For Her Benefit

by Nana Malone

  His erection was mere inches from my slick core. One shift of my hips, and he'd be nudging my entrance.

  Ben dragged his lips from mine and placed open-mouthed kisses along my jawline, the column of my throat, my collarbone. When he dipped to kiss my breast, I moaned just before his lips covered the pointed tip. With his hand, he teased the other nipple until I whimpered.

  I could only pant as he continued the path of hot kisses down my stomach, past my belly button.

  Oh. God. Yes.

  He settled between my thighs and gave a long leisurely lick to my heated center. I dug my hands into his hair. I felt him shiver, but he didn’t stop the long expert strokes of his tongue except to occasionally pause and suck on my flesh.

  Electricity singed every nerve ending as he continued to lap at me. When I started to quiver, he kissed my inner thigh. “I had big plans on taking my time.”

  I was in no mood for torture and I thrashed in the bed. “Please…”

  “But I don’t think either of us can wait.”

  He was right. “I—don’t want…wait…” My words were broken as they tore out of my throat.

  His kisses up my body were rough and hungry as he nipped, his tongue soothing all the tiny injuries. I’d have bruises in the morning, but I didn’t care. They would be my love battle scars.

  I groaned into his mouth as he kissed me deep, his thick, pulsing erection nudging at the notch of my sex.

  Ben tore his lips from me. “Fuck, I need you.” He dropped his forehead to mine and I watched with rapt attention as he gripped his straining erection at the base. His gaze met mine as with one hard thrust, he filled me.

  “Ah fuck.”

  “Oh my God. Bennett…”

  I managed to drag hot open-mouthed kisses along the column of his throat and relished in the feel of his stubble.

  Something that sounded like a strangled moan tore from his chest, and he dug his hands into the sheets next to my head. My hips met his thrust for thrust as he owned and worshiped me.

  “Fuck! So tight…Not sure…last…”

  I answered with a roll of my hips.

  He cursed low then gathered both my wrists into one hand, bracketing them above my head. “You are a very naughty girl.”

  “Who me?” I feigned innocence.

  He kissed me deep, and I widened my legs to accommodate more of him.

  “Livy…” My name on his lips sounded reverent.

  The corners of his lips tipped into a lopsided smile as he retreated and sank back in. The need took my body again as he drove me higher and higher. I clamped my legs around his hips, and he muttered curses under his breath. With one hand he widened my thighs and my eyes went round as he hit a magical spot deep inside.

  “Christ, Bennett!”

  I dragged my eyes open and blinked up at him, our gazes locking as my back bowed, and as he pumped into me, his curse tore from his lips. “Fuck. Oh fuck. I fucking love you, Liv.”

  I held on tight. I prayed to God everything went as planned. I couldn’t lose him. “I love you.” I just hoped my love was enough to keep him safe.

  22

  Ben

  As we all waited in the van, I forced myself to take a deep breath. So we were doing this. We were going to rob Grimwald Authenticators. The good news was, we were only going to take one thing, and it wasn’t hurting anyone. And fuck, if we could have bought it, we would have.

  Oh, good, tell yourself all the lies you need to make this okay.

  I ground my teeth. This was for Toby.

  Okay, fair point.

  I glanced around at my mates. Bridge looked shockingly calm. Lucas was bouncing around, excited. Sebastian just leaned forward, elbows on his knees, cracking his knuckles and staring blankly. Roone was tense. He kept going over the mission plan, over and over, confirming egress points, move points, security cameras. It was like he thought if he was as prepared as he could be, then we wouldn’t be seen, we wouldn’t get caught, and there was no way Jessa was going to be caught up in this.

  We’d set up our alibi of a poker game at Bridge’s house. We’d staged it, made it look like a poker game and then ran a looped video for security footage. Telly said that East’s video was so clean even she couldn’t tell that it wasn’t accurate. Ariel had been impressed. She said she might reach out to him for some jobs. Of course, that made him feel cooler than cool.

  “All we have to do is walk in there, follow the plan, steal the jewel, and we will be okay. Okay? So why aren’t you all relaxed?” Lucas asked.

  I was going in with Lucas and Sebastian. East would be on the comms and on watch. Bridge and Roone were on security. It should be easy. No problem. But still, my hands shook. We exited the van, all dressed in black and baseball caps, more than well aware of where all the CCTV cameras were. Our van was painted white and had a logo for a plumbing company on the side. The sign was fake of course. It would come right off, and the white paint was peel away. The van was actually blue. Once we were under one of the overhangs, we would peel it down, get rid of the sign board and then drive off.

  Lucas grinned at us all. “Mates, why do you guys look like we’re doing a death march? We’re going to be fine. It’s just a jewel. Besides, we already know what the security layout is. It’s simple. No one has to get hurt. We can do this.

  I just prayed he was right.

  Roone and Bridge went first, briskly walking down to the alley, hats pulled low and then opening the grate at the back of the alleyway that led to the underground tunnels leading into Grimwald.

  One by one we followed.

  In our ears, we got the mic comm checks. We could hear everybody loud and clear. I was the last to follow. I hung outside of the van with a bit of cigarette, pretending to smoke it. That way, if anyone should look outside their messy little warehouse, they’d just see some bloke smoking against the plumbing van and wouldn’t take any notice.

  East signaled me, and I gave him a nod, closed the door, and took off, my feet making soft splashing sounds in the puddles as I marched forward, hands tucked in my jumper. When I reached the grate, I slid the cover back and entered. Once I was inside, I moved the cover back over me. We were in.

  Moving down the ladder in the dark, I switched on the light attached to my collar, allowing me to see my way. At the end of the ladder, there were tunnels to the left, straight ahead, and right. I hung right, just like the others had done before me.

  I desperately tried not to think about the rats or anything else that I heard crawling in the tunnels.

  Lucas gave Sebastian some shit. “Seb, isn’t it you that’s afraid of mice?”

  Sebastian’s voice was a deep growl. “I’m not afraid. I just prefer not to be around them, hear them squeaking. God, they’re the worst.”

  Lucas chuckled. “So basically, you’re afraid.”

  “It’s not fear. I can deal with one if I have to.”

  Lucas kept ribbing him though. “I’ll just ask Penny. I feel like I remember her having a really good mouse story.”

  Roone finally just told him to shut it.

  We made a left and one more right before we reached the actual tunnels of Grimwald. And I’d never been more thankful for some underground maps in my life. It certainly made getting in a lot easier. But the bigger question was getting out. We all had separate egresses just in case something went horribly wrong.

  Roone moved aside the grate, and then we all climbed up one by one.

  Once out of the grate, we all removed our hats, put on our masks, and shoved the hats under the bulletproof vests we’d been given. I’d never seen anything like them. They were so thin and so light. Sebastian had said they came from a security firm that he used often when he was in New York, Blake Security. They had all the cutting-edge equipment. It felt like nothing at all, but he’d guaranteed me it could save my life when it came to it.

  Once we had our masks on, we started moving again.

  Roone and Bridge headed to the outer entrance. There
were no guards, and Roone applied the decryption device on the padlock. With a whirring of numbers, we were inside the fence in less than thirty seconds. Sebastian and I headed forward. We ran past the others to the back of the building and saw the entrance to the second-floor office that we were going to use.

  Lucas unwound the grappling hook he had and grinned. Sebastian just shook his head. “You’re enjoying this far too much.”

  He laughed. “Why can’t you just say that I’m good at what I do?”

  Sebastian was in no mood though. And I could understand why. He was worried about Penny, his brother, his own freedom. But still, he didn’t complain. He didn’t make a fuss. He was just there to get it done. Lucas tossed the grappling hook up and showed us how to attach our automatic slides. They were mechanical and did half the work for us, but we still had to do some climbing. Sebastian went next after Lucas, and I followed him. I had to do more manual work as I was heavier than both of them.

  Once on the second floor, I wiped my brow. Lucas detached his hook, added it to his backpack, and we were off. I was going to decrypt the office door, but we realized we didn’t even need to bother. The door was unlocked.

  Lucas just shook his head. “Where is all that state-of-the-art security they advertise?”

  I smirked. “But to be fair, who breaks in from the second floor?”

  He grinned. “As you would say, gits like me.”

  Once in the office, Lucas consulted the map and pointed us in the right direction. Down the hall to the right. The appraisal room. They had a vault in there, and that’s where we were headed.

  Sebastian nodded. “All right, let’s do it.”

  One after the other, we left the office, and I started to close the door and lock it behind us, but Lucas stopped me. “No, leave it exactly the way you found it. For all we know, they never lock it. If someone comes back and finds it locked, they’ll know before we’re ready that someone has been here.”

  “You really do think of everything.”

  In our comms, East gave us the countdown. “Cameras out in five, four, three, two, one. You’ve got three minutes.”

  We heard some shuffling and grunting on the other line and then Roone checked in. “Key security one is clear.”

  A few seconds later, we heard Bridge say, “Key security two is clear. We’ll keep on lookout in case there are others.”

  When we made it to the door of the vault, Lucas added his decryptor, and it opened in seconds. “The safe I’ll have to do manually.”

  Sebastian licked his lips. “You can do this?”

  “Yes, I can do this. But can I do this in a minute and thirty-nine seconds? I’m not sure. But we will see.”

  Lucas sat himself by the safe with what looked like a stethoscope, his fingers moving gently, a piece of paper and pencil at the ready to write things down as he listened. Sebastian kept staring at his watch.

  Lucas said, “The more you look at your watch, the more nervous I get. We don’t have time for this, Sebastian.”

  Sebastian looked like he wanted to argue, but I pulled him aside. “Look, let him do his job. He’s good enough at it.”

  And sure enough he was. Without a glance to his brother as Sebastian looked directly over his shoulder, Lucas had everything well in hand. There was a whirring sound, and Lucas opened the safe. His eyes went wide as he glanced around at what was on the shelves. “Jesus Christ, look at what they’ve got.”

  I growled at him. “Focus.”

  He went over to the jewelry, checked the records, and then pulled out the drawer with the Canary Jewel in it. Lucas whistled low. “Jesus fucking Christ, that thing is big enough to cover my wrist.”

  I nodded. “Yeah, it’s so big it looks like costume jewelry.”

  Lucas handed me the bracelet, and I tucked it in the pouch under the vest I wore. He closed the drawer and then closed both the safe and the vault. Lucas cleaned up his tools and put them back in his backpack, zipping it up and hefting it on his back.

  Sebastian stared at us. “That’s it?”

  “Yeah, now we just have to get out.” We weren’t going the way we came in because security would be on a regularly scheduled patrol by then. So we were going to wait them out and then go around to the point where Roone and Bridge had gone inside. On the back stairs, I heard something and paused as the hairs at the back of my neck stood up.

  Lucas turned back, “Are you all right?”

  “Yeah, something feels off though.”

  Lucas shook his head. “No, we’re good.”

  We hustled. East spoke into the comms. “We have one minute.”

  There was a dark spot in the main lobby area that no cameras covered. We needed to get there before all the cameras turned back on. It was easy enough to keep most of the security system down, but those cameras were on a second generator. “Cameras coming back on in five, four, three, two…” We all ran into our safety zone. The five of us were fine. We were perfectly okay. I glanced around, making sure Bridge and Roone were all right, and Sebastian just looked at his brother. “I don’t believe it, but you… Wow. You really do know how to do this.”

  He nodded. “I told you I was good.”

  There was another sound, and I turned to Bridge. “What did you do to security?”

  “Right now? They’re still fucked up. They should be out for an hour.”

  “Then what the hell is that sound?”

  In our comms, East spoke up. “Okay, security line going off in five, four, three, two—“

  A clapping sound interrupted him. We all turned to stare. Marcus Van Linsted was coming down the hall, and he did not look at all surprised to see us. “Aw, wish I could say I was surprised, but when the fake jewel was taken from April at the gala, I had the idea the Canary Jewel was probably what the fuckers were after in the first place. So, why don’t you go ahead and remove your masks so we can all speak as friends?”

  None of us did.

  He frowned. “Aw, then we’re going to do this the hard way.”

  Suddenly, there were clicking noises and out of the darkness came his men. One of them was Evan Zolov, the man who had taken Livy and terrified her then tried to run her off the road and kill her.

  I started to lean in that direction, but Sebastian put his hand on my biceps to stop me. Marcus cocked his head. “Oh, you don’t like Evan. Why is that, I wonder? If you gentlemen won’t comply with the simple request to take off your masks, I’m going to have my men take them off for you.”

  This was the worst-case scenario. East’s voice said in our ears, “What the fuck is going on?”

  Roone’s voice was barely an audible whisper. “We have company.”

  East muttered. “Shit, I’m coming.”

  Lucas was the one who gave him the firm command. “No, stick to the plan. You just keep those cameras down a little longer than necessary. Keep the office security off.”

  “I don’t know how long I can hold the alarms.”

  “Just stick to the plan.” Roone muttered.

  Guns pointing at us, we all held up our hands. How the fuck had this gone so terribly wrong?

  Ben

  We all backed up into each other in order to get everyone covered from all angles. Three gunmen plus Evan Zolov and Marcus Van Linsted. No Bram though, and I wondered why.

  But I wanted Evan Zolov even more. He and his men had put their hands on Livy, and I wanted to make him pay.

  As they approached us, Lucas tried to negotiate. “Gentlemen, there’s no need to get your knickers in a twist.” He was doing a British accent, and it wasn’t half bad. “But look, we are going to walk out of here, and you will let us.”

  One of the men jabbed at him. It was a tense standoff, all of us waiting to see who’d make the first move. Waiting to see who would break rank. Waiting to see what commands would be given. And then Lucas started to drag off his mask.

  Sebastian jabbed him hard with an elbow. “Have you lost your bloody mind?”

  Luca
s muttered, “What? I can’t breathe.”

  I thought he was mad, completely insane. Then I realized they were distracting one of the gunmen who went to jab Lucas again, but Lucas grabbed the gun, turned it up, and then Sebastian sucker punched him.

  His jaw snapped to the left.

  And then it was on.

  The other men came forward. A pfft, pfft, sound went off, and I realized their guns had silencers. Son of a bitch. I launched into action, sidestepping one of the gunmen for Evan.

  Roone, without hesitating, had already attacked the other gunman. He roared. Was he okay?

  Focus on your target.

  Marcus Van Linsted frowned and backed away. “What the fuck? Kill them all.”

  I ducked a fist, came up with an uppercut, and my guy’s head snapped back with a crack. He was merely stunned and started bringing his head back up. But I knew how to fight. I drew my fist back and hit him in the Adam’s apple, and he went down clutching his throat, gasping, wheezing. I went for Evan.

  Roone was engaged with another gunman, and Sebastian and Lucas had the other one occupied. Sebastian had him in a headlock, and Lucas was delivering body blows. “You thought you could shoot me? That’s rude. I don’t like rude arseholes,” he said.

  The brothers had it under control. Roone was going to get the upper hand over his guy at any moment. My guy was already down and gasping. I grabbed one of the zip ties that had been in our kits and tied his hand and feet. Evan Zolov began to back away and Van Linsted was following him. Bridge shouted. “I’m going for Van Linsted.”

  Marcus Van Linsted paused. “Who are you?”

  Oh, he would know once Bridge got close enough. He had made Bridge’s life hell. During our training, he’d always made it a point to make Bridge bleed.

  Evan blocked my path, still holding a gun. I said, “Aw, I thought we’d handle this mano a mano. Or don’t you know how to fight?”

  I spread my arms, cocksure and grinning, like the asshole I was born to be.