Double Dare (Neighbor from Hell #6)(51)

“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 * 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 f*cked 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 f*cking 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.

“Probably,” Darrin admitted easily, keeping his back turned.

“What the hell are you doing here?”

“The hotel that we were supposed to stay at was overbooked so we came here,” he explained before he added, “I didn’t mean to, umm,” he cleared his throat, “interrupt,” he added with a cringe.

“Who’s ‘we’?”

“Marybeth and me,” Darrin said, raking his hands through his hair, knowing that he was f*cking screwed now.

“Then why are you in my room?” Danny snapped.

Sighing, he shook his head. “I f*cked up and she isn’t talking to me right now.”

“I see,” his brother murmured thoughtfully.

“Anyway, I was hoping that you wouldn’t mind switching with me. I figured the girls could share a room and I could bunk here with you,” Darrin said, hoping against hope that his brother took pity on him.

“She’s been pissed at you before,” Danny pointed out.

Darrin chuckled without humor as he rubbed the back of his neck. “Never like this.”

“I see,” Danny murmured thoughtfully and Darrin knew in that instant that his brother was going to f*ck him over.

Not that he could blame him, because he couldn’t.

He’d do the same thing for Marybeth.

“Yeah, that’s just not going to happen,” Danny said right around the time that he grabbed him by the back of the neck.

“Wait!” Darrin said with a touch of desperation as he tried to slap his brother’s hand away, but Danny just ignored him as he shoved him towards the door. “I’m your brother, you *!”

“Uh huh, that’s nice,” Danny said, reaching over and opened the door. He swung the door open and within seconds Darrin was shoved unceremoniously from the room.

“Where the hell am I supposed to go?” Darrin demanded, turning around to shoot his brother a murderous glare.

“Go beg for forgiveness,” Danny heartlessly suggested with a shrug.

“I already did!” Darrin snapped. “The stubborn woman won’t listen to reason and-”

“Yeah, you have fun with that,” the bastard said, cutting him off. “I’m going to go spend the night with my incredibly hot girlfriend.”