Just the Way I Like It (3 page)

Ben shifted on the seat. “Jess, you know I want to say yes.”

“Then say yes. Leave Kevin alone.”

“I just feel responsible here. Gina was nervous about the date and I assured her that I’d hang out in case it doesn’t go well and she needs a ride home.”

Jessica slid into the booth next to him. “
Gina
was nervous about the date?”

Gina was a new nursing student in the ER. She was sweet with the patients, competent in everything they needed her to do and hadn’t lost her lunch when confronted with a man who’d been impaled through the shoulder with a half-inch-diameter pipe. All good traits in Jessica’s opinion. Then again, she’d been looking at Gina’s qualities from the viewpoint of ER Department Director rather than a matchmaker.

“She said she wasn’t sure Kevin was her type, but if I thought she should go out with him she’d give it a try.”

Jessica just looked at her husband for a moment. He was really good looking. She wasn’t bragging, it was simple fact. He was also a hero. He saved lives in the ER on a weekly basis. It was tough not to find that attractive. And, finally, he was a great guy. He was charming, funny, confident, appreciative of the people he worked with, cool under pressure, said the right things to family members of ER patients, could be commanding when he needed to be, but also joke around when the occasion called for it. He was the whole package.

Obviously Gina had noticed that too.

“If
you
thought she should go out with him she’d give it a try, huh?”

“Yeah. She said she respected my opinion and knew that if I liked Kevin, he must be a good guy.”

“Ben, you need to get out of here,” Jessica said.

“Why? I told her I’d stay.”

“Yep. And between now and, oh, I’d say about thirty minutes from now, Gina’s going to find some reason that the date with Kevin isn’t working out and is going to need you to take her home.”

Ben frowned and glanced at Kevin’s table. “How do you know?”

“Were you just now texting Sam, Mac or Gina?” she asked.

“Gina. She asked if Kevin would be offended if she ordered a margarita.”

“You told her he doesn’t drink?” Jess guessed.

“Yes. I just filled her in on him. So she didn’t accidentally say something wrong.”

Jessica tried not to smile. She loved that Ben was aware of other women only as co-workers, friends or potential dates for his friends. He really had no idea that he’d given Gina the perfect way to ruin her date with Kevin
and
get Ben alone at her house.

“Say something like what?”

“Like swearing, or maybe talking about sex or something.”

Jess raised her eyebrows. “Do you know a lot of women who talk about sex on the first date?”

He leaned in, the look in his eyes warm. “You did.”

She wet her lips. “The night at the bar playing pool wasn’t a date.”

“It was the first time we were out together. And you were talking about my cock from almost the first minute.”

Jess pulled in a breath through her nose. She remembered every detail of that night. She’d had a crush on Ben for months and had shown up in the bar to keep him from driving home drunk…or ending up in another woman’s bed.

“I didn’t use the word cock,” she said, her eyes on his mouth.

The heat in his eyes grew hotter. He loved when she talked dirty. And he knew it could get so much better than that.

“Speaking of your cock—”

Ben’s phone chimed with a text message.

He glanced down. Then frowned.

Jess sighed. “What’s Gina need now?” She wasn’t concerned about Gina and Ben, of course. Jessica was most definitely taking him home. She even found it a little entertaining that Ben didn’t realize Gina had a thing for him. But she did need to point it out before Gina hurt Kevin’s feelings by using him to get Ben’s attention.

“She asked if I thought her dress was too sexy for a date with Kevin.”

Jess raised an eyebrow and waited. He didn’t say anything. “Well?” she finally prompted.

“It’s a little short. And tight,” Ben admitted. “But he’s not going to judge her based on that.”

No, Jessica was sure that Kevin appreciated women’s legs and breasts as much as the next guy. It was what he did about it—or didn’t do, as the case may be—that set him apart.

“Should I tell her that?” Ben asked.

Hell, no. All he was going to do was confirm that he’d noticed her dress. And that it was short. Jessica leaned in and took his phone away from him. “You need to ignore Gina,” she said. “She needs to focus on Kevin.”

“She is. She wants to be sure the date is going well,” Ben said.

No. She wanted to be sure that Ben was paying attention to her and her short, tight dress and the fact that she was drinking tequila. All of which would come together nicely when she asked him for a ride home.

Jessica needed to distract Ben to keep him from answering Gina’s texts. Ultimately she needed to get him out of the restaurant and off Gina’s list of options for the evening. Not that he was truly on her list of options, ever. But it wasn’t fair to Kevin if Gina was flirting with another guy. If that guy was out of the picture, then Gina would have to really notice Kevin. She’d see what a great guy
he
was and give him a chance.

Of course, now she could never invite Gina over for barbecues or anything. But they’d deal with that when Kevin fell madly in love with her.

“The last time I wore this dress, I didn’t have it on for very long,” she said. “I didn’t realize how hot leather could be.” She wiggled on her seat, inching the skirt of her dress up her thighs.

Ben’s gaze dropped to the bare skin. “I thought it was hot the second I saw it.”

In fact, he’d swept her up into his arms and headed for the nearest bed—which, since they’d been at the hospital, just happened to be in exam room six.

Jess turned in the booth, her back to the rest of the restaurant. It wasn’t a bright, fast-food place by any means and the booths were set deep into the walls with high partitions around them. All very convenient in her opinion.

“One of the things I like best about being married is being able to say things to you like ‘put your hand up my skirt’.”

Ben stared at his wife. She looked even better in the blue dress now than the first time he’d seen her. The first time she’d worn it had been when she was trying to get him back after they’d nearly broken up. Of course, his reaction to her had been only a little about the dress. Most of it had been the fact that he’d realized he was deeply in love with her and couldn’t live without her.

But the dress had been a fun detail.

Like tonight.

The heat—and love—he felt for her was about so much more than what she wore. Still, he couldn’t help but respond to the blue leather.

Jessica was a gorgeous brunette who’d had him twisted in knots even when they’d only been co-workers in the ER. She was bossy and opinionated and independent and took care of everyone around her.

So the fact that he could make her weak with desire and could make her face light up with happiness meant the world to him.

He also loved that he saw a softer, almost vulnerable side of her every time she looked at their daughter. The moments when he watched her rocking Ava to sleep—when Jess was exhausted and could barely think straight, and all she could really do was rely on instinct and love—were some of his favorite moments. Not because she was spent, but because even when she was functioning on emotion only, she was everything their daughter needed.

Before Jessica had come into his life he’d been questioning everything—his career, his choices, his future and, maybe especially the wisdom of loving someone. It used to seem like caring about someone or something always ended in pain.

But he had discovered that the moments of happiness were worth any risk of hurt. And the moments of happiness just kept multiplying with Jessica.

Like moments when she asked him to put his hand up her skirt.

“You know how it is,” he said, running his hand up her leg, under the edge of the dress. “Once I start touching you I have a hard time stopping.”

“It’s one of the things I like best about you.” She got a little breathless when his hand slipped higher.

His cell phone chirped with another text message, but Jess reached behind her where she’d stashed the phone on the seat. She hit a button without breaking eye contact with him.

Looked like Gina was on her own.

Not that he minded.

“Are you wearing one of your thongs under here?” he asked, stroking the skin on her inner thigh, teasing her by not going higher just yet.

“Nope.” She shifted her legs a little farther apart, but the skirt didn’t allow a lot of motion.

He lifted an eyebrow. “No?” He loved her thongs.

“I’m not wearing anything under here.”

He was already hard, but a surge of heat hit him below the belt. “We might be here for a while.”

“I want your mouth on me, Ben,” she said huskily. “Take me home.”

There was no way he was going to make it farther than the parking lot without touching her. But it was darker and more private there and dark and private was definitely the kind of touching he wanted to do.

“Let’s go.” He slid to the edge of the booth, nudging her along in front of him.

He handed money to the waitress as they hurried past her and he spared a brief glance in the direction of Kevin’s table.

“They’ve both dated without you in the past,” Jessica said, tugging him out the door. “They’re fine.”

He smiled. He liked this possessive side of Jessica. And he really liked how her ass looked in that dress.

Her car was parked around the corner from the front of the restaurant between two big pickups. She bent to unlock the car door, but he pressed in close, his lips on her neck. “Hang on a second.” They’d be well hidden here. Or at least well hidden enough.

She paused and tipped her head to the side so he could slide his mouth behind her ear. “Ben?” she asked huskily.

“I’ve gotta get my hands on you, darlin’.” There had been a time when he’d been concerned with being sure Jessica had rose petals and candles, all the sweet romance she could handle. But he’d quickly learned that she was just fine with hot, sexy, spontaneous encounters too. Which was often handy at the hospital when they worked long shifts.

Or in restaurant parking lots.

She turned. “Then put your hands on me.”

So he did. He slid his hand up under her skirt as she slipped one of the dress’s straps off her shoulder. His hand cupped the right cheek of her ass as the bodice of her dress gaped, revealing one breast.

“I’m not going to be able to stop if I really start this,” he warned her.

“Good,” she whispered. “This reminds me of the night we smashed that strawberry patch.”

He half laughed, half groaned. That had been a wild night. They’d parked the car in what they thought was an alley, so crazy with need for each other they’d barely been aware of their surroundings. It turned out that they’d driven over the prize-winning strawberries of a man who pressed charges, not just for his ruined fruit, but for public indecency. Not that it had been truly public. But his young son’s telescope had put them on display for one more person than they’d intended.

“We’re not going to end up in jail again, are we?” he asked.

“I’m not sure I care.” She leaned in and kissed him.

As her lips parted and he stroked his tongue deep against hers, he also slid his middle finger into her silkiness. She gasped and moved closer, the kiss heating and his finger pressing deep.

She reached between them to stroke the length of his erection.

“I love you, Ben,” she whispered.

“I love you, too,” he said gruffly. “I love that you’re the best mom in the world, the best nurse in the world, the best sister and friend in the world and the best wife ever. And,” he said, circling his thumb faster, feeling her inner muscles begin to tighten, “I also love that you’ll wear blue leather and hooker boots and that you’re still hot enough for me that you’ll let me feel you up in a restaurant parking lot.”

“We need to go home. Now.”

He pulled his hand from under her dress, grinning like an idiot. “Wow, I’m really good at that.”

Jess straightened her dress, tucked her hair behind her ear and took a deep breath.

“No arguments from me, Dr. Torres.”

He groaned. She knew how much it turned him on when she called him Dr. Torres.

He took the keys from her, loving her flushed cheeks and that she was still breathing a little faster than normal. “We’re taking one car. We can come back for yours tomorrow. I might have the urge to pull over on the way.”

“I know the perfect place,” she said, sliding out from between him and the car and heading for the passenger side. “There’s something I’ve wanted to try for a long time.”

Yep, Ben decided as he started the car, this was just absolutely, completely, perfectly right.