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  Without a word, she handed the small bottle of scented salts to Darrin. While he sprinkled the salts in the bathtub, she took off her clothes and tossed them in the hamper. When she saw him doing the same, she considered telling him that she needed space, but the look he sent her told her that he wasn’t letting her push him away, not tonight.

  But soon, she wouldn’t have a choice.

  Chapter 10

  “Marybeth?” he called as the front door clicked shut behind him.

  There was no response. Not that he actually expected one. He considered sending her a text message to see how much longer she was going to keep this up, but he already knew the answer.

  Oh, he knew…

  For the past two hours she’d been sending him pictures to drive him out of his fucking mind. More than once he’d found himself sneaking off to the bathroom at the station, pulling out his phone and scrolling through all the pictures she’d sent him. God, she was such a fucking tease, he thought with a groan as he opened his apartment door and walked inside, not bothering to shut the door behind him.

  A chime alerted him to a new text message. He pulled his cellphone out, licking his lips in anticipation and swiped his finger across the screen. The image that popped up on the small screen forced him to grab hold of the back of the couch when his legs threatened to give out.

  “Goddamn,” he growled, licking his lips hungrily as he stared at the picture of the juicy, succulent breast.

  He would give anything to sink his teeth into it. A new picture popped up accompanied by a small chime, showing him a picture of a beautiful leg that had his breaths coming a little faster.

  Damn her!

  He could happily wring her fucking neck for this!

  “Oh, shit,” he groaned when another picture popped up and then another.

  He couldn’t take much more of this, not without losing his fucking mind and doing something that he was going to regret. It took all his willpower, but somehow he forced himself to look away from the picture of the large plate of lasagna that he knew was going to go to waste. She’d never be able to eat all of it and she knew that was going to piss him off more than anything.

  She would pay for this…

  Unfortunately it would have to wait until later because right now he was fucking exhausted. Late last night after working a twelve-hour shift he’d decided to pick up some overtime and now he was paying for it. He put his cellphone in his back pocket and forced his feet to carry him up the stairs and into his room and somehow managed to make it into his bathroom.

  He stripped out of his uniform and took a quick shower, knowing that he only had a few hours before he was expected at his parent’s house for dinner. His mother would understand if he was too tired to make it, but he wanted a chance to catch up with his brother Danny tonight and see how he was doing.

  A few hours and he should be good, he bullshitted himself as he set his alarm clock. Yawning, he dropped his towel, pulled on a pair of boxers and crawled into bed. By the time his head hit the pillow he was already dreaming of sweet revenge.

  *-*-*-*

  “Do you think he’s going to sleep all day?”

  “Probably,” the painfully familiar voice said before adding, “inconsiderate bastard.”

  Without opening his eyes, he said, “I have a gun.”

  “You’d be lost without us,” Jason said, sighing heavily just as Darrin registered someone sitting on the bed next to him on his right.

  “Get the fuck out,” he groaned, too exhausted to put in the effort that it would take to beat the shit out of his cousins and drag their lifeless bodies out back.

  But of course the annoying bastards from hell ignored him.

  “Pass the remote?” Trevor asked as he felt the bed dip on his left, letting him know that the two most annoying bastards on earth now had him trapped. A few seconds later he heard what sounded like the game playing in the background.

  “I’m trying to sleep here,” he muttered against the pillow.

  “Shh, we’re watching the game.”

  “Get. Out,” he bit out, praying that this was all just a horrible dream.

  “The game just started,” Jason said around what sounded like a mouthful of food, letting him know that his cousins had most likely cleaned him out before they came up here to bug the shit out of him.

  “Besides, it’s not time to leave yet.”

  “What the hell are you talking about?” he asked around a heavy sigh as he rolled over onto his back just in time to see his cousins finish off the last of his potato chips.

  “You need to go shopping,” Trevor pointed out as he tossed the empty chip bag aside and grabbed a bag of cookies off the nightstand.

  “You really do,” Jason murmured in agreement as he tossed his empty bag aside and grabbed a box of Lucky Charms.

  “Why exactly are you here?” he asked, rubbing his hands down his face as he sat up.

  “It’s Sunday. Where else would we be?” Trevor asked with a snort of disgust as he tossed the empty cookie package aside and grabbed the bag of peanut butter M&Ms that Darrin kept for Marybeth.

  “Anywhere but here,” he said, sitting up against the headboard as he struggled to stay awake.

  “We came to give you a ride,” Trevor said around a handful of M&Ms.

  “I don’t need a ride,” he said, yawning even though he’d already decided to call one of his brothers for a ride tonight before he added, “And you weren’t invited.”

  “We don’t need an invitation,” Jason reminded him, because his parents, much like the rest of their aunts and uncles, never turned family away.

  “Then why are you here?” he asked, giving up and closing his eyes.

  “Besides giving you a ride?” Trevor asked before saying, “To help you.”

  “I don’t need help,” he mumbled around a yawn, wondering what it would take to make them leave.

  “You really do,” Jason said with a long-suffering sigh.

  “With what exactly?”

  “With Marybeth,” Trevor said, making him chuckle, because if there was one thing that he didn’t need help with, it was Marybeth.

  “It’s not necessary,” he said, not in the mood to have this conversation, especially not with the two cocky bastards eating all his food.

  “It really is,” Jason said around a mouthful of cookies. “You’re going about this whole thing all wrong.”

  Sighing, he reached over and shoved Jason off the bed.

  “You bastard!” Jason gasped from where he’d landed on the floor.

  “Get out,” Darrin said as he flopped back down on his stomach and decided to ignore the bastards and go back to sleep.

  “We’re here to help you, asshole.”

  “I don’t need any help,” he mumbled against the pillow, wondering when they would just give up and leave.

  “Look,” Jason said, getting back up and sitting on the edge of the bed, “we love Marybeth. We do, but there is something seriously fucked up with your relationship.”

  “It’s fine,” he bit out, already missing the peace and quiet that went along with keeping their relationship a secret.

  “They don’t have a relationship,” Trevor said, sounding bored. “They’re fuck buddies.”

  “We’re not fuck buddies,” he bit out as he grabbed a pillow and pulled it over his head, hoping that it would be enough to block the meddling bastards out.

  “Really?” Trevor asked in a mocking tone that was going to get the shit kicked out of him.

  “Really!” he snapped, because they weren’t just fuck buddies. This was going somewhere, he told himself. It was either that or admit that his cousins might be right, which was something that he refused to do.

  “Admit it, you need our help,” Trevor said, sounding smug, even for a Bradford.

  Too tired to deal with this bullshit, he reached over and shoved Trevor off the bed as he said, “Fuck. Off.” And then for good measure, he shifted so that he could kick Jason
off his bed as well.

  “You could have just asked us to leave!”

  “Could have,” he said, sighing heavily as he rolled over onto his stomach, “but didn’t.”

  “Asshole,” Jason muttered as Darrin grabbed the pillow that Marybeth liked to use, pulled it closer and inhaled her strawberries and cream scent as he ignored the bastards bitching about police brutality.

  Chapter 11

  “Ever hear of a phone, asshole?” Darrin asked, pushing past his exhaustion as he pulled Danny into a hug, taking his brother by surprise. “Mom was about to send us to go find you,” he said softly, only half joking as he gave Danny one more squeeze, needing to reassure himself that his brother was really okay before he released him.

  It had been years since his brother had been shipped back to the states courtesy of the U.S. Marines, but Darrin still couldn’t get the image of his brother strapped to that hospital bed with a machine breathing for him out of his head.

  “I’m fine,” Danny promised as he pulled back and reached down, taking the hand of the small woman standing next to him into his. “Just got a little delayed.”

  “I can see that,” Darrin murmured, looking Jodi over, not bothering to ask for an introduction since he already knew exactly who she was. “Why don’t we head inside?” he suggested, using the Bradford smile to put the small woman at ease.

  “I should have called,” Danny said as he glanced down at Jodi, who looked a little nervous and for good reason, Darrin mused as he eyed the small woman suspiciously.

  “And warn Mom that you were bringing a woman to meet the family for the first time ever?” Darrin asked brightly, chuckling when Danny shot him a homicidal glare. “Now, why would you want to do that?”

  “Umm, maybe I should wait in the car? Or walk home?” Jodi asked, slowing down a bit as she worried her bottom lip. “I can walk home. It’s really not that far.”

  “It will be fine. I promise,” Danny said, raising their hands so that he could kiss the back of hers.

  “Yeah, but I wasn’t supposed to be here tonight. I don’t want to interfere,” she said, looking like she’d rather be anywhere but here.

  “It’ll be fine. Besides, I want you here,” Danny promised her with an adoring smile that had Darrin rolling his eyes and shaking his head, because it seemed that his brother was already whipped.

  Fucking pathetic, Darrin thought with disgust as he pulled his phone out to see if Marybeth had called or texted him in the past five minutes.

  “Fine,” she said on a drawn out sigh with a miserable little pout that had Danny stopping so that he could lean down and kiss her. “No worries, Tinkerbelle. Everything will be fine.”

  Something told Darrin that wasn’t exactly true, but he didn’t say anything, mostly because he was too busy coming up with appropriate dares for Marybeth’s latest betrayal.

  *-*-*-*

  “You want to tell me why you’re glaring at me?” Darrin asked, already knowing why his sister was glaring at him as he helped himself to another chicken breast and not really caring.

  “The fact that you’re eating all the food isn’t a good enough reason?” Kenzie asked, sounding put out as she grabbed a plate and started loading it with fried chicken and mashed potatoes before dropping it on the kitchen island in front of him.

  “No,” he simply said as he grabbed a fork and dug in.

  “Is she coming?” she demanded coldly as she crossed her arms over her chest and did her best to glare him down.

  “Yes,” he said, not bothering to ask who she was or really caring that his sister hated Marybeth, always had and probably always would.

  Sighing heavily, Kenzie shook her head in disgust as she walked over to the refrigerator and grabbed two bottles of water. “I don’t know why you let her treat you like that.”

  “Stay out of it,” he warned, focusing his attention back on his food, in absolutely no mood to argue with his sister about something that was none of her fucking business.

  “You deserve better,” she said, placing a bottle of water in front of him.

  “It’s none of your fuck-”

  “Stay out of it, Kenzie,” their father said firmly as he walked into the kitchen, cutting him off before he could say something that he would probably regret later.

  “Someone should say something to him!” she snapped, gesturing to him as he took one last bite of chicken before he shoved his plate away.

  “It’s not our place, Mackenzie,” their father said firmly as Darrin headed for the door, in absolutely no mood to get in a shouting match with his kid sister over Marybeth, again. Not when he was still fucking exhausted because his asshole cousins had refused to leave him alone and had kept bugging the shit out of him about Marybeth until he’d been forced to get up and throw them out on their asses.

  As he walked out of the kitchen, praying that Kenzie let it go for once, he considered sneaking up to his old room and catching up on some sleep before dinner. He turned down the back hall to do just that when he heard his brother Danny ask, “Where’s Mom and Kenzie?” reminding him that he needed to help his brother out tonight.

  “In the kitchen,” Darrin said as he joined his cousins and brothers in the foyer, his attention locking on the small woman that had his brother wrapped around her little finger.

  “Is Marybeth here?” Danny asked, releasing Jodi’s hand.

  “That bitch is dead to me,” Darrin said, glaring at the small woman, shifting nervously as she shot hopeful glances towards the front door.

  “Uh huh, that’s nice,” Danny mumbled absently as he shifted his attention back to the small woman. “I’ll be right back,” he said, pressing a kiss to the top of her head and heading off towards the small hallway that would take him to the kitchen.

  “O-okay,” Jodi said, swallowing nervously his brothers and cousins watched her with varying degrees of suspicion.

  “So, umm, big family, huh?” she mumbled, shooting another glance towards the door.

  “What are your intentions towards our brother?” he asked before she could make a run for it, and judging by the expression on her face, she desperately wanted to do just that.

  *-*-*-*

  “Please, stop!” Jodi managed to choke out, laughing as they all took turns shoving the most embarrassing pictures they could find of Danny in her face. Once Darrin managed to find the collection of school pictures their mother had organized over the years, he’d dropped them by her feet and walked over to the loveseat in the corner where he settled in for what was no doubt going to end up being a very entertaining night.

  “Wait! I found the home videos!” Arik announced triumphantly as he held up the large stack of DVDs they’d made over the years.

  “You…Bastards!” Danny snarled as he stormed over to Jodi and snatched the photo album off her lap.

  “Oh, come on!” his brothers whined as Danny snatched the rest of the photo albums away from them.

  “Betraying bastards,” he grumbled with a murderous glare aimed at the rest of their brothers as he slammed the photo albums down on the coffee table.

  “Stop being an asshole,” Duncan said with a roll of his eyes as he reached down to-

  “Ow!” Duncan yelped as Danny grabbed his hand and with a simple twist of his wrist, dropped their brother to his knees.

  “The next person that shows my girlfriend a picture of me wearing one of Mom’s bras is a dead man!” he snarled, using his hold on his brother’s hand to make his point.

  “Let go, you bastard!” Duncan yelled, gasping in pain.

  Darrin thought about helping his brother, but…

  He was too comfortable to move.

  “There’s a picture of you wearing a bra?” Jodi asked, shooting a hopeful glance towards the pile of photo albums that they’d