And Then You Fall (Crested Butte Series)

by Heather A Buchman

  “What? Yes, I’m okay. I’m so sorry, I couldn’t see where I was going.” Liv turned to pick up the inner tube and hightail it out of there.

  “Oh no you don’t. You’re not getting away so fast this time.” Ben picked up the tube and held it far enough away that she couldn’t reach it. Considering he was a foot taller than she was, he didn’t have to hold it very high.

  “Liv, it’s me, Ben.”

  “Hi Ben. How are you?”

  “How am I? Don’t you think it’s a little wild running into me? What are you doing here?”

  “I’m here on business and I made Liv come with me. I’m Paige. We met once before, briefly, at Red Rocks.”

  Paige was talking. Thank God, that meant she didn’t have to. And Ben was answering her. More talking she didn’t have to do. Now if she could just curl up into a little ball and slink away without anyone noticing, she’d be fine. Oh, but wait, she wanted to listen to that voice just a little bit longer. She loved his voice—even when he was just talking.

  “And just where do you think you’re going?”

  Oh crap. She was backing away from him. And he noticed. “Come with me. You, too, Paige.”

  “Where are we going? Ow. Can you ease up a little bit please?”

  Ben was holding her hand so tightly it hurt. “I’m not letting go this time Liv. If I do, I may never see you again.”

  Once they were safely within the confines of the cabana, Ben pulled out a chair and pointed at it. “Please have a seat.”

  When Liv didn’t sit, he took a step forward. “Liv, please.” He sounded more exasperated than he would’ve liked. Liv sat and he moved to the other side of the table, pulling a chair out for Paige.

  He sat down in the chair closest to Liv. He wanted to sit and stare at her, memorize every line on her face and curve on her body. Here she was, sitting next to him, this woman who haunted his dreams, he knew he was destined to get to know her.

  She was certainly a mystery. Didn’t she recognize him? It sounded like her friend did.

  “Okay. Now that I think you may stay put for a minute . . . hi Liv. How are you? It’s nice bumping into you here.”

  “Ha, ha,” she answered, looking away. He touched her cheek, turning her head so she’d look at him.

  “Hi Ben, it’s nice bumping into you too.” She took a deep breath, and added, “I’m surprised you remember me.” She was looking down again. He didn’t want her to look down he wanted her to look at him. He moved his hand from her cheek to her chin and lifted her gaze to his.

  “Why do you always run from me?” he whispered.

  Paige jumped up from her chair. “I think I’ll go get us a couple of drinks. Liv? Ben? What would you like?”

  “Paige, please sit back down,” he calmly stated, without looking away from Liv. “We have cabana service. Tell me what you’d both like and I’ll order it for you.” He still hadn’t taken his eyes off Liv who looked like a deer in cross hairs.

  “Liv, what would you like to drink?”

  “Lemonade?”

  “Is that a question or is it what you’d like to drink?”

  “Lemonade, please.”

  “Paige?”

  “I need something a little stronger. I’ll have an Sea Breeze please.”

  “I’ll be right back . . . I’m only walking a couple feet away . . . I’m ordering drinks . . . do not get up from the table . . .” He kept his voice low and free of any inflection, like a hypnotist.

  He came back and pulled his chair even closer to Liv. “So—let’s start over, way back at the beginning. Why don’t we talk about how you bolt away from me every time I try to start a conversation with you? Is there something about me you don’t like?” He rubbed his head. “I’m bald. Is that it? You don’t like bald guys.”

  “No, I like bald guys. I mean, there isn’t anything about you I don’t like. No, that isn’t what I mean. See? I can’t even put two thoughts together. I ‘bolt,’ as you put it, because I don’t want you to know I’m an idiot.”

  Ben leaned back and laughed. She was so damned cute. She made him laugh. If there was one single thing he knew, she wasn’t bolting from him today. No way.

  She started to laugh too. Then Paige did. Soon all three of them were laughing. Ben reached over and put his hand on Liv’s arm. “Better now?”

  “Yes,” she giggled a little. “I’m better now.”

  He talked them into ordering lunch and when they finished, Paige excused herself to go to a meeting she had that afternoon.

  “I should go too,” Liv started to get up from her chair.

  Ben put his hand on her arm. “No. Stay. Can you stay? Please?” He wasn’t used to women trying so hard to get away from him. It was usually the other way around.

  Liv turned and looked at Paige, as if to ask for a reason to leave. “I won’t be back until dinner. Stay. Enjoy yourself.”

  “Well, I guess . . .”

  “There, it’s settled, you’re staying. Paige, before you go, what do the two of you have planned for dinner?”

  “We hadn’t gotten that far.”

  “Good, then you’ll join me, and the band. We’ve got something special planned tonight. I think you’ll like it.”

  ***

  She was having such a nice afternoon spending time with him. She had to admit it was completely unexpected. They talked and hung out at the pool, sitting on the steps. He told her about his two boys and she told him more about Renie. He noticed her getting chill bumps and led her over to the hot tub. “Let’s get warm,” he said. She was plenty warm, overheated in fact, but that wasn’t something she’d admit to him.

  Ben, with clothes on, made her blood boil. Without them, she could feel the sweat bubbling on the surface of her skin. Every bit of him was muscle. She longed to know what it would feel like to have those powerful arms hold her, his ripped chest flat against hers, his strong legs wrapped around her.

  He sat down first and pulled her to sit in front of him, as if he’d read her mind. She could feel him hard against her when he pulled her back closer to him. She tried to move further forward.

  “Feel what you do to me Liv?” he whispered, pulling her closer still as he ran his lips along the place between her neck and her shoulder. Liv heard a moan and wasn’t sure if it came from him or her. She closed her eyes and leaned further back into him.

  “That’s my girl.” He wrapped his arms around her waist and scooted her so she was sitting on his lap.

  “Ben—”

  “Shh . . . the music is starting to play. Listen.” He started to hum, then sing softly in her ear. The soft skin on your bones and the smile I would own.

  He nuzzled into her hair and breathed in. “You smell so good, God, what is that? Lavender? Or lemon, I can’t figure it out.”

  Liv couldn’t wait a moment longer, she turned far enough that her lips could touch his, and that was all it took. His mouth devoured hers. Liv pulled back and bit her lip, her stomach lurched and her eyelids drooped. Ben’s hand slid into her hair and gripped a fistful of it, gentle but firm. He tugged her head back, feasting his eyes on her lips.

  She trembled at the heat between them, the steam rising off the warm water in the hot tub swirled around them. His arms moved back to her waist and tightened around her, pulling her even closer. He gave a rough groan as he lowered his head and kissed her again. His body was big and solid against hers. She sank into him, his mouth was warm and firm, yet so tender. He slid his tongue over her bottom lip and nipped at it.

  “Want you,” he groaned. “Want you naked, under me, around me.”

  Liv pulled back, gasping to get air into her straining lungs.

  “Let’s go somewhere we can be alone,” he said, his lips parted, his eyes dark and hungry. “I want to get you out of this bikini,” he finger slid just under the small triangle of material covering her breast, “and see every inch of skin on this amazing body.”

  Liv shifted away from him, trying to get her wits abou
t her. She wanted his lips back on hers, wanted him naked too, but . . . she needed to slow down. She moved further away from him, but held his gaze as they sat looking at each other.

  “Too much?” he ventured.

  “Too soon,” she answered.

  Ben insisted on walking her back to her room, to her door. “This way if you run again, I’ll know where to find you.”

  “But—”

  “Shh . . . I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you feel uncomfortable. I can’t explain this overwhelming attraction between us. It doesn’t feel as though I’m just getting to know you, it feels like I’ve somehow known you forever. That must sound crazy. Listen, I won’t push so hard.”

  It wasn’t that. She was sure he was used to getting what he wanted, and in this case she wanted the same thing he did. She just wasn’t sure how to tell him how long it had been since she’d done this. I hope it’s like riding a bike.

  “Pretty much, but like no other bike you’ve ridden before baby,” he said, nuzzling her neck. Oh no, had she said that out loud too?

  Ben leaned up against the wall outside Liv’s hotel room. His body pulsed with lust, his eyes closed, his heart thundering. They opened and fixated on Liv’s gaze. She really had no idea how breathtakingly beautiful she was. He could spend all day studying every inch of her.

  Her skin was kissed by their day in the sun, and her hair hung in waves around her face. The thin cover up that left her arms bare was so feminine, the way it wrapped around her slender body. And her eyes, the bluest he’d ever seen, were gazing at him apprehensively, he could read every ounce of her insecurity in the look she was giving him.

  “I’m going to leave now Liv, and it isn’t because I want to. We have reservations at Charlie Palmer at eight. Would you like me to come back to your room and walk down with you, or would you like to meet me in the lobby?”

  “Paige?”

  “Paige is invited as well. The band has a private dining room reserved for a special dinner tonight. We’d love for the two of you to join us.”

  “Do you need to check with them first?”

  “No Liv, it’s my band. Which reminds me, do you have tickets for the show tomorrow night?”

  “Um, no, we hadn’t gotten around to getting them yet.”

  “Good, you and Paige will be my guests.”

  He wanted to reassure her, explain how he didn’t care about anything else at that moment besides being with her. How could he tell her what he was feeling when they’d essentially just met? She’d really bolt then. This was new for him, having to exercise such restraint. He was used to reaching out and taking whatever it was he wanted. Something was telling him that wouldn’t work with this woman.

  He touched her face, her cheek velvety soft beneath his fingers, calloused from years of guitar playing. He pulled her back into his arms, bent his head and found her mouth again with his, to show her how much he wanted to be with her, when he couldn’t find the right words to tell her.

  Dinner with the band was raucous, loud and fun. Liv envied the way they all embraced life with such gusto. Some of the other bands that were playing the benefit were there. Before she knew it, it was after one in the morning.

  Paige was much more of a night owl than she’d ever been. And it didn’t surprise Liv one bit to hear Paige discussing record deals and song rights with the other guys in the band, or that she’d gone outside to smoke a cigar with a couple of them. It would never have occurred to Paige to be unfaithful to Mark, she just fit in easily wherever she happened to be. And when business was involved, Paige was in her element.

  Ben was stroking his fingers down her arm, going back and forth, lulling her into a state of complete relaxation. “Tired?”

  “A little,” Liv answered as she stifled a yawn. “What about you? You have a big day tomorrow.”

  “Yeah, I was just thinking about that.” He took the glass of wine she still held and set it on the table, his eyes focused on hers the entire time. He rose slowly and took her hand, pulling her with him. Ben’s eyes darkened, he bent down and his lips closed over hers. He ran one finger from beneath her chin, straight down and stroked over the place where her dress met the top of her breasts. She breathed in deeply, inadvertently pushing herself closer to him.

  “Come with me,” he murmured, slowly walking toward the door.

  “I can’t.”

  “Oh, but you can. Let’s take a walk in the moonlight.”

  “A walk, and then we have to say good night.”

  Ben started humming, then singing again. The charm of your tease when you make me say please, your eyes and your hair, the look of your stare, the way that you laugh . . .

  There was that ache again, it hadn’t really gone away, not since that morning. “Wooing me with your music, that’s not playing fair.”

  He kept singing, All I want is your mouth, and your lips, and your soft fingertips, the curve of your spine well it’s gotta be mine, the warmth of your kiss when we’re lying like this. The heat of your touch well it’s never too much.

  His lips crushed into hers. “Jesus, Liv, do you know how much I want you?” They shared a heated smile and Liv started walking in the direction of the elevators.

  “But my room is this way,” he tried to pull her in the opposite direction.

  “And my room is this way. Would you like to say goodnight here?”

  “No, I wouldn’t like. But think about this Liv, if I walk you to your room, the room you’re sharing with Paige, we won’t be able to be alone. On the other hand, if you come with me, we can be alone all night.”

  “Which is precisely the reason I’m heading to my room. It’s been a long day, and tomorrow will be too. Let’s say good night Ben.”

  “Not yet Liv.” He brought her hand up to his lips and kissed across her knuckles.

  The elevator dinged. “Walk me to my room.”

  They made it almost all the way down the hall to her room before he pushed her against the wall, torturing himself kissing her lips, her neck. “Just let me feel you against me . . .”

  His hands crept up to her breasts as he ravaged her mouth. He lifted her off her feet and slid her body back down his. He wanted her warm, smooth skin against his. Liv arched against him, crying out as he nipped at her neck.

  “Stop, wait. Ben, stop. We have to stop.” Liv put her hands on his arms and pushed him back away from her.

  “Don’t go . . . let me stay. Let me stay with you tonight.”

  Liv managed to get her key card in the door, and was halfway through, “Good night Ben. Sweet dreams.”

  Ben turned and put his forehead against the wall as he heard the door click behind her. He doubted the sweetness of his dreams, but he didn’t, for a second, doubt how hot they’d be. He’d never wanted a woman the way he wanted her. How much of that had to do with her resistance to him, he wondered.

  Chapter 3

  Liv hadn’t heard Paige come in last night, or this morning, but she could hear her in the shower. What time was it? Eleven? She’d slept until eleven. She never slept past eight, not ever. How could this be?

  “Well good morning,” Paige said, coming out of the bathroom door in a waft of steam with one of the hotel’s big, fluffy robes wrapped around her. “I wondered if you were going to sleep all day.”

  “You got in after I did, how is it that you are always so chipper first thing in the morning?”

  “First thing in the morning? It’s nearly noon. I’ve been up since before nine, went and got coffee, read for a while and had decided if you were still asleep when I finished my shower, I was going to start blasting CB Rice songs through the iPod.”

  Liv rolled over and buried her head in the pillow. Paige sat down on the bed across from her. “Spill. I want to hear all the details. I’m dying of curiosity over here.”

  “He’s just so . . . hot.”

  “Yes. That part is obvious. But what else? What happened when you left the restaurant last night? Oh, before I forget, I fo
und an envelope containing two tickets to the show slipped under our door this morning.”

  “Nothing happened. He walked me to the room. We said good night.”

  “That’s it?”

  “Paige, what did you expect? That I’d invite him in and have hot sex with a total stranger?”

  Paige stared at her, dumbfounded.

  “Paige? Is that what you thought?”

  “Of course it’s what I thought. I don’t want to hurt your feelings honey, but for God’s sake, when exactly is the last time you had sex? You have had sex since Renie was conceived, haven’t you?”

  “Of course I have.”

  “Wait, I better clarify. You have had sex since Scott, haven’t you?”

  No response.

  “Liv, that was over twenty-one years ago!”

  “Thank you. Thank you for reminding me. I guess it’s pretty obvious then why I didn’t invite him in.”

  Paige shook her head. “It’s about as far from obvious as it gets.” She got up and started getting dressed. “No wonder you’re so grouchy.”

  “Hey! Be nice. Just because someone isn’t having sex doesn’t make them grouchy. After a while you just get used to it. It’s the idea of having sex again, and then not having it that makes a person grouchy. And quite honestly, I am very grouchy this morning.”

  “So again, why didn’t you do something about it last night?”

  “Argh—I just told you why not. He’s this hot, younger guy, who for some reason, wants to have sex with me. How long do you think that’ll last when he finds out I’m a forty-year-old re-virgin?”

  “Re-virgin? Is that a thing? I haven’t heard about that. Do you actually call it that?”

  Liv buried her head back into the pillow. This was pointless. There’d be no getting through to Paige and why bother? That was last night, she’d missed her chance. Even if she saw him tonight, he’d be busy with the benefit, there’d be lots of other, younger, hotter women at the show.

  Oh God. What had she done? She’d missed her one chance to have sex, in twenty years. Maybe she’d never have sex again. She’d die a shriveled up old lady who hadn’t had sex in sixty years. Maybe longer.