Stumbling Into Forever (Stumbling Through Life Book 2)

by Molly O'Hare

  Twitch then did what Twitch did best. He reared back and jumped to the side of her leg, his claws out for attack.

  Ben barked out a deep laugh. “Holy shit, he’s playing with your ripped leggings.”

  Holly felt a pull on the material and sure enough, Twitch had a piece of it in his mouth and was pulling with all his might.

  “Stop it.” Holly reached for the torn piece only to have her hand swatted away by Twitch’s paw. When she tried to grab it again Twitch growled at her. A full-on angry cat, this is my prize, kind of growl.

  She glanced back at Ben who was in full hysterics at his point. “Help me!”

  Ben held onto his stomach as he laughed. “I’m trying.”

  “No, you’re not!” Holly reached for the fabric again but was once again warded off. “Ouch. Twitch you’d don’t do that to your momma! You’re going in time out!” Holly pushed onto her forearms. I swear to god, if it’s not one animal it’s the next.

  “Don’t you dare move,” Ben demanded.

  Amongst his laughter he grabbed onto the part of her leggings and ripped it clean off. “Ben!”

  “What?” He cocked his brow at her. Ben took the ruined fabric and chucked it across the room, which had a crazed Twitch run full speed after it.

  “That’ll take care of him.” He bent to her back ready to kiss it. Unfortunately, Twitch had other ideas. With his prize in his mouth he came back running to Ben.

  Twitch dropped it at his foot.

  “You have got to be fucking kidding me,” Ben growled. “Does he want me to play fetch with him?”

  Holly watched the scene in astonishment. When Twitch picked up the piece of fabric and then dropped it at Ben’s foot again she lost it. “Oh my god, he’s doing what Ripley does when you play fetch with her.”

  When Holly pushed herself back, her core brush against Ben, causing a shiver to run through her. Oh god, she was so torn. Should she deal with her crazy cat or continue what they were doing?

  Damn it.

  “Twitchy,” Ben did his best to handle the situation. He picked up the piece of fabric and balled it into his hands. “Hey little guy, you want this?” Twitch jumped and eyed the material. “Nope. How about I throw this and you go find Ripley. Go show her what you found. You know she’ll love it.”

  Ben tossed the fabric in the middle of the floor. Holly’s mouth fell open the moment Twitch ran after it and then pranced out of the room with the legging piece in his mouth.

  “Holy hell, is he really going to look for her?” Her eyes widened.

  “Fuck, if I know.” Ben laughed, before turning his attention back to her. “That just means we have no time to lose.” Ben placed his fingers at her core and started massaging her again. Instantly, a new wave of heat flowed through her.

  God, how can he do that so fast? She looked over her shoulder at him, he was once again stroking himself. Her insides clenched. Watching him touch himself always sent her over the edge.

  “You ready for me, Grace?”

  She pushed her hips back answering him. “Put it in me,” she demanded. “And you better hurry before Twitch remembers Ripley isn’t here.” Holly wiggled her hips demanding for him to move. Ben grabbed onto her hips and slowly entered her again.

  Ben pulled out, only leaving the tip.

  She snapped her head over her shoulder to give him a warning look. Not today, Bub. I know what I want. She slammed her hips back causing him to enter her. “Fuck me,” he growled. Ben tightened his grip on her hips as he started to move inside of her.

  As they found their frantic rhythm, Holly could feel herself building, she always felt so full inside of her, she couldn’t even think straight.

  “Harder.” Holly pushed herself onto her hands before bouncing back onto him with force.

  Something must have snapped in Ben. He placed both of his hands onto her shoulders pushing himself harder inside of her.

  “Yes!” Holly screamed as she started to feel her body quiver.

  Ben grabbed her middle lifting her as he fell onto his side. He then placed her right leg over his hip as he continued his thrust.

  Holly could feel every one of her nerve endings. She loved this position. Ben snaked his hand around her body seeking out her clit. Once he found it he started rubbing in circles.

  “Oh, god I’m gonna- I’m gonna,” Holly panted as she met him thrust for thrust. She was right there. When Ben pinched her clit, she exploded. Through her ecstasy Ben grab onto her hip and started moving faster, then with a loud groan, he bit down onto her neck as he came deep inside of her walls.

  Holy crap on all the crackers.

  They both laid there panting as they tried to get their breathing back under control.

  Ben slowly kissed along her neck before he pushed himself onto his elbow to kiss her lips.

  “Well, if I knew you were gonna do that when you got home I would have never taken a nap.”

  Ben huffed out a laugh as he placed the palm of her hand onto her belly. “Like you didn’t know this was gonna happen? You planned it.” He gave her a pointed look. “I came home and there you were, sexy as hell spread out on the couch. You knew what you were doing.” He sent her a quick wink before kissing her neck.

  “So, you’re saying I’m just so sexy all I have to do to get you turned on is drool and snore a little?”

  “Oh, Grace, that’s the shit that gets me hard for days,” he laughed gently biting down on her earlobe. “Those snores.” She heard a growl escape from him.

  Holly started to laugh but then quickly stopped. “Hey, hey, no more groping for you. I’m mad at you.” She narrowed her eyes. “As soon as I regain some strength I’m kicking your ass for destroying my favorite pair of leggings.”

  Ben’s face morphed into a lazy grin. “If I didn’t destroy them would I have been able to do this?” He slowly pushed himself inside of her again.

  “Mmhmm.” Holly’s eyes started to roll back in her head before she snapped them open. “No. Stop trying to distract me. You didn’t have to go all Neanderthal on them, you could’ve just pulled them down. And now a piece of them is a freaking chew toy for Twitch.”

  “Could of, would of, should of.” He shrugged.

  Holly’s face broke into a smile. “Do you think we lose points for us still being pretty much dressed?”

  “Mistakes were made.” Ben’s grin spread from ear to ear. “Love you, Grace.”

  “Love you too, Ben.” Holly’s eyes started to close. That’s when she felt something land on her. When she opened her eyes, she was greeted by an evil glare coming from Twitch. “I wasn’t the one that lied to you.”

  Ben moved his hand to scratch Twitch behind the ears. “Your mommy’s a mean old liar, isn’t she?”

  Holly snapped her eyes to Ben with a glare. “I’m the liar?”

  “Shh,” Ben ignored her. “Can’t you tell Twitch wants to take a nap?” He pulled Holly into his arms.

  “I’m going to remember this. Both of you!”

  “Sleep.” Ben chuckled as he made himself comfortable.

  Holly crossed her arms over her chest pushing Twitch to lay on Ben. “Don’t tell me what to do!”

  Chapter Eight

  It had been a total of three weeks since the break-in. Three freaking weeks and they were still no closer to getting any answers than they were on day one. Holly didn’t know whether to pull her hair out or cry.

  And poor Ben.

  Her heart broke for him. He’d been so stressed about the whole situation. And add in the insurance company dragging their feet, having no idea if they’d be broken into again, and what you got was Ben as a full-blown mess.

  Which in turn made her a mess.

  Try as she might, Holly still hadn’t been able to bring up the conversation about having a baby. Which added another weight to her shoulders.

  There’d only been one time she thought she could broach the subject, and she really was seconds from doing just that.

  Then to her
utter shock, the moment she was ready to spill her guts, Ben started talking about how he wanted to add extra security to the clinic. But that wasn’t the big, what moment. No, that came when he pulled out blueprints to add on a pseudo clinic onto the house so he could bring home all the animals that were left at the clinic overnight.

  That was a shock.

  Sure, she got where he was coming from. Ben would cut off his own arm if it meant keeping his animals out of harm’s way. That was one of the many reasons she loved him. Ben’s heart was huge and completely full of love.

  So was hers.

  But the idea of having a revolving door of boarded or sick patients at the house sounded like it would do more harm than good.

  Talk about added stress.

  She couldn’t deny his heart was in the right place, though, but with everything going on he also wasn’t thinking clearly. It wouldn’t be smart to keep moving animals that were recovering back and forth every night.

  Not to mention, Waffles would lose his shit.

  Or worse…

  He’d probably convert every single one of Ben’s patients to overthrow the government and rule the world with him as their new leader.

  Nobody needed that in their life. Plus, it was bad enough Ripley had picked up ninety-five percent of Waffles traits by being around him. Holly didn’t need Ben’s clients calling her complaining about how their pets now acted.

  Besides, could you imagine a whole hoard of Lord Waffles’ running around?

  Holly shuddered.

  Nope, a pseudo clinic on the house was not the answer.

  Ben knew that, and so did she.

  Regardless, that didn’t stop Ben from constantly worrying about what could happen next.

  Maybe they were just overreacting.

  Holly was sure once everything was straightened out, all would go back to normal. Well, at least she sure as hell hoped it would.

  Especially for her.

  Holly had been irritable and moody since everything happened. She kept chalking it up to a crappy sleep schedule, and the fact she hadn’t found the time to talk to Ben, but still, her constant mood swings were starting to drive her up the wall.

  Oh, and let’s not forget her godforsaken heartburn. Shit, it was like her heart was a freaking volcano and every hour it had to erupt. Maybe it was the unhealthy amount of donuts she’d been consuming, or maybe it was all the stress.

  Regardless of what the root cause was, she was sucking down antacids like they were her new favorite candy.

  Speaking of which…

  Holly opened her bottom desk drawer to retrieve her antacids. Her heartburn was in full swing this morning. At this point, she was about three seconds from deciding if she wanted to grind down the whole bottle of antacids and make a smoothie or fall into the fetal position and pray for sweet death.

  She’d be lying if she didn’t say she was leaning towards the latter.

  “Do I need to call our Benny Boy and tell him he’s lacking in the sack again?” Mildred asked as she walked into the room with a stack of books in her hands. She plopped them onto the papers Holly was going over.

  Holly’s eye started to twitch.

  Universe, give me strength. Taking a deep breath, she arched her brow at the old coot. “Please tell me you do not call my husband and say crazy shit like that?” Holly stared at the person who, now that she thought about it, was probably the cause for her ungodly amount of heartburn and stress.

  “Me and Benny have conversations all the time,” Mildred nonchalantly answered plopping her hip onto the desk. “Sadly, he refuses to tell me about his man meat though.” Her brows knitted together as she pouted.

  “You’re joking, right? Please tell me your joking?”

  “Do I ever joke about man sticks? I think not, missy. You do not joke about such things.” The appalled expression on Mildred’s face had Holly paling.

  Universe, how is this my life? Am I your favorite sitcom to watch? That must be it. I’m primetime entertainment for you. That’s the only reason this conversation is happening right now.

  Mildred sighed. “Benny Boy normally thinks I’m joking. Pity.” Mildred looked at Holly with a hurt expression. “What am I doing wrong?”

  Oh, for the love of all things… Holly rolled her eyes. “I don’t know, maybe it’s the fact you’re asking my husband about his… how did you put it, oh yes, man stick?” Holly threw her hands in the air with resignation. “You know what, I’m going to pretend we didn’t have this conversation.”

  Although, as soon as she got home she was damn well going to ask Ben some questions. And he better have some answers.

  “Fine, suit yourself.” Mildred started foraging through the papers on Holly’s desk. “Now, back to you. Why do you look like someone kicked your dog?”

  Instead of answering her, Holly zoned in on Mildred rummaging through her stuff. “What are you doing?”

  “Looking for donuts.” She gave Holly a ‘duh’ look. “You have donuts on your desk every day.”

  “Maybe I don’t have any today.” Mildred’s brows went to the ceiling. “Fine.” Holly opened up her drawer and placed a box on the top of the desk. Holly threw her hand on top of the box glaring at Mildred stopping her. “Only one!”

  “Yay.” Mildred’s grabby hands pushed Holly’s out of the way before opening the box. “You must have one of those new fangled reward cards with the donut shop with how many times you go in there. You must be in the frequent flyers section by now.”

  “Don’t remind me.” Holly groaned. “I’ve already put on about eight pounds.” She reached for the donuts. “I can’t seem to stop. There is something about these things that I crave. If I don’t have it, I feel like I’m going to die.”

  “That’s not a healthy way to live there.”

  “Trust me, I know. But with everything going on, I can’t seem to say no.” Holly shrugged throwing another piece in her mouth.

  “As long as you keep bringing them in, I don’t really care. Now, where were we? That’s right, you were about to spill your guts about the attitude you got going on.” Mildred made a weird moan as she took a bite of her donut. “Momma needs some good gossip to bring back to my knitting club.”

  “You don’t knit.”

  “Neither do they. We just sit around and gossip for a few hours each week.” Mildred shoved the rest of the food into her mouth chomping happily on it. “You should have heard the stuff they were spouting when we were talking about Ben’s nutty mother last year. Oh boy, you think I’m bad. You should have heard some of those ladies.”

  Holly shuddered as the thought tingled down her spine. “It’s good to know my life is a constant source of entertainment to you and your knitting friends.”

  “You do keep it lively.” Mildred smirked at her. “Now spill.”

  Holly slumped into her chair with a heavy sigh. “I don’t know, Mildred. It’s everything. Ben’s worried about the clinic. Now he’s talking about building a room onto the house to keep the animals overnight. The insurance company is a freaking joke. We haven’t heard anything about the investigation. I can’t write. At all…” Holly sent a death glare to Mildred when she reached into the box again. “And you keep eating my donuts.”

  Mildred shrugged before pulling out the last donut taking a bite. “So, you’re saying life is hard and you’re having a pity party?”

  “Have I ever told you I want to murder you?”

  “About once a day. If you didn’t, I’d worry you don’t love me anymore.” Mildred straightened. “Now, let’s work on this one step at a time. Ben wants to bring his patients home at night because he’s afraid someone else might break into the clinic?”

  “Yes, he’s got it into this head it wasn’t just a prank and it was someone after him or something. I kinda agree with him, though. Remember right after we got married Ben found out about all that stuff at Richman Industries after his mother left and the new board took over?”

  “Oh yeah, the emb
ezzlement. The ladies and I at knitting went to town on that one.” Mildred nodded. “But I thought all of that had been handled and the new board of directors was doing well?”

  “They are.” Holly closed her eyes for a second. “Ben said something about one of the employees that were fired going after him. Especially, since he was the one that forced his mother to leave effectively destroying their coverups. So, he’s now constantly worried about what is going to happen next.”

  “That doesn't sound like our Ben one bit.” Mildred crossed her arms over her chest.

  “Then for some reason the insurance company is being an asshat. Since nothing was taken, per the police report they’re saying crap like they have to do their own investigation.” Holly looked at her. “Can you believe they think we did it on purpose to file a claim? Have they lost their damn minds? Ben has enough money to fix a million windows. But no, we did it all just to get a few lousy dollars.” She rolled her eyes. “Leave it to the insurance company to be a jackass.”

  “It’ll get worked out. It always does.”

  Now that Holly had started, though, there was no stopping her. “You’d somehow think with Will being Ben’s friend we would’ve heard something by now about the investigation, but no. Nothing. What’s the use in having friends working on the case, if they can’t even help you?”

  Mildred nodded. “I told you. One phone call and I can have all of your problems taken care of. You don’t get to live this long without meeting some interesting people.”

  Holly laughed. “Thanks, but no thanks. I don’t think your type of help will keep us out of jail.”

  Mildred shrugged. “Suit yourself.” Her lips scrunched together. “What I should really do is march my butt into the station and teach those officers about how to do their jobs.”

  Holly cocked her head to the side “Oh, I’m begging you, please enlighten me about why you think you could do a better job than them, or how you’re qualified to?”