Page 38 of Sexy Bad Escort

“Allright then,” Joe says,shaking his head and rolling his eyes while he squeezes past toenter the room. “Catch up with you both later.”

Dannykeeps his hands inhispockets while we walk through the corridors. He doesn’t sayanything until we exit the hospital. “So what was all thatabout?”

“Nothingreally.” I take a moment to examine my nails. I’m really not sure that I should getinvolved, but I care too much about Danny to not at least considerhelping.

“If I’mnot mistaken, my brothernow has your phone number,” Danny says.

“Wethought it would be a good ideaif they have my number too. In case anythinghappens.”

“Maybe.”He hums while he thinks it over. “Isuppose that makes sense.”

CHAPTER ELEVEN

DANNY

“Fuckoff.”

Iglance at the bird andthen back at Ronnie. “Think if I trademark that word, he’ll quitusing it?”

Shechuckles. “Pretty sure you can’t trademark the wordfuck.”

“Could youimagine? Every rock band and romance writer would go out ofbusiness.”

“Speaking of business, you need to get moving. Your next appointment isin half an hour.”

I slidemy arm aroundher waistand pull her flush to my body, then lower my lips next to her ear.“Thanks for being there for me during this ordeal with my mother,”I whisper, sending the fine hairs there fluttering.

Sheshivers. Not sure if it’s from the sensation of mybreath on that sensitivearea or the words, but I’m not taking them back. I’ve needed her bymy side for this past week, and she hasn’t let me down. She’s sofucking perfect, and one of these days I need to figure out how topay her back for all she’s done for me.

“I’m just gladshe’s on the mend. Still think she’ll be home by the weekend?”

Istraighten and nod without looking her in the eye. When thathappens, I won’t be ableto see Mom nearly as often. With her in the hospital, I’ve beenable to visit every single day. I bribed one of the nurses to textme whenever my dad and Joe are gone, and that’s when I make myappearance.

Bybribed, I mean I gave her one forfree. Well, notthat. Ronnie’s the only one for me in that regard.

WhatI mean is,I gave the nurse a free Rent-A-Danny consult. Hannah needed alittle relationship advice, wanted to know if she should propose toher boyfriend, who was apparently petrified of doing it himself.Yesterday, I noticed she was sporting a glittery rock on her lefthand, so I’m guessing she followed through with my suggestion ofdinner and a date at the jewelry store.

“Good,”Ronnie says. “Maybe we can take her a casserole orsomething. Joe says yourdad still hasn’t figured out how to cook. If your brother wasn’tstaying there, he’d eat nothing but takeout.”

Well,that’s a buzzkill.Areminder that Ronnie and Joe have become—as she insists—“justfriends.” We spent the ride home from the hospital last night withRonnie swearing they hadn’t talked about anything of importance.But all week she’s made subtle comments, mild suggestions that Ishould consider attempting to repair the relationship between meand my brother.

“I can’tbelieve Joe knows how tocook,” I say. Mom spent lots of time teaching me how to get aroundin a kitchen, in an attempt to distract me from the fact that I wasa lousy athlete and thus could never please my father. But Joe?He’d been too busy being an all-state football star, the baseballteam MVP, the hockey enforcer. The only sport he’d ever suckedat—ironically enough—was golf.

“There’s a lotyou don’t know about your brother.”

“On thatnote.” I tap her nose and open the door. Not in the moodfor anotherRonnie-turned-Mama Frost moment. I’d point it out to her, but thelast time I did she got so pissed off, I ended up going home andsleeping at Erin and Garrett’s place. Danny’s Love Den doesn’t evenfeel like my own anymore now that I spend practically all my timeat Ronnie’s apartment. Plus, I don’t enjoy sleeping aloneanymore.

I pausebefore heading out into the hall. “Hey. When I’m done with thisassignment, what say we go out? Like, you know, a date. AndnotDutch, either. Iwant to take you out.”

Hereyes widen.Yeah, I’m not usually so flush and able to treat her like a lady.But things change, and while at one point I joked about being hercabana boy, I really do want to carry my own weight in thisrelationship.

In fact,I want this to actuallybearelationship. That’s what we’ll talk about tonight, over dinner.We’ll define what we are, put a label on it. I’ll have answers forall her reasons for fearing it, and we’ll have a grand old time andthen come back here to her apartment and make love until the suncomes up. Yeah, that sounds like a plan.

I thinkwe’ll start in the kitchen. I’ll lift heronto the counter and fuck her while her legs arewrapped around my hips. High heels mandatory.

Shit,I’m getting hard. The things this woman does to me. Or maybe that’s my overactiveimagination. Or both.

“I gottago,” I say, twisting slightly so she doesn’t see my wood, which,knowing her, could result in her dragging me back inside and havingher wicked way with me. And I wouldn’t complain, butwe might lose this new client,so I need to get a move on. “See you soon. Wear something sexy.With a thong. And high heels.”

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