Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 101254 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 506(@200wpm)___ 405(@250wpm)___ 338(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 101254 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 506(@200wpm)___ 405(@250wpm)___ 338(@300wpm)
“And needing a chaperone is a Tessa thing. Black and white. If you don’t have someone else there, you’ll sleep with him. There’s no middle ground.” Skye shakes her head. “You’re so much like Braden sometimes.”
Skye has told me this countless times—that I see everything in black and white. No middle ground. Because I’m a mathematician, all I see is right and wrong. “I am?”
“Yeah. He says he doesn’t accept anything as absolute, but in his way, he does.”
“What do you mean?”
“He just has his own ideas, and nothing will sway him.”
“He sounds more like you than like me,” Tessa says.
“He’s a lot like me in other ways. I’ll grant you that. But that’s not even my point.” She grabs my hand. “My point is you don’t need a chaperone. You can control yourself.”
“Yeah. You’re right. It would just make things easier.”
“Life isn’t always easy.”
“Fuck,” I say. “You sure got that right.”
…
My eyes shoot open.
That last date with Garrett. The date that led to…
How, after my conversation with Skye, I was sure I could control myself…and I would have, if he hadn’t drugged me.
In that same conversation, Skye asked if I wanted to meet Ben.
If only I’d said yes, I could have avoided all of the trauma…and ended up where I am now.
In bed with Ben snoring softly next to me.
In bed with the man I love.
Chapter Forty-Six
Ben
Waking up next to Tessa Logan feels all kinds of right.
I sneak out of bed as the light streams into her bedroom and illuminates her luscious body. I grab another condom out of my jeans, return to bed, and spoon up against her, my cock hard as a rock.
“Baby…” I whisper.
“Mmm…” she softly moans.
I kiss the soft flesh of her tan shoulder, ease my cock between her ass cheeks. “This okay?” I ask.
“More than okay,” she murmurs.
I slide into her pussy.
This is how I should have made love to her last night—slowly, sweetly, taking all the time to see to her pleasure before I took my own.
But last night…
Yesterday…
No.
Won’t think about that now. Won’t let any of that taint my time with my girl.
Because she is my girl.
I’m in love with her. She’s not ready for it, and neither am I. But I fucking love her with every bit of my heart and soul.
“Feels good,” she mumbles.
“God, does it.” I slide out and in again, relishing how perfectly she gloves my cock.
“Don’t we both have to go to work this morning?” she asks.
“I’m the boss.”
“You’re not my boss.”
“I’m your boss’s boss.” I pulse into her, releasing with a grunt.
I stay inside her until she moves away and turns to face me. “I’m not going to play that game. I’m not going to be the employee who’s fucking the boss and gets away with everything. You’ll get a full day’s work from me every day, Ben. I swear it.”
“Easy.” I move her gorgeous dark hair off her forehead. “I’m kidding. But there’s plenty of time. Plenty of time for me to take care of you, too.”
She squirms out of my arms and off the bed. “You took plenty good care of me last night. But if I don’t get moving, I’m going to be late for work.”
“Okay, okay.”
“And you need to get ready, too. Anyone who has to miss taking me to the zoo on a Sunday afternoon is obviously swamped, so get moving.”
Thud.
Reality is back in full fucking force.
I wasn’t working yesterday afternoon. I was dealing with Dirk Conrad. That tooth he was wearing around his neck is still in the pocket of my jeans.
I grab my jeans to get my phone. Damn. It’s dead.
“Tessa!” I yell into the bathroom.
“Yeah?”
“I need to plug in my phone.”
“There’s a charger on my nightstand and another in the kitchen,” she calls back.
I glance at the nightstand. Tessa’s phone is plugged into the charger, so I walk, still naked, out to the kitchen, find the charger, and plug in my phone. Then I return to the bedroom and join Tessa in the shower. I’m used to a much larger space, but the closeness seems apt for Tessa and me.
She smiles. “I was hoping you’d join me.”
“How could I not?” I stroke her wet hair. “You’re at your most beautiful in the water, Tessa. Whether it’s Dunn’s River Falls, or taking a cold plunge, or in the rain where I kissed you. Water brings out the most amazing beauty in you. It’s like you were a mermaid in another life.”
She smooths shampoo onto her scalp. “I never dreamed of being a mermaid,” she says, “but I used to dream that I could fly.”
I move my hands to her head and begin massaging the shampoo through her gorgeous hair. “Did you? I’m pretty sure I’ve had that dream, too.”
“My therapist said it’s a common dream for children.”
“Is it?” I work the lather through her long hair and then turn her toward the shower water to rinse. “I’d like to know all your dreams, Tessa.”