Checkmate (Neighbor from Hell 3)

"Yes."

For a moment she couldn't answer as she quickly ran the conversation that they'd had before the best sex of her life through her head. She couldn't for the life of her figure out what the hell he was talking about. "When?"

"It was part of our new agreement."

"Um, no it wasn't," she said, wracking her brain once again since she had been rather distracted during that conversation, but she was sure that she'd remember agreeing to sleep with him after sex. Not that she was really going to complain, much, since it gave her the excuse that she wanted to stay in his arms.

"It really was though," he said, leaning in and brushing his lips against hers. "Whenever you use my body for sex-"

"For the agreement," she quickly added, not wanting him to get the wrong idea that she wanted him or anything.

He ignored the interruption as he continued, "-then you have to sleep with me."

"What if we have a quickie during lunch?" she asked, wondering if he was planning on making up the rules as they went along. She really should call veto, and she would just as soon as he said something that didn't secretly please her.

"Then you have dinner with me, stay the night and have breakfast in the morning," he explained, turning over onto his back, taking her with him and gently laying her on his other side so that she could curl up against him and rest her injured arm across his chest. With a put out sigh, she did just that.

"Why exactly do I have to do all that just to have my way with you?" she asked, closing her eyes and snuggling up against him.

"How else are we supposed to convince people that we're madly in love," he murmured softly as he placed his hand gently over her injured hand.

"Good point," she said, closing her eyes and pretending that his words didn't make something inside of her ache.

Chapter 24

"I really have to go," Rory said even as she tugged him down for another kiss.

"Then go," Connor said as he wrapped his arms around her and raised her off the ground so that he could give her a proper goodbye kiss before he left.

They'd barely managed to get an hour of sleep before his alarm went off, reminding him that he really needed to move his ass if he had any hopes of pulling off his plan. As much as he wanted to stay in bed with Rory and hold her for the rest of the day, he had to leave her. He had to take her father up on his offer so that he could get some time in with her brothers and that meant leaving her.

It didn't hurt that he knew that she wouldn't be too far away while he was getting in a little male bonding time with her brothers. While he was fishing, she'd be up at the house with her brothers' girlfriends doing whatever the hell it is that they did. Knowing that he'd be able to sneak off and steal a kiss or two was the only thing that got him to move his ass and get in the shower before he did something stupid like say to hell with his plan and focus on keeping Rory in his bed.

He was actually pretty proud of himself this morning. He managed to beat the shit out of his alarm clock, get out of bed and into the shower without giving into temptation. He may have lingered in the shower for a few minutes on the off chance that Rory decided to join him. She had an injured arm after all and might be in need of an extra hand or two to help soap up her incredible body. It was a sacrifice, but one he was willing to make for her.

After a few minutes, he gave up and started getting ready. When he stepped into his room, he didn't even bother to bite back his disappointed sigh when he found his bed empty. He'd been hoping that she'd be there, giving him the excuse that he needed to focus on her. A wave of exhaustion hit him and he'd been tempted to crawl back into bed, but without Rory lying in his arms he hadn't seen the point.

He'd just been resigning himself to spending a few hours without kissing her when he spotted her walking towards her Jeep, carrying her backpack and thermos. When their eyes locked, a hot current shot through his body, shooting straight to his heart and stealing the air out of his lungs and before he knew it, he was making his way across their yards and pulling her into his arms.

She went willingly, more than willingly, which still stunned him considering that only a month ago she would have gone for her pliers. He'd dated plenty of women in the past, but none of them made him feel the way that she did, complete. On some level she'd always made him feel that way, but after making love to her, something inside of him clicked. He didn't understand it, but he wasn't going to fight it either.

He was done fighting with her.

When this project was over, he was keeping her, deal or no deal. She belonged with him. They were so much alike that it was a little frightening, well, to everyone else. Years ago he knew that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with her, but he'd convinced himself that they were both better off without the added complication in their lives. It wouldn't be easy convincing her to take a real chance on him, but he didn't care. This morning he had a taste of what it could be like between them and he'd have to be out of his f**king mind to give that up.

He was still going to steal her brothers out from under her and run her out of business, but now he planned on doing it with a little more finesse. Instead of watching her business go under, he was going to step up when the time came and buy her business. That way Rory wouldn't feel like a failure and leave town so she'd be able to spend the day working for him and her nights moaning his name in his ear.

"Tonight," Rory said, sounding out of breath as she pulled her lips away from his.

"Tonight, what?" he asked in a daze as he moved in to pick up where they left off, but Rory had other plans. With a teasing smile, she pulled her lips further away from him, but quickly made it up to him by wrapping her legs around his waist

"We'll have to continue this tonight, because I really have to go now or I'm going to be late," she said with a sigh as she tried to pull her legs away from his waist, but he wasn't having that.

He moved his hands from her waist to her ass and kept her right where she was so that he could lean in and steal a kiss before they clarified one or two things. "You're having dinner with me, right?" he asked, even though she really didn't have a choice in the matter.

"I usually meet my brothers for dinner on Sunday," she replied against his lips as her hold around his waist tightened and he was tempted once again to say the hell with everything and take her back to bed, but he had work to do, sad, but true. If he wanted to keep Rory in his bed on a permanent basis, and he did, then he was going to have to learn to prioritize.