Chapter 16
“I can’t do this. I’m sorry,” Jodi said, swallowing nervously as she stepped away from him.
“It won’t hurt,” Danny said, reaching out to stop her from running away, and she desperately wanted to run away, by taking her hand into his and giving it a reassuring squeeze.
“You lying bastard!” Jodi bit out, yanking her arm back so that she could point to the large man who was currently curled up on the ground, cupping himself and whimpering pathetically for his mommy. “He sure as hell looks hurt to me!”
Giving her an incredibly sexy grin that had her narrowing her eyes on him, Danny said, “He’s fine, Tinkerbelle.”
She shifted her glare back to the man who was now openly crying and then back to Danny, who stood there wearing military gear stained with old paint, a paint gun thrown over his shoulder, several paintball cartridges strapped at his side and over his shoulders and that damn sexy smile that he’d used on her this morning when he showed up at her door dressed as Rambo.
“Tell me it’s not going to hurt,” Jodi said, daring the bastard to lie to her.
“Just a little pinch,” Danny said, picking up the second paintball gun and handing it to her.
“Can’t we do something else?” she asked, sounding like a wimp and not really caring.
“No,” he simply said, taking her by the shoulders. He turned her around and gave her a gentle push towards the outside obstacle course where grown men were running around shooting each other with balls of paint, “you said that I could choose our first date.”
“But-”
“But it will be fun, I promise,” Danny said, giving her another little push when she dug her heels in.
“But-”
“I’ll let you choose the restaurant if it will make you feel better,” Danny said, continuing to push her towards her doom.
“No, it really wouldn’t. What would make me feel better is if we could maybe go and do something else? A movie? Zoo? Museum? Back to my place for an afternoon of nonstop sex?” Jodi suggested, only half-kidding about the last one as she reached up and pushed her safety helmet back in place.
Okay, so maybe she was completely honest about the last one, but the giant bastard shoving her towards her doom was determined to take it slowly.
Last night when he’d climbed out of his bed, completely naked and aroused, very aroused, she’d expected him to take her to bed and show her how sex was supposed to be.
Instead, he’d kissed her softly, pulled on a pair of sweatpants, took her hand in his and walked her back to her apartment, where he’d given her another kiss goodnight and promised that he was going to call her in the morning.
He’d lied.
He hadn’t called her. No, he showed up at the crack of dawn with coffee and donuts and that damn sexy smile.
Surprised, and secretly pleased, she’d quickly changed into a pair of jeans and a tee-shirt.
The entire way here, he’d held her hand, caressing the back of her hand with his thumb while making small talk, probably trying to make her comfortable.
It worked. That is until he’d pulled into the makeshift parking lot for the outdoor paintball arena.
That’s when she’d started suggesting other alternatives to being chased by a bunch of psychotic men shooting each other with little round balls.
He’d laughed.
The bastard!
Danny sighed, giving up on gently prodding her and took her hand and pulled her towards a large gate marked “Entrance.” Her eyes shifted away from the entrance sign and took in the very large, very detailed sign that was taller than her and attached to the chain-link fence.
She started reading the warnings and immediately wished that she hadn’t.
“If this isn’t dangerous, then why are there over fifty warnings about death and accidental mutilation?” Jodi demanded, hugging her gun tightly against her chest with one arm as he ignored her concerns and continued to pull her towards a makeshift barrier.
“Take a knee, Tinkerbelle,” Danny said when they’d reached the barrier.
Trembling, Jodi did as he asked, just in time, too, it would seem, as a volley of paintball pellets suddenly came flying at them, slamming into the barrier with several loud whacks.
Resisting the urge to run back to the entrance and to the safety of the women’s room where she fully planned on hiding for the next two hours, she stayed there while Danny methodically explained how to fire her gun, how to use their surroundings to her advantage, and what to do if she got hit.
Unfortunately for her, she was too busy listening to the sounds of paintballs slamming into barriers around her and the sounds of grown men running and shouting orders followed by screams of pain to listen. Yeah, this really wasn’t for her.
“Danny,” she said, licking her lips nervously, “I-”
“Stay here and count to ten, then follow me,” he said, cutting her off before she could give him an excuse to leave. “Stay down and shoot anyone wearing a blue helmet or armband.”
“But-”
“You’ll be fine,” Danny said, cutting her off once again, but this time adding a swift kiss that left her stunned. “Remember to stay low.”
And with that, he was gone and Jodi was left kneeling on the ground behind a wooden barrier, in the middle of the woods, about to be chased down by a bunch of psychotic men sporting blue armbands.
Nibbling on her bottom lip, Jodi looked wistfully over her shoulder at the entrance. She could wait for him by the gates, she decided, already getting to her feet when someone yelled, “Incoming,” and her world suddenly turned blue.
“You’re banned!” the manager yelled, taking him by surprise, not because he’d never heard those words screamed before, he was a Bradford after all, but because of who the manager of the paintball facility was screaming at.
“Are you kidding me?” his little Tinkerbelle demanded, wiggling wildly over his shoulder to get free. “You’re seriously going to ban me because a few wimps complained?”
“You made over twenty men cry!” the manager shouted, gesturing wildly towards the group of men standing by the first-aid station, bitching and whining about their injuries and the fact that his little Tinkerbelle had ignored their surrender and kept shooting.
Damn, he was proud.
“If they couldn’t handle it, then they shouldn’t have walked through those gates!” his little warrior shouted, making him smile and the manager’s jaw drop in astonishment.
“Get out!” the manager yelled once he’d managed to get over his shock.
Danny considered arguing with the manager, but he knew that look well enough to know that the man was less than thirty seconds from running for his life and calling the cops.
Since he didn’t feel like wasting part of his date dealing with the authorities, he tightened his arms around Tinkerbelle’s legs and walked away, grinning hugely when his little warrior started insulting all the men jumping out of their way.
“Are you actually pouting?”
“No,” Jodi mumbled, folding her arms over her chest as she glared ahead. She wasn’t pouting. She was justifiably pissed.
“The ban isn’t going on your permanent record, so I wouldn’t worry about it,” Danny explained as he took a turn on Parker Street.
“I’m not worried about it,” she mumbled, glaring straight ahead.
“Then why are you upset?” Danny asked, sounding amused.
“Because I should have won,” Jodi grumbled, contemplating going back there just to prove it.
“You did,” Danny said smoothly, obviously trying to appease her bloodthirsty needs.
“Then why did they end the hunt?” Jodi demanded, looking over to find him grinning hugely. “This isn’t funny!”
“No, no, of course, it’s not,” Danny said, biting back a smile, but she didn’t miss how his damn lips twitched with amusement.
“Where are we going?” Jodi asked, changing the subject before she did something stupid like pout.
“I thought we’d grab lunch before the movie,” Danny said, pulling into the parking lot of a fifties-era diner.
“We’re seeing a movie?” she asked, suddenly perking up, not only because it had been a while since she’d been to the movies, or could afford to, but because she’d thought after her…
ummm, little meltdown, that he’d want to end things early.
Most guys that she’d gone out with would have ditched her by now.
Even Greg would have dropped her off at her house, shaken his head in disbelief and walked off.
“Your choice,” Danny said, shooting her that grin that did funny things to her along with a wink.
“That sounds nice,” Jodi said, trying to bite back a smile, failing and not really caring all that much for one simple reason.
She was on a date, a real date. Not that she’d never gone out with a man before, obviously she had, but she’d never been treated like a real date before.
Danny wasn’t treating her with indifference, constantly checking the time, or even checking out the really beautiful woman walking in front of the truck.
Instead, all of his attention was on her and it was nice.
Before she could open her door, he was there, opening it for her and helping her out of the truck.
He took her hand into his and together, they walked towards the diner that was giving off the most delicious aroma.
She hadn’t realized just how hungry she was until that moment, which of course, made sense since she’d spent the last three hours building an appetite by hunting down a bunch of crybabies in the woods.
“Welcome to Henry’s. How can I…” the hostess started to say with a big smile as they walked through the door, only to let her words trail off with a frown when her gaze landed on Danny.
“We’d like a table for two,” Danny said, seemingly oblivious of the waitress’s weird greeting.
“Umm,” the waitress mumbled, licking her lips nervously as she stepped away from her station, “I-I’ll go see if we have any tables available.”
“It smells good in here,” Danny said, drawing her attention back up to him.
“It really does,” she murmured with a frown as she watched the hostess run across the diner, around tables, and finally shove her way through the kitchen’s swinging double doors.
“Is something going on?” Jodi asked, returning her attention to Danny to find him gazing around the diner, looking innocent…a little too innocent.
“He’s one of them!” somebody suddenly shouted.
“I’m not going out there!”
“Neither am I!”
“Oh, my God!” another scream came from the vicinity of the kitchen. “You promised us that they were never coming back!”
“He’s a Bradford!”
“Oh…shit,” the softly muttered oath drew her attention back to Danny to find him shaking his head in disgust as he pulled out his phone.
“What is going on?” Jodi asked, ending on a gasp when Danny suddenly yanked her back and out of the way as several women wearing matching uniforms suddenly came charging towards them.
The panicked staff kept as far away from them as possible as they shoved each other out of the way in an attempt to get through the door first.
“I’m not serving him!” a short, elderly woman with curly gray hair yelled, grabbing a redhead by her ponytail and yanking her out of the way.
“Why don’t we go somewhere else? This place looks busy,” Danny said as she watched several more women and two men join the group desperately trying to escape the otherwise peaceful diner.
“How about the burger joint across the street,” Jodi suggested absently, unable to look away as the little old lady reached up and grabbed another woman by the back of her shirt and yanked her out of the way.
Danny cleared his throat. “That might not be a good idea.”
“What might be a bad idea?” Jodi asked, wincing in sympathy when the old lady kicked out one of the waitress’s legs.
“Going to the burger joint across the street.”
“Why’s that?” Jodi asked, watching as the little old lady managed to slam an elbow into the cook’s stomach and shoved her way to freedom.
Sighing heavily, Danny said, “Because I’m banned.”