As he placed the note on the pillow beside her head, he couldn’t help but feel bad about last night…..and this morning. He’d taken her all night, only allowing her short breaks to catch her breath before he was finding another excuse to take her again. He would have taken her again when the chime from a text message woke him up, but it just seemed cruel so he’d taken a quick shower and got dressed all while he struggled to resist the very tempting woman passed out in his bed.

He regretted leaving her like this, but it was probably for the best, he tried to tell himself. He headed for the door only to curse when his phone started to ring. He grabbed it out of his pocket and fumbled to swipe his finger across the screen before it could wake up Jodi.

“What?” he demanded in a hiss as he headed for the door.

“Where are you?” Aidan asked, sounding bored.

“I’m on my way.”

“Why are you whispering?”

“I’m not whispering!” he hissed as he flipped the lock open.

“Yeah, you really are.”

“I’m not-” he started to argue only to abruptly end with a frown as he looked down and spotted the small woman that he’d thought he’d left sleeping on the bed, kneeling on the floor in front of him.

“Get your ass down here, I’m starving,” Aidan bitched as Danny watched with fascination as Jodi reached for his fly as she sleepily yawned.

He should probably be stopping her, but…….

He wanted to see where she was going with this.

“Danny? Where the hell are you, man?”

“Hold on a second,” he said, hoping to shut his brother up so that he could focus on the small woman pulling his zipper down.

When she reached inside his pants and wrapped her small hand around his hardening cock he forced himself to bite back a groan that his brother probably would have questioned. He didn’t have a chance in hell of biting back a groan when she wrapped her plump lips around the tip of his cock and sucked.

“Danny? Are you all right?”

“I’m fine,” he bit out as he shifted his legs apart to bring himself lower so that Jodi could pull him into her-

“Oh, fuck,” he moaned as she moved her mouth over him, suckling just enough to cause his cock to jerk slightly in her mouth as she worked him.

She looked up at him with those pretty green eyes of hers as she slowly took him to the root, forcing him to blindly reach out and slap his hand against the wall when his legs threatened to give out.

“Danny? Shit! I’m on my way up. Just hold on!” Aidan rushed out, sounding panicked and grabbing his attention.

“No!” he snapped, shaking his head and dropping his hand away from the wall to gesture for Jodi to continue when she paused with the tip of his cock resting at her lips to shoot him a questioning look. “I’m fine. I’m just going to be a little,” he paused to lick his lips, “late.”

“Oh, well,….don’t take too long. We’re-”

Whatever was his brother was going to say was cut off when he ended the call and tossed his phone aside so that he could focus on Tinkerbelle as she added a whole new level to his game plan.

Chapter 38

Oh God, she was going to be sick.

“I’m really sorry, Jodi, but Eleanor shouldn’t have told you that we’d be able to get you set up on direct deposit. We don’t do direct deposit. We should, but we don’t.”

“I understand,” she said hollowly as the implications of what was about to happen hit her.

“I hope you enjoy the rest of your trip,” Anna said, sounding cheerful as Jodi struggled to hold it together.

“Thank you,” she mumbled, hanging up the phone as she sat down.

Her entire body felt numb. Her head was spinning and her breaths were coming fast. She couldn’t believe this was happening. It couldn’t be happening. Not after everything that she’d been through. Not after everything that she’d sacrificed so that she could fix her life.

“Tinkerbelle?” Danny said as he stepped out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around his hips. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” she said, turning around and taking her time picking up her phone, needing a moment to pull it together.

“Are you sure?” he asked after a pause.

She nodded, keeping her back to him. “Yeah, I’m fine.”

He came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her. “You wouldn’t be lying to me now, would you?”

“Of course not,” she said, pasting a fake smile on her face as she turned around in his arms. “I’m fine.”

He tilted his head to the side, studying her for a long moment. “Now, why don’t I believe you?” he murmured thoughtfully.

“Because you’re paranoid,” she teased, standing on her toes so that she could press a kiss against his stubborn chin. “Everything’s fine,” she lied.

*-*-*-*

“So, I was thinking that once we’re home that I’d take Jodi out to a movie or something,” Duncan said as they stood in front of the main alligator pit.

“And why’s that?” he asked, not really paying attention to his brother or the hundreds of alligators roaming freely in the large pit below.

All of his attention was on the small woman siting on the bench, staring at the ground and looking a little lost. Something was wrong. He wasn’t sure what had happened between the time that he’d dropped to his knees and buried his head between her legs and the time that he’d finished his shower, but he was going to find out.

“Because she’s clearly done with you,” his brother said, confirming his fears that he was the reason why she looked so upset.

“Clearly,” he murmured absently, running everything that he’d said and done in the last forty-eight hours through his head and although he’d fucked up a lot, he had a pretty good idea where he’d truly fucked up.

He’d not only assumed that she was in love with him without actually hearing the words, but he’d fucked up by telling her that he not only wanted to marry her, but that he didn’t love her. He should have never opened his mouth and told her anything. He’d rushed his game plan and now….

He was paying for it.

She was pulling away from him and he had absolutely no idea what to do to stop her.

“Good. So, you’re fine if I ask her out?” his brother asked, already pushing away from the wall to do just that.

“Sure,” he said, facing his brother as he pulled back his fist and let it fly, because if there was one thing that little brothers were good for, it was beating the shit out of them when he was pissed.

*-*-*-*

“Get him off! Get him off!” the hysterical scream disrupted her self-pitying thoughts and had her looking up in time to see most of Danny’s brothers grabbing him by the arms and carefully pulling him off Duncan, but not before he got in another punch.

“I’m telling on you, you bastard!” Duncan yelled while he got to his feet as Danny struggled to break free and go back after his brother.

“Go ahead, you little bastard!” Danny said, pulling free from his brothers’ hold.

“Oh, I will!” Duncan said, glaring at his brother as he stormed off, heading towards the gift shop where their parents had disappeared twenty minutes ago. When he saw Jodi, he stopped, grinned smugly and headed straight for her, which was when Danny came after him for a second time.