“Let’s stay here, Rory. I was serious about spending the weekend in bed with you,” Connor said, knowing that even if they stayed that he wouldn’t be able to spend the entire weekend in bed with her.
Andrew was getting worse and he didn’t know what he should do. There was no one that he could turn to and no one to share this burden with. He’d promised to keep his mouth shut and that’s exactly what he was going to do even as it slowly killed him inside. He wasn’t sure how much longer he could keep this up. Every day was like a brand-new level of hell. If only Andrew wasn’t so hellbent on being stubborn, but the bastard wouldn’t even listen to him and take a chance for him. That asshole was dying and he wouldn’t take a fucking chance and, God help him, but Connor hated him for it.
“What’s wrong?” Rory asked softly, reaching up and running her fingertips down his jaw, instantly calming him.
“Nothing’s wrong,” Connor lied, turning his head and pressed a kiss against her fingertips as they moved down his jaw. He wished that he could tell her what was going on and ease some of his own pain, but he couldn’t. He wouldn’t do that to her and he wouldn’t break the asinine promise that he’d made to Andrew. He owed his friend that much, at least.
“If you’re not ready in ten minutes, we’re coming in!” Johnny yelled, making Rory roll her eyes and had him biting back a groan at the reminder that he’d promised to spend an entire day with Rory’s brothers and the rest of her extended family.
Oh, joy.
It wasn’t that he didn’t like her cousins, he actually did. He’d only met a dozen of them so far, but all of them were pretty good guys. They were arrogant as hell and some of them liked to call him “the pretty boy,” which he thought was a bit fucked up since he hadn’t met a single Bradford that couldn’t pass for a GQ model. Then again, being called pretty boy was a hell of lot better than being referred to as the crybaby. He didn’t fucking cry and every time he’d pointed that out, he’d earned pitying looks and condescending remarks.
Bastards.
The problem was actually Rory’s brothers and father. Since news of their engagement had spread like wildfire all over town, her father hadn’t said a single word to him, not one. Not that the man was normally a chatterbox, but the way he watched his every move when he didn’t think Connor was looking was a bit unnerving. He just wasn’t sure that he could deal with the glares for a whole day when he barely survived it five hours fishing every Sunday.
Her brothers were another problem entirely. He really wished that they would cut the shit and kick his ass and get it over with already. Their murderous glares and bullshit warnings about watching his back were getting old. They sent him text messages at all hours of the day, reminding him that they were watching his every move. When they were fishing or didn’t want Rory or their father to hear what they were saying, they whispered their warnings or mouthed their threats. They even went so far as to send him drinks when he was at the bar just so they could write down exactly what they wanted to do to him on a cocktail napkin. They used stick figure illustration to explain it just in case he missed the fact that they were dying to kick his ass.
The only thing that wasn’t clear to him was why they hadn’t kicked his ass by now. They wanted to, that was obvious. He just didn’t know what was stopping them from doing it. If he wasn’t so damn worried about Andrew, getting this project finished, and trying not to screw up with Rory, he would probably try to find out, but he just didn’t have the time or energy to really care.
“You better not be touching our sister, asshole!” Bryce yelled, sounding close to killing someone.
“Go away! We’ll be down in twenty minutes!” Rory yelled back, sounding annoyed as she stormed into her room and he really couldn’t blame her.
When her brothers weren’t trying to warn him off, they were harassing the hell out of Rory as they tried to talk some sense into her. It wasn’t working. At least, Connor hoped that it wasn’t working. He didn’t want to lose her, not now, not when he was only three months away from making her his.
She was marrying him. Rory James was going to marry him and he couldn’t wait. He knew that if they finished the project tomorrow that she’d marry him. It killed him to have to wait, but he wasn’t going to rush and screw this up. She needed him to prove to her that he loved her and he would do just that, but the moment that the project was over, she was marrying him.
“We need to get going because the faster that we get dressed, the faster we can put some distance between us and my brothers for a few hours,” Rory said, not sounding any happier than he was about spending the day with her family.
“I’ll go get dressed,” Connor said, giving up on trying to talk her out of going and headed for her patio.
“You really should just leave some stuff here, Connor,” Rory pointed out with a shrug as she pulled on a pair of light gray lacy panties that he’d really like to tear off with his teeth, but unfortunately, they didn’t have time.
He cursed softly as he watched Rory continue getting dressed. He’d been avoiding this kind of thing since he’d decided to drop the subject of selling her house. Truth be told, he’d been hoping to avoid talking about this until after they were married and it was time to move her into his house and stake a “For Sale” sign in her front yard.
“I’ll think about it,” Connor said, hoping the vague answer would be enough for her to drop it.
“Okay,” Rory said with another careless shrug as she focused on pulling a shirt on, reminding him why he loved this woman so damn much. There was no drama, no pouting, and no whining to get her way. She hated that bullshit almost as much as he did, and that made him breathe a little easier because he knew that when it came time for her to make some changes that she would do them. Rory was a smart girl. She’d realize that selling her house and merging her business with his was the smart thing to do.
“I’ll meet you outside in ten minutes,” Connor said, once again heading towards the patio door.
“Five minutes! You have five minutes!” Johnny yelled from the other side of Rory’s bedroom door, earning an eye-roll from Rory.
“Ten minutes,” Rory said with a wink.
Fifteen minutes later, he was leaning back against his truck, waiting for Rory and ignoring her brothers.
“You’re fucking dead!” Johnny snarled.
“Keep pushing us by touching our sister and see what happens,” Craig, who’d just arrived, said between sips of his coffee and a yawn.
“Better watch your back, bitch,” Bryce said as he stole Sean’s coffee. Sean, who had just opened his mouth to take his turn threatening Connor, quickly forgot all about Connor and focused on bitch-slapping the hell out of his brother and stealing back his coffee while Connor let out a bored sigh.
Oh, he was sure that they meant it and would love to beat the shit out of him. Any other man would probably be pissing his pants and running the other way, but after listening to this bullshit day in and day out for the past month, it had lost its effect. Not that it ever really had much of an effect on him. It didn’t. He’d gladly take an ass-whooping for Rory. She was more than worth it.
“Hey, asshole? Did you hear me?” Brian called out, sounding pissed.
