Chapter 4
“Hey stranger!” Mari laughed as she stood up on her tip-toes to wrap her arms around her much taller friend’s neck. She inhaled deeply as he wrapped her into a tight hug, easily lifting her up off her feet and swinging her around. She had found so much peace in being around him growing up. Humans were much easier for her to be around as they weren’t nearly as overpowering with their emotions.
“So, what brings you down here?” Ben asked with a smile as he settled her back on her feet. He reached around her and closed the door to his apartment with a light click. His eyes followed her every move as she walked around the room making herself at home. He felt the sheer contentment of having her around well up within him. He was sure one day he would get around to telling her how he truly felt about her.
“Oh, just a work thing,” Mari explained with a shrug as she settled down on the edge of the couch. It was late, and Mari was still reeling with the effort she had expended on the search for the missing shifter, and her general lack of sound sleep that had become her new normal. “What about you? What have you been up to?”
“Still just working,” Ben said with a shrug as he moved to the kitchen area and finished putting dishes away. “I ended things with Amy. She seemed to be okay with it, just didn’t seem like it was going to work out.”
His eyes searched her face hoping to see some sort of relief or reaction over the news, but was disappointed to see the familiar, warm smile greeting him. “So, what’s the plan? You want to go out, stay in? Watch a movie?”
“Would you totally hate me if I said I just really want to sleep right now?” She asked with a small laugh as she pulled her feet up beneath her on the bed. She scrunched her face up in an apologetic wince. She couldn’t ever give Ben a real explanation of what she did for “work”, but as far as they had always been concerned, they were friends regardless.
“Of course,” he replied with a laugh in return, “It’s okay. You don’t have to pretend you’re not just an old lady masquerading in that body. It’s way past your bedtime anyway, Granny.” As much as Ben joked, he was more than okay with the prospect of simply sleeping. He would love for more than that to happen, but even just the act of sleeping in the same bed as her seemed to just make his world right again.
Ben crossed the room to his dresser and retrieved a soft tee-shirt from the drawer and tossed it in Mari’s direction. It was far from the first time that he had received a call out of nowhere and had her show up on his door step and ask to stay the night. Ben liked to tell himself it was all just part of the journey. If she could just continue seeing him as the place to run to, she’d eventually see him as more than that. At least, that was Ben’s sincere hope anyway. Ben turned away giving Mari a chance to change as he walked across the small apartment to turn off lights and lock up.
He returned with a shy glance. The sight of her curled up on his bed in his old football tee-shirt, pale legs wrapped up beneath her, caused something deep within him to tighten. She had such a firm hold on his heart and mind, he wasn’t sure how he could ever survive without her in his life. Ben reached for the edges of his tee-shirt and pulled it up and over his head, tossing it towards the hamper before climbing into the bed beside Mari.
Mari found herself inspecting Ben’s body with much more appreciation that she was used to. She couldn’t explain why suddenly she was so interested in the ripple of muscles across his chest and arms, or the way that his pajama pants hung ever so slightly off his hips. She felt herself blushing a deep rouge. She laughed nervously as she settled back onto the bed.
She curled on her side of the bed, the same one she always used when she spent the night at Ben’s place. It was her spot. It was her pillow. The sense of familiarity washed over her and left her easily toying with sleep at the edges of her consciousness. She was finally able to just relax. She reached behind her and pulled Ben’s arm over and across her body, forcing him to cuddle with her.
Ben was intensely aware of every single inch of where his body was in relation to Mari’s. His arm tightened around in her a gentle squeeze, before it nestled up against her narrow waist. Ben toyed around with all the different things he wished he could say to her. He wished he could just explain to her how he felt. He’d been in love with his friend for as long as he could remember, but he was terrified that if he told her, she would disappear completely. It was rare that he got to see her as it was. Ben couldn’t imagine never getting to see Mari again, it was just too much. He felt perfectly content as she quickly fell into a deep sleep there in his arms. He thought it odd she had fallen asleep so quickly, as she normally had a hard time getting to sleep.
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Mari was back in that strange room that she was beginning to know so well. It all felt so vividly real for a dream. The soft sheets wound around her naked body, sliding over her skin as she moved. She sat up on the bed with her hands behind her, propping her up and slid to the end of the bed. She could feel him before she could see him. Her pulse quickened, and her breathing became shallower with every step he drew closer.
His body was tall, broad and incredibly muscular. Mari couldn’t help but think that if she was going to sculpt the perfect male body, this would be it. He was nothing like the Fae or human men she’d ever seen. They had a leaner quality, where this man who drew closer to her was a solid mountain of toned muscle.
The light cast shadows across his smooth, tan skin, and her eyes traced slowly along the curve of each muscle in his chest and stomach as he neared her. He was wearing pants that seemed to just barely hang off him, and Mari had the overwhelming realization that she wanted nothing more in that instant than for there to be nothing in between them.
She couldn’t tell if it was moments or an eternity that passed before he finally closed the distance between them. He sank to his knees before her at the edge of the bed. She reached a hand out and caught a piece of the long, dark curls that hung beside his face, letting them trail through her fingers. She still couldn’t see his face, it was hidden in shadow as usual, but she felt like she knew him better than anyone.
He reached large hands out and slid them up the insides of her thighs spreading them wider apart. His touch sent a riot of passion through her body, every muscle clenching in response to his fingers inching ever higher up her thighs. Mari wound her hands in his thick, black curls as he leaned forward. His lips and tongue brushed lightly against her delicate flesh, setting every inch of her skin he touched on fire.
Her back arched, pushing her hips gently forward to meet his searching tongue. A moan escaped her lips, and the pitch of her panted breaths increased as his tongue and fingers slid within her relentlessly. The firm pressure of his large hand on the inside of her thigh was hot, and it squeezed gently as she clenched her muscles, rocking forward to meet his tongue.
Rational thoughts had long since fled, and all Mari could do was let her eyes close as her head fell back with another soft moan that started deep in her throat. The heat that was pooling low in her body was too much to bear. She felt like it would consume her if it didn’t release soon. Her breath came in ragged, deep moans as his tongue teased and swirled, feeling just within reach of the blissful release…
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Ben’s eyes flashed open as Mari writhed against him, waking him from a deep sleep. He hadn’t imagined anything other than sleep would have been happening that night, but there was no mistaking the soft moan that slipped from Mari’s lips. Ben tightened his arm around her waist, puller her body flush against his. He inhaled deeply, trailing kisses up the side of her neck.
Mari gasped as the touch of Ben’s lips on her neck ripped her out of her dream. Her mind was foggy and she kept trying to figure out what had been a dream and what was really happening. Her hand reached down, tracing the length of Ben’s arm before drawing his hand up under her shirt to her breasts, though her mind registered that there should be bigger hands there. She ground her hips lightly back against him, wincing as she felt uncomfortable burns rubbing against each other on her thighs. She was lost a moment later as visions of a massive, sculpted body continued filling her thoughts. Her mind was trapped somewhere between her dream and the present. In that moment, all she knew was she needed release.
Ben let his fingers tease at her, enjoying how much she seemed to respond to his touch. His hand trailed down the smooth expanse of her stomach beneath her shirt. He traced a finger along the length of lace that was covering her hips. As she arched her back against him he slipped his hand beneath the delicate fabric, intending to let his hand explore where he had only dreamt of exploring previously, but retracted his hand in shock when Mari cried out in pain as his fingers felt between the soft skin of her thighs.
Mari yelped as Ben’s fingers came out from under the elastic at her waist and it lightly snapped back against her skin. It felt like having someone walk up and smack you when you had a terrible sun burn. She rolled onto her stomach out of Ben’s reach. There was no more confusion in her mind, she was fully awake after the searing pain, quite literally, snapped her out of it.
“Whoa! What’s wrong?” Ben asked anxiously as he leaned up on one arm to get a better look at Mari. He had been so wrapped up in something finally happening between them that he was still reeling a little with the strange turn it had taken. His mind was fluctuating between wanting desperately to pick back up where they left off and figuring out what he had done wrong. He wasn’t super experienced, but he’d certainly never had that reaction before. He looked at his fingers inspecting them, half wondering if there was a sharp nail or something that could have explained it.
Mari pushed herself up off the bed, wincing as the fabric on of her underwear scraped against the tender skin beneath. She sucked in a shallow breath with a hiss as she pushed herself up off the bed, causing her thighs to shift against each other. She stood and let out a slow breath, looking down she could she deep red streaks leading from just above her knee inside her thighs and stretching all the way up her leg where they ended in two large, red handprints.
Her eyes slowly found their way up to meet Ben’s very confused green ones. She saw his eyes widen as he saw the marks on her legs. She stammered trying to find some sort of explanation or reason for what had just happened, but there was simply no way could explain to him that not only was she a magical creature, but she was having weird psychic pornographic dreams that were burning her in her sleep. She blushed deeply, and the flush seemed to spread from her head all the way down her.
Without much coherent thought, she turned on her heel and fled for the sanctuary of the bathroom. It was the only room in Ben’s studio apartment that had a door that could be closed. Her mind was racing. She bent gingerly removing the lacy fabric and gasping as she realized that the entire sensitive area was red and angry. She reached for a washcloth and wet it with cool water, pressing it gently against her skin she sank to the floor.
Mari’s mind reeled as she tried to figure out what the heck had just happened. She had never had even the smallest inclination of being intimate with Ben. Ever. They were friends, and she was confused and flustered at what had transpired. She had no idea how she was going to explain herself, or the strange marks on her legs. Her head fell back against the door with a slight thud. She had no idea what was happening to her. How on Earth was she supposed to figure out how to explain that to her very human, best friend?
Mari heard Ben’s feet shuffling across the floor towards the bathroom. The door reverberated gently against her back as he knocked. She closed her eyes, wishing with all her might that she could simply disappear into a hole in the ground.
“Mari? You ok in there?”
The hot sting of tears welled beneath Mari’s eyes as she attempted to simply will herself into non-existence. She could hear the anxiety in Ben’s voice, and feel the waves of concern, confusion and lust rolling off him. Mari attempted to repair the mental blocks she had to put in place, but seemed to keep struggling and failing. She rarely had any trouble blocking out humans, but she was so exhausted that she just couldn’t maintain the energy to keep them up.
“Mar? Please, just say something.”
“I’m fine,” she lied as she knocked her head back against the door attempting to force some sense into herself. She heard Ben settle down and felt the door move as he sat back against it on the opposite side.
“You’re a shitty liar, even through a door.”
“You’re right. But I don’t even know what to say, Ben,” she sighed squirming as the washcloth lost its coolness and the searing heat began screaming for her attention again. She flung the cloth across the small room in frustration. She had no idea how she was going to manage facing her friend ever again.
Ben’s mind was reeling as he attempted to make heads or tails of what had just happened. He had been so close to finally being able to experience something he had dreamed of for years, but then seeing the strange red marks and handprints on his friend’s thighs had rather abruptly brought his fantasy that they would finally be together to a halt. Mari hadn’t even told him that she was seeing anyone, let alone how she could be hurt like that. It was just exceptionally odd, any way you sliced it.
“Who’s the guy?” Ben asked bitterly, raking a hand through his pale-red hair. He inhaled slowly, trying to steel himself for the news that she was dating someone. It wasn’t like she wasn’t beautiful. Ben had always been the one who dated, while Mari had been single for years. He wasn’t particularly surprised someone had finally caught her eye. Ben just felt miserable that he hadn’t gotten the courage to make her see him sooner.
“Ben…It’s not like that. I just can’t talk about it, Okay?”
“Sure,” he muttered. Her voice sounded thin and strained as she spoke to him from behind the door. He felt like such an idiot. She probably had been just dreaming about this other guy, and he misinterpreted it and took it too far. Ben continued mentally kicking himself as he searched for the right thing to say.
“Can you just drive me home now?” she asked, feeling guilty for asking him to drive up the mountain roads in the wee hours of the morning. She just couldn’t imagine trying to fall back asleep or explain what was happening to her.
“Sure, I’ll get your clothes,” he said as she heard him moving and walking in the apartment behind her. Mari took a steadying breath, trying to build up the courage to endure the very long car ride to her home and the new awkwardness between them.