“I’ll come too.” He pushed his chair back from the table.
She did too, in surprise. “You want to visit my sister?”
“I do if that’s what you’re doing.”
He stood and Jessica followed.
She stared at him, feeling the tug at her heart intensify. He wanted to be with her? Or was that her pathetic crush twisting his words into something romantic and sweet when he simply meant that it was a way to kill some time? After all, his friends were all working.
Ben glanced at his watch. “Or I guess I could go see if Charlie’s is open yet.”
“No,” she said quickly at the reminder of the bar she’d found him in. She grabbed his hand without thinking. “No. Sara would love to meet you. But I’m not seeing her until four.”
He turned his hand over and tugged her closer to him, his eyes full of mischief.
“Gosh, how could we pass all that time?”
Jess pictured herself as a cartoon—drawn with voluptuous curves of course—melting into a multicolored puddle at Ben’s feet.
“Um…” was all she came up with.
“Just a guess,” he said turning, her hand still in his, toward the door of the coffee shop. “But you generally spend your time off cleaning your house, doing errands, working out, organizing closets, productive stuff like that, right?”
She frowned, not sure where he was going with this. “Pretty much.”
“Have you ever just blown off a day?” Ben stepped out onto the sidewalk, pulling her with him.
She followed him to his car.
“Blown off?”
Ben opened the passenger side door for her. “You know, done a ton of stuff that’s not toward any purpose and doesn’t accomplish a thing except having fun.”
“Are you implying that I don’t seem fun?” she asked. She often worried that was exactly the case.
He chuckled. “I’m sure you’re fun. But I bet you feel guilty having a good time, right? Like you should be doing something more constructive?”
Admitting that would definitely make her seem like no fun.
“There’s lots to do,” she said.
He hadn’t let go of her hand. Now he squeezed gently.
“Do you feel like you could give up some of that control and spend the day having fun with me?”
The only answer that even occurred to her as an option was, “Sure.”
It was for the good of the entire hospital after all. She had to spend the day with him now.
“Where should we go?” Ben asked as they backed out of their parking spot and headed west.
Somewhere fun. Somewhere fun. Jessica wracked her brain. “The zoo?” she finally suggested, as she saw the sign directing tourists to one of Omaha’s best attractions.
Ben sighed. “No, no, no. The zoo is too educational for what we’re talking about. No learning or expanding horizons or being a better person today. We’d probably end up having an interesting conversation about the importance of conservation efforts in the rain forest. What we’re going for is something that produces nothing worthwhile in the end.”
“A movie?”
He shook his head. “There might be a hidden moral or social message in it. Better not risk it.”
She sighed and shook her head. “I guess mindless wastes of time are going to have to be your department.”
He chuckled. “I can do that. And,” he said, looking both ways and then pulling into the left turn lane, “I have just the place.”
The funny thing was that her heart thumped when he pulled up in front of the arcade. She hadn’t played video games in years.
Her eyes were wide taking in all of the lights and colors while Ben changed bills into quarters. With the roll of coins, he also handed her cotton candy.
“No nutritional value whatsoever,” he told her. “Eat up.”
She did so, with a nearly embarrassing amount of enthusiasm.
“The rules are that you have to use every one of those quarters,” he told her. “And not only on junk food,” he added, eyeing the already half-eaten mound of pink sugar she held.
She nodded. “No problem.” She fully intended to play some games. She just didn’t know where to start.
Ben headed toward the back of the arcade while Jessica wandered up and down the aisles in between machines, checking everything out. After a few minutes of looking, she found the perfect one. Extreme Racing Star was complete with steering wheel, gas and brake pedals. She had to put her cotton candy down, so she stuffed a huge bunch in her mouth at once, then slid behind the wheel and started plugging in quarters.
The time flew by. New High Score was flashing on the screen when Ben leaned into the little car shell.
He whistled. “You have many hidden talents.”
She smiled up at him.
“But I bet you always drive the speed limit in real life, don’t you, Jess?” He smiled when she blushed.
“I’ve seen up-close the effects of careless, fast driving,” she told him.
“Working out some pent-up aggressions here, or are you a closet NASCAR fan?”
“You’re just jealous because I got the new high score.”
“Maybe,” he agreed, tugging her out of the car. “How many quarters do you have left?”
She dug in her pocket and pulled out her remaining stash. “Only two.” She was actually disappointed.
“That’s all I have left too. What do you say we play something together?”
She might not know much about mindless wastes of time anymore, but she could have easily come up with something to play with Ben.
He led her to a game she’d never seen before. “I’ve never played this one.”
“Good,” he said good-naturedly. “The object is to collect the treasure chest and, of course, not let those monsters eat you.”
“Sounds straightforward.”
They each took a control and for several minutes fought valiantly back and forth for the lead in points. They shoved playfully and gloated over the other’s mistakes. But soon it was clear that Ben was going to go from level seven all the way, leaving her far behind…the loser.
“Oh, look, isn’t that Tom Cruise?” she asked.
Ben didn’t even blink. Right, he was a guy. “I think that’s Britney Spears over there,” she tried.
“I don’t like blondes,” Ben muttered, skillfully avoiding a particularly mean monster.
She tucked her brunette hair behind her ear with a smile. But he was tough to distract. That focus made him a great doctor. As did his obviously superior hand-eye coordination.
But she had a very wide competitive streak.
She got close to him and rubbed her hand up and down his forearm.
He bit his bottom lip. Still, he had advanced to level eight.
Jessica wasn’t sure what came over her then, but she pressed closer, her breast against his bicep now.
“That’s cheating,” Ben said, without taking his eyes off the screen.
“It’s called defensive strategy,” she said. Besides she was rubbing his left arm and he was right handed.
“If it wasn’t such a nice strategy I’d argue the point harder,” he said, somehow managing to jump over two monsters as he said it.
She unbuttoned the top button of her shirt and ran her hand up his back.
“Keep unbuttoning and I’ll let you win every time,” he said, just before the orange monster ate him in one gulp.
She laughed, feeling free and something that felt suspiciously like sexy.
“Are you going to concede the game to me, or do you want to take your last turn?” Ben asked.
She left the button on her shirt unbuttoned and stepped up to the game control. “Oh, I don’t give up that easily.”
He chuckled. “Good. Because I’d like to try out some defensive strategy myself.”
Her heart rate went into double time. She wasn’t sure she could take much distraction from Ben without turning into a blathering idiot.
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“But you’re ahead by fifty thousand points and four levels,” she protested.
“And I’d like to keep it that way,” he said.
Fine. She was a competitor. She had a brother who had specialized in cheating and distracting in order to win even a simple game of checkers. She had to focus on the game and not let Ben get to her. Which was a great plan for winning the arcade game, but also for not letting Ben realize his influence on her. For that matter, it would be good to prove to herself that he didn’t affect her that much.
She pressed the button to start her round and was thirty seconds into the game when she felt Ben move in behind her. He braced his hands on the game console on either side of her hips and took a long slow breath near her right ear.
“You smell so good,” he said huskily.
Jess felt his body touching hers from her upper back to her derriere.
Autopilot and superb physical reflexes were all that kept her from being obliterated by the purple monster.
Ben kissed the side of her neck where it curved into her shoulder and she somehow continued to play simply because she was afraid he would stop if the game ended. His hands moved to her hips and pulled her more firmly back against him. Delicious sensations licked every nerve ending in her body—though some more than others.
She miraculously executed a brilliant move that took her to the next level and Ben evidently decided to pull out the big guns. His right hand moved from her hip to cup her right breast.
She sucked in a surprised gasp, and as his thumb flicked over the instantly pert tip, she didn’t even care about the bright yellow monster that gobbled her character up in one bite.
The Sorry, you lose music played for a few seconds before Ben pulled away. “Okay, my male ego is restored. I like this game and I’m obviously good at it.”
She whirled around, embarrassment burning her cheeks. “That was a dirty trick.”
He laughed and failed to step back. “A dirty trick that you started.”
She frowned. He was right. Dammit. She was never that easily distracted. “It seemed like a good idea,” she said.
“It was a good idea,” Ben assured her. “I’ve been wanting to feel you up since I saw you half-naked in my bathroom this morning.”
“I… But…” she spluttered, turned on, shocked and well, turned on.
“How about a batting cage?” he asked.
“You probably won’t get a chance to feel me up if I’m holding a big wooden club,” Jessica grumbled. But she hadn’t minded it at all and Ben knew it.
“Then we’ll go to the climbing wall,” he announced.
She glanced at her watch. “I have somewhere I have to be in a little over an hour.” She was surprised by the intensity of her disappointment. She’d never been disappointed to go to her volunteer job before.
“So, let’s go there.”
“You want to come?”
“As long as you’re going to be there, I can’t see why not.” He bent his knees and looked directly into her eyes. “Unless it’s the hospital.”
She rolled her eyes. “I’ve got the point already.” But she did want to take him with her. It might be good for him. Not to mention a great way for her to spend more time with him. “Let’s go,” she said.
“Name the place.”
Twenty minutes later they pulled up in front of the Bradford Youth Center.
“I don’t suppose it’s a coincidence that this place has your last name?” Ben asked.
She smiled as she shut the car off and reached for the door handle. “No. It’s named after my father. He started it up and we used his life insurance money to add a huge addition and a bunch of programs after he died.”
Ben got out and followed her up the front walk. “You spend a lot of time here?”
She nodded. “My sister, Sara, is the administrator. She’s got a degree in social work. Sam and I both volunteer time here and run programs. So do a few of our friends and a couple of Dad’s friends.”
“I’m impressed,” Ben said. “Not surprised, but impressed.”
Jessica led him through the front doors and down the hall immediately to the right. She knocked on the doorframe as she turned into the first room on the left.
Ben heard a female voice say, “Hi, Jess,” as he stepped in behind Jessica.
Jessica gestured to the pretty woman standing at the desktop copier gathering the pages the machine slid onto the tray in front of her. “This is my sister, Sara.”
“Hi, Sara,” Ben greeted the woman he’d heard so much about from Sam.
“Hi.”
When Sara smiled Ben saw the resemblance between the sisters, but on first glance they didn’t seem to look much alike. Jessica had rich brunette hair, with reddish gold streaking through it. It was thick and straight.
Sara on the other hand had long, blond hair that coiled perfectly like the long ribbons his mother used to curl by pulling the scissors along them quickly.
She had a sweet air about her. Some of it was perhaps the ten years that separated the sisters, but Ben knew from things Sam had told him that some of it came from Jessica having worked hard to keep Sara innocent and protected, while Jessica dealt with all of the burdens after their father had died.
“Sara, this is Ben. He’s…”
Ben turned toward her with interest. He wanted to hear how Jessica chose to explain who he was and what he was doing here with her.
“He’s a doctor at St. Anthony’s,” Jessica said. “And a friend of Sam’s.”
Ben waited for four heartbeats, while Sara looked from him to Jessica and back.
“I’m also the man who is going to be sleeping with your sister,” he said, extending his hand toward Sara.
Sara looked surprised, then amused, her smile wide as she took his hand. They both ignored Jessica’s outraged gasp.
“Well, thanks,” Sara said. “Sam keeps saying that’s what she needs.”
Ben laughed, instantly liking her. Not that it should have surprised him. Sara was more than Jessica’s little sister. Jessica had raised her, after all.
“Sara,” Jessica said tightly.
Sara rolled her eyes. “See, this is how it always works. I tell her what Sam has said or done and I get yelled at.”
“Sa-ra,” Jessica said again, firmer and louder.
“Is he lying?” Sara asked, turning to her sister.
Jessica’s mouth opened but nothing came out.
Sara propped a hand on her hip and tipped her head, unconcerned by Jessica’s sudden inability to utter a syllable. She smiled. “That’s definitely not a denial.”
Ben kept from laughing but could see why Sara was enjoying this. The look of frustration on Jessica’s face was great. Jessica Bradford, in control, bossing everyone else around all the time, didn’t get that look easily.
“We haven’t slept together,” Jessica said. “Not that it’s your business anyway.”
“Yet,” Ben inserted.
Sara laughed. “I’m sorry.”
Jessica frowned hard. “He’s fine.” Then shook her head. “I’ve got to talk to Sam about his influence on you.”
Anxious to direct the conversation away from her sleeping with Ben, she moved toward the door. “I’m going to show Ben around the center.”
She simply didn’t talk about guys and sex and stuff like that with Sara. It was amazing that Sara was as innocent as she was with Sam for a brother. But Sam took protecting her as seriously as Jessica did. Having her mom walk out and her father die suddenly, all before she was ten years old, was enough to deal with.
“Sara seems great,” Ben said as they stepped into the hallway.
Jessica grimaced. “Except for the delight she and Sam get from having her say things that shock me.”
Ben put his hand at her back and she wanted to stop and lean into him. She knew she couldn’t act on all of the things Ben stirred up in her body and imagination, but that didn’t mean they’d gone away.
“S
ara is a compliment to you,” Ben said, ambling along beside her, his hand on her back seemingly just to touch her.
Jessica looked at him quickly. “What do you mean?”
“From what you and Sam have told me about your past and your dad and everything, I know that how Sara turned out has a lot to do with you.”
She couldn’t sleep with him, but wow, when he said stuff like that, how was she supposed to resist throwing herself into his arms?
“Thanks,” she said past the tightness in her throat.
Ben smiled down at her as he pulled the door in front of them open. “It must have been tough.”
“Becoming a mother to a girl right after her father was killed and just before she became a teenager? Yeah.” Jessica laughed. “Tough is one word. But I had to do a good job.” Jessica bit her bottom lip. That had sounded pretty dumb.
“You wouldn’t have done anything less than a good job,” Ben said matter-of-factly as they stepped into the game room.
Jessica recognized that Ben was complimenting her but it hit her that this was who Ben thought she was. It would be, because this was who she wanted people to think she was. With Ben, though, she wanted him to know the real her, and this woman she’d put on for ten years was only a small part of that.
But would he like the real her?
He thought she was the type to step in, take over and do a great job. He had no idea that simply making breakfast for Sara and getting her to school on time had taken Jessica a month to master. Bigger things, like remembering to pick her up after Girl Scouts and pay the mortgage on time, had taken longer.
And that was only the beginning of the things that would shock Ben about her.
Chapter Four
Jessica was turning out to be more than just a great body.
Ben wasn’t sure that was a good thing. Of course, he already knew that she was a fantastic nurse. The best he’d ever worked with, in fact. He would have been blessed to have had her in Africa. Jessica would have been able to stand next to him and do the job under even those sometimes horrible conditions. And she would have appreciated the moments when things clicked, like when a mother learned that keeping herself well was as important as keeping her child well; when a child finally measured at the appropriate level on the growth chart; when a man successfully used a piece of equipment that would help the entire village. Yes, Jessica would have been good there.
Just Right: The Bradfords, Book 1 Page 8
