“I was not lounging in bed all day!”
“What do you call sleeping until one in the afternoon, then?” Connor asked with a frown as he once again focused on his computer.
“I call it being knocked out by painkillers, you jackass!” Rory snapped even as she desperately tried to rein her temper in, but it was always difficult to pull off where Connor was concerned.
Her stomach wouldn’t stop growling, her head was starting to pound, and her damn arm was killing her. All she wanted to do was get something to eat, grab some aspirin and go back to bed, but she couldn’t do that until her unwanted guest left. If he didn’t get off her couch and get the hell out of here soon, she was going to-
“Come over here and sit down before you pass out,” Connor said, looking concerned as he stood up and gestured for her to sit down, taking her off guard.
“I’m fine,” Rory said, casting a discreet look around the living room as she wondered what his game was. Connor O’Neil was not nice to her, never had been, and, as far as she knew, he never would be. So, she obviously found his concern a little unsettling.
“I need you conscious so that we can work,” Connor said, sighing heavily as though that much should have been obvious. When he took her elbow and led her to the couch, Rory guessed that maybe it should have been. He wouldn’t do anything unless it somehow benefitted him. Still...
Having Connor nice to her for any reason was unsettling so while he settled back on the couch next to her, she cast another look around the room, looking for hidden dangers. Maybe he was going to get rid of her once and for all so that he could have Strawberry Manor to himself, she thought.
“There’s no poisonous spiders or snakes ready to leap out at you,” Connor said, sounding amused as he handed her a bottle of aspirin. When she remembered a certain incident at summer camp when they were twelve and he laced her chocolate chip pancakes with laxatives, she understandably hesitated.
With a sigh and a few muttered words about her being a big baby, Connor opened the bottle and popped two pills in his mouth and swallowed them dry as he handed her the bottle. Reluctantly, she took the bottle. When he handed her a bottle of water, she glared at him and swallowed her pills dry as well.
“No trust,” Connor said, shaking his head in disgust as he took the bottle from her and handed her a file.
“What’s this?” Rory asked, opening the file and nearly groaned when she realized that he’d handed her a spreadsheet. Since looking at the numbers hurt her eyes, she shoved the file back at him and settled for bringing her knees up to her chest and hugging them while she laid her forehead against her arm.
She couldn’t believe how much her head hurt. It seemed with each passing moment it became more painful. Between that, her arm and ribs, she really wasn’t in the mood to deal with Connor’s bullshit today. She suddenly felt tired. Wasn’t she just asleep, Rory wondered as she felt herself drift off, but she fought it with everything that she had.
There was too much to do today. If she gave in and fell asleep, then she’d have to deal with a ton of paperwork on top of all her other duties tomorrow and she didn’t have the time or patience for that. She needed to stay awake, throw Connor out on his ass, and get some work done.
“Shhh, go to sleep, Rory,” Connor said soothingly as he wrapped his arm around her and pulled her closer, but she resisted until she was too tired to fight. Then with a murmured grumble, Rory allowed him to pull her closer. Once her head rested on his chest, she found that she didn’t want to fight it any longer. He felt too good to push away and oddly enough, she felt safe in his arms. That should have frightened her, but she was too tired to do anything more than curl up against him.
“I always knew that you wanted me,” Connor said, sounding smug, so of course, she called up her last reserve of energy and did what any woman in her position would do.
“Ow! Leave my nipples alone, woman!” Connor snapped, and she fully expected him to push her away. Instead, he pulled her closer, mumbling something about rules and nipples as she fell asleep.
Chapter 12
“No,” Rory said as she snatched the slice of mushroom and meatball pizza right out of his hand.
“What do you mean by ‘no’?” Connor demanded, snatching back his slice of pizza. He took a huge bite out of it, making his claim on the slice, but, of course, the damn woman snatched it right back and took an even bigger bite. If that wasn’t bad enough, she washed it down with his Coke.
“I don’t think that’s going to work,” Rory said, gesturing to his laptop’s screen with his slice of pizza.
Glaring, Connor snatched it out of her hand and took a huge bite out of it as he pointed at the design he’d come up with while she’d slept. He still didn’t know what the hell he’d been thinking. He should have just sent it to McGill without showing it to her, but he needed her co-operation. If he was going to keep her under his thumb, then he had to play nice, or at the very least, pretend.
“What about the generator?” Rory asked, stealing the pizza crust out of his hand and nibbled on it as she gestured to his laptop. While he’d glared, wondering why she was being so difficult about this after he’d worked his ass off all day. Well, he did that, and of course, he had a look around.
He just couldn’t resist. Not that he’d really tried to resist, that is. For years, he’d been dying to know what her house looked like and when the need to use the bathroom became too much. After he’d carefully laid her down, he decided that he might as well have a look around.
The master bathroom had been a bit of a shock. It was a rather pleasant surprise after all these years to discover that there was a secret side to Rory, a very feminine side. Instead of having a straightforward bathroom that met minimal needs like his bathroom, a guy’s bathroom, Rory’s bathroom was without question a woman’s dream bathroom.
The tiled wall was comprised of every shade of pink imaginable, while the floor was a combination of light pink, dark pink, and white tiles. Her shower could easily fit ten people and had four showerheads and a built-in marble bench that lined the wall. She also had a two-person light pink Jacuzzi bathtub. What really surprised him was her built-in shelves that held dozens of body sprays, lotions, and a shitload of girly products.
He didn’t check out her medicine cabinet or drawers since he wasn’t a fucking pervert. There were some lines that he wouldn’t cross even with Rory and snooping through her personal things was definitely one of them. After one last look at her bathroom, he’d moved on to the rest of the house.
The style was very close to what he’d chosen for his own house, which surprised him. He really thought she would have gone for a more contemporary look. Instead, it appeared as though she’d restored the house to its former glory with a few modern touches. He loved her den. It had the nineteenth-century feel to it with an eighty-inch flat-screen television built into the wall that surprisingly didn’t wreck the effect. Somehow, she’d managed to blend the television in with the rest of the decor. Now, the stack of chick flicks had taken him by surprise since he couldn’t picture her watching them, but he decided to ignore those.
Not that he would ever tell her, but he loved her house, maybe not as much as he loved his house, but hers was a close second. There were a few things he would have done differently, but overall, the house was truly beautiful. She’d probably raised the value of the house by a hundred grand with all the work she’d put into it. He couldn’t help but wonder how much of it her brothers were responsible for. Probably for most of it, which was just another reminder that he had to get his ass moving and convince the James brothers that it would be in their best interest to come work for him.
“You know that they want the 458, but you have the schematics set up for the 310,” Rory said, pointing at the laptop as she stole the last slice of pizza. Grudgingly, he allowed her to have it since she’d slept through lunch. Plus, he was a little distracted at the moment to really care.
