Shay…
“What’s to be afraid of?”
Ben gave me an intense stare and took a slow breath. He’d gotten all deep on me.
And I’d gone all no big.
I dove headlong into a safe zone. “You’ve seen me eat pizza before.”
His eyes narrowed a fraction. “Like an animal.”
“Why hold back? It’s a greasy, salty mouthful of goodness.”
The corners of his mouth twitched. “You’re a peculiar and intriguing woman.”
Because I’d launched the convo straight from sex to food? Both basic needs.
Not that I knew anything about the first. Only studied, analyzed, never experienced. And until last week, I hadn’t ever imagined I would. Not one fantasy.
Until you.
But I could only handle so much at once. If we happened at all, we needed to at my speed.
I dialed a nearby pizza place. They didn’t question my bizarre directions for delivery.
Thirty-five minutes later, when nightfall had transformed the outdoors into a wonderland of shadow play and insect song, Ben stood behind the neighbor’s tall street-side hedge with a large pizza box balanced on his hand.
He shot me a dubious look. “I feel like we just did a drug deal.”
“Don’t exchange cash for goods much?”
“Not from behind a Japanese boxwood.”
“Cape honeysuckle’s more your thing?”
“A doorbell is usually involved. And a porch light.”
I tugged on a front belt loop of his jeans and led us back across the neighbor’s front lawn, careful to keep the trees and an elaborate rose garden between us and view from any windows. “Welcome to my world. Clandestine-R-Us.”
When I pulled back a section of overgrown vine and nodded him through, he shook his head, then ducked under a woody branch.
“More like Domino’s-N-D-Amazon,” he grumbled as he shouldered past a mass of green leaves and lilac-blue flowers. He trudged through to the other side, kept walking a few paces, then stopped.
The last of the branches rustled as I released them.
I caught up with him, then nudged his shoulder as we walked around the back of the house. “You know, you should try breaking the law more often. Might do you some good.”
When he gripped the back door’s handle, I put a hand on his forearm and nodded over toward a grassy mound near a tree. Moonglow backlit a light cloud layer, highlighting our shadowy world in a wash of pale silver, and I wasn’t ready to leave my outside world just yet.
He diverted toward the patch of grass, settled onto the ground, then flicked open the pizza-box lid. “Orrr...you could become a good little law-abiding citizen.”
I plonked down beside him, grabbed a pepperoni slice, and took a couple of napkins from the stash he’d pocketed from the delivery guy. “I did. At your bar. We saw how well that went.”
“I was wrong. And I promised not to fire you again.”
A leaf spiraled down toward our pizza, but I snatched it with my fist. I polished off my first piece, then grabbed one from the side with mushrooms and olives. “You can’t fire me. Independent contractor, remember?”
“I could terminate your contract.” He grabbed a double slice.
“But you won’t. I work my ass off and you know it. Unfireable and irreplaceable.”
His left brow arched. “Not far from law-abiding.”
“Ahhh...but that’s only when I’m working for you.”
He finished chewing, then wiped his mouth with a crumpled napkin. He stared at me for a couple of seconds. “Would it be so hard to ditch a life of crime?”
I frowned. His instincts had already begun to slide toward wanting to change me.
I’m fine just the way I am. And I thought he knew that, saw the real me, down deep.
I need you to understand.
We chewed as I thought about what to say. He finished his pizza right as I finished mine.
After tossing my napkin into the box lid, I leaned up on my knees, moving closer to him. “Not hard. Just...different. When you have to find a way to survive, and no one’s got your back but yourself, you bend every rule. And maybe you decide someone selfish made the stupid rules in the first place. A neat little black-and-white package to fit their specific life. One size does not fit all.”
He pegged me with his classic trying-to-figure-Shay-out stare.
I pressed my lips together, fighting a smile, and dropped him a I’m not that easy silent reply. “Seriously. You should try a little more danger. It’ll rough up those perfect straight edges of yours—make your seriousness less fatal.”
His expression changed, as if he began to contemplate the possibility.
“You want to. I can see it.” For the first time, I made a move, twisting in toward him to land on his lap. I slid my hands around his neck, then dragged my fingertips up the back of his scalp before tousling his hair. “Come over to the dark side. It’ll be fun.”
“Said the spider to the fly.”
“Not a spider, a dragonfly. We eat mosquitoes.” My blurted statement reminded me of things Trin and I exclaimed, without one care, in the middle of our sacred clubhouse forest.
He glanced at my lips, then stared into my eyes. “You continue to amaze me.”
Says the man with me now, in my private forest.
“Birdwatcher and insect expert,” I added as I tugged at the ends of his hair. He groaned low and put his hands on my hips, adjusting my position on his lap. I began to smile, charged a little with the power I had over him. “Well?”
He grunted softly and touched his forehead to mine. “Well, you keep sitting on my lap,” he murmured, “I’m gonna agree to anything.”
“To make me stop?” I whispered.
His warm breath feathered over my lips. “Hoping you’ll never stop.”
I turned my face, brushing my cheek along the soft hairs of his beard. “Sooo...you’ll do it? Become a lawbreaker with me.”
He squeezed his hold on my hips and let out a hard exhale. “You’re on.” His tone lowered. “But no felonies. I have to draw some kind of line, keep us both out of jail.”
My smile widened. “Give me one week. You’ll see.”
He toppled us backward onto the grass with a growl, dragging us to lay side by side with his arm secured under my neck and around my shoulder. “I already sense I’m gonna regret this.”
I settled against him, but frowned at his concern and rested my chin on his chest. “I won’t let anything bad happen. I never do.”
He tucked his other arm under his head and stared up into the darkness. “Okay, fine. But not a week each. A week total. And no one gets two days in a row; we alternate.”
“Works for me. Since today is Sunday, I get Tuesday.”
He narrowed his eyes at me. “No way. I get Saturday.”
“Why do you need Saturday?”
“Because of the tournament. There will be no lawbreaking at the tournament.” He gave me a pointed look. Then his brows twitched down for a split second. “Why do you need Tuesday?”
“Because I do. I need every Tuesday. But I’m not gonna tell you why. You’ll see.”
He glanced back up at a clearing night sky. I relaxed into the crook of his arm and stared up there too, as if the illuminated wispy clouds held the mysteries of our universe. His head moved with a slight nod. “Today doesn’t count, then. You get Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday. I get Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday.”
“What about Friday?”
“Let’s make Friday open game. Whoever’s winning after four days gets to decide.”
“Winning?” I fanned my open hand over his broad chest. “It’s a competition?”
“You bet your sexy little ass it is.” His warm hand slid over mine. “We’re each trying to prove a point. Your days, we break the law. My days, we follow it. To the letter. When we’re having the most fun, whosever day it happens to be...wins that day.”
“And who decides who’s having fun?” I stifled a yawn. Then I blinked, surprised at how easily I’d sidled up next to him. And how right it felt to be there, safe—protected, even. Then I ignored the implications of that, the inherent danger of trusting in it.
It’s Ben. And it’s one night. The first in a week of adventure.
He rubbed my arm with his thumb. “Why don’t we aim for a mutual decision...”
A full-blown yawn finally took hold. “Okay...”
My eyes drifted shut. Out of an inherent self-defense habit, I forced them open.
But on my next exhale, the strangest thing happened. I let go, closed them on a sigh, and relaxed every part of me, body and mind. For the first time in eight years, I trusted someone else to be on for me.
And as I drifted down into a rare blissful space of safety and peace, my last thought was that we hadn’t hammered out the rules of a tiebreaker.
Guess we’ll have to leave that up to the Friday.
Earthquake. Shaking. Head vibrating. Shoulders...squeezed.
“...to get up.” A deep male voice echoed in my brain.
Ben’s voice.
But no alarm bells sounded when I realized he’d invaded my personal space.
“What is happening?” I groaned and cracked my eyes open.
Black night filled my vision. Cool air kissed the skin of my arms. Hard hot man lay alongside me, touching me—from my head nestled in the crook of his shoulder to my bare toes pressed against the rough denim of his jeans.
My eyes closed on a contented sigh as I settled back down.
“Time to get going.” He squeezed my shoulder and gently shook me again.
“Why? Got somewhere to be?” The dead-sleep wakeup muddled my brain. A spark of curiosity took hold though. I pushed off of the side of his warm body and sat up, even as every part of me ached to curl back up against him.
“Yep. My place. It’s midnight, princess. The clock struck twelve. You’re on my time now.”
I blinked. “Your place.”
“My place.” He slid his hand into mine and dragged me up off the ground. “Let’s get your bags, you’re moving in.”
My heart began to race. The earth spun faster under my feet. My fuzzy sleep-filled head started to clear. “Moving in.”
“For the week.”
“Oh.” Our week. Our test of which side of the law wins: breaking versus abiding. I firmed my jaw and lifted my chin to stare at him. “I never said I was staying the night.”
“It’s a given. Mornings. Nights. Middle of the nights...” His last words turned gruff.
“But...” I tried to see his expression, but only his dark shadow stood above me.
“Chicken?” He twitched his fingers around my hand.
“No.” Troublemaker.
“Wanna renegotiate?” As he lowered his head, his voice softened, teasing. Warm breath fanned over my cheek, tickled my ear.
“No.” No way. A chance to show the golden boy how I saw the world? Too tempting to ditch.
“Good.” Cockiness hardened his tone.
Wow, angel. You sure know how to stoke a hell-raiser.
“No big.” I shrugged. I could deal. I’d play nice for twenty-four straight hours: be polite, stroll on sidewalks, wait my turn in lines.
Best part about his first day? Another stroke of midnight would end it. My day would come. Then we’ll break your rusted shackles off.
But I drew in a deep breath as I stared up at him.
The one shadowy feature I barely made out in the midnight hour was his dark eyes, the spark of light in them—the intensity they held as he stared at me. And behind him, a million sparkling stars dusted over a black velvet sky.
Last night, I didn’t have even one to make a wish on.
And still, you came true.