“Rory, I-”
“If you say that you love me one more time, I swear to God that I will kill you with my bare hands,” Rory said evenly as she shoved at his shoulders one more time, and this time, with a small groan, he moved away from her.
She didn’t waste any time getting off the bed and going to the bathroom to find her clothes. As she yanked on her shirt, she mentally berated herself for being so stupid. She should have never slept with him, never mind gone along with this deal. She’d been an idiot to think that she could handle Connor. She’d never been able to before and she had no idea why she’d thought that she could handle him now.
God, she was such a fool. The moment that she’d realized that she was feeling something for the bastard, she should have called off this ridiculous deal of theirs and figured out another way to get her suites. Instead, she’d used excuse after excuse to take what she wanted and now, she was paying for it. She’d had her heart broken by several men before, how could she not?
They treated her like a fuck buddy. When they became bored or something better came along, they’d moved on, leaving her feeling worthless. As much as it hurt to be treated like crap, it didn’t even begin to compare to what it felt like to have her heart broken by Connor.
“We need to talk,” Connor said, coming up behind her just as she finished pulling her jeans on and wrapped his arms around her.
“Get your goddamn hands off of me, Connor!”
“No, we need to talk,” he said, tightening his hold when she tried to pull away, but not enough to hurt her.
“The deal’s over, Connor! I’m done! You finally won, okay? You won!” Rory cried, struggling against his hold with everything that she had, but he refused to let go even as she kicked, rammed her elbow into his side, and thrashed in his arms as the first tear rolled down her cheek. She didn’t want him to see her cry, refused to let him know just how badly he’d hurt her.
“The deal doesn’t matter, Rory. The suites are yours,” Connor rushed out on a grunt when she’d managed to turn slightly to the left and slam her elbow in his stomach, desperate to get away from him.
“I don’t want them!” she screamed, hating herself when a sob broke through.
“Baby, please calm down,” Connor pleaded, tightening his hold on her.
“Let me go!”
“Not until you hear me out.”
“I don’t want to hear you out, you lying life-ruining bastard! I hate you, you asshole!” she barely managed to get out through the sobs.
For a moment, he didn’t say anything and she was thankful for that but even happier when he finally released her. She quickly stepped away from him and headed for the bathroom door and her escape when his next words stopped her short.
“I’m sorry about that night, Rory. I’m sorry for so many fucking things,” Connor said, his voice hoarse.
“You shouldn’t have come that night,” Rory said tightly, forcing herself to face him.
“I regret a lot of things about that night, but I don’t regret that,” he said, meeting her glare with a hard glare of his own.
“You ruined my life that night,” she said quietly, not bothering to wipe the tears away as they streamed down her face.
“I know.”
“If you hadn’t come that night-”
“You would have had to deal with something far worse than losing your scholarship, Rory,” Connor said, cutting her off.
Frowning, she asked, “What the hell are you talking about?”
For a moment, he only looked at her and just when she thought that she was finally about to get answers after all these years, Connor shook his head and moved to step past her. “Ask your brothers.”
No, he was not about to do this to her on top of everything else. They were going to finish this tonight.
“I’m asking you, Connor,” Rory said, stepping in front of him and blocking his path.
“It would be better if it came from one of your brothers,” he said, trying to step past her, but she was done playing this game with him.
“It would be better if it came from you and while you’re at it, you can tell me why you followed me up there in the first place,” Rory demanded, making it clear that she wasn’t moving until he finally gave her the answers that she’d been waiting for.
“Are you sure that you want to hear this?” Connor asked, leaning his hip against the sink counter as he waited.
