A Human Element (16 page)

Laura woke up to darkness falling. She lay under a blanket on the couch in the screened in porch. Her nose felt cold but the rest of her was warm and snug. She heard the tinkling of dishes in the kitchen, but didn't want to crawl out from her warm spot just yet. Then the day all came back to her in a flash. She bolted up and ran into the kitchen. There stood Ben ladling soup into bowls. A delicious bread toasting smell filled the air. A fire crackled in the stone fireplace in the great room next to the small kitchen.

"Ben, how is Mr. B? I have to check on him." She turned toward the bedroom.

"Laura, wait," Ben called. "He's in the hospital but doing okay. I just called."

She turned back and sat down at the kitchen table. "I wasn't here. I should have checked on him."

"You were going to, but got sidetracked, remember?"

"But still, he's all I've got. And I'm all he's got. It's pneumonia isn't it? What happened?"

Ben told her how he found him and called the ambulance. "He's at Albany Medical Center. They've given him fluids and medication to clear his lungs. He's in good hands. You can call and speak with him if you want. You slept through all the excitement here today."

Laura looked up at Ben and shook her head. "I just met you and don't know what I would have done without you today. You helped me and Mr. B. If I had been alone and passed out with this headache and there was no one here to help him, then…"

Ben put down the soup ladle and sat down next to her. "It doesn't matter. He's safe and so are you."

"I feel safe now." She stared into Ben's eyes and felt peaceful. She never knew gray could be such an alluring color. She thought it was devoid of color. But his eyes sparkled like silver granite with specks of black in them.

"So listen, call Mr. B and find out for yourself he's okay. Then have some soup I found and cheese bread I made. You must be starving as you haven't eaten all day."

"Did you carry me all the way up here from the lake?"

"Yep. Good thing I've been training for the carrying-damsels-in-distress-marathon."

Laura blushed. She hoped he didn't find her heavy or she did anything embarrassing while unconscious. "What else did you do?"

"I just wrapped you up on the couch so you could rest and be warm but still get some fresh air. I thought it might help your headache. You've been sleeping all day."

"I've never had one so bad."

Ben tilted his head at her. "Are you sure they're only headaches?"

"I don't know." Laura shrugged. "I've had them since I was a kid."

"I wonder if there's a connection between the headaches and this killer."

"I don't know."

"Just eat for now." Ben put the soup and bread in front of her.

"I want to talk to Mr. B first."

She felt Ben watching her as she called the hospital. She also sensed his arousal for her and tried to concentrate on talking to Mr. B. She hurried off the phone and made an excuse to go to her bathroom upstairs, in part as she really had to go and also because she wanted to see how bad she looked after sleeping on the couch all day.

She groaned as she looked in the mirror and tried to straighten her hair but it continued to fall in waves. She brushed her teeth, washed her face, and put on some lip gloss. She was almost attractive.
Ugh
. She felt self-conscious in front of Ben, something she had never felt with another man. None ever had this deep, pulling effect on her as Ben did.

He stared at her with such intensity like he was figuring her out, or maybe he was deciding if he was attracted her. What if he wasn't? She tugged at her bra, feeling embarrassed over her small breasts and then laughed. It was so ridiculous. She had other things to worry about now.

Laura headed down the loft steps to find Ben had set up their dinner by the fire in the great room. He had placed a blanket on the floor and pillows to sit on while they ate. She smiled at him and sat down cross-legged in front of the fire to eat. Ben stoked the wood and the flames roared up the chimney.

"I love a fire." Laura finished her soup and hugged her knees. He nodded and just looked at her. She sensed he wanted to touch her but was conflicted. "I want to go visit Mr. B in the hospital tomorrow and try to find this Doctor Britton. Will you help me?"

"You know I will."

"We don't have Internet access up here. We might have to go into the Albany library or an Internet café."

Ben had a better idea. "Let me call my friend Andy in the Navy. He works in intelligence now out in Washington State in Bremerton, and the least he can do is search online for us. I'm sure he has access to other records as well."

Ben dialed Andy's number on his cell phone and went out on the front porch.

"Yo, squidy," Ben replied as Andy answered the phone. "Howz the secret operative life going?"

"Life is grand here, except for the fact I am heading out soon on a three-week assignment. And of course, I can't tell you where it is. I can't even tell Likini. I'll have the bluest balls in the Navy when I get back."

"As long as they're hanging high, buddy."

"They're always at attention, my old friend. So Ben, me-boy, what are you up to? Ravaging fabulously rich women off the Greek coast or something?"

"Nothing like that."

He told Andy about having met Laura and briefly how he wanted to help her find out where she came from. Ben didn't even know how to go about explaining all that had happened these last few days.

"So can you do some research on this Doctor Britton for us and call me tomorrow morning? We need to know where he is and what he's been doing."

"Sure thing, buddy." Andy chuckled. "Sooo…who's this new girl? Sounds serious if you're helping her do this. It doesn't sound like the screw 'em and ditch 'em Ben I know."

"She's just someone I met who used to live here."

"I know you, bud. I can tell by your voice. This could be the one. Am I right?"

"I don't know how I feel. I just met her." Ben squinted to see into the cabin then moved out of the porch into the woods. He didn't want Laura to hear him. Darkness cloaked the trees around him as he stood in a small pool of light streaming from the kitchen window.

"Okay, okay. Just don't screw this one up, if she
is
the one, and run off like you do."

"Give me some credit, Andy. I may run off, but I leave them wanting more. Isn't that a good thing?"

"Sure thing, Ben. Anyhow, I've got to run. I leave in a few days for this assignment and have to pamper Likini as much as I can. We have dinner reservations."

"Why the pampering? She's usually good about you being gone for longer."

"We're pregnant! Three months along now. We just started telling people."

"Congratulations. That's awesome. I'm real happy for you." Ben felt glad for his friend, but felt something tug inside him. A yearning for the first time to experience what other people did. Normal people.

"Thanks, man. You've got to get cracking too on the same front. It took us a long time."

"I don't know. Me and kids? Doesn't sound like a good combo."

"Love makes the world go 'round, remember? The more love you make the better it gets! So keep making love."

Ben laughed and told him to give Likini a kiss and he'd call him tomorrow.

"I hope you're getting more than a kiss there soon, lover boy."

Ben just laughed again and hung up.

He found Laura stretched out on her stomach on the blanket by the fire. The shadows leapt over her curves in a wild dance and her hair shone like burnished metal glinting in the sun.

He wanted to stare at her forever.

Laura grew sleepy as she waited for Ben to return. She wondered what he was telling his friend about her. Her eyes closed when she heard Ben clear his throat. She rolled toward him, and stretched in one fluid movement to sit up.

"Can your friend help us?" She looked up at him. She tried not to stare at his long, legs encased in tight jeans that stood shoulder width apart over her as he folded his arms across his chest. She felt dominated in her seated position and tingled inside. She liked feeling that way.

"He's going to do a search for us and I'll call him in the morning to find out."

Laura gathered her hair away from her face and looked into the fire. She wasn't sure what they should do now with one another. The silence between them grew awkward.

"Well, I better head back to the Inn and leave you alone to rest some more," Ben offered, shoving his hands in his pockets.

Laura looked back up at him. She remembered all the people she had lost in her young twenty-six years. She didn't want to lose him too, but she feared getting too close. She could lose him too. Then something swelled inside her. She barely recognized it. It was hope that maybe love could win out over evil and Ben would be the one to help her stop it. And then she could only think of one word to say to him.

"Stay."

Ben looked at Laura. All he could do was nod. He wanted to stay. He held out his hand to help her up and she took it willingly. Facing each other, they stared into each other's eyes and he touched her hair. That one word,
stay
, had given them permission for so much. He pushed his fingers through her hair in a soft, sweeping motion lifting it away from her face. She moaned with his touch and placed her hands on his chest. She drew her hands across his chest and arms, claiming them for her own.

Ben shuddered and drew her into his chest hugging her close.

"Where did you come from?" He breathed deep of her. "You drive me crazy, Laura Armstrong."

"I don't know, that's what I need your help to figure out, Ben Fieldstone."

He felt her warm breath on his neck as she spoke, and her lips grazed him. She trembled and he held her closer.

"Are you scared?"

Laura nodded with her head still in his chest. "I've only been with two men, boys really. I don't have much experience."

"I won't hurt you," Ben said. "We can go slow and wait, it's up you."

"I'm not afraid you'll hurt me." Laura looked up at him. Her large eyes shone with flecks of firelight. "And I don't want to wait."

"Then what is it?"

"I just don't want to disappoint you." She hid her head again in his chest and clung to him. "We've just met each other and this is all happening so fast. And I like you, but I'm scared you won't like me after we are together. If I'm not any good."

Ben tugged her head up to look at him. He forgot she was ten years younger than him. And even though to him she seemed equal and as old as him, he understood she was a young woman. Her girlish shyness touched him and he spoke with tenderness to her.

"Listen to me, Laura. I care for you too, a lot. More than I've cared about any woman my whole life. I know we just met but I feel like I've been waiting my whole life to meet you. I can't explain it either, but it's meant to be. The last thing in the world I want to do is hurt you. There's no way you could disappoint me. We'll make it happen together, you and I. Whatever it will be, it will be special. I know it." Ben was an expert at wooing women for sex, so the words came easy to him. Yet, this was the first time for him they held meaning, they meant something.

Laura stroked his neck and moved closer into him, her curves pressing into him with crushing sweetness. He rose up so hard she must feel him pressing into her. He lifted her head to him again and kissed her on the lips, but she was the one who opened his mouth to caress his tongue with hers. It was like his dream and he moved in her wet softness now as he did then. He opened his mouth wider to take more of her in and she moaned. Their bodies were hot from the flames shooting up next to them.

Ben lifted her turtleneck to feel her smooth waist underneath. In one, slow movement he pulled it over her head and cast it aside. She hugged herself to him but he wanted to see her in the firelight. He grabbed her arms and pulled them out wide so she stood tall in front of him.

"I'm sorry, my breasts are small." Laura looked away. Ben shook his head and smiled down at her. She took his breath away now, just as she had done at the lake that morning standing there in her bra facing the world head on.

"Beautiful is what you are." He cupped her breasts and they fit just right in each hand. "Perfect, see?"

He rubbed her nipples with his thumbs bringing them to sharp points and Laura gasped, closing her eyes. She arched her back, and Ben mouthed her nipples through her bra. Then he reached around and in one, deft movement unhooked her bra letting it fall to the floor. He tugged off his shirt and they stood facing one another. Laura moved her hands across his hard chest and inched closer to him, just enough so her nipples touched his naked skin. She rubbed them across his chest and it was his turn to moan.

"Laura, you drive me crazy."

He lowered her to the blanket and soon they slid across one another naked, entwined as one body. They lay still for a moment enjoying the feel of skin on skin. Laura looked away from his long penis that sprung forth, but he held her away to look at him.

"Don't be afraid. This is what you do me. Look."

She stared at it and touched it with her fingers, gripping his shaft and stroking it. He moaned and pulled her fingers away.

"Ben I want you in me," she whispered. He stroked her stomach up to her breasts with one hand and kept her hand at bay.

"Not yet." Ben shook his head. "It's been some time for me and now I'm afraid I'm the one who would disappoint you."

"What do you mean?"

"I said you drive me crazy, didn't I? I'm afraid I wouldn't last long the first time with you."

"I don't mind."

"I do. I want to drive you crazy."

Ben leaned over to suck her nipples and Laura met him with eagerness. He nipped and licked them, pulling them up into points, nuzzling them with his lips. Then he moved his head down toward her mound and stroked her inner thighs. He tried to pull her legs apart, but she resisted.

"No one's ever done that," she moaned, breathing fast.

Ben fingered her swollen nub and she cried out, opening her legs to his touch and tongue, unable to stop her shyness any longer. When his tongue licked her wetness she gasped and raised her hips closer to him, rocking them back and forth.

"Oh my God, Ben. Ben."

She kept saying his name over and over in a hazy mantra of desire. He stretched out and played her with his tongue and fingers, pushing into her swollen wetness and stroking her nether region. At first, she pulled away from him stroking her there, but he pushed the tip of his finger to slide in and out in a smooth motion.

Laura gasped and relaxed, allowing him to please her. He pulled away then with his fingers, his tongue, his lips until she begged for him to come back. He wanted her desire to ebb so he could begin again to torment her.

"Ben, I can't stand it, please, do…something!"

And so he did. He reached up to pull on her sensitive nipples with one hand as his other fingers pressed deep up inside her swollen tunnel, his tongue lapping at her, his lips sucking her most tender parts. She came in a rush and a scream that echoed around the cabin.

Ben gathered her in his arms after as she shuddered and shook from her explosion. Tears streamed down her face as she trembled, her heart racing, her breath rapid.

"Oh my God, what did you do to me? I don't know why I'm crying, I'm not sad." She laughed and he laughed with her.

"It's relief, isn't it?"

"Yes! You kept bringing me to the edge over and over, I thought I would die."

"Can you think of a better place to die?"

She smiled and shook her head, hugging him close. The fire's coals burned low and Ben got up to place more logs on it. He turned around and stood over Laura, taking in her graceful curves.

She looked up at him. "But what about you?"

Ben raised an eyebrow at her, standing rock hard before her. She looked so sexy strewn before him, naked on the blanket. Her dark triangle and soft belly waited there to rise up to him in need.

"I'll show you." He grinned and he fell beside her, teaching her what to do with her tongue and fingers. Laura thoroughly enjoyed his instruction. And when her mouth and tongue were wet on him and her fingers pulled on his scrotum in a soft caress bringing him to the edge over and over, he called out.

"I can't hold it much longer, Laura."

And he came, in an exploding rush then cradled her head to him.

They lay in quiet before the fire and Ben got up to get another blanket to throw over them. He spooned behind her and they gazed into the fire, side by side.

"Have you been with lots of women?" Laura broke the silence.

Ben wasn't sure how to answer.

"I'm assuming that means, yes?" Laura prodded him.

"It means, yes, I've had many women but no one ever important in my life."

"Why not?"

Ben breathed in her hair and touched her neck, and Laura pressed her back and buttocks into him. They squirmed for a moment, feeling each other's bodies mesh together. He felt like they were in their own private world. A world with no pain or sorrow or loss. He didn't want to think about it as a fleeting moment. He wanted it to go on, forever.

"Many reasons, I guess. I had a hard childhood and didn't want to get hurt, I suppose. I traveled a lot as well, which made it difficult to have a relationship."

"Or maybe you traveled so you couldn't have a relationship."

He couldn't hide anything from her. "Maybe." He sighed.
Maybe, I'm falling in love with you
. The idea hit him like a rock to his head. He had never thought those words, or felt this way. Laura pulled his arm tighter to her, pressing her fingers hard into him.

"Me too."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm falling in love with you too."

"You heard me?" He turned her toward him.

"For the first time, yes."

Ben stared at her trying to figure her out. Why did she have these special abilities?

"I don't know," she answered and he shook his head.

"I'm going to have to watch what I think now, aren't I? You're an amazing girl."

"Woman." She touched his leg and he felt himself rise up again to his full length. "Not girl."

"My woman."

Ben kissed her, feeling a deep possession of her take over. He knew too, as Laura must know, this night might never happen again. He had no idea what his future held by himself, much less with this woman. But he wanted to unravel the mysteries around her, to know her to her core.

She kissed him back and in one swift movement swung her leg up to sit on him, his throbbing penis pressing into her thigh. She looked so appealing straddling him naked with her hair tussled and her sweet breasts pushing out over his face.

"I told you I want you in me." She held his arms down and leaned over him, licking his chest, her wetness rubbing against his leg. Ben took in a sharp breath as his penis pulsed against her soft thigh.

"We have to use something, Laura. I'm clean but I don't want to get you pregnant."

He reached over and pulled his pants toward him. He moved around in his back pocket, searching, then pulled out his wallet and from inside, a condom.

"Just in case?" She smiled.

"Just in case." She helped him put it on and he flipped her over on her back, holding her buttocks underneath him and pulling her toward him.

"Now, Ben, please don't make me wait anymore. I want to feel all of you."

And so he pushed into her wet heat slowly, suffused with her delicate burning. She flowed beneath him, meeting him half way in the firelight. Shadows leapt across their bodies as they moved together as one, linked by a fiery need and want. Like a rider galloping across a meadow, Ben rode her as she met his steady waves. He stroked her over and over, pulling himself out to rub her tender mound with his tip and inched his way back in again. Laura rolled her head from side to side and squeezed her breasts together so Ben could lick them with each stroke.

He was on fire and couldn't fill her up deep enough. Thrust after fervid thrust. The wind rattled the bare branches against the house in a screeching wail. It rose and dipped with intensity, but they were oblivious to it, consumed only by each other. The fire roared with the wind as well, blowing up hissing flames. Laura cried out with need and want.

"Deeper, Ben, please. Oh, please."

How could he deny her when she asked so nice? And he stroked her longer and deeper, rubbing her nub in slow circles with his thumb. She gasped, and reached around to grasp his buttocks.

"Now, Ben, now!"

With her words he felt the explosion rise inside him he had been keeping at bay, and they shouted together in release. He collapsed on her, their chests sliding together from sweat. This time they both trembled as they held each other, neither wanting to let go.

Laura woke up like she did every morning at Mr. B's, except this time she wasn't alone in her loft bed. The night before came flooding back in a hot, delicious memory as she watched Ben sleep on his side facing her. The room cast dark shadows about from the kitchen light that glowed up into the loft. The clock blinked 5:30 a.m. The sun still waited to appear.

She took in every part of Ben's face. It was the most handsome face she had known. His gray streaked hair fell over his lined forehead. He looked so peaceful. His lean angles carved themselves into her bed as he had carved himself into her the night before. She sensed he hadn't had much peace in his life. She wondered when he would open up to her about it.

She shivered thinking about the things they had done to each other. And she believed, no matter what happened, she would never forget this man. He was kind and gentle and passionate. She sensed this was not the only side to him though. Something dark hid in him.

Ben opened his eyes and they stared at each other for a long moment, both in a state of drowsiness. Then he was holding her and the magic began all over again. He had no protection, but she didn't care. She became swept up in feeling connected skin to skin. Neither spoke as he took her on the edge of the bed. He stood over her as she spread out before him in submission and passion. In a slow dance they moved to their own music, bending and stretching toward each other.