“I thought about us all night.” I forced myself to hold Ben’s gaze.
“By the look on your face, I’d say you’ve made your decision about me.” His voice wavered, as if he held back tears.
“You said I gave you a reason to fight. Well … I’ve found a reason to fight too. I love you, Ben Hathaway.” I took a deep breath. “There, I said it.”
Ben shot to his feet wearing a brilliant smile.
I held up my palm. “Not so fast, buddy, I’m not done. You’ve made a life in this office, but my life happens out there.” My head motioned toward the door. “I can’t live in this little bubble you’ve created. You asked me once what my fantasy was and I’ll give you two. The first is to do the nasty with you in the rain—don’t ask, it just does it for me. The second, and more important, is for you to hold my hand as we stroll along my parents’ front walk for Sunday night dinner. My dad opens the door and shakes your hand.” A tear dribbled from my eye before I could wipe it away. “You can’t do either of those things if you won’t even consider walking out that door.”
Ben rubbed the back of his neck and stepped toward me, but I backed up.
“I need to know you’ll be there for me when I need it, if I’m in the hospital for some reason, to hold my hand when I meet my birth mother. I don’t expect any miracles, only for you to want to try, to get yourself some help. To make sure you do that, I’ve decided to fight dirty.”
The shine in his too big eyes conveyed utter terror. “What does that mean?”
I unfolded the paper in my hands. “This is my letter of resignation. I’m just here to let you know before I give it to Cam.”
“What?” A few stuttered words tumbled out. “No! You can’t!” The panic in Ben’s eyes tore my heart in two. He closed the distance and took my face in his hands. “Please, I—”
My fingers pressed against his lips. “Come and find me, Ben. If you need counseling, fine. Do what you need to do to heal yourself, and I’ll do anything to help you. I love you, and I want to be with you. Whether we are or aren’t is up to you.” I removed my fingers and kissed his lips. “Don’t take too long. I won’t wait forever.”
Before he could react, I turned, ran out the door, and didn’t stop until I’d made it down a few flights of stairs. My breaths panted out between strained whimpers, and I took a few seconds to steady myself before searching out an elevator. I’d never hoped for anything more in my life as I did for my plan to work, for Ben to find the will to leave the security blanket of his apartment.
After spending half an hour in the washroom splashing cold water on my weary face, I strode to Cam’s office and set the letter on his desk.
Cam looked from it to me before picking it up. “What’s this?” He stood, cocked his head. “You’ve been crying.”
“I have to resign, right this second. I’m sorry to leave without notice, but I have no choice.” A fresh wave of uncertainty gripped me. What if it didn’t work? Maybe I could just forget it, live with Ben’s issues. No, Ben needed a push just as I had when he helped me face my birth mother issues. It had to be done. I whirled around and sped to my desk, rifled through the drawers for anything personal I might have left in there before I lost my nerve.
“Why, Eva?” Cam followed behind me. “Let’s talk about this? Is someone harassing you? Let me help you.”
“No.” I shook my head, stuffed my few personal items into my pocket and rushed for the door.
Cam followed me along the corridor, down the stairs, and into the lobby still holding the letter. I stopped and looked around at the large, open space. I’d miss the building, my job, and coworkers. I’d miss Ben with my whole soul, but I was right. Wasn’t I?
I turned and offered my hand to Cam. “Thanks for everything.”
“Eva, I…” He shook his head, scratched fingers through his hair. “Won’t you just talk to me for a minute? Does this have something to do with ‘B,’ the one who sent the flowers?”
I shrugged. “Doesn’t matter now. I have to do this.” I headed for the front doors, each step hurting a little more. Resigned to my choice, I reached for the handle.
“Don’t you dare touch that door, Evangeline Ross!” Brent shrieked across the lobby. “Everybody out. You heard me. Out!” Coming like a freight train, he strode toward me, waving his arms. “Security can stay, everyone else, scram. Now, people!”
I narrowed my eyes as he skipped toward me. “What are you doing? You can’t talk me out of this no matter how much he might want you to.”
His bright smile made my heart leap against my ribs. “I don’t intend to, my darling, devious little wildcat.” Waving his arms, he continued to run around, shooing people out doors, until the lobby stood nearly empty except for Cam, who came to stand beside me, and a few security guards who stood at attention close by.
What. The. Fuck.
My focus followed Brent as he disappeared into one of the elevators. He emerged a moment later with Ben in tow.
Like a complete idiot, I put my hands over my mouth and squealed, one that made Brent grin wider. Ben stood on the far side of the lobby, gazing at the surroundings for a moment as if they might eat him, before his determined stare found me.
Screw it. I ran to him. He’d come that far, the least I could do was go the rest of the way. “I knew you’d come. I knew it!”
He picked me up by the waist, swung me around, and held so tight my ribs creaked. “I’ll never let you walk away from me again. My life isn’t upstairs. You are my life, and wherever you are is my home, phobia be damned.”
I bawled like a fool.
Brent jumped on the two of us, joining in our hug. After a few seconds, he started laughing. “I think Cam’s about to have a stroke over there.”
Wiping tears, I stepped back and took Ben’s hand. “Will you come with me, or have you seen enough of the big bad world for today? No pressure. You’ve already impressed the hell out of me.”
He squeezed my hand. “I see nothing but you.” A smile that could make me forget my own name spread across his lips. “Lead on.”
I kissed him long and deep, returned his smile, and started toward Cam.
My boss stood in the middle of the lobby, mouth gaped open. He pointed a finger back and forth between Ben and me. “B. Ben.” He smacked himself on the forehead. “Christ, I’m thick. Seriously?”
Ben snatched my resignation letter from Cam’s fingers with a grin. “You won’t be needing that.”
Chapter 27
I straddled Ben where he sat on the leather seat of the limousine, and his arms encircled my waist, his warmth adding to the fire already burning beneath my short skirt. I wore no panties—the incentive Ben had asked for to help him brave his first car adventure in a decade without the aid of Valium. He’d arrived back a few days ago from the treatment facility he’d checked himself into. Six months of intense therapy had done wonders for him while his mother ran the company, but he still had some work to do. He’d become a master negotiator, and I was glad to oblige with enticements to help him brave his new world. Both of us usually came away satisfied.
Since his return, we’d spent every evening taking short jaunts outside his building, traveling a little farther each day. If too many people crowded the sidewalk, Ben would freeze and cling to my hand, but once I got him to look at me, he’d calm. Last week I’d even managed to get him into the library down the street without him having a meltdown.
“You’re doing really well,” I said in a whisper against his cheek. “I’m so proud of you.”
He nipped my chin and snickered. “With you in my lap, I can do anything.”
“Anything, huh? I like the sound of that. Where are you taking me, anyway?” I giggled and peered out the side window for the tenth time. Rain trickled down the glass and obscured my view. The instant we’d woken up that Saturday morning, he changed, as if a switch had been thrown in him. He’d made a few calls, sounding like an excited child on Christmas morning, and had ordered me d
ressed in something sexy. Curiosity was killing me.
Ben wriggled his hips beneath me, brushing fabric against my already swollen lower lips. “You’ll see.” His mouth played along my throat.
I tangled fingers into his dark curls and arched my back to give him easier access to my nether regions. “Touch me, Ben.”
My sultry command only earned me a snicker and a teasing thrust of his hips.
I moaned and brought my head forward to guilt him with my stare. “Why are you torturing me?”
“Because you’re impatient, and my torture makes you wet. It’ll be worth it.” His tongue traced my upper lip while his fingers kneaded my hips beneath the skirt. “I promise.”
The car stopped, and Eddy’s voice spoke over the intercom. “We’re here, Mr. Hathaway.”
I leaned toward the window and cupped my hands to peer out. “Ben … we’re in the middle of nowhere. How far north did we drive? There’s just trees and grass here.”
His lips brushed my ear. “Perfect, don’t you think?”
My eyebrows arched high. I turned to him with a grin. “You sly, horny little devil.” Flutters passed through my insides at the recollection of the fantasy I’d given him. “What if we get caught?”
“I promise the trees and grass won’t tell a soul.” He held his hand out to me, a naughty smirk twitching on his lips. If being out in the open made him uneasy, he’d hidden it really well.
I slid my fingers along his. Upon opening the door, we stepped out into the warm afternoon. My face rose to the light patter of rain. I closed my eyes and inhaled. The freshness of the space, perfumed with a hint of wildflowers and cut grass, drew a sigh from my lips. Yes, so perfect.
A pebbled path disappeared into a lush forest along the side of a steep hill. As Ben led me along the winding trail, I peered over my shoulder in the direction of the limo. “Does Eddy know why we’re here?”
Ben shrugged. “I didn’t tell him, but why else would a man and his sexy woman wander in the rain but to indulge in fantasy?” His tug on my hand brought me against him, boobs to chest. He leaned down, his hot breath fanning across my cheek. “If you’re thinking of Eddy instead of me, then clearly I’m not trying hard enough.”
I shuddered and molded to his damp dress shirt, explored the swell of his chest with my fingertips. My gaze sought his. “Who’s Eddy?”
His smile weakened my knees. “That’s more like it.”
At the top of the hill, we kicked off our shoes and ran through the grass hand in hand until we came to the highest point by a massive boulder and a willow tree. I spun to take in the misty view of a quaint town below, but it paled in comparison to the view of Ben.
“Come here.” He crooked his finger, teasing me forward.
I obeyed the command in his tone and shivered, but it had little to do with the rain. His fingers curled around the bottom of my shirt, and in one swift motion, pulled it over my head. My every molecule took notice with an answering twinge or tingle.
“I feel kind of exposed, Ben. Isn’t that why you asked me to wear a skirt?”
“Your demeanor changes when you wear a skirt, and I wanted to tease you in the car. If your fantasy is to feel the rain while I make love to you then the clothes must go, don’t you agree?” A skilled snap of his fingers unlatched my bra. As his fingers peeled the straps down my arms, he planted kisses along my right shoulder.
I gasped, a tremble born from deep inside rushing through me. “Yes.”
A dark chuckle. “Yes, what?”
My IQ dropped further by the second, and it took a moment for me to recall his question. Between puffs of breath, I managed to say, “Yes, I agree the clothes should go.”
“Mmm.” My skirt gave way with a tug of his hands, and I stood naked before him.
Anticipation and the cool raindrops hardened my nipples. Dampness all my own moistened my thighs.
Ben knelt in the grass, tickling fingers along the backside of my knees. Water from my hair trickled down my breasts. Ben’s tongue caught it before licking upward in one hot stroke.
A gruff moan rushed out from my core. I pulled him to his feet. With shaking fingers, I fumbled with the buttons of Ben’s shirt. I shook my hands out and stared at him. “Help me.”
With a snicker, he unhooked each button with painful slowness, revealing my playground inch by delicious inch. My mouth watered as I slid my fingers over his shoulders and pushed the shirt away, licking away beads of water that fell onto his skin from his drenched curls. His belt buckle unhitched with a yank, and the rest disappeared with his help.
Ben gripped my waist and drew us together again. His engorged cock lay pressed against my abdomen, his heat contrasting with the cool rain. In a dizzying blur, Ben scooped me into his arms, spun around, and spread me out in on the cold grass.
I shivered as his body hovered above me, lowering slowly until his lips claimed mine. My palms walked along his back, fingers splaying over his taut ass that flexed with his movements. A growl trickled from his throat.
Ben’s kisses left a tingling path in their wake, along my throat and lower, giving my breasts equal attention. I squirmed and giggled under light nibbles and licks. When he drew a nipple into his mouth, my back arched, and I cried out in surprise. I wound my fingers through his silk strands as his tongue continued its exploration of my erect nubs.
He moved lower.
“No.” I shook my head. “I just want you to make love to me.”
He flashed a crooked grin. “As you wish.”
We traded places, him lying on the soaked ground. I threw my leg over his hips, bent forward to plunge my tongue into his mouth as I gave a teasing slide along his shaft. Hundreds of wet, tickling fingers of rain danced along my back.
He uttered a long moan. “Oh mercy. That look in your eyes could set me on fire.”
I entwined my fingers with his and pushed them to the ground beside his head. “You really need to shut up now.”
He snickered and opened his mouth, but I took that moment to tilt my hips and swallow him into my body. Only a whimper passed his lips. I sat up straight and turned my face toward the sky as I rode him. Rain dropped cool kisses on my hot skin. His hands explored my breasts, gripped my hips to push harder into me. So many sensations, hands, friction, cold, hot, wet, tongue, overwhelmed me. I released a gasp, my core heating to molten proportions under his touch.
In need of his eyes, I bowed forward again, locking his stare. I slowed my movements, rising to his tip before pushing down again. His chest and thighs flexed. Warm hands slid over my ass, pressing us together harder. My breaths came short and fast, matching his. His heart competed against mine in a race to the ultimate ecstasy.
“I’m close,” I said between pants.
In a flash, he rolled me onto the frigid grass without losing a stroke. The sudden jolt started the chain reaction to Blissville. Ben kissed me, stroking his tongue against mine as he pounded harder. I drew my knees up farther, burning with a sudden desperate need to get closer, and dug my nails into his back. Needing him. All of him. My muscles coiled, and my breath stalled for seconds. A force with intensity I’d never experienced before exploded from my swollen center, tearing a scream from my lips.
Ben tensed and shuddered, belting out a cry that echoed back from the distant hills.
Covered in grass and mud, we lay locked together for a while. A lazy smile decorated Ben’s face as he brushed the damp hair away from my brow.
He rolled off, and I nestled into the crook of his arm. In the afterglow, I trembled under each touch of a raindrop on my hot skin, like another tiny orgasm on my sensitive skin.
“I like that fantasy.” Ben nuzzled my face and gave a sleepy smile. “Do you have any others?”
I laughed and circled my fingertips along his chest. “I’m afraid to tell you what they are, because you have the means and are just crazy enough to make them come true.”
His lips found my forehead, planting kisses along my brow. “I’ve prep
ared another, less naked one for this evening if you’ll allow it.”
I sat up and stared down at him, unease crawling into the background. “You—what?”
He smiled, nodded. “A call from me will have your birth mother there for Sunday dinner as well. Your parents have already given their blessing.”
My head buzzed as I stared over the country town below. “And you’ll really come with me? No negotiating?”
He brought my fingers to his lips. “Simply to make you happy is more than I ever thought myself capable of.”
Tears crested my lashes as I threw myself on top of him like a blubbering fool and kissed everywhere my lips could reach. Laughing, I rose enough to see him without going cross-eyed. “I thought I told you not to make me cry, you jerk.”
“I thought I told you I like it when you do.” He grinned and nibbled my jaw.
I sighed and laughed. “Stubborn ass.”
“Mmm. Just the way you love me.”
* * * *
Ben and I stood on my parents’ front stoop at ten minutes to six. I fussed with the navy wrap dress Ben had bought for me, swallowing to keep from throwing up.
“I don’t know if I can do this.” I shook my hands to stop their shaking. “This is so stupid. I’m thirty-five years old and I’m afraid my birth mother isn’t going to like me.”
Warm fingers tangled with mine. I followed Ben’s arm up to his face, to his confident smile.
“I’m here,” he said. Not, it’s going to be okay, or I’m sure she’ll love you. No empty promises or pretty lies. Better and better.
I squeezed his hand and took a breath as his comfort and presence filtered through me. Excitement replaced terror in the pit of my stomach. My lips perked into a grin. “Thank you for this.”
“You’ve given me my life back, and I promise to spend the rest of it making yours spectacular.”
I wrapped my arms around him, burying my face against his throat. “You’re doing a pretty good job so far.”
The End
Crossing Hathaway Page 24
