NFH 03 Checkmate (25 page)

He would be holding her in his arms all
night long, he decided as he quickly pulled on a pair of boxers and
climbed in behind her. When he wrapped his arm around her, she
grumbled, but didn't stop him from pulling her against him. Once he
had her where he wanted her, he closed his eyes and felt his body
relax.

A few seconds later he let out a grunt when
she abruptly turned in his arms, whacking him in the shoulder with
her cast as she snuggled against him. He winced as he tightened his
hold on her, telling himself that he was doing it because he didn't
want to wake up covered in bruises. She was a violent little thing
after all, he mused as he kissed the top of her head. It had
absolutely nothing to do with the fact that he never wanted to let
her go.

* * * *

He really was handsome, Rory thought with a
smile as she gently caressed his jaw. She should leave, but she
found that she didn't want to go, not just yet. She could come up
with a million reasons why, but when it came right down to it, she
enjoyed waking up in his arms.

Not that she would admit this, but waking up
in his arms while he’d been taking care of her probably did more
for her than the pain medication the doctor prescribed. She'd felt
safe, truly safe which of course was laughable considering the fact
that this man had done anything and everything to make her life a
living hell for over two decades, but she couldn't help it. She
also couldn't help but like this Connor.

He made her feel safe, wanted and desired.
She knew that it was probably all part of his master plan, but that
didn't stop her from enjoying it. Why would it? She'd been dealing
with Connor for the majority of her life and for once he wasn't
annoying the shit out of her. This Connor was funny, sweet and made
her happy. She'd have to be an idiot not to enjoy this short
reprieve from the old Connor that made her life a living hell. She
had five months, hopefully, with this Connor and she was going to
make damn sure that she enjoyed every single minute of it while it
lasted.

But that didn't mean that she trusted this
little plan of his. She didn't. He was up to something and she'd be
foolish to go into this blindly. While she enjoyed herself, she'd
keep her eyes open and as soon as she figured out what Connor was
up to she'd turn the tables on him. Until then........

Well, she decided that she'd play it by ear.
As long as he stayed out of her way, focused on getting the manor
finished, and kept kissing her in a way that she loved then she
would let things continue. It actually surprised her how easily
she'd accepted this situation between them. Part of her, the part
that still remembered the time that he turned her blue when they
were fourteen, wanted to fight against this overwhelming attraction
that she felt for him and fight this deal of theirs, but she
realized something last night.

She didn't want to fight this.

He mumbled something as he reached for her,
but she wasn't there. When he frowned in his sleep, she couldn't
help but smile as she leaned over him and pressed a kiss against
his forehead. He let out a soft sigh as he rolled over onto his
stomach and she took that as her cue to leave.

She climbed off his bed and took a step
towards his patio when something occurred to her. She had free
reign of Connor's house. Since she didn't know when an opportunity
like this would come again she'd be foolish to pass this up. At
least that's what she told herself as she shot a quick glance in
Connor's direction to make sure that he was still asleep.

After a quick visual check she wasted no
time in tiptoeing out of his room. Her breath caught as she stepped
out of his room and into a dimly lit hallway. It felt as though
she'd stepped back into the nineteenth century. The walls were
white with dark trim. Dimly lit electric lanterns lined the wall,
casting just enough light in the hallway for the historical house
junkie in her to get a rush.

Old houses were her favorite. When she was
little she used to love it when her father worked on an older
house. She used to walk through each room, ignoring the modern
changes and imagine what the house used to look like, should look
like. Her brothers would tease her, but she didn't care. There was
just something about an older house that spoke to her. She'd always
imagined that she'd grow up and design modern homes that looked
like they belonged in a previous century, but with all the modern
amenities blended into the design.

In fact, she'd planned on going to college
to earn a degree in architecture and one day design an entire town
with old time stores and houses with an eighteenth century facade,
but it never happened. Thanks to the incident in Canada she lost
her college scholarship as well as her acceptance to several
schools. She could have applied to another college, a less
expensive college, especially since the charges had been dropped,
but by the time she had enough money to do just that, her dreams
had changed.

She decided to open her own construction
company and truth be told, she'd never regretted that choice. That
didn't mean that she couldn't mourn the loss of what might have
been. It was the reason why she bought her house. She considered
buying both houses, but she knew at the time that two mortgages and
renovations would have been too much for her to handle.

When Connor bought this house she'd been
pissed for several obvious reasons, but not really surprised. His
house had needed a serious amount of work and everyone in town knew
that Connor enjoyed a challenge. At seventeen he started to work
for old man Thompson, a mean son of a bitch who paid piss poor
wages and worked his employees to the bone. Connor started off
doing the grunt work as a carpenter's apprentice. He put in long
hours, got yelled at a lot from what she'd heard, but he stuck with
it.

It wasn't long until people were calling
Connor up and hiring him instead of old man Thompson. There were
many things that she could say about Connor, but she could never
call the man lazy. Everyone in town knew that he'd worked his butt
off to get where he was today. He did good work, she grudgingly
admitted to herself as she tried not to drool over the cast iron
settings that held the lamps to the wall.

She was so going to have to get a set to
replace the lights she had in her hallway, she decided as she
walked across the hall and opened the beautiful oak door. As she
stepped into the room, she threw the light on and nearly stumbled
as her heart skipped a beat. She'd never believed in love at first
sight before, but right now she was a believer.

"Do you like it?" Connor's sleep rasped
voice sent shivers throughout her body as his arms wrapped around
her and pulled her back against him as she let out a dreamy
sigh.

Like it?

"I'm going to steal it," she told him
honestly as she ran her greedy eyes over the most beautiful bathtub
that she'd ever seen. It was one of those old fashioned tubs with
clawed feet, a high back and appeared to be extra deep.

"Might be a little heavy," he pointed out
with a chuckle as he pressed a kiss against the top of her
head.

"That's what brothers are for," she mumbled,
making him laugh as if she was kidding.

She wasn't.

In fact, she was pretty sure that she'd only
need four of her brothers to get the job done. The other brother
could keep Connor distracted while they removed the bathtub and
carried it to her house. Her brothers could probably get the whole
job done in under an hour. An hour after that she'd be in the tub
and it would officially belong to her. Possession was nine-tenths
of the law after all.

"Want to give it a test drive before you
steal it?" he teased as he released her so that he could step
around her. "You should probably make sure that it's worth throwing
out your back," he explained with a chuckle as he walked over to
the tub and started the water.

It wouldn't throw her back out since she
planned on participating in the bath tub theft strictly in a
supervisory capacity, but he didn't need to know that. Not when he
was offering to allow her to sample what had to be heaven on earth.
There was only one problem with this plan as far as she could
tell.

"Bath salts," she said, frowning as she
looked around the large, beautiful bathroom.

"What about them?" he asked absently as he
adjusted the water temperature.

"You don't have any," she said, sounding
almost accusatory, but she didn't care. By all rights no one should
own a bathtub like this without having a decent supply of salts,
oils and bubble bath.

Instead of shrugging it off or bitching
about her complaint like most of the men she'd known would have
done, he stood up and headed for the door. "I'll go grab some from
your bathroom. Anything in particular that you want?" he asked,
pausing by the door as he waited for her answer, not sounding or
looking pissed off or putout at all. Actually, he looked like he
was actually happy to do it for her.

"Lemongrass?" she asked, not used to men
taking care of her.

When Connor simply nodded and took off, her
first reaction was suspicion. After years of screwing each other
over, she couldn't help but automatically jump to that conclusion.
Her mind raced through all the things he'd done to her over the
years, wondering if she was about to experience a repeat of being
turned the color of a smurf, but she quickly dismissed the
idea.

He wouldn't do that, not when he needed her
for whatever plan he was working on. When she heard his patio door
slide open from the other room another thought occurred to her, a
thought that should have disgusted her, but didn't. What if he was
planning on joining her in the tub? And why did the thought of
Connor holding her against his naked body make her toes curl?

Because she wanted him.

There, she admitted it to herself. She
wanted Connor O'Neill in her bed and so what? She didn't see what
the big deal was. For the next five months they were supposed to be
in a relationship and what woman in her right mind would date
Connor and not welcome him into her bed? He was handsome and had an
incredible body. She was stuck working with him and trapped in this
deal with him, so why shouldn't she enjoy what he had to offer?

It's not like there would be any confusion
or hurt feelings if they decided to have sex. They both knew where
they stood and they both knew that they hated each other, but that
didn't stop them from wanting to tear each other's clothes off. The
only downside that came to mind was that nasty little rumor that
followed Connor around everywhere he went. According to the local
female population, Connor was extremely selfish in bed.

Then again, weren't all men selfish in
bed?

She couldn't think of a single man that
she'd slept with that hadn't been selfish. They all wanted sex
their way and only their way. Most of them didn't care if she found
her moment since they only focused on their own. Some of the men
she'd slept with cared if she enjoyed herself, but usually once she
had a small "O" they went right back to focusing on their own
enjoyment. Once they were done they couldn't leave fast enough.

Then again, she'd never heard women complain
about the skills of the other men in town as much as they did about
Connor. Not that she listened to gossip or anything, but she'd
heard that the man did the absolute bare minimum to get a woman in
bed and once he had her there the complaints tripled. He didn't
make eye contact, refused to kiss any woman once he got her on her
back and hated foreplay. If any woman enjoyed herself it was purely
by accident, but she wasn't sure how much of that she believed
since the rumors didn't seem to stop women from throwing themselves
at him.

It certainly wasn't going to stop her, she
thought as she shut the water off and headed for Connor's bedroom.
If it was horrible then she wouldn't waste the effort again. They'd
go on with this little fake relationship of theirs, but if he
managed to keep her interests in bed even a little bit,
well........

Then this deal of theirs would be getting a
lot more interesting.......

Chapter 22

"Change your grand larceny plans?" he asked,
chuckling when he spotted Rory in the hallway, heading towards his
room.

"No," she murmured with a shrug as she
stepped up to him and placed her injured hand on his shoulder as
her good hand moved to the back of his head.

Before he could ask her what she was doing,
her mouth was on his and he forgot about bath salts and coming up
with an excuse so that he could sneak out in a couple of hours and
go meet her father and brothers for some fishing. He had a plan
that he needed to work on after all, but right now that didn't
matter. Right now the only thing that mattered was the woman
teasingly nipping at his bottom lip.

"What's going on?" he whispered hoarsely,
groaning when she licked his lip better.

"Getting into character,"
she said, brushing her lips against his as she pressed tightly
against him, making everything in him go still as the plastic
bottle slipped out of his hand and dropped to the ground with
a
thud.

There was no way that he'd just heard what
he thought he did. He knew Rory pretty well and knew that she would
never use her sex appeal to get what she wanted. She wouldn't
bother wasting the energy for all that bullshit. She would just
kick his ass to get what she-

"I want sex, Connor, and as long as you make
it worth my while we're going to add it to our deal," she said as
she somehow managed to back him up until his back hit the wall
before adding with a teasing note, "to get into character of
course."

He opened his mouth to make sure that he'd
heard her right when she took advantage and slid her tongue in his
mouth, taking him off guard and leaving him with no other choice
but to give into the stubborn woman. She wanted him. Rory James,
the woman he'd been fantasizing about since he'd first noticed
girls, wanted him and he wasn't going to do something stupid like
question it or bitch about her methods.