by Lauren Dane
She tried to turn and go down the hall, but Ben was on her in three steps. “What is wrong? Did she say something?’
“I’m not having a good afternoon. I don’t want to deal with this. I don’t have the energy. I spent the morning in an assault trial. I got into a fight with Todd. I went to work, dealt with my friend who was upset. Came home and your ex is waiting in my lobby wanting to talk to me behind your back. I’m very tired and I need to be away from people right now. Deal with her and get her out of my house.”
He touched her cheek, drawing his thumb over her lips. “I’m sorry it was a shitty day. I’ll be there in a few minutes.”
“Bring liquor and be naked.”
He grinned. “Of course.”
Ben watched her retreat into their bedroom and close the door. He took a deep, calming breath and turned back to Caroline, who was busily taking in the place.
“What’s going on? I thought you went back home. Why are you here?”
“I wanted to see her. Is that a crime? I’m back in Seattle to check on my dad. They’re taking the cast off his hand and so I was downtown and I had the address.”
“It’s not a crime, but it’s not normal. You’re a bit past the wanting to check out the new woman stage, aren’t you? In any case, I don’t like that you’ve gone behind my back.”
“She said that too. I like her. She puts you first. I’m going to go. I really didn’t mean to upset her. It sounds like she had a bad day. I should have called first. She’s right. Do you think we could have dinner before I go back home? Bring Erin and Todd too, if you like.”
“I don’t know. Caroline, you don’t understand her at all. She’d never stop me from having dinner with you if I wanted, but she takes our relationship really seriously. If she feels you’ve tried to go around that, you may have done permanent damage here.”
“I’m sorry. I was here and I just, I missed you. I wanted to see her with my own eyes, this woman you speak of like you never did of me.” She looked up at him and he shook his head.
“Get out. You don’t get to do this.”
“I wasn’t coming on to you. I wouldn’t do that. Not to you and not to her. We were close once. I miss that.”
He went to the door and opened it. “You need to go. I’m not joking. I understand what you did. I understand why you did it. But it’s not okay. I love her. I love what we have together and she gets me like no one else. Not you, not Todd, not Greg, not my family—no one has accepted me and understood me like Erin. I choose her well-being over anything else. You have to go.”
She looked sad, but she nodded and went into the hallway. “I am sorry. I really didn’t mean to cause all this upset. I just wanted to check her out, see if I had any competition should I want you back. Stupid, I know. But I’m sorry.” She raised a hand and walked away.
He shut the door, not watching her a moment more. Only seeing the lines around Erin’s eyes.
He knew about the fight. Todd had shown up, really pissed off, and they’d talked it over. Ben had left work in his hands and decided to come home a little early. The workmen would be packing up next door in a few minutes, but they’d leave through there anyway. He and Erin were alone, and that’s what counted.
He grabbed a bottle of tequila, a big bottle of water and a shot glass, and headed toward their bathroom.
Her eyes were red-rimmed and his heart broke. He took his clothes off, settled in behind her in the tub and poured her a shot.
He took one himself and put his arms around her. He didn’t say anything for some minutes. She needed the silence, he knew.
Instead he massaged her shoulders and scrubbed her back. He rinsed her and she turned, on her knees.
“Baby, I hate to see you so sad,” he said before she brushed her lips across his.
“I’m all right. I just needed the silence for a while. I just needed to not be responsible for anyone’s anything. Thank you.”
He stood, helping her out and then drying her off. She patiently let him take care of her before taking his hand and following him into their bedroom.
“How about a fire?”
She nodded as she got into bed and he hit the switch. Instantly, the room lit with a golden glow.
“Takeout?” He looked at the clock. “Todd will be leaving in a few minutes. I can have him stop on his way home.”
She nodded again and he went to the phone. Todd heard the request, asked if she was all right and sounded relieved when Ben said yes. He said he was leaving then and would be home as soon as possible.
Ben turned back to her and slid into bed, holding her.
Finally, he spoke. “I’m sorry you had a shitty day. I’m sorry about the fight with Todd and I’m sorry about Caroline.”
“It was a stupid fight with Todd. He wanted me safe and got all macho. I needed to be alone and pushed him away. He got snitty, I got bitchy. It’s fine, I’m sure. You all wouldn’t stay around if you couldn’t handle bitchy.”
He smiled. “Plucky. Sassy. Independent. Not bitchy. Not most of the time. Although you hog the chocolate gelato when you’re PMSing.”
“As for Caroline, I don’t have a problem with you having dinner with her or whatever. I don’t like this let’s talk without Ben around business. She barged into my life at precisely the wrong time and she wouldn’t just spit out why she was here, although I have a good idea.”
He kissed her forehead and adjusted his body to look into her face. “Yeah? And what’s that?”
“Ben, Ben, Ben. So very pretty but not very sharp sometimes. Your little Caroline wanted to see me so she could gauge how easy it would be to maneuver back into your life. Now, she may not really want you back. She left you easily enough before. I’m sorry, but it’s true. Stupid cow. But she’s one of those girls who may not really want that piece of cake but they don’t want anyone else to have it either. For all her talk about being poly and oh so progressive and free, she’s full of shit. And I’m in the music industry, I can spot someone who’s full of shit a mile away. She wanted to talk to me to propose a little foursome action. Oh, she’d invite us to a club like the Spot or something, a way to get us all into position, and she’d make her play. Only, the thing she misses is that it takes more than big tits to be yours. If that was the case, you’d be hers.”
She slid a hand up from his belly to his heart. It was disconcerting to hear her be so frank and be so fucking right all at once.
“You see, I know you. I know you deep inside. I care about all of you. I want to understand you. I’m not with you for your magical cock, although I do enjoy it. I’m with you because you’re like a wish come to life. She didn’t love you. Not really. But I do, and because of that, she’ll never have you the way I do. I’m not jealous, I’m just annoyed she wasted my time and yours.”
He kissed her, feeling laid bare before her.
“You have Todd. You’d have been happy without me.” And there it was. She’d pulled his deepest fear from him without asking, without prying. Because he trusted her.
She looked at him carefully, not jumping to answer and deny off the bat. “Yes. I do have Todd, and yes, I’d have been happy without you. I was happy without you. But that was before you stepped into our lives and now that you’re here, I wouldn’t be happy without you. It’s not Ozzie and Harriet, but it’s us and it works.”
She knew just what to say. He was defenseless. If she wanted to hurt him, she could do so very easily. But he knew she wouldn’t. That last bit he’d been holding back, that small knot of fear, of feeling on the outside, loosened and fell away.
He rolled on top of her and she opened to him easily, wrapping her legs around his waist as he slipped inside.
“Already wet.”
“We’ve established I like you.” She smirked up at him.
“Good. But if this is how you are with everyone you like, I’m concerned.” He set an easy rhythm.
“Ah, but I don’t like too many people. You’re safe. My pussy’s virtue is s
afe.”
“I love you. It doesn’t matter what Caroline wanted today. She can’t have it.”
She arched, rolling her hips to take him deeper. “I love you too. And I know.”
He laughed and continued to fuck into her until a pretty flush built from her breasts up her neck. He bent to lick, tasting salt and woman against the heated column of her throat.
“Would you like to come?” he murmured, kissing up her neck, stopping just below her ear.
“Yes.” She swallowed hard and whimpered when he swirled his tongue in that supersensitive spot.
“Touch yourself.”
She reached in between them, and he felt her forearm muscles cord as she began to work her clit. He wouldn’t be long once she started this. First it was ridiculously hot and made him want to blow every time she did it, and second, her cunt was utterly irresistible when she climaxed. Hot, wet and tight, those inner muscles rippling around him until he couldn’t take it.
But really, it was the intimacy they’d shared that had pushed him so far to start with.
When she gasped and her eyes went desire-blurred, he felt his own orgasm rush from the tips of his toes and fingers straight to his balls and deep into her body.
He’d just kissed her and rolled off when Todd came home.
“I’m going to clean up really quick,” she said, rolling out of bed. “I’ll be back.”
He watched her pretty, naked ass as she hurried into the bathroom.
Todd smelled the sex when he got to the doorway. He was hungry for her, hungry to reconnect and to know she was all right. Hungry to know they were all right.
“Hey,” Ben said from the bed, looking every bit as satisfied as he should.
“Hey, yourself.” Todd dropped the pizza and antipasti on the bed. “I’ll grab us something to eat on and be right back.”
Before he’d reached the hallway though, Erin came out of the bathroom, naked and disheveled, looking beautiful and sex-tousled. She saw him and smiled, coming into his arms and everything was all right again.
“I’m sorry,” she said as Todd held her. “I know you were just looking out for me.”
Todd snorted, kissing the curve of her cheek. “You stole my thunder. I’m sorry too. I know I pushed your buttons at a time you were most likely to react.”
“Mmm,” she hummed as he kissed down her neck. “I’m starving.” She eyed the pizza box and he hurried to grab the plates and some cream sodas, which she took from him and began to pass around as he got naked too.
Sitting on their big bed, naked and laughing, they ate dinner and made more good memories to ease away the bad.
31
In the month following the trial and the guilty verdict, their lives smoothed again as they moved toward Thanksgiving. The Keenans and Copelands always had a giant celebration, and so of course they’d all go to that. This year Brody and Adrian would also go, which meant Mercy and Marianne would be there too, because what young girl would miss the chance to have dinner with Adrian Brown?
Erin awoke to a cock tapping her lips and Todd looming over her. She kept her eyes closed and opened to him. The way they needed her touched something deep within her.
He groaned in that grumbly, morning way, entirely satisfied male, and it hardened her nipples.
She concentrated on the head and crown, fisting around the root. The room was cool and dark and she heard Ben shift and the soft exhale as he must have opened his eyes to take in the scene before him.
The bedding rustled as he moved to them and his hands found her belly and it was her turn to moan when he gave her mound a light slap, not hard but the way she liked it.
“Wait a sec,” Todd said, flipping on the bedside lamp. “Now I can watch you eat her pussy.”
Ben chuckled as he found his way between her thighs and began to lick, slow and steady.
“I love it when you make that sound with my cock in your mouth,” Todd said, idly tugging on her nipple rings. She arched, digging her heels into the bed as Ben slid his tongue into her gate.
Todd collared her throat and her entire body shuddered in response. Her eyes fluttered closed as she concentrated on Todd’s cock and Ben’s mouth on her cunt.
More. She needed more and Todd knew it. He slid his cock into her mouth deeper, keeping his rhythm up.
“Your mouth is so hot. I’m close. So. Fucking. Close.”
One of her hands had burrowed into Ben’s hair and the other still held the base of Todd’s cock. She let go of Ben and dipped down, past his mouth, wetting her fingers with her own juices before moving them up to play against the supersensitive skin of Todd’s anus.
He stuttered a moan as she pressed just inside, stroking. He hardened impossibly more and came, exhaling hard.
Erin had just started to come when Ben reared up, flipped her over, pushed her knee up near her chest and entered her from behind. Her nipples pressed against the blankets and the echoes of her climax rippled through her, ebbing and flowing with each thrust and retreat of his cock.
She let her muscles go and took him into herself over and over until he leaned down, kissed her neck and came.
Afterward, she rolled over, pushing the hair from her face as she caught her breath. “My! That’s certainly a way to wake up.”
Todd’s cell phone rang and he muttered a curse as he rambled from the room to grab it.
She went up on her elbow to look down at Ben. His hair was getting long and he probably needed a cut, but she really liked it this way. Brushing a fingertip over one of his nipples, she loved the way his lips parted and he sucked in a breath.
“What are you thinking? You have such a wicked look on your face.”
“I was thinking how much I liked your hair now. I love how it curls up where it touches your neck. Sort of sloppy and loose but sexy. And also how hot it would be if you pierced this nipple right here.” She underlined the sentence with a flick of her tongue, and he laughed.
“Then I’ll do it.” He shrugged. “I can’t let my hair get any longer than this, I’m sorry to say. Our clients like me more clean-cut. But no one is going to see my shirt off at work.”
“They’d better not.” She stretched, well aware he watched her. “I’ve got work to do. The work next door on the upper floor should be done by the end of the day, so I need to cook for the Thanksgiving feast all day today and then get ready to move our stuff into the new bedroom tomorrow.”
“I’m surprised you don’t want to move tonight.” Ben swatted her as she moved toward the bathroom.
“I’d love to, but they only painted in there two days ago and I want to give it one more day to dry and for the smell to dissipate,” she called out before shutting the door.
When she came out, teeth brushed and cleaned up, Ben had left, so he’d probably used the other bathroom. She rustled through the dresser and found clothes and pulled them on.
In the living room she rounded a corner to catch Todd jam a finger on his phone to disconnect a call.
“Is everything okay?” she asked, following him out into the kitchen.
“I need to go deal with a client.” He sighed. It was an unofficial holiday, the day before Thanksgiving, and she knew he’d wanted to stay home all day and laze around alone with her and Ben. But she also knew what it was to run a business.
“Here in downtown?”
He nodded.
“Go. It’s still early. I’m going to be around all day cooking anyway. Go deal and finish.” She shrugged and hopped up on a bar stool.
“You want some help?” Ben asked him, putting a hand on Erin’s shoulder to stay her, before moving to make the coffee.
“Nah, thanks. It’s Harris. You know how she is.” Todd kissed Ben’s temple and then put his arms around Erin, pulling her back against his body as he stood behind her. “I have to go, reset her system, explain it to her yet again and then I’ll be back. No use you having to deal with her.”
“Hmpf. She likes looking at you. Tell her your wife
will scratch her eyes out if she touches. A little eye candy won’t hurt though. Look at you.” Erin laughed, entangling her fingers with his.
“Ha. She’s in her seventies. Not my type.”
“I believe the proper answer is anyone but Erin and Ben are not my type.” Erin smirked his way.
“You two keep me busy enough I don’t have time anyway.” Todd kissed the top of her head. “I’m going to shower and get over there. Text me if you need me to bring anything home.”
He disappeared and the workers showed up next door.
“I’m going to be glad when they’re finished.” Ben pulled eggs from the fridge. “Sit. Let me make you breakfast for a change.”
“Thank you.” She smiled at him and watched him work.
Todd left and, within minutes, Cope showed up.
Ben let his brother in, and Cope rubbed his hands together at the sight of food on the table.
“You have radar.” Ben frowned, but Cope shoved past and gave Erin a hug before sitting at the table.
“I like to smooch up on your woman. Plus,” he said, shoving two pieces of bacon into his mouth at once, making Erin wince, “Mom is coming by today. Just thought I’d warn you.”
“She’s never dropped by here before. I’m seeing her tomorrow. What’s the deal?” Ben asked, pouring another cup of coffee since Cope had stolen his.
“She’s invited a friend for you for tomorrow.”
Ben and Erin both froze.
“What?”
Cope laughed. “What? Come on, Ben. She wants you to be married. She wants grandkids. She had her hopes pinned on Caroline and then she moved. You haven’t found anyone suitable to breed with. So there’s some daughter visiting a neighbor”—he snickered—“and she’s coming tomorrow.”
“This is insane.”
“It’s what moms do, Ben. Just flirt and make her happy.” Erin didn’t want any discord between Ben and his family. Having such a big secret was difficult.
“Tell her you’re gay.” Cope looked up from shoveling food into his mouth.