by Taylor Berke
“Just rumors, Vera, but you are welcome. In fact, I need to talk to her for a minute. We will be in her office, okay?” Ben said with a very intense look on his face while not even glancing in Vera’s direction. He grabbed Lizzie’s hand as he heard Vera yell in his direction.
“Please don’t ‘talk’ to her in any way that will make her unable to sit down. She is having enough trouble as it is already today,” Vera said with a huge grin on her knowing face.
Ben actually felt himself flush alongside Lizzie at Vera’s raised eyebrows. Hell, what did it matter if people knew that he enjoyed several different aspects of his woman’s rear end? His woman, she really was his woman after yesterday, last night, and this morning. She was not a casual-sex type of woman, he knew, and was relying on it. He wasn’t sure what he would do if she backed off now. Nah, it wasn’t even a consideration for her, was it? Nope, he wasn’t going to even entertain the idea. He was here on a serious matter though, one that concerned them both.
He tugged Lizzie down the hall and turned to shut the door in her office once they were both inside. The room was painted in a pale shade of what he thought must be considered a rose color, with light touches of femininity placed everywhere. There were dried flowers in a painted vase, soft, fluttery, white curtains, and frilly pillows on the chairs that sat opposite her desk. It was definitely very Lizzie and very appealing to him. She was very appealing to him. Where were all these overly tender feelings for her coming from? He was considered the quiet, cool Powell, not the one to fall in love easily and wear his heart on his sleeve. That was his brother Troy’s reputation, all charisma and all mush. Now he found himself in uncomfortable territory, liking Lizzie’s chiffon curtains. Next thing they would be discussing what sort of bedding he would like to sleep on and what thread count he might prefer.
Suddenly he had an epiphany. He didn’t care. He could talk with Lizzie about anything and it made him happy. She made him happy just to see her. Watching her squirm on the stool in front of Vera, her posterior obviously very sensitive from his own hand. At the reminder of her soft, reddened cheeks and moans of pleasure, he felt himself harden in a rush. The confines of his jeans felt two sizes too small as he bent slightly at the waist, hoping Lizzie didn’t notice his sudden change in mood. He had something very serious to discuss with her and it had nothing to do with laying her out on her desk and tasting her essence at the source. He began to salivate at the images that began coursing through his head and shook his head to try to clear it.
He focused on her eyes. Yes, Ben laughed to himself, they were a safe place to look. They were gorgeous but safe, the very feeling that he was concerned that Lizzie did not have at this moment, safety.
“Baby, I need you to answer me honestly. Yesterday, well, last night, oh shit and again this morning, we were intimate.” Ben started out his bizarre conversation. The look on Lizzie’s face confirmed that she thought he was losing it.
“Ben, I was there, remember,” Lizzie answered, looking flushed at the memory.
Ben was revealing his own restlessness at the recollection as he shifted from one foot to the other, revealing something was disturbing his normally unruffled feathers. “Baby, are you on birth control of some sort? I was completely irresponsible, not as much as you were yesterday, let’s be clear on that, but irresponsible nonetheless. I didn’t ask if you were and didn’t use a condom. I am sorry, darlin’, but I just had to have you afterward, when you were safe in my arms. I was just, well, overwhelmed I guess.”
Ben thought Lizzie looked stunned as he offered his apology. Was she upset that he asked about the possibility of birth control? Was she thinking that there was a possibility that he could give her “something”?
She shocked him with her own apology. “Ben, honey, I was just as irresponsible. You know that I haven’t made love with anyone for quite a while, and there are no issues on my end except that perhaps, we may need to think about some sort of pregnancy avoidance if you intend to give a repeat performance any time soon. No worries for the moment though, I just finished my cycle the day before you, um, ravished me.”
He felt the soft heat in her gaze as she lifted her eyes to meet his heated one. “Do you want me to, baby?” Ben questioned her. His opinion on the subject was blatantly straining against the zipper of his jeans. He watched as she stepped closer to his hulking form and lifted her arm. Ben closed his eyes as he felt a rush of arousal surge to his already thick erection as she lightly stroked her fingertips over his belly and down past his bellybutton. She had felt him before but the look on her beautiful face was reverent as she seemed to savor the sensation of her hand running over the outline of his cock, lightly squeezing as she relearned his length and thickness.
Obviously Lizzie went for the honest approach. “Ben, please ravish me. Please make love to me over and over again until we both drop from exhaustion. I have never felt that way before, not with anyone. I had wanted you for so long and will be crushed if you turn away from me now.”
Ben looked down at her with such tenderness at her confession. He couldn’t help himself with her. One minute he was going to spank her bottom raw and the next he wanted to chain her to his side for the rest of their lives. This moment was a mixture of both.
“Baby, I promise I am not running anywhere on you. I don’t know where we are going but you are bewitching me in a way that I just can’t fight. I thought that once I had you, perhaps this need would lessen but if anything, it’s gotten worse. I think we should take care of this right now, Lizzie. I need to fuck you, several times in fact, and we are going bareback. Let’s go.”
Ben grabbed Lizzie’s hand and pulled out of her office door and down the hall.
“Vera! Mimi! Answer me!” Ben hollered out so loudly, Lizzie was sure people heard him in Colorado.
Both women came running into the hallway at his bellowing command, looking concerned.
“Lizzie has an issue and we need to take care of it right away. Please watch the café until she returns.” Ben didn’t even pause in tugging her after him in his determined wake.
“You can’t order my staff around and force me to do…whatever it is you think we need to do at this moment! Ben, are you listening to me?” Lizzie hissed.
Without offering a reply, Ben efficiently bent and hoisted his luscious cargo over his shoulder without any effort. With no embarrassment and no concern for hers, he issued a resounding slap to her exposed rear and continued to walk through the café.
“I can do anything I want, darlin’. You are crazy about me and I am crazy about you. Deal with that!” he arrogantly declared. There were loud hoots and catcalls as he passed both Sean and Adam Taggart, who gave Ben thumbs-ups while enjoying their burgers. Lizzie’s humiliation was furthered as she heard Mayor Elijah Carson and his wife Thea laugh and simply mention something about being young and hot-blooded.
“Ben, put me down! I take it back! I don’t want you to touch me again if you are going to be a caveman. Put me down! Ugh, this is what Billie was talking about when she was frustrated with Jackson. You Powells are ridiculously overconfident!” Lizzie yelled at his back from her upside-down position. She must have liked the view it afforded her because she changed tactics and squeezed his buttocks in each hand in her quest to gain his attention.
“You can ask Billie all about the Powell arrogance disease as that is exactly where we are headed right now, baby.” Ben sounded like he was smiling at the show he was putting on for her customers.
Apparently those same customers liked her efforts to gain Ben’s cooperation, as she heard Mabel call out advice. “Squeeze them harder, Lizzie, honey. Those cheeks are like heavenly rocks of muscle!”
Really? That made Ben pause, turning slightly with his precious cargo and look directly at Mabel Winston, who was known for her naughty ways, with a raised eyebrow. Mabel at least had the decency to blush and stammer out, “Well, so I’ve heard, Ben. Your aunt and your mother love to brag you know.”
Ben sho
cked the populace of Stony Café by releasing a hearty laugh and resumed his original mission of getting Lizzie to Dr. Rothman’s office immediately.
* * * *
The moment Ben cleared the front door with Lizzie still slung over his towering shoulder, he convinced the waiting room that he not only had a voice but knew how to use it.
“Billie!” Ben hollered again, so loudly that he shook the painting on the wall behind Julia’s desk.
Lizzie heard Julia on the phone, much to her dismay, already getting the 411 from the traitors at the café. “Mabel, I will get back to you as soon as I find out what the heck he is doing. I promise, I won’t leave out a single detail!”
“Billie!” Ben bellowed impatiently for the second time.
“Benjamin Powell! You will stop bawling like a wounded animal this instant! This is a doctor’s office, not a rodeo chute. Control yourself and tell me what is the problem, little man!” Julia stood with her hands on her hips, reprimanding Ben like he was a wayward child. Well, he was acting like one.
“Julia, this is an emergency! We need Billie right now,” Ben quickly mumbled out, somewhat chastised by Julia’s condescension. The entire waiting room fell into a solemn hush, probably to find out what he considered such a life-threatening emergency. Probably furthering their interest was how she was casually draped over his shoulder as opposed to cradled gently in his arms.
“Ben, what is the problem out here? Oh my, Lizzie! What is wrong? Julia, quick, get them into exam three please! Stop making that face. She isn’t bleeding! Is she, Ben?” Billie rushed out, at first annoyed with his yelling, but the feeling quickly turned to concern when she spied her friend being carried like a burlap bag. Also odd was the smiles on the faces of the entire populace of her waiting room and her office manager and yenta, who was afraid of blood, all waiting as though a juicy piece of gossip was about to fall into their laps.
Julia ushered them all into the exam room as Ben placed his cargo on the table with loving tenderness that contradicted his transport of her person.
“Lizzie, are you hurt? I thought Ben brought you back into town this morning. Were you hurt from yesterday? Ben never said a thing! Where is the pain? Hey, since when do you wear workout clothes to the restaurant? Why are you laughing?” Billie rambled out her questions, perplexed by the lack of obvious injury.
“I am not hurt at all and to tell you the truth, I have no idea why this Neanderthal made me come in here, other than I am always happy to see you. As for the clothes, well, um, my clothes from yesterday were a bit damaged,” Lizzie offered sheepishly with hug.
They both turned to Ben, waiting silently for some sort of answer.
“This is an emergency! Stop fooling around, girls,” Ben ground out.
With a sigh, signaling a skill with patience that was probably well earned, Billie just crossed her arms over her silk shirt and waited patiently. “Ben, what is the emergency that is so important that I had to interrupt my exam and rush you in here ahead of five scheduled patients?”
“Laugh all you want but we need birth control for Lizzie, stat!” Ben looked annoyed at her lack of concern.
Lizzie’s gasp, Julia’s laugh, and Billie’s shocked expression all were thrown in Ben’s direction at once.
“Excuse me, kids, I have a phone call to make,” Julia said through her laughter as she ran out of the room unapologetically in her rush to spread the gossip.
“Kill me now.” Lizzie hung her head in her hands.
Billie just shook her own and looked at Ben like he was going crazy, prompting his very male response of, “What?”
Chapter Fourteen
Lizzie sat on the end of her gauzy white bench, enjoying the peace that was her sensual sanctuary. “Do I choose the pale yellow or the soft green? Which looks less like, ‘yes, I had the best sex of my life with your son’?” Lizzie muttered to herself as she gazed into the mirror, trying on the two dresses again.
Billie had convinced her that she had to have both dresses when they went shopping after her emergency birth control procedure. She was never going to hear the end of it or live down her humiliation at Ben’s now well-known enthusiasm for loving on her, immediately, without protection. Ugh, who cared really? Her mind had been bombarded with salacious images of their entwined bodies since her rescue by his very capable hands. It was just another detail of their relationship that was making the rounds everywhere from Braxton’s Feed and Seed to the Ladies Guild meeting. Julia had been very generous in not only providing a blow-by-blow detailed account of the actual event but also returning to Lizzie and sharing each and every response to her story. Well, at least everyone knew that they were practicing safe sex, right? She hardly qualified as the town’s slut, her very long drought period being a previous hot topic. Lizzie figured that most people would turn the other way and be happy that she was enjoying Ben’s attentions. Well, for as long as they were going to last. That part made her insides clench. She was falling and falling hard without anyone or anything to catch her. Ben was not known for his ability to maintain a monogamous relationship so if she wanted to protect her heart, she was going to have to try to shield herself just a bit while enjoying his “talents.” Yes, she could do that right?
“Who the heck are you trying to kid, girlie?” Lizzie asked her own image. Was she trying to convince herself that she could maintain an emotional distance? Now she was pathetically attempting to lie to herself. Oh well, she would just have to digest all this confusion later because right now she had a dress to decide on. Lizzie focused on the soft green as it had delicate spaghetti straps and soft cotton ruching around the bodice, giving it a more innocent air. The filmy material showcased her gently curved figure without revealing too much and hung at a ladylike position to just above her knees. Four-inch gold jeweled sandals that Billie insisted that she couldn’t live without finished her ensemble. Oh well, here goes nothing, Lizzie thought. Hopefully Lillian and Florence would still love her even if she had to go back to being just a family friend. She left her gorgeous, thick hair down so it accented her femininity and couldn’t help but admire that she really was morphing into a much more confident woman. The outside of her was really looking like a mature, empowered woman, while the inside was still a work in progress but advancing nonetheless. She stood a little taller and recalled the events of yesterday, Saturday, when she had a defining moment that normally would have thrown her.
* * * *
She had been just locking up early to meet up with Billie to go shopping for clothing that she could ill afford as it was but apparently Billie felt that she was going to have to pull her “protection” prescription if she did not comply. She waited on a bench, bathing in the warm sunshine while patiently waiting or her friend to lock up her office as well. Billie had really been unwell for the last several weeks but refused to see it as anything that she needed to get checked out on by someone else. Physicians make the worst patients, Lizzie thought ruefully. An old-model black Lincoln suddenly pulled up in front of where she was sitting, much to her dismay. She watched cautiously as Theodore Davis rolled himself out of the vehicle and proceeded to walk in her direction. Lizzie turned her head away and tried to look much occupied with counting the cracks on the bench next to her leg.
“Good afternoon, Lizzie,” Theodore’s voice grated out.
“Good afternoon to you, Mr. Davis.” Lizzie left it at that, still not turning her head to acknowledge the man or that he had obviously stopped and gotten out with the sole intent to converse with her
He stood over her as she sat, trying to pull his pudgy frame into an intimidating stance. He wasn’t dressed for the warm Wyoming summer and his shirt was stuck to him with sweat marks everywhere, furthering Lizzie’s sense of disgust. Funny though, she thought, if Ben’s shirt was stuck to him, it would only make her want to rip it off and lick him clean. Perspective was definitely an interesting thing.
“I understand that you have made payment on your partnership with Ben Powell,
eh? I offered you the same opportunity you know. Now it is going to cost you more, sweet thing,” Theodore said in a threatening manner.
She could actually feel his intrusive and disgusting gaze move over her figure, almost in a predatory manner that made her skin crawl.
“I beg your pardon.” Lizzie finally swung herself in his direction. “What did you say to me? I didn’t make any sort of ‘payment,’ as you so revoltingly put it, Mr. Davis. I think you are disgusting in your implication and I think you have been forewarned by my partner not to approach me anymore whether it is concerning a professional or private issue. Anything you have to say to me either way can now go directly through Ben. I am sure he would have a definitive opinion on your offer.”
Her comment garnered a dirty look from the sweating, pasty-looking man in front of her. “Well, Ms. High and Mighty Carmichael, we will see how haughty you are when he leaves you in the lurch. The man isn’t exactly known for hanging around after he has had a sample of the goods, you know. I will be open to negotiations, after all I am a generous man, but you won’t find my offer as kind to you as it was before. I am going to demand more, interest, I would call it. You will come to me on your knees, both figuratively and literally. Then we will see.”
Another voice filled with authority and barely controlled rage interrupted Theodore Davis’s egotistical declaration.
“You had best back it up two feet, sir, and take a deep breath of reality because the day that you just described only exists in your delusional fantasy land. Now please remove yourself from our presences, immediately or I will personally call Sly Mulligan to handle you. I would not dirty my hands,” Billie bravely ground out as she gave a death stare to the overweight banker. Hands on her couture-covered hips, in four-inch black patent-leather heels, her friend looked formidable and furious.
