Chapter Eight

 

 

Ben could still taste her salt, making him so hard he ached, but he was determined not to rush things. She'd had an entire lifetime of being ignored, always being put last, never cared for. In all things, but especially in this, he was determined to treat her right.

Tessa steadied them both as he climbed the stairs, one arm around his neck and the other stretching out to trail on the railing. At the top of the stairs she tensed to be let down, but he carried her on into the bedroom, and laid her out on the bed.

She was tousled and glorious, her face still flushed from her earlier orgasm. Her damp, bare caramel thighs, with the dark mound of curls just visible, begged to be parted.

Getting a tight grip on his own libido, Ben knelt beside her on the bed and pulled up her T-shirt. She stretched her arms above her head to strip it the rest of the way off, and arched her back so he could undo her bra. Finally he got his first look at her breasts, tan and gorgeous, with full, dark brown nipples. The crystal on its silver chain nestled between their smooth mounds. They filled his hands, each the perfect size for him to cup in his palm, fingers spread across her soft skin.

Tessa propped herself up on her elbow and reached for the buttons on his shirt. "Unless you've figured out the trick to having sex with clothes on, you're a little overdressed. Or were you going to admire my breasts all day?"

"I could admire your breasts forever."

"That's great," she murmured, undoing his buttons, "but can you admire them without clothes on? Let's spread the eye candy around."

His shed items of clothing went over the edge of the bed, shirt and pants and underwear landing in a crumpled heap, until at last they could meet skin to skin. She was warm to the touch,  and if it weren't for the arousal hammering at him, Ben could have stretched out and basked in the touch of her skin for hours. He still wanted to, if she wanted it.

But she was clearly aching for more. Her hips jerked up when he touched her thigh, and she parted her legs eagerly, reaching to guide him in.

Her slick heat enveloped him. The earlier orgasm had left her wet and open, hungry for more. Ben gasped as he sank into her, and he felt her body move responsively under his, her walls tighten around him.

He thrust into her, and she gave a small cry, reaching up to close her arms possessively around him. With each thrust, her hips lifted to meet him and she pulled him down, as if she could draw him even deeper inside. Ben had to clench his teeth, struggling to keep himself from going over the edge. Each of her gasping cries drew him closer to release.

He felt her start to go over, the way her body relaxed under him and then suddenly tensed, and that was what pushed him into his own release, a white-hot wave breaking over him that tore a ragged cry from his throat.

They shuddered through the waves together, and as their mutual tension relaxed into limp satiation, he sank down beside her and turned his face into the crook of her shoulder.

Inside him, his panther was purring.

 

***

 

Ben's shower enclosure was small, but it had good water pressure and plenty of hot water. Tessa's body was still so sensitive that the heat made her shiver, especially when hot water trickled over her nipples and down between her legs.

They'd drowsed together on the bed for awhile, but despite the lassitude of good sex, it was still early enough that she wasn't ready to fall asleep just yet.

She finally stepped out of the shower clean, tired, and languid, more relaxed than she could ever remember being in her life. Ben's towels were enormous and fluffy. She dried off and then realized she hadn't thought to bring anything clean to wear into the bathroom with her.

Well ... that wasn't really a problem, was it?

Ben was on the couch when she came out of the bathroom with the towel draped over her shoulders, reading a book. He looked up, then did a double take and looked up again. "Wow," he whispered, gazing at her in open wonder.

He'd put on a dark T-shirt and jeans, though his feet were still bare and his hair gloriously sex-tousled. She came over the couch and draped an arm over his shoulder, while he tilted his head back to kiss her. It was the casualness of it, more than the physical contact, that took her breath away.

She had a boyfriend. She couldn't get over it.

An incredibly hot, protective boyfriend with a secluded cabin in the mountains.

Could life get any better? Not hardly. Well, maybe if dragons weren't after her, but hopefully that wouldn't be a problem here.

"Not to be a mood-killer," she murmured, lips brushing his forehead, "but where'd you put my suitcase?"

"Oh, right! I guess you need that, don't you?" He pointed up the stairs. "It's at the top of the stairs. I guess you didn't notice when we went past it earlier."

"I had other things on my mind."

Ben smiled, crinkling his eyes in that way she was coming to love. "Me too."

She was deliciously aware of Ben watching her naked ass as she climbed the stairs and bent over the suitcase.

"You can take it into the bedroom," he called up from downstairs. "I took it up with that in mind, and then thought that you might think I was pushing—you know, putting your clothes in my bedroom—so you can take one of the downstairs bedrooms if you'd rather."

"This is exactly where I want to be," she said over the railing. "So I'll just make myself at home up here, shall I?"

"Please do."

She took the suitcase into the bedroom and opened it on the bed. Old instincts took over, though, and she just got out enough clothes to change into, then closed the suitcase neatly and put it on the floor against the wall. There was a part of her that wanted to unpack and see her clothes nestled against Ben's in the drawers of the big wooden dresser against the wall, but there was an even bigger part that wanted to be ready for a quick getaway.

Would she ever live anywhere without expecting that she was going to have to leave?

She pushed that thought down. With a dragon assassin hunting her, it was a sensible precaution to take. She changed into clean jeans and a black crop-top with MEOW picked out across the breasts in rhinestones (the closest thing to sexy clothes she owned), then almost changed out of it when she looked down at the curve of her exposed belly over the top of her jeans. But, hell, Ben had just seen all of her less than an hour ago.

She padded downstairs, trailing her hand on the railing. Ben looked up and smiled, then smiled wider when he saw what she was wearing. "I like the shirt," he remarked.

"You know, there are people who say women shaped like me shouldn't wear crop-tops."

Ben stood up and came over. He touched the smooth skin of her belly lightly, running his hand over it with obvious delight, then leaned in to kiss her.

"Those people," he murmured against her lips, "are very wrong."

"I'm starting to get that impression."

She was just stretching up to kiss him again when a chorus of high-pitched mewing broke out from the bedroom. Tessa burst into giggles and looked over to see a small orange paw snake out from under the closed bedroom door before vanishing again.

"Oh yes," Ben said, "that. I think the kittens are restless."

"Do you mind if I let them out into the living room? I didn't want to overwhelm them, but it looks like they want to join the family."

"Sure. I'll go close the windows."

When she opened the door, the kitten who had been trying to crawl under it (Toblerone) tumbled into the living room, looked startled, then picked himself up and went to see what was under the couch. The rest fanned out along the edges of the room. One tried to crawl into the fireplace. Tessa caught it and put it on the couch instead.

"Are you supposed to kitten-proof a house, the way you'd child-proof?" Ben asked, watching as the march of the kittens spread to encompass the kitchen and one of them tried to climb the sawhorse. "Because I sort of ... haven't."

"Yes, but it's not as much of a big deal with kittens as it is with toddlers or even puppies." She picked up a cordless drill off the floor under the sawhorse and set it on top. "You want to make sure they can't get into anything toxic, and they might chew on things like electrical cords. Mostly you want to pick up anything they might get tangled in, or anything that could poison them."

They went around the living room checking for hazards and moving appliances out of reach. Ben secured the cabinets under the sink with a loop of twine to stop them from trying to get inside. The kittens were oblivious; the entire world was a fascinating jungle gym, made for kittens to climb on.

"I apologize in advance if they destroy anything."

Ben shrugged. "My friends Derek and Gaby have been up here with their son. He's six. Trust me, I'm not bothered by that sort of thing. Anyway, can I get you anything? Show you where anything is?"

"Let me just look around and see what there is to drink."

"There's still some coffee if you want it. Not much else right now, besides water."

Tessa went into the kitchen, reached for the pot of coffee keeping warm by the stove, then poured herself a glass of water instead. If she started drinking coffee this late at night, she'd never sleep, and she was finally starting to feel like she could sleep—relaxed, comfortable, no longer scared or even worried.

Ben was on the couch again, smiling at her. She went over to join him, curling her bare feet under her.

"So what do you do in the evening here?" she asked. "Just read?"

"Mostly. I could teach you some card games." He laid his book aside. "Or we could just talk. There's so much I want to know about you."

"There's nothing interesting about me, though."

"Everything about you is interesting to me," Ben said gently. "Tell me an interesting fact about yourself."

"Uh ... I like cats?"

He laughed. "I already know that one. How about ... hmmm. I don't know anything about you, really. Did you go to college?"

Tessa shook her head, feeling embarrassment creep up her neck in the form of a flush. "No. I couldn't afford it."

Ben picked up her hand and kissed her fingertips lightly. "Did you want to?"

"I don't know. I didn't have anything specific in mind, nothing I wanted to study, I mean." There had been nothing even remotely judgmental in his tone, but talking about herself still made her squirm. "What about you? Did you imagine yourself as a cop when you were a kid?"

"Not really. I've actually got an engineering degree."

Her eyes went wide. "Really?"

"Not what you expected, huh? That was my career for awhile. I traveled all over the world, planning designs for bridges and that sort of thing." He smiled. "Want to hear some stories about that?"

Somehow he recognized that she didn't like talking about herself and was giving her a graceful out. She couldn't get over how he was just ... perfect. "Yes," she said, and she lay down on the couch, snuggling her head into his lap. She could lie here forever, just listening to his voice. "Tell me some stories."

It wasn't even the words so much as his voice. She closed her eyes and drifted as he petted her hair and talked about the places he'd been, the things he'd seen.

He had lived such an interesting life. Why was he interested in her? Would he eventually get over his infatuation and leave?

She didn't want to think about that right now. She was comfortable; she felt safe.

She just wanted to stay here forever.