The Next Chapter - Chapter 2
"Hey Danny can you come her a second." Danny heard Ben call from the kitchen.
"Yeah" he replied and made his way over to his brother. "Whats up?" he asked.
"What's up? Danny your wife looks like the bag lady you see pushing her cart around downtown, and you seem completely fine with that."
"So, I didn't marry Riley cause of how she dressed. I married her because I love her, and when you love someone, you don't care how they dress."
"Okay true, but that's not the point we're trying to make." Ben said.
"Yeah okay we're just worried about her. I mean besides the clothes, she never leaves this building except to take Jamie to his doctors appointments. That's not healthy man." Tucker joined in,
"Maybe she's depressed, what do they call it, um, post-partum depression. Yeah that's it."
He and Ben agreed, but Danny was just confused.
"What the hell is that?" he asked. Ben answered.
"We did a special on it for the Mary Hart Show. It's when the woman, after giving birth, gets all depressed cause the baby isn't inside her anymore or something like that."
"Well, what are the symptoms?" Danny wondered.
"Well, um, they get really moody and they lose interest in things like their appearance and leaving the house. Oh and they completely lose their sex drive. Like no interest at all." Tucker finished. Danny started to get worried.
"You know guys, I think you may be onto something, I mean Riley has all those symptoms. We haven't had sex since Jamie was born."
"Wow man, talk about a dry spell" Ben commented.
"I know, tell me about it."
As Tucker and Ben were giving him looks of pity, Danny continued to think.
"Come to think of it, when I mentioned to her about doing something special for our anniversary, she said she just wanted to have a quiet night at home."
"Aw man. Does that mean it's the end of Operation Super Lovin'?" Ben asked.
"I thought it was called Operation Love Machine." Tucker said.
"You're both wrong. It was Operation Love Me Tender. And yeah, it looks like it's not gonna happen." Danny said very sadly.
He hadn't told Riley this, but for the past couple of weeks he, Ben, and Tucker had been planning a big surprise for his and Riley's anniversary. Danny had planned out everything, to the last detail. He was going to tell Riley all about it, until she turned down the idea of doing anything at all. To say he was disappointed was an understatement.
He was really looking forward to a romantic rendezvous with Riley. His pity party was interrupted by Ben,
"Dude, you can't take this lying down. Or not lying down. You know what I mean. You have to make Riley celebrate your anniversary, the right way. This is a slippery slope your heading to. It starts with a dry spell and ends with you and her being one of those old married couples who talk about what wallpaper to put in the bathroom and only have sex once a year, if they're lucky. Is that what you want?" Danny thought about it for a fraction of a second before he replied,
"Oh god. That's not what I want. I don't want that at all. I have to get Riley to go out, I just have to." He got up and practically ran to Riley,
"Riley, I need to talk to you."
"Yeah sure. What's up?"
"Are you sure you don't want to do anything for our anniversary? Cause you know I've been thinking,"
"Danny," she interrupted him, "I already told you, I want nothing more then for us to celebrate our anniversary by doing something special, but the timing with the baby and everything we need to be smart about this. We're parents now, we have to be responsible. I don't want to be like Ben and pawn off Jamie to everyone so we can be selfish."
Riley made a good point, but Danny also knew they needed to do this, to save their marriage. Okay that was a little dramatic, but he knew what he meant.
"Okay Riley. You're right. Besides, we'll have other anniversaries. I mean we have our whole lives together."
"Exactly. Now I'm gonna take Jamie back home and put him down for his nap." she said as she kissed Danny and waved goodbye to the others.
"I'll be right in, I just have to talk to Ben about something."
Danny walked back over to Ben and Tucker.
"Okay she said no, again." he said, leaning on the counter.
"So that's it. You're not gonna try to change her mind. Dude I can't believe you're gonna give up on Operation McLovin' so quickly." Ben said.
"Who said anything about giving up?" Danny said, confusing Ben and Tucker.
"Well what are you going to do then?" Tucker asked.
"I'm gonna change my game plan. If talking to Riley won't work … I'll just have to seduce her and then she'll have no choice but to follow through with Operation Love Me Tender." Danny said with a sly grin on his face.
"Danny that is positively prime evil. I love it." Ben complimented.
"Are you sure that's gonna work?" Tucker questioned.
"Are you kidding me, it's been 2 months of nothing. I know every single one of Riley's weaknesses, I'll make her crack before the week is out." and with that he left to go seduce Riley into submission. As he was leaving he heard Ben call out,
"Go get her, you modern day Casanova you."
As Danny crossed the hall, he undid some of the buttons on his shirt and did some push-ups to get a nice glisten going. Then he went inside to execute his plan. When he opened the door there was no sign of Riley, so he had time to prepare. He went in the fridge and got the strawberries and whipped cream and set them on the counter. He unbuttoned one more button as he heard Riley close the bedroom door and come into the room.
"Oh hey, what did you need to talk to Ben about?" Riley asked.
"Oh nothing. He just wanted some workout tips, he wanted a better abs workout so he could get his like mine." he said as he lifted his shirt to show off his sculpted muscles. He saw Riley take in the view and knew that his plan was off to a good start.
"Oh okay." she squeaked.
"You want a snack? I was just getting one for myself?"
"That would be great Danny. Thank you."
He went and got the strawberries and whipped cream from the counter and brought it to the living room coffee table. He sat down, took one, dipped it in the cream and brought it to his mouth. First he licked the cream off, then he sucked on the strawberry before taking the first bite. He watched as Riley followed his movements while taking a bite of her own strawberry.
"Oh you got some cream on your lip. Here ill get it." Danny lied as he took his thumb and rubbed it across Riley's bottom lip, slowly, before bringing it to his mouth and sucking it, letting it out with a soft pop. Riley's jaw had almost completely dropped. Danny saw this and decided to lean in for a kiss. Riley responded almost immediately, kissing him back. He gave her slow, sweet kisses, and then one deep one that rose a moan from her throat. He moved his kisses to her neck and down her collarbone. Once he knew he had her completely undone, he went in for the kill. With one hand making its way up her thigh, he said in the deep sexy voice he knew she loved,
"Isn't this nice?"
"Mhmm" was all she said, with her eyes closed.
He continued moving his hand closer to the junction between her legs, feeling Riley become putty in his hands.
"You know, if we went away somewhere we could do this without any…"
It was at that moment that Jamie woke up and started crying. Riley's eyes popped open and she got up to go soothe him. She gave Danny a kiss and a rub on the arm that seemed to say 'I'm sorry'
"interruptions." Danny finished. If he would've had another minute, his plan would've been a success. Instead he sat there discouraged … and horny. But he still wasn't giving up. He wasn't gonna rest until he made Operation Love Me Tender a success, whatever it took.