Strangers with Benefits (Siren Publishing Classic)

by Jennifer Willows

  Beautiful.

  It was quite simply, beautiful.

  She spent half of the time trying to hold back tears and failing miserably, while he was open enough to let his fall. The first tear splashed her face and met hers to roll down her cheek. She was so blurry from the dammed up water that she couldn’t see anything else.

  Could she spend the rest of her life with this man?

  Absolutely.

  He was hot headed, hated to be fussed over and cursed like a sailor at times, but he was hers.

  And she was his, whether she wanted to admit it or not.

  When he rolled over and they began to talk about why she felt the need to ask for a break in the first place, she nuzzled into his side and wondered when she would finally forgive herself for being blind to the man in front of her.

  Her body was so willing to trust, but her head had taken much longer to be convinced.

  But he had shown her, just by being around that she was happier with him than without.

  “So do you like me? Yes or no?” It was silly, it was childish… and perfect.

  Sidonie couldn’t stop herself from giggling and made a little checkmark in the air. “Yes, I like you.”

  Her heart sped up. She knew what came next. “Do you love me? Yes or no?”

  She looked at him and could see how open he was to being vulnerable. That realization made her feel even more ashamed of her fears from before. Sidonie had some issues, but not a one was good enough to act the way she had.

  Then she gave him a peck on the cheek and her thoughts grew serious. She could see how he took a deep breath as if steeling himself against the worst possibility.

  She licked the tip of her finger and made a second checkmark in the air.

  Sidonie looked Den in the eyes and smiled. “Yes. I love you.” It was the truth.

  She hadn’t let anyone this close to her after the breakup of her marriage and almost let a good man get away with her own pride and selfishness. The least she could do was be woman enough to admit her love first.

  Hopefully, he would be ready to reciprocate.

  Den looked away for a moment and she wondered if he maybe wasn’t there yet. Maybe he needed more time to admit his feelings were in that place. But he had made a real effort and she wouldn’t discount it.

  “It’s okay. You don’t have to…” She trailed off when he looked back at her.

  He leaned over and their foreheads met. A single glance into his eyes spoke for him as she watched the strongest man she knew, cry. The tears were silent, but fell freely before he spoke. “I love you too, Sidonie. So much that I didn’t even think feeling this way was possible.”

  Every tear she held back before fell without restraint as she tucked her head onto his shoulder. They both held one another until later, when she woke to find that they had fallen asleep.

  Or at least she had. Den just stared at her in an almost eerie fashion, as if he didn’t want to blink or she might disappear.

  “I love you,” she said and blinked as she rubbed at her sticky eyelids.

  “Love you, too, woman. First relationship request, you have to tell me every single day. Verbal is fine, but extra brownie points if you write it down.” He winked.

  “Sounds like a hefty job and a lot of work. Not to mention that I have no idea what would be in it for me if I comply.”

  “Well, if you play your cards right, as much cock as you can take daily and my undying love. You’re the only woman that can do this job though, so I suggest we practice. Seems like you might be a bit rusty.”

  She giggled worse than a group of teenage girls. “Okay, how does that work?”

  “We can play a game.”

  What game were they going to play that would help with that? “Umm… what game is that?”

  “Poker.” He winked.

  She thought about it. “Not too good at that game.”

  “Well, you’ll get a lot of practice then.” She sat up and winced as her arm had fallen asleep harder than she did.

  “How about a shower first, then we can have this game of poker and a snack.” She winked.

  Den’s belly growled, funny thing as they had just eaten a few hours ago, but she knew how he got down. “All right. Get up, woman.”

  Sidonie narrowed her eyes at him and sat up. He tried to push himself up, but she laughed as he almost fell off of the sofa instead of sitting up.

  “Stop laughing at me and help, woman.”

  “Neanderthal.” She chuckled, but stuck an arm out and helped him to arrange himself until he was able to maneuver upright.

  “You make that feel like a compliment.” He winked and rubbed a hand over his tangled curls.

  “Your ego is so big, you’d take anything as a compliment.”

  “How so?” he asked as he stretched his limbs and sighed contentedly.

  She struggled to keep her expression straight as she responded. “You have a donkey dick.”

  He fell back and laughed so hard his face changed colors twice before he stopped. “I’m not supposed to take that as a compliment?” He wiped a tear from one eye.

  “No.” There was no way that she could remain serious, he was too much.

  “Where the hell do you get some of this stuff lady?”

  “You.” She scrunched her nose up and rolled her eyes.

  He rubbed one hand over the front of his pants. “I got your donkey dick right here. You asking for a serving?”

  Sidonie winked. “No, but we can table it for later.”

  They did. After she stripped off her halfway ruined gown, she wondered if the dry cleaner would know what the stains were.

  Maybe she should just throw it out.

  It would be terribly embarrassing to bring her gown to the little Asian guy and have him look at the stained, wrinkled mess that was left of the dress. Not to mention, there was a rip at the keyhole that would need fixing. There was no way that he would be ignorant as to why the dress was in that condition in the first place.

  All of her concerns about the gown vanished when they sat in the steaming water and they enjoyed the feeling of feeling.

  By the time they left the water, she was a half-ass prune and Den’s waterlogged flesh was little better, but she smoothed some of her cocoa butter on his skin and left him reclining in bed. She trotted off to forage for snacks and to grab the cards so they could try their hand at a game of poker.

  Once she grabbed a tray laden with crackers, cheese, and some fruit along with a couple of cold beers, she came back to the bedroom.

  Den had removed his sling, and she planned to say something about it, but the way he was sprawled in bed made her forget to bless him out.

  He was amazing. His frame was a little fuller and the few pounds more had only made him even more impressive to behold than before.

  When he licked his lower lip, she knew he took stock of her hungry expression as she could feel her mouth gape open and had to remind herself not to drool.

  “Like what you see, woman?”

  “Hell yeah, McTavish.”

  “Put the tray down and come get it.”

  The tray clattered to the table, she barely made certain it was upright before she straddled his knees and dropped the robe from her shoulders.

  “Damn, woman, you take my fuckin’ breath away.”

  “Ditto, McTavish.”

  Once wrapped her fingers around him and started to lower onto his cock, Den grabbed her hip with one hand and snatched her down.

  “Fuck!” she cried out.

  “Nope. I have a cheer for you.” He punted upward and back down again. “I love you.”

  “Me too, baby, me too.”

  Den rolled his eyes. “You have one job, Sidonie. I love you. Say it.”

  “I love you!” She moaned into the air. Her reward for a job well done was a quick punt of his hips that jabbed her in all of the right places.

  He grinned and she rocked over him, one thrust led into another until her avowa
ls were a garbled monk’s chant.

  Jeez, it was so intense this way, skin to skin, a slip and slide of sexes, secretions and sweat that was painfully slow to culminate, yet too emotional to go any faster.

  She sighed and fell over him, her body too worn out to continue, but she was too greedy to flat out stop rocking into his meaty pillar altogether. “Loveyou… loveyou… loveyou.”

  He buried his face in her hair and took a deep whiff before he sighed. “Oh, god woman, love you, too.”

  “Gonna come, baby.” She gasped as he swelled, overripe within her.

  “S’okay, gonna do it again later.” He winked and met her mouth for a hungry clash of lips that sucked all of the will out of her body to fight against the orgasm that nipped her heels.

  When she came the words fell out automatically into the nape of his neck. “Oh, love you so much!”

  “Sidonie, baby…” He didn’t even have to say it.

  She felt it, his love so tangible she could taste it on his skin, feel it in the wealth of slick semen he’d injected her full with, even the scent of their lovemaking was spiced with it.

  The poker game was long forgotten, but the food was not as they ate it from the comforts of his bed just awhile later.

  Den groaned. “You know what, Sidonie?”

  “What?” She grinned at him as she ate a cracker with some slightly warm cheese on it that she didn’t bother to identify before she made a sandwich and tossed the bit into her mouth.

  “I never imagined that I would have to kick a woman out for eating crackers in my bed.”

  “What?” she muttered, but looked down and realized he’d made a pretty poor tablecloth and there were odd crumbs all around him.

  Her messy behind even had gotten them in his hair.

  They climbed out and re-made the bed with a crumb free set of sheets, while he flicked a hand through his hair and showered the carpet with more of the flotsam.

  * * * *

  Six months later…

  Sidonie was in love. The distracted sort of love that left her with half a brain and no common sense. The head over heels kind, where people had to remind her that she was daydreaming when she was supposed to be doing other things.

  Like working.

  Or driving.

  Or to move forward while standing in line.

  She couldn’t help it.

  It seemed as if every day with Den was better than the last one. They still lived apart because she had to appear moral when it came to her babies. She might not be old fashioned enough to wait for marriage to sleep with Den, but that didn’t mean they had to behave badly in front of her children with it, either.

  It would be bad enough if they ever did marry and the kids happened to hear them in the act. But at least then she wouldn’t feel as ashamed about it.

  They did get a trial run when the twins were off with their father for summer vacation. Charles had six weeks with them and she made the occasional trip up to see them while they were away. But for the most part, it was just the two of them, ensconced at Den’s love nest and her home away from home and it was perfect.

  It was nothing more than the same thing she had done before, but with him it was different. When she took his uniforms to the dry cleaners, he kissed her until her panties fell off.

  Heck, if she picked them up? She couldn’t walk.

  When he came home from a long night she was there to help him strip and run a bubble bath. After he was sated, but starving, she was there to offer him a plate of food that he always thanked her for.

  He did have some bad habits, like the fact that he hated to put away his laundry. He had no problem washing the clothes and he was great at it, would even fold them. But for some reason, the act of placing them away was too much for him.

  They came to a compromise. He washed all of their clothes, but she put them all away.

  Den was good at tempering his foul language around the children, so she let him have leeway there, but told him that if he slipped in front of the kids she would institute a swear jar at twenty bucks a pop.

  Thus far, the threat worked and there hadn’t been any slipups.

  He hated being coddled unless they were in bed, but that wasn’t so bad. She didn’t care for coddling that much anyway. And the little ways that she did try to pamper him were not that abrasive.

  Just a little bit, but she tempered the urges as much as possible.

  She had taken to packing his lunches for work when they were together and he had gotten a little attached to the notes she wrote on napkins that she placed in the bag.

  So much that he saved them if she wrote something particularly funny, like the one that said: “guess what?” on one side and “chicken butt!” complete with poor sketch on the other, or super sappy, like the one that said, “You swept me away like the sea.”

  So she bought a bag of paper napkins and took a full day to write a personal note on every one of them.

  A hundred notes later, he had enough to last him a few months at least. The rest were mistakes…. Hot messes, ugly mistakes that made her feel a little guilty about the wasted trees.

  She had her bad habits, like the fact that she would never enjoy working out and the longest she would stick to any kind of exercise regimen was ten days.

  But the way he got around that by changing up what they did on a weekly basis.

  One week, they went to Defy Gravity and jumped on trampolines for an hour each day. She had to admit, that was a blast and the kids loved it.

  Another week, it was yoga as the physical therapist recommended it to help him stretch the healing tissues gently. The Bikram class was interesting, but smelly due to the number of people and the heat.

  Of course, there was the couples Tantra class, which didn’t seem like work until they had to remain in odd positions without actually having sex. That was rough, on the both of them.

  No matter what, they had adventure after adventure that he concocted and it took her a long time to realize Den had a gift for researching fun and had excellent planning skills. If he ever got sick of defending the world, or rather their small corner of it, he could make money crafting custom adventures for adrenaline junkies.

  When the twins came back from their visitation with their father, she let Den come along for their camping getaway. Sidonie had no idea how to camp, but Mark had mentioned wanting to try it and she did her best to give her babies what they wanted within reason.

  So she let Den help her set up the logistics. Actually, he did everything and she watched as he filled at cart at the sporting goods store with so much stuff that she was at a loss as to how they were supposed to carry it all. There were two tents with sleeping bags, stuff to make fire, pots and knifes of different sizes. She just watched and let him have his way as he apparently knew what he was doing as he discussed where they would be actually camping at and the merits of different materials over others with a clerk. By the time it was all said and done, she had no idea what he purchased, only that her backseat and trunk space were full to the gills.

  When they marched out into the forest in the morning, she was terrified, but she put on a game face for the kids. Den knew though as she jumped at every noise the woods had to offer and he calmed her down each time.

  She was scared for the children to be in another tent alone, but she knew that trying to fit all of them together would be a feat for one thing. Not to mention that both of the twins slept like wild things as if they couldn’t even contain their energy during respite and the tent would likely be on the ground the next morning.

  Den had helped the kids set up each tent under her pathetic supervision and she dug a small hole to use for and necessary trips to the “facilities.”

  Ugh, this was an awful idea.

  But watching him nurse a small fire was damned impressive, even as she pretended it was nothing special. They cooked some meat that he had carried with them in a cooler and roasted it over the fire until it was juicy and crisp.

>   When they retired later that night after a snack of s’mores and hugs, Sidonie cuddled Den in the sleeping bags they had zipped together into one large pouch.

  She couldn’t sleep and jumped at the sound of the trees rustling. “What’s that?” she gasped.

  “Shh. Just the wind,” he whispered and wrapped an arm around her.

  He must have realized she wouldn’t let him sleep until he made her go to bed, as just a little while later, she was flat on her back and the same rope he used to secure the tents was bundled around her arms and her shirt was stuffed in her mouth as he took her slowly, deliberately.

  “Shh… you don’t want them to hear right?” Den breathed the words into her ear as he filled her needy cunt with the tersely abrupt motions that were all the combined bags would allow for. Despite the lack of maneuverable space, somehow he’d only made her want him more than ever before.

  She shook her head. Her moans were muffled but she knew the forest was too still for her to even scream into her gag without one of the twins hearing something amiss.

  She also had the bad habit of fretting about every detail, but that was the engineer in her. She had to know what would happen for every variable that she could think of. To her, the variables were almost of more import than the finished product.

  But while he couldn’t cure her of that particular peccadillo, he did make good use of it instead one night that she would forever daydream about, just a month after the family camping trip.

  It was their first weekend alone as the twins were at their father’s house, and Den made good use of every second of their free time.

  That night he spread her over his bed, just before he blindfolded her, and proceeded to assault her with what seemed to be a dozen stimuli at once. She was strapped down with her cunt stuffed full by his cock, her anus stretched with a plug, her nipples bound with wrapped dental floss and he tickled her with a feather all at the same time, and then made her describe what every sensation felt like in English which he repeated back in Thai, filthy whispers in her ear that made his mother’s language the sexiest on earth.

  That night was… indescribable.

  She screamed and moaned and begged until she was hoarse and her body had become her enemy as she came over and over again with the stingiest breaks in between.