She rolled her eyes.
She really couldn’t help it.
“Just keep it rated G when we’re around my family and children. I know how you get carried away when you touch me,” he said, sounding completely serious.
“Yeah, it’s a real struggle,” she said dryly, trying to pull her hand free as he continued to paw her ass.
“I know,” he said with a patronizing ass rub, “I know.”
Her lips twitched even as she rolled her eyes and gave up trying to pull her arm free. Sighing, she reached over and grabbed a pillow with her free hand and decided to get more comfortable since she knew from experience that she could be here for a while. He’d used this same method with her to get her to agree to attend prom with him.
“I realize that we had a bit of a rough start to this marriage, but-”
She snorted at that. “You mean when you gave me an ultimatum, leaving me with no choice but to marry you?”
“Well-”
“And even after I agreed to marry you, you refused to listen to a word that I said. Instead, you dragged me across state lines, made the Justice of the Peace cry before you dragged me back across state lines all while giving me the silent treatment only to drop me off at my door without a word and pretend that I didn’t exist for the past three weeks? You mean that rough start?” she asked with a mocking sweetness that any Bradford could appreciate.
He released a long-suffering sigh, letting her know that it was going be a long afternoon and making her regret passing up on that extra bag of nuts the stewardess had offered her on the plane.
“I was giving you some time to come to terms with the honor that I’ve bestowed upon you.”
“By being an asshole?” she asked, pulling her arm free when she felt him release her hand and used it to snuggle her pillow as she waited for him to get to his point and let her go so that she could go for his balls.
“I didn’t want you to get overwhelmed by your good fortune.”
“By being forced to get married?” she pointedly asked as he continued to rub her ass and back, which she’d have to admit was nice after spending the past three weeks missing him.
“That’s not how I remember it,” he said absently as he ran his hand over her back in a soothing caress that had her closing her eyes and savoring his touch.
“And how exactly do you remember it?” she managed to ask on a soft moan as he ran his hand down between her shoulder blades.
“That you were so overset with joy that you couldn’t contain yourself,” he said dryly and if he had been anyone else, she probably would have rolled over and punched the jerk for what he’d done.
Instead, she settled for enjoying his touch, that is until he ruined everything by reminding her that she loved him too much to do this to him.
“I’m sorry about the last three weeks, sweetheart. I know I fucked this up. I love you, Marybeth, and I don’t need children to make me happy, not as long as I have you.”
Chapter 24
“What the fuck just happened?” he asked, staring at their hotel door as he struggled to figure how he’d ended up here.
One minute he’d been apologizing for fucking up and telling her how much she meant to him and the next…
She’d somehow managed to shove him off the bed, drag him to the door by his ear and shove him out the door before he could stop her.
“Are you okay, sir?” a man asked, drawing his attention to large man with pepper black hair and sun kissed skin, wearing a blue blazer and an earpiece.
“Yeah, I’m..,” he said in a daze, gesturing lazily to the door as he shook his head, having absolutely no idea how to explain what just happened. “I told her that I was sorry and that I loved her and she...she kicked me out. She just kicked me out…”
Frowning, the security guard joined him in staring at the door. “Did you mean it?”
“What?” he asked distractedly, wondering if he should go back in there and demand that she profess her undying love for him or if he should go hunt down a pint of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream and shove it at the temperamental woman.
“The apology. Did you make sure that you meant it?” the security guard asked, gesturing towards the door.
“Of course,” he said, only to purse his lips up in thought as he thought it over. He was sorry that he’d been an asshole for the last three weeks, but he wasn’t sorry for marrying her. He could never regret that.
“Then you might want to get her some flowers or chocolate,” the security officer murmured thoughtfully.
“Probably,” he agreed with a sigh, wondering if the downstairs gift shop sold Hershey Kisses by the pound since it was probably going to take about twenty pounds of chocolate to make the stubborn woman listen to reason.
Then again, she had seemed pretty pissed at the end there when she’d been throwing him out…
“I think it might be for the best if I gave her a night to think things over,” he said, shooting the door one last glance before he turned around, gave the security guard a nod of thanks and headed downstairs to the lobby where he knew an extra key to his brother’s room could be found waiting at the front desk for him or any Bradford that needed it.
Having an extra key kept at the front desk for their siblings and cousins was a habit that they’d learned from their father and uncles. Family always came first. They’d learned early on to make damn sure that they gave help when it was needed and it was damn well needed now.
Ten minutes later he was standing outside his brother’s door, knocking on the door and wondering how he was going to explain this. He could probably just tell his brother the truth, that he’d fucked up and needed another night to figure things out, but then he’d have to explain everything else and he really wasn’t in the mood to get into it tonight.
When he didn’t hear a response, he figured that his brother was either taking a nap or out. He opened the door, praying that Danny didn’t decide to play twenty questions, and walked inside.
“Hey, roomie, I-Oh, shit!” he said, ending with a surprised shout when he walked into the room and quickly turned around, desperately trying to purge the image of his brother getting a blowjob out of his mind even as he cringed when Jodi released a startled scream.
“Are you out of your fucking mind?” Danny demanded as Darrin prepared himself for the ass whooping that he definitely had coming to him, because he sure as hell would beat the shit out of any man that walked in on him and Marybeth.