Double Dare (Neighbor from Hell #6)(18)

“The eleventh floor,” he said as they joined the small group waiting by the elevator doors.

“Security desk is unmanned,” Reese pointed out.

“I saw that,” he said, hoping that the building’s security was able to handle this call on their own so that he could swing by the old Mason mansion in time to join Marybeth for lunch.

“Did you pack or do you want to grab something for lunch?” Reese asked, moving to the head of the group to block off the elevator.

“Marybeth packed me a lovely lunch to make up for her betrayal last night,” he said, wondering if he should pick up a large pizza or a few subs to compliment the delicious lunch that awaited him.

Reese chuckled as they gestured for everyone to move aside when the elevator announced its arrival with a chime. “You stole her lunch, didn’t you?”

“She owed me,” he pointed out, unnecessarily in his opinion, as they waited for the elevator doors to open.

“You just wanted an excuse to swing by her job and bring her out for lunch,” Reese said with a knowing smile.

“It is the polite thing to do after stealing her lunch,” he murmured thoughtfully.

“Or you could just take her out to dinner to make up for it,” Reese said offhandedly just as the elevator doors finally opened.

Sighing, he stepped inside the elevator. “Don’t start this shit again.”

“I just don’t understand it,” Reese said, hitting the button for the eleventh floor as Darrin gestured for the man trying to join them to turn right around and walk away.

“You don’t need to,” he said, wishing for probably the hundredth time that Reese hadn’t stopped by his place that fateful day four years ago and caught him licking strawberry juice off Marybeth’s breasts…as she rode him…while vocalizing just how badly she wanted to suck on his cock.

For whatever reason, Reese hadn’t believed him when he’d tried explaining how he’d tripped while carrying a small bowl of mashed strawberries, somehow managing to pour the entire bowl all over Marybeth’s naked breasts and that he’d been helping her wipe the juice off because it was the neighborly thing to do. His brother had simply stared at him, waiting for him to tell him what was really going on so of course he’d further explained that Marybeth’s pants had been ruined and somehow slipped off during the accident and that she’d simply been expressing her gratitude for his cleaning abilities by offering to suck his cock.

It had just been an innocent series of events that had ended with him f*cking her on his couch, but had Reese been able to see that? No, the judgmental bastard had refused to believe him and forced him to tell him what was really going on by threatening to tell everyone what he’d walked in on. So, after a brief physical altercation in which he’d explained what would happen if Reese ever opened his big mouth, he’d told his brother what was going on.

Once he’d finished explaining how he was easing Marybeth into marriage with sex, his brother had stared at him for a solid five minutes before calling him an idiot, which had led to another physical altercation where Darrin was forced to beat the shit out of his brother. Since then Reese had done his best to stay out of it, but every now and then he would bring it up, trying to convince him that this plan was too f*cked up to work.

“Why don’t you just double dare her to marry you?” Reese asked, sounding bored as they stood there, watching as the little screen above the doors announced the floors as they passed them.

“We’ve already been over this,” he said, sighing heavily.

“Refresh my memory,” Reese said, clearly intent on aggravating the shit out of him today.

“Because I want her to know that she can’t live without me before I drag her beautiful ass down to City Hall and make her the happiest woman alive,” he needlessly explained, again.

“It’s been six years, Darrin, and she won’t even let you hold her hand in public,” Reese said, shooting him a sympathetic look that he didn’t appreciate one bit.

His jaw clenched tightly as he said, “Mind your own f*cking business.”

But he refused to listen. “She doesn’t want to get married, Darrin. She told you.”

“She doesn’t know what she wants,” he said, wishing the elevator would hurry the hell up so that he could get this call over with and get away from the bastard and this f*cked up conversation that he refused to have.

“You want to get married and have a family and she doesn’t,” Reese said with a shrug. “That’s never going to change.”

With a glare, he turned to face his brother. “Just for that, you’re out of the running for position of godfather when she finally starts popping out my precious babies.”

“You bastard!” Reese gasped in outrage. “You can’t do that!”

“Just did,” he said smugly, returning his attention to the elevator doors just as the elevator chimed, announcing their arrival.

“Your kids would be lucky to have me as their godfather and you damn well know it,” Reese snarled.

“They could do better,” he said with a shrug just to piss his brother off.

The doors started to open when Reese decided to up his game.

“You know that she’s only with you because she thought that you were me, right?”