“Yeah, you have fun with that,” he said, cutting his brother off. “I’m going to go spend the night with my incredibly hot girlfriend.”
“But-”
He closed the door on his brother’s face and threw the lock with a satisfied sigh that ended on a groan when he turned around to find Tinkerbelle stumbling around the room, yanking on her clothes.
“What are you doing?” he asked after a minute of watching her wrestle with her pants.
“Getting dressed,” she said with a grunt as she yanked her socks on.
“I can see that,” he murmured. “Why exactly are you getting dressed?”
“Because I’m going home,” she said, roughly pulling on her shirt.
“I see……”
“I’m sorry to have to do this, but we’re gonna have to break up,” she said, sighing heavily as she grabbed her bag and with a groan, picked it up and placed it on the edge of the bed.
“Why exactly are we breaking up?” he asked with a frown as he folded his arms over his chest and leaned back to watch as Jodi continued to stumble around the room, grabbing her stuff and shoving it in her bag.
The glare she sent him was just so damn cute, he decided, biting back a smile that would probably get his balls kicked in. “Because he saw us!”
“Darrin?”
“Yes!” she hissed, dropping to her knees to crawl on the floor, frantically looking under the bed and coffee table.
“He didn’t see much,” he said with a shrug.
She stopped mid-search to shoot him a homicidal glare. “He saw plenty!”
“He won’t say anything,” he said, knowing his brother well enough to know that he would have absolutely no problem keeping his mouth shut. The men in his family might be assholes, but they were assholes that didn’t believe in humiliating women.
“It doesn’t matter!” she snarled, returning to her search.
“Why is that?” he asked, tilting his head to the side to get a better view of that beautiful ass that he loved so much as it swayed back and forth with her efforts to reach something beneath the bed.
“Because it doesn’t!”
“I see……,” he mumbled absently as he reached down and dropped the sheet to the floor and grabbed his boxers. “Would it make you feel better if I beat the shit out of him?”
She stopped mid-search and her shoulders slumped with relief as she said, “Yes, yes it would.”
*-*-*-*
“You do realize that there was a buffet right next to the hotel, right?” she asked as he pulled open the door to the restaurant for her.
“We’ll hit that the day before we leave,” he said, holding the door for her as she walked inside.
“Why exactly are we doing that?” she asked, waiting for him by the door.
“Because I have a strategy,” he announced as he took her hand into his and walked with her down the corridor.
“You have a strategy for buffets?” she asked, sure, hell, hoping, that she’d misheard him.
“Yes.”
“I see,” she murmured, suddenly having a bad feeling about this. “Maybe we should-”
“That bastard!” Danny bit out as they turned down the small hallway and spotted Darrin standing in line.
“I think I saw a pizza place down the street,” she said, tugging on his hand almost desperately to get him to stop.
She really didn’t feel like facing his brother after he’d caught her with her mouth on-
“I was here first,” Darrin said with a glare that was thankfully aimed at his brother, because at the moment she really wasn’t sure that she could make eye contact with him or handle him acknowledging her in any way.
“Too bad,” Danny said, ignoring her attempts to escape and pulling her in line right behind Darrin.
“You know the rules.”
“Yes, I do, but since you haven’t even paid yet this buffet is still up for grabs,” Danny said, getting in his brother’s face.
“There are plenty of buffets in this city,” Darrin said, standing his ground, “why don’t you go to one of them?”
“We’re not going anywhere.”
“Umm, I don’t mind grabbing pizza,” she offered, not at all surprised when the men ignored her.
“When you fuck this up, and you will, you better not take me down with you,” Darrin bit out, staring his brother down.
“I’m not the one who’s going to fuck this up,” Danny said, almost nose to nose with his brother now.
Sighing, she glanced over her shoulder, calculating the cost of a taxi ride back to the hotel when a throat cleared. “How many?”
She looked back to find the cashier eying the two large brothers nervously.
“One,” Darrin said tightly just as Danny bit out, “Two.”
Sighing, she rubbed her temples and accepted the fact that it was going to be a very long night.
*-*-*-*
“Tinkerbelle?”
No response.
“Sweetheart?”
She shook her head, but at least it was a sign of life. “Sweetheart, we have to leave. They’re closing up now.”
Squeezing her eyes shut tighter, she shook her head. He sighed as he knelt down in front of the booth and reached for her only to have her cringe away from him. He sighed heavily as he dropped his hand.
“Look, I’m really sorry,” he said, having absolutely no idea what to say to make this right for her.