Checkmate anfh-3

by R. L. Mathewson

  "Of course," she mumbled as she looked away.

  It was hard to tell in this early morning light, but he could have sworn that she looked a little disappointed. He should just let it go, especially since he couldn't risk her figuring out just how much she was coming to mean to him, but he couldn't. He didn't want her to think that she wasn't worth everything that he could give to her and then some.

  "I would take you anyway, Rory," he admitted, feeling like a dope.

  "Why?" she asked, looking and sounding as though she couldn't understand why any sane man would happily die for the chance to put a smile on her face.

  "Because you're worth it," he simply said, cupping her face as he leaned in to kiss her, but her next words gave him pause.

  "Because I'm beautiful?" she asked with a touch of acid lacing her words.

  He didn't even want to imagine how many times she'd heard some asshole compliment her on how beautiful she was. They probably thought that's what she wanted to hear. It wasn't. Not for a woman like Rory who knew that she was beautiful and didn't care. They really were fucking idiots.

  "Yes," he said with absolutely no hesitation and when she tried to pull away from him, her expression a combination of hurt and disgust, he held onto her and continued to move in to kiss her. "But I'd take you because you're the best part of my day, Rory. Always have been and always will be."

  He planted a quick kiss on her stunned lips before pulling away from her and opening the passenger side door. "You can decide where we're going for dinner while I drive," he said, gesturing for her to climb in and she must have been a little shocked, because she did just that. By the time that he climbed into the truck, carrying her bag and thermos, she'd worked her way out of her stunned silence.

  "I have somewhere to be," she said, taking her things as he turned the truck on.

  "I know," he said with a shrug. "Buckle up."

  "I can drive myself," she pointed out, only looking slightly confused now as she reached for the door handle.

  "You're going to your father's, right?" he asked, throwing the truck into reverse and taking the matter out of her hands.

  "I go every Sunday," she said, frowning, but she did buckle up.

  "Well, today you're going with me," he explained, taking her injured hand gently into his.

  "Umm, why?" she asked, lacing her fingers with his.

  "Because your father invited me."

  * * *

  "What the hell are you doing, woman?" Connor demanded, chuckling like she was playing around.

  She wasn't.

  "Oh my God, Connor, turn around! It's a trap!" she demanded, desperately looking around for somewhere to turn the truck around.

  "Relax, Rory. It's just fishing," he said, throwing her a wink as he took a left onto Chestnut Road.

  "No, Connor, you don't understand," she said, trying not to panic, but this was bad, very, very, very bad. "Only family is allowed at my Dad's house on Sunday."

  "Afraid they'll kill me?" he asked, teasingly.

  "Yes!" she snapped, wondering what the hell was wrong with him. He'd known about her father's family only Sunday rule since he was a kid. He used to get a kick out of sneaking onto the property and tormenting the living hell out of her on most Sundays. She'd lost count of how many times he got her butt in trouble by letting her father see him. To this day she still couldn't figure out why her father punished her over Connor when the man knew how much she hated him, which brought her right back to the problem at hand.

  "Connor," she said calmly, trying not to panic, "you cannot go to my father's house. Do you understand? Just bring me home and let's pretend that this never happened."

  "Having a nervous breakdown, are we?" he mused, still smiling like this was all some big joke.

  "Connor, my brothers hate you and my dad-"

  "Is the one who invited me today," he finished for her with a shrug as if he hadn't just confirmed her suspicions.

  They were going to kill him.

  "Connor," she said, sounding a little panicked and not really caring, "you are the last person that my father would invite to the house."

  "Yet, he did," he pointed out, sounding amused as he took a turn onto Red River Road.

  She continued as if he hadn't interrupted her. "There are no witnesses. The closest neighbor lives a mile away. There will be no one to hear your screams for help."

  "Except for the women at the house," Connor said, making her frown.

  "What women?" she couldn't help but ask, temporarily distracted from her mission to save Connor's ungrateful ass.

  "Your father said that if I brought anyone that she'd have to stay up at the house."

  "What the hell are you talking about?" she demanded before another thought occurred to her. "Why would he think that you were bringing someone along when we're supposedly dating?"

  "I got the invite before we started this plan," he explained as he turned onto her father's road.

  She didn't bother correcting him on the whole "we" part about who started this plan since she'd gone back into panic mode. "I am begging you to turn around, Connor."

  His answer was an amused chuckle as he turned onto the long, secluded private dirt driveway that led to her father's house and suddenly reminded her of slasher films. This was crazy! Surely the man realized that he was walking into a trap.

  "Connor, please turn around," she said, forcing herself to remain calm.

  "If I didn't know any better, I'd think that you'd miss me."

  She opened her mouth to tell him that she wouldn't miss him, but she couldn't get the words out. She would miss the big jerk. Somehow he'd gone from being an annoyance, an entertaining one at that, to....

  Well, she really wasn't sure what he was right now since she was too busy trying to save his ass. When she spotted the old oak tree that she'd once tied Connor to with her jump rope, she realized that if she was going to change his mind and save his obstinate ass that she would have to do something now. Begging, pleading and reasoning hadn't worked and she considered going for his nipples, but that might cause other problems like him veering off into the woods so that left just one thing.

  Unfortunately for her, she didn't have experience using that "one thing" to get a guy to do what she wanted. But, if it stopped Connor from doing something stupid then she was just going to have to learn to do it, she decided, ignoring the little fact that the idea of seducing him appealed to her a little too much. There was going to be hell to pay for missing fishing with her family, but she was pretty sure that spending the day in bed with Connor would be more than worth it. Knowing that it was now or never, she undid her belt and shifted closer to Connor.

  "What are you doing?" he asked, throwing her a curious glance as he continued to drive.

  "Stop the truck, Connor," she whispered as she carefully climbed onto his lap, taking the choice out of his hands.

  With a putout sigh, he pulled off to the side of the dirt road and threw the truck into park. "I appreciate your concern, Rory, but-"

  "I want you, Connor," she said, leaning in to press a kiss against his stunned lips. "I want you to take me home and give me a reason to stay in bed all day. Can you do that, Connor?" she asked in a husky voice that she barely recognized as she teasingly kissed her way down his chin and neck. When he tilted his head to the side and groaned softly, she knew that she had him.

  Even better, she knew that she'd be spending the day in his bed.

  "You're just doing this to get out of fishing," he said roughly as his hands landed on her ass and he moved in, using his face to move hers so that he could take her mouth in a quick, hard kiss that left her breathing hard and desperate for him in a way that actually scared her.

  "Does it matter?" she asked softly as she pressed down against that large bulge in his pants that her trembling body screamed for.

  "Not one fucking bit."

  Chapter 25

  "The James brothers looked like they wanted to kill you," Andrew commented as
he looked around to make sure that they were alone before he opened the small blue cooler that he had perched on the driver's side seat of his truck.

  Connor shrugged it off as he looked around the basically deserted makeshift parking lot, playing lookout. It was a job that he'd perfected over the past year and one that he hated, but he knew that Andrew hated it more so he kept his mouth shut and kept an eye out for unwanted company.

  "Does it have something to do with that huge shit eating grin that you were sporting this morning?" Andrew asked, chuckling as he pulled out the first of many syringes.

  "In a roundabout way," he admitted, feeling his lips pull up into that grin that he couldn't seem to keep off his face. Yesterday with Rory had been.....

  Amazing.

  After somehow managing to drive the truck back to his house without wrecking it, they managed to stumble into his house while tearing each other's clothes off and hadn't left until this morning. They'd made love against the front door, on the stairs, in the upstairs hallway, three times in the bathtub before they managed to collapse in a tangled mess on his bed where he proceeded to make love to her until he swore that he'd never be able to move again. Sex with Rory was incredible, but surprisingly it wasn't the reason why he couldn't stop smiling.

  Rory was.

  He loved spending a lazy Sunday with her. It didn't matter if they were making love, holding each other, fighting over the remote or trying to annoy the hell out of each other, just being with her felt good. She turned him on, made him laugh and drove him out of his goddamn mind and he loved every single minute of it. She was definitely worth the bullshit that he was going to have to go through to get back on her family's good side after yesterday.

  "Oh, fuck," Andrew groaned, dragging Connor's attention away from the most incredible weekend of his life in time to see his oldest friend stumble away from the truck and make his way towards the overgrown brush surrounding the woods where Andrew proceeded to lose his lunch near a patch of poison ivy.

  "Stop," Andrew said on a gasp when Connor moved to help him.

  He wasn't sure what he hated more, watching his best friend slowly lose this battle or feeling helpless. It wouldn't be so bad if Andrew wasn't being so damn pigheaded, but he was. Andrew refused to ask for help and Connor feared that the man's pride was going to get him killed. He knew that it was Andrew's choice, but he wished the man would ask for help, scream for it, but he wouldn't. Andrew was leaving his fate in God's hands and Connor didn't think that was enough, not for this.

  "You need to go home," Connor snapped, sick of this bullshit. The man didn't belong here, especially if he wasn't going to put up a fight. If this was it, he'd rather see his oldest friend go out with a bang, but Andrew refused to act like anything was wrong.

  "Are you still going to pay me?" Andrew asked, sitting back on his haunches as he dropped his face in his hands, no doubt fighting another wave of nausea from the expensive medicine that was supposed to help him.

  "Yes," Connor gritted out, already knowing where the stubborn man was going with this.

  Sure enough, Andrew shook his head as he slowly got to his feet. "Then I'm staying, Connor. I'm not a charity case," he said, pressing a shaky hand to his stomach as he walked back to his truck.

  "No, you're a fucking idiot!" Connor snapped as the fear that he'd been fighting for the last year crept up his spine. He couldn't lose his best friend. They'd been friends since they were little kids and had always been there for each other. Andrew was one of the best people he knew. The man was kind, considerate and put up with his bullshit and helped keep him in line. Without him......

  Hell, he didn't want to think about that because it wasn't going to happen. Andrew was going to beat this damn thing and that's all that mattered.

  "Love you too, man," Andrew said with a forced smile as he placed the used syringes in a canister and placed it beneath his seat. Andrew carefully stored the cooler on the floor, grabbed his hardhat and clipboard while Connor wracked his brain, trying to figure out a way to fix this. He refused to believe that there was nothing that he could do.

  "Let it go, Connor," Andrew said softly.

  "I can't."

  "You're going to have to, Connor," Andrew said, sounding tired as he walked away.

  Connor cursed up a storm as Andrew stumbled on his way back to the site. He wasn't too surprised when Andrew couldn't make it past the flatbeds before he needed to take a break. He was supposed to rest for three hours after taking his medication, but he never did. Andrew didn't want to be sick and didn't want to face what lay ahead of him and Connor couldn't blame him, but sometimes like now, it was too much to bear.

  He wanted to yell at Andrew, scream at him until his voice was hoarse and then do it some more. He needed to shake some sense into his friend, tell him how unfair he was being by making him feel this fucking helpless, but he couldn't. Andrew didn't need to hear how scared he was. It wouldn't be fair, but then again nothing about this situation was.

  * * *

  "We don't have to do this if you don't want to," Rory said casually even as her stomach fluttered in dread.

  "You're not getting out of having dinner with me tonight, Rory," Connor said with a hard glare as he caged her in against her Jeep’s driver’s side door.

  "I'm not trying to get out of anything, Connor," she explained, reaching between them and hooking her fingers through his belt loops.

  "Then why do you keep asking if I changed my mind?" he asked, frowning down at her as he reached up and lightly traced her jaw with his finger.

  "Because you've been acting like you have a bug up your ass all day and haven't said more than two words to me since lunch," she said, liking the way his lips twitched as some of the sadness seeped away from his expression.

  She shouldn't care if he was upset. This was only a deal after all, albeit a deal that now included incredible sex, but a deal nonetheless. Not to mention that this was Connor, the bastard who jumped behind the student driver's ed car while she was taking her driver's test and made it look like she ran him over, causing her to fail the test and her instructor's breakdown when Rory may have “inadvertently” tried to run over Connor. If she was smart, she'd figure out what caused him to lose that easy going smile of his a few hours ago and exploit it to get her project free and clear and get out of this deal.

  Apparently she was an idiot, because not only did she not want to get out of this deal like any sane woman would, but she was afraid that she was falling for him. She should be wringing his neck and going for his nipples for stealing her project and dangling it in front of her like a carrot on a stick, but instead she wanted to do whatever it took to make him smile in that way that curled her toes and made her heart race. Maybe her brothers should have her committed, she thought as she used her slight hold on his belt loops to pull him closer.

  "Is this your way of telling me that you missed me?" he asked softly, his features softening as he smiled.

  Yes, unfortunately for her and her sanity, and not to mention her pride, she had missed him. Her brothers, who apparently were not speaking to her at the moment, spent most of the day glaring daggers at Connor and teasing her like she wasn't standing less than ten feet away from them. When Johnny started chanting, "Connor and Rory in a tree" she decided that it was time to go around and check up on the rest of her men, right after she tarred Johnny's ass to the roof.

  "Nope," she lied, her focus moving to his lips, "not at all."

  Slowly, his lips pulled up into the cocky grin that she had to admit looked good on him. "You missed me, Rory. Just admit it."

  "It's just so sad that you think so," she said, reluctantly forcing her attention away from his lips as she released her hold on him and gave him a gentle push that got the point across.

  With a chuckle, Connor stepped back, giving her, her much needed space, but he didn't go far. When she moved to the side to open the driver's side door, he was already there, opening it for her. Not that she was surprised or anythin
g. Even when Connor was going out of his way to make her life a living hell, he always seemed to remember that she was a woman. It was something that used to aggravate her, but now she had to admit that she kind of liked it.

  "I'll pick you up in an hour," Connor announced as she climbed into her Jeep.

  She pretended to think that over. "That's really not going to work for me. Better make it eight," she said with a shrug, moving to turn around. By the time she sat down, Connor was there, resting his forearms against the hood of the Jeep as he leaned in and pressed a quick, too quick, kiss against her needy little lips.

  "One hour," he said, moving to step away.

  "Sorry, not gonna happen. I need at least two," she explained, which was true.

  She really did need at least two hours to do everything. She had to take care of Bunny, clean up her house a little bit, take a long hot shower to relieve her sore muscles, enjoy a hot cup of cocoa on her patio, and get dressed. Actually, what she really needed was a night to herself so that she could get all of those things done plus run a few errands that she hadn't had a chance to do over the weekend like grocery shopping.

  There was nothing to eat in her house, absolutely nothing. She ran out of cocoa last night and Bunny ran out of food this morning. If she was going to be ready in an hour, and she already decided that she was, then she was going to have to move her ass and take a chance with the convenient store down the street for Bunny's food. Sadly, her cocoa fix was going to have to wait until later.

  "Be ready in an hour and I'll take you to Brennagin's for a cup of hot cocoa," he said, reading her mind or bribing her, not that she cared which one since Brennagin's had the second best hot cocoa in town. Hers was number one of course, but that didn't change the fact that just the thought of having a delicious, creamy cup of Brennagin's hot cocoa had her practically drooling.

  "Extra large?" she asked, already planning on ordering two.

  They were extremely expensive, but so worth it, at least to her, to her past boyfriends, not so much. They balked at the idea of spending eight bucks on a cup of cocoa for her. Not that she could really blame them since they weren't addicted to the stuff, but it would have been nice if at least one of them had acted like she was worth it.