Checkmate (Neighbor from Hell 3)

"It's Saturday night," she reminded him even though by now he should have known exactly what she had planned. Every Saturday night she met her brothers at Luke's for dinner, drinks and just to relax. It was a tradition they started over ten years ago and one of her favorite things to do.

She liked going to Luke's on Saturday when the music was live and the beers were ice cold. She could relax and have a good time without worrying about some jerk hitting on her. On Saturday nights she was untouchable. If she wanted to talk to a man, she did. Her brothers weren't that overbearing, but if some guy made the mistake of hounding her, he would find himself dragged out back and meeting the fists of at least one of her brothers before he could so much as mutter a half assed apology.

"Luke's," he said on a sigh with a nod of understanding.

How he could have forgotten about her Saturday night ritual she would never know. He went there most Saturday nights, most everyone in town did. It was also the one place that they had an unspoken agreement about. They didn't so much as acknowledge each other while they were there, too afraid of getting banned.

"Fine," he said, using his grip on her bra to pull her forward, "I'll pick you up at seven."

"Um, I go there at eight, not seven and who said that I was going with you?" she asked as she wrapped her arms back around his shoulders.

"We have a deal, Rory, so that means that you're going with me and you'll be ready by seven," he said, leaning in to kiss her as she felt his grip on her bra loosen.

"Eight," she said just as his lips touched hers, not even bothering to try and argue.

What was the point? They did have an agreement. It had nothing to do with wanting to spend more time with this man. She hated him, she reminded herself as she felt his hands move up her sides. He repulsed her, she thought as she opened her mouth in welcome and shifted on his lap, rubbing against the large, hard bulge that was driving her crazy and leaning into him as his hands slowly came up her sides.

Her body trembled as her ni**les hardened in anticipation. She'd never craved a man's touch as much as she craved his and if he didn't move his ass and touch her she was going to-

"Rory! The fire inspector is here!" Jacob announced from behind the protection of the door. Not that the door would keep him safe for long. Once she managed to catch her breath, fix her bra and pull on a shirt, she fully planned on strangling him and judging by the vicious growl that escaped Connor's throat, he was probably having a few violent thoughts of his own.

"Seven," Connor said tightly, averting his eyes to the side as he carefully helped her climb off his lap.

"Seven what?" she asked in a daze as her body mourned the loss of his touch.

"Be ready," he said, sounding pained as he stood up and stiffly walked out of the office, shutting the door behind him without a glance in her direction.

She looked down at herself and groaned pathetically as she let herself fall over onto her side. When her eyes landed on the clock it actually terrified her that she was counting down the hours until seven instead of dreading each passing minute like any sane woman would.

"No! Not the duct tape!" Jacob cried out from the other room, making her lips twitch. One thing that she could say about Connor O'Neill, he'd never leave her bored.

Chapter 21

Sixty more seconds.......

He dropped his head back and clenched his jaw tightly shut as ice cold water hit him. Just sixty more seconds, he swore as his muscles started to cramp to the point of pain. His eyes closed as he tried to focus on anything other than the ice cold water assaulting his body. He thought of the manor, baseball, his old high school locker combination and by the time his mind turned to what he had for lunch he felt his body relax somewhat and the most painful erection that he'd ever experienced in his life started to go down.

A shaky breath escaped him as he opened his eyes and reached out to shut the water off. He knew that he should have taken himself in hand to avoid this torture, but that would have only made it worse. It wouldn't have been enough and would have only aggravated him more. His only saving grace was the fact that he still hadn't seen Rory's br**sts. His hands had brushed against them, but while she'd been in his arms he somehow found the will power not to look down.

He'd planned on watching her as he touched her beautiful, and he damn well knew that they would be beautiful, br**sts for the first time. Thanks to the little bastard she'd hired as an assistant, he never got the chance. When he stormed out of Rory's office and only found her smirking assistant and no fire inspector he almost killed the man with his bare hands. It was only the reminder that he had Rory half na**d in the other room that had him hauling ass to teach the little bastard another lesson about coming between him and Rory.

By the time he finished hog tying her assistant, Rory was walking out of her office, wearing a new shirt and looking unhappy. Thirty seconds after she told him about the text message Craig sent her, he became decidedly pissed off. The lumber they'd ordered for the roof, the same lumber that he was told would be delivered by lunchtime, was delayed because the flatbed that was transporting it broke down in Massachusetts.

After a dozen phone calls it became obvious that they weren't going to be getting their lumber before Tuesday. Normally that wouldn't be much of a problem, but the forecast for Sunday night into Monday morning was rain and plenty of it. They'd been left with no choice but to send a dozen men into town to buy every last piece of tarp that they could get their hands on. It took about eight hours and a hundred men, but they managed to get the roof covered and sealed up tight. He didn't even want to think of the bullshit they'd have to deal with if they hadn't covered it up. The building had enough problems without adding mold or more rot to the mix.

He fought back a yawn as he reached for a towel. After putting in fourteen hours today, he was exhausted. He should be crawling into bed right now, especially since he had to get up bright and early tomorrow morning to fish with Rory's old man and start working on her brothers. If this had been a date, not that this was really a date, with any other woman he wouldn't have hesitated in breaking it, but this was with Rory. He only had five months with her and he was not about to waste a single minute of it.

Speaking of his "date" with Rory, he was late, he reminded himself with a grumble as he wrapped a towel around his waist. He needed to move his ass and get dressed. It was already after eight and the place was going to be packed. They'd be lucky to get a table near the bathrooms tonight and that's definitely not how he wanted to spend the night with her. He'd rather take her in his bed and hold her. Actually, he'd rather take her in his bed and make love to her all night, but since that required more energy than he had right now, he was going to have to settle for taking her out and hopefully holding her in his arms a time or two on the dance floor.