Double Dare (Neighbor from Hell 6)

“One,” he said and when Marybeth opened her mouth to try to get out of spending the night in his arms, he slapped his hand over her mouth and stressed, “Just one room.”

She glanced at Marybeth, but when Marybeth didn’t say anything, mostly because she was too busy trying to slap his hand away, the woman focused back on her computer screen. “I have a queen, two doubles and a king with-”

“We’ll take the king,” he said, cutting her off, hoping to rush this along before Marybeth-

“Ow!” he snapped, pulling his hand away and trying shake off the sting as he glared down at the small woman that adored him. “Stop pinching me!”

“We,” she said, practically seething with rage, “are no longer speaking.”

“Shhh, it’s okay, darling. I know that you really don’t mean it,” he said in his most condescending tone as he reached over and petted her on the head, loving the way that her face turned bright red with rage.

She opened her mouth, probably to call him an asshole, but all she managed to get out was a choking sound, her rage too strong to form a coherent word at this point.

Not that he could blame her.

He really couldn’t.

As he pulled out his wallet and handed over his ID and credit card, he couldn’t help but wonder if daring her to go on the elevator drop ride five times in a row after she ate that hot dog had been too much. When she reached past him and took the keycard from the desk clerk and stormed off, leaving him to carry her bag and follow after her, he decided that she was just being unreasonably cranky.

*-*-*-*

“Trevor and Zoe took the kids home,” Darrin said as he walked into the small bathroom and leaned back against the counter.

“I thought they were staying overnight,” she said, deciding that she liked the world a whole lot better with her eyes closed.

Yeah, keeping her eyes closed was definitely the way to go, she decided when the world stopped spinning and shaking. She slowly exhaled, willing the dizziness and nausea that had been plaguing her since she stumbled off that first rollercoaster to go away. She lowered herself in the tub and draped the wet facecloth over her eyes.

“Yes, well,” Darrin said, chuckling, “it seems that they have their hands full with the kids double daring each other to do something incredibly stupid every five minutes.”

With a groan, she lowered herself in the water until her chin was touching the hot water. “Shit.”

“They’re not too happy with us right now,” Darrin said as she felt him trace her jaw with his fingertips.

No, she didn’t think that they would be. They were normally very good about not double daring each other in front of kids. Not that she was taking any of the blame on this one, not after the hell that the bastard had put her through today. She was terrified of rollercoasters, fast rides, heights and especially those rides that suddenly dropped you from three stories up and the bastard had double dared her to go on every single one today and the kids had unfortunately been there to overhear a few of Darrin’s dares.

True, she could have simply said no and probably should have, but they’d been doing this for so long now that it would have felt wrong to walk away. Besides, she’d get him back. She always did and it would be ten times worse than what he’d put her through today. She just wouldn’t be doing it now when every fiber of her being demanded that she curl up and die.

“Do you want me to get you something?” he asked softly as he removed the facecloth from her face.

“My own room?” she asked even though she would kill him if he abandoned her during her time of need.

He chuckled as she felt his soft lips press against her forehead. “Not happening. What else?”

She sighed, making sure to sound properly putout as she said, “A Pepsi.”

“Your stomach’s upset?” he asked as he gently placed his hand over her stomach.

She opened her eyes just wide enough so that she could glare at him.

Just glared.

“Fine,” he said, smiling as he leaned down and brushed his lips against her firm ones as she continued to glare at him, “I’ll go get your Pepsi.”

She continued to glare at him as he left the bathroom. Once he was gone, she grabbed the facecloth, dunked it in the bath water and placed back over her eyes as she waited the Grim Reaper to come for her…or for her Pepsi, whichever one came first.

Chapter 4

“Come on! Don’t be like that!”

“Go. To. Hell,” she bit out, stressing every word as she rolled over onto her side and got more comfortable as she read on Darrin’s iPad, determined to ignore her brother.

“I said that I was sorry!”

She rolled her eyes, because he hadn’t apologized and probably never would. “Go away!”

“What if I told you that I had Black Jack’s pizza?”

“Oh, shit!” she gasped in terror, jumping off the couch and racing to the door, praying that Darrin hadn’t heard him, because even though she was pretty pissed at her brother right now, she really did love him. She had the door thrown open and was dragging her brother, pizza and all, inside before she slammed the door shut, wincing at the noise and praying that Darrin hadn’t heard it.

“He’s not here,” Jake said, chuckling as he shifted the pizza boxes and appetizer bags in his arms so that he could hold out the six-pack of A&W root beer to her.

“His truck wasn’t outside?” she asked even as she slowly reached up and turned the lock on her door, flinching when the action produced a soft clicking noise that was bound to give them away.

“No,” he said teasingly as he gave up on waiting for her to take the soda from him and placed the six-pack on the coffee table.

“You wanna eat in here or in the kitchen?”

Licking her lips nervously, she reached up and slowly turned the deadbolt, something that she only used in dire emergencies. Cringing when the lock made a louder clicking noise, she froze on the spot and listened. When she didn’t hear anything she turned around and mouthed the word, “bedroom,” and gestured for her brother to move his ass.

Rolling those baby blue eyes of his, courtesy of their mother, Jake walked upstairs. She picked up the six-pack and looked around, making sure that there wasn’t any evidence left behind like a napkin or one of those coupons they usually slapped on the pizza boxes. When she didn’t find anything that could give them away, she grabbed the small bottle of perfumed air freshener that her mother had bought her as a housewarming gift seven years ago and liberally sprayed the living room and stairs as she made her way upstairs, praying that the obnoxious smell was enough to keep Darrin from finding out what they were doing.