Chapter 11
She was so damn beautiful, Connor thought as he gently pushed her hair away from the small cut on her forehead that, thankfully, didn’t need 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’d failed her.
Instead of stubbornly standing there yesterday while she’d 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 terror of watching her get hurt any day.
After she’d been placed in the back of the ambulance, he’d forced himself to walk away.
He’d 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 that would keep her safe.
Rory needed someone to watch over her and since her brothers refused to do it, that left 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 didn’t like the idea of anyone else tormenting her, but later, when they were both adults, he did it out of guilt.
He’d fucked up her life and he couldn’t stomach the idea of watching her 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 did it for her own good, but he knew that 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, then he stepped in.
A few of her boyfriends hadn’t treated her right.
They’d treated her like shit, cheated on her left and right, and made her miserable.
A few times, her brothers had stepped in and handled them, but there were a few that had slipped their notice.
He’d noticed. The asshole that shoved Rory in the parking lot over on Harrison after she’d 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 fucking word through a mouthful of broken teeth.
He did his best to make up for what he did, 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 kids at home fighting for her attention instead of a pain-in-the-ass dog with a fucked-up name.
Thanks to him, that’s not how things had turned out and she was doing a job that she had no business doing.
She was also alone, something that didn’t sit well with him.
Not that he took all blame for that one. 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 that she was beautiful, but she 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. She was his to torment.
He might watch over her because of the damn guilt that ate at him, but that didn’t mean that 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.
While he did that, he would also continue working on winning her brothers over.
They’d gotten off to a rough start, 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 everything was said and done, then he’d consider letting her be his assistant.
She could do busy work all while wearing a 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 the move.
Without taking his eyes away from the laptop on his lap, Connor reached over and grabbed the prescription bottle off the nightstand 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,” Rory bit out.
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 through the bone, Rory decided to take her pills before she killed him.
With a grumble, she took her 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 gray sweatpants he wore and then back up to his bare chest and then finally, to his face, confirming her first observation, the bastard really was half-naked in her bed.
“Get out,” Rory said, inwardly cringing when pain radiated up her arm as she slowly climbed off the bed and got to her feet.
“Can’t,” Connor 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.
Connor didn’t say anything, so she decided to take that as an agreement.
Now that he’d 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 long 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 be able to catch up on paperwork, Rory thought as she used the bathroom and cleaned up.
She hated paperwork, but now that she was stuck in bed, 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, Rory thought, perking up at the thought of not spending the day torturing herself.
Then again, maybe she should just suck it up and get it over with, she decided as she opened the bathroom door and sighed with relief.
Connor was gone.
She didn’t bother wasting her time trying to figure out what he’d been thinking when he’d decided to lounge in her bed this morning.
It would just be one of those things that was best left alone.
Her stomach growled as she walked back into her bedroom.
She tried to ignore it, but it refused to be ignored.
Grumbling, Rory walked out of her room and made her way down the hallway as she prayed that her brothers didn’t hit her kitchen on their way out last night.
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 could whip up something with saltines, half an empty jar of olives, and scrape peanut butter out of the jar that probably should have been thrown away last year and make something to eat.
Her stomach growled approvingly at the thought of a peanut butter and olive saltine cracker sandwich, 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, Rory backtracked until she was standing 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 announced as he stared down intently at his computer, which was now on her oak coffee table with about a dozen files scattered around it.
“What the hell are you still doing here?” Rory demanded as she walked into her living room.
“Working.”
“I told you to get out,” Rory 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 ignoring her.
“I did,” he said.
“No, you didn’t!”
With a heavy sigh, Connor sat back on the couch and finally looked at her. “You told me to get out, so I did.”
“No, you only left the bedroom,” Rory pointed out. “I told you to get out, which meant, get the hell out of my house before I’m forced to kill you and bury you in my backyard.”
“You didn’t clarify that,” Connor pointed out with a shrug.
“It was implied!” she snapped.
“It really wasn’t.”
“Get out!”
“Sorry, can’t do that,” Connor said, shrugging it off.
“Why not?”
“Because I’m waiting for my food to be delivered and you and I have some work to do here since you’ve decided to lounge in bed all day,” Connor said, gesturing absently to the computer and the files everywhere before he flicked his hand lazily in her direction.
“I was not lounging in bed all day!”
“What do you call sleeping until one in the afternoon, then?” Connor asked with a frown as he once again focused on his computer.
“I call it being knocked out by painkillers, you jackass!” Rory snapped even as she desperately tried to rein her temper in, but it was always difficult to pull off where Connor was concerned.
Her stomach wouldn’t stop growling, 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 the hell out of here soon, she was going to-
“Come over here and sit down before you pass out,” Connor said, looking concerned as he stood up and gestured for her to sit down, taking her off guard.
“I’m fine,” Rory 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 his concern a little unsettling.
“I need you conscious so that we can work,” Connor said, sighing heavily as though that much should have been obvious. When he took her elbow and led her to the couch, Rory guessed that maybe it should have been. He 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 understandably hesitated.
With a sigh and a few muttered words about her being a big baby, Connor opened the bottle and 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,” Connor said, shaking his head in disgust as he took the bottle from her and handed her a file.
“What’s this?” Rory asked, opening the file and nearly groaned when she realized that he’d handed her a spreadsheet.
Since looking at the numbers hurt 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 forehead against her arm.
She couldn’t believe how much her head hurt.
It seemed with each passing moment it became more painful.
Between that, her arm and ribs, she really wasn’t in the mood to deal with Connor’s bullshit today.
She suddenly felt tired. Wasn’t she just asleep, Rory wondered as she felt herself drift off, but she fought it with everything that 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 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 his arm around her and pulled her closer, but she resisted until she was too tired to fight.
Then with a murmured grumble, Rory allowed him to pull her closer.
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!” Connor 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.