“Yes,” he said, deciding that if she was done playing games then so was he. “What I don’t know is why you lied.”

“I didn’t want you to get upset,” she said, shocking him into stunned silence.

“Upset? I’m going to f**king kill him!” he shouted, wondering if he’d ever really known Rory. Up until today he would have sworn that he knew her better than he knew himself. He never thought that she would do this to him.

She opened her eyes to frown up at him. “Kill who?”

“Oh, don’t play this f**king game with me now, Rory,” he said, somehow stopping himself from demanding the name of the bastard. He would find out, but later. Right now he needed to let Rory know that he was done with her. It was over and he was the one that ended it.

“Are you serious?” she asked, laughing without humor. “You tied me up, you jackass!”

“And you f**king cheated on me!” he shouted, regretting the loss of control as soon as the words left his mouth. He was a f**king idiot.

“You think I cheated on you?” she asked, sounding hurt, which he had to admit was a nice touch.

“Yes!” he snapped, hating her even more for trying to bullshit her way out of it once she got caught.

“Oh my God, you’re an idiot,” she mumbled, shaking her head in disgust. “I didn’t cheat on you, you jerk!”

“Bullshit!”

“It’s the truth!”

“If you didn’t cheat on me then why were you shacked up in a hotel room for the last three days with another man?” he shouted, moving closer to the bed until he found himself climbing on it and over her so that he could glare down at her, needing to look into her eyes as she lied to him.

He had to admit that she looked really pissed off as she glared right back up at him. “Because I was recovering from donating bone marrow!”

His automatic response was to open his mouth and call her a liar, but her words stopped him. “What?”

“I was recovering from donating my bone marrow, you jackass! If you don’t believe me then you can call my doctor or look at the bruise on my ass!” she snapped, sounding really pissed.

“Then who was the guy that was spotted going into your hotel room?” he demanded.

“Bryce! Someone from the hospital called him to check on me and he put two and two together and hunted me down. He helped me out the first day and checked up on me, making sure that I had food and that I was okay,” she snapped and he knew, just knew that if she was loose that she would be going for his balls, but he really couldn’t care less.

He was too damn happy to care.

“You didn’t cheat on me?” he asked, knowing that there were a few other things that she said that were important, but he could give a damn about them at the moment.

“No!”

“Oh thank f**king God,” he said, sighing with relief as he leaned down to kiss her only to get her cheek instead of those lips that he’d missed.

“Get off me, Connor,” she said evenly.

Oh he knew he f**ked up, but he was just as stubborn as she was and he wasn’t about to back down, not when there was a good possibility that he might lose her. Nope, the best defense here was definitely going on the offense.

“I forgive you, Rory,” he said, making damn sure to sound putout as he leaned down again to get that kiss that she owed him.

This time she was too stunned to move so he got his kiss. Granted, he would have preferred her lips a little softer and perhaps a little more responsive, but he’d take what he could get right now.

Wow, had he f**ked up big time……

Not that he was going to admit it, because he wasn’t. Her father had been right. If he admitted that he’d f**ked up then Rory would just focus on that and the fact that she had every right to be pissed at him and dump his ass for being such a moron. Since that wouldn’t work for him, he decided that f**king with her head until she apologized to him was definitely the way to go.

“Forgive me?” she repeated in a tone that really didn't bode well for his plan so he kissed her again.

“Yes, I forgive you, Rory,” he said against her lips, but the stubborn woman refused to respond.

“For having a needle shoved into my hip to save your friend?” she asked, obviously clarifying what she needed his forgiveness for.

“Yes,” he said, deciding that perhaps she needed to be distracted so he kissed his way down to her throat.

She choked out a laugh as he kissed her neck. “You can’t be serious!”

Oh, but he was. Damn serious. He raised his head to glare down at the woman who really did deserve a spanking. “You lied to me. No one knew where you were. Do you have any idea how scared I was that something happened to you?”

He expected her to shout at him, but instead her features softened as she looked up at him. “I’m sorry that I lied to you, Connor.”

“Why did you do it, Rory?” he asked, his tone softening as he finally allowed himself to think about what she’d done.

She’d saved his best friend’s life. Lied to do it and did it all alone. From what the doctors said, the procedure could be difficult and a bit painful. Unfortunately for people like Andrew, not a lot of people volunteered to donate because of that. The discomfort usually came after the procedure when the medicine wore off. He hoped that she hadn’t been in too much pain. He hated the thought of her being hurt and not being there for her.

“I didn’t want you to hate me if it didn’t work, Connor,” she admitted quietly.

Connor sighed as he moved to lie down on his side, facing her and placed his hand on her bare stomach as he said, “That is the dumbest f**king thing that you have ever said.”

Her eyes narrowed to slits on him as she gave her restraints another tug. “As soon as I get out of this, your ni**les are mine!”

“Not really giving me a reason to let you go, now are you?” he mused as absently ran his hand over her stomach.

“I hate you,” she muttered, but he knew that she was lying. She wouldn’t have gone through such great lengths to protect him and make sure that he didn’t hate her if she wasn't in love him. This woman loved him and he wasn’t letting her go until she admitted it.

“No, you don’t,” he said with a shrug.

“Yeah, I really do. So, since you decided to call off the engagement then we’re over so let me go, Connor,” she bit out, once again looking pissed, which wasn’t really working for him.

“I have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about,” he said as his focus shifted to her very na**d body. Now that his anger was gone, he took it all in and what he saw had his dick hard enough to cut through diamonds, his breaths coming faster and his body breaking out in a sweat.

Before Rory, sex was just that, sex. It was something he did to get off and get his mind off of things for a while. Since they started ha**ng s*x his interest in all things sexual had grown. They’d experimented a lot, but he’d never tied her up, never did anything like this and right now he couldn’t help but imagine what it would be like to take Rory this way. Not that she’d ever go for it. Rory liked to be an active participant and would hate giving up any type of control.

“You took my ring back! Tied me up and acted all pissy!” she snapped, clearly hell bent on rehashing something that really should be done and over with by now. He’d forgiven her, hadn’t he?

“The ring’s yours and we’re getting married in less than a month so stop trying to get out if it,” he said as he teasingly skimmed his fingertips over her stomach and between her br**sts, mesmerized by the movement and the way goose bumps suddenly covered her skin.

“Okay, good. That’s settled then,” she said, her breaths coming faster. “Then you can just go ahead and let me go and we’ll um, we’ll forget this whole thing.”

“Then you apologize?” he asked as he ran his fingertips between her large br**sts, watching as her ni**les hardened.

“Yes!” she damn near shouted.

“I see,” he murmured, sitting up so that he could lean over and press a kiss against her stomach.