NFH 03 Checkmate (46 page)

Closing her eyes, she took a slow steadying
breath, trying to steady her nerves as her cheeks burned with
embarrassment and said, “Don’t stop.”

He stopped.

“
You want this?” he asked in
a sexy whisper that made her shiver.

“
Yes,” she said, hating the
way her voice shook.

“
Open your eyes and tell me
that, Rory,” he said, cupping her breast.

“
I think you can hear me
just fine,” she said, not sure that she could look him in the eye
and say that. She wanted this, more and more with each passing
second, but she was actually scared. She wasn’t used to feeling
like this and she really didn’t like it.

“
Do you trust me, Rory?” he
asked, stroking her breast and making it difficult for her to give
into her embarrassment and demand that he end this.

“
You know that I do,” she
said quietly, keeping her eyes shut as she moved to turn her head
away, but he wasn’t having that.

He released her breast to gently cup her
face, caressing her cheek with his thumb as he said, “Then look at
me, Rory and let me know that this is really what you want.”

She turned her head and somehow found the
strength to open her eyes. “I’ve never done this before,” she
admitted, softly.

“
Neither have I,” he said
with a slow sexy smile that was sweeter than his usual bad boy
smile.

“
But you want
to?”

He leaned down and brushed his lips against
hers. “Yes.”

His admission turned her on more than she
ever thought was possible. “Then yes, I want this.”

“
I want you, Rory,” he said
against her lips. “Forever.”

“
I want you too, Connor,”
she said on a soft moan as she felt one thick, long finger slide
inside her.

“
You’ve got me,” he said,
giving her one last kiss before he moved his mouth down her neck,
kissing and teasing her as his finger began to slowly thrust inside
her. She tried to push down, but she couldn’t move. It both
frustrated and excited her. She was completely at his mercy and she
loved it. It made her feel wanted, desired and that was absolutely
perfect for her.

When he licked his way down her stomach, she
relaxed and allowed herself to enjoy what he was doing. A scream
escaped her lips seconds later as his tongue joined his finger in
driving her out of her mind. She dropped her head back, closed her
eyes and simply lay there, enjoying his touch. She didn’t have to
worry about pleasing him or worry that she was doing something
wrong. She simply let go.

“
I love you, Rory,” he
murmured minutes or hours later, she wasn’t sure and didn’t care as
she struggled to catch her breath. The man took his time, enjoying
her body as he touched and explored her at his leisure.

“
I love you too, Connor,”
she said as he carefully settled himself between her
legs.

“
You damn well better,” he
said hoarsely, entering her in one slow thrust as he leaned down to
kiss her.

“
Uh huh, and why is that?”
she asked, licking her lips as he filled her.

“
Because I’m never letting
you go,” he swore against her lips.

“
Good, because I would have
to go for the pliers if you did.”

Chapter 40

November

“
I can’t believe we did it,”
he said, pulling into a spot on the freshly paved and painted
parking lot of the newly renovated Strawberry Hotel

“
And one week ahead of
schedule,” Rory said, beaming with excitement as she looked at the
beautiful new hotel. He had to admit that it was beautiful, but
that wasn’t what he was talking about.

He chuckled as threw the truck into park. “I
meant, I can’t believe that we’re married.”

“
Well, I really didn’t have
much of a choice,” Rory said, smiling that pleased little smile
that she’d been wearing since the shocked and admittedly nervous
Justice of the Peace announced them husband and wife about an hour
ago.

After the initial shock, the man decided
that they needed a little fatherly advice and explained that he
believed that they were making a mistake and that perhaps they
needed to take some time and come back on December 2nd. At first,
Connor had been pissed that the man was interfering, but by the
time the JP mentioned December 2nd for the third time, it became
clear that the man had placed a bet that they would get married on
that day. Once the man resigned himself to losing two hundred
dollars, he married them, scowling at them the entire time until
the deed was done and he could storm off.

“
You didn’t have a choice,
huh?” he mused, reaching for his wife as she unclipped her seatbelt
and moved to straddle his lap.

“
No, not at all,” she
readily agreed with an impish smile that had him wishing that they
could skip the final inspection and start their wedding night
early.

“
And how’s that?” he asked,
wrapping his arms around her.

“
I had to do it for our deal
of course,” she said solemnly, looking so damn serious that he
couldn’t help but laugh.

“
For our deal, huh?” he
asked with a chuckle, leaning in and stealing a kiss.

“
Mmmhmm,” she murmured,
returning the kiss. Before he could deepen the kiss, Rory opened
his door. She pulled away and climbed out of the truck, laughing
and jumping back when he moved to grab her and drag her back into
his arms.

“
We need to clear the site
so that we can start that insanely expensive honeymoon that you
promised me,” she said, heading for the manor.

“
That wasn’t part of our
deal,” he pointed out as he climbed out of the truck.

“
It is now,” she said,
sounding happy.

“
Do I get a veto?” he asked,
following after her.

“
Sorry. You’re a married man
now, Connor. Your job is to fulfill each and every one of my
needs,” she explained, throwing him a wink over her
shoulder.

“
And you need an insanely
expensive honeymoon?” he asked, chuckling as he veered off to the
right towards her trailer.

“
I really do,” she said,
sounding happy, really happy and for a moment he was content with
just watching her as she made her way inside the hotel.

How had he gotten so lucky? he couldn’t help
but wonder as he turned around, hoping to get this done quickly so
that he could move onto the insanely expensive honeymoon that his
beautiful wife was demanding when he realized that he had one last
problem that he had to handle before it bit him in the ass.

“
I heard you tell Andrew
that this was all a game,” Jacob, the surly assistant from hell,
said numbly as he looked at Connor with what could only be
described as disgust. “I kept my mouth shut because I thought Rory
could handle herself, but apparently I was wrong.”

“
It’s not what you think,
Jacob,” Connor said, taking a step towards the man only to have him
take two steps back.

“
Then you didn’t just marry
Rory so that you could take over her company?” Jacob
demanded.

Connor opened his mouth to tell the guy that
he had it all wrong, that it wasn’t like that anymore when he
realized that this simple misunderstanding had just blown up into a
huge fuck up in under sixty seconds.

“
Married?” Johnny repeated,
sharing a confused look with his brothers as they quickened their
step towards him. As he watched the five large men make their way
towards him, he realized that there was no way that he could
explain any of this without landing in a body cast. They wouldn’t
believe him, not that he really cared, but he did care if his wife
believed him. As he watched them approach and listened as Jacob
ratted his ass out, he realized something very important. He was
out of options. So he did the only thing that he could think
of.

He made a run for it.

“
Get back here!” Johnny
yelled as Connor shoved past several men and ran into the hotel and
straight into the beautiful lobby.

“
Where’s Rory?” he asked
Andrew when he spotted the man sitting on the couch, going over
paperwork and looking better than he had in months.

“
In the ballroom. Why?”
Andrew asked, but Connor didn’t have time to answer him, not with
five seriously pissed off James brothers after him.

“
You have some explaining to
do,” Reese, one of the Bradford twins and a fucking cop, shouted,
drawing his attention.

Scratch that, he had five James, a little
prick bastard and two seriously pissed off looking Bradfords after
him and he probably only had seconds to convince Rory that he loved
her and wasn’t after her company before they beat the shit out of
him. Not wanting to waste another moment, he made a run for the
ballroom, shoving men aside as he ran down the long hallway. The
entire way he heard the sounds of very large men chasing after him,
and he’d be lying if he said that he wasn’t a little weary of the
ass whooping that he was about to receive, but he was more
concerned about losing Rory.

He was just about to run through the open
doorway of the ballroom when Rory stepped out, looking down at the
clipboard in her hands and unaware of all the men barreling down on
her. She’d barely looked up when he grabbed her arm and gave it a
pull towards the elevators. He didn’t have a plan, but he hoped
that this would at least buy him a few minutes.

“
What the hell are you
doing?” Rory demanded as he yanked her into the elevator, pushing
her behind him as he slammed his finger against the “Close Door”
button just as her brothers and cousins abruptly turned and headed
for them.

“
Come on, come on, come on!”
he muttered, panicking as the door started to close, but not fast
enough as her brothers got closer and closer until all they had to
do was put their arms out to stop the doors from closing and take
his only chance away. Just when he resigned himself to a trip to
the hospital and losing Rory, something unexpected happened. The
two Bradford twins reached out and grabbed Craig and Johnny just as
they reached out to stop the elevator and yanked them back,
allowing the elevator doors to close and confusing the hell out of
him.

“
What is going on?” Rory
demanded.

“
First things first,” he
mumbled as he reached out and pulled the emergency elevator knob.
The elevator shook hard once as it came to a complete stop. When
the alarm began to blare, he flicked it off, took a deep breath and
turned around to face the woman that he loved.

“
I love you,” he said,
needing her to know that. “I’ve always loved you and no matter what
happens, I will always love you.”

“
You son of a bitch!” Bryce
shouted, reminding Connor that it probably wouldn’t take the
brothers long to crack those doors open and kill him.

“
I love you too, Connor, but
what is going on?” Rory asked, shooting a nervous look past him at
the closed doors.

“
I need to tell you
something,” he said, cringing when the banging behind him
started.

“
Yeah, looks that way,” Rory
mused, shifting her gaze right back on him.

“
Did I mention that I love
you?” he asked, shooting her a nervous smile as he tried to figure
out how exactly to explain the whole fucked up deal without Rory
going for his balls.

“
Start talking, Connor,”
Rory said, arching an expectant brow as she folded her arms over
her chest.

Since time was a serious factor, he decided
to get right to the point. “I fucked up.”

“
And…..”

“
There was more to the deal
than I let on,” he said in a rush. “I didn’t think it was worth
mentioning because once I realized that I was still in love with
you, I didn’t want it any longer.”

“
What didn’t you want any
longer?” she asked with a put out sigh, the same way she always did
when he was telling her how he’d screwed her over. He felt himself
relax, somewhat.

“
The plan,” he said,
searching desperately for the right way to explain his original
plan to her without making her hate him.

“
And why did Darrin and
Reese attack my brothers?” she asked.

“
Because of me,” Mr. James
suddenly announced from behind him, making him curse when he
realized that at some point during their conversation the doors had
been opened.

At least the doors worked quietly and
efficiently, he thought as several pairs of hands grabbed him and
yanked him out of the elevator. As Craig pulled back his fist and
let it fly, Connor hoped that they didn’t break his jaw so that he
could beg Rory for a second chance. That’s if she came to visit him
in intensive care.

* * * *

“
Mother fucker!” Connor
gasped as Craig punched him in the stomach, causing his legs to
give out, but before he dropped to the ground, Bryce and Sean were
there, picking him right back up for more.

“
Stop!” she cried, moving to
help him, but her father blocked her and kept her in the
elevator.

He kept his eyes locked on her as he told
the twins, “She doesn’t get past me until we’re done and you make
damn sure that no one interrupts us.”