Dating Dr Notorious (21 page)

Lauren patted Regina’s hand and smiled. “Jim informed me that he couldn’t be my friend, then kissed me like there hadn’t been anyone before me and wouldn’t be anyone after. I’m convinced now he’s not what he seems. Now I want to know the truth.”

“I wish I could tell you his story, but I can’t,” Regina told her regretfully.

“No worries,” Lauren said, patting Regina’s arm. “Keep your ethics, Dr. Logan. I think I’m going to enjoy finding out for myself.”

“Good for you,” Regina told her. “I can tell you Jim’s totally worth it.”

“No kidding. The man is rusty but still had some really good moves,” Lauren said teasingly, smiling at the women she admired. “You two may have to teach me how to flirt though. I said some really stupid things tonight. My face was probably red the whole time I talked with him.”

“You’ll be fine,” Regina assured her. “It’s like riding a bike. You don’t forget, but you wobble a bit when you first start riding again.”

“So what do you think?” Lauren asked Alexa, knowing she had dated Jim.

“I think I throw a hell of great party,” Alexa bragged, hugging Lauren tightly. “Even Saint McCarthy got a hicky out of it.”

For the first time since she’d known them, Lauren fervently wished she could be even half as notorious as either of her outrageous friends. It would make what she intended to do so much easier.

Alexa and Casey’s engagement party Saturday night had been fun, but exhausting.

Now it was a perfect, lazy Sunday afternoon in Ben’s condo, the kind only good for naps and watching TV. Since neither of them liked TV much, Ben was napping on the couch with his feet tucked in Regina’s lap as she was reading one of the thriller novels she liked. She had told him there was nothing better than murder and mayhem to clear the cobwebs out of her brain.

Ben opened his eyes to see Regina intensely reading while she absently rubbed one of his feet. He was as love struck with Regina as he had ever been with anyone in his life. He closed his eyes and sighed heavily.

“Damn it, Regina. I want to do this with you for the rest of my life.” Ben opened his eyes again as the book hit his feet on its way down from her face.

“How can you appear to be sleeping when your mind is churning? Why are you angry?” Then fully processing what Ben had said, Regina lightly smacked the bottom of the foot she was rubbing. “That wasn’t exactly the polished marriage proposal I expected from a man like you.”

“That declaration of frustration was definitely not a marriage proposal. It was more like the beginning of a heated discussion, maybe even a fight.” Ben swung his feet out of her lap. “I’m getting tired of the problems between us being created by people other than us. I want to fight with you over the way the toilet paper is hung, not over someone writing fiction about us in the newspaper.”

“Personally, I’ve always thought toilet paper should roll from the top,” Regina said easily, trying to sound reasonable while struggling not to laugh. Even as she joked, she linked her fingers with Ben’s to offer her agreement with the rest of his statement.

Ben looked at her twinkling eyes and sighed again. Regina’s keen sense of humor was just one of the many things he enjoyed about her. “See? I think toilet paper should roll from the top, too. Why is it so hard for us to be together then?”

Ben stood to pace in front of her with his hands in his pockets.

Regina wanted nothing more at the moment than to find a way to make Ben feel better. “Well, I don’t think people who read celebrity gossip magazines care whether you and I agree on the issue of hanging toilet paper,” she offered logically, finally giving in to laughter at the ridiculousness of the conversation.

“Well, they should,” Ben said, irritated, giving in to the laughter himself and coming back to sit close to her. “It’s hundreds of little things like hanging toilet paper that make a relationship good or bad for the long haul.”

Regina smiled at how intuitively right Ben was, probably from having successfully navigated a long-term relationship himself.

“I agree with you completely, Benjamin. Good relationships are made from the hundreds of little agreements between people,” Regina said.

She hooked her arm through his and laid her head on his shoulder. He kissed her forehead and put his chin in her hair.

“I’m going to figure this publicity thing out for us, Regina. There has to be a way for us to be together that doesn’t harm the people we care about. Do you believe I can solve our problem?” he asked.

When Regina raised her face to his, Ben saw fear and doubt, but also hope. He was sad that not a lot of people had come through for Regina in her life. It made him more determined to be one person who did.

Regina put an arm around Ben’s shoulders and hugged. “I believe you love me enough to try, which is more than I ever thought I would have with a man. I know it’s my job causing the problems for us. I’m happy for every day you don’t run away from our problems or me.”

Ben lifted Regina into his lap and wrapped his arms around her. He lay down with her on the couch and tucked them together. She barely struggled anymore no matter how macho he acted with her. It was incredibly arousing and incredibly loving.

Ben hugged her tight and sighed against her.

Regina snuggled closer, sighing herself at the comfort Ben brought to her. “I’ve thought about fading back a little in my field, Ben. The problem is my work isn’t done yet. Being out front in my field draws a lot of publicity bullets, but it also draws hundreds of people to hear what I have to say. I am helping people. I know I make a difference. If I wasn’t so sure, I would find other work and just be content to be your wife.”

Ben tightened his jaw as he stroked a hand down her back. Lauren had been absolutely right. He was never going to be able to have Regina without taking Dr. Logan as well.
Fine
, Ben decided. He wanted all of her anyway.

“Now that I know you, I could never ask you to give up your work. I admire all you’ve accomplished. You handle the press badgering you or a room full of doctors arguing with you the same confident way you drive a car. I find all of it sexy and wouldn’t change any of it. You’ve fought too damn hard to get where you are to give your work up for anyone,” Ben said logically, “including me.”

It was amazing, Regina decided, just how much she had longed for those words from someone in her life, and equally amazing the effect hearing them from Ben had on her.

She wanted to cry, and cry hard, but crying wouldn’t help either of them. So she swallowed the tears, promising herself she’d indulge later. She cleared her throat against Ben’s chest.

“Yeah, you say that, Benjamin, but this guy I’m involved with is not like normal guys. He’s really—well, he’s really hung, you know. He’s an animal in bed and has made me his sex slave. I’d do a lot to keep him in my life,” she said sincerely, laughing into Ben’s shoulder as he groaned and rolled her under him.

“No man is worth so much sacrifice, even if he is a sex god.” Ben smothered her laughter with his mouth, his tongue dancing against hers.

When Regina could finally free her mouth, she laughed and exclaimed loudly, “I definitely did not say the man was a sex god.”

“Yes, you did. In fact, you call me one all the time,” Ben informed her sincerely, kissing her again and pulling off the yoga pants she wore even while she squirmed under him, still laughing.

Once he had them completely off, Ben moved down her body, kissing her stomach, her thighs, and finally the area he most wanted. He licked inside her, taking more advantage when she arched up against his mouth.

“Oh my god—Ben!” Regina called, made delirious by the talent of yet another surprisingly large feature of his body. She laughed and wondered what else she had yet to learn about him.

Ben stopped a moment to laugh against her. “See? I told you. You call me a sex god all the time.”

Regina groaned at being caught with her own words, and laughed even as his tongue delved deep inside her, intent on plundering all her secrets.

It rarely happened, but Ben had verbally bested her. Regina laughed and arched, calling his name over and over, laughing harder at how careful she had to be to not say more.

Now and again she felt Ben chuckle in the middle of what he was doing. Regina laughed and climaxed at the same time, wondering how in the world such a thing was even possible. Ben’s talents exceeded her research.

Maybe he was a sex god
, she thought, laughing even more.

Ben freed himself from his pants and was moving hard inside Regina before her laughter faded.

“You absolutely own me, Ben Kaiser,” Regina told him, wrapping her legs happily around him, encouraging him to take what he needed, to find what he wanted within her.

Ben watched Regina building to another climax, her face flushed still from the first one. And with every long, possessive stroke, he promised himself he was going to find a way to marry his notorious woman without harming anyone else he loved.

Jim Gallagher stood on a 30-ft extension ladder in the main warehouse of Ben’s company with sweat flowing freely from every pore, his tee shirt drenched. He held one end of a cable trough that would hold the wiring for the new security alarm Casey had chosen.

Ben stood on another ladder about 12 feet across from him, handling a massive 18-volt half-inch hammer-drill like he did it every day. The sweatier Ben got, the more his tee shirt revealed some surprising facts to Jim.

“Kaiser, can I ask you a personal question?”

“Sure,” Ben answered, shrugging. “I need to get used to having my privacy invaded. What the hell? Ask away.”

Jim laughed. “Well, now I see you’re so open, I’m rethinking my original question. There’s actually a lot I’d like to know about Regina.”

Ben smiled wickedly. “Right, like I’d talk about her. Have you ever seen Regina mad?”

“No, but I’ve seen her drive a car,” Jim told him with an exaggerated sigh, smiling broadly at Ben’s low laugh.

“I begged, but Regina wouldn’t date me,” Jim lied, teasing him.

Casey stood below them laughing at the conversation, but also hoping neither of them fell off the ladders. They were both older than he was and not exactly used to this type of manual labor. Still, he wasn’t going to risk climbing on a ladder, not after getting run over by car a few months ago. The hip replacement surgery had gone well, and his physical therapy was giving him more mobility than he’d had since he got hurt the first time.

If he was going to go up to the ceiling of 30-ft warehouses for a living, he’d buy a damn cherry picker and install it on a utility pickup.

Ben finished his side and climbed down. “Hang on. I need to move the ladder closer to you.”

It took Ben about two minutes to go down and back up. He was loading a screw on the magnetic drill bit when he noticed Jim staring at him again.

“How old are you?” Jim demanded of Ben finally.

“Turned 50 on my last birthday. Why?”

“I’m forty-two. You sure as hell don’t look 50. You look as good as Casey.” Jim looked down at the man standing below them.

“Thanks.” Casey said, and then put his hands on his hips when he thought about it. “Wait, was that a compliment or were you being sarcastic?”

Jim and Ben both laughed. “It was a compliment,” Jim told him.

Ben put in the first screw. “I work out with weights a few times a week, been doing it for several years now. I don’t do it now for the same reasons as when I started, but I still like the results.”

“Seeing you makes me want to put a weight room in my house,” Jim said.

“Muscle tone comes back faster than you think once you get started,” Ben told him, loading another screw. “There. You can let go now. I’ll get the other two.”

Jim was immensely relieved to lower his arms at last.

Ben made short work of the last two screws and climbed down the ladder to a point where Casey could reach him. “Pass up the sensor. We’re ready.”

Sensor in hand, Ben climbed back up. Jim helped secure the wiring in place, while Ben secured the small motion sensor to the outside seal of the skylight.

“What’s the sensor do out there?” Jim asked.

“Hopefully it will shock the hell out of would-be thieves. Opening the window won’t activate it, but if anyone drops through the window, it will set off the alarm. Because the sensor is not on the seal of the window, it lets us open the skylights for ventilation during the day while the building stays secure. It’s a much better design than we had before.”

Ben hooked the drill on the ladder. “Done, Casey. We’re ready to test.”

Casey walked to a laptop computer plugged into a new electrical box mounted near the main warehouse door. He tapped a few keys to activate the alarm. “Now wave your hand about a foot in front of the sensor.”

Casey looked up to watch Ben stretching out over the ladder a bit to do as he asked. He should have asked Jim, who was a good half foot taller than Ben to do it, but Jim looked like he was barely hanging on. He prayed the sensor worked the first time so the men could both climb down. They had no safety equipment. OSHA would have Ben’s or his ass if they caught them working without it.

And on top of all that, Casey was getting gray hair just watching them.

An ear piercing noise like a hundred car horns and police sirens filled the air. Casey laughed and typed quickly to turn it off. “Good job up there. Now get the hell down. I’m too young for a heart attack.”

When the older men hit the floor, Casey walked over to take the drill from Ben, grinning as several others in the warehouse rushed forward to grab the ladders. He hadn’t been the only one concerned for Ben’s safety. Benjamin Kaiser was beloved in his company, as much father figure as CEO.

Working in the warehouse for a couple of days, Casey had learned Ben just about single-handedly made the goals of the founders come true times ten in the business. The very successful business was run by family and hired family first. If they didn’t work out they were made history fast, but if they performed well, they had a job for life. It was the damnedest setup Casey had ever seen.