Chapter 28
“Get off me.”
“Rory, I-”
“Get the hell off of me, Connor!” Rory snapped, pushing at his shoulders and ignoring the sharp pain shooting through her broken arm as anger and desperation rushed through her, demanding that she put space between them.
“Rory, relax,” Connor said soothingly as he slowly pulled out of her and if she hadn’t been so close to a nervous breakdown, she’d probably be crying in frustration at the loss.
She was going to lose it and she wanted to get away from him when it happened, afraid that she would truly kill the bastard this time.
They’d both done some horrible things to each other over the years, but this.
..this was crossing the line. This was sick, vicious, and low even for Connor.
If she wasn’t so damn sure that she was falling for the bastard, she would have laughed off his declaration of love, shoved him off and walked away without a second thought.
Instead, she was trapped beneath him, struggling against the need to act like a girl and cry as she screamed and slapped him for this sick joke.
“I love you, Rory,” Connor said softly as he gently caressed her cheek with the back of his knuckles as he gazed down at her, a small smile touching his lips that just pissed her off even more.
“Stop,” she begged, trying to push him away, but the damn man refused to move.
“Rory, I-”
“If you say that you love me one more time, I swear to God that I will kill you with my bare hands,” Rory said evenly as she shoved at his shoulders one more time, and this time, with a small groan, he moved away from her.
She didn’t waste any time getting off the bed and going to the bathroom to find her clothes.
As she yanked on her shirt, she mentally berated herself for being so stupid.
She should have never slept with him, never mind gone along with this deal.
She’d been an idiot to think that she could handle Connor.
She’d never been able to before and she had no idea why she’d thought that she could handle him now.
God, she was such a fool. The moment that she’d realized that she was feeling something for the bastard, she should have called off this ridiculous deal of theirs and figured out another way to get her suites.
Instead, she’d used excuse after excuse to take what she wanted and now, she was paying for it.
She’d had her heart broken by several men before, how could she not?
They treated her like a fuck buddy. When they became bored or something better came along, they’d moved on, leaving her feeling worthless. As much as it hurt to be treated like crap, it didn’t even begin to compare to what it felt like to have her heart broken by Connor.
“We need to talk,” Connor said, coming up behind her just as she finished pulling her jeans on and wrapped his arms around her.
“Get your goddamn hands off of me, Connor!”
“No, we need to talk,” he said, tightening his hold when she tried to pull away, but not enough to hurt her.
“The deal’s over, Connor! I’m done! You finally won, okay?
You won!” Rory cried, struggling against his hold with everything that she had, but he refused to let go even as she kicked, rammed her elbow into his side, and thrashed in his arms as the first tear rolled down her cheek.
She didn’t want him to see her cry, refused to let him know just how badly he’d hurt her.
“The deal doesn’t matter, Rory. The suites are yours,” Connor rushed out on a grunt when she’d managed to turn slightly to the left and slam her elbow in his stomach, desperate to get away from him.
“I don’t want them!” she screamed, hating herself when a sob broke through.
“Baby, please calm down,” Connor pleaded, tightening his hold on her.
“Let me go!”
“Not until you hear me out.”
“I don’t want to hear you out, you lying life-ruining bastard! I hate you, you asshole!” she barely managed to get out through the sobs.
For a moment, he didn’t say anything and she was thankful for that but even happier when he finally released her. She quickly stepped away from him and headed for the bathroom door and her escape when his next words stopped her short.
“I’m sorry about that night, Rory. I’m sorry for so many fucking things,” Connor said, his voice hoarse.
“You shouldn’t have come that night,” Rory said tightly, forcing herself to face him.
“I regret a lot of things about that night, but I don’t regret that,” he said, meeting her glare with a hard glare of his own.
“You ruined my life that night,” she said quietly, not bothering to wipe the tears away as they streamed down her face.
“I know.”
“If you hadn’t come that night-”
“You would have had to deal with something far worse than losing your scholarship, Rory,” Connor said, cutting her off.
Frowning, she asked, “What the hell are you talking about?”
For a moment, he only looked at her and just when she thought that she was finally about to get answers after all these years, Connor shook his head and moved to step past her. “Ask your brothers.”
No, he was not about to do this to her on top of everything else. They were going to finish this tonight.
“I’m asking you, Connor,” Rory said, stepping in front of him and blocking his path.
“It would be better if it came from one of your brothers,” he said, trying to step past her, but she was done playing this game with him.
“It would be better if it came from you and while you’re at it, you can tell me why you followed me up there in the first place,” Rory demanded, making it clear that she wasn’t moving until he finally gave her the answers that she’d been waiting for.
“Are you sure that you want to hear this?” Connor asked, leaning his hip against the sink counter as he waited.
“Yes,” Rory said with absolutely no hesitation. She desperately wanted to know what happened that night, why he was there, and why he couldn’t just leave her the hell-
“I came up there to talk to you about something, but when I got there, you were already the life of the party. For weeks, months really, I’d been trying to work up the courage to talk to you, but the moment that I saw you, I lost my nerve,” Connor admitted with a rueful smile.
“What did you come to talk to me about?” Rory found herself asking as she leaned back against the door.
“I sat back, not sure what to do,” Connor said, continuing with his story and for the moment, she allowed it. “I hung back for a few hours, trying to work up the nerve to approach you,” he explained, surprising her. Since when was he nervous about talking to her?
“Just when I decided to put it off, I saw you stumble across the dance floor. It was more than obvious that you were drunk. The guy that you were with had definitely figured that out,” Connor ground out, suddenly looking pissed.
“I hung out for another minute, hoping that your brothers would step in, but none of them did. So, when the asshole dragged you, stumbling and giggling out the backdoor, I followed.”
“I don’t really remember any of this,” Rory admitted, frowning as she struggled to remember something, anything about that part of the night, but she couldn’t.
“I’m not surprised, Rory. You were pretty wasted by that point.
You couldn’t even walk without help,” Connor explained as she noticed for the first time since this whole thing started that he’d pulled on a pair of jeans but had left them unbuttoned, that along with his casual pose and mussed hair made him look sweet and sexy.
He certainly didn’t look like a life-ruining bastard or someone who enjoyed screwing around with someone’s heart.
“Get to the point,” Rory said, needing to hear how he’d ruined her life so that she could build up a defense around her heart and hate him so that this pain would end.
Connor looked away, his jaw clenched tightly as he said, “By the time I got out to the alleyway, the asshole was trying to shove you down behind the dumpster.”
“H-He didn’t,” Rory said, stopping to wet her suddenly dry lips when the words refused to leave her mouth.
It didn’t matter if she remembered it or not.
Knowing that some guy had hurt her like that would be difficult to get over.
As she waited for his answer, she prayed that Connor had gotten there in time.
Please let him have gotten there in time, she hoped as dread coiled in her stomach.
“He didn’t have a chance to hurt you, Rory. I promise you that he didn’t hurt you,” Connor said softly, but wouldn’t look at her.
“What aren’t you telling me?” Rory demanded, afraid that he was lying to protect her from the truth.
“There’s nothing else to tell, Rory. You know the rest,” Connor said, shaking his head as he pushed away from the counter and moved to step past her, but she wasn’t ready to drop this.
“No, I don’t,” Rory said, planting her good hand against his chest, stopping him from ending this conversation.
“He pulled a knife. We ended up in jail. Case closed, end of story, let it go,” Connor said firmly, gently pushing her hand away and this time, he managed to walk away from her and was halfway to his bedroom door when she asked, “And how did we land in jail and him in the hospital if he was the one with the knife, Connor?” she demanded, walking after him and cutting him off before he could make it to the door and walk away from her, taking the answers that she desperately wanted with him.
“How did my life get wrecked, Connor? Tell me,” Rory demanded. When he clenched his jaw and didn’t answer, she screamed it. “Tell me!”