Checkmate (Neighbor from Hell 3)

“The transplant worked,” he 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,” she said, shifting her foot to the side and robbing him of the contact. “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 the finger of someone who didn’t love him. He’d worked his ass off for that ring. He’d been so damned proud and excited when he bought that ring and couldn’t wait to give it to her, to the woman that he loved, but that wasn’t her. She cheated on him and he couldn’t f**king believe it. If anyone would have told him that Rory James would cheat on him, he would have called them a f**king liar and broken their jaw for trying to start shit. Now he just wanted to kill the bastard that had touched her and make love to her one last time to show her exactly what she'd lost and because he just couldn’t say goodbye to her without having her one last time.

“Where have you been for the last three days?” he 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 didn’t quite catch as she squeezed her eyes shut and said, “You know, don’t you?”

“Yes,” he said, deciding that if she was done playing games then so was he. “What I don’t know is why you lied.”

“I didn’t want you to get upset,” she said, shocking him into stunned silence.

“Upset? I’m going to f**king kill him!” he 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 that she would do this to him.

She opened her eyes to frown up at him. “Kill who?”

“Oh, don’t play this f**king game with me now, Rory,” he 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 f**king cheated on me!” he shouted, regretting the loss of control as soon as the words left his mouth. He was a f**king idiot.

“You think I cheated on you?” she asked, sounding hurt, which he had to admit was a nice touch.

“Yes!” he snapped, hating her even more for trying to bullshit her way out of it once she got 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 with another man?” he 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 jackass! 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?” he 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,” she 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.

“You didn’t cheat on me?” he asked, knowing that there were a few other things that she said that were important, but he could give a damn about them at the moment.

“No!”

“Oh thank f**king God,” he 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 he f**ked 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 going on the offense.

“I forgive you, Rory,” he said, making damn sure to sound putout as he leaned down again to get that kiss that she owed him.

This time she was too stunned to move so he got his kiss. Granted, he would have preferred her lips a little softer and perhaps a little more responsive, but he’d take what he could get right now.

Wow, had he f**ked up big time……

Not that he was going to admit it, because he wasn’t. Her father had been right. If he admitted that he’d f**ked up then Rory would just focus on that and the fact that she had every right to be pissed at him and dump his ass for being such a moron. Since that wouldn’t work for him, he decided that f**king with her head until she apologized to him was definitely the way to go.

“Forgive me?” she repeated in a tone that really didn't bode well for his plan so he kissed her again.

“Yes, I forgive you, Rory,” he said against her lips, but the stubborn woman refused to respond.

“For having a needle shoved into my hip to save your friend?” she asked, obviously clarifying what she needed his forgiveness for.

“Yes,” he said, deciding that perhaps she needed to be distracted so he kissed his way down to her throat.

She choked out a laugh as he kissed her neck. “You can’t be serious!”

Oh, but he was. Damn serious. He raised his head to glare down at the woman who really did deserve a spanking. “You lied to me. No one knew where you were. Do you have any idea how scared I was that something happened to you?”

He expected her to shout at him, but instead her features softened as she looked up at him. “I’m sorry that I lied to you, Connor.”

“Why did you do it, Rory?” he asked, his tone softening as he finally allowed himself to think about what she’d done.