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

by Taylor Berke

  “Oh good Lord. I am never going to survive the day. Let’s go get this over with already,” Lizzie threw over her shoulder as she proceeded out the door.

  Ben and most of the town’s men were already there and getting themselves organized for the scheduled event. Lizzie couldn’t help herself as she admired Ben’s commanding presence as he discussed some particular detail of the project with his father and the Taggart brothers, both Adam and Sean. There was something about a man doing man things that just did it for her. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that her father hadn’t done these responsible things, taken care of the house or her. Lizzie had always had to take care of herself and did it quite well but somewhere deep inside she found herself admitting that there was something infinitely addicting to the feeling of being cared for, someone else taking the control.

  Heat felt like it suddenly was emanating from her pores in reaction as just those simple things caused her to soften and wish he would run his hands under the hem of her shirt. He caught her observation and threw her a huge smile, oblivious to her sexual interest and the curiosity being expressed by others. The other men looked at him in confusion as though he was losing his mind. Ben never smiled like that and it looked like even his father, Bill, was very pleased by the sudden show of happiness. Billie tugged Lizzie over to the congregating matrons who were chattering like excited magpies. They were in a tizzy about something, apparently something very good.

  “Oh Lizzie dear! How can we thank you for this opportunity?” Thea Carson gushed as she took both of Lizzie’s hands in hers.

  “Lizzie, this is going to be just the thing we need to repair the stained-glass window! How clever you are to think of killing two birds with one stone,” Mabel Winston complimented her.

  “Lizzie, sweetheart, I always knew my son was smart since the day he was born but now I know why he chose you. This plan is just brilliant, really brilliant if a bit naughty,” Lillian Powell said with a smile.

  Florence gave her sister-in-law a funny look. “What are you saying, Lillian? We made those boys and toiled day and night to make them look the way they do, so why shouldn’t we earn something for all our hard work?”

  Lizzie felt like the world was spinning and couldn’t make heads or tails of what the ladies were jabbering about all at once. Had they all had some of Florence’s medicinal tea before they got here or something? It was then that she noticed several of the church ushers setting out the chairs from the Ladies Guild. They were set back in rows of semicircles as though an audience for some sort of outdoor performance. A prickle of unease stared to shiver up her spine.

  Trying to maintain her composure, Lizzie looked in horror at the women. “Will someone please explain what is going on?”

  Lizzie turned slowly in Julia’s direction. A guilty look was on that woman’s face and she appeared like she was about to bust a gut if she didn’t confess something.

  “Julia?” Lizzie said accusingly.

  “What? I just told the ladies ‘your suggestion’ on how to make Ben’s generosity into something beneficial for everyone. I think it was sheer brilliance how you figured that the humidity and heat of summer in Wyoming could be turned into money for the church. Very generous of you, I would have never thought of such a thing myself you understand but now I cannot wait to see it for myself!” Julia crowed slyly.

  “What? What did you tell them I suggested?” Lizzie cringed, waiting to hear the answer.

  As if to drive home her point, Julia extended her hand as she half turned, indicating Lizzie’s roof now that was now covered with sweating men, all of whom were very fit, and not one shirt on any of them. The sun not yet at midday was producing rivulets of perspiration to run down the now bare chests of the many delicious-looking cowboys up there. Ben in particular was causing her heart palpitations as she took in his cowboy-hat-covered head, tan, chiseled chest that led to those incredible indents of cut muscle dipping below the waist of his jeans. Lizzie licked her lips with a sudden hunger to run her tongue down those cuts below where they were hidden by cloth. She could practically taste the beads of delicious sweaty muscle as they were committed to her memory. Clad only in his Wranglers that fit him as though made specifically for his award-winning rear end, Lizzie forced a smile as she secretly clenched her wet pussy as her arousal began to simmer. His muscles bulged as he lifted a case of shingles over to Gabe Preston who wasn’t looking too shabby himself, chiseled muscles shining in the beaming sunlight.

  “Oh Lordy. I hope you brought your defibrillator, Billie, because we are going to need to resuscitate one of us before the day is over. Look at them all. Lillian, your boys…Lillian, um Earth to Lillian!” Thea said, trying to gain Lillian’s attention which was focused on her husband of thirty-seven years.

  The ladies were all indulgently smiling at the very distracted Lillian who was acting like she hadn’t even seen her own husband with his shirt off.

  “What? I am allowed to ogle my husband. He still is ridiculously fit. I have always said it, you have got to love a cowboy. My boys should help bring in a few dollars, don’t you think?” Lillian said with a laugh, not appearing to Lizzie to be the least bit embarrassed at being caught staring at her sweaty Bill, not bothering to hide the expression indicating her own salacious thoughts.

  “They all will. We should do this every year!” Florence crowed out.

  Lizzie thought she was going to faint. She looked to Billie for support and found none since her friend practically had saliva running from the corner of her mouth eating up the vision of Jackson standing up there as well, half-naked, hotter than hell, and sweaty.

  “Ladies, focus please! We can’t just charge people to watch them put up my roof. Isn’t there something immoral about that? Mabel? Millie?” Lizzie pleaded.

  Julia again had one of her brilliant smiles plastered on her scheming but well-meaning beautiful face. “Oh sweetie, we won’t actually charge admission, no. That would be wrong on the Lord’s Day. Nope, we are accepting donations! It is, after all, for the church.”

  Lizzie slapped her hand to her forehead and tried to just walk away to set up the refreshment table. She was up a good portion of last night cooking and baking all manner of treats for the men who were being such darlings by volunteering their time to help her. There were sausage breads with fresh marinara sauce, roast beef and cured ham sandwiches on homemade sweet bread, gooey cinnamon rolls with sweet icing, and tons of small pastries to grab and go. She noticed that someone, not hard to guess who, had brought a keg. It sat next to the giant coolers of lemonade and sweet tea that the ladies had so thoughtfully prepared.

  The whole roof repair and now church scheme was so absurd to Lizzie that she just decided to not get aggravated anymore and just go with the flow. She saw a huge pickup pull up and watched as Beth and Mimi jumped out. She was rather glad to see them until she noticed the cameras and the huge wad of singles that they were waving in the matron’s direction. Hysterical peals of laughter drifted over from the women’s direction. This was going to be a very memorable day. Multitudes of cars and pickups began parking near her home on the grass, revealing townspeople of all ages coming out to see the spectacle. Even their church’s pastor pulled up and offered her a kiss on the cheek, deeming this an inspired idea for everyone to help one another. She was back to killing that crazy Julia Morgan again, Lizzie though to herself. Stopping to pause as she was about to march herself back over to the matrons, she overheard Florence talking excitedly to Beth.

  “Hey, you girls! I just got hit with another brilliant idea. Do you think we could make a cocktail table book out of these boys? I wonder how much we could sell it for.”

  Lizzie just sat down, pulled out a ten dollar bill, and waved it in Mabel’s direction. Julia took it from her and shoved it in the donation box.

  Lizzie couldn’t even look in their direction, she was so transfixed by the display of sizzling hunks of male flesh that were all over her roof. All she heard was Julia chirping, �
�Thank you for your donation, Ms. Carmichael!”

  * * * *

  In spite of the lunacy that was her roof raising, the day ran pretty smoothly with no significant injuries for the pregnant Dr. Billie Rothman to oversee. Well, none unless you counted a very sheepish-looking Jackson whispering to his doctor and fiancée that he had a very personal injury that he needed her to attend to. They were in Lizzie’s house for a good twenty minutes before they both exited, hand in hand, with Jackson wearing a very satisfied, arrogant expression and Billie appearing, well, pleasantly rumpled. Now both of them were sweaty, she observed as Billie rejoined her looking rather flushed. Jackson returned to the roof where catcalls and bawdy remarks were being thrown in his direction.

  Lizzie looked at Billie with a raised eyebrow, silently questioning her for some information. Billie just smiled and declared Jackson to be quite fit with no permanent injuries.

  Florence took one look at Billie and started laughing herself silly. “Yes, dear. I am sure it was his ‘fitness’ that got you in current state of affairs.”

  All the women looked down at Billie’s still-flat stomach and followed Florence in her laughter. Billie looked relieved when Maddy finally showed up to distract the elder gossip mongers. Maddy appeared somewhat nervous and ill at ease, but for what reason, Lizzie couldn’t figure out.

  “Hey, Maddy, are you okay? You look funny,” Lizzie whispered in Maddy’s ear.

  Maddy just shook her head, indicating that nothing was wrong but kept sneaking surreptitious peeks up in the direction of the roof. Lizzie followed her gaze to spy a very hunky Powell hanging over the edge while securing a piece of flashing to her gutter. Troy was in the required uniform of a hot, sweaty, half-naked male with six-pack presentation. Maddy looked like she was going to swoon as she kept returning her gaze again and again to sneak a peek. Just at that moment, Troy looked over at Maddy, upside-down and all, and shot her a naughty grin as though he had read her mind. Shocked out of her stupor by his attention, she realized that she was being observed. So, instead of blushing like she normally did, Maddy just dug into her purse and pulled out a twenty with great enthusiasm.

  “Oh, Julia! I think the men earned some of this for their fine display, I mean workmanship, today,” Maddy finished with a smile, allowing her voice to carry to a very specific someone hanging off the roof.

  All eyes were suddenly drawn to a very large and unusually hostile male standing on the peak of Lizzie’s roof. Brody looked furious as he took in the scene below him and appeared like he was in shock. Normally he was the even-tempered diplomat of the Powell clan, but apparently someone had forgotten to remind him of that today.

  His face scanned the very large number of ladies that were in attendance below him, all ages and all walks of life. Very few of the audience were even trying to conceal their obvious enjoyment of the “show” being performed in front of them and didn’t hesitate in taking pictures with cameras, video, and even their cell phones. Lizzie had to laugh herself as she realized that he just figured out the very reason that there were so many women down on her front lawn in chairs.

  A huge bellow followed his now-furious expression. He crossed his thick arms across his sweaty muscular chest, causing a chorus of “ooohs” and “aaahs” from the audience.

  Rolling his eyes, Brody yelled down to Florence, “Mom! What the heck do you think you are doing down there?”

  Florence walked over the edge of lawn right below her eldest child and looked nonplussed. “What does it look like we are doing, Brody?”

  “It looks like you are pimping us out for Pete’s sake, Mom!” Brody hollered, causing all the men now to stop what they were doing and take in the situation.

  “Well look who finally caught on? Excuse me, darling boy, but you all have been doing this for years with the lovely young ladies of Stony Creek. The Ladies Guild simply is ensuring that we get the funds we need to repair the stained-glass windows in the church. You should see all the money, I mean, donations that we have made from these ladies just by watching the show! Pretty ingenious, no?” Florence smiled up at him sweetly.

  “How can you do this, Mom? It’s embarrassing,” Cole piped up to join his brother. He looked just as mouthwatering as his brother and there were several ladies being ushered closer by Thea Carson with their dollars so that they could take a better photo.

  Florence let out a laugh. “What is so embarrassing, really? I made you both and I am proud. I am not allowing you to do anything naughty to any of these ladies, nope, not at all. I am simply allowing them to observe all your fine skills as you work. It is like an art show really. You boys are just adorable.”

  Several of the men now stood with their mouths hanging open, in shock at Florence who now had several of the other matrons at her side, nodding in their agreement. Only Hunter kept right on working, ignoring what he probably thought was just silliness. Hunter was very comfortable with his fitness.

  “Mom, this is just… It’s wrong!” Brody yelled back.

  Lizzie watched the scene unbelievably play out as Lillian came forward and linked her arms with her sister-in-law. She added her semi-evil smile to Florence’s, making the men on the roof look almost unsure of themselves now.

  “Boys, we have watched you go through the young women of Stony Creek like toilet paper for years. Payback stinks, doesn’t it, my darlings? Now get back to work!” Florence finished with a devilish smile that matched Lillian’s as they sauntered away together.

  Lizzie stood there with Billie, trying very hard not to laugh at the cowed expressions and physical stance that the men now displayed.

  Lizzie turned to Billie and chuckled. “Remind me never, ever to tick Florence or Lillian off, okay.”

  Billie let out a shudder. “Me, too, sister, me, too!”

  Chapter Eighteen

  Ben could almost scent the sweat that was running down between Lizzie’s breasts as he heard her gasp of pain. She was delectable. There was no other description for her in his mind.

  “Harder, baby, just do it a little harder, right there,” Ben moaned out in his pleasure. He shifted his hips into a better position, trying to aid her in her efforts. Lizzie sure was giving it her all, not resting for one moment in the last half hour, trying to give him what he needed.

  “Ben, honey, I am trying. I promise I won’t stop until you tell me to,” Lizzie struggled to get out as her strokes continued.

  Ben had to laugh at their current position. It sure sounded like she was doing more than giving him the massage of his life but, in the end that was all it was, no matter how amazing her soft little hands felt as they skimmed over his tanned flesh.

  They had finished the roof by midafternoon and all the men were pretty damn sore from being hunched over while nailing in shingles in the August heat. The mood of the men had gone from cocky to embarrassed as they realized that their mothers and former babysitters were sitting down there amongst the younger female generation, trying to decide who had the best abs, whose chest was the most chiseled, whose ass looked as hard as rock. It was humbling, but few had protested after Florence had put Brody right back in his place. It was true, they did the same to the women, but geez, they were men and it was what men did.

  He had felt a surge of jealousy when some of the guys, the Taggarts, Sean in particular as well as deputy Nat Winston, thought that his Lizzie was looking pretty darned hot in her little blue skirt and white halter top. Assholes, what the hell were they doing checking her ass out when they knew she was his? Sean Taggart particularly was pulling his hugging crap up there today. It had been too damn hot and he had been too damned pissed, after Sean’s comment on wanting to climb on down to give Lizzie a personal measure of support. Ben couldn’t think of anything except how much pleasure he would get by shoving him off the roof. He knew that Sean was just messing around with him as he was being very obvious in his feelings for Lizzie. Fuck, the woman had him tied up in so many knots that he was considering murdering his friends. He had suggested t
hat she wear a sweatshirt and jeans this morning but she was right when she looked at him like he was nuts, considering the forecast for the day. Damn woman, she probably wore that outfit just to teach him a lesson. Okay, maybe he deserved it but she was his Lizzie. Maybe it was time to tell her how he felt about her?

  He rolled over onto his back, trying to shift her so she stayed on him but now was positioned directly over his groin. Yep, this was nice, too, he thought to himself. It was well worth the humiliation at being the beefcake special today and well worth the expense to see the unshed tears of happiness in Lizzie’s eyes as he climbed down and told her that the roof was never going to leak again, not in this lifetime. She had burrowed into his sweaty tanned hulk, hanging on to him for dear life and Lord, it had felt so good. Making this woman feel that relieved, making her so overwhelmed that she was speechless, made him want to do anything if it would keep her feeling this good. Shit, now he was starting to sound like Jackson, just gushing and disgustingly in love. Oh well, he had never been and if this was what it felt like, this was how he was going to stay.

  He looked at her tenderly while his hands rested gently on her hips.

  “You are happy, baby?” Ben questioned softly.

  Lizzie didn’t answer him but rather leaned down to brush her soft lips against his, allowing him to bask in their texture. Everything about her was feminine, from her diminutive size, five foot six compared to his six-foot-five height, to her little feet. He lowered one hand to caress her bare arch, marveling that even there, her skin was smooth and soft.

  She nuzzled her face into his neck and breathed deeply, sighing in what sounded like a content whisper.