For Your Sake (37 page)

              “I want you.”

              “You can’t.”

              “I can.”

              “Really?”

              “Yeah, really Eva.”  The sweater came off and, holy shit, she never bothered with a bra, she dressed in such haste.  “Jesus, woman.”  He hissed in before his mouth took one of her tits, a relieved sound of pleasure rumbled in his throat when his tongue felt that nipple peak under it.  That shower gel – like smoky, fruity, girly something or other – was all over her. He wanted to know just how far.

              Giving her other nipple a bit of attention first, he dragged his head down her body, unfastening her jeans.  Her fingers scraped the stubble on the sides of his head as her fatigued words did their best to stop him.  “Ben…..no.  Don’t.  You can’t……I mean, you’re not supposed to be here.  I’m angry with you.  I’m so fucking angry with you that I can’t…..
oh
.”

              She arched as he slid her jeans off, leaving just her panties – ‘cheekies’ she called them.  He could care less what they were called – they were black with tiny red polka dots edged with white lace.  He’d buy her every single color and pattern if he had to as long as he could see her ass in these every day.  But now they were history, as he peeled them down her legs, slowly revealing the little patch of trimmed, dark hair covering her pussy.  He wasn’t for those intricate designs or even fully waxed and bald like a ten year old.  He liked a little bit of downiness to stroke and his fingers did just that as his head nudged her legs apart.  Again, she squirmed.  “Ben, you can’t do this…..”

              “Oh, that’s where you’re wrong, darlin’.  My specialty.”

              “No, I don’t mean you don’t know how….I mean, you can’t……
Oh!  Ben!”

             
Soft, pink and sweet as the rest of her, his tongue worked it’s magic while she went wild.  This was what she thought kept her from getting close.  He was about as close to her core as any man could get.  What the hell was he saying?  No other man would see her, taste her, suck the very essence out of her as he was doing now.  That was settled as soon as she let him in.

             
“Ben…..ah….oh….oh my God.  Oh.  Jesus, oh……”
  And then he fastened his lips around her clit and thought she would convulse
.  “Ahhhh.  OH MY GOD!”

             
His finger dug into the flesh of her hips, holding them steady so she wouldn’t move, so he could stay latched onto her, so he could make her experience an orgasm like she never had in her life.

             
“Ah….ah…..Ben, I’m gonna…..I’m gonna…”
Her upper body came off the bed as she screamed.  Really screamed.  He took it up a notch, releasing her clit and shoving his middle finger up inside her wet pussy to feel what he’d done, throwing his head back in his own ecstasy as he felt the after-effects of her orgasm pulse against his finger.  And he wasn’t done.  No by a long shot.  His cock was so hard he could hammer nails with it.

             
Ripping his jeans off, he slid up and into her before while she was still in the throes.  The harsh invasion made her breath suck in and his chest heave from the anticipation.  Thank God she was on the pill that he could feel her without any barrier.  Her legs instinctively raised and locked around his waist for more, her hips lifting to take him deeper, but even in his own crazed need for release, Ben held back and pulled out to where the tip of his cock barely touched her entrance.  She made an anguished sound as her eyes flew open.  “Ben!  No! What’re you……?”

              She continued to thrust her hips up, trying to ‘catch’ his cock to sink back inside, but he held her hips in place until he was ready.  He needed to hear something first.  “Tell me, Eva.  Tell me you love me.”

              Tossing her head side to side, she was now clawing at his chest with need.  “Ben…..please!  Fuck me.  Please fuck me.”

              “Tell me what I want to hear first, darlin’.”

              “I love you.  Okay, I love you.”

              He shook his head, then brought it down to hers, still keeping her steady.  “Like you mean it, Eva.”

              Those beautiful, dark, blue eyes opened – filled with lust and tears.  She grabbed the back of his neck and pulled him down, kissing him hard. Ben felt every ounce of strength and energy in that kiss.  And then she pulled him back, looking straight into his eyes - panting. 
“I love you……you came in, I couldn’t get rid of you …..you turned everything around….made me love you.  Fuck you, you did this to me!”

              Ben heard enough and plunged into her, sending her head rolling back against the pillow.  He fiercely and rhythmically pumped, his face buried in her neck as he growled his own words in tempo.  “
Not half as much as what you did to me.”
  And with that he came for what seemed to last for minutes.  The tension of the last eight hours, hell since burying two brothers, killing his traitorous sister and almost going over the edge because of it on that dark mountain road, was all dissolved by the beautiful woman under him.  Who loved him.  Whom he loved as well.

              For the few silent moments that passed, he soaked in the perfection of them.

~~***~~~

              The clock on the nightstand read six thirty a.m. as Eva unstuck one eye open.  Considering what time she and Ben fell asleep, she had no right being awake. But now that she was, recollection came back and the turn her life had taken.  If she hadn’t attempted going to the cemetery that night, she never would’ve literally run into the man sleeping beside her.  Which never would’ve caused the chain of events which led her to her real father.  Fate may’ve had a one-up on the psychic, whose own predictions were either an eerie coincidence or…….no. She adopted Ben’s skepticism, which is why she kept the revelation of the psychic’s words to herself last night.

              Slowly she turned to her other side to find Ben on his back and pretty much taking up more than half the bed.  After the kitchen was done, she’d have to invest in a king size one.  But for now, she didn’t mind the closeness. After all that happened, their violent confrontation, his accusations, the truth, the long trip and back and under a wall of fatigue, she……let him in.   All the way.  No other man ever got that close and, well, he certainly backed up his boast.  Pushing him away was out of the question because he pulled her in – way in – to his life, knowing enough somewhere between Tanner’s ol’ lady and Elle.  They both had secrets to keep.  And she would. 

              Snuggling against his huge, warm body, she slid her left hand down to clasp his, slowly intertwining their fingers.  He opened his eyes immediately.  “You okay, darlin’?”

              She really liked that term of endearment for her – it was the first thing he called her when they met on that dark road. “Mmm,” she answered, taking in a content sigh.  “Just…..thinking.”

              “Think later, Eva.  Go back to sleep.”

              Letting go of his hand, she went to turn away from him, only for an arm with tree stumps for biceps reach out and roll her back.  He moved to his left side, she on her right, face buried into that wall he called a chest.  Dark-blonde hair tickled her nose which breathed in the scent of natural, warm male.  “Didn’t say you had to move,” he told her.

             
It was warm.  Nice and warm.  Usually got up to the mid-fifties in November, so it was at least ten to fifteen degrees colder out right now.  She rubbed her face into his chest, deciding if he looked more fearsome with or without that cut.  Thinking that made her remember what he said to her in the bathroom last night.  “Ben?”  She rubbed his right pec.  “That patch you wear here….”  That pec flexed rigid, not sure if it was from her touch or her question.  “Nevermind….”

              “Ask.” 

              She placed a tiny kiss on his collarbone while she caressed his ribs.  “What it stood for.  You said they were three things the club despised the most.  I noticed not all the other guys have it on their cuts.”

              “Because it has to be earned.”

              “
This patch I wear – Three Deadly Sins – biggest ones the club holds no mercy for – lying, theft and betrayal. Someone crosses me, crosses the club, they pay – big time.  You want to know why I carry a gun?  You’re smart, darlin’.  Figure it out.”
 

             
She was smart enough to do so.  Ben obviously ‘earned’ this patch exacting payback on anyone who commits those ‘sins’ against the club.  That would’ve included her, if he thought her guilty of deceiving him.  That warmth under the covers tempered a bit.  “You told me something – about that shooting where two members died.  That it was a leak which was…..dealt with.  Was it…..?  Did you……?”

              He pulled her close, so close she felt her breath cut off a bit.  She obviously asked something that hit a nerve – and that pretty much told her the answer.  But she wasn’t prepared for the one he gave her.  “It was my sister.”

              She went to pull away – to sit up and look down at him, but those big arms locked her in tight.  She didn’t respond.  Didn’t know how to and let the pause linger between them, giving him time to say more.  And he did.  He explained his sister showing up in his life after eighteen years and addicted to painkillers, how the club found evidence on one of the shooters’ phone which linked back to hers and how she confessed.  He left out the most important part – what happened to her.  She didn’t ask.  She didn’t have to.  Like he said, she was smart enough to figure it out.  She did.

              He killed her.  He killed his own sister.

              “I’m sorry.”

              “Don’t be.  She was practically a stranger, Eva – purposefully out to hurt me and mine.  When I thought you might’ve been lying to me…..or getting information to bring back to your father……do you see where my mind went?”

              “
Because if I find out you’re lying, or betrayed me, you’ll see exactly how big the payout is.”

              She saw plain and clear.  She was now part of a world with an entirely different set of rules and codes.  Outlaw.  One percent – meaning they don’t follow the ways of the ninety-nine percent civilian world. 
Her
world. Two different cultures which needed to come together.  Because he wasn’t letting her go.  Because she wouldn’t push him away.  Jesus, Lord, she had to wrap her head around this huge change in her life, one no ‘normal’ civilian woman would make.  But she was sucked in – just like her mother was with Carmine Caprese – the pull of a dangerous man.

              “Eva, you need to understand the flip side.”

              Whatever could that be?  “Yeah?”

              “You’re family now. Club family.  You’re my girl, my……ol’ lady.  No question about that now.  The club would lay their life down for you.  They’d pull all stops and take their last breath protecting you.”  He turned in and made her face him.  “Me most of all.  We share a connection stronger than most blood families.  We bond deep.  We live hard.  We love strong.  And we trust little.  Giving that trust is an honor, but earning it’s an achievement.  What you did earlier– for the club, for me after having your past dug up and the dirt flung in your face? Earned big time respect, darlin’.  You saved us from a big shit storm.  Earned the club some future, legit business – not to mention full protection of the Caprese family.  You have any idea how huge that is?”

              She didn’t, but the tremor in his voice told her it was.  That if she didn’t make this deal with her biological father, the Skulls would’ve been left to their own devices to tangle with an enemy they couldn’t fight.  “All that?  Just for weekly dinner visits?”

              Ben cocked a brow.  “That’s what he wants?”

              She nodded.  “Antonio explained the terms after we left the room.  Dinner.  At his home.  Every Friday night.  Very……Gilmore Girls.”

              He gave her a confused look.  “Very…..
what
?”

              She forgot who she was talking to.  “Nevermind.  Anyway, he’s sending a car to pick me up at five – sharp. 

              “No way.”  He sat up, causing her to fall to the side.  “I’ll take you, drop you off and go park it somewhere till you’re done.  You’re not…..”

              “You have no say in this, Ben.  Maybe…..maybe if I do get to know him, it might give me some kind of closure before he dies.  Antonio said he’s off all treatment and his cancer’s stage four.  Pretty much planning his funeral right now.”  She sat up and rubbed his back.  “It’ll be fine.  C’mon, let’s go back to sleep.”

              They laid back down, his body still a bit stiff.  He was no doubt in protection mode over her situation, but knew there wasn’t anything he could do.  Eva never had this – someone to protect her, to call the shots, to make decisions about her well-being.  She had made the choice to go it alone on her independent road thinking it safer to distance herself emotionally and wound up with a man who had eluded attachment.  A civilian woman with an outlaw man.

              Opposites attracting took on a whole new meaning.

Chapter Twenty Two