Instead of taking her into his room and giving her the best of fuck of her life, Ben patted her hand and tried to play it all off. He just hoped she didn’t take it the wrong way.
“Later, alright?” He waited for her to smile before he took her hand in his again and led her to the stairs.
They went back downstairs and out of the cool, fresh apartment into bright sunlight. The brightness made their eyes water.
“And this of course is where I spend the rest of my time when I’m not working. That mint came from here for the drinks and the limes were from the tree in the garden in front of your place. Wonderful isn’t it?” Ben said, patting the mimosa tree at the centre of the courtyard with affection.
“You sure love your plants. It’s really beautiful. Everything is. You too,” Mary replied, feeling a thrill of coyness as she said the last.
“Ah, but nothing like you, sweet Mary.” He moved closed to her, her body heat radiating out to tempt him even closer. His finger went under her chin, tilting her head up to his. He wanted to kiss her, her eyes begged him for it. Both of them were breathing heavily, their mouths slightly open, ready to taste each other. But it wasn’t the time. “Let’s go rescue your mother shall we?”
Carrying their drinks, they returned to Lillian, both wondering if they should have lingered just a little bit longer.
“So how did you find Ben’s man cave?” Lillian asked as she gratefully took the drink Ben offered her.
“It’s adorable, Mom. That and now I know his secret to making these,” Mary replied waving her glass at Lillian.
“Now isn’t that something worth taking home?” Lillian laughed. “I’m guessing those coals are ready to roll Ben, I’ve got everything else ready just as soon as you are.”
Ben took his place at the grill and cooked spicy chicken and chops for them all. They sat around the table exchanging stories from home and their experiences so far in Portugal. As the afternoon drew into evening, Lillian made her excuses and left the two of them in the garden as she retired to her bed.
Ben poured them both a glass of wine and Mary leaned in close to him and took his arm. She lifted it so she could slide herself under.
“It cools off a bit at night, don’t you think?” Mary smiled as she snuggled into him.
Ben smiled back at her. “Yes a little, some nights, I guess,” he replied as he gave her a gentle hug with the arm wrapped over her shoulder.
They watched Lillian’s bedroom light go out and quietly drank the last of the wine. Ben gently began to rise from his chair, surprising Mary. Almost as if she thought they would be there for the rest of time.
“It’s late, Mary. Nearly three in the morning. I should go and try to get some sleep,” Ben said, trying to give her an out if she wanted it.
“Is it? Is it really so late? Dammit. I didn’t want it to fly past so quickly,” Mary replied sadly.
“There is one thing though I need to ask you. It’s been on my mind since the other night when the power went off,” Ben said as he turned to face her.
“Ask me what?” Mary asked, feigning surprise.
“I’d like to know,” Ben murmured, then stopped. He started again with more assurance. “I’d like to know, what it would be like to kiss those lips of yours.”
Without saying a word, Mary pressed her full lips to his. She didn’t think about it, didn’t plan or ponder it, she just went with her gut instinct and kissed him. She gave him a long lingering kiss as they embraced, his arms wrapping around her to pull her closer. The kiss became deeper and more intense as she parted her lips.
Their tongues tangled as they tasted each other for the first time and Mary felt her pulse rising as her body responded to his nearness, to the warmth coming from his body. She felt her temperature rising and knew it had more to do with him than the night air or the drinks they’d shared. This explosion of arousal was all Ben’s doing.
Mary didn’t want to but finally broke the kiss.
“It feels like that. Do you approve?” She smiled dazedly up at him, wondering if he felt just as flustered as she did.
“Perfect, Mary. Just perfect.” He kissed her on the nose, wanting to do more as he fought to catch his breath but held back. She’d stopped for a reason. He didn’t want her to but he respected her and would have never have pushed her. He gave her a peck on the nose and stood up. “Goodnight sweetheart. Perhaps tomorrow we can spend the day together, alone. Maybe at the beach?”
Ben looked down at her with hope in his eyes and a deep warm smile resting on his lips. Please say yes, he thought at her, needing some time alone with her.
“That would be perfect, Ben. I’ll let Mom know in the morning. Good night, sleep well.” Mary gave him a dreamy smile as she began to clear the table.
With a final glance, Ben left Mary to wander to his own apartment. She had wanted to take it further; she’d longed to let herself run away with the passion he’d aroused in her but knew that she’d have to behave until they were totally alone. Maybe they could find a private spot on the beach and explore further tomorrow.
Chapter Twenty-One
As the sun shone bright in a cloudless sky, Ben knew it was going to be another glorious Algarve day. He sat himself out in the courtyard with a mug of tea and reflected on the night before. Mary, Mary, Mary. She was pretty much all he reflected on. He’d spent the night pacing downstairs before climbing up to his bedroom only to stand gazing at it in horror. This was a man’s room. It was only ever intended for him. Somehow he would have to make it more Mary friendly. Assuming of course, Mary had any intention of coming back up there.
Ben drank his tea and heard his name called from the gate next door. He realised he’d just spent the best part of five minutes discussing his mental anguish with the mimosa tree. He turned and walked to the gate.
“Hey, hi! Mary! How are you this morning?” he asked, still anxious that he might have overstepped the mark the night before.
“I’m wonderful, thank you. So are we going to the beach today? I’ll be ready in fifteen or so. We’ll be going on our own. Mom is going to have a slow ride to town on her bike later I think.”
“Yes! Yes, of course. Good. Give me a shout when you’re ready. Say hi to your mother for me,” Ben replied, smiling widely.
Mary was soon sat on her bicycle alongside Ben at the front gate both waving to Lillian, who’d chosen to take the lazy day option and was still in her bed robe as she waved back at them.
They took their time as they made their way down to the crossing of the main road. Today it was peaceful and they were soon on the other side and riding down the quiet lanes again. Ben took them on a detour and Mary was quick to point out they’d gone the wrong way.
“Nope, we’re going somewhere different today. That’s why we brought a picnic. A prettier beach near the nature reserve but not so many people. You’ll love it, trust me,” Ben said, allaying Mary’s worry about getting lost. He knew she’d done enough of that lately.
Not much further they came to a small bar and restaurant. Outside sat a few locals enjoying an early beer and in a field beside the bar, more locals enjoying a game of boule. They cycled past, returning the waves of the boule players and then on to a narrow winding, sandy, rock strewn track that headed towards the sea.
“That looked a nice place, have you been before?” Mary asked as they cycled on.
“They do great chicken. We’ll call in on the way home,” Ben replied as he directed them down a still narrower path that led onto the beach.
Mary gasped as she looked around. The sea was clear as crystal and not too far out the waves were breaking on a sandbar leaving the waters close in calm and perfect for paddling. Rather than the hustle and bustle of the beach before, this one had only the nature reserve around it and flocks of flamingos gathered in some of the pools that were formed to collect salt.
“Oh, Ben, this is paradise. How come there are so few people?” Mary asked.
“People seem to like to have
everything to hand these days, even in paradise. That and it means parking the car way back at that bar we rode past. Some folk can’t walk a few feet without getting out of breath. We get the place more or less to ourselves,” Ben answered.
A few sun umbrellas dotted the beach. Beach blankets and towels were spread here and there but Ben was right. Only those determined enough would make the effort to come here.
Ben spread out a large beach blanket and unfurled the beach umbrella before he gestured Mary to it.
“Here you don’t need to feel too self-conscious, right?”
He didn’t need to say anything. Mary had already stripped down to her bikini bottoms and was staring at him with a bottle of sun tan oil in her hand.
“Well? You don’t want me to burn them do you? Best get some of this on me,” she teased, jiggling her breasts at him with a laugh. Gone was that pure, shy girl from the mountains, in her place a woman that knew what she wanted.
As Mary stretched out on the blanket, Ben worked oil into her body, enjoying every moment as he caressed and stroked her. She was without a doubt, beautiful, and he never wanted the moment to end.
There were people around them, but that didn’t stop him from blocking her from their view as he stroked her. She looked up at him, totally innocent, but full of desire. She was sexy; a mix of pure and sultry that was appealing in a way he’d never experienced before.
His fingers brushed over her nipples, causing Mary to moan his name. He looked down at her, propped up on his elbow, and couldn’t resist kissing her. Their lips came together, an exploration at first, before passion kicked in and they forgot they weren’t alone.
Ben’s fingers found her oil-slicked nipples again, teasing her until her hips came up from the blanket they were resting on.
“Ben, oh baby, don’t stop.” Her pleas didn’t fall on deaf ears and he slid a hand down her slick stomach, down to her bikini bottoms.
She broke away from his kiss as his fingers found her damp heat, and the one place that would give her relief. Her fingers dug into the sand as his lips closed around a tight nipple.
Music came to him from across the sand, and he glanced up to see the other couple had repositioned their umbrella, their legs entwined. They weren’t the only ones letting the sun and heat impact them.
Ben smiled to himself, pleased at the whole situation, but more pleased with Mary, her hips moving in rhythm with his hand as he stroked her clit. She was so responsive, so easy to please, to stoke into a flame.
He watched the sun play over her skin, so beautiful and silky, and he inhaled her scent, wanting nothing more than to bury himself deep inside of her. Later, he promised himself, later when they were alone and he had her to himself.
For now he contented himself with grinding into her hip as she moved beneath him, her body now quivering, small tight gasps breaking from her throat as her stomach rippled with the pleasure she was experiencing.
“Ben, fuck, Ben.” Her fingers splayed in the sand before clenching again as he heard her stop breathing, her head going back as the ultimate pleasure tore through her.
“That’s it baby, come for me. Let me see it. Fuck, you’re beautiful, Mary. That’s it baby, come on my fingers.” He stroked the throbbing organ between her nether lips, waiting for her body to relax but she kept gasping, writhing.
Ben let her ride it out, his tongue laving at her nipple until her back arched and collapsed against the sand and she lay there, breathing heavily.
“Just rest now, baby. Let that play over you.” He fell beside her, wondering how the fuck he was going to ride home with a hard on.
Lillian had smiled to herself as she watched Mary and Ben ride away. This, she had decided, was exactly what Mary needed, and having heard Ben’s sad story, it was what he needed to. Mary was a good and kind girl. Not wealthy and not as well travelled as Ben, but good and kind.
Today, Lilian would have her own adventure. A bicycle ride to town alone. She would order a coffee and hopefully some food and do it on her own. She was confident that somehow she would communicate to these fine Portuguese people.
Lillian set off down the lane on her bicycle, nervous to be doing it on her own but full of excitement. She took her time and eventually came to the busy crossing. Waiting for a gap she hurried across onto the quiet lane on the other side. She’d done it. The hardest part of the trip, she thought. With that under her belt, ordering coffee would be a breeze.
She cycled into the little fishing village and not too far from the plaza she parked up her bike and locked it to a street light. Looking around, she realised she was spoiled for choice as there were so many cafes and bars to choose from. Over in a corner of the square she saw a couple about her age, sat drinking coffee and gossiping. Beside them was an empty table. Perfect, she thought. She won’t look too alone sat next to other people and they might even make conversation. Lillian knew a lot of the locals spoke English. She hurried over and sat down before anyone else could grab the table.
She picked up the menu and looked at the couple at the table next to her. She smiled and nodded and said “Ola!” and went back to studying the menu.
The two people beside her smiled back she noticed. “They obviously think I’m a local,” she thought. The man, she noted, was large. Very large and already sweating in the early sunshine. He wore a straw hat he’d obviously bought from one of the shops on the sea front and a thin striped cotton, short-sleeved shirt. He had the regulation khaki shorts and sandals. He was constantly removing his hat to wipe his head and brow with a handkerchief. The woman with him, Lillian assumed must be his wife, was a petite lady in a floral light summer dress. She too was sporting a floppy straw hat and sunglasses but looked significantly happier to be in the warm sunshine.
“You wipe that brow one more time, Chuck, and you won’t have no damn brow left to wipe,” the woman said, nudging the man beside her and smiling at Lillian.
“Sorry, Edna. Just feeling it a bit today is all,” the man replied with a tired voice.
Lillian’s head shot up and she turned again to look at the couple.
“Pardon me, but are you people from America?” Lillian asked with hope. It would be so nice to hear other American voices!
“We are indeed ma’am. Richmond, Virginia. And where might you be from? I’m guessing not too far away by the accent?” the man said.
“I’m from a little town in West Virginia. You won’t have heard of it. A coal town called Berwind,” Lillian replied smiling happily. Real, honest to God, Americans!
“Yep, that sure is coal country there,” the woman added, nodding along with her husband.
“Chuck Vogelsang. This is my wife Edna. And who might you be and how in the heck did you end up here? If I might ask, of course,” Chuck said extending his hand to Lillian.
“Lillian Montgomery. A pleasure to meet you, Chuck, and a pleasure to meet you too, Edna,” Lillian said. “I’m here with my daughter for a vacation. It was supposed to have been her honeymoon trip but things didn’t go as planned. So here we are. Four thousand miles away and sitting next to a couple I could drive to back home,” she laughed.
Edna and Chuck laughed too. “Yup, sure is a long ways to be going to meet your neighbours, that’s a fact Lillian,” Chuck said.
The waitress had been stood patiently waiting at Lillians’s table not wanting to interrupt the introductions but now she coughed and said politely, “Could I get you something?”
“A coffee please. Thank you,” Lillian replied with a smile for the woman.
The waitress disappeared back into the café leaving the three of them to drop back into their conversation.
“Well I thought that might be a bit more complicated,” Lillian said, nodding towards the café door.
“What would be?” Edna asked.
“Ordering something to drink,” Lillian said, laughing. “They do all speak very good English though. Do you speak Portuguese?”
“Well, sort of. I use a Portuguese a
ccent and then speak slowly and loudly in English. I usually get what I want,” Chuck said, laughing as he slapped his own thigh, receiving a glare from Edna.
“You talk far too loud, Chuck. Doesn’t matter what language you do it in,” Edna scolded, before cracking a smile to show she was teasing.
The coffee arrived and the three of them fell into a long conversation as if they’d known each other for years. Chuck and Edna had been coming to the Algarve on and off for quite a few years and when they weren’t here they were somewhere equally as exotic. But they loved to travel. They told Lillian tales of the wonderful places they’d seen, and gave her a full run down of what she must see and do whilst in the Algarve. Lillian was impressed, but they too were impressed with her own tales of life in the mountains of West Virginia and how brave she and Mary had been to make the trip.
Edna insisted Lillian accompany them on a stroll through the town and they took her to a little place they knew for lunch. All day they talked. Lillian was so happy to hear a familiar accent. They hadn’t been there long but already Lillian was missing her husband, and other familiar things. To hear Chuck and Edna talking was as homely as listening to the mountain creek falling over the rocks.
Lillian insisted Edna and Chuck would visit them that evening for dinner with Ben and Mary. It was a bit of an impromptu invite, but not as impromptu as the invite to Spain they extended to Lillian.
Edna and Chuck had planned a trip to Seville in the morning and asked if Lillian would like to join them. Mary too, of course. Lillian thought on it and decided that this would of course be a perfect chance for Ben and Mary to have the day to themselves again, assuming the morning had gone well for them. She hoped it had.
Mary was sat in the garden when Lillian arrived home. She had declined a ride with the Vogelsangs to make sure her bicycle got home in one piece. Chuck had offered to drive her and the bicycle, but Mary had visions of the constantly sweating man having a heart attack loading it into the car.
Boxer Next Door Page 72
