NFH 03 Checkmate (45 page)

“
You heard me,” he murmured
as he walked over to the bed and ran his fingers over her sheet
covered leg until his fingers touched the little toes that he loved
to kiss. Slowly, he pulled the sheet away, revealing her body inch
by inch until the sheet was pooled by his feet.

“
What the hell is going on,
Connor?” Rory demanded, not bitching that she was naked and for
some reason that made him wonder who the other guy was.

The thought of another man seeing her body,
touching her and making her tremble turned his stomach. He had to
force himself to focus on something else or he wouldn’t be able to
see this thing to the end and he would damn well be the one to end
this. After twenty years of playing games with her, he was finally
going bring the game to an end. Then he was going to walk away from
her. After today she was just going to be his neighbor and the
woman that he was going to run out of business. She was going to
mean absolutely nothing to him.

“
The transplant worked,” he
said, reaching out to toy with one of her toes before he could stop
himself.

“
I know that. I called the
hospital. He’s doing well, but he’s driving the nursing staff nuts
with his bitching,” she said, shifting her foot to the side and
robbing him of the contact. “Now tell me why you’re acting so damn
bitchy and give me back my ring.”

He ignored her, because there was no way in
hell that he was putting that ring back on the finger of someone
who didn’t love him. He’d worked his ass off for that ring. He’d
been so damned proud and excited when he bought that ring and
couldn’t wait to give it to her, to the woman that he loved, but
that wasn’t her. She cheated on him and he couldn’t fucking believe
it. If anyone would have told him that Rory James would cheat on
him, he would have called them a fucking liar and broken their jaw
for trying to start shit. Now he just wanted to kill the bastard
that had touched her and make love to her one last time to show her
exactly what she'd lost and because he just couldn’t say goodbye to
her without having her one last time.

“
Where have you been for the
last three days?” he asked, tilting his head to the side as he
watched her, waiting for her to lie, needing for her to lie so that
he could hate her enough to push her away.

For a moment Rory watched him, glared and
then muttered a few words that he didn’t quite catch as she
squeezed her eyes shut and said, “You know, don’t you?”

“
Yes,” he said, deciding
that if she was done playing games then so was he. “What I don’t
know is why you lied.”

“
I didn’t want you to get
upset,” she said, shocking him into stunned silence.

“
Upset? I’m going to fucking
kill him!” he shouted, wondering if he’d ever really known Rory. Up
until today he would have sworn that he knew her better than he
knew himself. He never thought that she would do this to
him.

She opened her eyes to frown up at him.
“Kill who?”

“
Oh, don’t play this fucking
game with me now, Rory,” he said, somehow stopping himself from
demanding the name of the bastard. He would find out, but later.
Right now he needed to let Rory know that he was done with her. It
was over and he was the one that ended it.

“
Are you serious?” she
asked, laughing without humor. “You tied me up, you
jackass!”

“
And you fucking cheated on
me!” he shouted, regretting the loss of control as soon as the
words left his mouth. He was a fucking idiot.

“
You think I cheated on
you?” she asked, sounding hurt, which he had to admit was a nice
touch.

“
Yes!” he snapped, hating
her even more for trying to bullshit her way out of it once she got
caught.

“
Oh my God, you’re an
idiot,” she mumbled, shaking her head in disgust. “I didn’t cheat
on you, you jerk!”

“
Bullshit!”

“
It’s the truth!”

“
If you didn’t cheat on me
then why were you shacked up in a hotel room for the last three
days with another man?” he shouted, moving closer to the bed until
he found himself climbing on it and over her so that he could glare
down at her, needing to look into her eyes as she lied to
him.

He had to admit that she looked really
pissed off as she glared right back up at him. “Because I was
recovering from donating bone marrow!”

His automatic response was to open his mouth
and call her a liar, but her words stopped him. “What?”

“
I was recovering from
donating my bone marrow, you jackass! If you don’t believe me then
you can call my doctor or look at the bruise on my ass!” she
snapped, sounding really pissed.

“
Then who was the guy that
was spotted going into your hotel room?” he demanded.

“
Bryce! Someone from the
hospital called him to check on me and he put two and two together
and hunted me down. He helped me out the first day and checked up
on me, making sure that I had food and that I was okay,” she
snapped and he knew, just knew that if she was loose that she would
be going for his balls, but he really couldn’t care
less.

He was too damn happy to care.

“
You didn’t cheat on me?” he
asked, knowing that there were a few other things that she said
that were important, but he could give a damn about them at the
moment.

“
No!”

“
Oh thank fucking God,” he
said, sighing with relief as he leaned down to kiss her only to get
her cheek instead of those lips that he’d missed.

“
Get off me, Connor,” she
said evenly.

Oh he knew he fucked up, but he was just as
stubborn as she was and he wasn’t about to back down, not when
there was a good possibility that he might lose her. Nope, the best
defense here was definitely going on the offense.

“
I forgive you, Rory,” he
said, making damn sure to sound putout as he leaned down again to
get that kiss that she owed him.

This time she was too stunned to move so he
got his kiss. Granted, he would have preferred her lips a little
softer and perhaps a little more responsive, but he’d take what he
could get right now.

Wow, had he fucked up big time……

Not that he was going to admit it, because
he wasn’t. Her father had been right. If he admitted that he’d
fucked up then Rory would just focus on that and the fact that she
had every right to be pissed at him and dump his ass for being such
a moron. Since that wouldn’t work for him, he decided that fucking
with her head until she apologized to him was definitely the way to
go.

“
Forgive me?” she repeated
in a tone that really didn't bode well for his plan so he kissed
her again.

“
Yes, I forgive you, Rory,”
he said against her lips, but the stubborn woman refused to
respond.

“
For having a needle shoved
into my hip to save your friend?” she asked, obviously clarifying
what she needed his forgiveness for.

“
Yes,” he said, deciding
that perhaps she needed to be distracted so he kissed his way down
to her throat.

She choked out a laugh as he kissed her
neck. “You can’t be serious!”

Oh, but he was. Damn serious. He raised his
head to glare down at the woman who really did deserve a spanking.
“You lied to me. No one knew where you were. Do you have any idea
how scared I was that something happened to you?”

He expected her to shout at him, but instead
her features softened as she looked up at him. “I’m sorry that I
lied to you, Connor.”

“
Why did you do it, Rory?”
he asked, his tone softening as he finally allowed himself to think
about what she’d done.

She’d saved his best friend’s life. Lied to
do it and did it all alone. From what the doctors said, the
procedure could be difficult and a bit painful. Unfortunately for
people like Andrew, not a lot of people volunteered to donate
because of that. The discomfort usually came after the procedure
when the medicine wore off. He hoped that she hadn’t been in too
much pain. He hated the thought of her being hurt and not being
there for her.

“
I didn’t want you to hate
me if it didn’t work, Connor,” she admitted quietly.

Connor sighed as he moved to lie down on his
side, facing her and placed his hand on her bare stomach as he
said, “That is the dumbest fucking thing that you have ever
said.”

Her eyes narrowed to slits on him as she
gave her restraints another tug. “As soon as I get out of this,
your nipples are mine!”

“
Not really giving me a
reason to let you go, now are you?” he mused as absently ran his
hand over her stomach.

“
I hate you,” she muttered,
but he knew that she was lying. She wouldn’t have gone through such
great lengths to protect him and make sure that he didn’t hate her
if she wasn't in love him. This woman loved him and he wasn’t
letting her go until she admitted it.

“
No, you don’t,” he said
with a shrug.

“
Yeah, I really do. So,
since you decided to call off the engagement then we’re over so let
me go, Connor,” she bit out, once again looking pissed, which
wasn’t really working for him.

“
I have absolutely no idea
what you’re talking about,” he said as his focus shifted to her
very naked body. Now that his anger was gone, he took it all in and
what he saw had his dick hard enough to cut through diamonds, his
breaths coming faster and his body breaking out in a
sweat.

Before Rory, sex was just that, sex. It was
something he did to get off and get his mind off of things for a
while. Since they started having sex his interest in all things
sexual had grown. They’d experimented a lot, but he’d never tied
her up, never did anything like this and right now he couldn’t help
but imagine what it would be like to take Rory this way. Not that
she’d ever go for it. Rory liked to be an active participant and
would hate giving up any type of control.

“
You took my ring back! Tied
me up and acted all pissy!” she snapped, clearly hell bent on
rehashing something that really should be done and over with by
now. He’d forgiven her, hadn’t he?

“
The ring’s yours and we’re
getting married in less than a month so stop trying to get out if
it,” he said as he teasingly skimmed his fingertips over her
stomach and between her breasts, mesmerized by the movement and the
way goose bumps suddenly covered her skin.

“
Okay, good. That’s settled
then,” she said, her breaths coming faster. “Then you can just go
ahead and let me go and we’ll um, we’ll forget this whole
thing.”

“
Then you apologize?” he
asked as he ran his fingertips between her large breasts, watching
as her nipples hardened.

“
Yes!” she damn near
shouted.

“
I see,” he murmured,
sitting up so that he could lean over and press a kiss against her
stomach.

“
W-what are you doing?” she
asked, her body trembling as he continued to press kisses down her
stomach until he came to her navel.

“
Touching you,” he said
before he pressed a kiss against her navel, flicking his tongue out
and teasing the spot that usually earned a cute little giggle from
Rory, but this time she let out a low keen, needy moan that had him
cursing and flicking that spot with his tongue again before he
forced himself to move away from it.

“
Do you want me to stop?” he
asked, preparing himself to do just that even as he ran the tip of
his tongue from her navel to one of her large nipples and circled
it before he pulled the rosy tip between his lips and sucked
it.

“
I-I-I-oh God!” she
screamed, her back bowing as he used his teeth on her nipple,
scraping it lightly before he licked it better.

“
Want me to stop, baby?” he
asked, licking a line to her other breast and giving it the same
attention.

Her breaths sped up and he couldn’t believe
how badly he wanted her to say no, but she wouldn’t. Rory James
loved being in control and she would never-

“
I don’t know!”

* * * *

What the hell was she doing? She wasn’t into
this kind of thing. She liked regular, normal sex with Connor. Sure
they’d spiced it up and she’d done things with him that she'd only
dreamed of before she welcomed him into her bed, but she could
honestly say that she’d never dreamed of being tied down to a bed
while Connor took his time licking and kissing her body.

She should be telling him to stop and
demanding that he untie her, but God help her, she didn’t want him
to stop. She wanted him to do a hundred naughty things to her body
while she was like this and then she wanted him to do it all over
again.

“
Tell me stop and I will,
Rory,” Connor said, his voice husky as he flicked her nipple with
his tongue while he moved a hand between her legs.

Now, she should tell him to stop now! She
opened her mouth to do just that when an embarrassingly loud moan
escaped her. Why did every touch and kiss feel so much more
powerful like this? She hated men taking control in bed and she
should hate this, but she didn’t and she realized that she didn’t
really care. She wanted to experience this with Connor. For once
she wanted to let go and let someone else call the shots while she
got to lie back and enjoy herself.