“No,” Aidan said with an unconcerned shake of his head as he searched through his bag. “Tell me, did you take anything after you were exposed?”

“Benadryl,” she answered, looking down at the things on her arm with a frown, wondering if she was going to need to have them surgically removed.

“Are you allergic to anything?” he asked, pulling out a small vile of medicine.

“No,” she said, shaking her head. “I just-Ouch!” she nearly shouted when he took her by surprise and jammed a needle in her bicep.

“Sorry about that, but I needed your muscles completely loose. The medicine seems to work faster if your muscles aren’t constricted as they would be if…………are you okay?” he asked, his words trailing off as he studied her, looking concerned and probably for good reason, she mused as she felt the full force of the medicine work its way through her system.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” she said, nodding to herself as she looked around the kitchen and wondered why she hadn’t baked anything with jelly. God, she loved jelly…..

*-*-*-*

“Help!” the scream tore him from a heavy sleep. The second scream for help had him throwing his legs over the bed. The third had him muttering a curse and racing to the door as he registered the sound of his little brother screaming for help.

“Danny!” Aidan yelled just as he stumbled to a stop in his living room. “Help us, you bastard!” Aidan demanded as Danny stood there frozen, trying to make sense of the scene before him.

His Uncle Jared was on the floor, his arms wrapped around Tinkerbelle who was squirming wildly in an attempt to get to the front door while his brother wrestled with her legs, struggling to get her to stop kicking their uncle. Tinkerbelle didn’t seem all that concerned with having two large men trying to restrain her. In fact, she didn’t really seem to notice them at all.

But, she did notice him.

As soon as she spotted him she stopped struggling, propped her head up on her hands, sighed dramatically and said, “I need to run to the store and get some jelly.”

It was at that moment when he realized that he was in for one hell of a night.

*-*-*-*

“But-”

“No,” he said firmly, rubbing the back of his neck as the small woman sitting across from him continued to glare in his direction.

“But-”

“No,” he said, gesturing to the sandwich that he’d made her. “Eat your sandwich.”

“But-”

“Just accept the fact that they cleaned you out and eat your sandwich,” he said, once again cursing his uncle to hell and back for not only ditching his ass with his drugged up neighbor, but for eating what he’d surmised was an incredibly delicious buffet made by none other than the woman that he was currently stuck with.

“If you’ll just let me go to my apartment I’ll grab some flour and sugar and-.”

“Try to run off to the store again,” he finished for her, in absolutely no mood to deal with this, not tonight.

All he wanted to do was to grab one of his books, sit in a corner and read. That was it. It’s how he spent most of his nights when he didn’t force himself to go over to one of his relative’s houses for dinner, slap a smile on his face and pretend for their sake that everything was okay. It wasn’t, but they didn’t need to know that.

“But, I need jelly to-”

“I’m not letting you near the stove,” he pointed out for probably the hundredth time that night, praying that she would just let it go and pass out so that he could salvage some of this night.

When she didn’t argue, he looked up and swore when he spotted her empty chair. Getting to his feet, he headed towards his front door only to pause, tip his head to the side and listen. With a shake of his head and a muttered promise to kick his brother’s ass, he turned around, got down on his haunches and peered beneath the table to find Tinkerbelle on her hands and knees with that delectable ass that he tried to ignore pointed in his direction. For a minute he watched her as she peered out beneath one of the chairs, no doubt trying to make sure that the coast was clear before she tried to make a run for it, but there was only one problem with that.

She was facing the wall.

It was sad really, he decided as he reached beneath the table, grabbed hold of her hips and pulled her out. She didn’t struggle or put up a fight. Instead, she sighed as she turned in his arms, threw her arms around his neck and laid her head against his chest as though it was the most natural thing in the world to do.

For a moment he stood there, holding her in his arms and savoring her touch against his better judgment. He should put her down and put some distance between them. He didn’t need to hold her to keep her safe, but at the moment it felt……necessary.

Since he came back from the war he’d felt lost, felt like something was missing, but right now, for the first time in his life, he felt whole. When she snuggled closer, he absently pressed a kiss against her forehead and headed for his room. He didn’t bother turning the light on as he walked into his room. He kept his place clean and organized, a habit the Marines had made damn sure that he would remember for the rest of his life so he wasn’t worried about tripping over anything.

Carefully, he laid her down in his bed and pulled the covers over her, hoping that it would be enough to help him resist the need to pull her back in his arms. It wasn’t, but he still managed to step away before he did anything stupid. That is until she reached out and grabbed his hand.

“Stay with me?” she asked softly, her beautiful green eyes trapping him on the spot. He opened his mouth to refuse, only to close his eyes in defeat when she added, “Please.”

Chapter 9

Oh, God……………

What the hell happened last night? she found herself wondering as she came to the realization that she had her face plastered against a very firm, very masculine chest. Deciding that she’d die of mortification later in the privacy of her apartment, she bit her lip, squeezed her eyes shut and slowly shifted until she found herself turned around, facing away from what she now realized was a slumbering Danny Bradford.

Swallowing, she reached up and placed her hands on the arm trapping her and tried to push it away when she suddenly found herself pulled back against him. He shifted in his sleep, somehow managing to pull her closer as he placed his hand against her stomach, holding her against him.

This was definitely an awkward situation, she had to admit, and one that she had absolutely no experience in dealing with. When Jerry used to spend the night, he’d hogged the bed and would try to spoon her, but it was always so uncomfortable for both of them that he usually gave up after a minute and turned over, shoving her aside in the process. Not that she ever complained. Well, except for the way he hogged the bed and ignored her. She had actually been relieved that she didn’t have to spend the night in his arms.

Moments like this when she looked back on the way things had been with Jerry she felt foolish. There had been so many signs that he hadn’t been right for her, that he’d never loved her and to be honest, she hadn’t loved him or liked him all that much. He could be rude, condescending and dismissive and if she’d been thinking at the time, she would have realized why she’d been with him.