by Jess Bentley
Meredith could only laugh. Her phone had started ringing off the hook with job offers the week the issue with her cover story came out, but in the months since then, she’d gotten better at deftly turning down different news outlets.
She had always wanted to get so far away from the slow country life, wanting to make her own way in the world. It never seemed that you could have it both ways. Now she could see her warm summer nights on the deck, horseback rides to the orchard, sharing this ranch’s legacy with their upcoming family. All of that, and the start of her very own country life magazine.
The past months of her life had been a whirlwind of chaotic, loving excitement. She and Colt had married in a simple ceremony on the ranch with their family around, nothing too extravagant but just perfect for both their tastes.
Of all the things Colt had ever said to his mother to plead with her to come back to the ranch, the only thing it had taken was, “Mom, we’re pregnant!”
His mother had come down there the next day after Colt sent the helicopter, just as he’d said he would. She’d moved into her own apartment that he’d built just for her, and was always ready to lend a hand.
Between Colt’s mother and hers, their son had enough clothes to outfit an entire nursery of babies. It both pleased her and frightened her that they’d snuck in a few pink frilly items, “for the next baby,” when they were busy sewing and smocking together and catching up on old times.
Meredith set the phone back on the table beside her chair and peered over into the bassinet next to her. Wynn Colton Stone, named after both his grandfathers, was swaddled in a light blanket, a peaceful half smile on his tiny face. Meredith was thinking for the millionth time how perfect her life had turned out when she heard the house door open and Colt stepped out. He bounded down the steps as softly as he could, sitting down on the end of the chaise and pulling her feet into his lap before beaming at his son.
“I still just can’t get over it. I made that!” he whispered with a shocked tone, pointing to our son.
“We did that,” she corrected jokingly, “but technically, I feel like I did all the hard parts. How’s the project coming along, all done yet?”
“Yup! And the newspaper’s sending some fancy reporter out here to do a story on it tomorrow. But don’t worry, I’m sure they won’t be half as pretty as the last reporter who came around nosing into my business.” Colt grinned and leaned towards her for a kiss. “We’ll drive out after supper and get you a good look at it, if you want. The power company is coming out tomorrow, too, they want to do a big shindig about it and a ribbon cutting and all that.”
He rolled his eyes, ever wanting to be out of the spotlight.
He grinned down at her and reached into his pocket. “I’ve brought you a little surprise.”
“Really? I think you are spoiling me just a mite too much,” She pinched his elbow playfully, with a Texan drawl.
“You got me my own rings? Honey, you shouldn’t have!” she teased, pointing to the familiar box.
“I knew you couldn’t wear your rings towards the end there,” he said, opening the box and holding out her wedding set, “so it was a good time to do something I’d been thinking about for a while.”
“What’s that?” Meredith asked, reaching to pluck the diamond and platinum rings from the box.
“Look.” Colt point inside the band to the fresh engraving. MFBS. She looked up at him, frowning slightly at the letters. “Meredith Forbes Banks Stone.”
“Banks? But that wasn’t real! That’s not who I was, it was just something I made up for work!”
“That’s true, but I don’t want you to ever forget when you were a fancy big-city, world-traveling photographer. I may have tricked you out here with me, but don’t you think you are any less of that amazing successful woman you were in Chicago. I just know your own magazine is going to do amazing.”
She put her newly engraved rings back on her finger. It was a bit of a tight squeeze but doable. It wasn’t anything she couldn’t handle. Together Colt and Meredith would find that balance between family life and exploring their own dreams.
Nothing brought that more home for Meredith the that new little dream they shared together dozing in his basket.
She leaned back and closed her eyes. Colt took her hand and kissed her softly on her palm.
“I think little Wynn and I would like to go to that fancy ribbon cutting of yours,” she said keeping her eyes closed.
“Yeah?” he asked distractedly while he nibbled on her fingers.
“Mmhmm,” she said with a little giggle.
He was now making his way up his arm and she had a feeling this patio set was about to see some more action.
“Sadly, my car is still busted down,” she responded peaking an accusing eye at him. Shutting them again she said, “I s’pose we’ll have to hitch a ride there.”
“I might know a cowboy who can help you with that,” he said, just before sealing a kiss on her lips.
Copyright © 2017 by Jess Bentley
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
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Prologue
Lindsay
Ben slipped out of the limo first, and I hesitated for only a second to accept his extended hand. As soon as my palm touched his, a jolt of electricity shot up my arm and set my nerve endings tingling all the way to my core. Touching him, even just casually, was such delicious torture. Reminding myself of all the reasons why I couldn’t give in to the chemistry I felt for Ben did nothing to stop the sharp twinge that went through me. It only got more intense when he didn’t drop my hand. Instead of letting it go, he folded it in his own, cradling my palm with his. I couldn’t help but notice that for a billionaire, his flesh was slightly rough.
I imagined that hand moving over my body, cupping my breasts before slowly trailing down my stomach, and the thought made me tremble.
“Cold?” He asked, his bright blue eyes gleaming. Could he tell how I felt?
I shrugged, not committing to an answer. His touch disoriented me, and it took a moment to realize we were at the back of the building instead of the front. I’d never come into the Imperial from this side. Until a few weeks ago, I’d never gone in the exclusive apartment building in downtown Manhattan, even from the front. “Where are we? What are we doing?”
“There’s a party going on in the penthouse, so the front entrance will be packed. I had the driver bring us here instead.”
I nodded as I followed him inside, unable to ignore the fact that his hand was still clasping mine. Perhaps he was feeling the same? Could it be that the rich and powerful Ben Hudson was actually attracted to me, his daughter’s nanny? But I’m so much younger than him! It sounded ridiculous in my head, but I wasn’t imagining the heated looks he’d sent my way this evening, and there’d been that moment when we were out this afternoon, looking at the animals at the zoo with his daughter.
I blinked and shook my head, trying to rid myself of these crazy ideas. It’d be impossible to go on this way. All I was doing was torturing myself with memories of an almost-kiss that was never going to happen, when I should just let it go. Just like I needed to let go of this dumb crush I still carried for him. He was just my employer.
Just like I needed to let go of his hand.
The new crush I had on Ben was, admittedly, different from what it was when I was a little girl, only twelve. Back then, it had been a spark for a handsome, sophisticated older man. Now, despite the fact I was still a virgin, I was a woman, and he was most certainly a man, and crush seemed like too tame of a word to describe the flood in my panties every time he turned his eyes my way.
He pulled me over to a large elevator that I hadn’t used before. “This will be quicker.”
I f
ollowed him into the large car, gasping at the opulence around me—which was saying something considering the Imperial’s already record-breaking level of luxury. Elegant Christmas decorations gleamed on the already opulent walls. The plush carpeting almost swallowed the kitten heels I’d chosen to wear to the meeting with the school counselor, and I wiggled my toes in the shoes as I imagined running my feet over the carpet instead. It was soft enough to lie down on.
Or get fucked on, whispered a voice in the back of my mind.
I shifted restlessly and barely held back a moan at the thought. In desperation, I looked away from the floor and instead found my gaze meeting Ben’s in the mirrored wall. There was hunger in his expression. He’d been standing behind me, but off to the side. Now, he moved to completely envelop my back, and I watched in our reflection while I stood frozen and burning hot at the same time. I trembled as his hands hovered over my shoulders for just a moment before laying claim to them. I was still looking at the mirrored version of Ben and couldn’t turn my head to face him yet.
He bent his head to rest his face slightly against my brown hair. He drew in a deep breath.
“Why do you always smell so good? It’s like sunshine…”
I giggled nervously. “I didn’t know that I did. I’m not even sure what sunshine smells like, Ben.”
“Like citrus and happiness and innocence.” He pressed deeper into my back. Was that hard ridge pushing against me his cock? Need swelled in me as he swept hair off my shoulder before nuzzling my neck. His mouth drifted to my ear, and he whispered, “Are you very innocent, Lindsay?”
I didn’t feel very innocent at that moment. My nipples were hard, tight peaks begging for attention, and I was dripping with need. I whimpered as his teeth grazed the side of my neck. “Are you?” The question was firmer this time, demanding an answer.
I pressed closer to him, reaching back tentatively to put my trembling hand on his hip. “Yes,” I said as more of a sigh than a word.
“Fuck, that makes me hot. I should do the right thing and push you away, and we should both pretend this isn’t happening.”
I moaned again, this time in distress at the idea of stopping. All the reasons this was a bad idea no longer seemed as important as the pulsing ache between my thighs that was crying out for Ben to satisfy.
“That’s what I should do, but unless you tell me to, I can’t.” With a sudden motion that left me dizzy, he spun me in his arms so I was looking into his eyes, not the mirrored version. His expression in his bright eyes was intense, and almost scary, but it didn’t frighten me away. I did my best to look straight at him and project a confidence I wasn’t quite feeling.
“Is that what you want, baby?” he whispered. “Do you want me to take you to my bed, and make you mine tonight?” His head bent lower, and his lips were teasingly close to mine, though he didn’t bridge the gap.
He was leaving the decision to me, making me speak it aloud. It would have been so much easier if he just swept me off my feet with some sweet kisses and the kind of touching that would get me to agree to anything.
I was a bit too shy to want to say it aloud, though part of me respected him for giving me the final say. The question was, was I brave enough to take what I wanted, and damn the consequences? Or would I spend another night alone, touching myself and wishing I’d accepted—even if it was a one -night thing, and risked everything I had?
I looked up at him, lips parting slowly as he waited for my answer.
Chapter 1
Ben
As I fixed my tie, adjusting it to perfection, I could hear my daughter Elle screaming from her room. Smothering an impatient curse, I reached for my jacket on the way out of the master bedroom and crossed the short distance to Elle’s room. I opened the door to a chaotic scene. Unfortunately, Elle’s meltdowns were becoming our new morning routine. It was a rare day when she got dressed peacefully and was ready to be dropped at her exclusive private school without running the risk of being late. I got in the habit of setting my alarm an extra half hour early and having the maid wake Elle forty-five minutes sooner just to deal with the tantrums and inevitable morning conflict.
If only the problem were confined to mornings. That I could almost take. With Elle these days, it’s a constant stream of acting out. I couldn’t blame her—she’s been through a lot, but so have I.
I did my best to maintain calm, and fixed a small smile on my face as I approached my daughter, who was currently screaming from her walk-in closet as she tossed clothes out at the poor maid. I gave Betsy a sympathetic look, marveling for perhaps the hundredth time that she hadn’t yet quit her job and run far away from all our family drama.
She cast a longing glance at the door, and I nodded. She didn’t ask again, or linger to check if it was okay. Betsy ran for it, almost literally jogging from the room and leaving me to face my daughter alone.
It honestly terrified me, but certainly not because Elle was physically intimidating. She was on the small side for her age and thin. She looked too much like Ashe for comfort sometimes, but she most certainly wasn’t like Ashe much in personality. Even her rages and fits came from a place of insecurity rather than the drug and alcohol addiction that had plagued my ex-wife. To this day, that disease probably still plagued her, though I wouldn’t know for certain. When Ashe had lost custody of Elle during a vicious legal battle—which I suspected she undertook as a way to hurt me rather than because she wanted to be responsible for our child—she hadn’t bothered to maintain contact with her only daughter. I had her address, and I occasionally had my people check in on her to make sure she was still alive, but she hadn’t taken advantage of any of her visitation with Elle for months. I’m sure it hurt Elle, but honestly, I was relieved. As long as Ashe was a junkie, my daughter was absolutely better off without her.
“Hey honey, what’s the problem?” I asked, doing my best to sound patient and reasonable. Elle had a way of pushing my buttons and escalating the situation until I could no longer stay cool. I was determined not to lose it today.
“I can’t find my iPhone X case.”
I looked at her dresser, where they were four cases lined up in a row. “It’s not one of these?”
“Of course it’s not one of those,” screeched Elle. “I’m wearing purple socks today, so I need the purple one with the diamond accents. Don’t you know anything, Ben?”
I shuddered at the way she said my name. She was mimicking the vicious, angry tone she’d heard her mother use so many times in the past. She didn’t have much in common with Ashe, except for knowing exactly how to stab a person through the heart, or push their buttons. Reminding myself she was both a child and my daughter helped me keep from giving it back. “Why won’t this one work?” I took a step closer to pick up a zebra-printed case that had purple trim.
She gave me a look full of disgust. “Ugh. It’s the wrong shade of purple. See the socks?” She lifted her foot before stomping it down hard on the bamboo flooring. “That’s dark purple.”
An irritated sigh escaped my mouth. “Perhaps you’ll just have to make do with it today, my love. We’re running out of time, and you still need to get Betsy to fix your hair.”
Elle glared up at me. “I don’t need the maid for anything. I’ve been doing my own hair for years, and she doesn’t know how to do it right. None of your staff knows how to do anything right, just like you.”
I winced at the words, knowing there was truth in them, at least about the hair. I’d been so busy with the startup of the company that I hadn’t realized just how far Ashe had checked out of our daughter’s life over the years until I came home one afternoon and found her passed out in the living room with the needle still in her arm, while Elle had calmly been cleaning up the room and putting a wet cloth in her mother’s forehead. As I’d watched her for just a moment, shocked by the scene before me I’d recognized the kind of competence and familiarity in Elle’s motions that told me she had been in that situation more than once.
&
nbsp; I also winced because the words could have come from Ashe’s own mouth. She’d always found fault with everyone, including our lovely daughter, who was still beautiful and could be the sweet child she was at heart, if only I could figure out how to help her.
The problem was, I didn’t think I could do it alone. I didn’t know how, and it wasn’t fair to her to try to split my time between the company and Elle. I also couldn’t abandon my duties, because we employed thousands of people, and many of those workers had families of their own to take care of, or possibly their own wounded little girls who struck out at everyone like angry bear cubs.
“Maybe Santa will get you a new one. Christmas isn’t too far away,” I offered lamely. At her glare, I gave up. “Let me help you look for it,” I said as I knelt down on the floor beside her. At that point, I didn’t care if my suit pants ended up a wrinkled mess, as long as I could give her a moment’s happiness. Surprisingly, we worked together in silence for the next three minutes until she found the missing phone case wedged between the wall and the dresser. As she snapped her phone into it, she looked so happy and carefree for a second that I longed to be able to give her a countless number of similar moments. “I understand Betsy isn’t quite what you’re looking for when you need help. I’d like to hire a nanny.”
Her expression chilled. “Just another servant to mess up everything. Because you don’t have time for me, and you don’t care about me.”
I ran a hand through my hair in frustration. It wouldn’t be the slick look I had in preparation for my big meeting with a new client later today but some things are more important. At least that’s what I told myself and her. “That isn’t true at all, Elle. I love you so much. I just think we both need some help, and a nanny can help you with what you need, while also allowing me more time to spend with you doing fun things.”
She glared at me. “What are you talking about? You’re the parent. You’re not supposed to do fun things.”