“I can’t,” she said, gasping in horror when tiny hands suddenly closed around her ankles and tried to drag her away. Danny’s large frame was the only thing that kept her from being dragged to the ground and smothered in paste and glitter. That triumphant look in his eye let her know that he knew it.
“No?” he said, cocking a brow as he moved to step back.
“Get her!” one of the normally docile children screamed excitedly as she found herself being pulled to the edge of the counter.
Refusing to be covered in white gunk for a second time that week, she wrapped her arms and legs around Danny’s retreating form and held on for dear life. He simply stood there, his arms down by his sides as he stepped away from the counter, allowing the little demons to grab hold of her. Tightening her hold around him, she snapped, “Danny!”
“Are you sure you can’t go out with me tonight?” he asked, sounding amused, the bastard!
“Yes!”
“Well, then,” he said, sighing heavily as he grabbed her hips and-
“Wait!” she screamed a bit desperately when she realized that he was truly going to hand her over to the demons still pawing at her.
“Yes?” he inquired politely as she tightened her hold around him, her face buried in his neck as she struggled to come up with a way to get out of this without needing to scour glitter off her body for the next two months. When it came to her, she quickly looked up and peered over Danny’s shoulder only to find Trevor standing next to Matthew, both males snacking on Matthew’s loot as they openly watched them.
“Can I get a little help here?” she asked her landlord, who seemed to be enjoying the show.
Taking a big bite out of a chocolate cupcake, he shook his head and gestured for her to get on with it.
Bastard!
Making a mental note to tattletale on the bastard later to his wife, she shifted her gaze to the playroom’s barricaded double doors where the pounding and threats of spankings were louder than ever, and sighed. It looked like she was on her own.
Resting her head against his chest, she tightened her grip around him and said, “I can’t.”
“I understand,” Danny said, taking her by surprise as he walked back to the checkout desk and carefully placed her on the edge of the counter. As he pulled away, he gave her a boyish smile that had her biting her lower lip, wondering if maybe-
“Aliens can only be defeated with Elmer’s glue, kids, not paste,” he explained with a wink as he stepped back and away and-
“Get her!”
“Wait! No, wait!” she yelled, rushing to pull her legs up so that she could jump over the desk and make a run for it. She’d barely managed to pull her right leg up when they grabbed her and with one surprisingly hard pull, yanked her off the counter. She squeezed her eyes shut, biting back a scream as she waited for her back and bottom to make contact with the old cracked marble floor beneath her only to release a startled gasp when a pair of strong arms caught her, saving her from a bruised bottom.
Gasping, she opened her eyes to find herself staring into a set of intense emerald green eyes. She opened her mouth to thank him, but never got the chance. Before she knew what was happening, he was leaning down and kissing her. Warm firm lips moved over hers, enticingly sweet and incredibly sexy, making her lose her mind and forget where she was, and that she was surrounded by a bevy of demonic children determined to destroy her. Lost in sensation, a soft moan escaped her as she parted her lips and-
Blinked her eyes open with a soft grunt as she suddenly found herself sitting on the marble floor, staring as Danny stood up, trying to make sense of what had just happened when Danny said, “She’s all yours,” and stepped back.
It took a few seconds for those three words to register in her mind and when they did, it was too late.
The children had found the Elmer’s glue.
*-*-*-*
“Why did you feel it was necessary to sic those kids on her?” Trevor asked as they paused in front of a set of bookshelves built into the wall.
“I was bored,” Matthew said with a shrug as he stepped back so that his father could measure the shelves while Danny inspected them.
More dry rot, he noted with a snort of disgust. The entire library was going to have to be gutted at this rate.
Trevor sighed heavily as he moved his fingers aside so that his son could read the measurements and write it down. “What did we talk about?” he asked Matthew, sounding patient for a man who not twenty minutes ago was forced to sweet talk two dozen angry mothers out of calling his wife…….and the National Guard.
“That there are more constructive ways to deal with boredom than terrifying others for my own enjoyment,” Matthew spouted off, sounding completely bored and making Danny wonder just how many times Trevor had been forced to drill it into the kid’s head. It was actually kind of frightening, and if he wasn’t still thinking about those soft lips giving beneath his, he’d probably be a little concerned for his cousin.
“Then why did you do it?” he found himself asking the kid, deciding that now probably wasn’t the best time to be fantasizing about Tinkerbelle.
Matthew shrugged as he wrote down the measurements. “She wouldn’t tell me why she was pink.”
“And?” he asked with a frown, positive that he’d missed something.
“And I took exception to that,” Matthew said with another shrug that had Danny look up just in time to catch Trevor shooting a look heavenward. “Plus, I was hungry.”
“What does that have to do with anything?” he asked, glancing back down at the little boy that would probably one day rule the world along with his siblings.
“Because he made the rest of the children give him their snacks in exchange for the glue and glitter,” Trevor said, sounding bored as he gestured for Danny to check the molding running along the floor.
“Rotted,” Danny said with a sigh.
“Do you think the frame can be salvaged?” Trevor asked with an expression that probably matched his own at the moment.
This was not a simple renovation like the City Council had led their uncle to believe. Everything from the outside walls and masonry work to the walls and shelves inside were rotted from age, too much moisture and termites. They’d be lucky if they didn’t have to demolish the entire building and start over.
“Let’s see,” he said, placing his hand against the wall and pushed.
The horsehair plaster crumbled beneath his touch, revealing an empty space, dried mold, long abandoned wasps nests and a surprisingly sturdy frame covered in water stains and holes.