Checkmate

Chapter 11

She was so damn beautiful, he thought as he gently pushed her hair away from the small cut on her forehead that hadn't needed stitches. He hoped it didn't leave a scar, not that it would lessen Rory's appeal, but it would be a constant reminder of the time that he failed her.

Instead of stubbornly standing there yesterday while she worked, he should have taken over. Then it would have been him falling through the floor and not her. He'd take a broken arm and bruised ribs over the scare she'd given him any day.

After she was placed on a backboard, hoisted up through the hole and placed in the back of the ambulance, he forced himself to walk away like it didn't bother him. He spent the rest of the night thinking. Rory was stubborn, holy hell was she stubborn and no matter what he did or said the damn woman wasn't going to stay away from the job site even with a broken arm. He could either fight with her and waste precious time and energy or he could give in, with a few conditions of course.

Rory needed someone to watch over her and since her brothers were too damn lazy to do it, that left only him. Not that it bothered him. He'd been doing it for most of their lives after all. At first he did it because he hadn't liked the idea of anyone else tormenting her and of course it did make it easier to make her life a living hell, but later on when they were both adults he did it out of guilt. He'd fucked up her life, big time, and he couldn't stomach the idea of her ever going through that much pain again, not because of him.

He'd tried to apologize several times, but she wouldn't listen to him. She hated him and he couldn't blame her. He'd done it for her own good, but he knew there was nothing that he could say to get her to see that. So instead, he kept an eye out for her and if anyone hurt her, he stepped in. A few of her boyfriends hadn't treated her right. They treated her like shit, cheated on her left and right, and just made her miserable.

A few of them, her brothers stepped up and handled, but there were a few that slipped their notice. He noticed. The asshole that shoved Rory in the parking lot over on Harrison after she dumped his ass ended up in the hospital later that night when Connor caught up with him. The asshole that bragged to his buddies that Rory was a bad lay ended up taking back every last word through a mouthful of broken teeth. He did his best to make up for what he’d done and this time would be no different.

He'd watch after her and keep her out of danger. Keeping an eye out for her would add to his workload, but if it meant keeping her safe then he'd do it. He owed her that much at least. If he hadn't interfered all those years ago she'd probably be head of the PTA by now with a dozen or so kids at home fighting for her attention instead of the pain in the ass dog with a fucked up name. Thanks to him that's not how things turned out. Thanks to him, she was doing a job that she had no business doing and was alone.

Not that he took the entire blame for her being alone. He didn't. Rory was easily the sexiest woman in town. Every man in town with two working eyes agreed. She was Playboy level hot. Great body, beautiful long hair with natural highlights and a face meant to take a man's breath away and she knew it, too.

Rory James knew how hot she was, but didn't care. Her focus was on her company and that was the problem. If she stepped back or let her brothers take over, she'd be able to find a decent guy to settle down with. Not that he was going to push for that. Oh hell no, she was his to torment. He might watch over her because of the damn guilt that racked him, but that didn't mean he didn't enjoy their daily antics. He did and he fully planned on continuing with them until she either slapped a restraining order against him or a doctor called his time of death.

Until this project was over, he would have to keep an eye on her and while he did that he would continue to work on winning her brothers over. They'd gotten off to a rough patch, but now he knew what he had to do. Thanks to her father's invitation to join them this Sunday it was just a matter of time before the James boys ditched their sister and came to work for him, hopefully taking Rory's best employees right along with them.

If Rory needed a job after she lost her business because her best employees came to work for him then he'd consider letting her be his assistant. She could fetch his drinks and food all while wearing a tight Highland Construction tee shirt and tight jeans that showcased her ass perfectly. He'd be able to keep her safe, keep her close by to torment and really, that was all that mattered.

"What the hell are you doing?" Rory demanded as she sat up, a little too quickly, she realized a few seconds later when the dull ache above her temple protested.

Without taking his eyes away from the laptop on his lap, Connor reached over and grabbed the prescription bottle off the night stand and handed it to her. "I'm working, Rory. What does it look like?" he asked distractedly as he looked at a file that he had spread open on the bed next to him.

"It looks like you're half naked in my bed!" she said, screeching just a tad bit.

He simply shrugged one wide shoulder as he grabbed a bottle of water and handed it to her. Since her head hurt and her arm felt like someone was shoving hot pokers into the bone, she decided to take her pills before she killed him. She took the pills, never taking her eyes off of him while she did it. Connor simply ignored her as he continued typing away at his computer, only pausing long enough to absently scratch his bare chest.

Her eyes darted down to the pair of charcoal colored sweatpants he wore and back up to his bare chest and then finally to his face, confirming her first observation, the man truly was half naked in her bed.

"Get out," she said, inwardly cringing when pain radiated up her arm as she slowly climbed off the bed and got to her feet.

"Can't," he said, keeping his focus on his computer while she looked around for something to throw at him. When she spotted her boots she considered throwing them, but they really wouldn't get the job done so she settled on glaring at him while she made her way to the bathroom.

"Out," she said firmly as she closed the bathroom door behind her.

He didn't say anything so she decided to take that as an agreement. Now that he annoyed her first thing in the morning he would be content on going about his day and leaving her alone. By the time she stepped out of the bathroom he would be gone and she would unfortunately be spending the rest of the day in bed since the damn doctor opened his big mouth and told her brothers that she shouldn't work today.

At least she'd get some paperwork done, she thought as she used the bathroom and cleaned up. She hated doing paperwork, but now that she was stuck in bed for a day she had no excuses not to do it. That wasn't entirely true since she was pretty sure that she could come up with a good excuse not to do it. Maybe she should just suck it up and get it over with, she decided as she opened the door and sighed with relief.

Connor was gone.

She didn't even bother wasting her time trying to figure out what the man thought he was doing in her bed this morning. It would just be one of those things that was best left alone. Her stomach rumbled as she reached her bed and she tried to ignore it, but it refused to be ignored.

Grumbling and admittedly bitching a little, she padded barefoot out of her room, down the hall and down the stairs as she prayed that her brothers hadn't hit her kitchen on the way out. Her cabinets were mostly empty to begin with, but if her brothers somehow forgot to make a side stop on their way out the door last night she should be able to whip something up with the half sleeve of saltines, third of a jar of olives and scrape a teaspoon or two of peanut butter out of the jar that probably should have been thrown away last year to make something somewhat edible.

Her stomach rumbled approvingly at the thought of an oily peanut butter and olive dip smothered over dry brittle saltine crackers so she quickened her pace only to stop abruptly when she passed the open double doors of her living room. Knowing, hell, praying that she was wrong, she backtracked until she was in front of the open doorway. She took a deep, calming breath and slowly turned around until she was facing her living room.

"They cleaned you out," Connor said as he stared intently down at his computer screen, which was now on her oak coffee table with about a dozen files scattered around it.

"What the hell are you still doing here?" she demanded as she walked into the living room.

"Working."

"I told you to get out," she reminded him as she crossed, well, tried to cross her arms over her chest, but her left arm apparently wasn't happy with that move. She settled for propping her hands on her hips and glaring down at him as he continued to ignore her.

"I did," he said.

"No, you didn't!"

With a heavy sigh, he sat back on the tan couch and finally looked at her. "You told me to get out and I did."

"No, you only left the bedroom," she pointed out, sounding a little irritated. "I told you to get out so you should have left the house."

"You didn't clarify that," he pointed out with a shrug.

"It was implied," she snapped.

"It really wasn't.

"Get out!"

"Sorry, can't do that," he said, shrugging.

"Why not?"

"Because I'm waiting for my food to be delivered and you and I have some work to do here since you decided to lounge around all day," he said, gesturing to the computer and the files before he flicked his hand lazily in her direction.

"I was not lounging around!"

"What do you call sleeping until one in the afternoon then?" he asked with a frown as he once again focused on his computer, clearly dismissing her.

"I call it being knocked out by painkillers, you jackass!" she snapped even as she desperately tried to reign her temper in, but it was always a difficult thing to do where Connor was concerned.

Her stomach wouldn't stop rumbling, her head was starting to pound and her damn arm was killing her. All she wanted to do was get something to eat, grab some aspirin and go back to bed, but she couldn't do that until her unwanted guest left. If he didn't get off her couch and get out of here soon she was going to-

"Come over here and sit down before you pass out," Connor said, concern coloring his tone as he stood up and gestured for her to sit down, taking her off guard.

"I'm fine," she said, casting a discreet look around the living room as she wondered what his game was. Connor O'Neil was not nice to her, never had been and as far as she knew, he never would be. So she obviously found this little act of concern a little unsettling.

"I need you conscious so that we can get some work done," he said on an exaggerated sigh as if that much should be obvious. While he took her elbow and led her to the couch, she guessed that maybe it should have been. The man wouldn't do anything unless it somehow benefitted him. Still........

Having Connor nice to her for any reason was unsettling so while he settled back on the couch next to her, she cast another look around the room, looking for hidden dangers. Maybe he was going to get rid of her once and for all so that he could have Strawberry Manor to himself, she thought.

"There's no poisonous spiders or snakes ready to leap out at you," Connor said, sounding amused as he handed her a bottle of aspirin. When she remembered a certain incident at summer camp when they were twelve and he laced her chocolate chip pancakes with laxatives she hesitated in taking the bottle from him.

With a sigh and a few muttered words about her being a big baby, he opened the bottle, popped two pills in his mouth and swallowed them dry as he handed her the bottle. Reluctantly, she took the bottle. When he handed her a bottle of water she glared at him and swallowed her pills dry as well.

"No trust," he said, shaking his head in disgust as he took the bottle from her and handed her a file.

"What's this?" she asked, opening the file and nearly groaned when she realized he'd handed her a spreadsheet. Since looking at numbers aggravated her eyes she shoved the file back at him and settled for bringing her knees up to her chest and hugging them while she laid her head against her arm.

She couldn't believe how badly her head hurt. It seemed with each passing moment that it became progressively worse. Between that, her arm and ribs, she really wasn't in the mood to deal with Connor's bullshit today. She suddenly felt tired, so tired. Hadn't she just slept all night and most of the day away, she wondered as she felt herself drift off, but she fought it with everything she had.

There was too much to do today. If she gave in and fell asleep then she'd have to deal with a ton of paperwork on top of all her other duties tomorrow and she simply didn't have the time or patience for that. She needed to stay awake, throw Connor out on his ass and get some work done.

"Shhh, go to sleep, Rory," Connor said soothingly as he wrapped an arm around her and pulled her closer, but she resisted until she was too tired to fight. Then with a soft sigh, she allowed him to pull her close. Once her head rested on his chest she found that she didn't want to fight it any longer. He felt too good to push away and oddly enough she felt safe in his arms. That should have frightened her, but she was too tired to do anything more than curl up against him.

"I always knew that you wanted me," Connor said, sounding smug so of course she called up her last reserve of energy and did what any woman in her position would do.

"Ow! Leave my nipples alone, woman!" he snapped and she fully expected him to push her away. Instead, he pulled her closer, mumbling something about rules and nipples as she fell asleep.