by Cj Howard
She felt his body tensing up, his thighs tightening underneath her as he came closer and closer to orgasm. Claire held back, reading his body, reading the signs; she didn’t want to let him climax in her mouth, but she wanted to get him right up to the edge.
When she felt the telltale signs of Benjamin’s tension on the edge of climax, Claire pulled back completely, chuckling to herself as Benjamin groaned in disappointed need. She moved over his body, pressing wet kisses at odd intervals until she reached his lips, and smiled against his skin as he wrapped his arms around her tightly and pressed her body to his.
“You’re going to pay for that,” he murmured against her lips playfully.
She giggled and then gasped as Benjamin toppled her off of him, tumbling her down onto the bed and quickly covering her body with his. “I am, am I?” She nipped at his bottom lip and squirmed as his thigh slid up between her legs, pressing against her soaking wet pussy.
Benjamin kissed her hungrily, rubbing against her. “You did say I could do whatever I wanted,” he reminded her. “That includes making you pay for being such a tease.” He dipped down to her neck and began nibbling and kissing his way down to her breasts. Claire moaned out as he worshipped first one and then the other of her nipples with lips and tongue, sending jolts of pleasure seemingly straight to her pussy, turning her on even more. He moved back up to her lips and slipped one hand between her legs, stroking and rubbing her clitoris as they writhed together.
He teased her for what felt like an hour, touching her and then backing off, kissing her eagerly, moving from her lips to her neck to her breasts and then back up, until Claire was almost shaking with need.
“Fuck,” Claire murmured, twisting underneath him, trying to get better contact with his fingers. “Okay—okay, I’ve learned my lesson,” she said.
Benjamin chuckled, kissing her on the lips once more. “I don’t think you have at all, but I can’t stand to wait any longer,” he told her, shifting down between her hips and letting his fingers slip away from her. “I need to be inside you.”
“Yes, god yes—please,” Claire murmured, wrapping her legs around his waist.
Benjamin guided the tip of his cock up against her, rubbing slightly, and his lips claimed hers as he thrust into her inch by inch, filling her up. Claire pushed her hips down to meet his thrust, tangling her fingers in his hair as they began to move together. She moaned out, twisting her hips in response to Benjamin’s movements, taking him deeper and deeper inside of her.
Just like every other time, he fit inside of her perfectly—as if his cock had been made specifically to her needs. They found their rhythm in a matter of moments, touching each other everywhere, kissing each other feverishly.
Benjamin gradually picked up his pace, starting slow but moment by moment going a bit quicker, and Claire gave into the pleasure of the moment, shifting and moving underneath him. She felt her inner muscles flexing as she became more and more turned on, as every thrust of Benjamin’s hips brought pressure and delicious friction against her clitoris, as the tip of his cock brushed against her inner pleasure center every second or third thrust.
She tried to hold back, to savor the feeling of hot-cold electricity dancing through her nervous system, but she could feel the tension building deep down between her hips, until it was almost unbearable.
All at once the knot between her hips seemed to unravel, and Claire felt every muscle in her body tensing, flexing, as the first wave of pleasure crashed through her. She moaned out, burying her face against Benjamin’s neck, as he slammed into her hard and fast, intensifying the climax that had already started to tumble and crash through her body.
He held back for a few moments longer, but she felt—absently—the telltale twitching of his cock inside of her as he reached his own climax and then the sticky-slick feeling as the first rush of his orgasm gushed along her inner walls. They both continued moving for as long as they could, gripping each other as if for life itself, until neither could keep going anymore.
Benjamin sagged against her, panting and gasping, and Claire shuddered as aftershocks worked through her body, struggling to catch her own breath. “Did… did you…” He pulled himself up slightly to look into her eyes. “You never actually answered me, you know.”
Claire laughed breathlessly. “The answer is yes,” she said.
Benjamin nodded and kissed her lightly on the lips. “In that case,” he said, “I think it’s definitely worth another round to celebrate—once we can both breathe.”
Claire chuckled again, nodding her agreement with that assessment.
The Final Chapter
Benjamin stepped up to the car waiting for him, trying not to think of the fact that he was leaving Claire alone at the casino for a few hours. She has all of the security looking out for her, he reminded himself. But then part of his mind countered that they still hadn’t tracked down who it was on his security team—or elsewhere among the personnel—who was working with the group threatening Claire. She’s as safe as she can possibly be, he insisted to himself firmly. He opened the back door to the car and climbed into the seat.
“Heading to the Bellagio, right?”
Benjamin nodded in response to the driver’s question. Alan was out for the day; he’d somehow landed himself in the hospital with food poisoning, and his backup had taken over his duties. Normally, that wouldn’t have bothered Benjamin, but he’d insisted on going to his meeting alone—without Claire—for exactly that reason. It had been two days since they had decided to have a real relationship, and while Benjamin didn’t want to think that anything had changed, he had to admit that it had. If anything, he felt more protective over her.
Benjamin settled into the back seat of the car as the driver pulled away from the curb, thinking about the meeting ahead of him. The people he was going to meet with had never spoken to Claire before and didn’t know about the role she was playing in his business affairs. Benjamin knew that there were a few rumors out there that he and his “associate” had begun seeing each other, but he didn’t think it was quite common knowledge yet. Hopefully they could figure out how to take down the people threatening Claire before it became a public fact.
Benjamin was too wrapped up in his thoughts initially to realize that his driver wasn’t going in the direction of the Bellagio. When he noticed the fact that the landscape outside of the window was not what he expected, he felt his heart start to beat faster—just a little bit, but he already anticipated something was wrong. “Bill, what’s up?”
“I’m just taking an alternate route,” Bill said.
Benjamin took his phone out of his pocket and opened up the GPS app; they were driving away from the direction of the Bellagio, which wasn’t very far from his hotel in the first place. Even if Bill was taking a different route, Benjamin didn’t think it would make sense for the man to choose one that would be longer than the normal route.
“Seriously, Bill,” Benjamin said, slipping his phone back into his pocket. “What’s going on here?”
Bill glanced at him in the rearview mirror, and for one second, Benjamin caught the sight of guilt in the man’s eyes. “I’m sorry, Mr. Minken,” Bill said.
“What, exactly are you sorry for?” Before Bill could reply, Benjamin saw the SUV pull in front of them and another one appear at the side. Glancing through the rear window, he saw that there was in fact a third there—all three identical. His heart started beating even faster. “I’m calling the fucking cops,” Benjamin told the driver.
“You can’t,” Bill said.
Benjamin scowled. “What the fuck do you mean?”
“I don’t know the details, but they told me that your phone wouldn’t work,” Bill said.
Benjamin didn’t believe him. He took his phone out of his pocket and unlocked the screen; instead of the usual four bars, however, there was a no signal icon. Benjamin wasn’t sure how the people behind his kidnapping had managed that, but he knew he was going to find out, one way or
another.
Before he could think of something to do, Bill pulled the car into a private parking structure, showing his face to the man at the gate, who nodded them in. The SUVs surrounded the car still, on all but one side, and Benjamin discovered that the doors were all locked. Bill shot him another apologetic glance.
“What the fuck do they have on you, Bill?”
“They said they’d cancel my debt,” Bill said, “and that they’d give me another ten grand.”
Benjamin tried to think of what he should do, how he could get himself out of the situation he was suddenly in, but he didn’t have time. The doors to the three SUVs opened, and six men emerged, dressed impeccably—but anonymously. Benjamin didn’t think it was any of the people who had gone after Claire before, but he couldn’t be entirely sure, and he didn’t think that the six men he saw were all the men involved in the operation.
“I’m sure you realize that you’re more than fucking fired after this,” Benjamin told Bill as the men surrounded the vehicle’s doors. One of the men stood at the door nearest him, and Bill unlocked the door.
“Yeah, I figured as much,” Bill said guiltily as the door opened.
“Mr. Minken, you’ll need to come with us,” the man said impassively.
“Not until you tell me who you are,” Benjamin said.
“My name is Chris,” the man said. “You’ll find out more once we get into the car.”
“No, I’m not going anywhere until you tell me what this is about,” Benjamin insisted.
“I’m sure you already know what this is about,” Chris said. “You know it’s about Claire Stevenson.”
“I could have guessed as much,” Benjamin said. “But that doesn’t explain why you’re suddenly willing to come after me.”
“The people I work for are serious,” Chris explained. “They know they won’t get Claire to leave the casino alone and unprotected the way things stand now.”
“How the hell do you think this is going to play out?” Benjamin stared the man down. “Going after her is one thing, but going after me?” He smiled slightly.
“We need her or her father,” Chris said. “You’re collateral. If she plays ball, you’re fine. Otherwise…” he shrugged.
“If you do anything to me, it’s going to blow your employer’s whole operation wide open,” Benjamin told the man.
“That’s a risk they’re willing to take, I guess,” Chris said, shrugging again. “Now you need to come with me.”
“And if I refuse?” Chris just met his gaze levelly for a long moment, and Benjamin knew that if he refused to cooperate, the other men surrounding his private car would come into play; they’d drag him out if they had to. He would, he thought, much rather be conscious going into whatever situation he was headed for than knocked out for it. He shifted in his seat, unbuckling the seatbelt, and started to climb out. Chris stepped back just enough to let him leave the car, and two of the men who’d accompanied him flanked him.
“I’ll need your phone,” Chris said. “Also, of course, I’ll have to search you—I’m sure you understand.” Benjamin wanted to refuse, but he knew that if he did, things would only intensify—and he wanted to stay as aware as possible, in case there was an opportunity for an escape. He handed over his phone, and Chris tossed it into the driver’s seat of the car, where Bill retrieved it. “It’ll be back at your hotel,” Chris explained, and Benjamin got a clearer picture of exactly what would be happening.
Chris patted him down impersonally, making sure he wasn’t armed, and Benjamin wished fleetingly that he had been; it wouldn’t necessarily have prevented what had happened, but it would have at least guaranteed that the people abducting him paid a price. Chris and his two lieutenants surrounded him, leading him towards one of the SUVs, where Benjamin was sure he would be blindfolded the way Claire had been. He let himself be steered, but when they arrived at the nearby car, he once again wanted to resist when he saw Chris take a handful of zip ties from his suit pocket.
“Apparently you’re far more concerned about me trying to escape than your coworkers were about Claire getting away,” he said calmly.
“We want to be sure you don’t try anything stupid,” Chris said matter-of-factly. “So you’ll be blindfolded and bound in the car.”
Benjamin thought about it and realized that there was no way around the situation. He would have to see what he could do when they arrived wherever it was they were going. He wondered just how they planned to break the news to Claire and what she would do. Obviously, Shawn had hidden himself well, if they hadn’t managed to find the man. Benjamin let himself be bound and let himself be blindfolded, and then the three men helped him into the back seat of the SUV.
He heard engines going and thought that Bill probably was exiting the parking structure first, likely heading to the Bellagio for a while before returning to the Halston Grand as scheduled. There would be something that he could do to get himself out of this mess—there had to be.
The car doors closed, and Benjamin settled in for the ride. If there was one good thing to be said for being bound and blindfolded, was that he had little to be distracted by; he could spend the drive, however long it was, thinking about what he would do and how he would take care of things.
He could feel the movement in the car, but there was no way for him to know where they were going; the other men in the car with him were mostly silent, making occasional small talk that didn’t reveal anything at all about the situation or where they were going.
They were clearly consummate professionals, and Benjamin’s notion of just how powerful the people after Claire were increased. He began to assemble the pieces of information that he, Joe, the senator, and the rest of his web of investigators had turned up and tried to think about how to put those bits and pieces of information to the best possible use, to get himself out of the mess he was in—and hopefully do so in a way that would keep Claire safe as well.
*
Claire glanced at the mirrors in the elevator as she waited for it to reach the ground floor, trying to remember to breathe: in, out, in, out, slowly and steadily. It had been an hour and a half since she’d gotten the message on her phone, and finally, it was time to make her move. You have to stay calm to pull this off, she reminded herself. This isn’t—ultimately—any worse than being bait would have been, except that… She closed her eyes for a moment. Except that they’re probably going to kill him if it doesn’t go the right way.
Shortly after Benjamin had left for his meeting, Claire had gotten a call from Joe. “I can’t get Benjamin on the phone—tell me he hasn’t left for the meeting yet,” Joe had said.
“He’s been gone about ten minutes,” Claire had replied.
“Fuck. Okay, I’m going to meet with you in fifteen—this is an emergency.”
Joe was midway through explaining what he had discovered—that Benjamin had become, himself, a target for the people who were after Claire—when she got the message on her phone. Claire Stevenson, you have three hours to provide us with information to retrieve your father. It had come from Benjamin’s phone, but it clearly wasn’t in Benjamin’s possession.
“Here’s what I’ve been able to find out,” Joe told her after she’d gotten the message. “Alan was poisoned, so that Bill would have to cover him. Bill, obviously, is working with these people.”
“And they want my father because he’s the one who agreed to all this, and I refused to do it,” Claire had confirmed.
“Yes, and of course because now you know about it,” Joe had agreed. “So it has to get done. Clearly they haven’t been able to track Shawn down; I did a good job getting him into hiding.”
“That was you?” Joe nodded.
“Benjamin wanted him out of Vegas for your sake—but he also wanted him in a position where he couldn’t make more trouble for himself, if possible. So he got me to help out.” Joe hadn’t provided any details beyond that and hadn’t even revealed where he’d hidden Claire’s father; he’d p
ointed out that if she knew, she’d give the information to the people in question. “I can’t blame you for that,” he’d finished, “but I know something like that would only end up wrecking you in the long run, considering what they’d do to him once he finished.”
In an hour and a half, she and Joe had managed to take care of as many details as possible. Joe had gotten in touch with the senator and Chavez as the Halston head of security, and Claire had worked with the three of them on a plan that—if it went the right way—would result in her not only blowing the ring wide, but also getting Benjamin out safely.
As the elevator came to a stop on the ground floor, Claire touched the spot on top of her pocket where the GPS tracking device was glued. It was something that the senator had been able to give them access to, tiny enough that even if she was frisked it wouldn’t be noticed.
She also had a microscopic microphone hidden in one of the earrings she wore, with the transmitter buried in the material of her sneakers. Assuming that the people who wanted to see her didn’t have something in place to sort everything out, Joe would be able to track her to wherever she went and also get a recording of everything that was said. There would be someone following at a discreet distance, tracking her. Based on what they already knew about the situation, the FBI—those members of the bureau who could be trusted—were on alert.
She had gotten another message from a blocked number after an hour, giving her instructions for where to meet with the people she was supposed to speak to. She was supposed to go to New York New York, where she’d be met by “representatives.” Do not expect to retain your phone. Claire had brought her phone rather than leaving it behind in the hopes that the people who took her to the meeting she was going to would focus on that—making them less likely to even seriously look for any other devices.
Bill waited in Benjamin’s car for her, just outside of the Halston Grand, and Claire tried not to resent the man. He had been involved in not only poisoning Alan, the usual driver, but in capturing Benjamin; if not for him, then the whole situation might not have happened. He has his own reasons for participating, she reminded herself—but it didn’t help. She gave the man a curt nod and opened the door for herself, climbing into the back seat.