Flavor Of The Month (Kiss & Tell Book 2) (14 page)

Ben grinned. “Oh, don’t feel bad, baby. Put these on and I’ll do anything you want.”

She gazed at him speechlessly for a few moments, her bottom lip disappearing between her even white teeth. “Anything?”

He grinned at her. “Uh-huh.”

She heaved a sigh. “Okay.” She raised a finger. “But only for a little while.”

He was willing to settle for a single minute at that point he was so hot to see her with the white cotton on.

He helped her shimmy out of her skirt and blouse then motioned for her to lie back. She did so, but didn’t look too happy about it. He took one foot and nibbled at the instep, then slid the leg elastic over it, then did the same with her other foot. Then with his teeth he dragged the front of the underpants up her shins, past her knees then up her thighs. If her quick intake of breath was any indication, she was enjoying his unique approach to dressing her.

Considering the throbbing of his arousal, he wasn’t having a bad time, either.

He reached the springy curls at the apex of her thighs and paused. He couldn’t resist burrowing his nose inside the lush forest, breathing in her musky scent, nudging her bud with the tip of his nose. Her back came up off the bed and he took full advantage, tugging up the underpants the rest of the way, then smoothing the sides up with his hands. He sat back on his heels to take in his handiwork.

Damn, maybe he was a borderline pervert. Because he was probably the only guy in the world who found these droopy, flesh-covering things exciting. The waist of the underpants stretched up to cover her tiny navel, while the legs caught her straight across the tops of her thighs.

But it really wasn’t the panties he was interested in. It was what lay underneath.

He scooped Reilly up against his chest and moved toward the master bath.

She gasped and clutched onto him. “What are you doing?”

“Putting you in the hot tub,” he ground out, too close to completing his fantasy to elaborate.

“In these?” she practically squeaked.

Ben’s answer was dropping her into the warm, churning waters of the huge tub. She went all the way under then came up coughing, pushing her hair back from her face. He half expected her to be angry. Instead she threw back her head and laughed, bubbles playing with the pink tips of her breasts.

Ben made a low rumbling sound then followed after her, going under and coming up between her legs. She encircled his waist with her legs, putting his straining erection right where it wanted to be. He lifted to his knees and watched as her body moved up, her stomach breaking the surface, smooth, clear water sluicing over her flawless skin…and revealing where the white cotton was wet and molded against her swollen flesh.

The rumbling sound upgraded to a full out growl as he visually examined the area in question. Damn, call him crazy, but he had never seen anything as sexily erotic as the nearly transparent material clinging to her warm flesh. He grasped her hips, running his thumbs down over where he could clearly see her navel through the cotton, then down lower to where the material adhered to her engorged sex. With the hair beneath wet, he could easily follow the slit right down the middle of her sweet flesh. He pressed his thumbs against her swollen labia then slowly drew them open, baring the petal-like skin below the gauzy cotton.

He glanced up to find Reilly raptly watching his movements. She swallowed hard, obviously turned on by his unusual behavior. “I, um, thought you were going to do whatever I wanted?”

Ben grasped her hips more tightly. “I lied.”

In the water, movement became easier. He used the opportunity to turn her over so that she was kneeling in front of him, her legs spread, the cotton clinging to her firm, rounded bottom and giving him a new perspective on the properties of wet cotton against clean, female flesh. Oh, yeah. He further molded the material down into the shallow valley of her backside, watching as the water dripped from the bottom, almost as if it were her own hot juices flowing instead of water.

“When’s the last time you had sex, Reilly?” he leaned against her back and whispered into her ear.

“What?” She was obviously confused by his question, especially since she was waiting for him to up the ante in his little game. “Last night.”

He licked the dampness from her neck. “I meant before me.”

Her brow lowered and he imagined she was considering her answer. He pressed his erection against the pulsing flesh between her legs. His actions yielded the desired result when her answer came out on a shivering sigh, “A long time. Years.”

Ben was surprised. But he was more relieved. “I’ve never had unprotected sex.”

She turned her head to look into his eyes.

“Condoms don’t perform well in water, Reilly. Do you trust me?”

She nodded slowly, seeming to absorb the import of what he was saying.

“And birth control?” she whispered.

He wanted to ask her to face the consequences with him. But was it too soon to ask that of her? To suggest that if she got pregnant that they welcome the opportunity?

Right now being connected to Reilly without anything interfering emerged all so important to him he could have yelled out with the need of it.

“I’ll withdraw,” he said. “But you have to know, it’s not the most effective method of birth control.”

She nodded again and strained back against his erection, drawing a groan from him. “I want to feel you, Ben….”

That was all the go-ahead he needed. Lifting back up, he pulled a thick folded towel into the water and positioned it under their knees, then repositioned her so she could hold on to the side of the tub.

He ran his right hand over the curve of her bottom, then followed her shallow crevice down to where she was so hot he thought he could burn his fingers. Then he slowly worked the elastic of the leg and peeled the wet cotton back from her sex, revealing her inflamed, perfect flesh. He fit the knob of his erection against her portal, then slid in straight to the hilt, grasping her hips tightly to hold her still as she bore down on him.

Wow…

Feeling her tight, soft muscles encircling him without the layer of latex nearly sent him soaring off into climax world right then and there. He’d never known a sensation so sweet…so phenomenal. In that one moment, he understood why so many men didn’t like to wear gloves. In that one moment, he understood the significance of his taking the risk with this one woman.

Reilly.

He curved his hand around her waist then up to cup her breasts, gently kneading them, then flattened his palms against her to draw her up so that her slick back met his front. He sat back against the far wall of the hot tub, shuddering as her muscles contracted around him.

Oh, yes…

He leisurely kissed her neck, then used the weightlessness of the water to pull her up his shaft then bring her back down again. Her responsive moan made him grit his back teeth together to keep from coming. He brought her down again…and again…his fingers gripping her soft, soapy breasts, his erection diving deep into her body until he teetered on the brink. Then at the last minute he withdrew despite her moan of protest, pressing his arousal against the small of her back as the world shattered into a million brilliant pieces.

As Ben curved her body against his, holding her close, he came to know in that one moment that his fear that he was falling in love with Reilly wasn’t just a fear. It was an out-and-out reality. And his full grin told him he couldn’t have been happier about it.

R
EILLY WAS CONVINCED
that just before dawn was one of the most beautiful times of the day. Especially today. Most notably today. She drove home from Ben’s the following morning with a smile, feeling the brisk morning air from the open window blowing against her freshly showered skin. This sleepover, however, she’d insisted that Ben wake her at 4:00 a.m. And he’d been as good as his word.

Oh, he’d been as good as his word in everything he’d done so far.

She shivered remembering how he’d promised to do anything she wanted the night before if only she’d wear the underpants he’d bought for her. And, oh, how he’d given her everything she hadn’t even known she’d wanted in the hours following their sexy dip in the hot tub.

Her smile widened as she remembered hanging the granny panties over his shower door as a reminder of their unusual tryst. Only Ben could pull off what he had last night and make it one of the most memorable experiences of her life.

Her muscles felt used and relaxed. Her womanhood throbbed and she could still feel the hot evidence of his need trickling out and dampening her thighs. While he’d pulled out the first time, after that…well, both of them seemed to forget that they were flying without a net and had just enjoyed the ride.

Reilly caught herself absently rubbing her neck, as she fully comprehended what they’d done and what might happen as a result.

Strangely, she didn’t feel concerned or overly worried. Rather, she felt…complete somehow. And happier than she’d been in a long, long time. If she had ever felt this happy.

Last night…

Her decidedly wistful sigh filled her ears. Last night she’d connected with Ben in a way that she’d never connected with another human being before. More than just physically. At times it seemed that more than their skin was dancing together. That some sort of deeper essence, their spirits maybe, was tangling together, exploring and embracing until they seemed to become a single entity instead of two separate people.

She caught a red flashing light in her rearview mirror and pulled to the right side of the road to allow a L.A. police cruiser by. When it had passed, she accelerated again, loving the emptiness of the street, the stillness of the predawn hour.

Loving that she was in love with Ben.

She saw more flashing lights up ahead. She squinted into the darkness and into the lights, but couldn’t make anything out. She hoped someone hadn’t gotten into an accident. She hated the scenes of twisted metal and carnage. It reminded her too vividly that she was only human, after all.

She drew closer to the lights and her heart began to pound in her chest. She realized that the L.A. police cars weren’t the only vehicles gathered. That two fire trucks sat at odd angles blocking the street just in front of…

Oh, God, they were in front of Sugar ’n’ Spice.

And Sugar ’n’ Spice was on fire.

Reilly drew her vehicle to a halt, her eyes unable to take everything in in one pass. From the firefighters in full turnout gear, to the police running tape to block the passage of vehicles on the road, to a black plume of smoke rising from the roof of her shop and the apartment above it, her brain tried to register what it was seeing, but somehow fell short.

She opened her vehicle door and stumbled out on rubber-band knees. This couldn’t be happening. Her shop couldn’t possibly be on fire.

“Ma’am,” an L.A. officer said, barring her from advancing farther. “I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you to stay here.”

“The…I’m…that’s my shop…my home,” she whispered.

Over the roar of the fire and the hoses, the officer didn’t appear to hear her and she continued to push forward.

“Ma’am…”

“You don’t understand. I own this building, damn it!”

The officer blinked at her. “I understood that the owner was in the upstairs apartment.”

Reilly’s heart skipped a beat and her throat went dry. “What?”

“One of the neighbors reported seeing you in one of the apartment windows before the place went up.”

“But that’s impossible…I wasn’t home. I’ve been away all night….”

The earth shifted beneath her feet. Who was in her house?

“A rescue team is trying to gain access right now.”

Reilly pushed by him, ignoring his pleas for her to stay put. She wove through the cars and the trucks until she was standing in front of her building. Or what had once been her shop and her apartment. Bright yellow flames shot out of the broken front shop windows and from the windows upstairs, black smoke billowing out in thick waves.

This couldn’t be happening…it wasn’t happening.

“Aunt Reilly! Aunt Reilly, help!” She heard faintly above the roar of the flames.

Her knees threatened to give out altogether. “Efi!” she thought she shouted, but heard only a whisper. Through the smoke, she could barely make her out at the window.

Reilly stumbled forward, grabbing the arm of the nearest person, who she suspected was the fire chief. “It’s my niece! My fifteen-year-old niece! She’s inside! You’ve got to do something! You’ve got to get her out!”

The chief looked over her shoulder then the police officer who had tried to stop her from approaching grabbed her arm and attempted to drag her back from the scene.

“No!” she shouted, fighting him. “Efi’s in there!”

“There’s nothing you can do, ma’am.”

She glared at him, her pulse pounding wildly. “Then you do something, God damn it! Get my niece out of there, now!”

He tightened his grip on her arm, surely bruising her, then pointed to where a ladder was being swung to one of the front, second-story windows while the full spray of two hoses was being aimed inside. “They’re going in now.”

Dear Lord…

Reilly had never felt the urge to pray so fervently in her life. As she stood there with the officer’s hand clutching her arm, she stared unblinkingly as a firefighter hit at the broken window with an axe, knocking the rest of the glass out.

“Efi!” she cried, watching as the fifteen-year-old appeared again in the window.

The firefighter grabbed for the teen and threw a wet blanket over her back, holding her like she weighed no more than a sack of flour. The ladder swung away from the window just as an explosion sounded from inside the apartment, spitting fire through the hole her niece had just escaped from.

Reilly rushed forward, forcing the officer to release her as she sought out her niece.

“Oh God, oh God, oh God,” she said over and over again as the firefighter carried Efi down then transferred her into another firefighter’s arms. Reilly followed along, trying to see inside the blanket. “Efi, are you all right? Oh, baby, please, please tell me you’re okay.”

There was no answer as the firefighter lay the too still teen back first on a gurney and the blanket fell away. Reilly pushed past him and stared down into her niece’s wide-eyed face.

“Oh, Efi!” she cried, gingerly grasping the sides of her face and trying to get her to make eye contact. “Talk to me, sweetie. Where do you hurt?”

Efi continued staring straight above her as Reilly checked her from head to toe to make sure she was all there.

“She’s in shock, ma’am,” the firefighter told her. “Now if you’ll move back so we can—”

Efi blinked then looked straight into Reilly’s eyes, sending the fear of God through her at the grief in the teen’s big brown eyes. “Oh, Aunt Rei. I couldn’t…”

The girl’s torment was scaring Reilly. “What, Ef? You couldn’t what?”

The fifteen-year-old began shaking her head back and forth, tears making tracks through the soot covering her cheeks. “Mom and I got into a really bad fight so I came over here but you weren’t home and I fell asleep on the couch and— Oh, Reilly, he’s gone.”

Reilly resisted the urge to shake her out of her shock. “Efi, what are you talking about?”

The teen blinked at her as if the answer was obvious. “Blackie.”

It finally dawned on Reilly. “Do you mean the cat?”

Her niece nodded.

Reilly’s voice broke on a sob as she gathered the girl into her arms. “Oh, baby. It’s all right. He probably got out. Cat’s are good that way, you know? Nine lives and all that. I think…Blackie must have at least a good six or so lives left in him.”

All she could think about that minute was that her niece was all right.

But lingering on the edge of her relief was the sinking knowledge that everything she had worked so hard for—her shop, her apartment, her life—was going up in smoke a few yards away…

B
EN WALKED INTO
the Hideaway at just after eight that morning, most of the deliveries scheduled for some time after that. He waved to Lance who was on the phone, then took the clipboard holding the outstanding invoices off of a hook near the door. The electricity was still on. Fabio was supervising the cooking staff. And outside the sun was shining brightly, the sea air smelled fresh and everything looked brighter and better than it had even the day before.

Reilly…

He had little doubt that his optimistic mood was due in large part—if not wholly—to her. Whenever she was around he somehow sensed the world would continue to turn. That everything would be all right. No, not all right. Better than all right. Everything would be damned great.

Okay, so it had really sucked waking up this morning without her next to him. But he had grinned when he’d found what she called the granny panties hanging over the shower stall door. The woman could make him grin at the strangest times. Take a hopeless situation and turn it into a triumph.

And the sex was…

Well, it was phenomenal.

And every time with her just got better and better.

The delivery truck from their seafood supplier pulled into the parking lot. Ben found the order on the clipboard and put it on top, motioning for the driver to back up. Within moments he’d verified that everything was as it should be. He’d ordered crab; he’d gotten crab. Every item down to the exact ounce was what he got.

“Boss…we’ve got a problem.”

Ben resisted the urge to wave Lance away. He’d heard those words once too often lately. He wanted this one day to go by without hearing them. He signed off on the seafood invoice even as the beer truck pulled into the lot with the day’s delivery.

“I’m sorry, but this can’t wait,” Lance said.

Ben squinted at him against the morning sun, noticing the lines marking Lance’s younger face.

“Tina of Sugar ’n’ Spice just called. There will be no deliveries today.”

Ben hiked a brow. “None?”

“No, sir.”

Ben scratched his forehead. Had Reilly gone back to her place and crashed this morning? But that didn’t compute. Even when he’d let her sleep in last week, she’d provided mousse and frozen desserts, enough to see them through the day without too many complaints.

He got the impression that Lance wasn’t done. He didn’t like the looks of the other man’s expression. Mercury lined his stomach, making him suddenly feel sick. “What is it, man?”

“It’s just that…I mean, what I’m trying to say is…” He sighed heavily and broke eye contact. “Look, I don’t know how to say this, you know, seeing as you and Reilly are so close and all, so I’ll just come out and say it…there was a fire at Sugar ’n’ Spice this morning.”

Ben’s throat closed. “Fire?”

Lance nodded.

“How bad?” And why hadn’t Reilly called him? Had one of the ovens gone haywire while she was cooking this morning?

“Pretty bad, from what I understand. Tina said they won’t be reopening again anytime soon.”

Ben handed him the clipboard and made a run to the office and the nearest phone. Only when he had the receiver in his hand did he realize he didn’t know where to call. He only had the number for Sugar ’n’ Spice. He tried it. And was told that it was out of order.

He called out to Lance. “Where can I get a hold of Tina?”

Lance shook his head. “She refused to give me a number.”

Ben stared at him. “What do you mean she refused to give you one?”

“Just what I said, boss. She wouldn’t give me one. Said that they’d be in contact…whenever.”

Ben paced across his office several times, still palming the receiver. When the off-the-hook beeping started, he punched down the disconnect then did a*69. The announcement told him that the call back option could not be initiated during this time.

He slammed the phone down, nearly breaking the plastic in half, then he strode from the office toward the door.

“Where are you going?” Lance asked.

“To make sure Reilly’s okay.” And, damn it, he wasn’t going to stop until he found out.

R
EILLY SAT
next to Efi’s hospital bed, staring at her niece’s sleeping face, clutching her skinny hand like it might be the last time she ever touched it again. But all that kept running through her mind was that Efi was going to be fine. She’d suffered some major smoke inhalation—it terrified her to learn that the majority of fire-related deaths were due to smoke inhalation—but given a few days rest, and oxygen when she needed it, there was no reason to believe she wouldn’t make a full recovery.

Reilly reached over to smooth back Efi’s hair, even shorter now that it had been singed to within an inch of its life. The pink dye was all but a distant memory, leaving behind Efi’s natural dark brown hue. She’d combed most of the singed areas off a little earlier, before the teen had drifted off to sleep, great racking coughs vibrating her chest and nearly sending Reilly into cardiac arrest. Efi’s mother and Tina left to get breakfast shortly before Efi drifted off, promising to bring the teen back all her favorites—hospital fare was certainly living up to its bad name. The instant Reilly was alone with the girl, she’d been shocked when Efi had burst into tears over Blackie all over again.

Reilly briefly closed her eyes, wondering if she’d ever be able to cleanse her nose of the acrid scent of the fire. Erase the images etched into her retinas of Efi standing in the upstairs window, bright yellow flames lighting up the early morning dark. Forget about the destruction of something that had been so important to her.