“To say goodnight,” he said, frowning and wondering why she even had to ask.
“Uh-huh,” Rory said, returning his frown. “Didn’t we say goodnight in the truck?”
“You mean when you climbed out of the truck, slammed the door shut, and walked off without a word?”
“Yes,” Rory said, nodding.
“How exactly is that a proper goodbye for a date?” he had to ask.
“Because this isn’t a real date,” she said in an exasperated tone that he simply chose to ignore since he was too busy trying to hold back an annoyed sigh.
Why did she always have to be so damn difficult?
“Of course, it is,” Connor said, taking her good hand in his and gave it a gentle tug as he headed for her front door, where he planned on giving her a proper goodbye kiss, for appearances, of course. He was not looking forward to taking her into his arms.
Not at all.
He was only doing this for the neighbors hiding behind their curtains and blinds as they spied on the two of them and for the neighbors standing in their driveways and on the sidewalks, holding flashlights as they openly watched the two of them. Since they had to appear to be a couple in love, then he really had no choice in the matter, Connor thought with a smile. He had to kiss Rory James.
Poor him.
“No, it’s not,” Rory said, stepping up beside him in front of her door as she shot a nervous look towards their neighbors.
“Of course, this is a date, Rory,” he said, drawing her attention back to him where it belonged.
This was his time with her and he’d be damned if he shared it with anyone else. He might need their neighbors and the rest of the people in town to spread the word to her brothers that they were dating, but that didn’t mean that he’d allow them to fuck this up for him. Rory James was his for five months and he fully planned on enjoying his time with her, especially since she’d probably never talk to him again after he stole her brothers from her and ran her out of business.
“How exactly was this a date, Connor?” Rory asked, shooting another glance towards their nosy neighbors, who were really starting to aggravate the shit out of him.
“I picked you up, took you out to dinner-”
“We didn’t actually eat,” Rory mumbled distractedly as she frowned at something behind him.
He looked over his shoulder and nearly groaned when he saw several of their neighbors and people that didn’t even live on their street, gathering in front of her house and holding cameras trained on the two of them. With a sigh, he shifted in front of her, giving them his back and effectively blocking their view and bringing Rory’s attention right back to him.
“That’s not my fault that we didn’t get to eat, Rory,” Connor felt obligated to point out. He’d taken her to a restaurant, hadn’t he? It wasn’t his fault that they were asked to leave because of some bullshit rule that better get lifted and soon.
“How is that not your fault?” Rory demanded, yanking her hand free so that she could prop her hands on her hips as she glared at him. “You’re the one that got us banned from that restaurant in the first place!”
“No, I wasn’t,” Connor said, mostly because he couldn’t remember exactly why they’d been banned from O’Malley’s, but he was sure that it was Rory’s fault.
“You made my date have a nervous breakdown!” she snapped, but that didn’t really help him since several of the guys that she’d dated had that unfortunate response when he got involved.
“How exactly would that get us banned?”
“They had to call a priest to come talk him off the roof!” she snapped.
Connor shook his head and shrugged it off as he said, “Still not seeing the problem.”
With an eye roll and a muttered, “I give up,” Rory turned to let herself inside the house and end their date, but he wasn’t about to let that happen. Whether she liked it or not, she was his date and he wouldn’t be denied the best part of the evening.
The kiss goodnight.
Chapter 17
“What are you doing?” Rory mumbled nervously as Connor cupped her face in his hands and leaned in.
“What does it look like I’m doing, Rory?” Connor asked with that bad-boy smile of his that did not make her stomach do funny things.
