Montana Cherries (17 page)

As his heated breath came into contact with the shell of her ear, his hand skimmed down her body at the same time. Goose bumps lit on her skin, and her breasts begged for freedom.

“Ben,” she urged. She ached to her core, but there was just enough awareness left that she understood the pain wasn’t purely from longing. She hurt from what she’d learned tonight. “I love foreplay as much as the next person,” she breathed out, “but hurry.”

When his mouth touched just underneath her ear, she purred like a satisfied cat.

“Please,” she begged.

“No hurry, babe,” he told her as he trailed over her jaw. “Not tonight.”

And though what she wanted most was to speed things up, if only to wipe the family meeting from her mind, she also wanted every single second that Ben had to offer. She was selfish that way.

He rose from the chair with her to his chest, and as he had the first time he’d carried her, he crossed the room. He put her on the bed, not bothering with the covers or lights, and simply came down beside her, refocusing on his mission.

His hands explored her body then. They skimmed over her jean-covered legs until reaching her feet, then back the way they’d come, his long fingers dipping between her thighs, taunting as his thumb traced the length of her zipper. Her body arched toward him, desperate for more, and her fingers slipped behind her back to undo her bra.

“Wait.” The word stopped her movements.

Before she could do more, Ben had both her arms stretched above her head, their palms flattened together and his body running the length of hers. His head dipped, and his mouth closed over her left breast. She surged up once again.

“Ben,” she moaned his name. “Seriously.”

She didn’t have a lot up top, but what she did have was sensitive. And with Ben’s thigh now pressing into the apex of her jeans, she began a slow grinding rhythm against his leg while his mouth laved her breast.

She wanted more. And she really,
really
wanted it now.

When he separated his mouth from her body, the air touched the damp lace at the same time that his whiskers scraped over the very same spot. She moaned uncontrollably, and squeezed her legs around his thigh.

Then he sought out her mouth.

She took the opportunity to fight back. Her arms were still pinned, so she captured his bottom lip and sucked it hard into her mouth. His hands clenched against hers, and she felt his groan roll through his body.

“Babe,” he growled the instant she turned him loose.

She answered by capturing his lip again, only this time with a nip of her teeth. He bucked against her.

“More,” she insisted. “Now. I want to touch you.”

He shook his head. “I can’t let you do that yet.” His words became breathless, and he once again sought out a breast. This time, her right one. She sighed in pleasure.

“Why not?” She thrust toward his mouth as he bit down on her, and her body shook to her toes. With his knee still between her legs, she thought she might be nearing the finish line already. Which really would be a shame. She didn’t even have her pants off.

“Because the instant you put your fingers on me,” he said, his words muffled against the lace of her bra, “I’m going to lose my mind.”

She liked the sound of that, and she knew her smile advertised her gratification. “Maybe it won’t be so bad to lose your mind,” she suggested. She wrapped both legs around his hips and pressed into his erection.

“Oh, it won’t be bad.” He grunted as he pumped himself against her, their jeans blocking his entry. “But it’ll be fast.”

She laughed then, tossing her head back and letting him feast on her body. “This, Ben. This is what I need. Your hands. Your mouth.” She sucked in a shaky breath as his lips found her neck. “Just . . . you.”

Her tone changed with her final words, though she hadn’t meant for it to. It grew serious. A bit sad. And she knew Ben noticed. He removed his delicious lips from her skin to look down at her. “You okay?”

She nodded and bit her lip. She hadn’t meant to slow the moment down.

“I don’t want to do anything to hurt you,” he told her. “Ever.” He brought her hands down, clasping them to her chest. At the same time he shifted to his knees and straddled her hips. He caressed one finger from her brow to her cheek. “I would never intentionally do anything to hurt you.”

“You aren’t hurting me.”

“You’re sure?” he asked. “This is really what you want?”

She nodded again. A lump had formed in her throat, making it hard to do anything else. The blockage was partially because she was moved by his concern, but equally because she knew there was this big
thing
she was hiding from at the moment. A thing she’d have to deal with later.

But she didn’t have to deal with it right now.

Right now she wanted to feel. She
needed
to connect.

She was hiding behind the shield of sex, yes, but she was doing it fully aware. Allowing herself the temporary reprieve.

Pulling her hands free of his, she unbuttoned his shirt and slid her palms beneath the material. He sucked in air as her fingers connected with the heated ridges of his skin. Enjoying the moment, she took her time tracing the outline of his muscles.

When she scraped a thumbnail over his nipple, he shuddered above her.

“I’m supposed to be touching you,” he ground out. But she noticed that he didn’t hinder her movements.

“No one said you couldn’t touch me,” she taunted. She tweaked his nipple and silently dared him to replicate the move on her.

He accepted her dare, and within seconds he had her bra off and her breasts bare.

Their movements remained slow. Her mapping out his chest, pushing his shirt off his shoulders, and roaming her palms down his equally strong arms. While he took his time cupping and squeezing and pinching until she was coiled tight.

She liked this man’s hands on her. And she liked the look of awe in his eyes as he touched her. He treated her—then and now—as if she’d given him a prize to be cherished. And that meant the world to her.

“Lock the door, Ben.” At his hazy look, she added, “My brothers are in the other room.”

“Ah, geez.” He reared back, but she caught his wrists and put his hands back on her chest. She covered his fingers with hers. “We’re not stopping,” she told him.

“Your brothers will kill me if they find out.”

“Then we’ll be quiet.” She stared at him. “But we’re not stopping.”

She didn’t break eye contact as she squeezed his long fingers with hers, causing him to simultaneously tighten around her breasts. With the action, she surged into his hands once again, and he groaned in response. He nodded in capitulation. “We’re not stopping,” he agreed.

When he rose up off her that time, she knew he would be back. He headed for the door, and she tucked her arms beneath her head, taking the opportunity to feast in the glory of this man.

His chest was broad and strong, his back matching the front. And his shoulders looked lethal. The indentations at his waist, though, the ones that disappeared ever so temptingly right into the front of his jeans . . . they made her bold.

“Take off your pants,” she instructed after he locked the door.

Her words stopped him, and then he smiled. It was that slow torturous movement of his lips that caused her to press her legs together every single time she saw it. His fingers went to his zipper.

“I like that smile,” she told him.

“And I like you in my bed.” The rip of the zipper sounded in the quiet room, and she touched her top lip with the tip of her tongue. But he didn’t do anything more.

“Jeans, Hollywood,” she whispered hoarsely. “Off. Now.”

And off they came.

He stood ten feet from her, his erection behind the black cotton of his briefs, but the material most certainly did not hide anything. He was a big man, and the sight of him made her mouth water.

“Your turn,” he told her. He didn’t come back to her, just eyed her jeans, and she noticed that his breathing was as sketchy as hers.

She complied by inching her zipper down before lifting her hips off the bed and purposefully shimmying to get the denim to her thighs. His Adam’s apple moved as he watched, so she let her fingertips slide ever so slightly between her thighs.

“Dani.” His voice was as heavy as hers.

“Yes?” She kicked off the jeans, and lay there in nothing but a tiny pair of panties.

“You’d better be ready, woman.” He picked up a duffle and rummaged around inside. “Because you’ve just pushed me across the line.”

“I never did like those lines,” she told him.

He tossed the bag aside and took a condom from the box he’d pulled out.

Then his teeth and fingers dragged her underwear down her legs, her hands shoved at his briefs, and somehow, one of them rolled a condom down over the very masculine part of him that she was so
very
interested in.

“Oh, my,” she exclaimed faintly as she stared at him.

She lifted her eyes to his, noticing once again the look of awe that sat just behind the heat of his arousal. Then he leaned over and captured her mouth as he slid himself deep inside her body.

chapter fifteen

B
en
lay in bed two hours later, his eyes following the shadows from the branches outside his window, while he listened to Dani breathe. She lay tucked against him, same as she had since he’d pulled the covers up over them and turned off the light, but unlike the past two hours, she was now awake. He’d felt the languor of sleep leave her body about five minutes earlier, but she had yet to speak.

Of course, neither had he.

He feared breaking the silence would send her running from his room. And since he’d only just gotten her back into his bed, he really didn’t want her hurrying off.

He closed his eyes and faked sleep as he replayed the moments of making love with her.

She’d been fun, hot, and exuberant. And he’d been thankful.

But she’d also held back. She hadn’t put everything she was into it, and he couldn’t blame her. She’d found out tonight that her mother had not only manipulated her when she’d been alive, but apparently it had continued into death. Dani had been trapped in her own life, and her entire family had been aware of that fact. Yet, they’d done nothing to help her out of it.

He couldn’t imagine the emotions she had to be processing.

Then there was the fact that she’d come to him when she was hurt.

That meant something to him, but he had no idea if she saw it the same way. He did know her well enough, though, to understand that she would be having second thoughts about her actions. He just hoped she realized it had been the right move.

She shifted against him, the sheet sliding with her naked body, and he fought the urge to roll over and bury his face against her warm skin. He wanted more. Once was not enough.

“You awake?” she asked.

He tucked in his chin and looked down at her. “Yep.”

Wide eyes stared back in the moonlit room. “Have you slept?”

“Nope.”

“Why not?” She covered a yawn with her hand, and moved out of his arms, tugging the sheet up with her. After she propped herself against the headboard, he studied the cotton covering her breasts and he told himself to lie. She didn’t need to know the truth. It would only make him sound pathetic.

But he didn’t.

Because he
was
pathetic when it came to her. “Because I didn’t want to wake and find you gone,” he admitted.

He’d lain there, eyes open, waiting for her to wake up and leave his side for the past one hundred twenty minutes.

She glanced at the bedroom door, and he recognized the facts. She wanted to go.

“You having regrets?” he asked.

“No.” But she didn’t look at him. It hurt.

“Want to go for a second round, then?” His question brought her gaze to his and he smiled. When she gave no response, he let the smile fall. “It wasn’t a mistake,” he told her.

“I know. I’m just thinking.”

“Want to tell me about it?”

She stared at the closed door again, for five more seconds, then her shoulders slumped and she nodded in a way that reminded him of a child. Ben scooted over and brought her to his side—keeping that darned sheet modestly tucked around her—and wrapped her in his arms.

“She killed herself,” she stated softly.

He closed his eyes with the words. “They’re sure?”

He hadn’t stuck around long enough to hear Cord’s reasoning, but Ben couldn’t imagine that statement being made without certainty. Dani nodded again, her hair brushing against his shoulder, and the slight fragrance of her shampoo drifting to his nose. She was leaned into him so that her head rested on his chest, and she quietly began talking, filling him in on the facts of her mother’s death.

He caressed her arm as she told him the story, hoping the soothing motions would let her know she wasn’t alone in this. He would help her get through it. And when she ran out of words, Ben’s throat ached. For the first time in his adult life, he was on the verge of tears.

Dani sounded so alone, so hurt. And he had no idea how to help.

“Ever since they pointed out that I didn’t remember things right, I’ve been bombarded with memories I’d forgotten,” she said. “Some of them are horrible. And some just cruel.”

She looked up at him suddenly.

“Dad spent years sleeping in this room, did you know that?” She shook her head before he could answer.
“Of course you wouldn’t know that. But he did. I’d hear him sneak down after everyone had
gone to bed. That’s how he figured out that I was sneaking out myself.” Her words came out softer now and her gaze drifted away.

Ben didn’t say anything, because he thought she might be talking to herself as much as to him. Walking through the past now in her head.

“He was already down here, so he’d hear me going out the back door, heading to the beach. Both of us just wanted to be away from
her
. But she came after him sometimes.” She brought her eyes back to Ben’s. “She’d tell me about that. How he wasn’t a good man because she had to seduce him—her own husband—to get him to sleep with her.” Her body shivered under the sheet. “And what could I say in return? If I said anything . . .” She paused, her gaze searching his before shifting and focusing on the middle of his chest. “If I defended him,” she continued, her words now barely reaching his ears, “she got inflamed that I took ‘his side’ over hers. But if I agreed with her, she turned everything around. Suddenly he could do no wrong. How dare I say otherwise? I became the villain.”

“That was her intent.” He’d read that about narcissists. They needed to keep everyone off kilter, keep them confused. Dani’s mother had wanted the focus to be on her.

Dani simply stared at him when he spoke.

“I preferred him to be the bad guy instead of me,” she confessed, her words void of emotion. “So I kept my mouth shut, and I listened. Whenever she wanted to talk, whatever inappropriate thing she wanted to tell me. She told me about their sex life and the tricks she pulled.
How
she seduced him.” The corner of her mouth lifted in a sarcastic tilt. “No wonder I did the same thing to you.”

“You didn’t do anything to me.”

She rolled her eyes. “I did, and we both know it. Both times. But hey”—her tone turned mocking—“at least you didn’t seem to mind.”

In a quick move, Ben brought her mouth to his. He crushed her lips in a kiss filled with heat and misdirected anger. He needed her to see what was between
them
. To understand that it went beyond anything to do with her mother.

He needed to be able to fix this.

The kiss changed, though, turning slow and lingering, and he took his time tracing her mouth with his. He kept it going until they were both out of breath, both clutching at the other.

Only then did he pull back and look at her.

“
You
did nothing wrong,” he growled out. His voice was laced with both passion and lingering frustration, and he almost wished Dani’s mother were alive today so he could kill her himself. “She hurt you, and you needed
me
. That’s all. And that’s okay. It’ll always be okay.”

Dani didn’t respond and he found himself wanting to shake her.

“Believe it, Dani.”

“Ben, I’m too tired to—”

“You did nothing wrong.” Fear pulled at him for her to understand. “We all have baggage, sweetheart. We all have crap in our lives. And we deal with it the best we can.”

“You dealt with your baggage by avoiding your mother most of your life.”

“Pretty much.”

“That’s so much healthier than me.”

“Stop it,” he demanded. When she didn’t reply, he took her shoulders in his hands and got in her face. “You are not her. You are not like her. Say it to me.”

Stubbornness shone back at him.

“Say it, Dani.”

“What do you know about it? You haven’t even been here! I might be just like her.”

“You treat your niece better than her mother does. You treat my daughter better than her mother did. You run errands for anyone in town who needs it. You watch over your family like a hawk. You care about people, Dani. I hear you calling, checking up on others. I’ve seen you sad because someone is sick. I’ve seen you take them get-well baskets and balloons. Did your mother ever do any of that?”

His voice had climbed with his words, but he couldn’t change that now. He only hoped no one remained downstairs to hear them arguing. But at least Dani finally seemed to be hearing him. He could tell she was sorting through his words.

When she still didn’t answer, he did give her that shake. Just a small one, enough to bring her gaze back to his.

“No,” she finally spat out. “My mother never did anything for anybody. She pretended she did. She would tell whoever would listen what a great person she was. All the good that she did for the world. But she was evil, and she never really did anything nice. I hated her.”

Dani lowered her head with her last words, and wrapped her arms around his chest.

“And I was glad when she died,” she whispered brokenly.

His heart ached for her. “Oh, sweetheart.” He stroked her hair and held her close. “That’s okay. You had a right. And you probably aren’t the only one.”

“I’m not,” she cried. “But that doesn’t make it better.”

She clung to him then, letting hot tears fall from her eyes, and he simply held her.

After several minutes, when her sobs began to subside, he rocked them both back and forth. He wanted to do more, but also understood that this was going to be a process for her. It wouldn’t be fixed overnight, and according to what he’d read, it was something she and her entire family would deal with for the rest of their lives. All he could do was be there to help her through it.

When the last tear was shed and she lifted her face, he kissed her again. This time, there was no anger driving the move. No frustration. It was gentle and caring, and he knew that if she was paying the slightest bit of attention she would realize that it was more than a friend offering comfort. Because she was more than a friend.

But he didn’t think she could see that.

Her lips clung to his, and he let his hands slip down to her back. But the instant he touched skin, she pulled away.

“I think I’ll go to my room,” she muttered.

He could only nod and remove his hands.

He clicked on a lamp and helped her find her clothes, smoothing her hair for her when she didn’t do it herself, then walked with her to his door.

“We start picking at daylight,” she told him. The night was over.

“I’ll be ready. Haley’s looking forward to it.”

She nodded, then chewed on her lip, staring at the door instead of opening it.

“You okay?” he asked. He touched his fingers to the small of her back.

“I think so.”

“Want me to walk you to your room?’

She peeked over at his teasing words, and a soft smile curved her lips. “Something tells me you’d try to stay.”

He wiggled his brows. “I do have more condoms.”

She laughed and patted his chest. “Thanks for tonight, Ben. But no.”

Ouch.
He supposed he had been officially dismissed.

Dani opened his door and walked out of his room without looking back.