Rory (8 page)

She’d come quickly and yes, he
was conceited enough to think that maybe he had something to do with it. Shit,
he’d wanted to part those legs and push his cock into her, smacking her against
the bathtub wall and making her come over and over again.

He ran his hands through his
hair. He’d had thoughts like that once before when he’d first seen her serving
ice cream behind the counter when he’d taken Emily in there to get a banana
split.

Rory had been tempted to ask her
out, but he hadn’t. Stupid move on his part because the next thing he knew Ryan
had brought her along to one of the family dinners and proudly introduced her
as his girlfriend.

Guilt washed over him as he
remembered silently praying it wouldn’t work out. His prayers were never
answered because six months later at yet another family dinner they announced
they were engaged.

He’d left the table that night a
bitter man, thinking about what could have been. And when Ryan had died in that
fire he’d thought that could have been him. He would have done the very same
thing as Ryan did that late summer evening and paid for his heroics with his
life.

Rory glanced at his bedroom door.
He’d closed it tonight not because he didn’t want to help Cass if she needed
him in the middle of the night, but it would give him time to deal with his
guilt in private.

The moon was full tonight and
even in the darkness he could see the outline of the doorknob. Someone was
turning it. Soon Cass stood in the doorway, crutches under each arm.

“Do you need something?” he asked
her.

“No, but I need to do something
for you.”

He sat up, watching her walk
slowly toward the bed and wondering what she’d meant, but then she put the
crutches against the bed, slipped under the blankets at the bottom of the bed
and worked her way up his body.

Before he could say or do
anything, she’d yanked his boxer shorts down his legs. Her hands went onto his
cock, making it hard within seconds.

“Cass, no, this is wrong.”

“
Sch
,
Rory, just lie there and enjoy it okay?”

He tried to move, to protest, but
when her mouth went around his dick, he knew he was a goner.

She licked him and flicked at his
shaft, her hands massaging his balls. God help him, he’d always loved a woman
who gave attention to his balls. She took him deeper into her mouth. He gripped
the bed sheets on either side of his body, crumpling them up in his fists.

Cass licked underneath his shaft
and then flicked on the top of it before taking his full length over her lips.

Shit, she was an expert. Had she
done this for his brother?

He tried to put Ryan out of his
mind. Forgive me for not fighting her off, little brother.

Cass placed her hands on his hips
and worked his cock some more.

He was falling down, down, into a
welcome abyss. He was close to coming. He flexed his toes and panted, tried to
get his breath to a steady pace, but all he could think about was his grand
finale. He brought his hips up, pushing his cock up on the roof of her mouth
and that’s all it took.

Rory put his hands over his face.
Partly to take in the last of the sensation of his release; partly
because he was even more guilt-ridden.
He should have been stronger,
should have sent her back to her room and locked his own.

“Cass, I think you should go back
to bed now.”

“Didn’t you like it?”

“I loved it, and that’s the
problem. Please let me have some time to myself to process this, okay?”

He felt her slip away and then
the door close shut.

His cock still felt her mouth on
it, his balls already hungering to be touched again by her.

Turning over, he slammed his fist
into the middle of the pillow.

Damn,
you’re a weak one, Malone.

****

Rory had sounded angry with her.
She bit her lip. She was only returning the favor of what he’d done for her in
the bathroom earlier that night. Her clit had hummed long after he stopped
touching her. Ryan had taught her how to bring him to climax with her mouth and
tongue. She guessed she might be out of practice, but Rory had come a lot
faster than Ryan had ever done, so she guessed she’d done something right.

She turned her head to look at
the clock. 2.34 a.m.

Her leg began itching. The sooner
she got this cast off her leg, the better. She’d feel like a normal human being
again. No, she’d never feel like one of those. She had too much history, too
much baggage and maybe that’s what Rory was really avoiding, not that fact that
she was once engaged to his brother and therefore thought any contact between them
was borderline incestuous.

She turned on her back again,
wincing when the cast caught in the blanket and gave her leg an unexpected
tug.
 
She threw the blankets off the bed
and pushed her legs over the side of the bed. She scooted her butt along the
mattress and reached for her crutches. Pulling herself up, she put them under her
armpits and began to make her way out of the bedroom. She thought about getting
something to drink in the kitchen, but instead decided to check out Rory’s
studio at the end of the hall. It was really the house’s fourth bedroom and had
been Ryan’s room when the Malone brothers had grown up here. However, when Ryan
had moved out, Rory had converted it to his art nook.

She pushed the door open, went
inside, and turned on the light, knowing it was too far from Rory’s bedroom to
disturb him. He hoped she didn’t mind her looking around for a bit.

She saw an almost finished
painting standing on his easel. It was Flynn, Natalie, and Emily. It was
gorgeous and was the most lifelike thing she’d ever seen. She ran her hands
over the brushstrokes. Rory was a very talented artist. Another half-finished
painting stood on the floor. This time it was a horse with a mountain as a
backdrop. She ambled over to another set of paintings and began flipping
through them. One of Shane’s new baby, one of the craft shop, and then she
swallowed the lump in her throat.
One of Ryan.
She’d
never seen it before, and it took her breath away because it was so beautiful.

She ran her finger around his
face, over his lips, almost as if she was touching him in person again. A tear
ran down her face. His eyes looked back at her and then she lost it. She
screamed, finally realizing all the grief she’d held back all these years just
needed to come out.

Chapter Eleven

Rory sat bolt upright in bed.
He’d heard a woman screaming, and it hadn’t been in his dreams.

Cass.

He leapt out of bed and ran
across the hallway to her room, but the bed was empty. He heard sobbing coming
from his art studio. Whatever was she doing in there at this time of night?

Rory ran down the hall. Flinging
the door back, he saw her sitting on the floor holding his latest painting of
Ryan. Her tears had dropped onto it, now smearing the paint and sending it
streaming down the canvas. It looked ruined, but for some reason he couldn’t be
angry with her.

“Cass, what are you doing in
here, honey?”

She looked around at him. Her
face already puffed and her eyes red from crying.

He got down on his knees and put
his arms around her.

“It’s almost like it’s really him
and that he’s come back from the grave,” she sobbed.

“It’s taken me all this time to
get the courage to paint this. I didn’t think I could do it, but then I thought
if I didn’t do it soon, and with each year that passed, I might forget how he really
looked, and I’d never capture the true Ryan ever again.”

Rory fingered Ryan’s hair as if
he was brushing away a piece from his baby brother’s eyes.
So
handsome and way too young to die.
Maybe it
should have
been Rory. And maybe Ryan should be here now with Cass.

“Why did he have to try and save
my father?” sobbed Cass rocking back and forth now.

“Because that’s who he was.
That’s who my parents raised him to be.”

“He should have let him die. He
was a worthless drunk. He should have let me go in there like I’d planned.”

Rory kissed the top of her head,
smelling the fragrance of the conditioner he put in her hair and remembered
what had happened between them in the shower.
 
Ryan looked back at him from the painting.

Sorry
buddy but she’s so beautiful, and I’m only human.

“He loved you,
that’s
why he did it,” said Rory. He knew deep down she’d loved her father, but anger
and grief sometimes made you say things you’d one day regret.

“But he’d still be here with you,
with your mom and brothers. And my dad and I would be gone from your lives.”

“Don’t ever say that, honey,
because Ryan saved you for a reason.”

For me to one day love….

He had to stop himself from
thinking like that. That wasn’t what fate had planned. He wasn’t supposed to really
end up with the girl of his dreams.

“I’ve ruined your painting of him,”
said Cass, trying to correct the smudges on the canvas.

He lifted it from her hands.

“It’s nothing that can’t be
fixed. A little dab of paint here and a little there and it’ll be back to its
original condition.”

Shit, if only life was as easy to
put right as a few brushstrokes.

“Now, let’s get you back to bed
and just close your eyes and get some rest.”

****

Maybe having a good cry had been
just the thing she’d needed because the following day Cass felt a whole lot
better. Rory had helped her back to her room and tucked her into bed and
promised he’d stay with her until she fell back to sleep. It had taken awhile,
and she couldn’t imagine how he’d been able to get up at the crack of dawn like
he had.

When she was out of this stupid
cast, she was going to help him to no end. Cook breakfast, do the laundry, vacuum
the house. If he wouldn’t let her pay him in money, she’d pay him in chores

She turned the page of the local
newspaper and took a sip of coffee when she heard the back door open and in
walked Rory complete with cowboy boots and hat. If ever two things were made
for a man with Rory’s height and rugged good looks, it was cowboy attire.

“Looks like Flynn and I have
another fence to mend. You going to be okay here on your own all afternoon?” he
asked her.

“Sure, I’m going to get to work
on my jewelry kit, and then if all goes well I’ll buy another one at the craft
party tonight.”

“Don’t let me forget that you
need a ride into town for that.”

“Lacey could take me, she said
anytime I needed a ride to call her.”

“No problem
because I’ll go to the bar with Flynn and Shane while you girls are partying.”

“Partying, really? Let’s hope
there’s no dancing.”

He smiled.

“And is it still okay if you take
me into Missoula tomorrow for my first doctor’s appointment?”

“It’s perfect because I’m going
to take a few paintings into one of the galleries there. It looks promising
that they might take a few on
consignment
.”

“That’s great, Rory. You’re so
talented. They should give you your own show.”

“I don’t know about that,” he
said pouring himself a mug of coffee.
“Plenty of gifted
artists around town these days.”

“But there’s only one Rory Malone.”

And
when they made you they broke the mold.

****

Rory usually had no problem
listening to his two brothers talk about their wives, Liam,
 
or the baby due in December, but tonight it
was grating on his nerves. He took another swig of beer. It wasn’t that he’d
grown less tolerant of this sappy talk. He was restless—no he was broody. Shit,
that was just for women wasn’t it? Cass was the catalyst for his change in
attitude.

Since she’d come back into his
life, he’d realized what he’d been missing all these years. He too wanted to
talk about his son’s almost first smile, his wife’s belly getting so big and
round, and the baby inside her kicking him in the back in the middle of the
night.

“You’re very quiet tonight,” said
Shane.

Rory looked across the table at
his brother. He hadn’t realized he’d been deep in thought until he’d heard him
speak.

“I guess I’m tired.”

“You want us to take turns
looking after Cass?” asked Flynn. “I’m sure Emily would like having her around,
and it might give her and Natalie a chance to spend time together and do girlie
stuff.”

“Yeah, same goes for Lacey,” said
Shane.

Rory shook his head. “Nope,
that’s fine. You two have enough to deal with. I’m the single guy with no
responsibilities.”