Double Dare (Neighbor from Hell 6)

“To my room where I can die in peace,” he said, stumbling his way to the door, deciding that admitting that he was planning on spanking his beautiful wife’s ass until it was black and blue and she was unable to run away before they could settle a few things would probably bite him in the ass later.

*-*-*-*

“Move over,” Darrin said even as he flopped down on the bed and curled up behind her.

“No, get out,” she muttered pathetically, whimpering a bit at the end there.

“Make me,” he mumbled in her ear, almost sounding as exhausted as she felt as he wrapped his arm around her and pulled her closer, but she knew that was impossible.

She’d never been this exhausted before in her life and she could blame the bastard shifting behind her, trying to get comfortable, for it.

After she’d made a hasty retreat last night, for obvious reasons, she’d rushed back to the hotel, switched to a new room, hit the gift shop downstairs and loaded up on drinks, snacks and magazines before she’d rushed back upstairs, threw the locks and breathed a sigh of relief that she’d managed to get away before he could get his hands on her. Her relief was short lived though, because not even an hour later he’d been at her door demanding that he let her in so that they could “talk.”

She probably would have considered letting him in so that they could work things out if he hadn’t been snarling promises to turn her ass black and blue and make her think twice about using his love of food against him again. Deciding that it was for the best to ignore him, she settled for taking a long relaxing bath. She’d just taken her clothes off when the hotel door was thrown open and Darrin, looking angrier than she’d ever seen him before, stormed inside the room.

When he’d spotted her, he came to a halt and licked his lips as he ran hungry green eyes that promised to make up for the last month, over her. Before he could make good on that promise, and God, how she’d wanted him to do just that, Danny had been there, putting him in a chokehold and dragging him off. It had taken her a few minutes and a cold bath to help her realize that it had been for the best.

She wished that she could say that had been the end of it, but unfortunately for her and the rest of the guests at the hotel last night, that wasn’t the case. Thanks to the trio from hell, as she was now referring to Darrin, Danny and Jodi when there were drunk, she’d spent half the night chasing after them, trying to get them to go to Danny’s room and sleep it off before security, the police and for some unknown reason, a Priest could find them. The other half of the night she’d spent avoiding Darrin and his drunken need to get a few things off his chest.

Once she’d shoved them in Danny’s room and made sure that they weren’t going to stumble out and cause more problems, she’d gone back to her room, taken a shower and curled up beneath her covers, hoping for an hour of sleep before she was forced to drag her ass out of bed and go meet the rest of the Bradfords at Disney World. She’d barely managed to close her eyes when she’d heard her hotel door open and close a few seconds later.

Too exhausted to throw the bastard out, she’d closed her eyes and fallen asleep a few minutes later when she heard him turn the shower on, praying that he took his shower and left so that she could pass out in peace. Apparently her prayers would not be answered today, she thought miserably as she turned over onto her stomach with a muttered groan and weakly shoved him away.

“Why must you fight our love?” he asked as he simply followed after her, throwing his arm back around her and pulled her back.

“Because I hate you?” she said, shifting and squirming as she tried to get comfortable, but it was kind of difficult to do with two hundred and thirty pound of pure muscle plastered to her side, refusing to let her go.

“You love me,” he muttered confidently as he snuggled closer.

“No, I really don’t,” she lied, shifting to put more space between them when all she really wanted to do was to snuggle closer.

She’d missed him so much…

But this was for the best, she reminded herself as she shifted onto her side and…

Somehow found herself draped over Darrin’s lap, again.

“Seriously?” she asked with a whimper, because really, she was too tired to deal with this shit right now.

“I think it’s about time that we put an end to this bullshit, don’t you?” he asked around a loud yawn, shifting beneath her to get more comfortable and apparently that meant placing his hand on her ass.

“And you have to put your hand on my ass to do that?” she asked with an annoyed sigh as she reached over and grabbed a pillow.

“It helps me focus,” he murmured, giving her ass a gentle squeeze.

“Can we get this over with?” she asked grumpily as she hugged the pillow tight and settled in for the long haul.

“Well first,” he said with a slight pause and another squeeze of her ass, making her roll her eyes even as her lips twitched with amusement, “I thought we’d stop with the bullshit.”

“Meaning?”

“I’m done playing games, Marybeth.”

“Does that mean that you’re going to give me a divorce?” she asked weakly as her stomach turned with dread.

“No, that means that we stop playing these games and start being honest with each other,” he said softly as he ran his fingers through her hair.

“I’m not playing any games with you,” she stubbornly argued as she tried to climb off his lap and away from this conversation, but he used his hold on her ass to keep her right where she was.

“You’re not running away from this anymore, sweetheart.”

“I’m not trying to run away,” she lied, trying to do just that, because it was one thing to know that this day was coming, it was quite another to actually face it and deal with the aftermath.

Oh God, she wasn’t ready to do this…

“Why don’t we settle something before we start?” he suggested as he reached over and took her trembling hand in his. “We’re not getting a divorce, Marybeth, so stop trying to push me away. It’s not going to work. I’ve loved you since the moment that I saw you balling up your little fist and took a swing at your brother and I know that you love me too.”

“Darrin, I…,” she started to lie, but she just couldn’t do it. Not anymore. “It doesn’t matter.”

He trailed his fingers down her spine, smoothing down the tee shirt that she’d helped herself to from his bag and asked, “Do you really think that I could ever be happy with anyone else but you?”