Chapter 39
“What?” Rory asked, her voice barely louder than a whisper as all the color in her face slowly drained away.
A few days ago, that hurt expression would have done him in.
He would have apologized, said anything and everything to make her happy, but not now, not after everything that she’d put him through.
For the last three days, he’d worried about her, missed her, and all this time, she’d been less than five minutes away from their houses, shacked up in a hotel with another fucking guy.
When he needed her the most, she hadn’t been there for him.
He could have used her support while he’d sat in that hospital waiting room, doing his best not to lose it as he waited for the doctors to tell him that the Andrew hadn’t rejected the bone marrow, that his best friend was going to make it, but she hadn’t been there for him and now he knew why.
“You heard me,” Connor murmured as he walked over to the bed and ran his fingertips over her 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 on the floor by his feet.
“What’s 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 this game with her, he was finally going to 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,” Connor 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,” Rory said, shifting her foot to the side and away from his hand. “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 her finger when she didn’t love him.
He’d worked his ass off for that ring. He’d been so damned proud and excited when he’d bought it and hadn’t been able to wait to give it to her, to the woman that he loved, but that wasn’t her.
She’d 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.
Now, he just wanted to kill the bastard who’d touched her before he made love to her one last time to show her exactly what she’d lost because he couldn’t say goodbye to her without having her one last time.
“Where have you been for the last three days?” Connor 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 couldn’t quite catch as she squeezed her eyes shut and said, “You know, don’t you?”
“Yes,” Connor said, deciding that if she was done playing games, then so was he. “What I don’t know is why you lied to me.”
“I didn’t want you to get upset,” Rory said, shocking him into stunned silence.
“Upset? I’m going to fucking kill him!” Connor 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 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,” Connor 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!” Connor 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?” Rory asked sounding hurt, which he had to admit was a nice touch.
“Yes!” Connor snapped, hating her even more for trying to bullshit her way out of this now that she’d been 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?” Connor 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 asshole! 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?” Connor 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,” Rory 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 about his balls.
“You didn’t cheat on me?” Connor asked, knowing that there were a few other things that she’d said that were important, but he couldn’t force himself to care.
“No!”
“Oh, thank fucking god,” Connor 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 that he’d 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 to go on the offense.
“I forgive you, Rory,” Connor said, making damn sure to sound put out as he leaned back down 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 a fucking moron.
Since that wouldn’t work for him, Connor 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,” Connor said against her lips, but the stubborn woman refused to respond.
“For having a needle shoved into my hip to save your friend’s life?” she asked, obviously clarifying what she needed his forgiveness for.
“Yes,” Connor 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 for him.
She’d saved his best friend’s life. She’d also done it all alone.
From what the doctors said, the procedure could be difficult and very painful.
Unfortunately for people like Andrew, not a lot of people volunteered to donate because of that.
He couldn’t stand the thought of her being in pain.
He hated that he hadn’t been there for her.
“I didn’t want you to hate me if it didn’t work, Connor,” Rory admitted quietly.
Connor sighed as he moved off her and laid down on the bed next to her. He 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 as she gave her restraints another tug. “As soon as I get out of this, your nipples are mine!”
“Not really giving me much of a reason to let you go, now, are you?” Connor mused as he 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 if she hated him. She loved him and he wasn’t letting her go until she admitted it.
“No, you don’t,” Connor said with a shrug.
“Yeah, I really do. So, since you’ve decided to call off the engagement, then we’re over so let me go, Connor,” Rory bit out, once again looking pissed, which wasn’t really working for him.
“I have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about,” Connor 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 hardening to steel, his breaths coming faster and his body breaking out in a sweat.