Runaway Groom

by Fiona Lowe

  His gaze burned hers with pure desire and his hand caught hers, trapping it. “If it’s okay with you, I’d rather come buried deep inside you than in your hand.”

  Embarrassment and an odd sort of relief tangoed at his straight talking. “I’d like that too.” She tugged at his pants, just like she’d done the night she met him, only this time she didn’t have to imagine what was under the soft cotton of his boxer briefs. This time she could see him in all his glory.

  His erection sprung free and she stared at it in delighted fascination. Sex up until today had been more of a wham-bam affair of fumbling in the dark and definitely devoid of gazing. “You’re not circumcised,” she said without thinking.

  He laughed, pressing the condom packet into her hand. “It was out of fashion thirty years ago.”

  “Oh.” She stared at the foil and then back at him, once again feeling out of her depth. Just say it. “Today’s a day of firsts for me, Ben. I’ve never put a condom on a guy before and you’re going to have to talk me through this.”

  He smiled at her but there was no trace of pity in his eyes at all. In fact, she saw the glitter of excitement.

  “I’m starting to see definite advantages to having sex with an inexperienced woman.”

  “Really?” She couldn’t see how that was remotely a turn-on. “All the women’s magazines tell me that men like sexually adventurous women who take charge.”

  He flinched and she wondered if he’d bumped his shoulder.

  “Don’t believe everything you read,” he said before he kissed her quickly and thoroughly. “Ready for lesson one?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Now we’re talking.”

  He told her how to open the condom packet at the little tear and how to squeeze the air out of the tip.

  “Oh, it’s so slippery,” she said, laughing as she touched the latex.

  “All the better to slide into you,” he said, his eyes darkening.

  Her heart rate picked up and with a slightly trembling hand, she rolled the condom over him, amazed at how hard and smooth he was and how wonderful it felt against her palm. “There you go.”

  “You make it sound like you just put on a bandage,” he said with a bemused look.

  “More like a raincoat, really,” she giggled.

  “That’s enough talking.” His voice was huskier than ever. “Now straddle me.”

  “Excuse me?”

  He sighed. “I’d love nothing more than to have you under me with your legs wrapped high around my back, but I can’t support my weight with this bloody shoulder. I’d suggest doggie style but I want to be able to see your face so you’re going to have to ride me.”

  Doggie style? Ride him. Oh, God, the most adventurous she’d ever got was— Not now. Don’t think about that now.

  “I’ve never been on top. I might not know how.”

  “Sweetheart, you’ll be great.” His face filled with encouragement. “There’s no right or wrong here. Tell me what feels good and what doesn’t and we’ll find our rhythm. Remember to listen to your body and the rest will be amazing.”

  She stared down at him and realized that for the first time ever she was having sex with a man who had faith in her. A man who wanted her to have as much of a good time as he was planning on having.

  She leaned down and kissed him before moving over him. Using her hand to guide him into her, she felt herself slowly opening until she was fully impaled on him in the most glorious way. “Oh.”

  “Oh, indeed.” He winked at her as his hand fondled her breast.

  Shards of delight speared directly to her core and she instantly tightened around him.

  “That’s the way.” Both his hands gripped her hips and he pushed up into her.

  She moved, surprised at how much she could feel and how amazing it was. She met him stroke for stroke and caught the moment his eyes glazed and his breath got ragged. She wanted to watch him shatter but he was taking her with him. Her body was controlling her and pulling her mind up and out of herself toward the ball of bliss.

  Gasping, he shuddered under her and a moment later she screamed his name as she was flung into a place she’d never been before. A place she instantly wanted to revisit.

  With limp limbs, she rolled off Ben, knocking his shoulder.

  “Ouch, wrong side.”

  “Sorry.” She rolled back and he pulled her in against him, holding her there with his good arm.

  “How did that work for you?” he asked, his eyes searching her face.

  She grinned like a crazy person. “Words can’t touch it.”

  She immediately worried. “And you?”

  He kissed her on the nose. “It’s good to be back in the game.”

  It is what it is, she reminded herself. A game. Sex between two people passing through Whitetail and sharing this massive house.

  As much as she wanted to stay snuggled up next to Ben, hearing the steady lub-dub of his heart under her ear, she’d read enough to know that cuddling wasn’t something that happened after casual sex. For once, she wasn’t going to be the one left in the bed. She gave him her best attempt at a scorching kiss and then swung her legs over the edge of the bed and fished up her panties with her feet, blushing at how fast she’d whipped them off earlier.

  Ben’s fingers walked up her spine. “Bathroom visit?”

  “Ah, no. I should get back to the project,” she said, adopting his euphemism for the wedding gown.

  “That’s a shame. I’ve just been lying here working out how many bedrooms there are in this house.”

  A shiver of anticipation shot through her as she found her bra. “How many?”

  “Nine plus the carriage house.”

  “That’s a lot of sets of sheets to wash.” She threw his jeans at him. “Especially as it’s hard to make beds with one arm.”

  “I guess that makes me the romantic in this situation.” He dangled the jeans and pulled them up over one leg.

  “Do you need a hand?”

  “I’d prefer not to have to put them on at all.”

  Oh dear lord, he was a gift she still couldn’t quite believe was real.

  He pulled her to him and pressed a kiss to her belly. “I can’t wait until this arm is stronger and I’m working at full capacity.”

  Ben at full capacity boggled her mind.

  “I was thinking,” he said with a calculating glint in his eyes, “that seeing as you dumped flour all over me, you should probably get in the shower with me and wash me.”

  Yes, please. “There’s more room in the downstairs spa.”

  He caressed her hair. “I like the way you think.”

  She spun out of his arms. “First one there gets to be washed first.”

  As she ran out of the room she heard his cry of “no fair” and the sound of him jumping up and down to get his other leg into his jeans.

  Laughing, she was halfway down the stairs when she heard, “Oh, there you are.”

  She froze like a deer caught in headlights, only she had been caught shirtless in the surprised gaze of her parents.

  Her hands instantly crossed her chest in an X as her mouth dried so fast her tongue stuck to the roof. “Mom? Daddy?” The words came out barely above a whisper. “Wh...what are you doing here?”

  “We’ve come to ask you that very same question,” her mother said.

  “But...but how...how did you even know I was here?” She’d been so careful not to drop any hints that anything about her life had changed.

  “Your sisters said there were some photos on Facebook that had you tagged as being in Whitetail.”

  “Facebook?” Her gut dropped to her toes. Although she deliberately hadn’t posted any status updates on Facebook since leaving Chicago, she’d accepte
d friend requests from Melissa and Janey. It had never occurred to her they might tag her.

  Her mother suddenly looked up and beyond her.

  The creaking sound on the staircase told her Ben was behind her. Oh, God, oh, God, oh, God. She was thirty-two years old but she felt like she was sixteen and in huge trouble for sneaking around with a boy. Suddenly his hands were on her and her blouse was being clumsily put around her shoulders.

  He whispered against her ear, “I thought you might need this.”

  Mortified, she shoved her arms into the shirt, and as her trembling fingers tried to button it up, her mother said to Ben with a wide and joyous smile, “This is an amazing house, Jonathon.”

  Right there and then, she wished her life was a fantasy novel and she had the power to evaporate on the spot.

  * * *

  Jonathon. Ben filed that name away for a future discussion with Amy. Right now he wasn’t certain exactly what was going on but given the similarity in hair coloring between Amy and the older man, he’d bet his last dollar that she was talking to her parents. He wanted to take his cues from Amy only she seemed glued to the spot and rendered mute. Obviously, she hadn’t been expecting them.

  He moved past Amy and walked toward her parents, sliding his arm out of his sling so he could shake their hands. “G’day. I’m Ben. Ben Armytage.”

  “Todd and Lisa Sagar,” Amy’s father said, giving Ben a look that said, you hurt my daughter in any way and I’ll hurt you so bad you’ll need more than that sling.

  Ben appreciated the sentiment even if it did put him at some risk. “I’ll put the kettle on, shall I? Looks like everyone could do with a cuppa or would you prefer something stronger?”

  “It’s five o’clock somewhere, right?” Todd said gruffly, looking like he could do with a stiff drink. “Is that flour in your hair?”

  “I don’t understand,” Lisa said, looking between Ben and Amy. “Where’s Jonathon?”

  Amy was whiter than alabaster and her shocked expression jolted his memory. She hadn’t told her parents she’d lost her job and obviously they were expecting a different guy—a guy she’d not told him about. He wished she’d say something, give him a clue on how she wanted to play this.

  “It’s a funny story, isn’t it, Amy?” he said encouragingly, hoping to kick-start her into speech.

  She nodded, her curls bouncing perkily despite their owner’s quiet desperation. “Hysterical,” she said weakly as she caught his gaze, her eyes pleading. “This is David Brandenburg’s vacation home.” At her mother’s blank look she added, “One of the senior partners.”

  Okay then. Ben guessed she must have her reasons for lying but he wasn’t happy about it. “And it’s a hell of a house. Would you like a tour?”

  Lisa’s eyes narrowed as her gaze zeroed in on him. “So you work for M.M. Enterprises too?”

  He shook his head. “No, I’m—”

  “Ben’s an Australian friend of the Brandenburgs,” Amy said firmly, finally moving off the stairs. “Only David’s secretary double booked the house and I thought he was breaking in. This is the sort of funny part.”

  “She hit me with her torch.” He immediately translated Australian to American. “Flashlight.”

  “And I dislocated his shoulder.” Amy gave a tight laugh. “Ben’s staying here until he’s able to ride his motorcycle out of town.”

  “And sleeping with you?”

  “Mom!”

  “I’ll go get those drinks,” Ben said quickly, deciding it was definitely time to exit.

  “I’ll come with you,” Todd said firmly, flanking him all the way to the kitchen.

  Suddenly life on the open road just got complicated.

  Chapter Thirteen

  “Mom, what is wrong with you?”

  Amy stomped over to the fireplace and picked up the fire poker, shoving it jerkily at the logs.

  Her mother, who was usually so circumspect, glared at her. “I could ask you the very same question.”

  “I’m fine.”

  “Really?” Her mother wrapped her arms around her in a hug before drawing back. “We’ve been worried sick about you, Amy. You’ve always scheduled us into your busy life but you’ve missed our last two lunches and you haven’t sounded like your usual self over the phone. Are you having some sort of breakdown?”

  She bit her knuckle, appreciating her mother’s concern but not prepared to see the disappointment in her eyes if she told her the truth. “No, Mom, I’m not having a breakdown.”

  Lisa tilted her head. “Honey, you told us you were in Ohio.”

  Shit. It was hard enough keeping track of her lies without social media complicating things. “I was and after that we came up here because the client has a vacation house nearby. Everyone’s gone back to the office now, but I’m staying on here a while longer to work on the project because it’s quieter.”

  “And Jonathon?”

  At least she didn’t have to lie to her mother about this. “We broke up.”

  “Ah.”

  “What do you mean, ‘ah’?”

  Her mother’s smile was tinged with worried understanding. “That would explain the scruffy-looking Australian. Honey, be careful. You’ve always been so serious and driven about your life and Jonathon might have broken your heart but—”

  “Mom,” she stabbed the fire so hard a log rolled out, “Jonathon did not break my heart.”

  “If you say so.” Her mother’s expression said she didn’t believe her.

  Ben walked in behind her father who was holding a tray of drinks. His gaze immediately sought hers and she could feel him asking her, “Are you okay?”

  Her heart did a crazy flip that he cared in some odd way. Was she okay? Her parents had just arrived unannounced along with a hundred questions and had found her half-undressed and with a bare-chested man in tow. Okay seemed way too high on the positive scale. She shrugged.

  He gave her what seemed to be an apologetic smile, which confused her. Why would he be apologizing?

  Her father handed out the coffees and when he reached her, he said, “Ben and I have had a chat.”

  “Oh?” She hadn’t heard her father sound quite so patriarchal since her youngest sister had tried to sneak out of the house at fifteen to meet a boy. She took a sip of her drink.

  “I was telling him it’s been years since we visited up this way and Ben insisted we stay awhile.”

  The unexpected burn of the whiskey in her coffee hit the back of her throat at the exact same time she decoded his words. She coughed violently.

  Ben immediately rubbed her back. “Sorry. I should have warned you it was Irish coffee.”

  Gulping in deep breaths, she finally found her voice. “That’s great, Daddy, but are you sure you can spare the time from work?”

  “I’m owed vacation time.”

  “What about you, Mom?” She prayed her mother’s schedule at the drugstore would kill this idea fast. “Between work and helping Cindy and Heidi with the babies—”

  “I deserve some vacation time too.”

  Panic simmered in her veins. She could hardly plead there was no room for them when the house had nine bedrooms. “Just as long as you know that I’m on a deadline so I can’t drop everything and vacation too.”

  Ben’s fingers squeezed her shoulders. “This house has everything you need for a relaxing vacation,” he said, “and the carriage house is all set up if you want to move your gear in there. While you’re getting settled, Amy and I will start preparing dinner. How does seven o’clock sound?”

  As her parents murmured their agreement, Amy’s brain spun out in blind panic. How the hell was she going to keep her lack of a job and the making of a wedding gown hidden from her parents?

  * * *

 
“How could you?”

  Amy’s fury hit Ben full on the moment they walked into the kitchen.

  “How could I what?”

  She slammed a chopping board down on the counter with a loud thwack. “Invite them to stay.”

  “Hey,” he said indignantly, “your father invited himself. By the way, when you were a teenager did he used to scare away all your boyfriends with that evil-eye look he’s got going on?”

  She hacked into a lettuce. “I didn’t have any boyfriends to scare away.”

  “That makes sense.”

  She wielded around from the counter banishing the cook’s knife. “What? That no guy would ask me out because I had crazy red hair, summer freckles and a body type that was more pear than straight? Thanks a lot.”

  “No. Hey.” He slid the knife out of her hand and pulled her to him, kissing her and trying to banish what he figured were deep past hurts. Convince her that she was beautiful. “What makes sense is that as you haven’t had many boyfriends your dad isn’t used to meeting one of your lovers. It explains why he’s gone all caveman parenting on me.”

  She gazed up at him, her gray eyes filled with torment, surprise and desire. “You’re my lover?”

  He stroked her cheek. “Well, I was this afternoon and I did have plans to do it again if you’re up for it.”

  Her head fell against his chest and he heard a muffled, “I’m thirty-two and my life sucks.”

  Smiling, he kissed her hair. “Is that a yes or a no?”

  She raised her head. “How can I have sex with you when my parents are in the house?”

  “First up, they’re in the carriage house. Second, they already know we’ve had sex so it’s not like you need to hide that from them.” He couldn’t stop the criticism entering his voice. He didn’t like secrets. He had personal experience that they tore life apart. “So now that they’re here, you’re going to tell them about your job, right?”

  She shook her head. “Ben, this is my family and you don’t know them.” Her earnest tone spun around him. “Trust me. Doing things my way is best.”

  He wasn’t happy about it but there was something about the plea in her voice that made him say, “Other than the fact you’ve lost your job and you apparently had a boyfriend called Jonathon, is there anything else I should know so I don’t put my foot in it?”