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.
