by Jayne Blue
Neither of us could contain it. As I felt the first hot spurt of Ben’s seed it sent me over the edge. Steadying myself with my hands flat on his chest, I ground out a powerful orgasm. Ben whispered my name and rode me through it. He was deep and perfect and all mine. We claimed each other that night with primal need.
As the last shudder of my orgasm pounded through me, I couldn’t stay upright for another second. Ben caught me, bringing me down gently until we lay side by side. We found the strength to wriggle out of the last of our clothes, then we sank into the mattress together in a tangle of naked, spent limbs.
Ben whispered soft words against my forehead as he kissed me there and quieted the storm inside me. The rain outside died down until all I could hear was a spattering of droplets against the eaves. Just the occasional rumbling of thunder from far in the distance broke the stillness as Ben held me close. He drew lazy circles, fingering my nipples, exploring my body. I still lacked the strength to even raise my hand. But Ben held me close. I settled against him and fell asleep feeling safe and warm in his arms.
Later, when the crash happened, my subconscious might have thought it was just lightning coming back again. Ben startled and I stirred against him. I became aware of light stabbing through the blinds in my bedroom window and heard sounds in the hallway. But I’d slept so hard I still felt drunk from it. I didn’t move fast enough when I heard my father’s voice.
Ben froze like marble beneath my cheek as a shadow darkened my bedroom doorway. He moved quicker than I did, but not fast enough. I tried to shield my eyes as the switch clicked and light flooded the room.
“Officer Killian.” My father’s booming shout pierced the silence like gunfire. Ben moved fast enough to cover us both before my father saw everything. But he saw enough.
“Dad,” I shouted, pulling the covers up to my chin. “Get out.”
My father’s eyes flashed fire and then went cold as he looked from me to Ben.
“Sir,” Ben said, clearing his throat. He was trapped though. Lying naked beside me, under the covers, he was still exposed and vulnerable under the fury of my father’s glare.
“Monday morning,” my father said to Ben, his voice dripping with a cold brutality I barely recognized. “My office.”
Before I could say anything more, he turned on his heel and slammed the door leaving Ben and I alone.
Chapter Sixteen
Ben
“Shit.” I closed my eyes and let out a growling breath as Charlotte scrambled out of bed and tried to catch her father. It was too late though. We heard the front door slam and his car rev before she could even find a pair of jeans.
“Just let me figure out a way to handle it,” she said, her eyes wide with desperation. “He’ll cool off.”
I tried to give her a comforting smile but my lack of a poker face was a weakness for me. A point for which I was constantly reminded with the lightening of my wallet at my semi-monthly poker games with some guys I knew with the FBI, ATF, and the US Marshal Service. It appeared Charlotte herself was becoming another one of my weaknesses.
The simple fact was, I didn’t care. Even though my career might lie in tatters because of it, an emotion came over me and warmed my heart as I watched Charlotte fumble for her clothes. My heart stirred right along with my dick as her breasts shook when she stabbed her legs into her jeans and did a little hop to pull them up.
“Come here,” I said. The bed creaked as I leaned forward and reached for her wrist. Charlotte’s eyes misted with tears as she let me touch her. Sighing, she sank down on the bed next to me. I nuzzled my head in the hollow above her breast and kissed her.
“I’m sorry,” I said. And I was. “I’ve fucked everything up. I don’t know your dad well yet, but I have a good idea of his particular breed. This isn’t something you can smooth over. It’s a man’s thing.”
She stiffened beneath my cheek. I couldn’t help myself. I kissed her nipple. A tremor ran through her and gooseflesh covered her.
She hooked a finger beneath my chin and pulled my head up until I met her gaze. Her eyes shone with tenderness and sadness all at once. “You’re sweet. You’re also delusional. What’s your plan, Alpha Man? Are you going to march into his office and ask for my hand? Challenge him to a duel?”
I opened my mouth to protest then blew out a breath. I hated to admit that she had me a little. I didn’t know what the hell I was going to say to the chief. I’d have three days to figure it out though. I was working four on, three off, and didn’t have to go back to the station until Monday. Maybe not seeing my ass for seventy-two hours might have a chilling effect on the man’s nerves. On the other hand, he’d just caught me naked in bed with his daughter. Never mind she was a grown woman, that had to sting a man.
“I don’t know,” I told her. “I suppose promising my intentions are pure is pretty much out the window.”
Charlotte smacked a hand over her face. She made a vee with two fingers and peered at me with one steel-blue eye. “Let me talk to him first. He’s a hothead and overprotective, but he’s not unreasonable. You could be as saintly as the Pope and the shock of seeing his little girl acting like a grown-up would have thrown him. But he’s a grown-up too. Plus, we were going to have to deal with this sooner or later, weren’t we?”
She gave me a tentative smile that stopped my heart. The question held a deeper meaning that we’d both skirted since the moment we met. Last night, I’d first come here to break it off with her. If I’d just stuck to my plan, we wouldn’t be in this mess. But everything seemed to turn upside down again when I got in the room with her. Joey and Janet were right. Charlotte was different. I was falling in love with her.
“Look,” I said. “I’m trying to feel the right way about this. The last thing I wanted to have happen is upset your dad. But I’m not sorry. I’m not sorry for a second of time I’ve spent with you. If you’re okay with it, I’d like to spend more of it with you, starting now. What are your plans for the rest of the day?”
She shook her head and threw her arms around my shoulder. Her bare nipples pressed against my chest and it was damn hard to keep my mind on whatever the hell I’d just said to her. She kissed me soundly and slid off the bed.
“Officer Killian, you’re a lot of things, but your timing, as always, is lousy.”
I couldn’t fault her observation. Leaning forward, I pulled my pants off the floor. “Well, it seems we get ourselves in trouble when we’re horizontal. How about I take you out today? I’ve got the day off.”
Her face fell as she grabbed a bra out of her drawer and slid it on. “I wish I could. But I’ve got a flight to catch. In fact, what time is it?” She grabbed her phone out of her jeans pocket. “Two hours,” she said. “How about I take a rain check on the date but you drive me to the airport? My dad was supposed to do it. In fact, that’s probably why he showed up. He’s nuts about that stuff and always wants to show up way early. Things being how they are, I think maybe I better steer clear of him today too.”
God, now that we’d moved forward, the idea of not seeing her for however long she’d be gone seemed untenable. This girl had done something to me. She had me spinning in all the good ways.
“Where are you going?”
Charlotte chewed her bottom lip. A cold pit formed in my stomach. “Wait a minute. You’re not going back to him, are you? That Craig asshole?”
“No!” She put her hands on my shoulders and leaned up to kiss my cheek. I took her by the elbows and set her back down. It would be too easy to let my physical need for her distract me from what mattered here. I would not let her get anywhere near that asshole without me by her side again.
“No,” she said softer. “I’m going home to visit my mother for a couple of days. I promised her I’d come out just before tax season. I’ve been blowing her off for three months. Craig’s little stunt just gave me clarity on some things. It’s good that I’m going because I need to set her straight about him. I’m afraid her ill-informed attempts at
matchmaking are what might have given him the idea to come out here.”
My wheels turned. If that shithead did what was good for him, he’d already be on his way back to Florida too. Which meant Charlotte was heading straight back to where he could find her.
“I don’t want you going,” I said. I planted my feet in a wide stance and straightened my back.
She bit her lip and looked up at me. “I know. The timing is lousy.”
“I don’t trust him. The farther you are away from him, the better right now. Your dad might want to rip my face off right about now, but if he knew what was really going on with Craig, my guess is he’d be on my side.”
Charlotte stood with one hand on her hip and the other combing through her hair. “I cannot let that man … Craig, I mean … dictate how I live my life. I mean it. I’m done with that.”
“Well, Charlotte, I appreciate that. But you gotta understand it’s real hard for me to stand here and think about what might have happened if I hadn’t shown up when I did. He grabbed you. He’s jealous. He’s unpredictable. Shit, for all I know he’s booked the same flight you have. I’m not going to let you walk into something that could hurt you.”
She did something that surprised me. She had a fiery look in her eyes but it softened. A slow smile spread across her face and she put her hands flat on my chest. “Thank you,” she said. “I realized just now I never told you that. I’m not going to pretend that I wished you hadn’t handled Craig a little less … well … homicidal, but I know why you did it. I’m not stupid. I know he’s not a guy I should underestimate. Not with how he acted last night. But I meant what I said. I’m not going to let him dictate what I do. Directly or indirectly. So drive me to the airport. Stay with me until I get on the plane. But I am going home for the weekend.”
Her face changed when she said the last thing. She caught herself and slowly closed her eyes. When she opened them, she blushed. “I suppose I have to stop thinking like that if I meant everything I just said. I’m home right now. And in a weird way, this morning is the first time it fully felt like it.”
She gutted me and she couldn’t possibly know why. She made me vulnerable in ways that were dangerous. If I let her in all the way, it meant opening myself up to pain and loss again. I didn’t know if I could do it. I didn’t know if I had the strength. I stood stone still and a tremor went through me. Charlotte saw it and a tiny crease formed between her eyes. I hated the idea that I could be the cause of any degree of stress for her so I willed my own face soft.
“So let me take you to the airport. Let me make sure you’re safe today. A hell of a lot of stuff has happened in the last twenty-four hours for both of us. Maybe taking some time with it while you’re at your mom’s is a good thing.”
Charlotte gave me a smile but it wasn’t as easy as the others. I wished I could have just said I’d go with her. The instant the thought crossed my mind, I almost said it out loud. But it was too soon. If I was serious about trying to start something real with her, there was the minor hurdle of her father and my boss currently wanting to cut my balls off if I’d read him right. I knew I had.
“Why don’t you take a shower?” she said. “I need to pack a bag but give me a few minutes and maybe I’ll even join you. Then we can get a late breakfast and you can take me to the airport. I’ll talk to my dad after I land. He’ll be calmer then. I’ll be calmer then. Plus, I’m pretty sure if I’ve got my mom in my corner, that’ll seal the deal. The sad thing is, he’s still mad about her. He never really could stand up to her. As much as she drove me crazy about Craig, I know she’ll do the right thing now.”
I kissed the top of Charlotte’s head. “Okay. We’ll play it your way for now. My way seems to always sink me deeper. Janet always tells me I need a solid woman in my life to save me from myself.”
Charlotte stiffened and so did I. My words held a question that we both hadn’t quite figured out the answer for. But dammit, I did want her in my life. I needed her there.
“I think I’ll go take that shower,” I said, pulling away from her. “But you’d better hurry up and join me. You smell like sex, Charlie.”
She slugged me in the shoulder and her face turned crimson. If I had my way, she’d get a hell of a lot more than clean in the shower with me.
Chapter Seventeen
Charlotte
I still felt the warm afterglow of Ben’s kisses by the time I landed. He pulled some strings and stayed with me right at the gate until I boarded. Although he got cagey when I asked him for details, I knew he’d done something a little off-book and borderline illegal to confirm that Craig wasn’t on my flight … or any flight for that matter. The car he’d driven to my front door was one he’d rented from a dealer in Tallahassee. It would take him close to a day to drive it back if he went straight through. Knowing that, however many shady strings he had to pull to find out, seemed to ease Ben’s mind.
“If he shows up anywhere you are,” Ben said as he kissed me goodbye after my final board call, “promise me you won’t try to handle it. Just call the local cops.”
“Got it,” I said, smoothing an unruly lock of hair away from his brow. “I’m a cop’s daughter, remember? I know the drill.”
That seemed to satisfy Ben for the time being. I wanted nothing more than to cancel my trip and spend the weekend in his arms. But there would be time for that when I got back. I owed my mother a visit and she needed to know the price of her meddling in my affairs. I knew she was behind Craig’s visit. She’d been the one to give him my address, after all.
I’d texted my dad twice after he left my house. Once, to tell him I had my own ride to the airport. He responded with a terse “okay.” The second time, I told him we needed to talk about what happened when I got back. He said “okay” to that too, but that was all I got. I didn’t like it one bit. It wasn’t like him to blow me off like that. I could only put out one parental fire at a time though, and for now my hose was squarely trained on my mother.
As I disembarked and headed outside, Randy’s black Mercedes pulled up to the curb. He ducked his head below the visor and waved at me. Mom wasn’t in the car. I threw my carry-on into the back and slipped into the passenger’s seat.
“Your mom’s fighting a head cold,” Randy said. “She wanted to sleep in this morning so she’d be rested up for when you got here.” I raised a brow and smiled. It was five o’clock in the afternoon. But it was pretty typical of her. She could plan for exactly one thing each day. Sleeping in and driving out to the airport threw off her regime.
Randy made a smooth turn and merged with the freeway traffic. We made small talk. Randy and I enjoyed a cordial relationship, but I can’t say we’d ever been close. He’d looked the same since the day my mother introduced me to him over a decade ago. I think he’d been sixty years old since the day he was born. He had thick, peppered-gray hair that he wore slicked back with a deep side part. A native Floridian, Randy Mattheson had leathery tanned skin. He wore what I called “The Uniform” every day of his life. Khakis, a solid-colored, polyester golf shirt, and a gold Rolex.
The humidity blasted my face as we pulled into the circular drive of Randy’s house. I’d never fully felt like it belonged to me. My mother had lived in a condo for the first couple of years after we moved down here. Then she met Randy. He treated her well. He came home when he said he would, no late nights, no blood on his clothes, no haunted look in his eyes from things he couldn’t talk about.
As I looked at Randy, I realized something that put a final punctuation on everything that had happened with Craig. I think I thought Craig was Randy to some extent. As a corporate lawyer, a life with Craig held the same promise of stability that Randy’s did. Hell, it was the same stability I’d craved with my own career choice of accounting. If Craig’s cheating hadn’t been exposed, I would have married him. I might have even convinced myself that I was happy. But then I’d never feel the heart-racing excitement I did the first time Ben kissed me.
“Y
ou okay?” Randy gave me a sideways glance. I hadn’t realized he’d pulled into the garage.
I shook the cobwebs out of my head and reached back for my bag. “Just daydreaming. Sorry. And thanks for being there.” Randy gave me an odd look and a half-smile. I think he sensed I hadn’t just meant the airport. I let the silence hang there and headed inside.
My mother kept the house spotless. You’d never find stacks of mail on the counter or a single dish in the sink. Not ever. The kitchen tile gleamed with fresh wax and her beige carpeting bore perfectly spaced, triangular wedges from her vacuum cleaner. For years, Randy wanted to hire a cleaning lady for her. My mother tried, but always ended up firing them because try as they might, they were never up to her exacting standards.
“Mom!” I called out. I stood at the back door looking out at the pool. My mother lay on a lounge wearing a giant, floppy, pink straw hat. She had herself perfectly positioned so her body pointed directly beneath the sun. She’d turn it, making herself a human sundial. She swore it made a difference in getting an even tan.
She peered from beneath the brim of her hat. She wore huge, Jacki-O-style sunglasses and waved me over. I opened the sliding door and stepped out into the bright Florida sun. The humidity turned my hair to instant frizz and I walked across the porch and pulled a chair up alongside her.
“Oh, baby, I’m so glad you’re here.” My mother pulled me into an embrace, careful to keep her face still shielded beneath her hat. “Craig called and told me everything.”
I stiffened in her arms and took a bracing breath. “Yeah. About that. That’s a longer conversation than I want to get into right now. I literally just got off the plane.”