The Game Plan (Neighbor from Hell #5)(13)

“Last night?” he repeated, sure that he’d misheard the small woman, standing in the hallway, still wearing the towel that he gave her a little over an hour ago wrapped around all those surprising curves that she’d somehow hidden from him.

“Yes,” she said, pushing back a strand of hair curled from her recent shower and obviously still in the process of drying, “I’ve been thinking about this all night and-”

“All night?” he found himself muttering, not entirely sure where she was headed with this.

“I just wanted to stop by on my way to work and thank you for everything,” she said, finishing with a firm nod as she turned and started to head down the hallway towards the front door when she suddenly stopped and turned right back around. “I almost forgot,” she said, walking over to him and-

Forced him to blindly reach out and grab hold of the doorway before his knees gave out and dropped him on his ass from the weight of the cotton towel that she’d tossed over his shoulder.

“Thanks again,” Tinkerbelle, now butt naked, said with a polite smile as she turned around and headed for the front door, leaving him holding onto her towel as his mind raced to figure out what just happened even as his gaze fell to that delectable, softly rounded ass that he’d give anything to-

“I forgot my keys,” Tinkerbelle said with a self-deprecating laugh as she turned around and headed back to her door where she lightly knocked.

“Is there someone inside?” he asked, praying that there was someone behind that door to come take this frustrating woman off his hands.

“No,” Tinkerbelle said with a shrug as she continued to patiently stand in front of her door, waiting for it to magically open.

He rubbed his hands down his face, telling himself that this wasn’t happening to him, not tonight. Tinkerbelle went ahead and lightly knocked on her door again. Praying that whatever f*cked up side effect the medicine had on her was short term, he dropped his hands from his face, grabbed the towel off his shoulder and prepared himself for a wrestling match from hell.

*-*-*-*

8:45 P.M.

“I don’t want it!”

“Too goddamn bad!” he snapped, making quick work of wrapping the towel around the stubborn woman who was driving him out of his f*cking mind.

“You’re going to make me late for work!” Tinkerbelle snapped once again trying to push past him and walk towards the front door, but before she could make her way past him, he had his arm around her and was carrying her back, unfortunately, to his apartment where he could keep an eye on her.

“Uh huh, that’s nice, Tinkerbelle,” he said absently, wondering if tying her to the baseboard would constitute kidnapping.

“That’s not my name!” she snapped, wiggling in his arms, desperate for freedom so that she could make another run for the front door where she would no doubt give the neighborhood a show that they would never forget.

“Stop squirming,” he said through clenched teeth, praying that she would stop rubbing those damn curves against him with every wiggle so that he could focus on figuring out how he was going to get her safely back in her apartment and out of his hair. He wanted his solitude, needed it desperately and as soon as he figured out what was wrong with her, he would have it.

“What the hell is going on here?” a man suddenly demanded, drawing his attention to two large, and familiar looking, police officers, who didn’t look too pleased to find a half naked Jodi in his arms.

Aw, shit…..

“Greg!” his unwanted load cried, sounding relieved, really relieved, which probably wasn’t going to help him in the long run.

For a moment he considered placing Tinkerbelle back on her feet to make it easier for the very pissed off looking officers to slam him to the floor and read him his rights, but then he realized that his unwanted load would take advantage of the situation and make her escape. So, until they ordered him to put her down and raise his hands above his head, he wasn’t releasing her.

“Can you please tell him to put me down so that I can go to work?” she asked, sounding completely rational for a woman being held by a man that she despised while wearing nothing but a towel.

“Work?” the officer that he was assuming was Greg repeated back slowly as he shared a look with his partner that Danny couldn’t read, but one he was willing to interpret.

He was about to become big Bubba’s bitch. He was holding a woman who hated him and happened to be naked, out of it and most likely a cop’s girlfriend in his arms and his only defense was his cousin’s wife’s f*cked up cooking and Benadryl. Oh yeah, his ass was going away for a long time for this one, which wouldn’t be so bad once he thought about it.

It meant that he’d get two to five years without his family’s interference, constant worrying and babying him. He just had to be careful with the soap in the shower. Not a bad deal when he thought about it.

“Aspirin or cough medicine?” Greg suddenly demanded, taking a step forward as he gestured towards the woman in Danny’s arms.

“Benadryl,” he answered with a frown, wondering why they-

“Oh f*ck no!” Greg said, shoving his partner out of his way as he tried to make his way back to the front door only to have his partner grab him by the collar, yank him back and run for the door.

“Where the hell are you going?” Danny demanded, shifting his unwanted load in his arms.