Checkmate (Neighbor from Hell 3)

"Connor, please turn around," she said, forcing herself to remain calm.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd think that you'd miss me."

She opened her mouth to tell him that she wouldn't miss him, but she couldn't get the words out. She would miss the big jerk. Somehow he'd gone from being an annoyance, an entertaining one at that, to....

Well, she really wasn't sure what he was right now since she was too busy trying to save his ass. When she spotted the old oak tree that she'd once tied Connor to with her jump rope, she realized that if she was going to change his mind and save his obstinate ass that she would have to do something now. Begging, pleading and reasoning hadn't worked and she considered going for his ni**les, but that might cause other problems like him veering off into the woods so that left just one thing.

Unfortunately for her, she didn't have experience using that "one thing" to get a guy to do what she wanted. But, if it stopped Connor from doing something stupid then she was just going to have to learn to do it, she decided, ignoring the little fact that the idea of seducing him appealed to her a little too much. There was going to be hell to pay for missing fishing with her family, but she was pretty sure that spending the day in bed with Connor would be more than worth it. Knowing that it was now or never, she undid her belt and shifted closer to Connor.

"What are you doing?" he asked, throwing her a curious glance as he continued to drive.

"Stop the truck, Connor," she whispered as she carefully climbed onto his lap, taking the choice out of his hands.

With a putout sigh, he pulled off to the side of the dirt road and threw the truck into park. "I appreciate your concern, Rory, but-"

"I want you, Connor," she said, leaning in to press a kiss against his stunned lips. "I want you to take me home and give me a reason to stay in bed all day. Can you do that, Connor?" she asked in a husky voice that she barely recognized as she teasingly kissed her way down his chin and neck. When he tilted his head to the side and groaned softly, she knew that she had him.

Even better, she knew that she'd be spending the day in his bed.

"You're just doing this to get out of fishing," he said roughly as his hands landed on her ass and he moved in, using his face to move hers so that he could take her mouth in a quick, hard kiss that left her breathing hard and desperate for him in a way that actually scared her.

"Does it matter?" she asked softly as she pressed down against that large bulge in his pants that her trembling body screamed for.

"Not one f**king bit."

Chapter 25

"The James brothers looked like they wanted to kill you," Andrew commented as he looked around to make sure that they were alone before he opened the small blue cooler that he had perched on the driver's side seat of his truck.

Connor shrugged it off as he looked around the basically deserted makeshift parking lot, playing lookout. It was a job that he'd perfected over the past year and one that he hated, but he knew that Andrew hated it more so he kept his mouth shut and kept an eye out for unwanted company.

"Does it have something to do with that huge shit eating grin that you were sporting this morning?" Andrew asked, chuckling as he pulled out the first of many syringes.

"In a roundabout way," he admitted, feeling his lips pull up into that grin that he couldn't seem to keep off his face. Yesterday with Rory had been.....

Amazing.

After somehow managing to drive the truck back to his house without wrecking it, they managed to stumble into his house while tearing each other's clothes off and hadn't left until this morning. They'd made love against the front door, on the stairs, in the upstairs hallway, three times in the bathtub before they managed to collapse in a tangled mess on his bed where he proceeded to make love to her until he swore that he'd never be able to move again. Sex with Rory was incredible, but surprisingly it wasn't the reason why he couldn't stop smiling.

Rory was.

He loved spending a lazy Sunday with her. It didn't matter if they were making love, holding each other, fighting over the remote or trying to annoy the hell out of each other, just being with her felt good. She turned him on, made him laugh and drove him out of his goddamn mind and he loved every single minute of it. She was definitely worth the bullshit that he was going to have to go through to get back on her family's good side after yesterday.

"Oh, f**k," Andrew groaned, dragging Connor's attention away from the most incredible weekend of his life in time to see his oldest friend stumble away from the truck and make his way towards the overgrown brush surrounding the woods where Andrew proceeded to lose his lunch near a patch of poison ivy.

"Stop," Andrew said on a gasp when Connor moved to help him.

He wasn't sure what he hated more, watching his best friend slowly lose this battle or feeling helpless. It wouldn't be so bad if Andrew wasn't being so damn pigheaded, but he was. Andrew refused to ask for help and Connor feared that the man's pride was going to get him killed. He knew that it was Andrew's choice, but he wished the man would ask for help, scream for it, but he wouldn't. Andrew was leaving his fate in God's hands and Connor didn't think that was enough, not for this.

"You need to go home," Connor snapped, sick of this bullshit. The man didn't belong here, especially if he wasn't going to put up a fight. If this was it, he'd rather see his oldest friend go out with a bang, but Andrew refused to act like anything was wrong.

"Are you still going to pay me?" Andrew asked, sitting back on his haunches as he dropped his face in his hands, no doubt fighting another wave of nausea from the expensive medicine that was supposed to help him.

"Yes," Connor gritted out, already knowing where the stubborn man was going with this.

Sure enough, Andrew shook his head as he slowly got to his feet. "Then I'm staying, Connor. I'm not a charity case," he said, pressing a shaky hand to his stomach as he walked back to his truck.

"No, you're a f**king idiot!" Connor snapped as the fear that he'd been fighting for the last year crept up his spine. He couldn't lose his best friend. They'd been friends since they were little kids and had always been there for each other. Andrew was one of the best people he knew. The man was kind, considerate and put up with his bullshit and helped keep him in line. Without him......

Hell, he didn't want to think about that because it wasn't going to happen. Andrew was going to beat this damn thing and that's all that mattered.

"Love you too, man," Andrew said with a forced smile as he placed the used syringes in a canister and placed it beneath his seat. Andrew carefully stored the cooler on the floor, grabbed his hardhat and clipboard while Connor wracked his brain, trying to figure out a way to fix this. He refused to believe that there was nothing that he could do.