"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 stunned by his outburst that she didn't even realize what happened until her back hit the wall and he was caging her in.

"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.

"You're welcome!" he snapped back before slamming the sliding glass door shut and irritating her even more. Would it really kill him to let her have the last word, she wondered as she made her way back to her patio.

"Stupid, toe curling kissing bastard," she grumbled as she marched into her room, slamming the sliding glass door shut behind her with her broken hand, which of course started a five minute owie dance and a mad search for her bottle of pain killers. By the time she popped a pill into her mouth she was no closer to figuring out what Connor was up to than she had been when she stormed over there. One way or the other she would figure out what he was up to and then she would put an end to it.

Chapter 13

"Why the hell did I kiss her?" Connor muttered as he leaned back against his truck.

Bunny barked his answer, tapering it off with a growl of disapproval.

He sighed heavily even as he nodded his agreement. "Exactly. Woman f**k with your head, buddy. Remember that," he told the dog who'd given up his search for the perfect spot to mark five minutes ago when Connor walked out of his house to make sure that Connor didn't harass his master, or rather his "mommy" since he'd heard the frustrating woman refer to herself several times.

"It was a dumb move," he felt compelled to say as he scrubbed his hands over his face, wishing like hell that he could take the kiss back almost as much as he wished he'd never let her go.

There was no denying that he wanted the woman, had since he first hit puberty, but he'd always known that there would never be anything between them. This strange relationship of theirs pretty much guaranteed that. Even knowing that there would never be anything between them hadn't stopped him from thinking about her over the years.

There probably weren't many men in town that hadn't fantasized about taking Rory James to bed. She was a beautiful, desirable, sexy woman and he would have been concerned if he hadn't been attracted to her. It didn't matter how badly he wanted her, there would never be anything between them. There was just too much history and animosity between them to take things further, but apparently that hadn't stopped him from doing something incredibly stupid like kissing her.

One minute he wanted to take her over his knee and the next he wanted her in his bed and before he could stop himself, he’d kissed her. He'd never been a big fan of kissing before, it was one of those things he did to get a woman to spread, but with Rory he could have happily kissed her all day. Her lips were warm, soft, full and felt so damn good against his that it had taken everything he had not to tilt his head and deepen the kiss. He wanted to do that and more, but he knew that she would never let it happen. Rory James didn't want him and the knowledge had knocked some sense into him. It also hadn't hurt that she made no moves to touch or kiss him back.

She was probably going to kick him in the balls for that little mistake the next time she saw him which would probably be any minute now, he thought as he glanced down at his watch. It was almost six in the morning and if they didn't haul ass they'd be late for work. Maybe he should do his poor balls a favor and let her fend for herself, but just as quickly as the thought flashed through his head he shoved it away. Her arm was broken and she really had no business driving.

His eyes shifted to her Jeep and he considered yanking a few cables out of the engine to take the choice out of her hands, but knowing Rory, she probably had some backups in the garage somewhere. Then again, she might have called for one of her brothers to pick her up, he realized as he shot a look down both ends of the quiet street. When he didn't spot anything he settled back against his truck door and waited.

A few minutes later Rory came walking out of her house with a backpack slung over her left shoulder and a large metal thermos that was no doubt filled to the brim with hot chocolate in her good hand. When she spotted him leaning against his truck she noticeably startled. Was that a blush creeping up her beautiful face? It was kind of hard to tell in the early morning light, but he was pretty sure that it was a blush.

Great, he thought dryly. She was embarrassed about what happened. Nothing like the woman who hated you finding out that you were attracted to her. He'd been an idiot to think that she'd kick him in the balls, although she still might. She was probably going to use her newfound knowledge to bring him to his knees and make him wish that she'd just taken it out on his balls. He really was a f**king idiot, he decided as he walked over to her.

"What do you want?" she asked cautiously as she continued to make her way over to her Jeep.

With a sigh, he gestured to his truck. "I'm driving you to work this morning."

She shook her head stubbornly. "No need. As you can see I got my Jeep back," she said, giving him a pointed look. "Turns out that there was a glitch in the records."

He simply shrugged it off. "You can't drive with a broken arm, Rory," he pointed out.

"I'm pretty sure that I can," the stubborn woman said.

Connor prayed for patience as he stopped himself from grabbing the woman and tossing her over his shoulder and throwing her ass in the back of his truck. "You just broke your arm, Rory. It probably still hurts, which means that you probably took a pain killer and you shouldn't be driving," he explained with forced patience.

Rory paused a few feet away from her Jeep, pursing her lips up as she thought it over. Finally with a heavy sigh she nodded. "I'll call one of my brothers for a ride," she said, placing the thermos on the hood of her Jeep so that she could dig around in her bag for her cell phone.

"No need," he said, snatching up her thermos and headed for his truck, knowing that's all it would take to get the woman to follow and sure enough she did.

"Hey! Give that back!" she snapped as she followed him, but of course he ignored her as he walked around the truck and opened the passenger door for her.

"Get in or I drink it," he promised.

With a glare, she snatched the thermos out of his hand and climbed in. When he went to help her with her seatbelt she slapped his hands away. He let it go since she hadn't rubbed the kiss in his face yet and quickly made his way around the truck and climbed in.

She didn't say anything as he started the truck or backed it out of the long driveway. Maybe the kiss didn't mean anything to her and she'd already forgotten about it, he half-hoped/half-inwardly cringed as he drove towards the site. Then again, maybe she was just waiting until her brothers were around so that they could get in a good laugh at his expense. He opened his mouth to ask her about it, but snapped his mouth shut. If she was willing to pretend that it never happened then so was he.

"Can I ask you something?" she said, destroying all his hopes that she'd forgotten about his little act of stupidity.

"No."