Stony Creek Hero [Stony Creek 2] (Siren Publishing Classic)

by Taylor Berke

  The rain was whipping sideways forcing him to squint his sexy green eyes to see out the windshield. Even his huge dark-gray dually was getting pushed around from the blowing gusts. Ben slowed the truck to turn toward the road to her little house. Shit, he thought as he remembered that there was that stream she would have to cross. Ben, never a very religious man, started praying that she had some sense stuffed into her gorgeous head and would not attempt going over the old, wet, wooden bridge. Ben felt tension tighten his back as he slowly approached where the bridge should be. He whipped his head from side to side, hoping for a glimpse of her car on the other side of the water. It didn’t look too deep yet but definitely was moving fast, much faster than he liked. With unease, Ben opened his door and allowed his hat to shield his gaze from the rain in an attempt to spot some sign of her. Terror seized his gut as he saw what appeared to be her car, lying sideways in the middle of the water in the center of the flow. An obviously terrified Lizzie was clutching desperately to the exposed top as it was being forced further downstream. Ben knew that there were other streams that fed into it and if he didn’t get her ass out of there like pronto, she was going to be in serious danger.

  “Fucking hell!” Ben yelled. He ducked back into the truck and without even closing the door gunned it down off road, mirroring the path of the stream. He stopped close to the edge and jumped out.

  “Lizzie, baby!” Ben hollered as loudly as he could, feeling like his heart was dying watching her from the shore, unable to swim the fast-moving water to get to her.

  “Ben! Help!” Lizzie cried out, not willing to lose the grip she had on the door handle.

  Ben watched, momentarily enraged at his helplessness to do something, anything. He took in uneven breaths as he spun around, desperate to find something that would give him an idea. His horror threatened to consume him as he heard the scraping of metal as her car’s hulk shifted and started to move some more.

  “Ben!” Lizzie screamed out in her terror, probably beyond rational at this point.

  Ben shook with a mixture of rage and fear. He was going to kill her, then spank that ass raw. No, he was going to spank her, fuck her, and then kill her. What the hell was he thinking about this crap now for? Well, that’s who he was, a sexual man with some kink. Suddenly Ben had a brilliant idea. His sexual perversities were about to save her ass, literally. He ran to the bed of his truck and with a single leap, jumped heavily up into it. He spied his version of a Lizzie life preserver and prayed quickly that he had the skills to do this.

  “Lizzie, when I tell you to, I want you to stand up. Do you hear me?” Ben hollered, hoping desperately that she heard him over the wind and water.

  “I can’t, Ben, I just can’t!” Lizzie cried out.

  “Yes, you can and you will. Do it, and do it now!” Ben thundered murderously toward the woman who was causing his heart to beat madly out of his chest. He couldn’t lose her, not now, not when he finally was figuring things out. He needed her. He never needed anyone.

  “I said now, Lizzie!”

  Probably, in retrospect, she stood in automatic response to the anger in his voice but it didn’t matter as to the why. She stood bravely in that one moment and he couldn’t have been more proud of his woman. Yeah, she was his woman. It was about time he admitted it to himself and made her see it. She was his and only his, forever. Forever, that is, if he could do this.

  With another quick prayer to the heavens and cowboys everywhere, Ben held the long coil of rope in his left hand while he spun the circle of rope over his head with his right. He held his breath as he made three revolutions and let the rope go, tense as he watched it miraculously snag around his intended target. He heard Lizzie yelp as the rope pulled tight around her, pinning her arms and something she held to her sides. He almost smirked in arrogance as he met her shocked look of surprise as the rope yanked on her body. Not shocking to Ben even under the circumstances was the surge of lust that ran through his body seeing her bound with the rope that he had tied. Later, man, he said to himself, later. As if the angry storm god didn’t care for Benjamin Powell ruining his fun, the stream’s force was suddenly increased and the car was pulled violently downstream. Ben held strong to the rope as his precious woman was thrown into the churning dark water below. He caught her look of fear and pulled harder than he thought he could. She didn’t weigh much at all but soaking in the water and the ever-increasing rip current was making him really have to work to reach her. The rope had been threaded through a tow-loop in the back of his truck even before he had lassoed her as he now used it to pull her struggling form toward the riverbank desperately. Ben tied it off as she was at the edge and ran with the howling wind to get her. With strength that he didn’t even know he possessed, he yanked her saturated body up and out of the water by the lasso. He held her to his body as he felt her trembling violently.

  “I’ve got you, baby, oh shit, baby, I’ve got you,” Ben crooned into her ear as he mashed her up against his body. Without breaking his hold he struggled against the wind and backed them up to the truck. He threw open the passenger side and climbed up with her held securely in his lap.

  “Baby, talk to me. Lizzie, please, honey, say something!” Ben pleaded while looking into her beautiful, waterlogged face. He tenderly started to brush her sodden locks of now dark-chocolate hair away from her cheeks while rubbing his thumb over her chilled skin.

  Lizzie tried to calm down by taking deep, shuddering breaths. She was safe. She was safe and in Ben’s arms. Giving up her personal internal war about him being her hero, she snuggled into his hold, acutely aware that her arms were still pinned to her sides by the rope.

  “Ben, you came. Thank you. Thank you so much. I…I am so sorry. I can’t believe you came,” Lizzie managed to get out before succumbing to the harsh sobs that were inevitable when fear was relieved. She felt Ben’s hands gently running over her soaking, trembling form while murmuring loving words against her neck. As she started to calm herself down, she realized that he was trembling, too. His hands shook and he checked her legs, arms, and chest for any injuries and also to probably to convince himself that she really was safe in his arms. Guilt hit her hard as she realized that she must have given him such a fright as well.

  Lizzie tried to lighten the moment. “Ben, honey, I don’t think I have any broken bones in my breasts. Maybe you want to check other more likely areas first?”

  Ben’s head snapped up with a look of anger and shock in his eyes. She knew the exact moment he became aware that she must be trying to soothe him.

  Lizzie watched as his expression suddenly shifted to a darker one. It reminded her of the storm outside, dark and now filling with a lustful intent. Beneath her she felt him harden and begin to press insistently against the cold cheeks of her posterior end as she licked her lips waiting for him to respond.

  “Lizzie, baby, I am trying to get myself to calm down over here. I think that I am going to require your help. Well hell, you are going to soothe me, for as long as it takes for my sanity to return in fact. If I am not mistaken, I think that I just almost lost you to a flash flood due to your poor judgment. Yes, that’s right and I am going to require some serious apologies for taking some years off my life like that,” Ben said with a deep, controlled tone.

  She gasped as Ben swooped down, crushing her lips to his as he gripped her head, pulling it at an angle. She heard him growl as his firm lips rolled over hers in a sensual caress that spoke of need, anger, and withheld desire. His tongue teased her lips momentarily as he allowed his hand to leave its claim to her wet hair and run slowly down her soft neck. His rough-tipped fingers explored her smooth, chilled skin as he pulled his lips away from hers and shifted them to the shell of her ear.

  “If you ever, I mean ever, think to do anything like that again, I will have to punish you so severely that you won’t sit for a week, a year, maybe never again. Are you crazy, woman?” Ben growled softly into her ear, his lips causing shivers of entirely another sort to vib
rate through her over his bulging arousal. If her thong wasn’t already soaked from her adventure, his breathy command would have them both aware of how wet she was getting from his response. She felt as his hand slid firmly over her collarbone and without warning or any gentleness he reared her back over his arm as he plumped her breast within the confines of his palm. She let out a deep moan as he roughly kneaded her lush globe while thrusting his tongue against hers as his hips ground his cock against her with determination. Lizzie struggled against the restraining rope to touch him as well but found herself oddly experiencing even more arousal at her confinement. She watched as Ben lifted his head to look down at her heaving chest as she struggled against the raging desire he ignited in her. She gasped as he put his hand at the top of her see-through white shirt and roughly tore it open right down the middle. With the material now hanging to the side, she felt herself being lifted toward his mouth as he forced the cup of her satin bra away and latched immediately onto her distended pink nipple. The sounds of their heavy breathing filled the cab with something darker, more like tangible arousal. It was something that she had never felt before. She could only watch and writhe as he feasted on her breast, alternating between small kisses and licks as he tasted her damp skin. His tongue shot out to lave around the hard nub exposed to his hungry gaze as he began to suckle on her roughly. It caused pain to shoot from the tip, only for a small moment, before it, too, changed into something delicious, dark, and unbelievably pleasurable. Shards of agonizing delight raced through her body as he unrepentedly ravaged her breast.

  “Ben,” Lizzie gasped out, trying to shift herself over his hard length. “Ben, I want more, please more. Please let me touch you.”

  It was the last part that helped to clear the savage arousal slightly from Ben’s lust-addled brain. He lifted his head and took in the dark pink nipple silently begging for the return of his warm mouth, her heaving breaths, and her pathetic excuse for pants that were plastered to her succulent mound. He realized at that moment that she was still bound. He had her bound, wet, and at his mercy, he thought wryly. It had taken a near miss but ironically he had her just as he always wanted her. He shifted his groin under her as they both moaned out at the sensual stimulation of his jutting erection rubbing against her cheeks. Suddenly, he noticed something clutched in her bound hand.

  “Lizzie, darlin’, what is that? No, please don’t tell me. You could have died, you crazy woman!” Ben’s voice rose in volume with every sentence that he spat out.

  Lizzie looked down somewhat sheepishly, as though realizing what had gotten him so riled.

  “Now, Ben, take it easy. It isn’t like you didn’t save me. It shouldn’t be such a big deal now. Don’t get upset. You always save me,” she said with a soft smile which was her attempt at gentling his again increasing anger. “I couldn’t leave my purse behind, Ben.”

  Ben took a deep, fortifying breath as he pulled the door open while depositing her on the passenger seat, attempting to control his runaway temper. As the rain pounded his back, he ran both hands over her waist, allowing both his eyes and his hands to almost reassure him again that she really was there with him. Both of his hands, in tandem, were running over her torn scraps of wet shirt to massage the sides of her ribs and then shifting to brush the undersides of her softly scented breasts. Her breathing hitched as he gently closed both hands over them pushing and squeezing them together, maintaining a light massage. Ben leaned over and pushed his face into the heavenly valley he had created with hands and took a deep breath. His tongue shot out to run down the crease that he created, allowing him to taste her creamy skin where her tattered bra left her exposed to his hungry gaze. With a final kiss, Ben pushed himself up and buckled her, still bound, into the seat as he slammed her door shut.

  He wrenched open his own door, stopping to shift his erection that was trying to rip its way out of his sodden jeans and into her mouth-watering body. He sat silently in his seat for a moment, trying to calm himself and take in what had just almost happened to her, his Lizzie.

  “Ben, what about my car?” Lizzie ventured to ask.

  Ben turned to her with a dark, evil look. “Your car, darlin’, is no longer your car. I will take care of it. However, darlin’, you would be wise to sit quietly on the way home and not rile me any further than you already have. Okay?”

  “But, I didn’t…” It was all Lizzie managed to get out before being cut off by Ben.

  “No! No you didn’t do anything, baby. You didn’t think before you got in your piece of garbage, you didn’t allow Cole or Jackson to drive you home, you didn’t think to call me or answer you cell, and then when you were in trouble you tried to hold onto your damned fool purse! I would tread very lightly right now, Lizzie, very lightly,” Ben said in a soft and rather scarily controlled tone.

  “Treading lightly, Ben, I promise, treading lightly,” Lizzie answered obediently.

  Ben felt momentarily appeased at her quick obedience to his request. She sat there, looking beyond tempting with her delectable wet breasts visible to his roving eyes. He took in the see-through quality of her clothing and narrowed his gaze back on her.

  “Lizzie, I want you to answer me honestly, baby, and I won’t get mad,” Ben began.

  “You are already mad.” Lizzie stated the obvious.

  “True. Then, tough, you will have to deal. Who, exactly, saw you, wet like this, with your clothing leaving nothing left to the imagination?” Ben felt possessive rage begin to simmer under his skin as he awaited her reply.

  “No one, Ben, no one. Well, not many really. No one to worry about.” Lizzie tried to pacify him.

  “Who?” was Ben’s only comment.

  “Well, there was Billie.”

  “And?” Ben asked.

  “Well, and Julia, of course,” Lizzie continued.

  “And?”

  “Perhaps, your cousin Cole may have, um, caught me when I fell, but he was a perfect gentleman,” Lizzie whispered, as if aware of the rising possessiveness emanating from Ben. Good, maybe now she would develop a much-needed sense of self-preservation.

  “Anyone else?”

  “Um, well…” Lizzie started to stammer.

  “Who, Lizzie?”

  “Well, it is possible that the unscrupulous Theodore Davis may have, perhaps, seen me, as I ran across the street. However, if it helps, I ran very fast so it was a very quick glance at most, Ben, and I am sure he didn’t see much.” Lizzie tried unsuccessfully to reassure him.

  “Not helping your case, Lizzie, nope, not helping at all, darlin’. You ran very fast? That’s the best you could do?” He didn’t even glance in her direction. The idea that Cole had seen her didn’t exactly thrill him but he trusted his cousin implicitly whereas he only felt rage at the idea that that scumbag banker had seen his woman. She was his Lizzie, just his. He wasn’t an idiot. He wasn’t going to even try to fight it like his dim-witted older brother Jackson did with Billie. Nope, she was his. He just didn’t have to fall in love with her. Jackson fell and fell hard on his face in love. Now he, Ben thought, was a smart one. He recognized his attraction and care for Lizzie. He was just going to have to listen to his own advice. He was going to tread lightly.

  Chapter Twelve

  Lizzie shivered slightly as she sat next to Ben, soaking the leather seat of his monster dually. Whether the shivers were out of concern for herself, as Ben still hadn’t unwrapped the rope lasso from around her, the cold, or a darker need akin to lust from the tension that was practically palpable in the cab, she didn’t know. Lizzie did recognize that Ben was barely in control of himself. She could see his hands gripping the steering wheel with such force that his knuckles were white. He hadn’t said a word to her as he appeared to concentrate on getting them somewhere safe to ride out the rest of the storm. She knew better though. This man, always quiet and gentle, was now emanating an emotion that she was sure she had never experienced before with a man. It was a nameless emotion that she had read about in romance novels
, one that was a recipe full of fear, rage, helplessness, desire, and possession. If the situation hadn’t been so dire just a few moments ago, she might find herself savoring the opening act for what was sure to be a life-altering moment with Ben when they arrived at their destination. Lizzie opened her mouth as though to offer further apologies to her savior but then thought better of it as she saw the foreboding gleam in his half stare as he felt her regard. He returned his gaze to the road ahead and maintained his silence, which furthered the mixed sense of insecurity and arousal that Lizzie felt within her chest. Her breathing quickened and she began to try to extricate herself from the rope bindings that held her as his rescued captive.

  “Tsk tsk, Lizzie,” Ben said without glancing in her direction. “I would think by now that we would have achieved some level of trust in our, well, relationship. No?”

  Lizzie looked at him cautiously as she felt a small drop of water fall from her hair and run down the side of her face.

  “I am going to confess something to you, Ben. Right now, I am a more than a little bit afraid of what is going to happen. It’s your mood, I have never seen you like this,” Lizzie whispered, telling him the truth.

  Not reassuringly, Lizzie watched as Ben allowed the side of his sensuous lips to curl as he drove them up farther and farther on the mountainside.

  “As much as I find it a turn-on to have you somewhat submissive, particularly bound and awaiting my will, Lizzie, I will put you at ease.” Ben had a softer look on his face momentarily. “Surely, you must know that even with as ridiculously furious as I am with you at the moment, I could never lay a single finger on you in anything except an erotically loving manner. You so brilliantly just confirmed for me that there is no way that I could allow anyone or anything in this whole world to hurt you. The last person who could ever harm you intentionally is me.”