Chapter 28
Orlando, Florida
“Are you still ignoring me?”
“Yes,” Jodi said, taking his bottle of water from him and finishing it off before handing the empty bottle back to him with a mutinous glare.
“It’s not my fault that your boss said yes,” Danny pointed out as he glanced around the hotel lobby, looking bored.
“Wasn’t your fault?’ she repeated back in disbelief, absolutely stunned. “You accidentally,” Jodi stressed, throwing up her hands to make finger quotes, “locked him in the storage closet when you gave him the tour of the new library for seven hours until he agreed to give me time off with pay!”
He blinked down at her. “The lock was faulty.”
“The lock was faulty?” she repeated back in disbelief.
“Mmmhmm,” Danny murmured as they moved up in line.
“How does the lock being faulty explain the chair and the cooler full of snacks you set up in front of the storage room?” Jodi demanded, shifting her bag over her shoulder.
“I had to keep my strength up while I waited for help,” he said with a sniff, forcing her to look away so that he didn’t see her lips twitch.
“And by help, I assume you mean pulling the key out of your pocket and unlocking the door,” Jodi said, frowning as a thought occurred to her. “Ummm, where’s the rest of your family?”
“Probably at their hotel,” Danny said, shrugging it off. “Why?”
“They’re not staying at this hotel?” Jodi asked, moving up in line with him.
He chuckled as he pulled out his wallet. “No.”
“Why not?”
He sighed as he reached down and took her hand in his and raised their hands so that he could press a kiss against the back of her hand. “Because we would never get a moment of peace otherwise.”
“But it’s a family trip,” Jodi pointed out even as she had to admit that she was relieved. No matter how sweet she thought his family’s overprotectiveness was, and it really was, it was also a bit much to deal with.
Like last Sunday when his brothers and cousins came over to watch the game. She hadn’t planned on joining them, but Danny used the promise of a backrub to convince her that spending time with his brothers was a good idea. It hadn’t been. At least, not for her.
Danny, on the other hand, had seemed completely oblivious to the looks that his brothers kept sending her. Whenever Danny kissed her, held her hand, touched her, or pulled her onto his lap, they stared. They’d stop eating, talking, and putting each other in headlocks just to stare…
It was a little unsettling.
If that wasn’t bad enough, every time Danny left the room, the questions would start.
They wanted to know her dating history, about her family, her plans for the future, and of course, how she felt about Danny.
She tried her best to answer their questions.
Well, most of them. But apparently, her answers hadn’t been what they were looking for because about two hours into the game, they’d decided to hand over their interrogation to the twins, who both just happened to be cops.
The trip here had been just as bad. During the entire ride to the airport, his brothers had taken turns watching her every move.
They kept it up at the airport until she’d finally had enough and made her escape to the bathroom, which in retrospect had been a mistake.
His mother and sister had taken her escape as an opportunity to get to know her better…
After deciding to block her time spent in the bathroom with them from her memory, she gave up and returned to Danny’s side only to discover that there was a two-hour delay.
For the next hour and a half, she’d contemplated returning to the bathroom, but the incident that she’d blocked from her memory had kept her butt firmly planted in the hard-plastic chair where she’d tried to ignore the way that the men in his family watched her every move.
The only one who hadn’t seemed interested in her was Dr. Bradford.
He’d sat off to the side, reading or watching the planes take off and land.
His children and wife left him alone for the most part.
The only time he’d acknowledged any of them was when his wife or one of his children spoke directly to him.
He’d smile at his wife or chuckle at something that one of his children said, except if Danny spoke, that is.
Dr. Bradford seemed completely oblivious to his oldest son.
“We’ll see them at dinner and at the parks,” Danny explained as he leaned down and brushed his lips softly against hers. “Besides,” he whispered against her lips, “if my mother was here, we wouldn’t be able to get away with sharing a room.”
“And your mother was fine with us staying at a different hotel?” Jodi asked, deciding that pretending that his mother wasn’t aware of all the naughty things they did was for the best.
“No,” Danny said, shooting her a wink as he handed over his ID and credit card to the hotel clerk.
“That would explain why she hasn’t stopped calling since we got in the taxi.”
“Or texting me,” he said, looking down at his phone with a rueful shake of his head.
“She’s going to make you pay for this later. You do realize that, don’t you?” Jodi said, knowing his mother well enough by now to guess that the older woman wasn’t going to take this lying down.
“Are you tired?” Danny asked, running his fingers down her spine.
“No,” Jodi mumbled with a sleepy little sigh that had him smiling.
“Liar,” he whispered, pressing a kiss against her bare shoulder.
“Just give me five minutes and we can go,” she mumbled into her pillow.
“How about this?” Danny suggested, pressing another kiss against her bare shoulder, savoring the fresh scent of her skin from her recent shower. “Why don’t we take a nap, then grab a late dinner and end the night with a midnight swim in the pool?”
“Sounds heavenly,” Jodi mumbled with a sleepy little smile, “but what about your family? Aren’t we supposed to meet them for dinner?”
“Already taken care of,” he said, pressing another kiss against her bare shoulder as he moved to stand up. “I sent Aidan a text and told him that we weren’t going to be able to make it tonight.”
“You should go,” Jodi said, curling up on her side. “I’ll be okay.”
He let his gaze run over her naked body, taking in her beautiful back, the curve of her hip and bottom, and her shapely legs and tugged his shirt off. “I’m staying,” Danny said, toeing off his shoes as he worked the fly of his pants.
“Your mother will be mad,” Jodi mumbled, sounding seconds from falling asleep.
“Probably,” Danny said with a soft chuckle as he shoved his pants and boxers down. “But she’ll get over it. Besides,” he said, crawling on the bed behind her, “she’s going to have her hands full tonight with my brothers.”
“Probably,” Jodi agreed with a soft chuckle that ended on a sigh as he wrapped his arm around her and pulled her closer. “Don’t let me oversleep.”
“I’ll wake you up in a couple of hours.”
“You promise?”
“I promise,” Danny said, pressing a kiss against her bare shoulder as he closed his eyes, imagining all the ways that he could wake her up and settling on his favorite as he drifted off.
“Oh, God!”
“It’s time to wake up, sweetheart,” Danny murmured as he slowly ran the tip of his tongue over her slit.
No matter how many times he woke her up like this, and he did this a lot, she didn’t think she’d ever get used to it.
For the past month, he’d showed her just how good a man’s touch could be.
She hadn’t thought it was possible, but he’d managed to destroy every insecurity that Jerry helped create.
He made her feel beautiful, sexy, and desirable.
She loved the way he looked at her, the way he touched her, and made her feel.
“You ready to fly, Tinkerbelle?” Danny asked in that low, deep voice that made her toes curl as he gently parted her lips with his fingertips.
“Getting close,” Jodi moaned softly as she ran her fingers through his hair, encouraging him to continue.
She gasped as she felt his tongue tease her core. “You are so damn sweet,” Danny growled as he slowly licked her. “I could lick you for hours.”
He wasn’t lying. She’d learned that very quickly weeks ago.
She never knew a man could enjoy the act so much before, but Danny did.
He seemed to love nothing more than pulling down her panties and burying his face between her legs.
It didn’t matter if they were in her new office at the library, in the laundry room, in his truck, kitchen, living room, or in the shower, and if there was no one around, he took advantage.
She loved it, more than she ever thought possible, but sometimes like now, she wanted more, needed more.
As much as she wanted to ask him to stop teasing her and finally make love to her, she knew better.
It didn’t matter what she said or how much she begged him, he wouldn’t make love to her.
He was determined to take this slowly even if it killed them, and at times like this, she was pretty sure that she really was capable of killing the bastard.
“Danny,” Jodi moaned as he slid his tongue inside her. “Please!”
“Please, what?” he asked teasingly as he slid his tongue back so that he could tease her clit.
“You know what I want,” Jodi moaned, needing to touch him in return, to hear him moan as she teased him and drove him out of his mind.
“Yes,” Danny said, running his tongue from her core to her clit and back again before he pressed a kiss against her lips and sat up.
He leaned forward and brushed his lips against hers as he shifted and laid back on the bed.
Smiling, she bent down and pressed a kiss against his chest, loving the way that he groaned.
She continued to press kisses against his chest, down his stomach, paying special attention to the scar that cut down his abs.
When she came to the head of his erection, she licked the tip, teasing the slit the way that he liked before she took it in her mouth.
The first time that she’d done this for him, she’d been nervous, terrified that she was going to hate it the way that she used to hate doing it for Jerry, but within seconds, she’d realized something important.
She loved doing this for him. She loved the way he felt in her mouth, the way that he moaned as she challenged herself to take him deeper than the last time.
“Are you going to keep teasing me?” Danny asked in a strained voice as he gripped her hips and shifted her to the side, patiently waiting for her to move her leg over him.
“Mmmhmm,” she said around the large tip in her mouth.
He chuckled as he cupped her bottom and-
“Oh, God…” Jodi moaned, shifting back to force that tongue teasing her to slide back inside her.
“Put me out of my misery, Tinkerbelle,” Danny said, rolling his hips and causing the head of his cock to push deeper into her mouth.
She moaned as he pushed inside her mouth and moved forward, taking him as far as she could before she pulled back until the tip was sliding over her tongue.
Moaning, she spread her legs further apart and shifted back gently so that she could ride his tongue.
He groaned in approval as she shifted her weight onto one hand and wrapped her other hand around the large erection sliding in and out of her mouth.
“That’s it, baby,” Danny groaned against her slit as he slowly shifted his hips, sliding in and out of her mouth and hand.
Gasping, she tightened her grip around him and-
“Hey, roomie, I-Oh, shit!” the startled shout echoed throughout the small room just as a startled squeak tore from her lips and she found herself being rolled off the bed and hitting the carpeted floor with a pained grunt.
Reaching up blindly, Jodi grabbed hold of the blanket, yanked it down and buried herself beneath it, praying that the men shouting at each other forgot that she was there as she did her best not to die of mortification.