“I love her!” Connor shouted.
“Then why are you after her company?” Jacob demanded.
“Okay, let’s get this over with, I have somewhere to be in an hour,” her father said, gesturing to her brothers to drag a bloody and panting Connor forward.
“I’m a little confused about something,” Johnny said. “If he was trying to get on our good side, then why didn’t he try sucking up to us?”
“He only kept telling us to fuck off,” Sean said, sounding confused.
“He punched me,” Bryce bitched.
“That’s because I didn’t want any of you!” Connor snapped.
“What the hell do you mean that you didn’t want us?” Johnny demanded in outrage.
“We’re a fucking catch!” Sean snapped.
“You’d be lucky to get guys like us! Lucky!” Bryce said, sounding insulted.
“I don’t want any of you!” Connor snapped.
“You bastard!” Johnny gasped as her brothers glared at him.
“Rory?” her father said, drawing her attention but not enough to look away from Connor, who was looking up at her through one swollen eye.
“Yes?”
“Do you love him?”
“Yes,” Rory said softly with a small nod that had Connor noticeably relaxing.
“And what are you willing to do to prove to my daughter and my boys that you’re telling the truth and that you love her?” her father demanded, watching Connor intently as he waited.
For a minute, Connor stood there, not saying anything as dread twisted in her gut. She wanted to tell her father that he didn’t have to prove anything, but she needed to know that their deal was truly a thing of the past.
Connor looked up and met her eyes as he said, “Anything. Everything. She can have my house, my business, everything that I have. I don’t care about any of it. The only thing that I want is her.”
She bit back a smile as she walked over to him, making a show of thinking it over. “What about the bathtub?”
“It’s yours.”
“Will you stop stealing my hot chocolate?” she asked, reaching up to cup his slightly bruised, and still incredibly handsome face.
“No,” Connor said, turning his head so that he could press a kiss against her palm. “But I’ll learn to make it the way that you like it so that I can make it for you.”
“Highland Construction is mine?” Rory asked, already deciding a month ago to combine their companies into one and run it with him.
“Yes,” Connor said with absolutely no hesitation.
“You’ll work for me?”
“Yes.”
“Fetch my drinks?”
“No.”
“Be at my by beck and call?” Rory asked, loving the way his poor abused lips kicked up into a grin.
