Checkmate

“Oh really? How about the fact that I’ve barely seen you over the past month? You don’t smile. You barely say more than a few words to me when you do see me. All you want to do is work. You look like you’re going to kill someone anytime someone mentions Andrew. You haven’t touched me in a month and-“

“You want me to f**k you?” he demanded harshly as he turned around and faced her, feeling his control snap. Even knowing that he was probably going to do something to lose the love of his life, he couldn’t make himself reign it back in. He didn’t want to hold it back any longer, couldn’t. He wanted to put his fist through the wall, scream at the world, and have someone to take his anger out on and right now that someone was Rory.

“Is that the problem, Rory?” he asked, stepping into her. “You’re pissed because I haven’t f**ked you?”

“No, it’s not!” Rory snapped as she tried to stand her ground against him, but he was done playing games.

“Then what’s the problem, Rory? Huh?” he asked, stepping into her until she had no choice but to back off and once she did, he didn’t stop until he had her back against the shower wall.

“My problem is that you’re being an ass**le and I want to know why!” she snapped, trying to shove him back, but he refused to move. He moved into her, resting his arms against the wall near her head and caging her in with the rest of his body.

“It doesn’t matter,” he said, leaning in to kiss Rory when she turned her head away.

“Yes, it does,” she said in that mutinous tone that used to drive him crazy, but now it just simply pissed him off.

“No, it doesn’t,” he snapped as he leaned in and pressed a kiss to her neck in the spot that he knew drove her crazy. If he wasn’t going to be able to work himself into exhaustion then he’d f**k Rory until he couldn’t remember his own name, never mind the pain that was driving him out of his f**king mind, he decided as he continued to kiss her neck.

“Talk or stop touching me,” Rory demanded, but he ignored her and kept kissing his way down to her beautiful br**sts.

Escape, that’s all he wanted to do and Rory’s body would allow him to do just that. He just needed to escape, he told himself as he moved to kiss his way down to that dark rosy nipple that he loved.

“Goddamnit, Connor! Stop touching me and tell me what the hell is going on with you!” she yelled as she placed her hands on his shoulders and shoved him back, robbing him of the escape that he needed.

“It’s none of your f**king business!” he yelled back, knowing that he’d hit a dangerous point and forced himself to step away from her before he did something really stupid.

“Bullshit!” Rory screamed, getting right into his face and cutting him off when he tried to step out of the shower and leave so that he could calm down, but she wouldn’t let him.

“Get the f**k out of my way, Rory,” he said, tightly through a clenched jaw. When she didn’t move, he yelled, “Now!”

“No!” she yelled right back. “You’re not leaving this shower until you tell me what’s going on!”

“Fuck that,” he snapped, picking her up and moving her to the side so that he could leave. He needed space, needed to calm the f**k down, but of course the damn woman wouldn’t let him have that.

“I told you that you weren’t leaving until you told me what’s going on,” she said, getting out of the shower and moving to block his path, but he simply ignored her as he grabbed a towel and headed for the door.

He didn’t make it far. In fact, he’d barely made it five feet into her bedroom when Rory took him by surprise and tackled him, taking him off guard and down to the ground. It was something that she hadn’t done since she grew br**sts and that unfortunate incident in the apple orchard when she went to teach him a lesson, but instead ended up giving him a glance at her developing br**sts that had him grinning like a fool.

He wasn’t grinning now. No, now he was pissed. Barely aware of what he was doing, he rolled them over and pinned Rory to the floor, ignoring her dog’s demands to be let in the room and the pain shooting through his hands as he held her arms down.

“You really want to know what’s going on, huh?” he asked, roughly, settling himself between her legs and grinding his hardening c**k against her damp slit. “Huh?”

“Yeah, I’d love to know why you’re being a prick,” she said, not sounding scared, but just pissed, Rory level pissed as she tried to get her arms free, but he wasn’t ready to let her go yet. Not yet.

“Because my best friend is dying,” he announced, watching as the anger quickly disappeared from Rory’s beautiful face and was replaced by sympathy.

“Oh my God……,” she mumbled.

“Mmmhmmm,” he said, continuing to grind against her. “Leukemia, but you want to know the real kick in the ass? He has a chance, a f**king chance to live and he’s ignoring it. Do you know why?” he asked, barely aware of the way that his voice shook or the way his body trembled as he spoke.

“No,” Rory said, her voice hollow as she laid there, no longer fighting him.

“Because the ass**le has a rare blood type and he’s afraid that if he takes the bone marrow that he’ll be taking away the chance for a kid or someone with a family’s chance to live. He doesn’t care that I need him and that I’m going to miss him,” he said, grinding against her, harder. “He doesn’t f**king care!”

He kept grinding against her, not feeling anything as he looked down at her, watching as the tears rolled down her beautiful face. “He doesn’t care that I’m going to miss him. He doesn’t care that he’s making me watch him die and he won’t let me f**king help him! Now that he quit, he doesn’t have health insurance and can’t get the medicine that he needs. He won’t even let me be there for him now. The stubborn ass**le doesn’t want anyone to see that, but I need to. I need to be there for him and let him know how much I love him and he won’t give me that!”

“Shhh, it’s okay,” Rory said, putting her arms around him and pulling him down, but he wouldn’t allow it. He didn’t remember letting her arms go or moving to get away from her and didn’t care. Suddenly he couldn’t stand the thought of her touching him, of her comforting him. It made it feel too real, like his best friend really was dying and there was nothing he could do. He couldn’t deal with it, just wanted to pretend for a little while longer. He-

“Shhh, baby, it’s okay,” Rory said as she gently pushed him back down until he was sitting on the floor with his back against the bed. Before he could move, she was climbing onto his lap and straddling him. He went to push her off, desperate to avoid her touch, but when he moved to push her off he found himself instead grabbing her and pulling close, suddenly desperate for the comfort that she was offering him, needing it more than his next breath.

“Everything is going to be okay, Connor,” Rory said soothingly as she wrapped her arms around his head and held him against her chest. “Shhh, it’s okay.”

He tried to tell her that it wasn’t, but he couldn’t. The only thing that came out was an agonized sob and then another and another until all he could do was hold onto her as he lost control and finally gave into the pain.