“Actually I don’t know how you do it but I’d love to find out.”
“Wow...listen to you...” I sighed. “But who knows...maybe you wouldn’t like it,” I teased him back.
“I don’t think I have to worry about that.” He didn’t sound troubled.
“Yeah, probably not.” I couldn’t deny it. “So what about you? Did you have a nice day with Sophie?”
“Yup. We chilled out at Grandview Park with my sister and her son. After I take her home I went to check one of my friends on Granville Island – just open that new fish and chips place, you been there yet?”
“Salt and Batter?” I guessed. “Yeah, I went there with Tony a few months ago – the line-ups were crazy!”
“I know. I was pretty impressed myself – he doin’ good.”
“So are you friends with all the big shot up-and-coming chefs in this city?” I teased him again.
“I sure am,” he played along, making me laugh. “So what does that get me? Have I scored a lot of points with you yet or do I still got some work to do?”
“Hmmm...” I thought. “I can’t lie. You’re doing pretty good, Ben.”
He laughed softly in that sexy way of his. He drove me absolutely mad with passion. “Good...’cause it ain’t easy, you know...”
“I don’t believe you. I think you know exactly how hot you make me.” I just couldn’t help myself.
“Damn, baby...” I could tell my words had shocked him a little. “You been drinking again tonight?”
I smiled. “No. How you make me feel does not depend on alcohol. Not in the least.”
“Well...” I could tell he was enjoying my compliments. “I guess that’s a relief.”
“I just can’t believe you let me go Friday night without even putting up a fight.” The words escaped me before I even knew what I was saying. Hearing his voice again was just making me so crazy...
“Well...” He seemed to be processing my last comment. “Would you have preferred if I had?”
“No...yes...fuck, I don’t even know anymore,” I admitted.
“So...Gabriela...” I loved it when he said my name... “You do know I want much more than just sex from you, right?”
“Yes...I think so,” I admitted. “I’m just not used to anything quite like this.”
“Like what?”
“You just seem so...” My voice trailed off.
“So what?”
“Honest,” I admitted.
He didn’t say anything right away. “You not used to honest?” He sounded so serious.
I sighed. “No, not really. I know it’s probably a terrible thing to admit that you’re not a very good judge of character but...I seem to doubt myself a lot and generally my fears are confirmed.”
“Hmmm...” He was thinking. “I think you need to stop being so hard on yourself, baby...you worth a lot more than I think you know.”
I caught my breath. “You see, Ben...you say things like that and I just...I don’t even know what to do with that.”
He laughed a little. “Why you say that?”
“I don’t know,” I admitted. “I guess my world is just so complicated that...why would anyone want to get mixed up in alla this? Dating me is like...dating a teenager with an eleven o’clock curfew.”
I hated to even say it, but it was the truth.
“You know...” His voice was so soothing. I could listen to him talk all night long. “I’ve met a lot of people in my life – and many different kinds of women – and I can tell you what you’re doing for your mother is more impressive – nah, fuck that – it’s more admirable than any amount of money, lifestyle, or...what? Accessibility? Come on now, I think I can handle the fact that I may have a bit more limited access to you than I may be used to.”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “I see...” I didn’t know what to say.
“I’m serious. You need to relax, baby, because I like you. You just gonna have to learn to accept it.”
I laughed at that. “Accept that you like me...” I repeated.
“That’s not so hard, is it? Another thing you should know about me is I’m very patient,” he told me softly. Tenderly. Almost like he was caressing me with his words. “I don’t mind waiting to get what I want ...as long as I get it some day, ‘cause...well...I like what you got. A lot...”
I let my breath out slowly. “I really don’t think I can trust myself in a room alone with you again, Ben.”
I was losing my mind. I was already dripping wet just listening to his voice. My fingers were already moving lower, teasing the waist of my panties.
“Well...as long as you trust me then...it’s all good.” His words kept soothing me, and I decided to let my fingers play along with him.
“Trust you to do what?” I wanted to know.
“Take care of you,” he answered, without hesitation.
“Hmmm...” I moaned softly, before I could catch myself. “How?”
“How?” Ben repeated me slowly. “Give you what you want, Gabriela. That’s how.” His voice was just making me drip and ache all over.
“How do you...know what I want?” My voice broke, and I feared I was giving myself away. Quickly.
I felt the smile behind his soft, sexy sigh. “Because I can feel it. Just like I can still feel those pretty lips of yours all over mine. They were telling me what you want. Silent but deadly. So I’m a listen better next time, I promise.”
“Hmmm...” I gasped, and bit my lip.
“Would you like that?”
“Yes.” My voice was barely a whisper.
“What are you doing?” I wasn’t fooling him, and now he let me know it.
“Listening to you,” I said simply.
“Does it feel good?”
“What?”
“Listening to me.”
“Yes, it feels very good,” I said softly. “You have a way with words and with...your mouth.”
He sighed softly, amused. “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet, baby...” His voice poured over me like liquid and I squirmed.
“Yes...I can only imagine,” I said then, recovering my voice. “Maybe one day you’ll show me.”
“Show you what?”
“What you can do with your mouth.” I was really pushing it now. I didn’t even recognize this side of myself...
“Hmmm...” That made him sigh softly. “I would love to...and I would love to see you right now...and see just what you’re doing right now.”
“Oh fuck.” I let my breath out. He really had me going now.
“You know...so I can see exactly how you like it.”
“Oh, I think you know exactly what I like...” My breathing was getting heavier.
“So then you know I would do anything to please you.”
“Oh...shit.”
He didn’t say anything for a moment. I heard some rustling noises in the background. I imagined him naked in his bed. I thought I heard the sheets brush up against his phone. And then his voice...
“Baby, I wanna make you come so hard and so deep that nothin’ else matter anymore...I want you to give me everything.”
“Ohh...” I gasped, panting faster and faster, but I bit my lip hard when I came, shaking in silence.
Ben waited for my breathing to slow, listening to me. “You okay?” he asked finally.
“Yes.” I found my voice, still a little shocked at myself. Did I really just fucking do that...with Ben listening to me on the other end of the line? That had to have been the tamest, quickest phone sex in all of history. “I’m great...I’m just...”
“You just what?” he wanted to know.
“I just can’t believe I did that.” I was past the point of caring what I said anymore.... Really, what was the point?
Ben let out a little laugh. “What did you do?” he teased me. “I still don’t know...”
“Okay...” I smiled, pulling the afghan tighter around me. “That’s smart of you. Let’s just leave it a mystery then.
”
Chapter Five
The work week dragged by in a haze of pure bliss, longing and frustration. The texting, late night phone calls and brief meetings during the day at work were sending my libido sky-rocketing and made my passion for Ben grow deeper and deeper with every passing hour. He hadn’t lied to me – he was a very busy man. He usually got to the restaurant by ten am and didn’t leave until eight or nine in the evening, sometimes even until they closed at ten. It made spending any real time together during the week next to impossible, considering I had to be home with my mother no later than eleven.
But on Wednesday evening he’d asked me to come by the restaurant after work so we could have dinner together. We were standing around in the kitchen afterwards, having a drink and chatting with a few of his kitchen staff and Lena, when the back door leading to the alley swung open and a young kid about fifteen or sixteen strolled inside.
He was dressed in a pair of baggy khaki’s belted half-way down his ass and a white wife-beater. He had a Knicks cap pulled down over his tight corn-rows and a pair of massive headphones draped around his neck, Jay-Z blaring from the speakers.
He just nodded at us all casually and headed toward the refrigerator.
“Wow...look who decides to grace us with his presence,” Lena called out, rolling her eyes, the annoyance on her face not lost on me for a second.
The kid turned around, cracking the top of a can of Coke and grinned at her. “What up Lena, you miss me?”
“Levi, if it was up to me, your sorry little behind wouldn’t even still be workin’ here so...” She sucked her teeth and waved him off with her hand
“What?” Levi pulled out his phone and then glanced back at all of us innocently. “It ain’t even six yet...” He leaned back against the counter, taking another long swig of his soda.
I looked over at Ben, who was just eyeing him up, his expression stuck somewhere between irritation and amusement.
He pulled open a drawer next to him. “Yo!” he called out, addressing Levi finally himself, as he tossed him an apron. “What you still standing around for? This ain’t no cocktail party...”
“Daaamn...” Levi drawled, as he reluctantly moved to fasten the apron around his skinny waist. “I don’t know what y’all be trippin’ over all the time – am here, ain’t I?”
But he turned and headed over to the dish washing station, still muttering under his breath.
I turned back to Ben and Lena, giving them a quizzical look of amusement. The scene was pretty funny, I had to admit it.
Lena opened her mouth to say something but Ben cut her off. “Don’t wanna hear it – I’m the one payin’ him, not you.”
“Mmmhmm...” She rolled her eyes yet again. “Blood runs deeper than water, so they say, right?”
Ben turned to me then and nodded his chin over in Levi’s direction. “That’s my nephew,” he said, explaining finally.
“Oh...” I kind of laughed. “All makes sense now.”
But Lena still didn’t look ready to let it go. She glanced around briefly and lowered her voice only for us to hear. “Ben, that kid strolls his ungrateful little ass in here whenever the fuck he feels like it, like you owe him or something – it’s not right.”
I was a little surprised at her directness, but Ben didn’t look bothered. “I know that, but at least if he’s here, he can’t get into any trouble any place else, and I promised his mom I’d look out for him. We been through all this before. You act like you ain’t ever been there...he’s a kid, cut him a little slack…”
Lena sighed, a bit of a defeated expression on her face. “I thought when you hired me you were ready to play hard ball, you know...bust some fucking chops, take out the trash, as they say...” She narrowed her eyes at him. “Since I been here you haven’t let me fire even one incompetent asshole draggin’ this place down...”
Ben laughed and glanced over at me. “She’s just kidding,” he assured me.
Lena shook her head slowly. “Kinda,” she admitted. “But kinda not too...” She sighed then, downing the last of her ginger beer. “All right, I’m a head back out front – nice seeing you again, Gabriela...”
And with that, she was off.
“Hmmm...” I addressed Ben finally, now that we were alone. “She doesn’t hold back much, does she?”
Ben was still chuckling softly to himself. “Nope...but we were friends long before this gig so we have an understanding.”
I glanced back over at Ben’s nephew. “So he’s your brother’s son?” Me and my little prying mind were not letting up.
He nodded slowly. “Yup...” Then he fixed his eyes back on mine. “Am gonna head out to pick up some supplies, you wanna come for a drive? I’ll drop you home after...”
I smiled. “Sounds good to me.”
Ω
We headed over to a big restaurant supply warehouse over on East Hastings and made our way through the aisles with a big cart that Ben began loading up with bulk items – giant sacks of flour, sugar, every kind of spice known to man – along with cleaning fluids, dish soap, toilet paper... I was impressed with his efficiency. I was completely overwhelmed.
“These kinda places freak me out, Ben,” I admitted, as he leaned over to haul a massive sack of corn meal into his cart with the ease of someone who lifted weights for a living. My mind kept wandering to what that body of his could do with me...
He kind of laughed. “Why?”
“I don’t know...I’d get so lost in here by myself. I had to have security help me find the exit at IKEA a few weeks ago,” I said in all seriousness.
“Yeah, you know, come to think of it, you not much of a help right now,” he teased me.
“Yeah, sorry about that,” I laughed, studying the contents of the cart again. “I don’t know how you’re gonna fit all this in the back of the Escalade, though...”
“Don’t you worry, baby,” he said, turning back to the next item on his list. “Am real good at fittin’ big things into tight spaces...”
My jaw dropped and my eyes popped open, a sudden rush of blood surging through my veins. It took me a few seconds to catch up with him, though, as Ben hadn’t even batted an eye at his dirty little comment, and was already busying himself further up the aisle from me.
Ω
Ben pulled his Escalade onto the street in front of my house after expertly managing to load up the trunk and back seat with all the supplies he’d bought.
He glanced out at the modest duplex my mom and I rented near the corner of Fraser and 14th. Not exactly the greatest neighbourhood the city of Vancouver had to offer.
He turned to me, giving me a little lift of the eyebrows. “Well...you home.”
I smiled at him. “Thanks for the ride.”
“Thanks for the company,” he said smoothly. “So you still coming by my place on Saturday?”
His question caught me a little off-guard. “Saturday?”
He kind of laughed. “You forget already? Damn, girl, you makin’ me feel bad...”
“What? How?” I wanted to lean over and kiss him.
“You said you wanted to come check out my little video shoot, remember?” He gave me a little sideways glance and raised his eyebrows.
He made me laugh all over again. “Shit, Ben...that’s right. Of course I am,” I told him, my heart racing and my mind suddenly spinning, trying to figure out how to arrange everything on the home front. “What time?”
He thought about it. “I don’t know...like maybe three or four...I would come get you but am gonna kinda have my hands full with prep and bunch of last minute shit – it can get a little hectic.”
“No, no, that’s okay,” I said much too eagerly. “I’ll find my way, don’t worry.”
“All right.” He smiled. “I’ll call you.”
I gave him a little knowing look. “I’ll try to answer,” I teased him.
He sucked his teeth at my terrible joke but then just reached out and squeezed my thigh gently, sliding
his hand between my legs and squeezing again, all the while looking at my body like he was starving. Fuck, that man had a way with his hands...
Then just as quickly he looked back up and met my eyes. “Okay...you can go now,” he said smoothly.
“Damn...yes, sir.” I let my breath out, secretly aching for more, and I reached for the door handle, trying to hide my disappointment. But I waited. “Anything else?” I glanced back over at him.
“Like what?” he wanted to know.
“I don’t know...” I said softly. “Maybe a kiss...or another grope...whatever you prefer.”
He raised his eyebrows, amused. “Why should you have all the fun?” he asked slowly, deliberately, eyeing me closely. “Come to think of it, you haven’t even copped a feel or nothin’...am startin’ to feel a little neglected.”
My mouth fell open as I stared back at him with a mixture of shock, amusement, and pure arousal. “You did not seriously just say that.”
“Yeah, I just did.” He didn’t skip a beat. “So what you gonna do about it?”
I bit my lip, thinking. “What you want me to do about it?”
But Ben just shook his head at me. “Nah, I don’t play that way...I don’t ask for anything...I just wait for it to come to me.”
Fuck, this man had skills. I licked my lips. “Well, then...” I thought again. “I guess it’s a good thing you’re so damn patient.”
I leaned over quickly and gave him a soft little peck on the cheek and swung open my door. “See you later.”
My heart didn’t stop racing for a good couple of hours.
Ω
“Who’s your favourite reggae artist?”
We were on the phone the next night. I had just crawled into bed when my phone rang at about eleven pm, and when I checked the number my heart started beating immediately. He always called so late and kept me up for a couple hours. And as much as I knew he wanted it, it was never for a booty call. Not that I could have accommodated him with that anyway, considering I couldn’t leave the house, but it felt nice anyway.
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