by Lexi Ryan
“Maybe because she didn’t come to you an empty shell.” Ben set his jaw. He needed to be kind to this woman, but her assumptions that Reese even needed that ridiculous program got under his skin. “Reese is plenty sexy.”
Halie crossed her arms. “Of course she is. I wouldn’t bother if I didn’t believe that. But she doesn’t believe it. Not yet.”
Ben didn’t reply. It wasn’t like he was going to tell her about having Reese up against the wall, panting in his ear. He wasn’t going to share that Reese had seemed pretty damn secure in her own appeal while he’d be been whispering dirty words and fucking her with his fingers.
Halie pulled a set of keys out of her purse and jangled them in her closed fist. “I’m taking a risk if I put you on this renovation.”
“You won’t regret it.”
“If I do this, it would be to help your business move into new territory.” She held the keys out to him.
Ben took them, cautiously.
“In return, I’d like you to help my business.”
There it was again—that feeling that he didn’t want to be part of this conversation, that this woman was dangerous and conniving.
“Would you be willing to do that?”
Ben gripped the keys until they bit into his palm. He crossed his arms. “What do you have in mind?”
Her smile was slick and cold. “Nothing you haven’t already been thinking about.”
He set his jaw. She wouldn’t.
“Reese just needs a little push. A night with the man she’s been pining after for years? That could be the perfect solution.”
He tossed the keys back to her, and she snatched them from the air. “I appreciate the opportunity to take the job, but I keep my personal life and business life separate.”
“Just think of it as me giving you permission to do something you want to do anyway.”
“I don’t need your permission for anything.”
She raised a brow at that, then placed the keys on the counter and walked away.
The slam of the front door echoed through the house. The damn keys stared at him.
His jaw ached from clenching it. His body ached from wanting Reese.
And Halie McCormack had just fucked up everything.
His cell rang.
“Hawk,” he answered shortly.
“Hey, you.”
Ben closed his eyes at the sound of her voice, soft and sexy and—Hell, if those two words could be suggestive, hers were. “Reese.”
“I was getting ready to leave the office for the night. Want to know what I’m wearing under my skirt?”
Stifling a groan, he scooped Halie’s keys off the counter. “You know I do.”
“I’m planning to come over and let you find out.”
He felt like he was being backed into a corner, and he hated Halie for it. “Listen, work’s been crazy today. Think we could put it off another day?” The excuse rang hollow to his own ears, and he winced at the long silence on the line.
“You sure it’s just work?” her voice had gone from warm and sultry to cool and insecure. “Not…something else?”
Ben squeezed the keys and they bit into his palm. “It’s just work.” And that was true on one level, wasn’t it?
What could he do? Tell Reese that Halie was blackmailing him into seducing her? Make Reese doubt everything that had happened between them? He couldn’t do that. When they were together, he couldn’t have Reese thinking, on any level, that it had anything to do with Halie, her program, or the future of Hawk Construction. None of that mattered. He just wanted her. Plain and simple.
“Do you still want me to come over tonight?” she asked quietly.
Yes. “Come Monday,” he said. He’d track Halie down at her office Monday morning, tell her what she could do with her little deal. Then he’d be free to be with Reese.
There would be other jobs. Other opportunities. Maybe not like this, but they’d be there. Eventually.
Silence stretched between them, long and tense. “What are you afraid of Ben?”
“I’m not afraid. I care about you. I want to do this right.”
“I care about you too,” she said, her voice far away.
He slid to the floor, squeezing his eyes shut against the frustration and anger boiling inside him. He swallowed it down and it burned in his gut.
“Monday,” she said softly.
“Monday.”
She took a breath. “Listen, you know you can tell me if you’ve changed your mind. If you don’t want this.”
He flinched. “Reese.” He couldn’t blame her for doubting him. “Monday night, I’m going to get you naked. I’m going to make you come again, and this time when I do it, I’m going to be inside you.”
She moaned softly. “Monday,” she repeated.
Then he heard the click as she disconnected the call.
“Damn it!” He chucked the keys at the opposite wall. The clang echoed through the empty house as he buried his head in his hands.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Reese stared at her phone and wondered for hundredth time that weekend if Ben would call. If he’d change his mind. She thought about sending him a text. Maybe a suggestive picture. She narrowly resisted the urge.
It was Saturday evening. She could go for a drink. She could watch a movie. Maybe Trish wanted company?
But she didn’t want to do any of those things. She wanted Ben.
Monday, he’d said. But she didn’t want to wait.
“I’m ready to take the life I want,” she said softly. And as she found her keys, she knew Halie would be proud.
***
The first thing Ben heard when he walked in his front door Saturday night was the mechanical whir of his jetted tub. He closed his eyes against the ache the sound shot through him—everything he wanted and everything he couldn’t have just beyond his bedroom doors.
She was here. In his tub. Relaxing or extending an invitation?
He unbuttoned his shirt and wandered toward the bedroom. He had to stay away. He wouldn’t let Halie use him in some power play. Even if Hawk Construction needed the job. Even if he wanted Reese more than anything.
Two steps into his bedroom and he froze. The bathroom door sat open, filling the room with the sounds of rushing water.
He’d promised, hadn’t he? “If you left the door open...”
His hand trembled slightly as he reached the final buttons on his shirt. He took a step toward the bathroom, his feet moving of their own accord, then he forced himself to back up.
Water sloshed and he pictured her moving beneath the bubbles. Was she touching herself? Sliding her hands along slick skin? Teasing hard nipples with her fingers?
His cock pulsed hard at the image, and his hands itched to touch, to take.
At his side, his cell buzzed, someone calling.
He brought it to his ear, eyes never leaving the open door. “Hello.”
“Ben?” Her voice was soft. “You’re avoiding me.”
He squeezed his eyes shut, swallowed hard. “I don’t want to be.”
“Prove it.”
“What?”
More shifting water. “You want me?”
“Yes.”
“Prove it.”
He chucked his phone across the room.
Two steps and he was in the bathroom looking at her—flushed cheeks and shy smile, hair piled on top of her head in a loose ponytail. As soon as his eyes met hers, he knew he was done for.
Did it make any difference? He wasn’t taking the contract. Being with Reese would have nothing to do with Halie.
“I’m not going to let you push me away,” she said softly, her breasts rising from the bubbles with her deep inhalation.
“I wasn’t trying to.” God, she was gorgeous.
“No?” She trailed her hand over her collarbone, then parted the bubbles as it drifted between her breasts and into the water. Lower.
He let out a slow breath. “Reese—”
He could turn away, but he knew he wouldn’t. Pandora’s box had been opened and he wanted what was inside.
He crossed to her. “We should talk.”
“Mmm,” she said, “yes, I definitely like it when we talk.” Her fingers went to his waistband and popped the button, unzipped his fly. That task complete, she peeled his jeans and briefs down his hips in a single tug that left his cock exposed and jutting out hard and thick and inches from her lips.
“I never got to do this,” she murmured, eyes flashing to his.
“Reese—”
She leaned forward, laved the underside of his cock with her hot tongue.
Ben’s breath left him in a rush. “Jesus.”
She gave an impish grin and dragged her tongue along the length of him again—tasting him, wetting him, teasing him.
Cupping his balls in her hand, she opened her mouth and slid it over him. Just the head at first with soft, teasing kisses that had him fisting his hands with need. Slowly, she opened, pulled him deeper, increased the pressure, the suction.
He slid his hands into her hair, not guiding her, not moving her, just wanting to touch her, to feel closer to her.
She moaned—a long, slow sound that vibrated against the sensitive head of his dick.
“Reese.” He slid his hands into her hair now, wanting more, planning where he’d put his hands and his mouth.
She pulled back, then moved her mouth over him again, sucking him hard and taking him deep. The movement ripped a groan from his chest. He knotted his hands in her hair.
“God, that’s good.” He eased her back, struggled to even his breathing.
Swollen lips, flushed cheeks, dark eyes, she was a fucking dream.
How had they gone so long without it coming to this? The tension between them had been a dance. Pulling them together. Pushing them apart. And she was right. He’d been afraid. He felt it now, making him want to bolt even as he wanted to take her in his arms.
“I want you, Ben.”
Something ached in his chest at those words, as if only her saying them could make him realize how long he’d waited to hear them.
She stepped out of the tub, hitting the switch on the wall and silencing the jets. As she closed the space between them, his cock pressed into the soft flesh of her belly.
He needed to touch her, to give to her, to have her under his hands and mouth. He’d spent the last twenty-four hours avoiding the sinking feeling that Halie’s visit had placed them on a precarious edge, that he could lose Reese at any moment.
He needed to wash away that fear with the taste of her.
“Is this—” He forced himself to ask the question. “Is this one of your steps?”
She stared at him for a moment. “Are you serious?” She turned and walked away. She was naked, wet, her round ass red from the heat of the tub, and she was walking away from him.
Fuck. He’d screwed this up.
He pulled up his jeans, zipping them before following her.
But when he stepped into his bedroom, she wasn’t covering herself or sitting in the corner with crossed arms.
She was spread out on his bed, staring at the ceiling, her fingertips skating across her hipbones.
She pushed herself up on her elbows to look at him. “Does it matter? Do you need to tell yourself you’re helping me? Do you need to believe this is part of the program?”
He sat next to her on the bed and skimmed his fingers across her collarbone, down between her breasts. At her shiver, he ran his fingers to her breast, cupped the weight of it in his hand. He lowered his mouth and flicked her nipple with his tongue before drawing it into his mouth.
She gasped. Moaned. “Tell yourself whatever you need, Ben. Just fuck me.”
He met her eyes. Just fuck me. God, he wanted to. And he would. Consequences be damned, he couldn’t walk away from her like this. Hot. Naked. Sweet. Begging. “I want the truth.”
She swallowed, arched into his touch. “There’s no step.”
“Good,” he growled.
“You’re okay with that?”
“Hell yes.” He let his gaze drift over her. “Spread your legs for me.”
She parted her thighs obediently, exposing herself to him little by little.
“More,” he commanded.
Again, she obeyed, and he ran his hands over her torso, down her sides, thumbs sweeping over her stomach and moving back to her breasts. She gasped at his touch, arching into it.
When he lowered his mouth to hers, he poured everything he had into the kiss. The fear, the hope, the years-caged potent longing.
She slid her hand into his open shirt and ran them over his abs, his chest. When she dipped them low again, her fingers slipped into his waistband and brushed the head of his dick.
He hissed. “God, Reese.” He buried his face against her neck, taking in her scent—that floral smell of her soap and shampoo.
She wrapped her hand around his cock and stroked. “I can’t tell you how many times I’ve thought about getting you in my hands.”
The words whipped something wicked and hungry through him, and he sucked at her neck, his need nearly violent with its intensity.
Reese gasped. Ben held her steady as he moved down her body, reluctantly escaping her grasp, but needing to taste her. He sucked lightly at the skin at her waist, ran his tongue around her navel, scraped his teeth across one hip bone, the other.
When he pulled back to look, his heart was pounding.
He settled his hand between her legs. “Let me kiss you here.”
At her sharp inhalation, he lowered his mouth to her parted legs, ran his tongue over the swollen lips of her sex, tasted her again for the first time in six years. He licked her, sucked at her hot slick folds of flesh until her hips rolled and her whimpers grew louder.
“Ben,” she cried, her hands in his hair, her hips bucking against his mouth. “Please.” She tugged at his hair, repeated, “Please.”
He groaned. He needed hours—days—with her naked body, listening to her moan as he touched, kissed, sucked. But he couldn’t deny that plea.
He shucked his pants and shirt while watching her. Her eyes dark with want, her dark hair splayed over the pillow. He kept his eyes on her as he searched for a condom in the nightstand.
Something hard and hot knotted in his chest, and he pushed back the irrational fear.
Her tongue darted out to wet her lips as he rolled the protection down his thick shaft.
He lowered himself carefully over her and settled between her thighs. “Tell me what you want, Reese.”
“I want you, Ben. Inside me. Please.” She lifted her hips, notching his cock against her slick heat.
He stared into her eyes as he slowly entered her.
His chest tightened with emotion. She was tight heat around his cock, and he gritted his teeth, forcing himself to take it slow, to give her body time to stretch.
Her nails dug into his shoulder blades and she brought up her knees. “Deeper.”
With a ragged gasp, he obeyed, watching her face, listening to her soft moans as he filled her. And as he moved inside her, his hands framing her face, memorizing every flash of pleasure, he understood something. He knew why he’d been so damn scared. This wasn’t just sex.
This was making love.
Pleasure coiled, tightened and spiraled, deeper and higher all at once. Sex had never felt like this. She curled her fingers into his back, fisted them in his hair.
When he felt her edging closer to orgasm, he put his mouth against her ear. “I love having my dick inside you. I love tasting you on my lips.”
She gasped, bucking under him at his words. And as she came, he thought, I love you, but he didn’t say it. Instead, he buried his face into her neck, lost himself in her scent, and followed her.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Reese vaguely registered a shrill sound.
> Ben kissed the crook of her neck. “Do you need to get that?”
Slowly, her brain resumed a few basic functions. Her cell. Ringing. “What’s the number?”
Ben grabbed the phone off the nightstand. He raised a brow as he looked at the display. “My brother.”
She took the phone and connected the call. “Hello?”
“Reese, are you okay?”
“I—I’m good.” Half naked with your brother. “You?”
“Well, I was pretty good, and then I went to pick up my date. I think she’s standing me up.”
Ben was eyeing her.
Reese stood. She couldn’t sit naked on the bed with Ben while she talked to his brother. She ran a hand through her hair. “I’m so sorry, Mark. I completely forgot.”
“Need to cancel?”
Jaw hard, Ben pushed himself off the bed.
“Rain check?”
“Sure,” Mark said. “Unless you still want to see that movie. I could come get you. Where are you?”
“I’m—” She looked at Ben. Telling Mark where she was would just add insult to injury. “No, don’t come. I’ll make it up to you.”
Ben’s eyes flashed to hers, and she couldn’t mistake what she saw there for anything other than the fury that it was. His jaw ticked.
“Tomorrow?”
Reese bit her lip. “Yeah, that could work.” She met Ben’s eyes. “I’m really sorry.”
“I’ll be honest. This is the first time I’ve ever been stood up for a fake date,” Mark said. “I’ll spend the evening tending to my tattered heart, but I should be okay by tomorrow.”
She ended the call and squeezed her eyes shut. How had this even happened? She was just in one brother’s bed and supposed to be on a date with another. She was completely head-over-heels in love with one brother and the other loved her.
Love triangles were overrated.
When she opened her eyes, Ben sat at the edge of the bed, head in his hands, fingers threaded through his hair.
“So, you’re probably wondering what that was all about.”
He dropped his hands and glared up at her. “A date with Mark? Really? Is this what you two were so busy planning Thursday night?”
