Chapter 6
“Let me go!” Rory snapped as he kicked the office door shut behind him.
“Sure thing,” Connor said, releasing her just as she tried to yank her arm free. The move sent her stumbling back and muttering a few choice words about him and his ass, which he easily ignored. He walked around her desk and sat down in her surprisingly comfortable chair.
“Get the hell out of my chair,” Rory snapped as she walked around the desk and glared down at him. Perhaps he shouldn’t have stolen her hot cocoa since the little addict seemed on edge. Then again, he did enjoy pissing her off.
“I’m sorry. Did you want to sit down?” Connor asked innocently.
“Yes,” she hissed as her hands clenched and unclenched into fists.
With a shrug, Connor reached over and grabbed her hand, giving it a good yank and taking her by surprise.
With an adorable squeak, her beautiful ass landed on his lap.
Before she could move, he had his arms wrapped around her waist and pulled tightly against him so that her side was pressed up against his chest and her legs hung over his.
“Now, I think we should probably go over your duties, don’t you?” he asked brightly, loving the murderous scowl she sent him.
“The only duty I have at the moment is to kick your ass,” Rory bit out, practically shaking with rage that he, of course, ignored as he settled more comfortably in the chair.
“The most important thing that you need to remember is that I take two sugars in my coffee and just a splash of half-and-half,” Connor explained as he allowed his eyes to roam.
Was it just him or did she look hotter when she was pissed? His eyes ran from her beautiful neck with a few tendrils of damp hair plastered against it, down her neck, and to the pair of large breasts that stretched the shirt’s material to perfection. She truly was magnificent.
“My eyes are up here,” Rory pointed out.
“Uh-huh,” Connor said, not bothering to look up.
With an exasperated sigh, she cupped his chin and forced him to look up and meet her eyes.
“Stop pissing me off or I’m going to have to kill you,” Rory said evenly, sounding as though she’d meant it and he knew that if she could figure out a way to get rid of his body, that she’d probably do it.
Then again, she’d been saying that same damn thing to him since they were six, so he really wasn’t too concerned.
“That’s nice,” Connor said absently as he shifted her on his lap and pulled her closer.
“I tell you what, Rory. If you do a really good job and stay away from my site, I might just give you a special bonus when this is all done. How does that sound?” he asked in his most patronizing voice, unable to help himself even though he knew that he was making this worse.
“This is my project, too,” Rory said, glaring at him through narrowed eyes.
He nodded in agreement as he continued, “Which is why you should be a good little girl and stay out of the way so that we can get this project finished on time.”
She tried to climb off his lap, but of course, he wouldn’t let her.
Not when he was comfortable and well, that’s all that he really cared about, but apparently, she couldn’t give a damn about his comfort.
Kind of selfish of her, Connor thought as she went for his nipples.
With a curse, he released his hold on her so that he could protect his poor nipples before the vicious woman could tear them off.
“Do the rules mean nothing to you?” Connor demanded, feeling like an idiot with his hands plastered against his chest. He dropped his hands away as he came to his feet and stood so that he could glare down at the woman that was driving him fucking crazy.
“As long as I’m stuck with you on this project and you try to get in my way, anything goes,” Rory said, stepping closer to him as she met his glare and he just barely bit back the groan that was threatening to escape when her large warm breasts pressed tightly against his chest.
Somehow, he forced himself to ignore them and focus on the problem at the moment.
Rory.
He leaned down further until their noses were practically touching. “Is that a fact?” Connor demanded evenly.
“Yes,” Rory hissed as her eyes narrowed on his.
“You’re only here because of my generosity, Rory. Push me and you might just find yourself locked in the trunk of a car on a ferryboat headed off to Nova Scotia...again,” Connor said, loving the way that she practically shook with rage against him.
“I knew that was you, you bastard!” Rory snapped, looking torn between going for his nipples again or flat-out killing him.
“You deserved it,” Connor felt obligated to point out.
She scoffed. “I was twelve!”
“You superglued my shorts to my ass!”
The smile that teased her lips transformed her face from pretty to breathtakingly beautiful in a matter of seconds. He was so damn thankful that she didn’t know the effect that had on him or she’d do it to bring him to his knees and God help him, but he’d love every fucking second of it.
She chuckled softly as she moved to put a little space between them. “I’d actually forgotten about that.”
“I haven’t,” Connor bit out tightly, pissed that she’d moved away from him and took her warmth with her.
“I’m sure that you deserved it,” Rory said with a shrug like it was no big deal that it took a month, five specialists and about a hundred experimental procedures that took a pound of flesh before they were able to remove every last scrap of his basketball shorts off his ass.
“I didn’t!” Connor snapped, unable to remember exactly what he did to piss her off enough to break into the boy’s locker room and squirt superglue into his shorts, but he was sure that he didn’t do anything to deserve it.
As far as he was concerned, that prank had been unprovoked and he was the innocent party in all of-
“Now, I remember why I did that,” Rory said, looking angry once again.
“You snuck laxatives into my food and then locked all the girl’s bathrooms in the school with bicycle locks so that I was left with no choice but to use the boy’s bathroom where you and your stupid friends locked me inside without toilet paper or paper towels, you jerk! ”
Huh, he’d actually forgotten about that one, Connor realized with a careless shrug. “Whatever. The point is, Rory, this is my project. I’ve busted my ass to get it and I’m not about to let you fuck it up for me.”
“This is our project,” Rory said, getting back in his face where she belonged, “and as long as you remember that, we’ll be fine, but the next time that you try to stop me from doing my job I will kick. Your. Ass.”
He leaned in closer. “Your job is to fetch my coffee, food, and whatever else I need and as long as you remember how I like my coffee, everything will be fine.”
“You can shove your coffee right up your-”
“There’s a problem,” Rory’s assistant said as he burst through the door.
“We’re not finished talking,” Connor said.
Rory didn’t even bother slowing her pace or looking back as she shot him a one-finger salute. His deep chuckle that followed did not send a delicious shiver throughout her body that had her fighting the urge to lick her lips.
It didn’t.
Rory sighed heavily as she adjusted the tool belt around her hips.
It really wasn’t her fault that her body betrayed her the way that it did when Connor was around.
He might be a life-ruining bastard, but he was a hot life-ruining bastard and her poor neglected body didn’t realize that it should hate him as much as her heart and brain did.
One day, her body would be on board, but until that day came, and she prayed that it came soon, she was just going to have to ignore her body’s response to him.
“What’s going on?” Rory asked as they stepped outside.
“Work has come to a halt,” Jacob announced as he gestured with his clipboard towards Strawberry Manor.
One look and she knew that he hadn’t exaggerated.
There weren’t any men manning the equipment, the scaffolding that was supposed to be completed by now was left in parts leaning against the outer walls of the manor, and it appeared that every single one of their employees was in the middle of the yard, screaming at each other.
Great, Rory thought dryly, just what they needed.
When she spotted the familiar beat-up red pickup truck parked near the coffee truck, she damn near groaned. Why did he have to come here today of all days? Why couldn’t he come when she had this situation under control? This was the last thing that she wanted her father to see.
“You planning on handling this?” her father asked as she stepped past the coffee truck.
She found her father leaning back against one of Connor’s trucks with his large arms folded over his chest, wearing his standard black tee-shirt and a hint of annoyance in his blue eyes as he watched their employees fighting.
“Just give me a minute, Dad,” Rory said, wondering when all this bullshit would end so that she could focus on Strawberry Manor.
Right now, she should be inside assessing the water damage in the attic, but thanks to Connor, she needed another hot cocoa fix soon or she was afraid that she was going to kill someone.
Her father nodded firmly as he pushed away from the truck.
“I’ll be inside looking the old girl over when you’re finally ready to get to work,” he said, making her inwardly cringe at the unspoken criticism.
She’d fucked up and now, her men were wasting time, something that her father never would have allowed to happen.
Relieved that he was going to let her handle this without an audience, Rory stole the bullhorn from one of Connor’s men since he was just standing around looking useless and turned it on, unable to help but wonder where her brothers were since they should have handled this.
“You have exactly sixty seconds to go back to work or you’re fired,” Rory announced, keeping it simple.
Not even ten seconds later, her men were shoving Connor’s men aside as they rushed back to work.
One thing that she made sure of was that everyone that worked for her understood when they were hired was that she always backed up her word.
Anyone that wasn’t working in sixty seconds would be fired.
She didn’t play games and she definitely didn’t have time for her men to be screwing around.
With an annoyed sigh, Connor took the bullhorn from her and made his own announcement, “Get back to work or leave,” he said before tossing the bullhorn back to his supervisor, who was still standing around looking useless.
“Try to keep your men in line, okay, cupcake?” Connor drawled as he walked past her.
“Don’t call me that,” Rory bit out as she yanked out a pair of pliers from her tool belt and moved to catch up with him, careful to wait for just the right moment and when that moment came, she didn’t hesitate.
“Son of a bitch!” Connor snapped as she sauntered past him, whistling a jaunty tune as she returned her pliers back to her toolbelt. It never ceased to amaze her how torturing Connor always seemed to make everything better. It wasn’t as good as a hot cocoa fix, but it would do.
When she spotted her father waiting for her in a half-gutted room with his arms crossed over his chest and his lips drawn into a frown, she was tempted to hit Connor with the sledgehammer by the wall.
Her fingers literally twitched with the need to get one good hit in.
But that went against the rules. They weren’t supposed to do anything that left permanent damage.
“Rule ten,” Connor said, chuckling as he walked past her.
She glared at his back even as she wondered how he knew. Then again, they’d been making each other’s lives a living hell since they were kids so he probably could sense these things.
Now that she thought about it, Rory realized that perhaps the sledgehammer was a bit of an overkill.
The only thing he was guilty of today was annoying her, Rory thought as she pulled her needle nose pliers out of her toolbelt and walked towards her father, loving the startled groan Connor let out as her pliers accidentally pinched him on the ass.
He didn’t say anything as she walked past him and she didn’t expect him to, but she would have to keep her guard up for the rest of the day because if there was one thing that she knew about Connor, it was that the man loved making her pay.