by Ella Brooke
Jinan took her to a steakhouse to celebrate afterward, but though she appreciated the gesture, she found that she could not do more than slowly pick at her food, comforting Jodie when she got frustrated or fractious.
Jinan seemed to sense her mood, and when Jodie got particularly cranky, he plucked her from Benny's arms.
"Concentrate on eating," he said with a slight smile. "Jodie and I will keep each other company."
Benny's heart constricted slightly at the way that Jodie fell instantly silent in Jinan's arms. There was something strangely soothing about seeing her niece with Jinan, and with her hands free, she was able to eat at least a little.
I feel just the same as I have always felt, she thought when they returned to the townhouse.
Perhaps that was the problem. It felt as if a marriage, even one that was formed for the most unromantic of reasons, should be something that changed the lives of the people involved. It should work to make their lives better, and it had certainly improved things for her and Jodie.
For a moment, she stood over the crib, touching Jodie's cheek with a gentle, stroking finger. The crib was Jinan's doing, and she smiled a little, thinking of all the trouble it had given him. Jinan, from beginning to end, had acted to help her, and he had received nothing for it.
Perhaps it was time she started to pay him back.
With a shiver, she remembered the night before she had found out about Sandra and Paul. The heat between them had been the hottest thing she had ever felt. She hadn't thought it was possible to want someone so much, that all of the stories she had overheard had been gross exaggerations. Now she knew that, if anything, they had understated the power of human desire.
Less than two weeks had passed since that night, but it might as well have come from another age. That was before she had lost Sandra and Paul. It was before she had become responsible for Jodie. Suddenly, though she would fight to the death to keep her niece with her, she longed for that night again, when she had felt as slippery and as wild as fire, when her body had been on the cusp of learning something elemental and powerful.
Jodie was already in a deep sleep, her small chubby fist held close to her cheek. Benny knew she would sleep through the night, which gave her plenty of time to enact her plan. She could hear Jinan stirring in the other room. He had likely showered and was planning on doing a little work before he went to bed.
She had to smile at herself. She wasn't sure, but she guessed that other women didn't plot out seductions as if they were banquets or battles. She was who she was, however, and most days, Benny wouldn't change it.
Apparently, no matter what she wanted to do, she was organized about it. It was what made her an excellent personal assistant, and she hoped that as time went on, it would make her an excellent caregiver to her niece as well.
Now she would get to find out whether it would make her a good lover.
***
A few hours later, she clutched the lapels of her robe closed, wondering if she was being too hasty after all. On the other side of the door, she could hear Jinan stirring, still restless even after midnight. It should have been the simplest thing in the world to knock on the door, or to be even bolder still and sweep it open.
However, at the last moment, she seemed to have developed a case of cold feet. Benny couldn't make herself go forward, but for one reason or another, she couldn't seem to make herself go back to her own room, either. Instead, she had been frozen in the hallway for a good five minutes, looking like nothing more than a truly strange statue as she waited for her nerves to calm down.
He might think this is entirely inappropriate, her mind told her. He might think you are trying to buy him off, or maybe he will think you are cheap. He might only care about sleeping with someone when he isn't married to them, or maybe his view of you changed when you became Jodie's guardian...
The more she thought about it, the more reasons appeared for her to simply stay in her own room, to let things play out as they had been for the last little while. It would be the safest thing for her. It might even be the safest thing for Jodie.
However...
At the bottom of all of it was the cry of her heart, which she now realized had been buried for far too long. She’d had to ignore it in the rush of grief and terror after Sandra and Paul's accident, but now it appeared, needy and nearly frantic.
I want this man more than I have ever wanted anyone else, she realized, and the force of that conviction struck her like a hammer.
She lifted her head, swallowing hard, and raised her hand to knock on the door. At least, that's what she would have done if the door hadn't opened suddenly, revealing Jinan standing there instead, a quizzical look on his face.
"I thought I heard someone out here," he said. "Is everything all right?"
There were perhaps a dozen ways to answer that question. For a moment, she simply stared up at him like a small animal in front of a truck, and then she managed to find at least some of her voice.
"Um, yeah, Jodie's fine and everything's good...just... Could I come in for a little while?"
"Of course. You are always welcome here."
She tried not to read too much into that, following him into his room and closing the door after her. Benny recognized the room, of course. She had chosen the entire townhouse, along with the decorations that went with it. The master bedroom was done in warm colors, deep brown, cream and deep maroon, and she had thought it was a good resting place for a man like Jinan. However, now that he had been staying in it for a few months, there was an unmistakable imprint of the man who lived there. There was something oddly exciting about it, being in the space that he had claimed for himself.
She had a speech planned out. There was something in it about being so grateful for everything he had done for her and Jodie, something about the night they had gone out together and the money he had forced her to spend on that dress and shoes. However, now that she was in his room and he was looking at her with a raised eyebrow, the words felt silly and trite. There was no way they would be able to capture how she really felt about him or what she wanted here.
When Jinan turned to her with an expectant look, she crossed the floor towards him and threw her arms around him. She could feel his body register the shock, and then he pulled her into a deep embrace. It felt like what she had wanted for her entire life, but right now, it wasn't enough. It wasn't nearly enough.
"Jinan...I want you to kiss me," she murmured, and she was shocked at how husky her voice sounded.
He didn't hesitate for a moment. Suddenly he was tipping her head back, and then his mouth was claiming hers in a kiss that made fire race through her body. She had missed this somehow, despite only experiencing it a handful of times with him. She had missed the heat of his mouth on hers, and she had missed the pleasure of his tall, strong body pressed up against her. She kissed him back as fiercely as she could, all concerns about her lack of experience and desirability melting away in the passion that was coursing between them. When she kissed him, there were no doubts in Benny's mind. There was only the assurance that this was what she wanted and Jinan was the only man in the world who could give it to her, who could make her feel like this. She could feel the moment his desire for her swept through his body. The tension between them strung so tightly that it could be twanged like a bowstring. He needed her, and in that moment, she knew that he would simply take her.
Then, to Benny's surprise and distress, he pulled back to look at her.
"Benny, what's going on?"
God, even his voice was a turn on. It was hoarse and rusty, and somehow, it only made her want him more.
"If you can't tell what's going on here, then I have vastly overestimated your experience with this kind of thing," she said, but he frowned.
"A great deal has changed between us," he pointed out. "I...I need to be sure you are not doing this out of...out of some kind of duty or requirement...because you think you owe me something."
In some ways, that was true, but
what was more true than that, more true than anything she had ever felt before, was the need inside her.
"We're married," Benny said simply. "Are you going to tell me this isn't something that married people do with one another?"
It was as if she could feel something in him snap. She knew that he would never take her against her will, never make her do something that she didn't want to do, but in that moment, his desire for her overcame his own doubts.
Suddenly, he pulled her back into his arms with a groan, planting kisses all over her face as she clung to him. When his warm mouth and seeking tongue found the tender places of her throat, she groaned, whimpering with need and pleasure.
"I need you, I need you so much," she found herself moaning, and she was answered by a deep growl.
She gasped with surprise as he swept her up into his arms, carrying her to the enormous bed.
"So tell me," he said. "Are you wearing the same thing under this robe that you were wearing underneath your dress the last time we did this?"
"I think you're going to have to figure it out for yourself," she said, looking up at him with defiant eyes.
"Well, that sounds like a challenge," Jinan purred.
He rolled her onto her back, exposing her long legs to his view. He stroked her thighs and calves, making her hiss with pleasure, but when she held her breath as he inched higher, he stopped.
"Jinan!"
"I have been thinking about this since the night we met," Jinan murmured. "I am going to do exactly what I want to do..."
He leaned over her, kissing her sweetly until she would have sworn that she had forgotten her own name. He started with her mouth, and then he trailed his lips down her chin and over her throat, spending time caressing her racing pulse with his tongue.
Only when she was squirming with pleasure did he venture down the V of her robe opening, spreading the sides open inch by inch. With every moment, he was getting closer to her secret, and she held her breath, wondering what he would think.
Finally, he opened the sides of her robe, and underneath he found nothing but her body, soft, glowing slightly in the dim light, and aching for him.
He froze, staring down at her, and Benny felt a sneaking doubt curl along her spine.
"Is...is it okay? Am I okay?"
Her voice sounded nervous, almost girlish, and Jinan kissed her all over again. There was an assertiveness to his kisses that told her she was definitely okay, and then he was kissing her ear, murmuring as he did so.
"Beautiful girl, how can you even ask me that?" he crooned. "When you are as perfect as a pearl from the deep darkness of the ocean, when you are more lovely than any woman who has ever set foot to the earth."
She found herself giggling a little as he kissed her.
"I think you might be a little prejudiced," she laughed, and he never even stopped kissing her. Instead, his talented lips found her nipples, drawing on one and then the other until she gasped at the intense pleasure of it.
"I think that you talk too much," he said with a wicked grin. "I think that you do not get to tell me what I find beautiful and what I know to be true..."
"Is that so?" she gasped when she had gotten her breath back. "Is there some kind of punishment that happens to girls who talk back to princes like you?"
A darker kind of smile crossed his lips, and she found herself shivering in the most delicious way.
"Perhaps you are someone who responds well to punishment," he purred, coming to rest his weight over her. It was a surprisingly pleasurable thing, his body draped over hers, his manhood hard and hot against her thigh. The true pleasure, however, were his words.
"Perhaps one reason why you defy me is because you want to see my strength, you want to know that I care about you well enough to keep you in line. Perhaps the best way for you to understand that would be to have you turned over my knee every time you spoke against yourself, whenever you said that I was wrong to call you beautiful or delightful."
She couldn't stop the full body shudder from flowing through her, and as close as he was, she knew that he could feel it as well.
"Over your knee, huh?" She tried to sound brave, but there was a quaver in her voice that made her sound very interested instead.
"Yes. Over my knee, so that delicious rear of yours was bare to my hand. You might squawk at first, telling me that I'm crazy, that I can't do this to you, but deep down, you would know that I certainly could."
"And then?" she asked, stuttering just a little.
"Then I would proceed to turn your gorgeous ass red with my hand, taking you through squeals and yelps until you finally gave in and lay silent and submissive and thoroughly hot under my grasp..."
She couldn't stop a deep groan from escaping her lips, because she could almost feel the phantom ache from his punishing hand now, feel the way his hard thigh pressed into her belly, feel the warmth from his blows and then the touch of his hand on her hot flesh...
She was quickly brought back to her own body when he shifted his still-clothed thigh up between her bare legs.
"Of course, that is something that does require a bit of talk, so perhaps another time. What we should be looking at is what we are going to do right now..."
He started to kiss her again, but this time, he didn't keep himself to her throat or her face. Instead, he started kissing her entire body as his hands roved over her skin. She reached for him, intending to do the same, but every time she tried, it was as if he found a brand new spot to make her whimper and groan.
"When I tell you that you are beautiful, I expect you to believe it, and when I kiss you, and touch you, and spread you open in front of me, I expect you to understand that that is what I mean..."
She whimpered with the loss when he pulled away, but it was only to strip his own clothes off. She watched, her eyes wide and her lips slightly parted, as he threw his clothes carelessly on the ground, revealing skin that was bronzed and beautiful, a body that was shaped by what she now knew was a life on horseback. He was lean-muscled, with a toughness that made her faint, and when he crawled back into the bed with her, she couldn't help reaching for him.
"Patience, little love," he murmured. "I am going to enjoy every inch of you."
She barely understood what he meant, but then he spread her legs wide with his hands, going to lie between them. She covered her face with her hands, a red blush on her cheeks. No one had ever looked at her so closely before unless they were a doctor, and certainly no doctor had ever looked at her like this, with flames in his eyes.
Benny had her eyes covered, so when she felt his mouth against her inner thigh, she gasped out loud. He didn't stop there, however. Instead, he licked and kissed his way closer and closer to the very heat of her until he was gently parting her folds and lapping at her most sensitive flesh.
"Oh! Oh Jinan, please..!"
"Please stop?" he asked, pulling back slightly, and she thought she might die from the loss.
"No, no, please don't stop!"
She heard his growl of laughter, and then he was lapping at her again, opening her up even more so he could reach the small pearl at the crest of her folds. With every lick and kiss, she could feel the pressure inside her building up higher and higher. Her hands were clenched into fists so tight that she was trembling, and she was reaching for something without even understanding what in the world she was reaching for. All that mattered was that it felt so, so good, and if she did not get more of it, she thought she might explode.
Then something shifted; either he tongued her with just the right pressure, or something inside her gave way. Suddenly, her body felt as if it was full of fireworks, soaring high up into the sky to explode. The power of the explosions shook her and somehow deafened her as well. She knew that she was crying out, calling Jinan's name, begging but not even sure what she was begging for, but she could barely hear herself. Instead, she was rocked by a kind of pleasure she had never really felt before. It was as if she was being torn apart and put back
together, and when she finally stilled, she stared at Jinan as if he had changed the world.
"Are you all right?" he asked. "Do you need to be finished now?"
It took her a few tries before she found her words, but she shook her head. When she spoke, her voice felt as if it were coming from far away.
"No, I want you..." she managed, but she knew he understood her from the way his eyes darkened, the way his body tensed against hers.
For a moment, it looked like he was going to protest, but then she ran a tired hand down his chest. She was too shy to do anything more than ghost the palm of her hand over his manhood, but it was enough.
He made a noise that was more a growl than anything else, and then he was on top of her.
Jinan kissed her until her lips felt sensitive and slightly bruised, and then he reached his hand between them, guiding the head of his cock into her wanting opening.
Reflexively, she closed her eyes, but then Jinan called her name, making them fly open again.
"I want you to look at me," he growled. "I want you to look at me right now..."
She did, eyes wide, and she could feel his cock sink into her, slowly and surely. There was a slight pinch of pain that made her whimper, but he kissed her gently until it was barely more than a memory.
"Good girl," he murmured. "Good girl. Benny, you feel so good, so, so good..."
Then he was sunk in her to the hilt, and she sighed with pleasure. Benny had never understood how powerful it might be to be joined with someone like this, to really feel them and to be as close as it was possible to get with someone.
"Benny...are you all right?"
"Yes," she murmured, clinging to him.
"Good...because I am not sure if I can stop now..."
He started to move inside her, long, slow thrusts that brought him almost out of her before pushing back in. With each stroke, it was as if he lifted her higher on a wave of passion, making her groan and wrap her legs around him to pull him back in even deeper.
The rhythm reminded her in a hazy way of the ocean, the waves that lapped up to shore increasing in intensity. She could feel the increasing urgency in her as he started to thrust harder, losing the rhythm and giving in to something far more savage, far more primal.