The Benefactor

by Nana Malone

  “Keep your fucking cool. Are you here to threaten me, or are you here to ask me for a favor?”

  “Look, you leave her alone, and I won’t challenge you or your family. I don’t even care.”

  “You’re not a challenge. You think you have the stones to unseat my family? You don’t. I promise you don’t. You certainly won’t have the support. So I wouldn’t stoop to terrorizing your girlfriend because you don’t matter.”

  “It’s over, Van Linsted. This ends now. You come at her again, and this will be war.”

  “Son, you’re welcome to come for me if you want. You’re not even a concern.”

  I pushed away from his desk and smiled. “Are you sure about that? Because you’ve already been to my hotel to threaten me. You’ve shown your hand, and now I’m returning the favor. Walk away. Leave her be. If you don’t, I’m coming after you and yours with everything I have. And unlike your son, I’m not ineffectual and I know how to kill. So stay the fuck away or there will be blood. And I promise you, it won’t be mine.”

  Ben

  That night, I held onto Livy tight. For all my money and power, I couldn’t get the one thing I needed, not without dragging in my whole team and the woman I loved.

  She nuzzled into me, so trusting, so loving. There was nothing of herself she wouldn’t give.

  “You want to tell me what’s wrong?”

  She looked up from the book she’d been reading. “Nothing. I’m fine. I promise.”

  I chuckled low. “I don’t believe you. You’re forgetting, love, I know you.”

  An almost imperceptible blush crept up her neck. “It’s nothing; I swear. You can stop worrying.”

  Stop worrying? We were about to pull off the impossible. And if we got caught, the consequences would be dire.

  “When are you going to get it? I can feel that something is off with you.” I pulled her to me, and her muscles relaxed. “Are you scared?”

  She lifted her head, her gaze searching mine. “Is it okay to say I’m terrified and starting to worry this whole plan was a terrible idea?”

  I shook my head. “Say the word, and you don’t have to do this.”

  “When will you realize that if you’re doing this, I’m doing this? I’m just going through all the scenarios in my head, and it scares me. But I’m not afraid for myself. I’m worried about you. And East and Bridge and Lucas… everyone. I feel like you are all my family now. I went from having no family other than Telly to having so many people I needed to worry about.”

  Her smile was tremulous. I locked my arms around her and she rolled on top of me. Liv pushed up to her knees and I levered myself up on my elbow first then planted my hands on the mattress. I pulled her onto my lap and cradled her against me as she tucked her head into the crook of my neck. When she pulled back, I stared up into the dark eyes of the woman whom I felt like I’d always known. The woman I would protect with my life. The woman I loved.

  I slid my hands into the hair at her nape and fisted, angling her head and kissing her deeply.

  I kissed her with the passion of a starving man, with all the love I didn’t know how to express. I kissed her with the worry I kept close and with the lust coursing through my veins.

  I poured everything I had into that kiss. Thanks to her, I finally knew what the hell love was. I saw what the big fucking deal was… that driving, desperate, urgent need to be with your partner. I got it. This could be my life. And I wanted it all, with her.

  Livy

  As Ben kissed me deeper, the thick length of him twitched inside his boxers. I could feel every inch of him against my core. And God help me, I wanted him again… needed him again. Would that feeling ever stop? Would there ever come a time when I didn’t need to touch him?

  You can’t sustain this.

  Couldn’t we though? Being with him felt different. It was different.

  You have to survive first.

  I knew I needed to let go of the worry about tomorrow. The team was ready. We’d been through the plan over and over.

  He licked into my mouth again, demanding that I focus on him and on the way he was making me feel, and I was more than happy to oblige.

  “Bennett,” I whispered.

  Our movements were frenzied and quick as we devoured each other. With a frustrated growl, he yanked the T-shirt I’d been wearing over my head. Then he ducked his head and suckled my breasts as he whispered an homage to them. While he licked and teased with his tongue and teeth, he teased and pinched my other nipple gently, sending shockwaves of desire ricocheting through me.

  I dug my nails into his back as I rotated my hips meeting each shallow thrust with one of my own. I felt the tingling at the base of my spine, and I tugged on his hair. “Bennett.”

  I could feel his smile against my neck and knew what was coming. “I was wondering if I could make you come just from this.”

  I knew he preferred to watch me. Bennett gripped my hips, his fingers digging in as we ground against each other. Shit. I wasn’t going to be able to hold this. I moaned low, throwing my head back.

  He slid a hand to where our bodies met and stroked his thumb over my clit through my panties. The teasing sensation on the bundle of nerves sent me crashing over the edge. My pussy convulsed, begging for his hard length.

  Ben

  I stared up at the woman on top of me with breasts worth worshipping. Her skin practically glowed in the dim light of the room. With every glance from under her lashes, and every tentative touch of her fingertips, my body felt like it was being stoked to full blaze.

  Vaguely, I wondered if spontaneous combustion was a myth. Add in the euphoric feeling that surged through my blood every time she touched me, and I was likely to come in my bloody boxers.

  With every pant as she came down from ecstasy, her blackberry-tipped breasts swayed as she shifted her straddle farther down my legs. Her hands came into contact with the elastic of my boxers, making my cock throb and strain.

  Involuntarily my hips rose, and I tried to school my breathing. This woman could undo me with a touch.

  Lying back on the bed, trying to get my shit under control, I arched my body. I snatched a pillow off the bed, shoving it over my face to muffle my moan.

  Her hands paused. “Should I stop?”

  “Fuck, you’re a tease.” It didn’t matter how many times I had her, each time felt like the first. I felt like a desperate teenager every time I was with her.

  Slim-fingered, delicate hands tugged my boxers down, and my cock strained.

  Her eyes traveled from my toes to my shins, up my thighs, and then fixed on my cock.

  She shimmied back up my body, straddling me again at the knees. She supported herself with her hands on either side of me.

  “Has anyone ever told you you’re very big?”

  I grinned. “Would it be indelicate to say yes?”

  She cocked an eyebrow, then resumed her inspection of my body. When she leaned directly over my straining cock, her curls brushed against my skin, and her breath floated over my dick. It only took too puffs of breath from her, and my control snapped.

  My hands banded around her biceps, and I hauled her up against me so I could kiss her. Flipping her onto her back, my hand fisted on the elastic of her very small panties, flexed, then ripped. I needed there to be nothing between us.

  I wedged a knee between her thighs.

  My lips continued a path down her ribs to her belly button. When the tip of my tongue dipped into the tiny crevice, she parted her thighs on an exhale.

  She dug her hands into my hair when I kissed my way to the top of her mound.

  Lifting my head, I watched her expression as I parted her slick folds with my thumbs. She widened her legs and moved her hands to dig at the sheets. Gently circling the nub of her clitoris with my thumb, I eased one finger into her slick, dewy channel. Immediately, her muscles clenched around my finger, and a tingle started at the base of my spine.

  Shit. All I was doing was touching
her, and I was already so near coming. I tried breathing deep and focusing on her pleasure. I could wait.

  Slowly, I retreated then slid my fingers inside again. When she exhaled, she whispered my name, and the soft sound was the most beautiful thing I’d ever heard. All I wanted was to hear her say it again. I slid my finger inside her again, followed by an achingly slow retreat, and she whispered, “Oh, God.”

  When I slid two fingers in, she stilled, and I paused to give her a chance to get used to the motions. She didn’t like my consideration. “Why are you stopping?”

  “Just taking my time, kitten.”

  With slow precise motions, she rotated her hips under my hands, coating my fingers with her juices. “I’m ready. If you just—”

  With her hips doing half the work, I began moving my fingers again, gently making love to her while my thumb stroked her pleasure button. Her hips began to move in time with increasing tempo. She rode my hand, and I was mesmerized, by the pink flesh of her core surrounding my fingers. The surge of need nearly blinded me, and I hastily removed my fingers, ignoring her protest and replacing them with my tongue.

  Livy gasped and sat up in the bed, but I didn’t stop, just held her legs wide, splaying her softness to me. While my thumbs parted her folds, I lapped at the sensitive flesh as she quivered around my tongue. The more I lapped at her, the wetter she became. She tasted sweet and spicy, like her scent suggested, and the combination was heady.

  I could tell the moment she gave in to the sensations. She lay back against the sheets and held my head in place while trying to widen her thighs even more. Tracing circles around her clit with my tongue, I drove her higher and higher, until her whole body tensed.

  Her inner walls quivered against my questing tongue, and her breathing came out in labored puffs. Placing a gentle kiss on the sensitive skin of her clitoris, I drew myself back up her body, using my elbows as support. She blinked up at me with wide eyes.

  “Wow.”

  “You sure do know how to stroke a guy’s ego, don’t you?” I drawled.

  Livy reached between us, and her delicate fingers closed around my rigid length. My vision blurred, and my balls started to tingle. I dropped my forehead to hers. “Jesus, kitten, I want you so bad.”

  Her eyes fluttered closed, and she moaned. “I’m yours. Always yours.” She pumped my cock with her palm, once, then twice. The trembling in my body started in my legs first. Maybe it was right what they said about guys and their erections—the blood drained from their feet first so they couldn’t run away.

  “Baby, I—”

  She pumped me again, but this time she brought my cock to her dewy center. I hissed a breath and squeezed my eyes shut, praying I didn’t come before I was inside her. Blinking rapidly, I gazed into her eyes, gritting my teeth and inching forward into her tight sheath.

  “Fuck. Livy.” I pushed in to the hilt, and she hissed beneath me. I tried not to move, to let her get accustomed to me and breathe for a minute, but that voice in my head wouldn’t stop. Rush. Take. Brand. I knew from when we’d been together before that she’d been sore. I worried I’d been too eager, so I was trying to take my time.

  I withdrew by increments, and she hissed again. But this time when I surged forward, she moaned. I planted a kiss on her lips again and waited for her gaze to meet mine. “Fuck, you’re tight.”

  Her breathing still ragged, she slowly smiled up at me. “Please don’t stop.”

  That was all the invitation I needed. Withdrawing to the tip of my cock, I surged forward, keeping up that slow and steady tempo until she started to claw at my back. Her hips pumped against mine, her velvet sheath swallowing the length of me.

  Her slick walls started to convulse around me once more and knew what was coming. “Hold on to that feeling, kitten. Ride it out.” I kissed her deep and reached one hand between us, my thumb finding her clit and circling it.

  Livy moaned arching her back and giving me unfettered access to her breast. “Ben…” She called my name on a breath as her body shook beneath me.

  As she rode the wave, I continued to drive into her, longing to keep her ride going as long as I could. Wishing I could stay like this forever.

  I muttered a curse as my balls began to ache. I needed to come, but I wanted her to come again for me. I wanted to feel her body melt into mine one more time. I kissed her again, before withdrawing completely. My cock gave a jerk of protest.

  With a growl, I shoved a hand under her back, grabbing onto her waist. Flipping her over onto her stomach, I glided a hand down her smooth back to her perfect round ass. I drew her limp body up onto her knees. Leaning into her, I whispered, “Hold on to the headboard, kitten.”

  She flicked me a cocked eyebrow over her shoulder, but she complied.

  “That’s a good girl. Now spread your knees for me.” When she parted her legs, I bit back a groan. That angle gave me the world’s most perfect view of her ass. Shifting behind her, I covered her body with mine again. “Are you sore, love?” As I asked, I inserted one finger in her still slick pussy, and she moaned.

  “A-a little.”

  But that didn’t stop her from moving her hips in time with my questing finger. When I added another finger, she sucked in a quick breath of air but then moaned as my fingers retreated.

  “I, please, I just need—”

  I lined my cock up with her sweet opening and whispered as I slid it into her pussy. “I know. I need you too.”

  There was no way I could last. This felt too good.

  She tried to rush me, grinding just the way I liked. Trying to make me lose control. I leaned forward, biting her shoulder as I swatted her on the ass.

  “Bennet!”

  Grinning as my lips traced over her skin, I murmured, “Don’t think I don’t know what you’re doing.”

  Through gasps, she said, “Stop trying to be in control here.” I held her hips tight and rode her as she called my name. Leaning over her as our hips locked, I played with her breasts, relishing their sweet response to my touch. Just by hovering over the sensitive skin of her nipples, they puckered in anticipation, inviting me to touch, to tease, to pinch.

  She let her head hang between her braced shoulders as she pushed her hips back to meet my every stroke. “God, that feels, so—”

  I knew the instant she started to come again. Her pussy began to milk my cock, and she threw her head back. Her whole body shook, and I could only hold on for the ride, digging both hands into the curves of her ass.

  As she shattered around me, my vision started to gray at the edges. The tingle that had started in my spine felt more like someone had hooked me up to thousand-volt electrodes as I pumped inside of her. So close to heaven.

  As blinding light exploded my vision, my whole body erupted in electric bliss.

  26

  Ben

  The evening of the Gem Gala rolled around all too quickly. I wasn’t happy about this plan. None of this made me at all comfortable. I’d called off Erik and the boys with an excuse that Livy would be taken care of by Jessa and Lucas’s Royal Guard as well.

  The Royal Guard had also been given the night off. Roone had given them special dispensation. We were all just hoping we were the only ones up to no good tonight.

  Livy could clearly tell where my mind was. Since the incident in the office a couple of days earlier, I’d hovered like an overprotective father sending his eighteen-year-old beauty queen off to college.

  From across the room, as Lucas tested her lifting skills once again, she mouthed at me, “Relax.”

  The hell I would relax. Things could go wrong at the gala, and the woman I loved would be the one pulling off the most dangerous position. Not to mention, I wouldn’t be anywhere nearby to protect her. This plan sucked.

  Bridge clapped me on the back. “You need to loosen your jaw mate. She’s good. She’ll be okay.”

  “I don’t understand why she has to be the one. Lucas could do it.”

  Lucas flanked me on the oth
er side. “The point is, we need this to look like a proper heist, not just a theft that targets the Van Linsteds. I can work more of the room than she can. We don’t want anyone knowing the Canary Jewel is the item we came for. We want people to think that this is a regular old stick-’em-up. The museum is a huge target. We want them all shocked and disoriented. And let’s face it, as good as Bridge and Liv might be, the two of them alone aren’t enough for shock and awe on the thievery front. It’s something I excel at, so it’s better if I am free to work the rest of the crowd.”

  I didn’t like it. “I didn’t see you desperate to teach Bryna to have fast hands.”

  Lucas’s lips thinned. Bryna was auxiliary on this endeavor. She had insisted she be part of it, but she didn’t quite have the skill of Bridge or hands like Liv, so she was on comms with East, making sure the lights went out when they were supposed to, making sure they stayed out, and identifying the security threats if necessary. She didn’t love it, but she was involved. And then Roone, Xander, and Alexi would pull off the heist switcheroo in the end.

  Luckily, the three of them were invited as guests. Roone was Jessa’s date, and the Chase brothers were serving as their mother’s envoys. They had a reason for being there, and therefore, would be above reproach.

  Christ, so much relied on timing, movement, and the ability to act. Lucas clapped me on the back. “It’s okay. I wouldn’t put her in any danger that I wouldn’t put Bryna in.”

  “What are you talking about? Bryna is not in danger.”

  “You clearly don’t know my fiancée. She’ll find a way to be involved other than just working comms. I know she will.”

  I slid my gaze over to the pretty brunette as she chatted with Jessa. She seemed unassuming enough. But maybe she was like Olivia. Sweet on the outside, and hellcat on the inside.

  “All right.”

  Jessa gave us a signal to quiet down. “Gentlemen, take your positions. Roone and I are heading to the party. Ben, you need to get into position. East, you too.”