Checkmate

Everyone laughed.

He remembered standing there, cocky as hell, waiting for her to finally react like a girl and cry. Instead, she calmly put the pictures back in the box, gagged louder, and returned it to her locker. She grabbed the lunch that he and all his friends spit in, hey it was her birthday after all, and walked over to him.

Instead of crying and screaming at him or even threatening to tell her daddy and her rather large brothers about what he did, she kneed him in the balls. When he was down on the ground she forced half her lunch down his throat while his friends fell over themselves, laughing their asses off, but it had been worth it. Even the month of detention that followed couldn't take away the joy he received from that little prank.

"Mr. O'Neil? Miss James? He's ready for you."

Chapter 2

Rory sat in the padded chair, trying to hide her a

Usually these things were handled more privately. She couldn't remember ever being in the room with her competition before when the client a

It wasn't going to happen. As much as she would love to get her hands on Strawberry Fields Manor, she wasn't about to get into another embarrassing public confrontation with Co

Things probably wouldn't have gotten out of hand if their dates had just stayed out of it, but once Mary Lee decided to get in her face and Jeff took it as his cue to get into Co

She still didn't understand why the festival committee ba

Co

Her lips twitched at the memory of the last time she'd done that. Granted, it had been a week after he did it to her, but at least she hadn't been wearing pink boxers with hearts on them at a bar like a certain someone. It really had brought such joy to her and her brothers' lives as they watched guys hit on Co

"As you both know," Mr. McGill started, bringing her attention back to him, "we've had problems getting permits and the heavy rain season pushed our plans back by six months."

They both nodded.

"I know you're both probably very confused as to why I've asked Shadow Construction and Highland Construction for a joint meeting." Thankfully, he didn't leave them in suspense. "My partners and I would like Strawberry Fields Hotel up and ru

"That's five months," she blurted out before she could stop herself. Co

"Yes, it is," Mr. McGill agreed with a nod of his head. "As you know, Strawberry Fields Manor needs a bit of work." Rory just barely stopped herself from snorting her disbelief out loud.

Strawberry Fields Manor was going to need a complete overhaul. It was going to have to be completely gutted, have an electrical and plumbing overhaul. Those were just a few of the major things that needed to be fixed. She had a fifteen page list in her office of all the small problems that needed attention.

"I know this is highly unusual, but we'd like to hire both your companies to work together and finish the project," he said, shocking them both into utter stillness. She wasn't even sure she was breathing or knew how to at that moment.

He really couldn't expect the two of them to work together? Could he? They'd kill each other! The entire town knew that. Hell, there were several betting pools over who would kill who and how.

This could not be happening. As much as she'd love to work on Strawberry Fields Manor she really wasn't sure-

"If you're both able to do this and meet our deadline, you will each be paid a bonus of fifty-thousand dollars on top of the twenty percent we already decided to add to your bids," Mr. McGill a

She looked over at Co

For that kind of money she was more than willing to do a lot of unpleasant things like let the life ruining bastard live.

* * * *

Co

No doubt the little tomboy thought they were really going to work this project together. That was just sad, because really at this stage of the game she should know better.

This was his project and the sooner she figured that out the better off everyone would be. Sure, he'd keep her around for appearances' sake. She could fetch his lunch or something to make herself useful, but she would be staying away from his project. The use of her men was certainly a nice little bonus.

Even he had to admit that he hadn't been looking forward to hiring temporary workers. There wasn't time to sort through applicants right now and this project was definitely not something he wanted anyone green to work on. He needed seasoned workers and he'd reluctantly admit that Rory's crew was good. His eyes darted over to the five men, who looked torn between kicking his ass and eating their appetizers.

Having the James brothers working this project was like wi