He picked up his phone and sent Claudia a text message.
The wedding is off.
Chapter Nine
Beatriz had only gotten her panties off by the time Ben knocked on her door. In her breezy un-underweared state she let him in, not giving him a chance to say a single word before she kissed him.
His hands were all over her. He stroked her back and her hair, grabbed her bottom and squeezed, caressed her nipples through the light fabric of her sundress.
“What’s chapter four?” Ben asked as he pushed them toward the bed.
“It’s various ‘from behind’ positions. Doggie style, et cetera.”
“Chapter four is my new favorite chapter.”
Beatriz grabbed the book off the nightstand and flipped through the pages as Ben kissed the back of her shoulders.
“What’s it say?” he asked.
“Blah blah intensity,” she read. “Blah blah penetration blah sitting blah standing blah lying-down blah blah good view of the ass…”
“This chapter sounds pretty blah. Except for the ass part.”
“Basically it just tells us the five different ways to do rear entry.”
“I’m entering your rear?” Ben asked, not at all troubled by that prospect.
“Anal’s chapter eight. We’ll get to it tomorrow,” Beatriz said. “Any preference?”
She showed him the page with all the illustrations. Classic doggie style with the woman on her hands and knees and the man kneeling behind her…standing rear entry with the woman bent over a table or the bed…lying down rear entry with the man stretched out on top of the woman, his chest to her back.
“I like that one,” Ben said, pointed to seated rear entry where the man sat in a chair and the woman sat in his lap.
“Worth a shot. Find a chair.”
Ben pulled the comfiest looking hotel chair next to the bed. He started to undress, but Beatriz stopped his hands.
“I like sex with my clothes on sometimes. Makes it feel dirtier, you know,” she said, her stomach fluttering with excitement. Making him come in the shower this morning had only whetted her appetite for more of him. “Is that okay?”
“As long as my dick’s out and your panties are on the other side of the room, it’s fine by me.”
Beatriz picked up her underwear lying on the bed and tossed them at the door.
“Good enough?” she asked.
“I’d prefer them in the trash can, but it´ll do” He pulled her down onto his lap. Their mouths met and as they kissed he pulled the strap of her sundress down, baring her breast. He tortured her lips with soft, playful bites. He kissed a path down her shoulder, cupped her breast, and brought her nipple to his mouth. She moaned as he licked her nipple. She loved watching him kiss her breasts. He always closed his eyes as if to concentrate on this most important of tasks. His long eyelashes rested on his cheeks. His tongue circled her areola. The man knew his way around a woman’s body. She should write a thank-you note to every woman he’d ever fucked before. They’d taught him well.
He pulled down the other strap of her dress and gave her left breast equal attention until both her breasts felt heavy in his hands. Ben slid his hand under her dress and she opened her legs for him as best she could while sitting on his lap. He pushed two fingers in her, and she moaned, already so wet for him she’d probably left a stain on his pants.
Ben massaged her G-spot, spiraling into her deeper and deeper until she felt him pressing against her pubic bone. It was the most delicious sensation. She should make a note of this to put in her book review. But her phone was all the way around the room. Fuck it. The review could wait.
As he teased her and played with her body, Beatriz held on to his shoulders, rubbed his strong arms and back through the fabric. She loved his body, couldn’t get enough of it, couldn’t get enough of him.
And that was bad. She only had him for a week and once the week was over…Her heart stuttered when she thought that it would happen again, that Ben would walk away and she’d have to watch him go. Maybe using him as her book review partner had been a bad idea. She was enjoying this way too much.
“Ready?” Ben asked and Beatriz hesitated only a moment before nodding her head, too turned on to even utter a coherent sentence. Even with all her second thoughts, she knew she wanted him inside her, needed him inside her. She rose up off his lap and Ben unzipped his pants. She stroked him a few times before sliding the condom down over him. He gripped her by the hips and turned her back to him. Carefully she lowered herself, waiting until she felt the tip of his penis against her soaking, swollen inner lips. Once she did she sank down onto him, sighing with the deepest pleasure as he impaled her.
“This is my favorite part,” she sighed as she leaned back against his chest and he wrapped his arms around her.
“What is?” he asked, kissing her bare shoulders.
“The part where you’re inside me.”
Ben laughed, a warm, throaty laugh that made her toes curl.
“Mine, too.”
She moved slowly against him, wanting to stay like this all day long. She wished the wedding could be postponed, if just for a day or two, anything to give her and Ben more time together.
Ben brushed her hair off her back and over her shoulders. He kissed her neck, the center of her spine, bit her little bee tattoo. He took her hips in his hands and ground her against his lap as his cock tunneled deeper into her. He pushed her thighs wider apart, draping each leg over his knees. Beatriz groaned as Ben found her clitoris and pinched it between his thumb and forefinger. It swelled against his touch. The deep muscles in her vagina clenched around him as her clitoris throbbed against his fingers.
She reached down between her legs and touched him where he entered her. She felt so connected to him right now, and in more ways than just physically. So many men were intimidated by her sexual confidence and her work as a sex blogger. Her vibrators and dildos and array of sex books and erotica made them nervous, made them feel emasculated as one former lover told her. You shouldn’t need all this stuff, he’d said, pointing at her sex toys. I should be enough for you.
Beatriz had smiled when she answered, But you’re not.
So much for that guy. She didn’t even remember his name.
Ben seemed to find her work funny and sexy, and he’d even admitted he masturbated reading her columns. Not what she’d ever intended, but she certainly couldn’t complain about the mental image of Ben touching himself while reading about her touching herself.
“What would you do if I showed you my vibrator collection?” Beatriz asked as Ben rubbed tight circles around her clitoris.
“I don’t know. Probably ask if I could use them all on you.”
“Good answer.” Beatriz relaxed against his chest again while Ben continued to play with her clitoris. She closed her eyes and focused on her own pleasure as scenes from last night’s lovemaking flashed across her mind’s eye. The memories morphed into fantasies. She’d love to take Ben to the very edge of sex where all the walls of shame and fear came down, where flesh met fantasy, where the two of them could tell each other all their secret desires and then live them out every night in their bed.
Every night of her life…
Beatriz orgasmed in near silence, the force of the climax sucking the air out of her lungs.
“Stand up,” Ben whispered. “Put your hands on the bed.”
Beatriz did as instructed. She’d do anything Ben told her to do. That was one of the fantasies she longed to share with him. Some nights she’d love it if he took total possession of her body, made her his toy, his pet, his plaything, his slave.
Ben pushed her sundress up and entered her again from behind. He thrust hard into her, hard enough she gasped a little. But she didn’t ask him to stop or slow down or go easy on her. That was the last thing she wanted. She wanted to feel his cock ramming into her, wanted to feel like his desire for her had overridden his reason, restraint and self-control. She relished th
e feel of his fingers digging into her hips. She wanted to feel every inch of him as he pulled out and slammed back into her.
“Fuck,” Ben breathed, his voice barely more than a strangled whisper. It was the sexiest word he could have uttered. She heard the echo of his pleasure in that one word, the primal cry of a man lost in ecstasy, lost in her. She steadied herself against the bed as best she could even as Ben pounded into her, putting his entire body into his brutal thrusts. She loved that about him. He was always so nonchalant, so relaxed and cool out in the world. But during sex he dropped all pretense and threw his whole being into pleasing her and himself.
Pounding…pounding…she was lost in the pounding…. With a fierce final thrust Ben came, his hand on her shoulder, holding on to her as if she alone kept him from collapsing. Ben slowly pulled out of her as she remained bent over the bed trying to catch her breath. The sex had ended, but still the pounding continued.
“What the hell?” she asked.
“Shit,” Ben said, laughing. “Someone’s pounding on the door. Can you get that?”
“Bea, it’s Claudia!” came a voice through the door.
“Just a second,” Beatriz yelled back.
Ben disappeared into the bathroom while Beatriz pulled her dress up over her breasts and grabbed a tissue. She wiped herself off between her legs, pulled on the first pair of underwear she found and threw open the door.
Claudia rushed into the room and started pacing.
“What’s wrong?” Beatriz asked, seeing the panic on Claudia’s face. Ben came out of the bathroom looking much more put together than he did when he went in it.
“Henry called off the wedding,” Claudia said, her face a mask of pure fear and shock.
“What?” Beatriz nearly shouted the word.
“What the fuck?” Ben asked, sounding as shocked as her.
“Henry got up at lunch to run to the bathroom. I asked him to stop by the front desk…” Claudia wrung her hands. “I got this text message from him.”
She handed Beatriz her phone.
Beatriz stared at the message in disbelief.
“What’s it say?” Ben asked.
“He says, ‘The wedding’s off. I’m sorry I’m not enough for you. Hope you find another man to swing with. If I wasn’t enough for you, you could have told me before we started planning the wedding. I’m staying at another hotel. Maybe we can talk tomorrow. For now, don’t even call me.’”
“What does he mean?” Ben demanded. “He’s not enough for you?”
Claudia ran her hands through her hair and collapsed onto the bed.
“I don’t know. I have no idea where any of this is coming from. I’ve never cheated on him, never wanted to. We’ve been together almost seven years. I didn’t invite any old boyfriends to the wedding. I don’t know what he’s talking about. None of this makes sense.”
“Did you try to call him?” Beatriz asked, putting her arm around Claudia.
“Yes, but he didn’t answer. I tried ten times. The wedding’s in four days. Our families are here. Our friends. Everyone. And he’s just…gone. And he won’t even tell me why.”
Beatriz nearly burst into tears of pure sympathy. And she would have if she wasn’t so furious at Henry.
“It’s a good thing he’s gone or I would rip his heart out and eat it for dinner,” Beatriz said.
“Can we get his side of the story first?” Ben asked.
“There is no his side of the story,” Beatriz said, enraged that Ben would even suggest there was a “his” side of the story. “Claudia’s not cheating on him with anybody. What possible excuse could he have for acting like this?”
“Something set him off. Henry is the most boring man alive. He doesn’t have a good enough imagination to even be paranoid,” Ben said. “I’m not saying he’s in the right. Just—”
“Just what?” Beatriz demanded. “Just you and Henry pulling this college-boy bros-before-hoes bullshit again?”
“What are you talking about?” Ben asked.
“Back in college, you and Henry just went off and decided you and I shouldn’t be together. And now Henry’s decided to dump Claudia and you’re taking his side.”
“I’m not taking his side, Bea. I’m just saying he has one.”
“So you’re saying he’s right? That Claudia’s cheating on him?”
“I’m not saying that.” Ben raised both his hands in surrender. “I’m saying something set him off.”
“He’s decided to lose his fucking mind four days before the wedding. That’s what set him off, Ben. You want to take his side?” Beatriz pointed at the door. “It’s out there. Go find it. And when you find him, you two just have a nice life together. We’re done with you both.”
Ben stared at Beatriz. She could see the shock and the hurt on his face.
“Look, you’re right to be pissed at me,” Ben said.
“Yes, I am. And that should be the end of your sentence,” Beatriz said. Ben opened his mouth and closed it again. He turned his back on her and walked out. Nothing surprising there. He’d done it before. She should have known he’d do it again. “Hasta la madre…I swear if Henry doesn’t get his ass back here…”
“I can’t tell everyone this is happening. I can’t,” Claudia said and Beatriz turned her attention back to her sister. “Everyone will freak out. Mom will have a heart attack.”
“Oh, God, she will,” Beatriz said. Their mother had burst into sobs last night just at the sight of Claudia and Beatriz standing side by side for the first time in over a year. Her girls, she cried. Her two beautiful girls…Mom cried at the drop of a hat. This constituted far worse than a simple hat drop.
“We’ll tell everyone you’ve got mild food poisoning and you’re not going to be able to leave your hotel room for a day or so,” Beatriz said. “No one will know anything’s up. They’ll just think you and Henry are holed up while you’re puking your guts out. Okay?”
“Okay,” Claudia said and blew her nose extravagantly. “You and Ben were fucking when I knocked on the door, weren’t you?”
“Like demon bunnies,” Beatriz admitted. She gave Claudia a kiss on the forehead as she stood up.
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. We were 99 percent finished by that point.” She handed Claudia a bottle of water and a tissue. “And we’re 100 percent finished now.”
Chapter Ten
In the hallway outside Beatriz’s room, Ben stood with his back resting on the wall and his hands balled up into fists. He would beat Henry to death for pulling this bullshit on them all. Things were going so well with Beatriz, and Henry had to go and fuck it all up by flipping out on everyone. And Claudia was in there sobbing her heart out while he was standing in the hallway eating his heart out. And Beatriz was pissed. Pissed enough to bust out the Spanish and that meant business.
That was it. Henry was a dead man.
Ben checked the internet for all the hotels within a twenty-five-mile radius. He’d find Henry and haul him back by the scruff of his neck and throw him at Beatriz and Claudia’s feet. Let her accuse him of the bros before hoes mentality then.
Luckily Henry and Claudia had chosen this area of upstate New York for its small town beauty and unspoiled river vistas. That meant he had only ten hotels to comb through in the area on his hunt for Henry. Five were within walking distance. The other five would require cabbing it or renting a car. He started with the furthest one out that he could reach by foot. No luck at the Umstead. No one claimed to have seen a deranged but roguishly handsome twenty-six-year-old man walking around accusing innocent women of mysterious crimes. Ben flashed everyone at the desk a picture of Henry and Claudia he had on his phone. No dice. The Capital Inn was also a big fail. He also struck out at the Pinehurst and the Washington. He bribed every clerk at every hotel to call him if Henry showed up.
Disappointed and disgusted, Ben returned to the Hotel Essex. The Essex desk clerk helped him round up a rental car, and Ben headed out again to the
next town over and the other five hotels he wanted to check out. If he failed there, he didn’t know what to do. Check the airport maybe? Call the police? Hire a hit man?
Hit man—that sounded about right. “Henry, you asshole,” Ben growled as he turned out of the hotel parking lot. Ben knew he should be seven inches inside Beatriz right at this moment, not out hunting down a runaway groom who’d decided to break up with his fiancée and reality on the same day.
He shoved all thoughts of Beatriz away. He was a man on a mission—a mission to kill another man. He drove into the next town over and found the first hotel. Then the second. Then the third. After the fourth he stopped and called Henry again. No answer. Ben didn’t find Henry at the fifth and final hotel either. He hated the
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