“The transplant worked,” Connor said, reaching out to toy with one of her toes before he could stop himself.
“I know that. I called the hospital. He’s doing well, but he’s driving the nursing staff nuts with his bitching,” Rory said, shifting her foot to the side and away from his hand. “Now, tell me why you’re acting so damn bitchy and give me back my ring.”
He ignored her because there was no way in hell that he was putting that ring back on her finger when she didn’t love him. He’d worked his ass off for that ring. He’d been so damned proud and excited when he’d bought it and hadn’t been able to wait to give it to her, to the woman that he loved, but that wasn’t her. She’d cheated on him and he couldn’t fucking believe it.
If anyone would have told him that Rory James would cheat on him, he would have called them a fucking liar. Now, he just wanted to kill the bastard who’d touched her before he made love to her one last time to show her exactly what she’d lost because he couldn’t say goodbye to her without having her one last time.
“Where have you been for the last three days?” Connor asked, tilting his head to the side as he watched her, waiting for her to lie, needing for her to lie so that he could hate her enough to push her away.
For a moment, Rory watched him, glared, and then muttered a few words that he couldn’t quite catch as she squeezed her eyes shut and said, “You know, don’t you?”
“Yes,” Connor said, deciding that if she was done playing games, then so was he. “What I don’t know is why you lied to me.”
“I didn’t want you to get upset,” Rory said, shocking him into stunned silence.
“Upset? I’m going to fucking kill him!” Connor shouted, wondering if he’d ever really known Rory. Up until today, he would have sworn that he knew her better than he knew himself. He never thought she would do this to him.
She opened her eyes to frown up at him. “Kill who?”
“Oh, don’t play this fucking game with me now, Rory,” Connor said, somehow stopping himself from demanding the name of the bastard. He would find out, but later. Right now, he needed to let Rory know that he was done with her. It was over and he was the one that ended it.
“Are you serious?” she asked, laughing without humor. “You tied me up, you jackass!”
“And you fucking cheated on me!” Connor shouted, regretting the loss of control as soon as the words left his mouth. He was a fucking idiot.
“You think I cheated on you?” Rory asked sounding hurt, which he had to admit was a nice touch.
“Yes!” Connor snapped, hating her even more for trying to bullshit her way out of this now that she’d been caught.
“Oh, my God, you’re an idiot,” she mumbled, shaking her head in disgust. “I didn’t cheat on you, you jerk!”
“Bullshit!”
“It’s the truth!”
“If you didn’t cheat on me, then why were you shacked up in a hotel room for the last three days?” Connor shouted, moving closer to the bed until he found himself climbing on it and over her so that he could glare down at her, needing to look into her eyes as she lied to him.
He had to admit that she looked really pissed off as she glared right back up at him. “Because I was recovering from donating bone marrow!”
His automatic response was to open his mouth and call her a liar, but her words stopped him. “What?”
“I was recovering from donating my bone marrow, you asshole! If you don’t believe me, then you can call my doctor or look at the bruise on my ass!” she snapped, sounding really pissed.
“Then, who was the guy that was spotted going into your hotel room?” Connor demanded.
“Bryce! Someone from the hospital called him to check on me and he put two and two together and hunted me down. He helped me out the first day and checked up on me, making sure that I had food and that I was okay,” Rory snapped and he knew, just knew that if she was loose that she would be going for his balls, but he really couldn’t care less.
He was too damn happy to care about his balls.
“You didn’t cheat on me?” Connor asked, knowing that there were a few other things that she’d said that were important, but he couldn’t force himself to care.
“No!”
“Oh, thank fucking god,” Connor said, sighing with relief as he leaned down to kiss her only to get her cheek instead of those lips that he’d missed.
“Get off me, Connor,” she said evenly.
Oh, he knew that he’d fucked up, but he was just as stubborn as she was and he wasn’t about to back down, not when there was a good possibility that he might lose her. Nope, the best defense here was definitely to go on the offense.
