Checkmate

"Ow! Goddammit, leave my nipple alone!" he snapped, barely resisting the urge to rub it. The damn woman fought dirty, but then again that's what he liked about her, he realized with a smile. Rory James always managed to keep him on his toes and kept it interesting. It was a rather nice quality in an enemy.

* * * *

"Why did you do it?" she demanded as she yanked back the curtain.

"What in the hell is wrong with you?" Co

The man had a very delicious backside and she was tempted to pull the curtain back to get another glimpse, but she needed to focus.

"Answer the damn question," she demanded, waiting impatiently for him to finish his shower.

"How did you get in my house?" Co

Co

She impatiently waved that off as if it were a given. "Just answer the damn question."

"Couldn't this have waited until we got to work?" Co

Oh, this was so wrong.

She was not attracted to the bastard. Okay, so that was a lie. The man was incredibly good looking and he knew it. Normally her attraction for him was easy to ignore since her hatred of him usually overshadowed the rather frightening attraction. Since he'd been taking care of her and been nice to her, she'd been having some difficulty ignoring how handsome he was or how much she liked his body and his smile.

That was the reason she was here. She needed to confront him and find out what sick and twisted thing could make him do it. As soon as he admitted that he'd taken care of her to screw with her head, she'd be able to go back to loathing him so completely that she'd be unable to notice how hot he was or how much she craved his touch. Then of course, she'd kick his ass for making her think of him with anything other than revulsion.

"No," she said firmly as she moved to block the doorway and his escape, but then rethought the plan since it would most likely result in touching. So she marched into his room. Once she'd put some space between them she motioned for him to get on with his answer.

With a sigh, he closed the bathroom door and locked it, leaving her fuming. "That lock won't keep me out you know!" she said loudly even as she had to admit to herself that the likelihood of her breaking into the bathroom a second time while he was naked was very unlikely. She needed to keep her wits about her and checking out his ass no matter how yummy it was, wouldn't help her do that.

"You going to tell me what has your panties in a twist?" Co

"You going to tell me why the hell you took care of me?" she snapped back, ignoring the panties comment since she knew that she wasn't overreacting. The man was up to something and she wasn't leaving until she figured it out.

"I think," Co

"Because I was fine," she said, waving off the comment in hopes that the man would just focus and answer her damn question so that she could go back to hating everything about him.

"Fine?" he repeated in disbelief, shaking his head as if he couldn't quite believe what she just said. "You weren't fine, Rory."

"Of course I was," she lied, but the truth was, she was grateful for Co

If she needed her car fixed, help moving, or a million other things she wouldn't have hesitated in asking her brothers for help, but nursemaids her brothers definitely were not. They wouldn't have the first clue as to how to take care of her.

It wasn't their fault. That's how they were raised after all. Each and every one of them was self-reliant. They learned early on how to take care of their own scraped knees and how to threaten the monster hiding in their closets with baseball bats. Their father made damn sure that they could take care of themselves and would never need or expect a handout from anyone. They knew how to manage their money, pay their bills, cook, clean and work with their hands.

She knew that if she'd asked her brothers they would have tried to help. Actually, if she'd asked her brothers they would have rushed her to the hospital, thinking that she was dying or something. No one in the James family asked for help when they were sick or hurt. It just wasn't done, which made what Co

No one had ever taken care of her before. It made her feel uncomfortable. She owed him and she hated that almost as much as she hated the fact that she liked being in his arms. It was u

He walked towards her, not stopping until they were practically chest to chest, but she didn't back down. She never would and he knew it.

"Fine?" he asked, looking down at her as if she were crazy. "You had a concussion, five bruised ribs and you broke your goddamn arm, Rory. You weren't fine and you sure as hell shouldn't have been left to fend for yourself," he snapped, sounding truly angry, which only confused her more.

"Why do you care?" she asked, propping her hands on her hips as she did her best to out glare the bastard.

"I don't," he snapped. "But I am seriously considering beating the shit out of your brothers for leaving you alone the other night. What were they thinking?"

"Well, they-" she started to defend them, but the man apparently wasn't done yet.

"You shouldn't have been left alone, Rory. They should have made sure that you had your pills and that you were okay!"

"They called several-"

"That wasn't enough!" he snapped, getting in her face and backing her up. She was so stu

"Instead of coming over here and getting pissed at me for something your family should have done, why don't you try saying thank you, huh?" he demanded as he got right in her face and before she could tell him to back off or come to her brothers' defense his mouth was on hers, hard and demanding and god help her but she didn't want him to stop.

But he did.

Before she could do something stupid like kiss him back or wrap her arms around his neck he was pulling away, jaw clenched and he looked even more pissed than before. Without a word and before she could think beyond what just happened, he grabbed her by her shoulders and steered her out of his room and onto his patio where the cool morning air brought her to her senses.

"Thank you!" she snapped, irritated with him and pissed at herself because coming over here hadn't helped one damn bit. Instead of clearing her head of him all she wanted to do was go right back in there and kiss the bastard. That was wrong, so very, very wrong.