Cupid's Mistake (14 page)

Snugging herself into a corner of the family room couch, she
didn't have long to wait before Ben returned, his hands and face scrubbed clean
and his body divested of the princess gear.

He sat close beside her, the length of his hard-muscled
thigh pressed tightly to hers. He took her hand in his giant one. Bringing it
to his mouth, he kissed her palm and sent electric shocks tripping along her
nerve endings. "You were saying?"

With the softest of touches, she raised his hand in turn and
pressed her lips to the center of his. Ben's arms came around her carefully, as
though he held a delicate flower and feared bruising her petals. Allison
shifted closer yet, until she leaned fully against him, his warmth searing
through her clothing. His heart pounded hard in his chest, a driving beat
beneath her ear, and it made her smile.

He would discover before the night was through that she was
not so fragile. There was a time for tenderness and care, and there was a time
for urgency. For wild, unrestrained desire. Need, demand, passion. They coursed
in her blood, a primitive command. She would take him there, through all the
peaks and valleys of pleasure, the sweet and slow and the hard and fast.

But first. . .

Allison rose to her knees to drape her arm across his
shoulders. She feathered her fingers through the ends of his hair, the silky
texture flowing warm and smooth over her skin.

"I was saying," she began, shifting closer to him,
resting her breasts deliberately against his arm, "I want. . ." and
closer still, "to kiss you."

Breath held, she leaned in, pressed her mouth to his. The
jolt, hard, unmistakable, tore along her spine, immediate and overwhelming. The
sudden tension in Ben's body told her he'd felt it, too.

With one smooth twist, he wrapped his big hands around her
waist and lifted her to straddle him. The width of his body spread her legs
wide over his lap, and the slide of her thighs along the outsides of his shot
heat spiraling from her core. He brought her to rest against the heavy bulge
straining the front of his jeans, need meeting need, and she gasped. His mouth
opened under hers and his tongue delved, sweeping inside to pillage and claim,
taking control of the kiss.

Yes, yes, yes
.

Surrender had never seemed so sweet. No man in her memory
had affected her the way Ben did with a mere glance, a touch of the hand, a
smile. He owned her with a brush of his lips.

Hands wrapped tightly around his neck to anchor herself in
the chaotic whirl of sensations rampaging through her system, Allison gave
herself up to the storm. Ben surrounded her with his brawn, engulfed her with
his heat. His arms banded her to him. Her breasts crushed against the powerful
plane of his chest. The muscles in his thighs bunched, rock hard beneath her
buttocks.

Only the tiny voice reminding her of the presence of
children in the house stopped her from ripping his shirt from his shoulders and
fastening her mouth on his naked skin. Gentling the kiss with effort, she
rested her forehead against his chin, breath heaving.

"Wow," she said, huffing out a weak laugh. Ben
hmmm'd
in agreement, his chest rising and falling in rapid
gulps for air. If there was an emergency, she wasn't sure she'd be able to
stand, much less run. All the muscles seemed to have melted from her bones.

Cupping his face in her hands, Allison searched his eyes.
There were no words between them yet, no promises, but she read what she needed
to see in the depths of hot, needy green.

"Ben," she said, nipping desperately at his mouth,
"I want you to come home with me tonight. When Sally gets back."

He stroked his hands down her sides, searching her eyes in
return. "It's going to be hours still," he said, toying with her lips
with his own. Testing, tasting, nibbling ever so gently. "You'll be
sleeping."

"I'll wait."

"I can't ask you to do that," he murmured against
her mouth. "You need your sleep."

Couldn't he feel her heart racing? Sleep would be impossible.
"I'm—"

The sound of the garage door opening interrupted, and they
jumped apart like guilty teenagers. Catching each others eyes, they both
laughed nervously, but straightened up and tried to look innocent when Sally
came striding in, frustration in every line of her care-worn face.

"Oh," she said, drawing up in surprise. "I
didn't know you were here, Alli. How are you?"

"Good. Thanks."
Please, God, don't let me blush
. "I just came over to say hi to Ben and ended
up staying for a tea party."

"No one says 'no' to the tea party," Sally
acknowledged with a tired sigh.

"Everything all right, Sal?" Ben asked, looking
his cousin over with concern. "I wasn't expecting you back so soon."

"Yeah, we got done early. Or, well, we didn't, but it's
fine, just some loose ends we'll have to take care of next week. Thanks for
watching the girls. I'm beat, though, so you two excuse me if I head straight
to bed."

They made agreeable noises, and Ben said, "I'm just
going to walk Allison home. I might stay for a while."

Sally raised an eyebrow at him but only nodded, evidently
too tired for the witty comebacks she was known for. "All right. Have
fun."

"'Night, Sally," Allison said.

Waving at them both, Sally stopped to check on the girls,
then disappeared into her own room at the end of the hall. Her door closed
quietly. Allison and Ben looked at each other in silence. Matching smiles
spread.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The night air floated California cool, lightly fragranced by
the potted winter daphne on Sally's front porch. The neighborhood hunkered
still and dark, aside from a few widely-spaced streetlamps and the diffused
moonlight shining dully through low clouds. There were stars beyond those
clouds, ones that would never be seen from here, not even on a clear night, as
they'd have to compete with the millions of manmade lights on the ground.

Of all the things Ben missed most from his years of
traveling, it was the sight of a billion stars blazing in a sky untouched by
smog or interfered with by the lights of large cities. He missed the
penetrating silence only found so far from modern man.

Maybe he would take Allison there someday, to one of the
quiet places he'd found. To the staggering, untouched beauty that almost hurt
the eyes in its purity. He pictured her there, on a bed of green, her bright
copper hair wild around creamy shoulders and naked breasts. Her dark blue eyes
melting into his. She staggered him, every bit as much as those magical places.

It was a short walk between Sally's house and Allison's, but
they strolled slowly, hand in hand, savoring the night. The feel of her
delicate fingers in his warmed him with contentment, though his pulse still
raced with anticipation.

He had not mistaken her invitation.

When they reached her door, she turned, rested against the white-painted
frame.

"Ben," she said, her voice low, smoky in the night
air. "You're a big man. Strong." She ran a hand lightly down the
length of his right arm. Her touch made him yearn. "You cared for me when
I was ill. You've seen me at my weakest, my worst."

"Alli—"

"Shhh," she whispered, pressing two fingers to his
lips. "These past few weeks have been. . . have meant a lot. The way
you've helped me. Been with me. But I'm better now." Her hand stroked back
up his arm and onto his chest, coming to rest over his heart. She lifted her
eyes to his, held his gaze. "All better. And I've been waiting."

Stepping forward, she stood mere inches from him, both hands
pressed flat against his chest. Allison tilted her head, maintaining eye
contact. Even in the dark, the electric blue seemed to sizzle, full of secrets
and passions and female power.

She raised on tiptoe to nip his chin with her teeth, and her
hands slid up, up the sides of his neck and into his hair to pull him in for a
kiss, warm and sweet and light. The touch of her plush mouth added a kick to
his speeding pulse.

"I want to make love with you, Ben," she said, the
words falling so softly from her lips, he felt more than heard them. Her breath
coasted over his skin, sweet and hot. "Don't make me wait any more.
Please."

Her kiss, her words arrowed through his belly to his
extremities, then straight to his groin. His body lit up, electrified, as
though the chains of his restraint had been struck by lightning and burned to
ash. Common sense urged caution. It was still too soon, they didn't know each
other that well. They were so different. But his soul disagreed. He knew her,
and he'd already waited far too long.

"Allison. . ."

Pulling her against his body so she wouldn't fail to notice
the hard length of him pressed into her belly, he tightened his arms around her
and held on. Six years of near celibacy had passed in a blur. The memory, the
loneliness faded into nothing against the hard blend of love and lust sitting
tight in his belly, twisting his insides the way it had since their first date.

Sally's earlier interruption had allowed him to regain a
shaky hold on the reins of his self-control. He wanted this night to last, not
end in one quick, albeit intense, burst of heat. He wanted to take his time now
that the moment was at hand.

Finally.

But he had one more thing to say.

Taking her firmly by the shoulders, he pushed her back
against the door. Her gorgeous eyes fixated on his mouth, her lids half closed
over the slumberous blue. Her tiny pink tongue darted out to swipe her bottom
lip, making the muscles in his belly clench. He had to get the words out before
she did him in completely.

"Allison," he said, shaking her just enough to
have her eyes moving up to meet his. "You know I want you."

The slow smile that spread over her lips nearly brought him
to his knees. How had he resisted her these past weeks? He must have reserves
of strength he didn't even know about, but they were rapidly depleting.

"Listen to me." The snap in his voice caught her
attention. "There's a condition."

"Rules, Benjamin?" she whispered, her voice as
husky as ever, but a glint in her eye warned him she was already bracing
against his terms.

"No more men."

Her eyes widened in surprise. Whatever she'd been expecting,
that wasn't it. "What?"

"No more men. If we do this, you're mine. For as long
as we're together." He gripped her chin in his hand, forcing her to meet
his gaze. "I don't share."

The weeks of waiting for Allison's emotions to catch up to
her body had nearly killed him. She wanted him as badly as he wanted her.
Physically. He recognized her frustration, felt it as keenly as his own. But
he'd made her wait, had made them both wait, until he could be sure he'd be
more than just another guy to her. She was used to men coming on to her,
falling at her feet. He'd wanted her to make a clear-eyed decision to come to
him, not just for sex, but for love.

He'd already prepared for the moment, whenever it might
happen. Had trusted that it would.

Tonight, he'd finally seen what he'd been waiting for in her
eyes. The wait had been worth it to know he was her choice. Him, not just his
body. Now he'd find out just how deep that choice went.

Allison gripped the hand he used to hold her chin.
"When it matters, Ben, I don't share, either. No more men."

Then she fused her mouth to his in a kiss that blew through
him like a forest fire, cindering any remaining doubts and sealing their vow.

In a few short weeks, she'd burrowed inside him, and now it
was as though she'd always been there, always belonged there, nestled inside
his heart. Fate had gifted him with a second chance. At life. At love. He'd be
damned if he'd squander it. Cupid's arrow had found its mark.

Maybe she wasn't all the way there yet, all the way in love
with him, but there would be no more waiting.

She would expect the lust, the flash and fire, the speed and
urgency. He knew her reputation. She'd told him some of it herself, and Sally
had filled in the blanks. Casual flings and easy, friendly hookups with little
substance had been Allison's M. O. for a long time. Not romance. Not
relationships.

Not love.

Ben meant to change that tonight. The nerves still dancing
in her eyes pleased him. Those nerves indicated a desire for something deeper,
more meaningful. They gave him hope and told him he was on the right track. He
wouldn't be just another entry in her mental database.

He wanted to be the final one, the first and only in a new
ledger. A fresh start.

So he would give her the slow burn, the smooth glide. The
tender and timeless, the ache before the flash. He would woo her with romance,
cherish her body and soul with the endless swell of love in his heart.

Soothing the wild kiss to soft, slow nibbles, he shifted
their embrace into the smooth and steady, enjoying the feel of her thrumming against
him with need—all subtle curves and slender strength wrapped inside an
electrical storm. He'd take these moments to learn her body, her pleasures,
despite his own body's clamoring.

Skimming his thumbs over the fragile angles of her
cheekbones, he tucked her riot of curls behind her ears, then traced the
delicate pink shells, skating over the golden knots decorating her lobes. Her
skin, impossibly soft, warmed beneath his touch, and her eyelids fluttered
closed for his kiss, one gentle press on each lid. He nuzzled the sensitive
spot below her ear, drawing in her spicy scent as he kissed his way slowly down
the slender column of her throat. Her pulse beat frantically against his lips.

"Be with me, Ben," she whispered.

CHAPTER
NINE

Allison's hands, surprisingly strong, clung to his
shoulders, searing him through the fabric of his shirt. Her head fell back on a
moan, exposing more of her neck for his kisses. The urge to ravish clawed its
way up from his belly, but he put a stranglehold on it, yanked it back. There
would be time for that. Years. Decades. This time, their first time, required
savoring. Reverence.