Seven Years of Bad Luck (24 page)

“I’ll stay.”

“You’re mine,” he reiterated. He curled into me, pushing me back upright then flipped me so he was on top. His body and personality so easily dominated mine, and I was beginning to love it. I was beginning to love
him
, and it petrified me. I wrapped my legs high on his waist, and he thrust back into me, hard. His erection drove deep into me and stole the breath from my lungs. The weight of his body pressed me into the mattress. Sweat misted his skin. I drank him in through every pore, through every cell in my body. We filled each other with wild, raw, unrestrained passion. We both drank from each other hungrily, greedily. We were determined to battle away our respective demons. His lips went to my neck and nipped, kissed, and sucked at my skin. A tightening began to grow deep in my core. I knew I would soon fall to pieces beneath my lonely lover.

“Ah, Ben!”

“That’s it baby, right there.” Not another ten seconds passed before I did more than fall to pieces. I dissolved beneath him. Blood rushed through my veins as Ben wrung me out. My body shook. My eyes rolled back. My breathing stalled. My back arched into him. My center pulsed and clenched tightly around Ben’s impressive length, and he too, fell apart not a moment after me. We took time to calm our strained breathing before Ben withdrew from me. He kissed me… lovingly? What I got from that kiss was likely exactly what he was attempting to express. Gratitude. Gratitude for fighting away the loneliness and giving myself to him, for the night.
Just for the night.
Or so I thought. Ben lay beside me, stomach down, slightly crooked to allow his head to lay on my chest. His ear was to my heart, and I lazily stroked his hair and waited for him to give in to sleep. Less than ten minutes. That’s how long it took me to coax my lonely lover off to slumber. His eyes were shut, his weight became heavier against me, his muscles relaxed, his breathing became steady and deep.

“Sleep now,” I whispered while stick stroking his soft wavy locks. The sight of his eyes closed in peaceful sleep, knowing I had given him that, warmed my heart. I watched him sleep for what had to be about an hour before I tried to ease him off of me. The moment I tried peeling his leaden arm from across my waist, it tightened reflexively, and drew me nearer.

Oh my Ben, I’m not leaving.

I stretched to the point of pain to reach my cell phone that sat on Ben’s nightstand. I reached it and righted myself again. I opened the browser on my smart phone and got to work.

Okay. Time to find out who this John guy is and if Ben has anything to do with him.

I typed his name, John Murray, into the search engine. Multiple results popped up. Mostly news articles. It would seem that Mr. Murray was having difficulty staying out of the news recently. I tapped my thumb on the first article I saw.

‘John Murray, prominent investment firm executive, was brought in for further questioning this week. Police gave a brief statement informing the press that the death of William Kemp, Mr. Murray’s business partner, was considered ‘suspicious.’ Police say that further investigation into the death of Mr. Kemp is underway and no official persons of interest have been named in association with his death. The autopsy declared the cause of death to be an accidental overdose. Mr. Kemp’s widow also released a statement to the press insisting that Mr. Kemp’s death was not an accident and that she had reason to believe there was foul play involved…’

“Whoa,” I muttered quietly, careful not to disturb Ben. I didn’t want to wake him from a peaceful sleep, but I mostly didn’t want him to see that I took it upon myself to snoop into something he specifically told me to stay out of. I was sure I didn’t want to see Ben angry. The article was dated two months ago. I searched his name again. This time I added a search for properties affiliated with his name. Multiple results came up. I decided I would drive by those properties and see what I could find. I wasn’t quite sure why, but I felt the need to dig deeper into this John Murray character. Research had always been one of my strengths. I could locate and dig up information on just about anyone. Specifically information that a person would prefer kept buried. I researched all I could on my phone that night until the battery finally died. The next morning, my stomach woke me from a deep restful sleep to an empty bed.

“Love this bed,” my hoarse morning voice croaked out. I slipped on Ben’s shirt that was discarded on the floor from the night before. I smiled while fondly remembering the previous night’s escapades. My nose led to the kitchen where I saw my shirtless lover whisking a sauce of some sort that looked simply decadent.

“Yum.” Ben lifted his head from what he was doing and smiled broadly at me.

Oh shit! I probably look terrible.

“Good morning. Come here.” I rounded the counter and came to a stop in front of him. His bare muscular arms encased me. He leaned forward and pressed his lips to mine. I ran my hands through his damp, tussled hair.

Must’ve showered already.

“Thank you for staying.”

“You practically kidnapped me. I can’t say I minded much, though.” I winked, and he released me.

“I made you my signature crepes with rum caramel sauce and fresh strawberries.” Ben plated my food and slid it in front of me at the breakfast nook.

“Oh. My. God. Marry me! This looks and smells out of this world. You are spoiling me now. I love crepes.” I laughed.

Ben said nothing. I glanced up to him as I put the first fork full into my mouth. I froze. He stood leaning against the counter watching me closely. The look on his face was one I couldn’t name exactly, but I knew it had everything to do with my teasing ‘marry me’ comment. I realized my mistake and averted my eyes back to my plate immediately and did my best not to clam up.

“Why aren’t you eating?”

“I already ate after I worked out this morning.”

“Oh. Shoot, Ben, you have to take me back to my place. You didn’t pack any of my work clothes last night. I have nothing to wear!” I began to eat hurriedly.

“Relax, baby. I have something for you.”

“How?” I asked incredulously.

He smiled slyly. “I bought you some things to keep here remember?”

“Oh. Yeah. Okay. But why would you do that?”

He shrugged. “I guess I don’t want you to have a reason to go home. I’m happy when you’re here.”

I am too
. I stared at him, not knowing how to respond to his honest words.

“Take your time, Kathleen. I’m the boss, remember?”

“I can’t ride with you to work. People will notice.”

“Doesn’t matter. Besides, I am pretty sure a few people have an idea that we are… involved.”

Involved?

“Fine,” I conceded to him. I cleaned my plate in record time and we both ascended the stairs to get ready for work. I showered and then dressed in a great black two piece suit that he had bought for me. The pencil skirt fit like a glove, of course, as did the lilac blouse, suit jacket and heels.

“Ben, honestly, you can’t spend money on me like this. My tab with you is growing exponentially. Geez! This stuff is pricey.” I huffed at my reflection in the mirror.

“The price is irrelevant. You don’t owe me anything, but if you insist on repaying me, promise to stay at my house this week. I have to go out of town this afternoon. I won’t be back until Thursday morning. I’m sure Cheyenne won’t mind.”

Absolutely! Perfect. Time to snoop.

I did a better job of showing reluctance on the outside.

“I don’t know, although I doubt Cheyenne will care. She spends every free moment with Tucker. She practically lives with him now,” I muttered grumpily thinking about my AWOL best friend.

“If she won’t be at your apartment, you are definitely staying here. I don’t want you alone while I’m gone.” As if he read my mind and knew I would love nothing more than to stay at his house, he smiled devilishly. “I’ll get you a spare key and give you the information for the security system. Cleaning staff will be here tomorrow morning. They won’t bother you. I will leave a message with the agency to let them know that I have a house guest.”

Before we left Ben’s home for work, he attached a spare key to his home to my key ring and gave me a slip of paper with the security code information on it. He quickly gave me a tutorial on how to operate the system. Once he was satisfied that I had it down, we left for work.

I spent the morning waiting patiently on Ben to leave for the airport. I felt guilty pretending to be disappointed to be without him for a couple of days, but I had snooping to do. Having Ben out of town would allow me to dig into John Murray, undisturbed.

Talk about screwed up priorities.

“So fucked up, Kat,” I muttered to myself in my little office. Just before lunch, Ben called me over intercom and asked that I take him to the airport. I doubted he needed me to take him. It was obvious to me that he wanted a moment or two alone with me. I didn’t mind in the slightest.

“Ready?” I asked Ben.

“As I’ll ever be. Let’s go.” As we walked through the parking lot to Ben’s SUV, we passed Janis, Trevor’s secretary. Ben didn’t look in her direction, but I did. She looked at me with absolute disdain.

No love lost there.

In response to her dirty look, I smiled brightly at her and waved as if we were the best of friends. Her expression never faltered. I had no idea why that woman made my skin crawl, but she did. It was obvious that she was fixated on Ben, but I had a nasty feeling that told me that there was more to the story. This woman may have had a crush, but she also seemed to hate me on a very personal level despite the fact that she didn’t even know me. Never mind the fact that it wasn’t like I was making my involvement with Ben very obvious. We had both agreed to be discreet, and as far as I was concerned, we were indeed being pretty discreet. I wasn’t making out with him in front of anyone, holding his hand or calling him by a pet name. Definitely pretty discreet given the reality of our situation which was two people who were undeniably attracted to each other and had amazing physical chemistry.

Ben glanced over to me in the passenger seat, smiled warmly and gave my thigh, just above my knee, a squeeze. His SUV glided to a stop in the passenger drop-off zone at the airport entrance.

“One more thing,” he said as he pressed a button on his dash. The sound of a ringing phone filled the space around us.

“Trevor Whitmore’s office. This is Janis.”

Witch!

“Janis, this is Mr. Chase, please inform Trev that Kathleen Cooper will be staying at my home while I’m away on business, and I need him to make sure that if she needs anything, he sees to it.”

Dammit. So much for discretion!

“Yes, sir.” The line went dead, and I wasted not a moment. I was ready to pounce on him for tossing my privacy out of the window. I was sure to be the talk of the office thanks to him.

“What in the hell—” He leaned over the console, gripped the nape of my neck in his firm grasp, and pulled me to him. His mouth covered mine, effectively silencing me with a deep kiss. His tongue plundered my mouth, and his kiss effortlessly stole my breath. His lips broke away, but his forehead rested against mine.

“I’m going to miss you, Kathleen.” My only response was the shallow uneven breathing that I did my best to reign in.

I pulled back from him a fraction. “Why in the hell did you do that?”

“You can’t get mad at me for wanting to brag a little, that woman I’m crazy about is living under my roof.”

I shook my head and wagged my finger at him. “No, no, no. This is only for a few days.”

“See you Thursday morning, baby.” Then he slid from the car, snatched up his bag, and made quick strides into the airport. I watched him until he was gone.

Baby. There it is again
.

I walked around the car to get into the driver’s seat and get back to the office. I made about a half a dozen adjustments to the seat before my feet finally reached the pedals, and I was off to work. Again. Before going back to work I stopped by my apartment and packed a bag for my stay at Ben’s house, including comfy pajamas, my Kindle, a few toiletries, and my birth control. I would definitely need that since Ben and I were doing… whatever we were doing. I decided to drive past a few of the properties associated with John Murray on my way back to work. One was a rundown looking warehouse, a swanky home which I assumed to be his primary residence, and an office building.

Why in the world would he have a crappy warehouse in an industrial zone?

This property perplexed me. I couldn’t see how this man would have any business owning such a property on the outskirts of Dallas. I found it odd to say the least. When I arrived back at work, I spent the remainder of my day digging deeper into the mystery of John Murray. I found contact information for the wife of his deceased partner, Mr. Kemp, and then I called her.

“Mrs. Kemp, I know this may sound odd, but I would like to ask a few questions about your husband and his involvement with Mr. John Murray. I am not with the police or press. I am just doing some research. I’m a freelance writer and… I uh, I’m doing research,” I lied pathetically. The old widow either didn’t care what my motivation was, or bought my poorly delivered lie.