He grinned. “Well, you know, I aim to please.”
He shifted to pull me close and his shoulder blocked out some of the light. “Jesus, you’re enormous.”
“In more ways than one,” he said with a wink. I bit back a laugh.
I tried again to get up, but he wrapped an arm around my waist and pulled me close. “Where do you think you’re going, woman?”
“I just remember you saying that you don’t do sleepovers, and here I am, sleeping over. I’ll just go back to my bed across the hall.”
His brows furrowed. “So, we’re going to go ahead and establish that anything that happened before is not what’s happening now. This, right now, it’s different, yeah?”
I nodded slowly. “Yeah, this is different.”
“Good, now that we’ve got that established, I will make sure that we are perfectly clear on this. I don’t bring people here. I’ve never brought anyone to this bed besides you, just in case you had that visual going on.”
I bit my lip, trying to fight my smile. “No, but thank you for making sure I’ll never have it.”
He nodded. “I like having you here.”
I grinned at him. “You do?”
He nodded. “Yes, and just so there are no other doubts in your mind, I plan on having you here a lot.”
“Define a lot. I mean, we do have to work.”
He grinned at me then. “Oh, you must be having all kinds of ideas about afternoon quickies.”
I laughed. “Oh my God, you’re ridiculous.”
“You’re the one who brought that up. Don’t blame me for letting my mind go there.”
I stretched, and he immediately dove under the covers to kiss my belly. “Oh my God, Ben.”
“Yes?”
“I have things I have to do.”
He frowned. “Like what?”
“Well, we just got back from France. I have to prep all the files to meet with Peterman. I also have to do my status update for Jessa.”
“Do that from here.”
Tempting as that was, I didn’t want to slide down that slippery slope. “I should probably go into the office. Get out of your hair.”
He took my hands. “Look. I’m still worried about your safety. And I want you here with security. Working remotely is something my employees do all the time. Not just the ones I’m seeing. This is real, okay? It means friends and Netflix queues and all of that jazz. No hiding. No going back to him.”
I scooted back. “No. Never. It’s not going to happen. But I do need to move freely.”
“Good. I don’t share. But I understand. Let me do a security assessment, then we’ll figure out your freedom of movement. Now, I need to get some work done with East and Bridge.”
He did have a point. Someone had tried to hurt me. I needed to be safe. But how long could we shack up? “Do Bridge and East know?”
“About us?” He shook his head. “Not yet, but they’re going to. Please rewind to earlier and what I said about this being real, friends and all. You’re mine now. I’m not letting you go without a fight, so get used to being here.”
I nodded. “Okay. It’ll take some getting used to. This is, uh, new.”
He laughed. “I know. I also know what I want. You and I have been dancing around each other for weeks. I knew exactly where I wanted you to be when I met you in that closet.”
I lifted a brow. “On my back?”
He rolled his eyes. “And on your knees with me behind you, holding on to those perfect tits. Jesus Christ.”
He gently nipped at my nipple and I giggled. “Oh my God, that tickles.”
He lifted a brow. “Oh, really? This tickles?” He leaned down then and pulled that same nipple into his mouth, tugging forcefully enough that I could feel a pull low in my belly.
“No, that does not tickle.”
“Oh, good.”
His hands wandered down my belly, and his fingers slid over my sex, gliding to my folds, and my breath hitched. “Ben.”
“Open for me.”
I parted my thighs a little, and he slid right in. First one finger, his palm branding over my clit, and then he retreated. When he slid back in, it was with two fingers. The slow, teasing motion caused me to chase his hand as it teased pleasure but didn’t quite satisfy.
Before I knew it, he released my nipple, kissed at my neck, and then the thick length of him slid right in.
We both groaned, and I hissed with a bite of pain. He immediately stilled. “Fuck, are you okay?”
“Yes, it’s just... You really are Big Ben.”
He nuzzled his face on my neck. “Oh my God, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you.”
“I’m not hurt. I’m just a little sore,” I whispered.
“I should have just kissed it better.”
“You did kiss it better, remember?”
“That was hardly kissing. I can do better.”
He started to glide out, and my fingers clawed at his back. “Nope, you’re already here. Why don’t you start moving and make me feel better.”
“Oh, is this kind of like kissing it all better?”
“Yup. Um-hmm. With your dick.”
His movements were slow. Controlled. But now with the initial sting gone, I didn’t want slow and controlled. I wanted hard and fast, and I slid my fingers into his hair and tugged him close.
It was his turn to hiss. “Jesus, Liv. I’m trying to go easy here.”
“I don’t want you to go easy.”
“You’ll be sore.”
“I like being sore.”
With a growl, he increased his movements. A wave of ecstasy rolled over me as I careened toward the edge of bliss. “Yes, that’s it.”
“Who does this belong to?”
“You. Always you.”
“Don’t let anyone else ever touch this again.”
I shook my head. “Nope. No, never. Oh my God, Ben, right there.”
“Do you know how long I’ve waited for this?”
“A month and three days.”
He pulled back and peered down at me. “Do you know exactly how many days?”
“Yup, . That’s how long I have been tortured too.”
“Uh-huh.” He swiveled his hips again, and I cursed. “Somehow I think I’ve been more tortured. I didn’t even think you liked me.”
I grinned then. “I’m still not sure I do.”
“Well then, Miss Ashong, let me convince you.”
And he did. He convinced me so thoroughly I had three more orgasms before he roared and spilled inside me. “Jesus, woman, I really don’t think I can move.”
“I really don’t think I want to.”
Three hours later, after Ben had convinced me to shower with him and he’d fed me, he headed off to a meeting with East and Bridge. I called Telly from the comfort of the bathtub.
“So you finally got laid, huh?”
“What?”
“Please, I can hear it in your voice. Was it in Paris? Shit, please tell me it’s Ben and not Dexter.”
I hadn’t told her anything yet about Dexter. “Yeah, about that...” Once I got started, everything flowed out of me. I told her all of it. Even the part about how Ben’s nickname really was accurate.