Permanent Ink (Something to Celebrate #1) (16 page)

“I didn’t see signs for one.” His voice rumbled near her ear. “I’ll let you know right now that I’m going to enjoy this.”

“I know that, too.”

As she watched, he cupped his hands and bent down. “Hop on,” he said, grinning around the small penlight he’d stuck between his teeth.

Blair took hold of his shoulders and placed a whipped-cream-stained shoe on top of his laced fingers. “I think the town of Celebration has put a curse on my shoes,” she muttered, looking down at the top of his head. He chuckled again. Her heart sped up. “Okay, ready. One, two—”

Ben lifted her up quickly, and she gasped, clamoring for the windowsill. Her fingers found the top of the sash and she shoved, grunting. It slid open a couple of inches. She shoved again, and it flew to the top with a bang. “Thank God. Now, grab my other foot and I’ll push up and—”

“Let me handle things down here, Firefly,” he interrupted. Suddenly his other hand was wrapped around the back of her bare thigh, lifting her higher. “Put your head in so I don’t bang it on the wall,” he instructed.

“Oh. Okay.” His fingers squeezed rhythmically, sending shivers racing right to her center. “Hey, now,” she warned him breathlessly. But she couldn’t help grinning as she ducked her head into the open window. “Oh, great. It’s the men’s bathroom.”

Ben laughed. “Ready?”

“Yes.”

He gave her a mighty push and the upper half of her body was in, her legs flailing behind her. “Jesus!” She balanced there for a second and then twisted around, gathering her skirt, pulling a leg through. A few seconds and a lot of ungraceful maneuvering later, she was on the old tile floor standing next to a urinal. Nice.

She poked her head back out. “Be right back.”

He smiled up at her from the ground. “Can’t hardly wait.”

Quickly, Blair felt her way to the door and into the main library area. She went into the office, grabbed the hatbox and walked back into the bathroom, holding her breath against the smell of bleach. “Here, catch,” she said and tossed the hatbox out the window.

Ben caught it like a pizza, balancing the box on one hand before setting it on the grass. “Ready, Spiderwoman?” He smiled.

“I thought I was ‘Firefly.’” She stuck her head out and pushed on the frame. “Oh crap. This is going to be a lot harder going the opposite direction.”

Raising his hands, Ben stepped close to the wall. “We’ll do it together.” He sounded so sure.

Swallowing, Blair pushed her body farther out, gripping the sill. “I don’t know if—”

“I am. Let go.” Ben’s fingertips brushed hers. When she didn’t, he gave her a slow smile. “You better let go soon, or you’ll squish those amazing breasts flat as pancakes.”

Blair’s mouth dropped open, and she glared at him, but she reached out one hand, then the other. “Hold on tight, okay?”

“That’s my plan,” he said, tugging gently. “It’s my
only
plan as far as you’re concerned.”

She froze, half out of the window and mostly upside down. What did she think she was doing? Toying with the idea of sleeping with this man who sounded so serious about her? How could he be? But once they were in the sack that would be it. It could never be casual between them again. Hell, it already wasn’t on the basest of levels. When had they passed that point? Because she wasn’t aware when it had happened.

“Firefly? You gonna hang out there the rest of the night?”

“Not a chance.” With a shuddering breath, she pulled her legs through and sat on the sill—his hands supporting her—closing around her arms, then under them, then around her waist. A moment later, she was on the ground, her arms twined tightly around his neck and her body pressed close to his. Both of them went still. The only sounds were their harsh breaths and the wind rustling through the trees on the commons down the block.

“Blair,” he murmured near her ear. “I want—”

“Me, too,” she said. “But—”

“We have plenty of time,” he told her.

She nodded against his chest. “It may not…” She trailed off, not wanting to finish the sentence with the word “happen.” She didn’t want to push him away, but this connection they shared wasn’t something she could analyze, and that alone was enough to make her pause. Plus they didn’t even
know
each other. Not really. And what if when they did get to know each other, it didn’t turn out so well? Or the more she knew about him, the harder she fell?

“Argh,” she said.

He pulled away from her and leaned down, placing a lingering kiss on her cheek. “You’re rethinking, aren’t you?”

She let out a shuddering laugh. “It’s my specialty. Really attractive, huh?”

He tipped her chin up. “Very.” He looked at her a minute, hesitating. “And because of that, I need to tell you something. Don’t want to throw you for a loop.”

Her stomach jumped a little, but she gave him a smile. “My life has been nothing but dodging loops lately. What’s one more?”

“I’m a loop?” He frowned.

“No. Not really.” She untwined her hands from the back of his neck and slid them onto his shoulders. “Definitely.”

His lips quirked up. “Okay. I’ll choose to take that as a compliment.” He squeezed her waist and stepped back. “So, tomorrow. Starling is going to stop by the May Day thing.”

“Okay,” Blair said. “She’s welcome to be there. What’s the problem?”

Ben scratched at the scruff along his jaw. “Well, as you might have gathered, she’s kind of a diva.”

“I’ve handled plenty of divas,” Blair said with a laugh. “Most of them were around twelve and enjoying ten-thousand-dollar birthday parties, but they were scary kids. I think I can handle a tattoo artist.”

Ben nodded, but he didn’t seem very sure. “Great.” He looked as if he might say something else, but instead he bent down, picked up the hatbox, and handed it to her. “I’m going to bring it up before you do.”

“What am I going to bring up?”

“That it’s late, and that you have to be on the town commons at the crack of dawn to decorate for the May Day festival.”

She hadn’t been going to say that, but she’d been thinking it. “I… Those things are true, but I wasn’t going to bring it up.”

He chuckled. “If we went out now, you’d be exhausted tomorrow. I don’t want that. I want you to shine.”

A rush of warmth sank through her at his words. He was one of the good ones. She’d be a fool not to grab him and never let go. But—she couldn’t grab anything in Celebration. It wouldn’t be fair…to her, or to the town. Especially not to Ben.

“Ready to go home?” He held out his hand.

No.

She wanted to stay out here in the cool night air, clinging to his warmth. But instead of wrapping her arms back around him, she gave him a smile, took his hand, and headed toward his truck.

There were so many reasons why she shouldn’t let herself be with him, but none of them stacked up against the overwhelming longing that coursed through her as they walked. That longing, sharp and sweet, was too much to bear.

“Ben,” she said suddenly, pulling him to a stop.

He turned and looked at her, desire glimmering in his eyes. That did it.

“I don’t want to rethink this anymore. Take me to your place.”

Chapter Fifteen

He didn’t say anything else as they exited and got into his truck. She glanced at him a few times, but he gripped the steering wheel and kept his eyes trained forward. When he parked in the alley behind Skinnovations, she touched his arm. He gave her a tight smile and hopped out, loping around the bed of the truck to open her door.

The night was cool and cloudy, and the dim light cast by the streetlamp at the end of the alley didn’t do much but cast his handsome face in shadows. Leaning forward, she kissed his rough cheek. Then the side of his neck. He stayed motionless, except for his hands, which closed around her knees.

“Blair,” he said with a groan. His fingers spread apart and skimmed up, brushing the inside of her thighs, sending spirals of electricity straight through her center.

“Upstairs?” she asked in a whisper. She scooted to the edge of the worn cloth seat and wrapped her arms around his neck. “Please, Ben.”

His hands left her thighs and came around her waist as he lifted her out of the truck and set her gently on the gravel. Lacing his fingers through hers, he fumbled in his pocket for the tiny flashlight on his keys. “I wasn’t thinking. Should have parked on the street instead of back here,” he said thickly.

“It’s okay.” Tugging, she stepped carefully into the kissing alley and led him down the broken concrete passage until they reached the sidewalk in front of Skinnovations. As she watched, a small smile trembling on her lips, he fumbled again as he unlocked the door and stepped inside the darkened studio. Wordlessly, she followed him into his office and waited as he opened the door to his apartment.

Finally he looked at her, his eyes blazing with desire. “You first. I like to watch you walk.”

“You want to watch me walk up the steps?”

He nodded, his chest rising and falling with a deep breath.

A surge of delicious power coursed through Blair. Still staring at him, she ran her the tip of her tongue across her bottom lip and stepped up one step, turning to gauge his reaction. His mouth was open slightly and she grinned, her tongue teasing her lips some more.

“Go,” he ground out, his hands fisted by his sides.

She took another step. Any second now, the little dog upstairs would start barking. She took another slow step, letting her hips sway. And then another.

“Where’s Julie?” she asked.

“Who’s Julie?” Ben’s voice was incredibly deep. Growly.

“Your dog?” Blair laughed and paused halfway up the staircase. “Did you forget you have a dog?”

“Not my dog anymore,” he said from the bottom of the stairs.

It was on the tip of Blair’s tongue to ask why, but she realized that as cute as the dog was, she didn’t really care right now.

“Okay,” she said, continuing her slow climb, gathering her skirt higher and higher as she went. The drafty air in the stairwell hit the heated skin on the back of her thighs and she shivered—not just from the shock, but from an almost unbearable sense of wickedness.

When she reached the top and stepped into the living room, she turned to watch as Ben walked up. He rubbed his jaw as he went and she stared at his strong, deft fingers as they moved lower, flicking open the button at the top of his shirt. She’d fantasized about those fingers so often, and in a few minutes, they’d be all over her. Her mouth went slack with desire.

Ben ascended the last few steps and touched the side of her face. “You want some wine?”

“No. I want you.” She paused for a second, her heart thumping. “Um, where—”

His arms came around her then and he kissed her, softly. “Shh.” In one motion, he reached down and lifted her up, carrying her across the room and to the doorway of his bedroom.

Her head fell back, and her hair tumbled over his arm as she blinked in the shadowy room, her gaze resting on the bed. Ben sat her down gently on the edge of it, her feet swinging a few inches above the floor. She heard the rustle of a drawer opening and then the
click
of a lighter as he lit a candle on the single nightstand.

She gripped the soft cotton bedspread beneath her and smiled a little, realizing from the fold marks on the surface that it was brand new. Almost as if he’d been hoping that their date would end up here—hope being the operative word, because Ben didn’t presume anything. He lived in the moment. And right now? She planned to do the same. No, not
planned
. She…

“You okay?” he asked.

“Yes. You’re amazing,” she answered, her voice sounding strange and breathy in the small room.

He didn’t comment. Turning with a smile, he shrugged out of his blazer and tossed it onto a chair by the door. As Blair watched, her thighs began to inch apart and she leaned forward, grabbing his hands to pull him close. Quickly, she unbuttoned his shirt and stared at his abdomen, smooth and firm, then licked it. It was hot—hotter than her tongue, and she traced an arc over his belly button.

When his fingers fisted in her hair, she smiled against his skin and reached for his belt. Slipping it out of the loops on his pants, she threw it on the floor and reached up to slide the white shirt over his shoulders. She trailed her hands back down his chest, his belly, and then hooked around the waistband of his pants. The heels of her palms brushed against his erection and Ben made a choked noise.

Lifting her head, she gazed up at him. “Will you undress me?”

He nodded, his grin lopsided as he knelt in front of her. “I won’t be able to stop with that, though.” His fingers crept around her ankles, massaging.

“Oh.” Her eyes slid shut. “That’s fine.”

“Now lean back on the bed.”

She did.

A moment later, he ran his tongue along the side of her leg, hot and wet. Blair sank her head onto the mattress with a groan as his fingers slipped her shoes off, she flexed her toes, groaning again as he kissed the arches of her feet. He pushed her skirt higher and higher until it pooled around her waist.

Forcing her eyes to crack open, she watched as his dark head descended and he placed a lingering kiss on the front of her satin panties. A shocking kiss. Her mouth dropped open as a rush of wet heat filled her and he kissed her there again. The low, breathy moan that pushed out of her lips seemed to hang in the air, mingling with the spicy scent of his skin and the heat of his head so close to the center of her.

She struggled to sit, but Ben rose and pushed her back, his hand flat on her belly. “Close your eyes again,” he ordered in a soft voice. “Lay back.”

With a whimper, she did as he asked. Was he going to…?
Oh God
.

She tilted her hips up as his fingers curled around the edges of her panties and tugged them off. His hands on her knees, he spread her legs farther apart as he knelt back down in front of her. Her legs rose instinctively as the scruff of his jaw brushed against the sensitive skin on the inside of her thighs. She was completely exposed.

“Ben.” His hands slid under the curves of her ass and he breathed against her. “Ben,” she repeated, her voice a whimper.

He kissed her belly, his mouth feathery light, and she jerked against him. “Oh, God.” She moaned.

Dragging, he…his tongue descended…down…down…and it rubbed against her, teasing. His breath, an explosion of hot rasps, turned to a groan. A second later, he plunged forward, opening her and dragging against her swollen flesh.

“Ohh!” Blair grabbed handfuls of her silk skirt, drawing her fists up to her mouth.

Ben moved his tongue again, this time in a circle. His fingers gripped her ass, and he dragged her even closer, burying her against his mouth. He was still for a moment, his shoulders taut underneath the heels of her feet, and then his tongue pressed deeply and began to move. Slowly. Thoroughly. Higher…higher…toward the very spot that was begging for his mouth and her thighs started to shake as a deep, powerful orgasm began to uncurl within her.

Her whimpers, high and desperate, filled the air and Ben groaned against her, quickening the pace. His lips curled around the bud at the center of her universe, and she came in shimmering waves of light that burst beneath her closed eyelids—so intense that a silent scream was all she could manage as her back arched from the bed.

Heart hammering, she was suspended there like a lightning rod, her breath coming in wheezing pants as Ben pulled gradually away and kissed the inside of her thighs. Slowly, her back returned to the bed and she stared—unseeing—at the ceiling. Her tongue wet her lips.

“Thirsty?” Ben asked. His breathing was rapid, too.

“I think so,” she managed.

With a chuckle, he rose. “Be right back.”

Blair lay there for some moments as the intense tingling subsided into a throbbing warmth, and she uncurled her fingers. She sat up and caught her lower lip with her teeth. Jesus. She’d fantasized about him—about
that
—so many times, and she’d ached for him so desperately. Every part of him, everything about him. She wanted all of him, and she never wanted to let him go. At that realization, her mouth went slack and she swallowed, looking up as the doorway darkened.

Ben stood there, his bare shoulders carved by the light filtering in from the living room. He walked forward on bare feet, pants slung low on his hips. When had he taken off his shoes? Her gaze traveled up. He held two glasses half full of dark liquid and there was a bulge in his crotch…a big one, and Blair stared at it, new desire seeping through the languidness in her body.

“Wow,” she murmured.

He laughed, and setting one glass down near the candle, he held out the other and closed her fingers around it. “Drink this.”

Blair took a slow sip, holding the woodsy, fruity wine in her mouth for a moment before swallowing. She sipped again, watching him as he did the same. He smiled. “Good, yeah?”

She gazed at him, the yearning for him roaring back as her heart sped up from the wine. “I want to touch you,” she said suddenly. But her fingers didn’t move from the glass. She raised it to her lips and drank about half of it.

“There’s nothing I want more in the world.” He sat down next to her and twisted himself to lay on the bed, holding up his glass as he leaned back against the pillows. Droplets of wine sloshed out of his glass and ran in rivulets down his lean stomach. Glancing down, he wiped them away with a fingertip and raised his finger to suck on it.

She stared at him—his tangled hair, his strong jaw, his knowing smile. Blair drained the rest of her wine and it pooled in her stomach, heat spreading once again throughout her body. Her breath caught. “I have to have you,” she announced in a whisper.

She took the glass from his hand and set it down with hers on the nightstand. And then slowly, she stood up, reached behind her to the zipper pull on the scooped back of her dress and released it. Pulling the straps from her shoulders, she let the chiffon cascade down her body, watching in fascination as Ben went completely still.

She arched her back, reaching behind to unhook her bra. It fell to the floor, too. She raised her arms and pushed her hair away from her shoulders. The ends of it brushed against her bare back and she shivered, knowing that her nipples were puckering.

Ben exhaled, his hands falling to his sides. “You’re so…beautiful.” His voice was thick. “Exquisite.”

She melted as Ben held out his hands to her and laced her fingers with his as she let him pull her onto the bed, where she knelt between his legs. Leaning forward, she smiled into his eyes and kissed him slowly, her mouth teasing against the corners of his lips. Her hands stroked him everywhere—down his neck, over his muscled shoulders, following the swirling patterns of the tattoos on his arms. She pressed her fingertips into his chest, dragging down the solid warmth, across a circular tattoo of coiled ropes on his rib cage and over the thin line of hair that led to the closure on the front of his pants. She unhooked them and drew the strained zipper down, her smile widening as he sucked in a breath.

Lifting the edge of his boxers, she pulled them down, her nostrils flaring as she looked at his erection. She froze for a second and then peeled the rest of his clothes away, glancing up. Ben’s arm was thrown over his forehead, and his eyes were mostly closed. Gently, she rubbed her palm over his shaft and slid forward on her knees. Her hair brushed against his thighs as she bent her head.

“Blair,” he said in a choked voice. “Just…I want to feel you.” He sat up, the muscles in his stomach bunching as he pulled her on top of him. He leaned to the side and opened a drawer on the nightstand to pull out a condom.

Blair took it from him and straddled his thighs, still staring down at the thick length of him in front of her. His hands caressed her hips, but he didn’t tug her forward any farther. She touched him again, wrapping a hand around him, stroking. The only sound in the room was gasping. Quickly, she removed the condom and rolled it on.

“Blair.” Ben slid his hands past her waist and then cupped her breasts, his thumbs dragging over her pebbled nipples. “So soft,” he said, breathing out.

Her eyes fluttered shut, and she gripped his shoulders, lifting her hips and inching forward until his hot hardness nestled against her core. With a groan, she leaned forward until her breasts rubbed the rough beard on his jaw and he palmed her breasts, closing his mouth around a nipple. Pleasure radiated everywhere in her body and she rolled her hips against him. “You have a magic tongue,” she whispered between pants.

In response, he sucked the other nipple, and one of his hands slid between her legs, fondling. A finger entered her gently and began a slow rhythm. She moaned. Another finger joined the first, and she stiffened. It didn’t hurt, but she felt stretched. Ben’s head moved up, his eyes questioning. She moved her hips a tiny bit, testing, and when she slid onto his fingers and then back up, her mouth dropped open. Collapsing forward, she buried her face in his neck and inhaled pure maleness, the unique spiciness of Ben’s skin. She was dying to feel him inside of her—to join herself to him.

He gazed at her, his eyes full of lust, but something else, too. Something so tender, it sent a shiver down her back and her longing grew deeper, sweeter.