When Ben glanced back at Christine, she wore a half-smile on her face, the kind that told him that Kevin’s charm had woven its spell on yet another female. Ben highly suspected that Kevin had done so to provoke him and force him to face the feelings Ben swore he didn’t have for this woman. Judging by the annoyance gripping him, his friend’s scheme had worked.
“Back to business,” Ben said, redirecting Christine’s gaze, and attention, back to him. “Is there anybody else you might have mentioned your fear of snakes to?”
She thought for a moment, and then a startling realization flashed across her features. “Craig knows, and so does Leanne.”
Ben frowned. “How would they know about your aversion to snakes?”
“Normally, they wouldn’t, but a few months ago Craig asked me to plan and put together a party night at Envy for a client. The guy wanted a Snakes on a Plane theme, like the movie, and I just couldn’t do it because it entailed hanging rubber snakes from the rafters, and other snake paraphernalia.” She visibly shivered. “Even fake snakes are enough to send me into a panic, so I explained to Craig why I couldn’t take the job, and he had Leanne do it instead. Of course, she wanted to know why I refused the event, and gloated over the fact that I had to turn it down because I was afraid of snakes.”
So, that left them with three key people who knew about Christine’s phobia. At the moment, Jason was the most likely suspect for sending the snakes. The man held a huge grudge against Nathan Delacroix for ruining his career, and he obviously still had a lot of unresolved anger toward Christine. Jason had every reason for wanting to sabotage Nathan’s campaign, and had no qualms about using Christine’s fears to let Delacroix know just how serious he was about threatening his daughter.
Now, Ben just had to find some kind of proof that Jason was behind this latest effort to scare Christine. If Kevin could link her ex to the box of snakes, they’d have what they needed to nail Jason and put an end to the blackmail attempts.
Madison came back from running her errands, and as soon as she took one look at Christine her entire demeanor changed into best friend mode as she sensed that something was wrong. She approached where the two of them were still sitting on the couch, and she dropped her purse onto the empty seat beside the sofa and glanced from Ben, to Christine.
“You don’t look well. What happened?” Madison asked, her brow creased with concern.
Instead of making Christine relive the entire incident, Ben gave Madison all the gory details. Her friend blanched, obviously not a fan of slithering reptiles, either.
“Good God!” Madison said with a shake of her head as she tried to process it all. “I’m glad you’re okay. Why don’t you take the rest of the afternoon off? I’ll get those party favors ordered for the bridal shower next month and take care of everything else that needs to get done today.”
“That would be great.” Christine smiled gratefully at her friend. “I think I’ve had enough excitement for today.”
Ben couldn’t agree more.
Chapter Twelve
Christine was quiet on the drive home, and Ben cast a few surreptitious glances toward her just to make sure she was doing okay. She looked tired, as though the events of the past week and a half were finally taking its toll on her psyche. Yet despite all she’d been through, she’d remained strong and tough on the outside, but it was how she was doing emotionally and mentally that concerned him the most.
They entered her house from the garage, which connected directly into the kitchen. He punched in the security code to disable the alarm, then locked and secured the door behind them. He switched on the overhead light, headed to the refrigerator, and took a look at what there was to drink.
He glanced back at Christine, who set her purse on the wooden table in the nook area. “Would you like a glass of wine?” If anything, he figured it would help to soothe what was left of her anxiety from the earlier incident with the snakes.
She shook her head and smiled at him. “No, I’m fine.”
She really wasn’t. He could see the weariness in her eyes, could sense how troubled she truly was by her latest attack, and he wanted to do whatever it took to chase away her distress.
Closing the refrigerator, he walked over to where she was leaning against the counter. Reaching out, he gently brushed a wisp of hair away from her cheek. “Tell you what. Why don’t you go and take a hot shower, put on something comfortable like a pair of sweats, and just relax while I make you something to eat?”
“I’m not hungry,” she said, her voice suddenly soft and husky. “Actually, there’s only one thing I want right now.”
He instantly recognized that look in her eyes. The undisguised wanting. The unabashed yearning. The blatant desire. She wore her need for him so openly and honestly, without any pretenses, and that was one of the things he loved about her.
He swallowed hard, refusing to analyze that last thought too closely. Instead, he decided to let Christine lure him in at her own pace, allow her to set the mood, and let tonight be all about her and what she needed the most.
“What is it that you want?” he asked, holding her gaze.
“You. I want you, Ben.” The intense emotion etching her features nearly stole his breath. “You’re the only stable, reliable thing in my life right now. The one person who understands what I’m going through, and accepts me for who I am—without demands or expectations, or anything else.” She stepped in front of him and placed a hand on his chest, right over his rapidly beating heart. “You make me feel sexy, and desirable, and that’s what I need right now. I don’t want to think about what happened today, or anything else but the two of us and how good you make me feel. Can you do that for me?”
Normally, she was so sultry and seductive, flirtatious even, when it came to wanting him. Now, she was just a woman who needed that physical connection, and that raw, mindless, no-frills pleasure that came with good, hot sex. It was a fascinating side to her that he’d never seen before, and it totally turned him on.
“Yeah, I can do that for you.” He’d give her whatever she wanted. Whatever she needed.
“Good,” she whispered. Moving closer to him, she slid her hand around to the nape of his neck and brought his mouth down to hers. Her lashes fluttered closed, and she sighed when his lips touched hers.
He let her control the kiss, which was at first warm and sweet, then gradually grew bolder and more daring, as did her actions. She pushed him up against the wall near the table at the same time she parted her lips and drew him into a deep, tongue-tangling French kiss he returned with an equal amount of heat and aggression.
He didn’t bother asking her if she wanted to go into the bedroom to finish this tryst, knowing she’d refuse. Since their first time together, she’d embraced the adventurous side to sex, and he wasn’t about to tame anything about the uninhibited, sexually confident woman she was becoming with him. Instead, he followed her lead and enjoyed everything about her enthusiasm and impulsive, sensual energy.
As her mouth continued to plunder his, she impatiently pulled the hem of his chambray shirt from his jeans, quickly unfastened the buttons then shoved the material over his shoulders and down his arms. The shirt fell to the floor, and she skimmed her hands down his bared chest, until her fingers reached the snap of his jeans.
He caught her wrists to stop her, and a sound of protest rumbled up from her throat. He lifted his head and gave her a slow, sinful smile. “Give me a sec, sweetheart. I’ve got a loaded weapon on me and we wouldn’t want it to accidentally discharge, now would we?” he teased.
She laughed breathlessly, giving him the moment he needed to remove the holster and the gun he kept concealed in the waistband of his pants, and place them safely out of their way. Then, before she had the chance to go back to stripping him out of his jeans, he reached for the hem of her black sweater top and pulled it up and over her head.
“You’re a little overdressed compared to me,” he said, and tossed the garment aside. Sh
e was wearing a sexy, lacy, push up bra that plumped her breasts oh-so-enticingly. He could see her hard, tight nipples through the sheer material, and he wanted to touch and taste and suck them deep into his mouth.
Slipping his fingers beneath the straps of her bra, he dragged them down her arms, his goal to uncover those luscious mounds of flesh so he could feast on them, but she pushed his hands away before he could accomplish his mission.
“Keep your hands to yourself,” she said, as she playfully bit his bottom lip and plucked at his rigid nipples with her fingers before heading south. “You’re distracting me, and I’m not done with you yet.”
“Sorry,” he murmured. He leaned back against the wall and relinquished control back to her.
No hardship there, he thought, not when those soft hands of hers caressed their way down his abdomen, released the snap and buttons on the fly of his jeans, then brazenly slid inside his boxer-briefs to stroke the hard length of his erection in her palm.
Feeling his cock swell and thicken in her grasp, he groaned deep in his throat.
Emboldened by his response, she leaned into him, pressing her covered breasts against his chest and nuzzling her warm, damp lips along his neck as her hand delved deeper between his thighs, until she was gently squeezing and fondling his balls.
Jesus. His gut clenched, and unable to help himself, he splayed his palms on the back of her bare thighs and slid them up beneath the pleated skirt she was still wearing. Reaching the frustrating barrier of her panties, he slipped his fingers beneath the elastic band around her leg so he could cup her smooth, bare ass in his hands.
She released a hot gust of breath in his ear at the same time she grazed the head of his shaft with her thumb. Lust and need ripped through him, and it took every ounce of restraint he possessed not to spread her out on the table behind her and take her hard and fast and deep.
She nibbled on the lobe of his ear then touched her wet tongue to the sensitive shell. “I want to go down on you,” she whispered, repeating those similar words he’d said to her the first night they’d made love. “I want to lick you, and taste you, and take you deep inside my mouth.”
Hearing those arousing words spill from her lips was almost enough to make him come right then and there, in the palm of her hand. “Yes,” he rasped, barely recognizing that scratchy voice as his own.
She kissed him again, a seductive preliminary of what else she was about to do with that lush, willing mouth of hers… and she took her slow, sweet time getting there. She stopped on the way to lave his nipples with her tongue, then kissed and nibbled her way down his taut abdomen, until she was kneeling in front of him. She gripped the waistband of his jeans and briefs and pulled them both down his thighs, completely freeing his throbbing shaft.
She stared at his erection in awe and fascination, her fingers caressing his length with a light brush, a tantalizing tease that had him gritting his teeth. She licked her lips, wetting them, reminding him that she’d never done this before, that he was her first when it came to this particular intimacy, and his cock swelled even more at the thought, growing hard to the point of pain.
Leaning forward, she oh-so-slowly swept her tongue from the base of his shaft, all the way up to the sensitive tip, tasting him in what felt like a long, endless, velvet stroke. She lapped the moisture that had seeped from the head, made a soft, eager sound for more, then took him, all of him, into the silken heat of that incredibly sweet mouth of hers.
White-hot sensations jolted through him at the erotic sight of her pleasuring him with such unbridled enthusiasm, with such shameless abandon. She pulled him in deep, then withdrew with a delicate swirl of her tongue and just enough suction to make him break out in a cold sweat. She repeated the process, once, twice, wrenching a guttural moan from him as every muscle in his body tensed.
She’d obviously paid closer attention to that porn flick than he’d realized, because he never would have known that she’d never given a guy a blow job before. Her sensual mouth was a man’s wet dream come to life, a carnal fantasy that made him weak in the knees. Her lips continued to slide up and down his length, each time taking him a little deeper, sucking him a little harder, stroking him a little faster, and ultimately driving him straight to the edge of insanity.
Knowing he was on the verge of coming, and wanting to be inside of her when he did, he gently grasped her elbows and pulled her back up. Her beautiful face was flushed, her eyes a dark, arousing shade of blue, her soft, smiling mouth reflecting a feminine satisfaction that sent a renewed rush of heat spiraling down to his groin.
With a low, needy growl, he backed her up a few steps, grasped her around the waist, and lifted her so she was sitting on the table behind her. Her eyes widened in surprise at his unexpected and dominant move, and before she could object he dropped his mouth over hers and thrust his tongue deep. In response, she slid her hands up his chest to his shoulders, tracing the sinewy contours of his arms, the biceps that were taut from restraint.
A sense of urgency spurred him on. Pushing his hand beneath her skirt, he latched onto the sides of her panties and impatiently yanked them down and off. Still kissing her, he pressed his hands to her knees, shoved her legs wide apart, and skimmed his hand up her supple thigh.
He wanted to make sure she was ready for him. Wanted to make sure she was just as ramped up as he was. But as he reached the core of her, he realized that her own arousal wasn’t an issue. She was already soft and slick with moisture, already turned on from giving him head, and that thought inflamed him even more.
Without hesitation, he pushed a finger deep inside of her and stroked his thumb over her clitoris, and she moaned against his mouth. A second finger followed, and her hips arched against his hand and her legs curled around the back of his thighs in a desperate attempt to pull him closer. He increased the friction of his fingers—sliding, gliding, stroking, inside and out, letting the pleasure build until her entire body tensed, then shuddered as she climaxed.
He lifted his mouth from hers, breathing hard and fast. “I need a condom,” he rasped.
She reached behind her on the table and found her purse. She rummaged through the contents and seconds later handed him a foil packet with an impish grin. “I figured it doesn’t hurt to be prepared at all times.”
He chuckled as he ripped open the package then rolled the latex down his straining dick. Pushing his jeans further down his thighs to get them out of the way, he moved back between her spread legs, fully intending to take her just the way she was on the table.
She stopped him with a splayed hand on his chest, and a sexy gleam in her eyes. “Sit down on the chair behind you.”
Giving in to her request, he stepped back and lowered his bare ass to the chair, while she jumped down from the table, hitched her skirt up, then straddled his lap. He guided his cock between her thighs, holding it in place as she slowly, inch by excruciating inch, lowered herself onto his shaft, until he was buried inside of her to the hilt. She grabbed onto the back of the chair, dropped her head back, closed her eyes, and groaned in pure, unadulterated pleasure.
A ragged breath soughed out of him at the erotic sight of Christine half-naked and so shameless in taking what she wanted. The fit of their bodies was tight and deep, the position leaving both of his hands free to caress and explore while she rode him at her own seductive pace. He pressed his mouth to her neck, scattering damp kisses along her throat and to her chest as he tugged the lacy cups of her bra down, exposing her breasts and the swollen, hard tips that rose up and begged for his touch.
She leaned back, giving him better access to her breasts as he lowered his head and laved a nipple before taking it deep inside his mouth. She clutched at his head and arched, offering herself up to him while gyrating her hips harder, faster, against his.
Despite how close to the edge he was, he tried to hang on just a little bit longer, waiting for her to catch back up. He curled his tongue around her other nipple, giving it equal attention as he suc
ked and nipped and teased the tender peak. She continued to rock against him, creating the most delicious friction, her insides slick and hot, clenching and unclenching around him until he felt the bubbling heat of his climax fast approaching.
Desperate to come, he lifted his head and fitted his mouth to hers, his tongue claiming hers in a deep, wet kiss. Taking charge, he gripped her hips with his hands, giving him the leverage he needed to meld their bodies in a way that allowed him to pull her down while he thrust into her harder, pumped faster, deeper. The heat inside grew hotter, like liquid fire doused with lust and passion and desire.
He felt her thighs tense against the building pressure of her orgasm, her inner muscles tightening spasmodically around his shaft as she embraced the climax rushing through her. She whimpered against his lips and he finally let go of his restraint, allowing his own scalding release to send him into the realm of complete ecstasy and utter bliss.
When his tremors subsided, he wrapped his arms around her and buried his face against her damp neck, his emotions in a tangled mess. “Christy,” he whispered, her name a soft litany as it escaped his lips.
She wound her fingers in his hair and gently tugged his head back, an enchanting smile on her lips. “Did you say what I think you just did?”
She looked so beautiful with her face flushed with satisfaction and her eyes shining with adoration—for him, he realized. “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he teased.
“Oh, I think you do.” She kissed him softly, her lips so sweet and coaxing. “Say it again.”
He was beginning to think he couldn’t deny this woman anything, and he didn’t even try. “Christy,” he murmured against the tender press of her mouth on his.
“Mmmm,” she purred as she nibbled on his bottom lip. “I love the way that sounds, so sexy and husky.” Sighing contentedly, their bodies still joined, she pulled back so she could look into his eyes. “You can’t go back to calling me Christine. You know that, don’t you?”
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