RUIN(14)

"I've only ever really cared for my mother." His eyes soften. "I mean I love my dad and Noah, but it's not the same."

I've never heard him speak openly of his feelings for his brother. It reassures me in some abstract way that I'm doing the right thing by coming to see him. "You've never been in love with a woman?"

The corner of his mouth jets up into a small smile. "No. I've cared for women but it was mostly related to sex. I'd keep my feelings out of it."

I admire the emotional control he has. I'm the exact opposite. Although I haven't ever loved anyone beyond Parker, I've cared deeply for two other men. I felt I could have fallen desperately in love with either but the circumstances never worked out that way. What I feel now, for Ben, is different. I want to express that but it's so jumbled together with the confusion that still lingers from the weekend and our encounter in Boston. I'm not ready to pour my heart out.

"Do you remember when we met on the airplane?"

My eyes dart over his face when he asks the question. "Of course I do, Ben."

"I was sitting in first class when you boarded." He scrubs the back of his neck with his hand. "You walked right past me."

"What?" I tap my hand against his knee. "You were not."

"I was," he confesses with a blush. "You stepped on to the plane and…" He blows a heavy gust of air out between his lips.

"How did you end up sitting next to me in coach?" I interrupt whatever it was he was going to say.

His finger traces a line over the seam of my jeans. "I asked the flight attendant to check if anyone was sitting next to you. She said you had the window seat, the middle seat was vacant and a woman was sitting in the aisle seat."

I never saw that woman. After I sat down in my seat I don't remember anything until Ben came up the aisle and sat down. "What woman? I never saw her."

"That's because she took my seat in first class after I offered it to her in exchange for your seat in coach when she boarded the plane."

"I thought that broke some rule or something." I tilt my head towards him. "Don't you have to stay in the seat assigned to you in case something happens?"

"The flight attendant called the gate. They made a note of the change and I took the seat in coach that was beside you."

"Why?" I glance at him with a grin. "Why would you do that?"

"You have the most beautiful face I've ever seen." His finger jumps to my chin. "When I saw you walk past me, I knew I had to know you."





Chapter 10




"Ah, Kayla." His hands run down the bare skin of my back. "Please. I need to. Please."

I push my wetness into his crotch. "Just hold me like this."

"Yes," he whispers the word into my neck. "I'll hold you like this forever."

I want that. I'd kissed him after he told me he arranged to sit next to me on the airplane. It wasn't because the gesture demanded a reward. It was because I saw within him the same need that I felt that night. When I'd first looked at his face as the flight attendants ran through the finer details of what to do in case of an emergency, my eyes had locked with his. There was a mirrored reflection in his face of my want and desire. We both knew, before either of us said the cursory and expected hello, that we'd be sharing our bodies.

"Your body is perfect." His lips graze over my chin. "Do you know how perfect it is?"

He's sitting against the thick wooden headboard of his bed, his back pushing it into it, while I straddle his lap. My breasts are splayed against his chest. My hands cup his cheeks. "I like that you think it's perfect."

"Everything about you is."

I push my lips into his, running the edge of my tongue along the lush full lines of his mouth. He groans slightly, his arms tightening on my back, one hand racing down to cup my ass cheek, pulling my core over his swollen erection.

"I've missed this," I whisper into his mouth. "I've missed you."

He pulls back just enough that his lips hover next to mine as he speaks. "Tell me you trust me, Kayla. I can't do this if you don’t trust me."

"I…" I edge forward wanting to feel his kiss again.

"Kayla." His hands bolt to my face. "I have so many things to tell you. I can't fuck you if you doubt me. I feel too much when I fuck you."

The growl that comes out of him with the words only arouses me more. "I want you to fuck me, Ben."

"Jesus, please." His thumb runs a path over my bottom lip. "I want to taste you. I've been craving you for days. Tell me this is okay."

"I want it." I push my breasts into his chest, pressing my core into his hard cock. "I want you so much."