comforting at the moment.
“It’s really not,” she muttered as she crossed her arms over her chest and sat there in the incredibly comfortable tub, pouting.
“I see,” he mumbled thoughtfully as he laid his arms over hers and pulled her closer.
“Good. Then there’s no need to explain the need for a divorce then,” she said, sighing with relief as she felt herself relax in his arms.
“A divorce is definitely the only way to go at this point,” he said, sounding serious and making her lips twitch with amusement, damn him!
“Good,” she said with a firm nod, glad that was over with so that they could move on with the rest of their lives and pretend that this never happened.
It was sad and she would miss him, but it was for the best.
God, she really was going to miss him, she thought as she relaxed back against him. It was such a shame to have to move on after all these years, she thought as she spread her legs when she felt one of his deviously large hands slid down her stomach and trace his fingers above her slit.
Knowing that this could very well be the last time that they were together, she decided with a moan of pleasure as she titled her head back, reached up and ran her fingers through his hair, giving it a small tug so she could kiss him as he traced her slit with his finger.
“Mmmmm,” she moaned against his lips as he leisurely teased her slit, taking his time and helping her forget what his pain in the ass cousins had walked in on barely an hour ago.
“Do you like that?” he whispered as he allowed his fingertip to tease her slit.
“Yes,” she whispered with a groan as she placed her hand over his and moved it further down between her legs and with a simple shift, slid his finger inside her.
“Why don’t we take this back to the bedroom?” he suggested even as he slid his finger inside her.
“You don’t like it in here?” she asked, shifting so that her bottom rubbed up against his erection.
“I like it in here just fine,” he said as he continued to finger her, “but I’d like it better if I could do this on the bed where I could feel just how wet you are for me.”
“You can feel just fine,” she said on a moan as she rode his finger, moving her other hand over his free hand and placed it on her breast, right over the hard nipple that needed his touch.
He chuckled even as he groaned while his very capable hand took over and gave her breast a good squeeze, allowing the hard nipple to slide between his fingers. “You’re going to make me ruin the surprise,” he admitted as he rolled his hips beneath her, rubbing his cock against her ass as he slid a second finger inside her and gave her breast a squeeze that had her breath catching in her throat, making it difficult for her to want to leave the bathtub, but she had to admit that she was also intrigued about the surprise to refuse.
A few minutes later, she realized that she definitely should have refused as well as considered Googling a good divorce attorney.
Or a hitman, whatever.
*-*-*-*
“Marybeth!”
“Rot in hell, you lying son of a bitch!” she snapped from the other side of the bathroom door where she’d locked herself shortly after she’d spotted his surprise.
Or rather, what was left of it.
“This isn’t a good sign,” Trevor, the asshole that he should have killed when he had a chance, said from his left, where he stood, devouring the plate of chocolate dipped fruit while the asshole to his right was sipping from the five hundred dollar bottle of champagne that he’d ordered to go along with the romantic dinner that his asshole cousins seemed to have inhaled before the tray made it inside the room.
“You may want to consider marriage counseling,” Jason said solemnly as Darrin stood there, wearing nothing but a towel as he glared at the bathroom door.
It was either glare at the bathroom door or kill his cousins and since his Lieutenant would probably frown upon keeping him on staff after he’d murdered the bastards, he continued to stare at the door, praying that his rage didn’t cause him to do something that he’d regret later…much later.
“Why. Are. You. Here?” he ground out, barely able to get the words out without giving into the need to beat the shit out of his cousins.
It was just so damn tempting…
“Well,” Jason said, finishing off the bottle of champagne, “we decided that your theory was bullshit.”
“I see,” he murmured absently as he reached for the doorknob to the bathroom, hopeful that she’d unlocked it since the last time he’d checked so that he could join her in there and pretend that his asshole cousins weren’t doing everything in their power to ruin what should have been the perfect honeymoon.
“Looks like the honeymoon’s over,” Trevor said as Jason nodded in agreement.
“You might as well pack it up and go home,” Jason said, sighing heavily.
“When you get home, I would seriously look into marriage counseling.”
“Bastard!” Marybeth snapped from the bathroom where she was most likely planning his demise.
“You shouldn’t have to take this abuse,” Jason, the most unhelpful bastard that ever walked the earth, said with a sympathetic shake of his head.
“You really shouldn’t,” Trevor agreed distractedly as he returned his attention to the tray of food that they’d already picked clean.
“Why are you here?” he found himself asking hollowly as he tried to figure out what he could have possibly done in another life to deserve this fucked up existence.
“To keep you safe,” Jason explained with a shrug as he gave up keeping him company in front of the door and decided to throw himself across the large comfortable bed that Darrin had made plans for.
“I’m fine,” he snarled, still staring at the door, terrified that if he looked away, even for a second, that he would give into one of the many fantasies racing through his mind right now and beat the shit out of his cousins, but the words that his mother used to say to him when one of his brothers or cousins used to piss him off.
There’s no guarantee that a jury would understand that they pushed you to do it. So, please think twice before you kill one of your brothers or cousins.
It wasn’t much, but it had kept him from doing something that he’d eventually feel bad about, after a decade or two and some dirty looks from his mother and aunts, from killing the annoying bastards, but that little speech that his mother had drilled into his head might not be enough to save his asshole cousins.
Not today.
“Get the fuck out,” he said, clenching his hands into fists to stop himself from doing something that sounded completely reasonable right now.
“Just as soon as you pack your shit and go home,” Jason mumbled sleepily from where he was curled up on the bed.
“I’m not going anywhere,” he bit out coldly, keeping his glare locked on the door.
“Then neither are we,” Trevor said with a shrug as he strolled over to the bed, shoved Jason over, grabbed a pillow and curled up, making it clear what he had to do.
Chapter 5
“You son of a bitch!” Jason snapped as Darrin…
Well, she really didn’t want to think about what Darrin was doing to Jason or why Trevor was handcuffed to the bed. The only thing that she cared about right now was getting home and putting an end to this nightmare.
Taking advantage of the fact that her husband was busy brutalizing Jason, she quietly tiptoed across the room, sending Trevor a sympathetic wince and headed for the door. Swallowing hard, she reached for the doorknob and-
“And where do you think you’re going?” the painfully familiar voice that had brought her so much pleasure over the years asked.
From. Right. Behind. Her.
“Home?” she said, hating the way that her voice shook as she said it, but she couldn’t help it.
She’d just seen what he did to his cousins and she knew exactly what he was capable of doing to her. As much as she’d been look
ing forward to spending the entire week in bed with her husband, she hadn’t planned on doing that while he tormented her, bringing her to the cusp of orgasm over and over again just to leave her hanging and screaming for more.
If she couldn’t have this perfect honeymoon that Darrin had planned for her, and she really wanted to stay, then she would rather just go home to her comfortable bed, stash of Hershey Kisses and sleeping in the next week only to periodically leave the bed to order pizza and Chinese food and tell herself that it was just as good as the Ritz Carlton. That was the plan, but the man standing behind her apparently had different plans.
“That’s actually a good idea,” he said, surprising her.
“Wait…what?” Jason asked, temporarily forgetting the fact that he was handcuffed to the frame of the pullout couch to throw them a questioning look as though he didn’t quite believe Darrin.
“I said,” Darrin started to explain only to pause as he grabbed his bag, “that we’re going home.”
“Why?” Trevor asked with a suspicious glint in his eyes as he stopped trying to free himself from the handcuffs keeping him locked to the bedframe to share a telling look with Jason.
“Because,” Darrin said, pausing long enough to pull some clothes on, “that’s the last place that anyone is going to look for us. So, I figure we have a good week free of assholes so that we can enjoy some peace and quiet.”
“If that’s true then you have no reason to keep us here,” Jason said, pointedly yanking on his cuffed hand.
Darrin shrugged as he attached his holstered gun to his ankle. “Except that it would bring me such joy to know that you’re stuck here.”
“You…bastard!”
“Oh, but don’t worry,” Darrin said, grabbing their bags and gesturing towards the door, “I made sure to switch the room over to your credit card.”
“You mother fu-”
Before Jason could finish that lovely sentiment, Darrin had her in the hallway and was shutting the door behind them with a satisfied sigh while she was trying to tell herself that this was really what she wanted. A nice relaxing week at home was better than nothing.
It was fine.
Absolutely fine.
*-*-*-*
“Are we taking the train home or a bus?” Marybeth asked with a forced little smile as she stood next to him, waiting for the elevator and pretending like she didn’t care if they had to go home and call an end to their honeymoon.
“Neither,” he said as they stepped into the elevator.
“A rental car?” she absently asked as he reached over and pressed the button for the tenth floor.
“No,” he simply said, shaking his head and wondering if she really knew him at all.
He’d planned the perfect honeymoon and he was damn well going to make sure that she had it. When the elevator stopped at the tenth floor and he gestured for her to step out, she did, but not before throwing him a curious look. He tilted his head to the side and gave her that bad boy smile that he knew she loved so much.
“Did you really think that I’d let my cousins wreck our honeymoon?” he asked as he leaned down and brushed his lips against hers, biting back the groan as his body stirred, demanding that he stop playing all the fucking games and take her before he lost his goddamn mind.
As much as he wanted to shove her up against the nearest wall and fuck her raw, he couldn’t. This was their honeymoon, a once in a lifetime opportunity to show her exactly how much he loved her, how much he appreciated the fact that she’d married him, not that he’d really given her much of a choice, meant the world to him.
To that end, he was going to give her the most romantic week of her life even if it killed him.
*-*-*-*
“So…,” Marybeth began only to stop when she realized that she really just didn’t know what to say as she stood there in the middle of the king suite that her husband had apparently booked in addition to the room downstairs.
“So...,” Darrin said with that mischievous smile that she loved so much as he reached for her. “Why the two rooms?” he asked, reading her mind.
“Well, I was wondering about that,” she admitted, returning his smile with one of her own as she reached up and wrapped her arms around his shoulders as she leaned into him.
He chuckled as he wrapped his arms around her and leaned down to kiss her. “I’m a Bradford, sweetheart.”
“Meaning…?” she asked, teasing his lips as she ran her fingers through his short hair, enjoying the silky strands as they slipped through her fingers.
“Meaning,” he said, pausing to brush his lips against hers, “that I know exactly how quickly they can fuck everything up. So, I made sure that I was prepared.”
“By renting two suites?” she asked, trying not to frown at the thought of how much that must have cost them.
This was their honeymoon and she shouldn’t be worried about costs, but she couldn’t help it, not with the babies on the way and the fact that she was taking a year off from working fulltime so that she could be a stay-at-home mom. Money was going to be tight for a while. They would be okay, but with three babies on the way, a mortgage and only one income, it was hard not to think about how much this week away was going to cost them.
“Stop worrying,” he whispered against her lips. “This trip isn’t costing us a dime.”
“Because you found a coupon for two free suites at the Ritz?” she asked dryly, nearly whimpering when he gently nipped on her bottom lip for teasing him.
“No, brat,” he said, chuckling as he kissed the tip of her nose.
“Then how exactly did you manage to swing two suites for free?” she asked, continuing to twirl her fingers around his hair.
“The first one, which we will call Decoy Suite A was paid for with Jason’s credit card,” he admitted, taking her by surprise, because she’d honestly thought he’d been kidding about that.
“Why Jason’s?” she asked, trying not to think about how warped the Bradford mind really was, because it was actually kind of terrifying if she thought too long about it.
“Because,” he said, leaning down so that he could press a kiss against the sensitive spot just below her neck, “the bastard went to Harvard so the odds were in his favor that he was going to figure out my plan first. Besides, he’s the most persistent bastard so I covered my bases.”
“And this second suite?” she asked as she tilted her head back and closed her eyes as he continued his sensual assault.
“Is a belated wedding present from your brother,” he said, sounding rather distracted as he continued to kiss her.
That surprised her, not that Jake would do something sweet for her, but that he would be okay with Darrin taking her on this honeymoon since he’d been raised on the same Bradford bullshit stories as she had. While she’d believed them to a certain extent, putting the blame for their seriously fucked up honeymoons on poor planning, bad timing and Bradford stubbornness, she also believed that all those honeymoons from hell happened because they expected the shit to hit the fan.
When you were brought up believing that you would have a fucked up honeymoon if you took it before the year mark was over, it was going to screw with your brains and cause you to make choices that would make those warnings eventually come true. She’d chosen to take this chance with Darrin with a clear head, knowing the family history and exactly what could happen if they made every move in an effort to avoid this supposed curse.
Jake on the other hand…
While he may not be related to the Bradfords or have to worry about this “curse” biting him in the ass one day, he was definitely a believer. Whenever a Bradford bit the big one and finally settled down, Jake was always there, placing bets on just how fucked up the honeymoon would get. He’d made a lot of money over the years, lost a lot as well, but he always found amusement out of watching another Bradford get his ass kicked by the curse.
That is until she married a Bradford and the full implication of what that meant hit h
im. He’d been adamantly opposed to her going on a honeymoon, had threatened to tie her up and keep her locked up in their mother’s basement until the year mark was up. He’d even come over and had a shouting match with Darrin, which had actually terrified her enough to grab the phone and start calling Reese, Darrin’s twin, and father to stop them from killing each other. Before she got the chance to hit “send,” her husband and brother had quieted down and were even chuckling, which shouldn’t have frightened her, but it did.
An hour later, Jake had walked out of Darrin’s office, gave her head a patronizing pet on the head with a grin and left while whistling a jaunty tone. She’d wondered about that, had actually had a few nightmares about it since, but had simply put it out of her mind when the Bradfords decided to talk Darrin out of taking