The diner had been closed yesterday? Leonore made a mental note to let Kelly know this the next time the two of them met, if only to ease the girl’s worries when it came to the heartthrob Dave and that too-pretty Dawson girl.
Love was a wonderful thing, but unfortunately it came with one quite dark backside, filled with such ugly emotions as need, jealousy, desolation, and gut-wrenching pain. Knowing the dark side of love too well, Leonore wanted nothing more than to let Kelly face the lighter side for as long as possible.
“So, honey, what can I do for you?”
Candy’s lovely face was open and friendly, and Leonore knew in her heart that she could trust the waitress. They had known each other since they were children, although they’d never moved in the same circles. But where Candy might be infamous for her generosity when it came to sharing her bed, she was just as quiet when it came to secrets. And, honestly, who better to understand Leonore’s need to dress to seduce than a seductress?
“Is it about Ben?” Candy’s insight was frightening.
“Y-yes,” Leonore stuttered, caught off guard but relieved that the subject was out in the open. She desperately needed to get her problem handled, and with a deep, strengthening breath she continued, “I w-want to get out of this me, the Paul version of me, and become the real me. But I don’t know what the real me is, so I thought I could start with the Ben me… Am I making any sense?”
Candy nodded pointedly toward the booths over at the large windows. “Could that man over there be the Paul you mentioned?”
“Yes. That’s Paul.” Leonore sighed as she met Paul’s furious yet frantic eyes. He immediately turned his head, trying his best to look uninterested, but she was no fool anymore. That man was silently screaming in frenzy over where to go from here. And the best part was that she was no part of it anymore.
“I can understand that you want to get rid of that. What a ridiculous man. You know what he did when he came in here an hour ago? He tried to have Cab drive him to Boston, for nothing. Like he would do anything for a man coming in and high-hattedly demanding a chauffeur to wait at the vehicle. Cab’s a taxi driver, not a private chauffeur.” Candy shook her head with disgust. “Enough about that, though. I do get what you mean about all the different versions of you. I would erase that version of me too, if I had been anywhere close to”—she nodded toward the sour-faced Paul—“that. Now, I think a you-version is easier than a Ben-version, though. No one here knows what Ben likes. Apart from the fact that he likes you, that is. I mean, not many women can tell what to wear when locked in a cellar!”
Leonore had to giggle. Candy’s smile was so sweet and friendly, and she made everything sound so easy. She could see, in the mirror behind the counter, that Paul still stared at her, but she didn’t care anymore. He had destroyed all her belief in him, with his constant psychological warfare against her self-esteem and his brutal ending of their relationship. Instead she thought of Ben, the warmhearted knight in shining armor who generously had taken care of Granny and now extended his chivalry to her.
Memories of their hot meeting in the cellar last night put roses on her cheeks, and she bent her head to avoid Candy’s laughing eyes. “I don’t know what Ben likes, but I think I can say that he’s not much for the kind of stale dresses I currently wear.”
“Honey, no one is. Not even Jackie herself would have dressed in them to snag a man. Which means you need some schmexy lingerie.”
“What?” Leonore felt her cheeks grow even warmer as Candy leaned closer with a cheeky smile.
“It doesn’t matter what you wear on the outside, honey. If there is one thing I’ve learned about men—and I have done some thorough research in my days, you know—what a man likes is what you wear under your clothes, because that means he’s got you and doesn’t need to act the gentleman anymore. A pretty bra, trimmed with seductive lace, and matching panties. Ben’s no different. He is one sexy man, and I’m sure he would love the lacy version of you. And do you know what the best thing is? I just bought my sister a set, to joke with her later today, it being Valentine’s Day and all. But you can have it instead. You are about the same size, and I think you would look amazing in red lace.”
Red lace? “Candy, I don’t think…”
Holding up a hand, Candy effectively cut Leonore off. “You better think about what you want in life, honey. Do you want Mister ‘I’m too good for this town’ over at the windows, or do you want the best thing Barnesville can offer when it comes to a mother’s dream for her daughter?”
“Putting it like that…”
Candy lifted a bag from behind the counter and, after a minute’s rummaging, offered Leonore a small present, deliciously clad in a paper with more hearts than anyone ever should be able to stick on something that small. “Here, don’t mind the flimsy wrapping. It’s just a private joke between two childish sisters.”
“Won’t Megan mind?”
“Of course not. If I told her who is about to become one very happy man, she would probably give it to you herself. Megan looooves Ben—she thinks him better than crème brûlée. And besides, what she doesn’t know won’t hurt her.”
Leonore grabbed the small package; it rested lightly in her hand. “Thank you, Candy. I-I don’t know if I have the guts to…go through with it, though.”
“Don’t you like Ben?”
“Of course I do. Who doesn’t like Ben? He is, as you just said, better than crème brûlée. But…”
Candy cocked her head to the side. “You don’t know what he thinks about you, right?”
Leonore let out a big sigh. “I’m terrified, Candy, that he will take one look at me and say, ‘Thanks, but no thanks.’ I know he fancies me; I can tell by the way he looks at me. But is that enough? When do you know it’s something that will last and not just a spur-of-the-moment thing?”
“The same way you will know that it wasn’t just a fling but something meant to last until eternity—you throw yourself right into it. Head first. No parachute or life jacket. Life is worth living, not hiding from. If you turn your back on Ben now, you’ll lose him. He might be a bit occupied with the farm and his daughter, but face it—that man won’t have any trouble finding a woman who would love to spend the rest of her life with him.”
“I know.” Leonore felt smaller by the minute. Her self-confidence was lower than null. Crushed by a bad relationship, she didn’t believe in herself for a moment.
“Do you believe in Ben?” Candy asked, as if she could read minds.
“Yes.” No hesitation there.
“Okay,” Candy said, pointing toward the toilets. “Go and change your clothes, and I will have Cab ready and waiting to drive you out to the Emerson farm.”
The lingerie fit perfectly. As Leonore looked in the small mirror over the sink, she blushed at the hearts covering her most private parts, thin lace the only thing holding them together. With shaky hands she got dressed again, and then she headed out to the taxi waiting outside. Candy waved from behind the counter, holding up an approving thumb as Leonore left the diner.
As she settled into the taxi, she heard Paul’s voice calling out her name, but she pretended not to hear. She was done with him. Over and out.
They drove silently through the wintry landscape, the taxi driver uncommonly quiet, as if he sensed his passenger’s need to sort her overflowing mind in peace. It didn’t take long to reach the Emerson farm, and Leonore stood alone at the steps leading up to the porch, watching the taillights of the taxi disappear down the snowy road as dusk slowly settled in.
Shivering, she stepped up to the beautiful wooden door and knocked lightly at it before she had a change of heart. She heard soft steps moving closer, and then he stood there, with the warm light from the house framing him. Benjamin Emerson. The man. The myth. The legend.
Ben.
“Leonore?” He looked surprised to see her, as if he hadn’t expected her to search him out. “Come in! It’s freezing out there.”
Closing the d
oor behind her back, she paused in the small entrance to hang her cloak next to his parkas. Ben turned, walking deeper into the house, clearly expecting her to follow him, and she hid her face in his jacket, breathing in the scent of him to strengthen herself.
The kitchen was as tidy as she had left it earlier, with only a pot of what smelled like a delicious stew slowly cooking on the stove. Ben grabbed two cups from the cupboard and filled them with coffee before sitting down at the table, inviting her to sit down on the other side.
“Why are you here?” His voice was void of emotions, as he looked at her with his kind eyes.
“We didn’t get to finish our talk, in the car earlier,” Leonore said, her voice strangely steady for such a shivering soul.
Ben lifted his cup, holding it under his chin, his eyes never leaving her face. “That was him, wasn’t it? The man who turned you into such a mess.”
She forced herself to nod, aware this was not a time to lie or hold back the truth. “It was Paul Montgomery, my former fiancé.”
“What did he want?”
“Me.”
“Well,” Ben drawled with a slow smile. “Don’t we all.”
And that was all it took. The warmth of his smile melted the last of her fear. She didn’t know what this was the beginning of, a relationship or a fling, but surprisingly enough she didn’t care. Because this was Ben, and even if it would only be for a short while, she desperately wanted him in her life.
She stood and went around the table to his side, and with a slow smile of her own she placed herself in his lap and her arms around his neck. “Not me,” she whispered into his ear. “I want you.”
His hands trembled as they embraced her, pulling her closer to him.
“I hope you are certain of this,” he breathed, warming her cheek, “because I will never let you go. Not in this lifetime, or the next.”
Comfortably brazen, she leaned forward and placed her lips against his, savoring the feel and taste of him.
“Yuuuck, you two are disgusting!”
Ben chuckled as he leaned back, looking up at his dramatic daughter. “You’d better get used to it, Kelly. Leonore will be a part of our lives from now on, thank God.”
“Will she live here with us?” The girl tried to look blasé, but Leonore could sense tension in the young body.
“Maybe.”
“Will you have babies?”
Leonore’s heart pounded as the picture of herself heavy with Ben’s child came back to her, and she held her breath, waiting for him to answer.
“God, I hope so. I know I will love trying.”
“Dad!”
“Yes, sweetie?”
Kelly rolled her eyes and turned to leave the kitchen again. She stopped in the doorway, looking back at the two at the kitchen table, her lovely face serious. “I love babies.”
And with that she left them alone again.
“I think that means she’s okay with this, you and me.”
Leonore nodded, a happy lump in her throat making it impossible for her to speak for the moment. Could this be happening to her? Could she, who thought herself unworthy, be on her way into the best thing in her life?
“So…” Ben’s hands started to move over her body again. “Where were we when Kelly so rudely interrupted?”
With a little laugh, she stood and went over to the door leading down to the cellar. “You said you are going to keep me, and I know where you keep all your ladies, according to the rumors.”
His warm eyes laughed at her as she opened the door and looked down the stairs. Slowly she unbuttoned her shirt, watching how the laughter in his eyes changed as they turned hotter, burning with molten desire, as she—as invitingly as she possibly could—took off the shirt and threw it into his numb hands, revealing the sexy bra. When the skirt flew the same way, landing on his knee, she gave him a smile, echoing the fire which grew inside her as she watched his admiring gaze. Clad in just the red, lacy lingerie and silky stay-ups, she turned around and disappeared down the stairs, leaving the door open behind her, inviting him into the cellar.
Into her life.
As she reached the cellar, a chair crashed to the floor above her, and she laughed lightly as she heard Ben’s heavy steps hurry over the floor. With a husky grin he appeared at the top of the stairs, locking the door leading to the kitchen.
This time they didn’t want an unexpected guest interrupting their moment.
As he started down the stairs, he removed his shirt and hung it on the banister as he passed. When he reached the cellar floor, he was already unbuttoning his jeans, and soon they fell to the floor, followed by his socks.
It should feel awkward, really it should, standing there in the cold cellar clad only in thin, lacy lingerie, but it didn’t. In just two days the gorgeous man standing in front of her had turned her life upside down in the best of ways. He had woken her from her sleep with a kiss, forcing her to reconcile her life and what she wanted out of it.
And now she knew. Now she finally knew what she wanted.
Her heart bursting with wonderful emotions she wanted to spend the rest of her life exploring, she lifted her hand and took a step toward him, leaving the old Leonore and her ghosts behind.
“Please be my Valentine.”
A word about the author…
Mother of kids.
Writer of romance.
Addict of coffee.
www.jenniferwenn.com
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