands from her back and
slowly brought them around, giving her plenty of time to stop him.
The problem was that she didn't want him to stop.

Her body literally shook with need as he
reached up and pulled the front bra clasp together before he
started to open it, clasp by clasp and making it impossible for her
to remain on her trembling knees for much longer. Even as she
lowered herself to sit on his lap he didn't take his eyes away from
hers as he undid every clasp, one by one. When her bra was finally
undone she expected him to drop his eyes down to see what he
revealed, but he kept his eyes locked on hers as he held the two
ends of her bra together, keeping her covered.

"What are these plans of yours? A date?" he
asked in a bored tone that didn't quite match the way he was
watching her.

Was he jealous? she wondered, but just as
quickly shoved that thought away. Connor O'Neil didn't get jealous,
especially not over her. There was no question that they were
attracted to each other. The large erection pushing against his
zipper was more than proof enough for that, she thought as she
allowed herself to settle more comfortably on his lap. The way he
licked his lips hungrily as she did that had her doing it just one
more time, for comfort sake of course.

"It's Saturday night," she reminded him even
though by now he should have known exactly what she had planned.
Every Saturday night she met her brothers at Luke's for dinner,
drinks and just to relax. It was a tradition they started over ten
years ago and one of her favorite things to do.

She liked going to Luke's on Saturday when
the music was live and the beers were ice cold. She could relax and
have a good time without worrying about some jerk hitting on her.
On Saturday nights she was untouchable. If she wanted to talk to a
man, she did. Her brothers weren't that overbearing, but if some
guy made the mistake of hounding her, he would find himself dragged
out back and meeting the fists of at least one of her brothers
before he could so much as mutter a half assed apology.

"Luke's," he said on a sigh with a nod of
understanding.

How he could have forgotten about her
Saturday night ritual she would never know. He went there most
Saturday nights, most everyone in town did. It was also the one
place that they had an unspoken agreement about. They didn't so
much as acknowledge each other while they were there, too afraid of
getting banned.

"Fine," he said, using his grip on her bra
to pull her forward, "I'll pick you up at seven."

"Um, I go there at eight, not seven and who
said that I was going with you?" she asked as she wrapped her arms
back around his shoulders.

"We have a deal, Rory, so that means that
you're going with me and you'll be ready by seven," he said,
leaning in to kiss her as she felt his grip on her bra loosen.

"Eight," she said just as his lips touched
hers, not even bothering to try and argue.

What was the point? They did have an
agreement. It had nothing to do with wanting to spend more time
with this man. She hated him, she reminded herself as she felt his
hands move up her sides. He repulsed her, she thought as she opened
her mouth in welcome and shifted on his lap, rubbing against the
large, hard bulge that was driving her crazy and leaning into him
as his hands slowly came up her sides.

Her body trembled as her nipples hardened in
anticipation. She'd never craved a man's touch as much as she
craved his and if he didn't move his ass and touch her she was
going to-

"Rory! The fire inspector is here!" Jacob
announced from behind the protection of the door. Not that the door
would keep him safe for long. Once she managed to catch her breath,
fix her bra and pull on a shirt, she fully planned on strangling
him and judging by the vicious growl that escaped Connor's throat,
he was probably having a few violent thoughts of his own.

"Seven," Connor said tightly, averting his
eyes to the side as he carefully helped her climb off his lap.

"Seven what?" she asked in a daze as her
body mourned the loss of his touch.

"Be ready," he said, sounding pained as he
stood up and stiffly walked out of the office, shutting the door
behind him without a glance in her direction.

She looked down at herself and groaned
pathetically as she let herself fall over onto her side. When her
eyes landed on the clock it actually terrified her that she was
counting down the hours until seven instead of dreading each
passing minute like any sane woman would.

"No! Not the duct tape!" Jacob cried out
from the other room, making her lips twitch. One thing that she
could say about Connor O'Neill, he'd never leave her bored.

Chapter 21

Sixty more seconds.......

He dropped his head back and clenched his
jaw tightly shut as ice cold water hit him. Just sixty more
seconds, he swore as his muscles started to cramp to the point of
pain. His eyes closed as he tried to focus on anything other than
the ice cold water assaulting his body. He thought of the manor,
baseball, his old high school locker combination and by the time
his mind turned to what he had for lunch he felt his body relax
somewhat and the most painful erection that he'd ever experienced
in his life started to go down.

A shaky breath escaped him as he opened his
eyes and reached out to shut the water off. He knew that he should
have taken himself in hand to avoid this torture, but that would
have only made it worse. It wouldn't have been enough and would
have only aggravated him more. His only saving grace was the fact
that he still hadn't seen Rory's breasts. His hands had brushed
against them, but while she'd been in his arms he somehow found the
will power not to look down.

He'd planned on watching her as he touched
her beautiful, and he damn well knew that they would be beautiful,
breasts for the first time. Thanks to the little bastard she'd
hired as an assistant, he never got the chance. When he stormed out
of Rory's office and only found her smirking assistant and no fire
inspector he almost killed the man with his bare hands. It was only
the reminder that he had Rory half naked in the other room that had
him hauling ass to teach the little bastard another lesson about
coming between him and Rory.

By the time he finished hog tying her
assistant, Rory was walking out of her office, wearing a new shirt
and looking unhappy. Thirty seconds after she told him about the
text message Craig sent her, he became decidedly pissed off. The
lumber they'd ordered for the roof, the same lumber that he was
told would be delivered by lunchtime, was delayed because the
flatbed that was transporting it broke down in Massachusetts.

After a dozen phone calls it became obvious
that they weren't going to be getting their lumber before Tuesday.
Normally that wouldn't be much of a problem, but the forecast for
Sunday night into Monday morning was rain and plenty of it. They'd
been left with no choice but to send a dozen men into town to buy
every last piece of tarp that they could get their hands on. It
took about eight hours and a hundred men, but they managed to get
the roof covered and sealed up tight. He didn't even want to think
of the bullshit they'd have to deal with if they hadn't covered it
up. The building had enough problems without adding mold or more
rot to the mix.

He fought back a yawn as he reached for a
towel. After putting in fourteen hours today, he was exhausted. He
should be crawling into bed right now, especially since he had to
get up bright and early tomorrow morning to fish with Rory's old
man and start working on her brothers. If this had been a date, not
that this was really a date, with any other woman he wouldn't have
hesitated in breaking it, but this was with Rory. He only had five
months with her and he was not about to waste a single minute of
it.

Speaking of his "date" with Rory, he was
late, he reminded himself with a grumble as he wrapped a towel
around his waist. He needed to move his ass and get dressed. It was
already after eight and the place was going to be packed. They'd be
lucky to get a table near the bathrooms tonight and that's
definitely not how he wanted to spend the night with her. He'd
rather take her in his bed and hold her. Actually, he'd rather take
her in his bed and make love to her all night, but since that
required more energy than he had right now, he was going to have to
settle for taking her out and hopefully holding her in his arms a
time or two on the dance floor.

He walked into his bedroom, fighting back
another yawn when his eyes landed on the bed. What he saw there had
him stumbling and doing a double take. Why was Rory curled up in
his bed in only a pink cotton camisole and panties? Was he
dreaming? he wondered and not really caring as he walked over to
her.

"Too tired. Not going out," she mumbled
pathetically without bothering to open her eyes.

"I see," he said, chuckling as she snuggled
against his pillow.

"Good. Now carry me back to my room," she
muttered even as she blindly reached out for a blanket. When she
didn't find one she let out a frustrated little groan and flopped
over onto her other side and curled up.

With a sigh, he walked over to the bed and
picked her up so that he could pull the covers back. When he laid
her back down, she curled right back up, snuggled against his
pillow and released a happy little sigh when he pulled the covers
over her. He should be pissed that his plans were being wrecked
again, but he just couldn't, not when breaking their plans meant
that he got to hold Rory in his arms all night.