by Taylor Berke
Lizzie leaned over after unbuckling, and softly placed a kiss on his cheek. He didn’t move to assist or prevent her, so she pressed her face into his neck in a comforting and nuzzling sort of movement. She wasn’t sure what he was getting out of it but as she inhaled his rich, masculine scent that was uniquely his, she felt a languor fill her as her body relaxed. It was as though it knew who it belonged to and was pleased to be intimately pressed near its owner. She felt the pressure of his head leaning slightly onto the top of hers but otherwise he made no movement to touch her.
Lizzie gained a bit more assurance in his being receptive and began to lightly nip and kiss softly the line of his neck and where it met his thick shoulder. Ben was all muscle, a literal wall she thought, as both her hands and mouth made their descent over his chest, nuzzling and kissing as they reached his abdominals which were contracting gently under her ministrations. She heard as Ben let out a puff of breath as she allowed her questing hand to graze over the very prominent bulge that was straining against his jeans. Lizzie shifted in her seat so that she could lay a bit lower as she curled her hand over the bulge to glide over it repetitiously. She could feel its pulse and attempts to shift under its confinement.
“Baby,” Ben said softly to her.
The air in the cab shifted to something thicker and more erotic than just interest. Need and desire were the heady scent that now propelled Lizzie into action and she knew what she was going to do. She looked up at Ben’s face which was now glancing down into his lap to sneak small peeks at what she was doing. Lizzie allowed a very naughty grin to meet his raised eyebrow, a silent declaration of challenge, one where neither the master nor the servant communicated their intentions. She managed to unhook his buckle and the top button of his jeans without his assistance, torturing him as she ran her tongue over the bulbous head weeping fluid in its arousal. She felt her insides clench with a shudder of the eroticism pulsing through her as his taste filled her mouth, overpowering her senses. He was deliciously sweaty from working so she wondered where his boxer briefs were.
With a light tone of amusement, Lizzie asked, “Ben, honey, did you forget something this morning?”
Ben looked down at her, while threading his right hand in her thick hair. She caught the first display of emotion that he permitted to cross his face, arrogance.
“Nope.”
Damned man, he was infuriating sometimes in how he just knew when there was going to be an opportunity for passion, for a moment. How did he just know that sort of thing? Well, she was going to fix his wagon.
Without warning, she turned to pull his zipper down to free his raging erection from its cage. She heard his hiss as she took no prisoners and gently but completely encased him within the warm, wet recesses of her mouth. She heard him groan as the head hit the back of her throat.
“Fucking hell, baby. Where on earth did you learn that?” Ben growled out in enjoyment.
Lizzie ignored his question and proceeded in enjoying the only thing that he was going to allow her any level of input on for the rest of the afternoon. She knew that he watched her head bob ever so slowly as she sucked up and down his thick arousal. The evidence of his enjoyment evident in the fact that every time she got to the tip, suckled at his slit, and sucked herself back down, he would groan and pulse at the base. Her own body was dripping with her cream, ready for whatever he deemed appropriate in his frustration with her. This was what she had always been missing, the emotions that fueled their arousal, not just the mechanics of sex. It was the need, the want, the expectation, and the anticipation that was kindling to her fire. She felt his hand tighten to the right side of pain in her hair as he held her while she now shifted her goal toward his release. His hips were thrusting into her mouth as he must have been white-knuckle gripping the steering wheel as he began to tense. She felt the truck suddenly pull over to the side of the road as he slammed on the brakes. Lizzie allowed her tongue to twirl deliciously under the sensitive skin of his cock’s head before engulfing him into her mouth again and again.
The sounds of Ben’s pleasure were punctuated with his loud gasp and growl as he blasted out streams of cum into her throat as she greedily sucked down his essence.
“Fuck, Lizzie! Holy fucking hell!” Ben barely ground out through his panting as he gentled his hold on her head. Tears of emotion, not upset, from the intensity of the moment ran down her cheeks as he pulled her upright off his groin. He cradled her delicately in his strong embrace, crooning words of love and his affections to her.
“It’s okay, baby, ssh. Don’t cry, I love you so much. Everything is okay, I am not going anywhere,” he whispered against her head that was mashed into his chest, unaware that the last thing he said was her deepest fear. It felt so very reassuring to hear him unknowingly say the very words that she needed to give her security.
Lizzie lifted her tearstained face to look into his tender one.
“Then you aren’t angry with me?” she bravely asked.
“Did you just pleasure me so I wouldn’t be mad, Lizzie?” Ben answered her with a question of his own.
“Oh no, of course not. I wouldn’t do something like that, something manipulative and without feeling. It’s just that you needed that and, well, I needed to do that to you, I think. It made me feel…” Lizzie wasn’t sure how to answer him.
Ben waited for a moment before answering for her. “Back in control of yourself again.”
Lizzie looked at him and cocked her head. Yes, that was it but how did he know that? How did this darned man always seem to know everything about herself that even she couldn’t figure out? Ugh, he was going to be hell to live with, all that arrogance!
“I just understand you, baby,” Ben answered her unspoken confusion with a cocky grin.
“I really love you, Ben.” Lizzie gazed at him, allowing all her emotion to pour out in it while allowing the physical proof of her tears to run down her cheeks.
Ben gently wiped away her tears with his thumbs and leaned to softly kiss her lips, tenderly sucking her plump lower one into his mouth.
With a pop, he released her and eased the truck back onto the road.
“I really love you, too, Lizzie but make no mistake about it, I am still angry. I have been pleasured by my woman but am still angry at her no matter how much she understands me and my needs. After what you did by not confiding in me that the fucker touched you, I think that you are going to have to suck me dry daily for the rest of your life. Even then I probably will still not have quelled all of my concern for you. Get it?” Ben said very seriously.
“Um, I think I do, honey,” Lizzie said still amused slightly by the idea of an alarm clock going off daily signaling the time for blow jobs like the dinner bell going off.
Ben’s expression was darkening, turning back to a carnal countenance. She glanced down and unbelievably saw the physical proof of the change in his mood begin to thicken and elongate yet again. His emotions and arousal were definitely linked together. She wondered if it was a family trait. Blech, she couldn’t imagine what would happen if all the men got furious at something. A whole room full of angry Powell men with hard-ons. It was not an image that she wanted to see. Perhaps National Geographic would find them interesting…
“I don’t think that you get it, baby. Nope, I don’t think that you get it at all and need to be taught a lesson that demonstrates how much I love you and will do anything to keep you safe,” Ben replied with a firm edge to his voice now.
“Anything?” Lizzie asked hesitantly.
“Anything, baby. You are going to get fucked, but good, in every hole you have got when we get home. Perhaps that will assist you in understanding my need and feelings for you,” Ben answered darkly.
Lizzie gasped, “Every hole?”
Ben issued what would have been considered an evil smile by anyone else but Lizzie, as she knew he wouldn’t hurt her. “Let’s put it this way, be thankful that your ears and nose are too tiny for my man parts or they too would be g
etting fucked.”
Lizzie let out a shudder of excited anticipation, almost sorry that they were.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Millie Braxton peeled herself from the front window of Braxton Feed and Seed in her usual pastime of observing the comings and goings on Main Street, Stony Creek.
“Gus, come look at this. Weren’t those the strange men that we have been seeing around town in the last two months, honey?” Millie asked her burly mate.
“Whatcha got there, Millie?” Gus answered as he lumbered to the front of their store.
“I was just noticing something and find it concerning. Didn’t Ben say that he was meeting Lizzie at her house after work?” Millie asked her husband.
Gus scratched the light growth of whiskers that was decorating his still rugged chin. “Yup, I think that is what that boy said. Something about having dinner and practicing what the term ‘family man’ meant. I think he is thinking about marrying that sweet girl.”
“Well, then why would she be getting in that car with those men, honey? Come look. Darn, where are my glasses? I can’t see a thing,” Millie asked with concern evident in her voice.
Gus peered out the front window and squinted while trying to figure out what was really happening. “I am not liking this at all. Shoot, honey, give me the phone. There is no good reason that Lizzie would be going anywhere willingly with those men. Let me get on this situation, just in case.”
Gus and Millie kept eyes on the car, even calling Sly and Nat to run an APB on the car, perhaps overkill, but no one was taking any chances after Billie’s run-in with the bottom-feeders of Stony Creek. There weren’t many and they were dealt with in the old-fashioned way. Men acted like men in this town.
“Ben, it’s Gus. No, I am not calling because you are making an amazing dinner of hot dogs for Lizzie. Shut up, boy, and stop being an ass, this call is about your woman. Millie just spotted her getting into a late-model black Lincoln with tinted windows either by force or coercion. It was those men from The Pump that we can’t quite get any information on. Hold on, I don’t remember what they were wearing.”
Gus turned to Millie with his question but she was of course eavesdropping on the conversation and supplied him with the necessary information. “All had on Wranglers, boot cut, two with indigo dye. All pearl-button shirts, one white, one blue, and one black with detailing on the front pocket. There was one with green eyes and two with brown, honey. All their boots were clean and one wore a brown felt cowboy hat with tooth trim in pearl.”
Gus looked at his wife like she had three heads. “Who are you and where is my wife? Did you train for the FBI?”
“Ben, did you hear all the detail? Stop panicking, boy, we will all make calls and get the men in town. Do not do anything rash! Ben, Ben, are you there?” Gus yelled into the phone.
“Damned boy hung up on me. Better get on the phones, Millie, gotta do a round up,” Gus quickly ordered his wife.
* * * *
Ben was riding into town like the devil was chasing him down. He couldn’t hear anything that anyone else was saying because the blood was rushing so loudly in his ears. Someone took his Lizzie? His woman? All he saw was red and felt the fury, barely restrained, fighting to break free. He wasn’t even scared yet, just infuriated. He knew that Lizzie was brilliant and would have been aware that the gossips of the town would have seen what had happened. She would buy herself time. That was his girl. She knew and trusted that he would save her. There was no way he wouldn’t. He couldn’t even fathom that possibility. He had no idea how Jackson didn’t go crazy on the drive up to the cabin to save Billie from Len Drexel earlier this year. He felt like he was going to jump out of his skin, starting to worry that one of those fuckers was touching her, hurting her. There were three of them for fuck’s sake. Shit. He stepped on the gas, breaking every law and speed limit for the town and putting Cole’s truck, also filled with men, in the dust behind him.
“Ben, I know you are upset, which is why I should have been driving. Keep your head on, son, and don’t wreck us. You know that you can be a little klutzy.” Bill tried to make a joke to calm Ben down.
Brody took over from the back seat. “Uncle Bill, he didn’t let you drive because he wanted to get there as quickly as possible. Since you turned fifty, you have been driving Miss Daisy.”
Even Ben had to chuckle for a moment at his father’s indignation. It lasted for only a second, however, as he noticed how far back Cole’s truck was.
“Someone get on the fucking cell and tell Cole to stop driving like a girl!” Ben yelled out loud enough to fill the cab.
Ben could hear Brody talking to Jackson on the cell, let out a small laugh, and hang up. He saw his father turn in his seat with brows lifted in question.
Brody smiled briefly and filled in the blank. “Cole says that you have an unfair advantage as he has not one but two heavyweights in his cab as he’s got both Hunter and Jackson in there with Troy as well. He also says to tell you that your facts are inaccurate as Beth drives pretty damned fast, got a ticket from Nat just last week. He also recommended you not mention your opinion in front of the ladies if you want to live.”
Ben realized that was the truth. He didn’t want to live without his Lizzie, not one fucking day. When he got his hands on those men, they had better pray that he was distracted by a very needy and willing Lizzie or he really would kill them with his bare hands. Just then a call came in on Bill’s cell. He heard his father’s end which only consisted of yeps, yeses, and okays.
“Well, Dad? Who was that and what the hell did they say?” Ben demanded with a growl.
“That was Gus again. The car is in front of the bank. Floor it, Ben, I am not liking this either. Theodore Davis’s car is there too and the bank is locked. Sly is already there with Nat and the all the Saunders boys. Did you hear me, I said floor it, son!” Bill said with the first hint of anxiety.
Hell, if his father was nervous he should need CPR right about now. His stomach began to knot as he pushed the accelerator to the floorboard.
* * * *
“Ms. Carmichael, I think you need to come with us.” Lizzie immediately recognized the face of one of the burly men from The Pump several weeks ago. He was dressed in casual jeans and a pearl-button top, not the countrified attire that the men had worn when they were out with that weasel, Mr. Davis. Lizzie turned and saw that there was another of the men blocking her path, dressed in a similar fashion with yet another one sitting in the driver’s seat of a black Lincoln town car with tinted windows. Really, could they be any more cliché? Were they cowboy mobsters or something?
She would have laughed if she had the courage but only felt the fission of fear run up her spine as they flashed something from under the leader’s arm. What did they want with her? Lizzie glanced around, hoping for someone to call out to but with the end of the workday everyone was either home or on their way to their ranches. Never a Powell around when you needed one. Okay, that was a lie but there were none here at present and she felt that a Powell, particularly Ben, would be a good idea right about now. She let him be her focus. She had just found the love of her life and unbelievably he felt the same way about her. There was no man, or men in this case, that she was going to allow to ruin her happiness. This town was full of gossips. Lizzie prayed fervently, this one time, that Julia or one of the ladies was spying on her in their usual fashion. She took several deep breaths and tried to regain her control.
“What is it that you gentlemen want exactly?” Lizzie surprised herself by the bravado in her voice.
“Just to talk, Ms. Carmichael. If you would just get in the car, we promise that we will take good care of you,” the leader said again. He was a large man with a deep voice that broached no nonsense. She saw him flash the one thing that puts fear in the hearts of many a person. Not her, however. She had seen them before and was ready to do battle.
* * * *
Sounds of tires squealing to a halt filled Main Street in front of t
he bank. Huge hunky men, enough to make an entire sorority faint, were jumping out of trucks armed with shotguns and rifles. They were taking up spots that were being pointed out by Nat and Sly, the lead surgeons of this operation. It was eerily silent when most were in position, just waiting for direction from their sheriff and deputy. Ben was wisely forced in between his father and elder brother in an effort to keep him under some semblance of control. Both his father and brother wore concerned expressions while they tried to concentrate as Ben looked ready to storm the castle and rescue his princess.
Ben held his rifle in a death grip, eyes trained on Sly for some indication that he could get his hulking body into that bank. He had made the suggestion that he just kick in the door, as it was made of glass, but knew that venting his rage would not turn out well for his love. Finding the control that had always eluded him was one thing but the struggle he was waging to control it was another. He actually was beginning to feel outright fear as there was no communication with Lizzie on her cell, no demands or threats from inside the bank. There was just nothing. It was that complete absence of any response that had Ben growing sicker and sicker by the minute. He just wanted her in his arms. When she got out of this, he was moving permanently into her cramped but cozy little house and planned on having her get one of those lunch trucks that she could situate on their ranch. That way she would be within yelling distance at almost all times. Yep, that ought to do it, he thought.
Bill had just released Ben’s arm for all of two seconds while he rubbed his forehead when Ben picked up a pretty big stone and pegged Sly in the side of his head.
“Are we just going to sit here and wait while you do nothing, you waste of a law-enforcement person?” Ben spoke over to the sheriff as quietly as he could manage. Sly touched his head, looking for blood, and hurled a look of death in Ben’s direction.
