Double Dare (Neighbor from Hell #6)(9)

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“What do you want?” Darrin demanded as soon as he ripped the front door open.

“I, um,” the man standing on his front step said, looking a little unsure of himself, “I’m here to see Marybeth?”

“Do you have an appointment?” Darrin asked as he folded his arms over his chest, giving the confused man a good look at the gun he’d shoved in the front of his pants.

“Umm,” the man said, glancing down at the gun, “her brother arranged a date for us. I’m supposed to pick her up at one.”

“She’s just finishing up with her last client,” he said, leveling a glare on the much smaller man.

“A client? Jake told me that she was a painter.”

“Are you a cop?” Darrin asked in his sternest tone, the one he’d honed to perfection over the years.

“A cop?” the other man repeated, noticeably swallowing as he shifted nervously. “No, I’m not a cop.”

“Good,” Darrin said approvingly with a firm nod. “Did Jake tell you to bring cash for your donation?”

“Donation?”

“She requires a three hundred dollar cash donation, per hour.”

“I……,” the guy gave his head a little shake before he asked, “Are you saying that she’s a hooker?”

Darrin just stared at him.

“Jesus!” the guy gasped, stabbing his fingers through his neatly combed hair.

“Do you have the money or not?” he asked, hoping to speed this thing up so that he could get back upstairs and convince Marybeth to crawl back in bed with him for a few hours. He’d rather use the time to try to convince the stubborn woman that she was madly in love with him, but he was too f*cking exhausted to do anything more than pass out.

He’d been working too many extra shifts and not just for the overtime, but to earn more vacation days. For every eight-hour shift he worked, he earned an hour of vacation time. So far he’d earned an additional six weeks of vacation time this year. Add that to the five weeks of vacation time that he’d earned last year, and the four he earned the year before that and he was going to have plenty of time to help his cousin and her husband out when the time came.

If it came….

Three years later, Connor and Rory were still trying to get their project off the ground. They were aiming high, very high, and they needed to raise an insane amount of money to get their project going, but Darrin had faith that they were going to do it. They were going to turn Rory’s dream into a reality and when they did, he was going to be there for them.

Every Bradford was.

“I’m sorry, but there must be some mistake. I’m looking for Marybeth Dawson,” the man said, sounding hopeful that this had all been a mistake and bringing him back to the problem that he needed to take care of so that he could catch up on some sleep.

“She prefers to be called Caramel Butter,” he said, giving the guy a knowing smile and just to f*ck with his head, a wink.

“Caramel…..Butter……..,” the guy repeated back slowly, making Darrin feel kind of bad. The guy looked decent enough. It wasn’t his fault that Marybeth was his, had been since they were little kids even though the stubborn woman refused to accept it. He opened his mouth to explain things to the guy only to end up shaking his head in disgust.

“Listen,” the guy said, licking his lips nervously as he glanced around, “I only have fifty bucks on me, but I can hit an ATM and be back here in ten minutes.”

Typical, he thought as he reached back and pulled his badge out. “Run,” he simply said.

“Oh, shit!” the guy said, stumbling back. “I’m gonna go now.”

“You do that,” Darrin said, shoving his badge back in his pocket and sighed in disgust.

He was going to have a word with Jake, he decided as he threw the lock on the front door, walked back in her apartment and dragged his ass back upstairs.

“Did you get rid of him?” Marybeth asked as he walked into her bedroom, not sounding terribly upset that he’d ruined her date, which of course pleased him.

“Yeah, he went running,” he said, smiling when he spotted her curled up in bed beneath the covers.

“Did you pull your badge out?” she asked teasingly as he pulled his gun free and placed it on the bureau next to her Bradford Construction baseball cap. He shoved his pants off as he made his way towards the bed.

“Had to,” he said, pulling the covers back so that he could join her.

“You couldn’t have just told the guy that I wasn’t interested?” she asked, snuggling back against him.

“I wouldn’t have to if you just told your brother that we’re together,” he said, pressing a kiss against the back of her neck.

“That would be lying,” she said, groaning softly as he wrapped his arm around her and cupped her bare breast.

“Would it?” he asked, pressing a kiss against her bare shoulder as he gently squeezed her large breast.

“Yes,” she said, turning her head so that she was looking back at him as she pressed her bottom against his erection, reminding him that he hadn’t had her since yesterday morning just before he’d left for his shift, “it would.”

He released his hold on her breast and reached down between them. He reached inside his boxers and pulled his eager cock out. He watched as she licked her beautiful pink lips as he gripped his cock and aimed seconds before he pushed inside her warm, wet core.