He rubbed his hands down his face, telling himself that this wasn’t happening to him, not tonight. Tinkerbelle went ahead and lightly knocked on her door again. Praying that whatever fucked up side effect the medicine had on her was short term, he dropped his hands from his face, grabbed the towel off his shoulder and prepared himself for a wrestling match from hell.

*-*-*-*

8:45 P.M.

“I don’t want it!”

“Too goddamn bad!” he snapped, making quick work of wrapping the towel around the stubborn woman who was driving him out of his fucking mind.

“You’re going to make me late for work!” Tinkerbelle snapped once again trying to push past him and walk towards the front door, but before she could make her way past him, he had his arm around her and was carrying her back, unfortunately, to his apartment where he could keep an eye on her.

“Uh huh, that’s nice, Tinkerbelle,” he said absently, wondering if tying her to the baseboard would constitute kidnapping.

“That’s not my name!” she snapped, wiggling in his arms, desperate for freedom so that she could make another run for the front door where she would no doubt give the neighborhood a show that they would never forget.

“Stop squirming,” he said through clenched teeth, praying that she would stop rubbing those damn curves against him with every wiggle so that he could focus on figuring out how he was going to get her safely back in her apartment and out of his hair. He wanted his solitude, needed it desperately and as soon as he figured out what was wrong with her, he would have it.

“What the hell is going on here?” a man suddenly demanded, drawing his attention to two large, and familiar looking, police officers, who didn’t look too pleased to find a half naked Jodi in his arms.

Aw, shit…..

“Greg!” his unwanted load cried, sounding relieved, really relieved, which probably wasn’t going to help him in the long run.

For a moment he considered placing Tinkerbelle back on her feet to make it easier for the very pissed off looking officers to slam him to the floor and read him his rights, but then he realized that his unwanted load would take advantage of the situation and make her escape. So, until they ordered him to put her down and raise his hands above his head, he wasn’t releasing her.

“Can you please tell him to put me down so that I can go to work?” she asked, sounding completely rational for a woman being held by a man that she despised while wearing nothing but a towel.

“Work?” the officer that he was assuming was Greg repeated back slowly as he shared a look with his partner that Danny couldn’t read, but one he was willing to interpret.

He was about to become big Bubba’s bitch. He was holding a woman who hated him and happened to be naked, out of it and most likely a cop’s girlfriend in his arms and his only defense was his cousin’s wife’s fucked up cooking and Benadryl. Oh yeah, his ass was going away for a long time for this one, which wouldn’t be so bad once he thought about it.

It meant that he’d get two to five years without his family’s interference, constant worrying and babying him. He just had to be careful with the soap in the shower. Not a bad deal when he thought about it.

“Aspirin or cough medicine?” Greg suddenly demanded, taking a step forward as he gestured towards the woman in Danny’s arms.

“Benadryl,” he answered with a frown, wondering why they-

“Oh fuck no!” Greg said, shoving his partner out of his way as he tried to make his way back to the front door only to have his partner grab him by the collar, yank him back and run for the door.

“Where the hell are you going?” Danny demanded, shifting his unwanted load in his arms.

“As far away from here as humanly possible,” Greg shouted over his shoulder as he tried to shove his way to freedom.

Danny couldn’t help but shake his head in disgust as he watched the cowards shoving each other, both of them more than willing to leave this woman with a man that she despised.

“One of you needs to stay here and take care of her,” he said, rolling his eyes in disgust as Greg’s partner managed to shove Greg back inside and took off. “She should be watched by someone that knows her,” he said, stressing the point that he was a fucking stranger to this woman.

“Looks like you’re doing a good job,” Greg said, scrambling to get back to the front door.

“You’re really going to leave your girlfriend with a stranger?” he spat out in disgust, wondering why women like Tinkerbelle settled for losers like-

“We had you checked out before she signed the lease, Sergeant. We know she’s in good hands,” Greg said, taking him by surprise even as the coward backed up, licking his lips nervously. “I-I just can’t go through this again. Not after the last time,” he said, shaking his head and sounding terrified seconds before he turned around and made a run for it, leaving Danny standing in the middle of hallway with his unwanted load.

“Fucking cowards,” he spat out in disgust.

“Fucking cowards,” his unwanted load repeated back with a sigh that had him rolling his eyes and wondering just how long it would take for the Benadryl to do its thing and knock Tinkerbelle out.

*-*-*-*

10:34 P.M.

“Stop squirming,” he said, not bothering to open his eyes as he shifted his head so that he was once again resting comfortably on her stomach.

“I need to use the bathroom,” she said with what sounded like a cute little pout, something that normally would have had his lips twitching in amusement, but not tonight. Not after the last two hours of hell that she’d put him through.