Chapter 1
“Come on, come on, come on,” Rory mumbled as she waited for the only traffic light in town to turn green.
Just as it did, she sighed in relief, which abruptly ended when Mrs. Church, Golden, New Hampshire’s oldest citizen, took the green light as the signal to walk across the street using her walker.
Rory’s gaze shot to the dimly lit clock on her dashboard and whimpered.
She was five minutes late! She could not be five minutes late.
Not today. Normally, it would just irritate her, but today it felt like it was a life-or-death matter.
She needed Mrs. Church to haul her ninety-six-year-old ass across the street before the light turned red.
Rory tapped her thumbs against the steering wheel as she stared intently at Mrs. Church in an effort to will the old woman to move faster. It only seemed to draw Mrs. Church’s attention. The older woman stopped right in front of Rory’s new, well, new to her, Jeep and smiled as she waved at Rory.
Fighting back the urge to gesture for the older woman to move her ass, Rory forced a smile and returned her wave.
After a few seconds, Mrs. Church slowly turned back around and raised her walker, set it a few inches in front of her and shuffled.
Rory watched as she raised the walker again, gained six more inches and shuffled.
The light turned red.
She groaned as Mrs. Church turned and sent her another warm smile. Rory debated getting out of the car and helping her across the street, but she knew that would only encourage Mrs. Church to stop in the middle of the street and brag about her great-grandchildren.
All thirty-four of them.
Two red lights and three green lights later, Mrs. Church was safely across the street and Rory was gunning it.
Two minutes later, she was in front of McGill’s main office on Center Street, waiting for a minivan full of kids driven by a woman who looked like she was going to snap if she heard “The wheels on the bus goes round and round” one more time, to pull out of her spot.
As she waited for the van to pull out, Rory put on her left blinker, officially declaring her claim on the spot while she took the opportunity to slow her breathing.
It probably wouldn’t look professional to go in there sweating and panting like a woman who needed a cocaine fix, although she really could go for a large cup of hot cocoa with a large spoonful of fluff in it, her one true weakness. Maybe after this, she could-
Her thoughts were cut off when she realized that her spot was free and clear. Sighing with relief, Rory started to turn into the space when a black pickup cut her off and took her spot.
Rory could only stare for a moment, shocked that someone had ignored the universally agreed-upon parking spot rule of the blinker. Perhaps he hadn’t seen her blinker?
All thoughts about this being a simple mistake flew out of her head when he stepped out of the truck. She ground her jaw as she pressed the “down” button for the passenger side window. Once it was down, she politely asked the bane of her existence to move his truck.
“Move your ass, O’Neil! That’s my spot!”
The bastard smiled.
Smiled!
“Oh, is this your spot?” Connor asked, feigning innocence, but Rory knew the man was anything but innocent. He was a bad boy, even his looks gave him away, and that damn smile of his let him get away with everything.
The life-ruining bastard!
“Yes!” Rory snapped. “You know damn well that’s my spot! Why else would I have been sitting here waiting with my blinker on?”
He sighed dramatically. “Yes, I did see that now that you mention it.”
“Then, move!” she said, not caring about playing their usual game of pissing each other off today. She had a huge contract to sign, damn it!
He nodded as he fixed his tie and leaned into the cab of his truck. Rory tapped her thumbs against the steering wheel, once again happy that the man had enough sense to skip the bullshit this morning. Maybe today would be-
“I’ll move it,” Connor said, pausing as he stepped away from his truck with a folder in his hand and shut the door, “right after my meeting.”
Her jaw dropped as the life-ruining bastard walked away laughing.
“Ah, good times,” Connor sighed happily as he stepped inside the air-conditioned office. Taunting a woman shouldn’t be so much fun, but it was. It always had been where Rory was concerned. Hell, he’d even enjoyed screwing with her back in preschool.
Sure, there were about a dozen other little girls that he could have tormented with paint, paste, and pushed down into the mud, but why bother when there was always little Rory James around?
She was just asking for it with those two little pigtails, tomboy clothes, and know-it-all attitude.
As the school bully, it had been his job to make her life a living hell and he’d taken his job seriously all those years ago. Hell, he still did.
There was just something about screwing with her that brought a smile to his face.
That was probably why three years ago, he’d bought the run-down house right next to hers.
Sure, there were other houses that he could have bought for half the price, but none of them would have provided him with the entertainment that living next-door to Rory did.
He ran a hand over the back of his head, smoothing down his hair as he headed towards the little blushing secretary that was trying to pretend that she wasn’t watching him.
“Good morning, Mary, how are you this morning?” Connor asked with his most charming smile.
She nodded, shyly averting her eyes. “Mr. McGill will be with you in a few minutes, Mr. O’Neil.
Please have a seat and help yourself to some coffee,” she mumbled quietly while she gestured to the small waiting area with three chairs lined up against the wall and a gourmet coffee table with one of those insanely expensive coffee machines that used little pods to make a single cup of coffee.
Connor winked with a murmured, “Thank you,” as he walked over to the waiting area and decided that a cup of coffee would help settle his nerves, not that he doubted that he was getting the job.
There was no doubt that he would get it this time.
He’d put in the time and had his work to back him up.
No one within a hundred miles could match his bid. This job was as good as his.
He was reaching for a pod of gourmet French vanilla coffee when a brown pod caught his eye.
Picking it up, he couldn’t help but smile as he held the last serving of gourmet hot chocolate in his hand.
Not that he was particularly fond of hot chocolate, he really wasn’t, but he knew a certain someone that was.
A minute later, he was sitting down with a cup of frothy hot chocolate. Not as good as coffee, but not too bad. He placed his folder on the empty chair next to him and sipped his drink while he waited.
He didn’t even bother trying to hide his amusement when Rory half stumbled into the reception area and made a beeline for Mary’s desk, almost falling over seven times in the process.
Why she’d tried to walk in those heels, he would never know.
She was already taller than most women in town and a good majority of the men at five-ten.
He was not one of them since he had a good five inches on her.
She really didn’t need the heels, but he rather liked what they did for those beautiful tan legs of hers.
Although, he would never admit that she looked good, really good, in that business outfit that accentuated her size D’s, and he would bet his life they were D’s, and the high heels that she clearly didn’t know how to walk in, she was easily the most beautiful woman that he’d ever seen.
He noticed that she wore makeup today, interesting.
She looked good, but then again, she always looked good.
He especially liked her hair, always had, even when it used to be pulled up into pigtails.
There was just something about wavy caramel hair with natural blonde highlights with those sky-blue eyes that drove him nuts.
Connor watched as Mary informed her that Mr. McGill was running behind and gestured for her to sit in the waiting area.
Rory didn’t look happy about the wait, but she looked decidedly pissed-off seconds later when she spotted him.
Her eyes narrowed on him as she walked, stumbled, over to the complimentary coffee table, all while glaring at him.
Connor sipped his cocoa, watching as Rory searched for her precious hot chocolate.
“Mary, is there any hot chocolate?” the little addict asked, sounding anxious for a fix.
“Sorry, hun, if it’s not there, then we don’t have it.”
Sighing, Rory nodded and carefully walked the ten steps over to the waiting area only to stop abruptly and glare at him.
“Is something wrong, Rory?” Connor asked, acting as though he didn’t know what had her panties in a twist.
“You’re sitting in the middle,” she bit out.
He made a show of looking down. “Hmm, look at that so I am,” he said in an amused tone.
“Move,” she demanded, gesturing impatiently for him to move his ass.
Sighing, he took a sip of his drink. “I can’t.”
“You can’t or you won’t?” she demanded.
“Both.”
Rory glared at him, then at each empty chair before looking around desperately for another chair. When she couldn’t find any means to distance herself from him, which he knew that she was dying to do, she sat down as far as she could in the chair to his right.
Sighing loud and long to annoy the shit out of her, Connor stretched his right arm out and then dropped it along the back of her chair.
“Do you mind?” Rory asked, looking pointedly at his arm.
Connor shook his head. “No, not really.”
She opened her mouth, probably to tell him off for the millionth time, shut it and shook her head, muttering, “I don’t have time for games today.”
That was too bad because he rather enjoyed their daily battles. He made a show of sipping his drink. “Mmmm, that’s good cocoa.”
Rory glared at him and then at his cup.
“You took the last hot cocoa?”
“Uh-huh,” Connor answered, taking another sip.
Rory nodded slowly. “I see.”
“I’m sure that you do.”
Just as he went to take another sip of that rather creamy cup of hot cocoa that was tasting better and better with each passing second, she jabbed him in the side with a finger the same time she made a grab for his cup.
He tried to pull the cup away, but she just dug that damn finger harder into his side.
Shit! That really hurt!
Deciding that it was better to give up the cocoa than to let her make his eyes tear up, Connor released the cup. Rory twisted her finger harder into his side, digging deep for good measure before backing off. Glaring at her, he rubbed his side while she happily sipped his cocoa.
Damn, there were a lot of things in his life that he regretted and right now, showing her that little trick in sixth grade when she wouldn’t let him cut her in the lunch line was one of them. He winced as he rubbed the sore spot. Well, it looked like she’d perfected that move over the years.
“I spit in that you know,” he lied.
She simply shrugged when most women would have probably screeched, gagged, and shoved it back at him. Not Rory James. She made a show of taking a huge sip of cocoa.
“I think I’ve been immune to your germs since the ninth grade,” she pointed out, making him smile.
Ah, good times. For six months, he’d found ways to spit in her food and drinks without her and her little band of geeks, nerds, and dorks finding out about it. His friends, of course, did their part by distracting her so that he could break into her locker and took pictures of the act.
On her birthday, he’d placed all those lovely pictures in a small box, gift-wrapped it, and placed it inside her locker.
Then, he leaned back against the locker across from hers and waited with all his friends and half the school for her to open it.
Everyone watched as she opened her locker, waiting for her reaction.
First, she’d looked surprised to find the present in her locker.
That, of course, had turned to horror as she flipped through the pictures.
She hadn’t been able to hide that gagging sound that followed.
Everyone laughed.
Connor remembered standing there cocky as hell, waiting for her to finally react like a girl and cry.
Instead, she’d calmly put the pictures back in the box, gagged louder, and returned it to her locker.
She grabbed the lunch that he and all his friends spit in, it was her birthday after all, and walked over to him.
Instead of crying and screaming at him or even threatening to tell her daddy and her rather large brothers, she’d kneed him in the balls.
When he was down on the ground, she forced half her lunch down his throat while his friends fell over themselves, laughing their asses off, but it had been worth it.
Even the month of detention that followed couldn’t take away the joy he’d received.
“Mr. O’Neil? Miss James? He’s ready for you.”
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