Double Dare

by R. L. Mathewson

  helping his brother and watching over Jodi, but he couldn’t leave his wife. She was still having a hell of a time after her surgery and probably would continue doing so for a few more months.

  Her surgery had been brutal. There had been a lot more damage from the tissue than they’d expected. They’d only been able to discover the extent of the damage once they’d removed her uterus and then…

  Then the real work had started. The tissue had grown past her lungs, over her spine and had been heading north. Thank fucking God they’d moved her surgery up, because he didn’t even want to think about what could have happened if they had put it off any longer. They’d removed as much tissue as they could, but it had taken two additional surgeries to do it.

  She’d been scared out of her mind while he’d been fucking terrified. The only thing that had kept them sane was Zoe and Trevor and the promise that they had made them to try to carry a child for them. The fact that three embryos had taken was more than they could have ever asked for.

  “Can I get a plate of that?” Marybeth asked, smiling as she slowly walked over to him and wrapped her arms around him.

  “You should be resting,” he reminded her, leaning down to steal a kiss.

  “And you should be getting my food,” Trevor pointed out as he walked into the room and headed for the fridge where they kept a case of ginger ale for Zoe.

  “Is her stomach upset?” Marybeth asked, looking concerned as she stepped out of his arms and grabbed a cup of ice for Trevor.

  Trevor chuckled. “Don’t worry about it. She’s got this.”

  “I don’t think we’ll ever be able to thank you enough for doing this for us,” Marybeth said, still managing to look as shocked today as she was when he’d told her about the gift that Trevor and Zoe had offered them.

  “No worries,” Trevor said, taking the cup from her with a wink, “it’s what Bradfords do for each other.”

  “Thank you,” she said, looking close to crying, again, as she reached up and wrapped her arms around Trevor. “Thank you so much,” she said, sniffling as Trevor carefully returned the hug all while he glared at him and mouthed, “I still hate you.”

  Grinning, Darrin mouthed back, “I know.”

  With a kiss on the top of her head, Trevor stepped back, grabbed the plate of macaroni and cheese out of his hands and headed for the living room. As soon as they were alone, Darrin took his wife back and in his arms and closed his eyes, intent on savoring the feel of the woman in his arms.

  “I love you,” she said as she held him tightly.

  “Not as much as I love you,” he promised her as he leaned down and kissed her forehead.

  Nodding with a sigh, she stepped away and headed for the fridge. “That’s probably true.”

  Chuckling, he stepped up behind her and carefully wrapped his arms back around her. “It really is a shame,” he said, kissing her throat.

  “What is?” she asked warily, going still in his arms.

  “I feel a double dare coming on,” he admitted with a smile and a chuckle as his words sank in and his wife tried to make her escape, but unfortunately for her, she didn’t move fast enough.

  A Little Something Special as a Thank You…

  “Take the painkillers, Jodi! For the love of God, take the painkillers!” Danny begged, biting back a scream even as she released a bloodcurdling scream that would haunt him for the rest of his life.

  “Take the pills!” Darrin begged from the other side of the table where he was taking his turn holding Jodi’s other hand. “Oh God, take the pills!”

  “I can’t!” Jodi growled, tightening her grip around their hands just as another contraction tore through her, earning twin shouts of pain and pleas for mercy.

  “Jodi,” Aidan quietly said, drawing Jodi’s rage towards him while Danny sagged in his chair, not sure if he’d be able to survive another contraction without drugs, “you’re only at two centimeters, sweetheart. I think it might be time to start rethinking your choice for a natural childbirth.”

  “No!” she bit out through clenched teeth, sounding somewhat demonic and scaring the ever-living hell out of all three of them. “I will remember having these babies!”

  “Baby,” he said slowly, hoping not to startle his wife into turning her homicidal rages on him, “I understand that you don’t want to go into one of your ‘states,’ but I don’t think that you want to be in this much pain for the next few hours either. Do you?”

  She turned her glare on him so fast it was a wonder that he didn’t fall out of his chair. “I am not taking drugs!”

  “O-okay,” he said, swallowing nervously as he gently pat the back of her hand, trying to soothe her before she decided to go for his balls.

  “Why don’t you boys give us a minute?” his father said with a warm smile for Marybeth as he walked into the room, wearing a pair of navy blue scrubs.

  “Thank God,” Darrin muttered, pulling his hand free with a wince as Danny did the same.

  “We’ll just be in the hallway,” he promised his wife, deciding that mentioning the ice pack that he planned on hunting down for his hand would probably only piss her off.

  “Okay,” she mumbled, panting a bit as she placed her hand protectively around the large swell of her belly.

  He leaned down and kissed her. “You’re doing great.”

  “Ice chips. I need more ice chips,” she said with the determination of a woman who truly believed that ice chips would make all the difference in the world and somehow ease her pain.

  “I’ll get more ice chips,” he promised her, resisting the urge to cradle his hand against his chest.

  “Thank you,” she said, sighing with relief as she laid back and closed her eyes.

  “We’ll be right back,” he said, ignoring the panicked look in his brother’s eyes as they headed for the door, not knowing that his father was about to make a liar out of him.

  An hour later, he was finally allowed to return.

  “Danny!” Jodi said excitedly with a big smile, giving him his first clue that something was seriously wrong.

  “Umm, hey, sweetheart. I brought your ice chips,” he said, holding up the cup that was mostly water now.

  Her beautiful eyes teared up as her chin quivered. “You are the sweetest man alive. I love you so much, Danny Bradford,” she said with a little sniffle that immediately put him on edge.

  “Oh, shit….”

  They’d drugged her.

  Somehow his father had managed to do what no one else had been able to do and convinced her to take the pain medication. He was glad that someone was able to convince her to take the medication, because he hated the idea of his wife suffering even one second of pain, but there was a part of him, a very big part of him, that was absolutely terrified of what the next twelve hours or so were going to hold for them.

  “She’s numb from the waist down. She won’t be able to leave that bed,” his father said with a knowing smile.

  “Thank God,” he said, sagging with relief, thankful that he wasn’t going to have to worry about his very pregnant wife trying to escape her bed all night and getting into God only knows what.

  At least this way they’d be able to keep a close eye on her and make sure that she-

  “I can’t wait to have sex again,” Jodi said, sighing wistfully. “I really miss sex.”

  “Ummm, Jodi,” he said, trying to get his wife’s attention before she could-

  “Only with Danny of course, because he has a really large penis and he knows how to use it,” she announced as he stood there, trying to pretend that he wasn’t blushing as he desperately tried to get his wife to stop.

  “Here, sweetheart. Why don’t you have some water?” he suggested, holding the cup out to her, praying that she took it before she said something that would make this worse.

  “He knows how to use his tongue, too,” she added thoughtfully as everyone in the room suddenly found one of the walls or the floor interesting.

 
“It’s going to be a long night,” his father said with a sigh and sympathetic smile as he closed his eyes in defeat.

  They definitely had a long night ahead of them, he decided when she suddenly broke out in hysterical tears when she realized that her ice chips had melted.

  A long fucking night…

  Another Neighbor from Hell Novel….

  Coming in 2016

  Prologue

  Dear Reese,

  I’m sure you’re wondering why the locks have been changed and all of your stuff is gone.

  Well, it’s really all your fault. If you’d come home last Sunday like you said you were going to, you would have found all of your furniture and things nicely piled outside and ready for you to take away, but you decided stay down in Florida for an extra week for your asshole brother without telling me. If you’d shown up like you said you would then your shit wouldn’t have been stolen. I did manage to save a few of your things that they didn’t want and fit them all in the box that I left on the floor.

  Roger thinks I should just get to the point. He’s anxious to catch our flight. Oh, I probably should tell you that Roger and I are madly in love and that we’re flying to Vegas to get married. He says he’s sorry. He’s really sweet, isn’t he? He feels really bad about this and if it makes you feel better all that sneaking around behind your back was really, really stressful on both of us. I almost had problems sleeping at night and you know how important my twelve hours of beauty sleep are to me.

  Anyway, I really don’t think I should feel all that bad about cheating on you since it really was all your fault. When you told me that you weren’t interested in sex I thought you were just kidding. Had I known that you weren’t then I never would have gone out with you. I know you proposed and all, but I feel like you wasted a year of my life. Well, maybe not a year since I didn’t make it a week before I started sleeping around, but again that’s your fault! If you took care of me like you were supposed to then I wouldn’t have had to sleep with your best friend.

  While I’m writing this letter I have to tell you that I think it’s really weird for a 27-year-old guy to still be a virgin. All the girls at the shop, work and at the grocery store and even some of the guys that you work with think so too and they think that you were using me to cover up for other problems, which I have to tell you right now that I don’t appreciate one bit. But I’m a big enough person that I suppose that I should forgive you.

  Also, I thought I’d tell you that I don’t like your family. No, not at all. Their obsession with food is weird and I just don’t like them, especially your cousins who ignored me. Plus, their kids are little brats. My cell phone still isn’t working right and I think you should pay for it, but Roger said to just let it go. For him I will, because he’s so kind and sweet and brings out the best in me. He makes me such a good person.

  I was going to give you back your engagement ring, but then I decided that you kind of owe it to me for such a stressful year. I sold it so that Roger and I can have a wonderful week in Vegas. I would say I’ll call you when we get back, but why bother?

  Hugs and kisses,

  Missy

  P.S.

  I feel kind of bad about having to tape this note to the door, but you didn’t have any envelopes in your desk.

  Chapter 1

  One Year Later…

  “How many men?” Kasey asked as she dumped another bag of ice in the old red cooler that had seen better days.

  “Three,” was Sara’s, her best friend since eighth grade, no nonsense response.

  “Women?” Kasey asked, running a hand through her short spiky hair as she opened the refrigerator and considered their options.

  “Three women.”

  “Children?”

  “Seven, all under the age of twelve, but they’re inside with the women,” Sara said, keeping a vigilant eye on the newly rented beach house next door. As the only permanent resident on this strip of beach, Kasey felt it was her duty to know what was going on next door, for safety reasons of course. Sara, being the good friend that she is, felt that it was her obligation to help in this endeavor. They liked to refer to themselves as “The Neighborhood Watch.” It was a tough job, but it needed to be done.

  Deciding that they would definitely need sustenance for this particular job, Kasey grabbed several of the large whoopie pies that she’d bought down at Karl’s Grocery last night and tossed them in the cooler along with a six-pack of Coke and a six-pack of beer. She shared a look with Sara and realized that they’d put off their responsibility any longer. With a nod, she closed the cooler and carried it towards the back door where Sara waited with a solemn expression as she held the door open for her.

  Without a word, they walked over to the old picnic table that sat at the edge of her property, which just happened to be right next to the neighboring cottage’s driveway, and placed the cooler on the table. It was in a nice shady spot, but most importantly, it afforded them a great view of the activities that they really needed to keep an eye on.

  Folding her arms over her chest, she approached one of the large shirtless men carrying a suitcase. She noted his good looks, perfectly tanned body and the tattoo of “Zoe” written across his left peck. Not too bad, she thought as she approached him.

  “We need to speak to your wives or girlfriends, or whoever they are,” she informed him.

  For a moment he could only frown down at her, shifting his gaze between her and Sara until finally one of the other men joined them.

  “What’s going on?” the newcomer asked, and of course Kasey noted that this one was also devastatingly handsome with a perfect body and that bad boy look that she really enjoyed.

  “They want to talk to our women,” the first man explained, still frowning.

  “For what?” the second one asked with a frown of his own as he looked them over.

  “Guys?” she said, drawing their attention. “We really don’t have much time here. So if you could just go get your wives we’d really appreciate that,” she said, noting the wedding bands on both their hands as she gestured for them to get on with it.

  With a shrug, the men walked off following the third man, the much larger and hotter of the three men, she’d like to add, into the house. When two women stepped out of the house a moment later, she had to hide her surprise. She’d actually expected the men to have supermodel wives, but this was definitely a nice surprise.

  The two women were a few inches shorter than her. The first one, the one smiling sweetly, wore glasses, and had long brown hair pulled up into a messy bun and was adorable in a vixen kind of way. The other one was cute and had long brown hair pulled into a ponytail and was a little on the chubby side, but if the look the man with the “Zoe” tattoo was sending her ass as she walked towards Kasey was any indication then her husband had no complaints.

  “Hi, I’m Haley,” the woman with glasses said as she held her hand out. Kasey shook her hand as the woman gestured to her friend. “This is Zoe and you’ve met our husbands, Jason and Trevor.”

  “I’m Kasey. I live next door and this is my friend Sarah. We’re here to ogle your men while they work, but if that’s a problem for you then we’ll go back to ogling them from my window, but we’d rather not since the view’s not as good,” she explained with a shrug.

  “It’s true. The view isn’t as good,” Sarah agreed on a sigh.

  The women’s lips twitched just as their husbands let out twin snorts of disgust while they sorted through the bags in the back of one of the SUVs.

  “And do you do this often?” Haley asked, sounding amused, which was always a good sign.

  “No,” Kasey said, sighing. “This is an honor we only bestow on our neighbors two, maybe three times a summer.”

  “And how many times a summer does this cottage get rented out?” Zoe asked, looking equally amused.

  She shared a look with Sara before she answered, “Two or three times.”

  Both women laughed. “And what if the guys a
re old or overweight?” Zoe aske with a teasing note and an amused sparkle in