“Who’s staying the night?” Sean asked, yanking her right back into reality, but since she was comfortable, she decided not to bother with opening her eyes as she said, “No one is staying. Now, get the hell out so that I can sleep,” she mumbled around a loud yawn.
Her brothers weren’t the coddling type and took her at her word. Craig took Bunny home with him for the night and they promised to give Dad an update so that he wouldn’t worry. Not that he would. If it wasn’t serious enough to warrant a night in the hospital, then it wasn’t serious. He checked up on her at the ER, spoke with the doctor, and when she told him that she was fine, he took her at her word.
Her brothers hadn’t been so easily deterred but giving her a ride home was pretty much the extent of their nursing abilities. They’d made her promise to call them if she needed anything, but other than that, they’d left her to get a good night’s sleep. That was all she needed, Rory thought as she drifted off.
It was pitch-black when she woke up, biting back a cry of pain. Why the hell did it hurt this much? It didn’t hurt this badly when it broke and that had definitely been a memorable occasion. Her head pounded with every breath she took as her ribs screamed in protest.
Maybe it hadn’t been such a good idea to send her brothers away, Rory realized as she turned over to bury her face against her pillow and let out a scream of agony. She needed her pills or, at the very least, someone to knock her out so that she didn’t have to experience this much pain.
“Shhhhh.”
She barely heard the whisper or registered the large, strong hands on her shoulders as she was turned over onto her back and a pill was pressed against her lips. Once she opened her lips, the rim of a water bottle quickly followed. She swallowed the pill as she struggled not to scream as more pain tore through her head.
This was too much. She couldn’t handle this, couldn’t do this, Rory realized, panicking at the thought that there would be no escaping this pain. She would have to-
“Shhhh, I’ve got you,” the deep familiar voice said soothingly as she was carefully shifted until she was lying on her right side with her injured arm resting across a firm stomach and her face was pressed against a warm shoulder as a large arm pulled her closer.
“Connor?” she whispered softly, only to gasp in pain when the sound tore through her already throbbing head.
“Go to sleep, Rory,” Connor whispered against the top of her head.
If Connor was taking care of her, it could only mean one thing...
“How long do I have?” she asked, squeezing her eyes shut.
She felt him go still beneath her. “How long do you have for what?”
She scoffed even as she adjusted herself so that she was lying tightly against him, accepting the comfort that he was offering during her last hours on earth.
“Before I die. What the hell do you think I’m talking about?” Rory snapped, immediately regretting it when it sent a sharp pain through her skull.
“That really depends on how much you piss me off,” Connor said as he pulled her impossibly closer as if he needed the comfort as much as she did.
She thought over what he said and came to only one conclusion. “So, it’ll be soon, then?”
He chuckled softly. “Probably.”
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.
