Checkmate

Chapter 19

It shouldn't please him that she liked his gift so much, but it did. When Andrew called him a few hours ago to let him know that Brennagin's, the insanely expensive coffee shop that they renovated last month, was arguing over the bill, again, and that they were now refusing to pay, he decided to go down there and handle the matter himself.

Normally, well, in the past year at least, he'd been leaving that job up to Andrew, but the manager was trying to bullshit her way out of paying. It was causing too damn much drama and stressing Andrew out, which was the last thing the man needed. By the time Connor arrived, Cindy, the manager and all around pain the ass, was in Andrew's face and bitching him out. When she caught sight of him, her whole attitude turned from flat out bitch to flirty.

Once Andrew made his escape, Cindy invited him into her office where she suggested that the two of them talk this little "misunderstanding" over at her house. He politely declined, but that didn't seem to make her happy so she became more blatant about it. When he declined her offer to make him breakfast in bed she flat offered him a little relief in the office. She was a beautiful woman and any other guy probably would have fallen at her feet and done anything and everything she asked, but he wasn't interested.

It didn't take her long to figure out that Rory was the reason why. Well, she was the main reason, but he would never accept a quick fuck to drop the price of a bill. He didn't play games and Cindy quickly learned that. After she gave up trying to get him off in exchange for a huge price drop she went back to being a bitch. She tried to argue her way out of their contracted price and when he wouldn't budge, she cried.

It annoyed the hell out of him and made him wonder why more women weren't like Rory. She wouldn't have cried or tried to play him to get out of the bill. If she didn't think it was right she would have argued it and backed it up with proof. If that didn't work, she would have tried reason, but not Cindy. Cindy tried to use every damn ploy that she could think up to get him to drop the price by five grand, but he wasn't about to budge.

He didn't work for free and neither did his men. He offered more than fair prices to his customers and didn't play games to jack up the price. The woman knew the price going in and had agreed that it was more than fair when she'd signed the contract. In fact, if she hadn't added a new office for herself and asked for a carport built at the back of the building to keep her car protected from the elements, the price would have been fifteen grand cheaper. After a half hour of her bullshit, he had enough and told her to deal with his lawyer as he headed for the door.

Apparently that was the magical phrase, because twenty minutes later he had a check for almost the full amount. It turned out that she'd spent the money set aside for renovations on new equipment for the coffee shop. When he spotted the large box with fancy writing in the corner of her office with the magical words, "Hot chocolate" printed beneath the picture of the product, he decided to take pity on the woman and do a little bartering. He was out a thousand bucks, but had a professional brewing machine and cabinet for Rory.

He meant to give it to her in front of the trailer as he made a big show of it so that her brothers could see how well he took care of her. He hoped to soften them up towards him, but at the last minute he changed his mind. He had five months to butter her brothers up to come work for him so there really was no rush, he decided. While her assistant pouted and glared at him, he hauled in her new cabinet and cocoa maker and did a little redecorating. Andrew arrived a short while later with every cocoa product known to man.

Unfortunately, ten minutes later he had to haul his ass out to the site to deal with the truck driver that was contracted to replace the dumpsters. The man tried to refuse to have all the dumpsters replaced today. He gave some bullshit story about construction materials being a problem and overtime issues. It took an hour to get the man to remove the dumpsters and replace them. They would have been screwed if he hadn’t dumped them. They only had half of the first and second floor torn out and they desperately needed to be able to finish ripping the roof off and if they didn't have dumpsters they'd be fucked.

As soon as he was done dealing with that bullshit, he hauled his ass back to the trailer, anxious to see Rory's expression when she saw his gift. He missed her initial reaction, but the way she settled back against him and sighed contently in his arms more than made up for it. When Rory laid her arms over his, he was glad that he'd saved this for just them. There was plenty of time to butter up her brothers, so he wasn't going to stress over a missed opportunity, not when Rory felt so damn good in his arms.

"What does it do?" she asked in a reverent whisper that had him smiling.

"The machine?" he asked, ducking his head to press a kiss against her jaw.

"Mmmhmm," she said as she absently tilted her head to the side in silent demand for more, which he was more than happy to give her.

He pressed another kiss against her jaw before he slowly ran his lips up to her ear and pressed a kiss just below it. "It makes hot chocolate even creamier."

"Are you sure?" she asked, sounding hopeful.

"Very sure," he said, pressing a kiss just below her jaw.

"And this is for me?" she asked slowly, cautiously.

"Mmmhmm," he said, pressing another kiss against her neck. "It's for you," he said, loving the way she felt in his arms. Hell, he could happily hold her for the rest of his life and never grow tired of it.

"Why?" she whispered, tilting her head back and to the side so that she could look up at him as he answered.

"Why what?" he murmured distractedly as he leaned down and brushed his lips against hers, unable to help himself.

"Why did you get that for me?" she asked quietly, following his lips as he started to make a slow retreat, but once he felt her lips touch his, he stopped moving back and simply enjoyed the way her lips teased his.

"I can take it back if you don't like it," he teased, his lips twitching against hers when she let out a cute little growl.

"Lay one finger on it and they'll never find your body," she swore against his lips and even though she sighed softly in pleasure, he knew that she meant it.

"Does that mean that you don't want me to show you how to use it?" he asked, leaning in for another kiss when he suddenly found his arms empty.

When he spotted her standing in front of the machine, gesturing impatiently for him to get on with it, he couldn't help but chuckle. How could such a sexy woman be so damn cute? he wondered as he dutifully walked over to get the little addict her next fix, pausing only long enough to press a quick kiss against her lips that earned a gagging sound from her assistant.

Rory didn't seem to notice. The woman was too focused on her cocoa machine, barely able to stop herself from fidgeting as she ran her greedy little eyes over the machine. Since she seemed too distracted at the moment to handle her assistant, he decided to give her a hand.

"Ow!" Jacob whined when the small canister of Belgian cocoa powder bounced off his head.

Connor couldn't help but shake his head in disgust as he started the machine, pausing only long enough to steal another kiss from Rory. As she returned the kiss he wondered if she was even aware of how quickly they'd settled into this level of intimacy. Kissing her felt like the most natural thing in the world to do and he wondered if it was the same for her.

"Cocoa," she murmured against his lips, making him chuckle.

After pressing one last kiss against her lips, he gave into the addict's demands and showed her how to use the machine. He didn't miss the way her assistant watched his every move and shot him murderous glares each and every time he touched Rory. It wasn't too hard to figure out that the man was in love with Rory.

Not that he could blame him. He didn't. But, that didn't mean that he was going to step back and let the man have a shot at Rory. Oh hell no, that shit wasn't happening. He was not about to step back, even though he wasn't really dating Rory, and give some prick who'd already proved that he couldn't protect Rory a chance to hurt her. Wasn't happening and the sooner the man realized that, the better.

"Is it done yet?" Rory asked, shifting from foot to foot as she tried to keep herself from reaching out and snatching up the large tan coffee cup as the flow of hot cocoa slowed down to a drip.

He reached out and picked the cup up, afraid that she'd burn herself, and gestured towards her office. "You can attack it in there while we go over some paperwork," he said, smiling when she pouted. When she reached out for it, almost as if she couldn't help herself, he raised the cup higher and moved to step around her.

Rory being Rory, of course tried to reach up and take it away from him, but he simply shook his head and sighed as he raised it higher and moved past her. He didn't bother to look back to make sure that she was following him since he knew that the little addict wasn't about to let the cocoa out of her sight. As he stepped around her desk he placed her mug of cocoa down and sat in her chair.

His ass barely touched the chair when Rory was climbing onto his lap, sitting sideways as she picked up her mug of cocoa and took a slow sip as she settled against him. As he put his arm around her and gently cupped her hip, he couldn't help but wonder if she even realized how comfortable she was around him. Considering their history, the woman should be a nervous wreck whenever he was within a fifty foot radius of her. Then again, Rory James never reacted the way he expected her to, he thought with a smile as he leaned in and pressed a kiss against her neck, chuckling when she let out a little moan of pleasure.

"That good, huh?" he asked, keeping his hand on her hip as he leaned forward, careful not to disturb her, and opened the manila folder that McGill sent over earlier.

When Rory settled herself more comfortably on his lap and threw her injured arm around his shoulders so that she could turn slightly and look over the files with him, he had to force his mind away from how good it felt to have her here like this with him. Granted, she was only doing this because he was blackmailing her, but that was just a minor detail and he chose to ignore it.

"Did you see this?" she asked, pausing mid-sip to nod in the direction of the file.

"No, I didn't get a chance to look at it yet," he said, pulling the file to the edge of the desk so that they could both get a better look and when he saw McGill's new request he forced himself to go back and read it again, sure that he was mistaken. "Are you fucking kidding me?"

"He wants us to rearrange the entire wine cellar again and-"

"Turn the subbasement room that you fell down into another storage room for wine," Connor finished for her, letting out a frustrated breath as he sat back in his chair.

"That's going to make things a little more difficult," Rory grumbled, taking another long sip of her cocoa.

"Just a little," he said, dryly, mentally calculating the time and cost this addition just added to the project. The materials would be covered by McGill, but this new request could kill this project.

"We're going to have to go overboard on the overtime just to meet the deadline," Rory said, worrying her bottom lip as she placed her mug, which he didn't need to check to know it was empty, on the desk.

With all the other things that needed to be done in under five months that was an understatement. Even with all the men their companies employed, they were already going to have to bust their asses to make that deadline. He already figured the amount of overtime that his company could afford on a weekly basis that would allow them to finish this project and not suffer a loss. With this added little project they'd be lucky to break even. They'd get paid more, that wasn't the problem. The problem was labor. That was if they managed to make the deadline.

If they missed the deadline.......

Hell, he didn't even want to think about that. They both had so much invested in this project. Not only would they lose the bonus, but they'd also lose their reputations. The only thing that would save his company's ass would be his plan to steal the James brothers. Even though he planned on running Rory out of business, he didn't want to do it this way.

If this project bankrupted her, she'd lose everything including her house and he wasn't about to let that happen. She'd probably hate him for the rest of her life once this project was over and her brothers left her to come work for him, but that didn't mean that he wanted her out of his life completely. Christ, he didn't even want to think about going a day without seeing her. He still planned on having her come work for him, but it wouldn't be the same if it was because she'd lost everything. There would also be no guarantee that she would come work for him or even stay in town if that happened.

That meant that he was going to have to figure out a way to finish this project so that they didn't end up losing everything they had and unfortunately for Rory, he knew exactly how to do it. She was going to argue it, but in the end she would see that this was the only way.

"We're not going to make the deadline with this new addition," he explained slowly, trying to figure out the best way to break the news to her.

"If you have any suggestions, I'm all ears," she said with a sigh as she removed her arm from around his neck, picked up the file and stood up. He almost stopped her, but decided that space would probably be for the best right now.

He waited a minute before he decided to just get it over with. "Rory?"

"Hmm?" she said, absently, never taking her eyes away from the file as she paced the length of the office.

"We're going to have to postpone building your suites," he explained, knowing that was the only way that they were going to cut back on overtime and supplies and be able to meet the deadline with the new project.

She paused mid-stride to shoot him a frown. "What are you talking about?"

"Your suites, Rory. They're going to have to wait until after we finish this project," he explained once again, getting to his feet. "We can't spare the men or equipment right now. Once we get the manor done, we'll complete the suites, Rory," he explained, knowing that it was going to cause a problem, but not really caring. They needed to finish this project and he knew that Rory would be understandably upset, but she'd pull it together and they'd focus on the manor. Once that was done they'd turn their attention to her project. He hated doing this to her, but there really was no other way.

"Let me get this straight," she said, tossing the file on the desk. "You want me to wait until after all the renovations are done to build my suites?"

"It's the only way that we're going to get this project done, Rory," he explained, again.

She met his gaze head on as she said, "No, it's not."