Stony Creek Hero [Stony Creek 2] (Siren Publishing Classic) (14 page)

“I am very glad that he is coming in for you both but no worries, I will take my mold and go. I will be fine. No need to inconvenience anyone, darlings. I will call you later to see how the swim home was. Besides, there is only one Powell that I want to see me in this condition and the chauffeur already has the hots for my best friend,” Lizzie said with a warm smile at Billie. “Bye, girls!”

She heard Billie yell for her to wait but she dashed herself right back out into the rain and felt herself slam into something very solid. It was something very warm and solid that caught her in its arms. Lizzie felt herself being hauled up with her back plastered up against the wet shirt of a very large man. Lizzie caught her breath and turned her head to squint up at her savior, feeling delight that Ben was here. As she pushed her wet hair out of her eyes, the figure of a very handsome man emerged. Sighing with disappointment, she realized that it was Cole who held her protectively, trying to shield her from slipping again in her espadrille sandals and from the storm. Damn, right name but the wrong Powell, Lizzie laughed to herself. She heard him murmur in her ear as to whether or not she was hurt. Lizzie shook her head negatively, starting to shake from the wet and cold.

She heard Cole let out a laugh. “Listen, Lizzie, you had better get your behind back to your café before Ben beats the stuffing out of me for letting you run around like that.”

“What is the matter if I run around, mister?” Lizzie quizzed him, trying to wipe the water from her eyes. Not hearing a response she looked back up at him. He allowed his gaze to momentarily sweep her sodden clothes that left nothing to the imagination before returning to meet her embarrassed expression.

“I would give you my coat Lizzie, if I had one. Now get going before I have to kill anyone. Ben would want me to, you understand, for seeing you like this,” Cole said while pushing her in the direction of the café.

Lizzie gave him a quick hug and ran herself back across the street to lock up and get herself home as she was being ordered to do by everyone.

Cole followed her with his gaze as she got back into the restaurant and let out a whistle. “Shit, Ben has himself one hell of a woman there. I hope he doesn’t fuck this one up.”

About ten minutes later, Jackson was talking with Cole in Billie’s office.

“What the hell do you all mean that you let her drive herself home in that piece of dung she has the nerve to call a car? Cole, you are a man, you know better!” Jackson yelled at his cousin.

Cole appeared unruffled by the insult but Jackson was immediately set upon with a slap and yell from Billie. Just as he turned to address the brilliant love of his life, he felt a hand pull him over as if to give him a hug. Whack! Julia slapped him in the back of his head to remind him to be respectful and to stop saying stupid things that would rile up Billie.

Jackson whipped out his cell while trying to ignore the irate women now in front of him. “Ben, it’s me. Just thought you should know that Lizzie is currently trying to drive herself home in the piece of crap she uses as transportation. Stop yelling at me. I didn’t let her go! I just got here. It was Cole, go yell at him!”

Jackson put Ben on speaker. “If I ever catch either one of you dumbass men, excuse me ladies, you had better make sure you have your life insurance paid up! Then, I am going to make that butt of hers so red when I get ahold of her, she is going to be mistaken for a stop sign! She has to cross a low water crossing. Shit! I mean shoot, sorry. Gotta go.” Ben hung up, obviously concerned.

“Well, with how wet her pants are, he will definitely be able to make out all the necessary anatomy to discipline her properly.” Julia laughed out. “Come on, kids, let’s swim home!”

* * * *

Lizzie kept up her mantra that she just kept repeating in her head, I will not panic. As soon as she left the café, she had her hackles up as she tried to pilot her wreck of a car carefully home. The wind kept pulling it from side to side like a hang glider, causing Lizzie to white-knuckle the steering wheel. Shoot, she shouldn’t have been too hasty and cocky by insisting that she could drive herself home. Jackson or Cole’s giant trucks would definitely have been a much safer choice but here she was and now she had only herself to rely on, as usual. Funny but it was a position that she could handle, as she was accustomed to being in it but found herself wishing for some of the sweet relief she had briefly felt by allowing Ben into her world and helping take some of her cares away. She was going to have to work on trusting that.

“Oh no,” Lizzie said aloud. The stream up ahead was rising but there was still space between the water and the underside of the old wooden crossing. Lizzie took a deep breath and stopped the car. Should she risk it? She felt the icy fingers of fear mixed with caution claw at her stomach. If she stayed here, she might be trapped by the rising water, as she was in a lower area, but if she tried to go over the crossing, well, who knew how old that thing was and how stable it would or would not be.

Lizzie decided on the latter, not with as much confidence as she would like, however. She shifted her wet body on the cool ripped seat of her jalopy and prayed that it would hold up for this little adventure. I am never going to hear the end of this one, she figured, if anything happens.

“Well, here goes nothing. Come on, car, please don’t fail me,” Lizzie crooned to her old faithful. As she slowly maneuvered her car over the old wood, she heard the creaking and groan as it gave under the new weight added to the already sodden wood. Lizzie gave a startled shriek as she felt the bridge tip and snap as her car was plunged into the fast-moving water below. Turns out, her prayers worked. Her car had held up but unfortunately the bridge didn’t get the same memo to stay afloat.

* * * *

“Dammit, Lizzie, where the hell are you and why aren’t you picking up your cell!” Ben yelled at his useless cell. Where could she be and why would she try to drive her piece of crap in this? Even if she had a four-wheel-drive tank, he would have come for her. He had just known that Jackson was driving in to pick up Billie and Julia. He felt stupid for assuming that she would have the sense to allow Jackson to drive her home, too. Never again was he going to make that mistake and after the correction she was going to get, neither would she!

The rain was whipping sideways forcing him to squint his sexy green eyes to see out the windshield. Even his huge dark-gray dually was getting pushed around from the blowing gusts. Ben slowed the truck to turn toward the road to her little house. Shit, he thought as he remembered that there was that stream she would have to cross. Ben, never a very religious man, started praying that she had some sense stuffed into her gorgeous head and would not attempt going over the old, wet, wooden bridge. Ben felt tension tighten his back as he slowly approached where the bridge should be. He whipped his head from side to side, hoping for a glimpse of her car on the other side of the water. It didn’t look too deep yet but definitely was moving fast, much faster than he liked. With unease, Ben opened his door and allowed his hat to shield his gaze from the rain in an attempt to spot some sign of her. Terror seized his gut as he saw what appeared to be her car, lying sideways in the middle of the water in the center of the flow. An obviously terrified Lizzie was clutching desperately to the exposed top as it was being forced further downstream. Ben knew that there were other streams that fed into it and if he didn’t get her ass out of there like pronto, she was going to be in serious danger.

“Fucking hell!” Ben yelled. He ducked back into the truck and without even closing the door gunned it down off road, mirroring the path of the stream. He stopped close to the edge and jumped out.

“Lizzie, baby!” Ben hollered as loudly as he could, feeling like his heart was dying watching her from the shore, unable to swim the fast-moving water to get to her.

“Ben! Help!” Lizzie cried out, not willing to lose the grip she had on the door handle.

Ben watched, momentarily enraged at his helplessness to do something, anything. He took in uneven breaths as he spun around, desperate to find something that would give him an idea. His horror threatened to consume him as he heard the scraping of metal as her car’s hulk shifted and started to move some more.

“Ben!” Lizzie screamed out in her terror, probably beyond rational at this point.

Ben shook with a mixture of rage and fear. He was going to kill her, then spank that ass raw. No, he was going to spank her, fuck her, and then kill her. What the hell was he thinking about this crap now for? Well, that’s who he was, a sexual man with some kink. Suddenly Ben had a brilliant idea. His sexual perversities were about to save her ass, literally. He ran to the bed of his truck and with a single leap, jumped heavily up into it. He spied his version of a Lizzie life preserver and prayed quickly that he had the skills to do this.

“Lizzie, when I tell you to, I want you to stand up. Do you hear me?” Ben hollered, hoping desperately that she heard him over the wind and water.

“I can’t, Ben, I just can’t!” Lizzie cried out.

“Yes, you can and you will. Do it, and do it now!” Ben thundered murderously toward the woman who was causing his heart to beat madly out of his chest. He couldn’t lose her, not now, not when he finally was figuring things out. He needed her. He never needed anyone.

“I said
now, Lizzie
!”

Probably, in retrospect, she stood in automatic response to the anger in his voice but it didn’t matter as to the why. She stood bravely in that one moment and he couldn’t have been more proud of his woman. Yeah, she was his woman. It was about time he admitted it to himself and made her see it. She was his and only his, forever. Forever, that is, if he could do this.

With another quick prayer to the heavens and cowboys everywhere, Ben held the long coil of rope in his left hand while he spun the circle of rope over his head with his right. He held his breath as he made three revolutions and let the rope go, tense as he watched it miraculously snag around his intended target. He heard Lizzie yelp as the rope pulled tight around her, pinning her arms and something she held to her sides. He almost smirked in arrogance as he met her shocked look of surprise as the rope yanked on her body. Not shocking to Ben even under the circumstances was the surge of lust that ran through his body seeing her bound with the rope that he had tied. Later, man, he said to himself, later. As if the angry storm god didn’t care for Benjamin Powell ruining his fun, the stream’s force was suddenly increased and the car was pulled violently downstream. Ben held strong to the rope as his precious woman was thrown into the churning dark water below. He caught her look of fear and pulled harder than he thought he could. She didn’t weigh much at all but soaking in the water and the ever-increasing rip current was making him really have to work to reach her. The rope had been threaded through a tow-loop in the back of his truck even before he had lassoed her as he now used it to pull her struggling form toward the riverbank desperately. Ben tied it off as she was at the edge and ran with the howling wind to get her. With strength that he didn’t even know he possessed, he yanked her saturated body up and out of the water by the lasso. He held her to his body as he felt her trembling violently.

“I’ve got you, baby, oh shit, baby, I’ve got you,” Ben crooned into her ear as he mashed her up against his body. Without breaking his hold he struggled against the wind and backed them up to the truck. He threw open the passenger side and climbed up with her held securely in his lap.

“Baby, talk to me. Lizzie, please, honey, say something!” Ben pleaded while looking into her beautiful, waterlogged face. He tenderly started to brush her sodden locks of now dark-chocolate hair away from her cheeks while rubbing his thumb over her chilled skin.

Lizzie tried to calm down by taking deep, shuddering breaths. She was safe. She was safe and in Ben’s arms. Giving up her personal internal war about him being her hero, she snuggled into his hold, acutely aware that her arms were still pinned to her sides by the rope.

“Ben, you came. Thank you. Thank you so much. I…I am so sorry. I can’t believe you came,” Lizzie managed to get out before succumbing to the harsh sobs that were inevitable when fear was relieved. She felt Ben’s hands gently running over her soaking, trembling form while murmuring loving words against her neck. As she started to calm herself down, she realized that he was trembling, too. His hands shook and he checked her legs, arms, and chest for any injuries and also to probably to convince himself that she really was safe in his arms. Guilt hit her hard as she realized that she must have given him such a fright as well.

Lizzie tried to lighten the moment. “Ben, honey, I don’t think I have any broken bones in my breasts. Maybe you want to check other more likely areas first?”

Ben’s head snapped up with a look of anger and shock in his eyes. She knew the exact moment he became aware that she must be trying to soothe him.

Lizzie watched as his expression suddenly shifted to a darker one. It reminded her of the storm outside, dark and now filling with a lustful intent. Beneath her she felt him harden and begin to press insistently against the cold cheeks of her posterior end as she licked her lips waiting for him to respond.

“Lizzie, baby, I am trying to get myself to calm down over here. I think that I am going to require your help.
Well hell, you are going to soothe me, for as long as it takes for my sanity to return in fact. If I am not mistaken, I think that I just almost lost you to a flash flood due to your poor judgment. Yes, that’s right and I am going to require some serious apologies for taking some years off my life like that,” Ben said with a deep, controlled tone.