Double Dare (Neighbor from Hell 6)

“Nice try,” she said with a sad shake of her head as she walked past him and went inside. She opened her door and stepped inside her apartment, already deciding that she was going to make the bastard run out and get her a pint of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream before she allowed him to crawl in bed with her tonight.

“Did you change your mind about dinner tomorrow night?” he asked, still standing in the small foyer when he really should be finding a pen and paper so that he could take down her ice cream order.

“I was planning on making lasagna tomorrow night,” she said, mostly to distract him, but to her surprise, the promise of food didn’t seem to interest him.

“So that’s a no then?” he asked with a curious tilt of his head.

“No, that’s an offer to make you a home cooked meal, watch a bad horror movie followed by a night of sex,” she reminded him.

“Sorry, I can’t do that,” he said with a shrug, instantly putting her on guard, because she knew him well enough to know that look of determination on his face meant that he was up to something, something that she was not going to like.

“Can’t do what?” she cautiously asked.

He sighed heavily. “I can’t let you treat me like a whore anymore,” he announced with typical Bradford flourish, making her roll her eyes.

“Treat you like a whore? Really?” she asked dryly with a sad shake of her head, because really, only a Bradford would turn himself into a martyr over sex.

“You know damn well that you’ve been treating me like a dirty, disgusting whore,” he said accusingly with a glare. “Well, I won’t have it anymore! Do you hear me, woman? I will no longer be subjected to sliding inside your incredibly delicious body unless you start acknowledging our love!”

“Meaning?” she asked with a sigh, knowing that he would eventually get to the point.

“Meaning that I will no longer allow you to have your dirty way with me anymore.”

“Y-you’re ending this?” she asked, struggling to remain calm as her heart beat furiously in her chest.

She knew that she was going to have to end this one day for both their sakes, but she wasn’t ready, not yet. She just needed a little more time before she had to give him up.

He snorted at that with a shake of his head. “Like I’d let you get away that easily.”

“Then what are you doing?” she asked, wondering if she had any beer in the fridge, because she was pretty sure that she was going to need a drink after this conversation.

Possibly two.

“What am I doing?” he asked, his lips kicking up into a sensual smile as he moved closer to her until there was barely an inch of space between them. “I’m giving you the ultimate double dare,” he said as he leaned down and brushed his lips tenderly against hers.

“And what’s that?” she asked suspiciously, watching his every move as he stood up and stepped back.

“To marry me.”

*-*-*-*

Perhaps he should have found a better way to do this? he thought as Marybeth’s shocked expression quickly shifted to disbelief.

“You can’t be serious!”

“Yet, I am,” he said, enjoying her distress probably more than he should.

“I’m not marrying you!” she shouted with a panicked expression, but that was understandable under the circumstances. He had sprung this on her out of the blue after all.

Then again, it was more warning than most women received from the men in his family.

“Yes,” he said, leaning down and brushed his lips against her stunned ones simply because he couldn’t help himself, “you are.”

“We’re not even dating!” she sputtered, sounding a bit hysterical.

“We are now,” he said with one last kiss and a wink as he stepped away, deciding that she probably needed a minute to process all of this.

“No, we’re not! We’re just having sex!” she pointed out almost desperately, making him sigh.

She was so damn cute when she was on the verge of going for his balls, he thought with a smile, which by the looks of the glare that she was suddenly sending his way, she didn’t appreciate. He decided that it would probably be for the best if he clarified a few things for her.

“We’ll be married by the end of the year, guaranteed,” he said, deciding not to prolong this explanation when she opened her mouth to cut him off and most likely tell him to go to hell. “But first, we are going to date, which means that all this bullshit about keeping what’s going on between us a secret ends now.”

“And if I don’t agree to this?” she asked with a stubborn glint in her eye as she crossed her arms over her chest and tried her best to stare him down, which was just fucking sad.

“Well,” he said, leaning back down to brush his lips against hers, making sure to tease her bottom lip with the tip of his tongue and nearly forgetting himself when she moaned softly before he remembered his purpose, “until you start letting everyone know just how much I mean to you, Marybeth, I’m going to keep my dirty little hands off your delectable little body.”

Chapter 13

God, would this night never end? she wondered as she glanced over her shoulder to find the manipulative bastard following her up the stairs.

“What are you doing?” she couldn’t help but ask, especially after that little declaration that he’d just delivered.

“Going to bed,” he said, looking adorably confused.

“I see,” she murmured as she pointed to the right, “then you must be lost, because your apartment is over there.”

“I sleep better with you,” he said with a shrug and a yawn that had her turning right back around and walking the rest of the way up the stairs, wondering why she hadn’t killed him yet.

“That’s really too bad, because I believe that you just decided that you’d be sleeping alone for the time being,” she said, taking some perverse satisfaction that she would get the last word on the subject tonight.

“I don’t remember saying that,” he said, sounding thoughtful as he followed her into her bedroom and started pulling off his clothes and tossing them aside.

“Then what was that little declaration downstairs?” she asked, yanking her top-drawer open and grabbed a pair of pale yellow lacy panties before slamming the door shut.

“You mean my marriage proposal?” he asked, making her right eye twitch.

“That wasn’t a proposal,” she bit out, storming off towards the bathroom, only pausing long enough to reach down and snatch up his discarded shirt.