Stony Creek Hero [Stony Creek 2] (Siren Publishing Classic) (10 page)

He definitely was in need of a drink and had better stop and pick up a bottle of wine or two as well on his way to her house. Shit, now he was being all considerate and was starting to think like a girl.

“I think he is done for, Dad,” Ben heard Jackson snidely tell their father.

Bill just smiled at Ben. “She is a good one. It is about time. I am going to go talk to your mother about this. She will know how to handle things.”

Ben looked up, roused again from his daydreaming to see his father riding off toward the main house. He swung his gaze in his brother’s direction only to see the arrogant moron grinning like an idiot.

“What?” he yelled out at him.

“Just you look like you have been possessed by a romantic sap instead of my usual cool woman-eating brother. Who are you and where did Ben go?” Jackson laughed out.

“I don’t know. She is just an amazing woman. I am just helping her out for a while and enjoying spending some time with her is all.”

“Uh-huh,” Jackson mumbled in response again.

“Shut up and stop thinking so hard, Jackson.”

“Sorry I disrespected Lizzie unintentionally before. I didn’t know you were thinking about her. I wouldn’t do that to Lizzie and sure as hell wouldn’t want my future wife to know that I insulted her best friend. Poor Billie has been sick with some sort of virus all week.”

“No worries, you didn’t know. I am sorry Billie isn’t feeling well. Damn, what is the point of being the town’s doctor if you can’t fix yourself? What the hell is the woman-eating crack about though? You have fucked twice the number of women I have in your life, buddy.” Ben laughed out.

Jackson’s face resumed its regularly scheduled programming of confident arrogance. “Probably have, and don’t you forget it, junior. My fiancée likes my skills. Shit, you had better not ever mention anything like that to her or I am dead meat, man.”

“Heh heh. Grovel, man, you had better learn to grovel. Gotta go. I have a call to make.” Ben started laughing like an idiot as he turned Cuff to ride off.

Ben glanced over his shoulder only to notice that Jackson was staring suspiciously at the retreating backside of Cuff as Ben started to canter away.

“Who are you calling, asshole?”

Ben threw over his shoulder while laughing. “Gotta make a doctor’s appointment!”

Jackson just grinned for a moment thinking of his fuckable little future wife. “Shit!”

Darn it, she forgot to get Ben some beer. Maybe that was a good thing as she had no idea what brand he liked anyway. Tonight could be one of those fact-finding missions on many levels. Yup, she was on mission impossible, Agent Carmichael, out to infiltrate the inner mechanisms of Benjamin Powell’s psyche. Good thing she had some foolproof secret weapons that all women possess—breasts, butt, and a very aroused pussy whenever he was around.

Giggling silently, she knew that she had outdone herself. The whole house smelled delicious thanks to sausage and gruyere-cheese-stuffed mushrooms, double-crusted fried zucchini sticks and a humungous pot of homemade mac and cheese made with three cheeses and her special secret crust. Her hips were expanding just inhaling the fumes, but she knew that Ben burned off all those calories and more with all the work he did daily on the Rugged Hill Ranch. That man didn’t have an ounce of fat on that delectable six-pack that was sadly hidden under his clothes. He really should run around shirtless more. Boy did she know. It was that particular six-pack that was partly integral to the perma-smile that she had been sporting for the last two days.

Shaking her head in order to clear her wayward thoughts, she knew she had to get her tush in gear. She was running behind due to the unruly behavior of her practically senile oven and geriatric excuse for a stove. Well, even with their misbehaving, she managed to pull out all the necessary stops to make a certain Powell appetite sinfully satisfied with the food and hopefully the special “dessert” she had planned.

Suddenly the lights in her house flashed and a huge “pszzzt” sound emanated from outside. What the heck? Feeling a momentary fission of fear, she went into the kitchen and grabbed a flashlight. Anyone who was going to try to attack her was going to get blinded first. As she approached the door, Lizzie realized two things at once. One, her flashlight batteries were dead and two, she was still wearing her red thigh-high silk robe as she was running late, as usual. Shoot. She was very thankful at that moment to Ben for fixing the broken lock on her door.

As she reached in the dark for the knob, she let out an ear-piercing scream as a hard knock sounded at the door simultaneously. She jumped backward only to trip over the leg of the chair by the door. Subsequently she dropped the flashlight as she hit her behind very hard on the floor, causing her to let out another scream to mingle with the sound of the glass on the flashlight breaking. Lizzie lay on the floor stunned that so much could happen in the matter of only a few seconds!

* * * *

Ben had stood outside Lizzie’s house for a few moments, taking in the chipped paint around the door and loose shingles. Shoot, he could fix this for her in just a weekend or two. He decided to add that to his “Lizzie to-do” list in addition to fixing the leaks in her roof, the broken tiles on her floor, and fucking her into another pleasure coma. Yup, sounded like a pretty organized list to him. He took a deep breath and let out a loud sigh of pleasure. He could definitely scent cheesy, fried goodness emanating from her home. Who cared about broken anythings when she could cook like an angel? To his chagrin, he had taken far more care than usual in dressing for dinner with her tonight. Instead of just an old T-shirt and jeans, his usual casual uniform, he actually tried a little for his new “partner.” A black pearl-button shirt, black cowboy hat, pressed jeans, and polished black boots completed what he hoped was up to her approval.

Damn, he really was getting soft if he actually gave a shit about a woman’s approval. She, on the other hand, had always looked good to him. She always looked good wearing clothing that fitted her slim, curvaceous form to perfection, trendy and stylish, but something had lit a fire under his little lady this week. He practically was drooling after setting his eyes on her sexier wardrobe choices from Monday. Hell, her succulent breasts were practically begging for his touch. He couldn’t wait to get his mouth around her nipples. Would they be pinkish or peachy? His cock jumped in anticipation of possibly finding out the answer and soon. He knocked on her door with enthusiasm.

Suddenly a scream shattered the quietness of the night air. He heard what sounded like a scuffle of moving furniture, glass breaking, and another scream from Lizzie. Rage like he had never felt before exploded through his system, making thought impossible as he flung the flowers and wine to the ground.

“Lizzie!” he hollered at the top of his lungs.

He backed up two feet and just rammed himself right through her door, breaking it clear out of the frame. He was expecting to have to place an immediate call to Sly Mulligan or Nat Winston, sheriff and deputy respectively, as he was about to kill someone. The house was pitch black when he heard the sweetest sound in the world call out to him.

“Please don’t step on me, Ben. I am down here.”

Ben was about to tear through her house in an effort to get to her when he heard her. He shifted his gaze down to the floor where he spied her in the dimness as his eyes adjusted.

“Baby, let me get you out of here. You are safe now. Where is the fucker? I won’t let anything happen to you. Come out you, asshole!”

“Ben.”

“Ssh, Lizzie, I am trying to hear where he is.”

“Ben.”

“Baby, I can’t hear when you are talking.”

“Ben!”

“What?”

“There isn’t anyone here. I tripped while trying to go find out why the power went out when you knocked. I got startled, tripped over the chair, broke the flashlight, and that’s all. I swear.”

“No one hurt you, baby?” he growled out, almost unwilling to believe her simple explanation, his protective need to hurt someone riding him hard.

“No one hurt me except myself. I injured my butt and my pride,” she said sheepishly.

Ben squatted down in front of her, his eyes having adjusted well to the dark. She was an angel. No, a sex siren meant to enslave him. She lay sprawled out on her back while slightly leaning up on her elbows. Her legs were bent at the knees and spread apart, affording him a jaw-dropping view of her smooth pussy. His breath caught as he was unable to tear his eyes from it. If he lowered completely to his knees, he could lean forward and run his tongue up and down her slit, tasting her decadence for the first time. Fuck. He had to get ahold of himself. His cock hardened, jerking to life as he just barely made out a slight glisten as she must have realized the suggestiveness of her current position and his apparent interest. She really must lust after him as he was dying for her. Shit. He could manage his own raging lust only by a thread. How the hell was he going to control hers? Shaking his head to hopefully clear his thoughts he swooped in with one arm behind her back and the other under her knees, lifting right off the floor.

“Ben, put me down or you will break your back.”

He gave her a look that basically said that he thought she was crazy.

“Why are the lights out?”

“If you had listened, you big lug, you would have heard me say that is why I had the flashlight. I was going to investigate.”

He let out a snort and then got angry. “Dressed like that?” He didn’t mean to yell that out but he couldn’t believe that if she suspected that someone might be outside her home, not only was she going to confront the person but that she was going to do it only in that damned robe as well!

“Where are the candles, Lizzie?”

“They are in the kitchen. Put me down and I will go light a few so you don’t hit anything. Ben, put me down. Are you listening to me? Hello?”

Ben marched himself right into her cozy little kitchen and sat her on the counter trying desperately to ignore the feel of her naked curves under the barely there material. He felt his fingers brush by the side of her breast and the naked skin under her thighs where the robe didn’t cover. She shivered slightly as well, making him very aware of her body’s response to his touch. Fuck! He could have her spread out on the counter and eat her for dinner instead of the food. She smelled like jasmine and that incredible scent of woman.

Lizzie reached over and lit two candles from the stove burners. At least they all still worked. She laughed silently to herself. Sheepishly, she raised her eyes to look at her would-be savior. Wow, he looked good enough to eat. His shirt stretched tightly across the rock-hard expanse of his muscular chest. He was one of the few men in the world to possess one of those broad and long upper bodies that made him look like a Greek god. His shirt was tucked into jeans that made him look like a sin one would need to confess for, how they displayed his huge erection in every detail. Darn it. Maybe she would be just a notch on his bedpost because right now, he was the only water that could end her drought. He was delectable. Men didn’t have the right to make a woman’s heart flutter the way hers was right now. She put her hand over her heart in a silent gesture to calm herself down. She looked up into his eyes and was taken aback by the blazing emotion that she saw in them. It was a mixture of lust and rage, not a good combination on other men but since she had all the trust in the world for Ben, it was an aphrodisiac like nothing she could imagine. Right there on her counter, she felt arousal begin to pour from her as his hands slid gently down her arms. Tingles followed every inch that they touched as he just stood there trying to regain some semblance of control.

“Why are you still wearing your barely there robe to check on potential intruders?”

“I was running late, Ben, not trying to entice whoever you think might have been out there.”

“Well, you shouldn’t walk around the house alone wearing that thing,” Ben ground out through his clenched teeth.

“Why not?”

“Because.”

“Because why?”

“Just because!”

“Because why, Ben?”

“I said so, that’s why.”

“So.”

“So what?” Ben almost yelled out exasperated with the ridiculous conversation they were having.

Lizzie started laughing at the inane conversation and his frustration with her attire. “You are acting like a man who is possessed, Ben.” Lizzie shifted her hand to her hip and gave him a death stare. “What is really the problem here, Ben? Just find your inner girl and actually communicate for heaven’s sake already! It’s not going to kill you, you know.”

With no warning, Ben suddenly gripped her by lapels of her robe and pulled her silk-encased body flush with his as her wet thighs spread to cradle his hips. His mouth descended onto hers with his barely restrained arousal guiding his actions. Their mouths blended together as her hands slid up the front of his chest caressing his muscular form, eliciting a groan from him as her hands roamed his heated flesh. She finally was able to touch and explore his body as she liked and if he had to guess from her response, she definitely liked what she found. He felt arrogant pride as he heard her moan into his mouth as he sucked her tongue into the recesses of his mouth while allowing his right hand to slide over the silk to roughly cup her breast in his palm. His fingers tried to close over the entire plump globe as he massaged, molded, and savored the feeling of finally touching her the way his mind and body were telling him that he needed to. Over and over his finger plucked at her nipple which was ripping erotic mewls of pleasure from the back of her throat. His other hand yanked up the back of the robe, forcing her to sit with her bare cheeks against the cool countertop. He knew evilly that the cold would sensitize her further as the heat from her arousal would war with the cool sensation. Not for long as his other hand eased over the top of her thighs as he tilted her back so his hungry eyes could graze her smooth mound. He growled from the decadent sensations pummeling his body as he felt his fingers slide over her moist lips, made easy by the plentiful juices soaking her.