Just like that all of her worries and fears were gone, but instead of smiling with relief, all she felt like doing was crying.
She pulled her knees up to her chest, wrapped her arms around her legs, closed her eyes and pressed her forehead against her knees, releasing a shaky breath as she tried to remind herself that everything was okay now. They were fine. Danny was home and as long as he listened to his doctors and followed through with his physical therapy then he would be fine. He’d be walking in less than a year, they’d have children and everything would be fine.
Just fine, she told herself, wishing that she could believe it, but she couldn’t. She’d never been this happy in her life and she was terrified that something was going to happen and destroy this moment. At any moment, things were going to go wrong, something would go wrong with the babies, Danny would get hurt again and her heart would break and this time, there would be no coming back from that kind of pain.
So, when she realized that she was crying, she just let go. She needed this, needed to finally let go of the pent up terror that something would happen to Danny or their babies and let go.
Chapter 11
“Do something!” he yelled, terrified out of his fucking mind as he was forced to sit there while his wife sobbed hysterically in his arms, unable to much more than shake her head or nod against his chest when they asked her a question.
“Jodi? Sweetie, can you tell us what’s wrong?” Aidan asked with a kind smile, but Danny could see it in his eyes that he was just as scared out of his fucking mind as he was.
For two hours she’d been sobbing hysterically and no matter what he said or did, she wouldn’t stop. If he told her that he loved her, kissed her or told her how excited he was to be a daddy, she would bury her face against his chest, sob harder and hold on to him tighter like she was afraid that if she didn’t he would suddenly disappear.
He’d tried to calm her down, but absolutely nothing worked so he’d called his brother, praying that they weren’t losing the babies. It would kill him to lose their babies, but it would absolutely destroy him to lose her.
“Are you in pain?” Aidan asked as he rechecked her vitals while Danny sat there, praying that the answer was no.
He nearly sagged in relief when she shook her head against his chest.
“Then what’s wrong, Tink?” he asked softly, praying that she couldn’t tell just how badly she’d scared him, because-
“Mother fucker!” he yelped with a gasp when the vicious brat grabbed his nipple and twisted it.
“You bastard!” she snapped around a loud sob as she-
“Ow!” he snapped when the vicious woman successfully grabbed his nipple for another twist, making his eyes water.
He considered setting the woman down and scooting away from her before she could go for his other nipple, but realized that the move would give her access to his poor defenseless balls. So, instead he tightened his hold around her, careful of their babies, and made sure that she couldn’t continue with her malicious attack.
“You arrogant bastard!” she yelled, but before he could ask her which one of them she was referring to, she was trying to wiggle her way off his lap, but he wasn’t having it.
Mostly because he was terrified about the damage that an extremely hormonal woman could do to his balls, he kept her exactly where she was as he shot his brother a look that said it all.
“Right,” Aidan said, clearing his throat with a firm nod as he backed up towards their bedroom door. “I’ll just leave the two of you to talk this over.”
Keeping his eyes narrowed on his wife, he waited until he heard the door click closed behind his brother before he asked, “Are you done yet?”
Stupid question.
Really stupid fucking question, he decided as she shook her head and-
“Goddamn it, woman!” he snapped, resisting the urge to let her go so that he could rub his poor abused nipple. “Stop attacking me!”
“No!” she said with a pout that he absolutely refused to find adorable, especially while his nipples throbbed from their most recent attack. “You have this coming!”
“For making you the happiest woman on earth?” he demanded in outrage, wondering for the life of him why she wasn’t on her hands and knees thanking god for her good fortune instead of maiming him.
Had to be the hormones, he told himself as he glared at the small woman in his arms. There really was no other way to explain her ungrateful behavior. She had absolutely no idea how much work and planning went into kidnapping someone, otherwise she’d start showing some goddamn appreciation!
Just thinking about all those long hours he’d spent scheming, calling in favors so that certain officials would look the other way when they saw the name Bradford on the flight lists. It had taken him a lot of time and effort to make this happen, but that didn’t seem to matter to the annoying woman trying to make another grab for his nipple.
“You kidnapped me! Drugged me! Dragged me around Vegas! Didn’t bother to wake me up for our wedding! You’ve avoided me for most of this trip, ignored my questions, pissed me off and then when I had enough of your bullshit, you kidnapped me again! Dragged me back across state lines, fed me nothing but stale junk food, and forced me to sit in a car with three Bradfords who couldn’t seem to stop arguing about which ban was whose fault, further confusing me and making me want to go for your nuts!” she finished on a rant, confirming his suspicions that she’d made plans to go for his balls as well as making him reconsider his decision to wait until later to do a junk food run, because clearly she needed sugar soon or she was going to kill someone.
Since that person was going to most likely him, he decided that perhaps now would be a good time to check out the kitchen and see if there was any chocolate that might help soothe the wild beast within his normally sane, beautiful wife.
Careful not to make any sudden movements, he wrapped his arms around her, sort of thankful that she’d stopped crying, but since she was now focused on violence he sort of wished that she’d return to the crying since he would leave his balls intact and it was probably something that he could fix with a box of donuts and a chocolate milkshake.
Christ, he could go for a chocolate milkshake and a box of donuts, he thought with a heavy sigh, wondering if his cousins had been considerate enough to leave them fully stocked, but knowing his cousins they’d probably eaten every fucking thing in the house each time his mother or one of his aunts went shopping.
Selfish fucking bastards, he thought with a grumble as he gently placed his wife on the bed next to him, reached over and grabbed hold of his wheelchair and slowly, or so very fucking slowly, shifted away from her and closer to his wheelchair, his only means of escape.
“You finally feel like talking?” his seriously pissed off wife asked in a tone that did not convey the overwhelming love and affection that she should be feeling for him. But, it did make him move his ass faster, sensing that it could end badly for him if he didn’t get out of there right now.
“Umm, sure,” he said absently as he tightened his hold on the wheelchair and used his hold to drag himself off the bed as casually as he could manage it and sat down.
“So,” Jodi said, unfortunately following him so that by the time his ass hit the chair, she was straddling him and had her arms wrapped loosely around his neck, but he was no moron.
She could turn on him at any moment.
His only hope was to get them into the kitchen and distract her with a shitload of food before she could remember that she was pissed at him and renew her vicious attack or worse, start crying again. God, please don’t let her start fucking crying. He’d take anything else, do damn near anything else if it meant that he wasn’t forced to sit there helplessly while his wife cried her heart out.
“Why don’t we talk about Vegas?” she suggested in a light tone as he felt the arms around his neck tighten slightly, but it was enough to let him know that he was going to make it out of this room alive if he didn
’t start talking.
“Sure,” he agreed casually, making his body relax as he placed his hands on the large wheels, hoping it wouldn’t tip her off to his intentions. “What would you like to talk about?” he asked as he gave the wheels an experimental push to see what she’d say, but they moved a foot and she didn’t respond, he decided to keep playing along.
“Oh, gee, I don’t know,” she said with a slight shake of her head a sigh, “maybe we could discuss the kidnapping?”
He blinked at her as he asked, “What kidnapping?” right around the time that he gave the wheels another, firmer, push towards the door and what he hoped was his salvation.
“Oh, you know the one where your father and cousin drugged me, somehow got me on a plane to Vegas, somehow managed to find someone to marry us even though I’m pretty sure that I was still unconscious at that point and then for shits and giggles you decided that it would be fun to add ignoring me to list of fun things to do to pass the time. Does that refresh your memory, hmm?” she asked with an endearing smile as she ran her fingers lovingly through his hair, but he wasn’t fooled.
Not one fucking bit.
This woman was pissed and out for blood.
His blood.