The Game Plan (Neighbor from Hell 5)

Another kiss. “Yes, I didn’t want to wreck their trip. The bullet didn’t paralyze me, but it was close. It did a lot of damage and so did the surgeries. So anytime I go somewhere that has restrictions for back injuries I warm a bench.”

She nodded as she pressed another kiss to his chest. “That’s what I figured.” Which of course made him curious…..

“Is that why you didn’t go on any of the fun rides today?” he asked, tracing his fingers up and down her spine.

“I went on all the fun rides today,” she assured him, removing her hold on his biceps and wrapping her arms around him.

“You didn’t go on any of the rides that I couldn’t go on,” he pointed out, allowing his fingers to move further south, tracing the cleft between her cheeks.

She chuckled softly as she admitted, “I didn’t want to go on any of the rides that you couldn’t go on.”

“Because you’re in love with me?” he half-teased.

“Yes,” she said softly, taking him by surprise before she added, “That and I’m afraid of heights.”

Chapter 36

“Would you let go of me?” Danny asked with a heavy sigh.

“Will you forget what I just said?” she asked, tightening her arms around the large man that she’d just foolishly admitted to being in love with, because apparently she was incredibly stupid.

He stilled. “Did you mean it?”

She stilled. “Why do you ask?”

He sighed, trying to step back, but all he managed to do was to pull her away from the hot water since she refused to let him go. “Are you going to let me go?”

“Not until you answer me,” she said, tightening her hold as she buried her face against his chest in an attempt to save herself from further humiliation.

He sighed heavily as he leaned down and kissed the top of her head again, which she decided to take as a good sign that she hadn’t just scared him off. “I’m not in love with you, Tink, and I can’t make myself say those words to make you feel better,” he said softly, trying to soften the words with another kiss as she stood there feeling like her heart was shattering into a million pieces.

It surprised her how much hearing that he didn’t love her actually hurt. She hadn’t realized just how much she’d come to care about him until recently. Of course, the first clue should have been the fact that she’d been willing to ask for the time off, risk killing her credit card and using up the small savings she’d been able to put away over the past couple of months. She’d been working so hard to clear the debt she’d been stuck with and this trip was going to set her back a bit. She hadn’t wanted to do it, but she’d wanted to be here with him.

Of course, she also didn’t want to stand here, naked in the shower, mortified beyond words and trying to hide against his chest after she’d somehow confessed something that she was still getting used to either. How she wished that she could turn and walk away with some dignity…and clothes, clothes and dignity would be really nice right about now.

“I am however,” he said, pausing to kiss the top of her head as she stood there trying to figure a way out of this, “going to keep you.”

“Keep me?” she asked, tilting her head slightly to the side so that she look up at him as she frowned with disgust, “Like a puppy?”

Grinning, he leaned down and kissed the tip of her nose. “More like my own personal fairy,” he teased.

Glaring, she opened her mouth to tell him that she wasn’t a freaking fairy when he cut her off with another kiss on the tip of her nose and continued, “I’m not in love with you,” he said, apparently deciding that repeating that fun fact was the best way to continue this conversation, “but I am planning on spending the rest of my life with you, Tinkerbelle.”

“Wait. What?” she said, blinking up at him, sure that somewhere in there he’d said something that had made sense.

“I might not be in love with you, Tinkerbelle, but I do know that I want to spend the rest of my life with you,” he said, smiling down at her. “You are the best part of my day, Tink. You make me feel whole and happy and when I’m not with you, I’m thinking about you. I’m not in love with you, but I know that I can’t live without you.”

She opened her mouth to…..well, she wasn’t sure what she was about to say, because at the moment she was having a difficult time in trying to figure out what he’d just said. He didn’t love her, but he felt the same exact way about her that she felt about him. The only difference? She knew that it was love.

And she knew that he loved her.

Smiling, she dropped her arms away and stepped back only to release an embarrassingly high squeal when Danny grabbed her, turned her around and pushed her up against the wall. “Now, while I’ve got your attention, why don’t I tell you about my game plan?”

*-*-*-*

“Game plan?” she asked, trying to turn around, but he stopped her with a kiss to her shoulder and a hand.

“Mmmhmm,” he murmured, kissing her neck as he ran his fingertips down her arms. When he reached her hands, he wrapped his hands around hers, raised them and pressed them against the wall above her head.

“What exactly is this game plan for?” she asked, licking her lips anxiously as she looked over her shoulder.

He leaned down and kissed her. “For you.”

“For me?” she asked against his lips.

“For you,” he said with a nod as he pulled away just far enough so that he could kiss her chin.

“Are you going to tell me about this game plan of yours?” she asked, sounding a little breathless as he kissed his way across her jaw.

“In detail,” he promised as he kissed his way down to her shoulder. “The first part of my plan is very simple.”

“Oh, and what is it?” she asked, closing her eyes and licking her lips as he traced the tips of his fingers back down her arms.

“Well, first,” he said, pausing long enough to lick a drop of water off her shoulder, “I thought we’d start off by answering a question that’s been bothering me for a while.”

“What’s that?” she asked, sighing when he continued to run his fingertips over her shoulders and down her sides.

He cupped her hips as he leaned in until his mouth was close to her ear. “What feels better, fucking you with my fingers or my tongue.”