“I’m coming, I’m coming,” Ellie called as she moved to the door of her apartment.
She’d been back on the island for two weeks now. Bennett hadn’t been to the bar once, Mikeyla had returned to DC and her law practice, and Dogfish had reclaimed his stool to overlook his domain.
Settling back into the routine hadn’t been as difficult as she’d thought it would be. What hurt was not seeing Bennett. But she understood, she’d pushed him away. One night she’d gone by his place but it was completely dark and his truck wasn’t in the drive.
Drawing open the door, her breath left her in a whoosh. Standing there, arm braced along the door frame was the man she’d just been thinking about, hunky Bennett Harvey.
“Bennett.”
His name fell from her lips on a soft sigh. God, she’d missed him. Every fine ass inch of him. Her body responded instantly, for not even Big Blue had been able to fulfill the ache she craved Bennett with.
His eyes were sleepy and hooded as he watched her. The tight blue shirt barely contained those guns he called arms, and his worn jeans didn’t help her lustful mind calm down and send peaceful thoughts through. Quite the opposite. More along the lines of dropping to her knees to undo them, peeling them down his strong legs. Drawing his thick, long cock into her mouth and sucking on it while he gripped her hair and pumped his hips into her.
Her nipples drew painfully tight as she imagined him sucking them into his mouth, teeth grazing the points. And her clit throbbed with anticipation.
“Hello, Smash. May I come in?”
Smash. He was calling her Smash. A name he’d created for her. Was that a good thing or a bad one because he wasn’t using Ellie?
Panic began sinking in as she didn’t know what to expect. Since words, coherent ones, wouldn’t come, she stepped back so he could move past her. She locked her stare in on his ass as he walked by.
It wasn’t fair for him to have an ass like that. Not to everyone else in the world. No one wore jeans like this man.
He cleared his throat and she snapped her gaze upward, aware she’d been caught staring. Only since he’d turned, it wasn’t his ass but his groin she’d fixated on.
“You busy?”
Yes, she was, but it wasn’t anything that couldn’t wait for a bit. She really missed him. “No.”
“Good. Lock the door.”
She glanced from the door to him and back again. “What?”
“Lock the door. We’re not getting interrupted until we get this worked out.”
She locked it and turned back, resting against the cool wood. Her eyes flicked to the impressive tattoos he had on arms. Her mind flashed her back to the night she licked chocolate syrup off them. And a few other things. It really got interesting when he began drawing them on her with whipped cream.
“Is there really anything left to say?”
“A fuck load. Are you really thinking that we drop all we’ve been through together because some ass from your past shows up? Couples face things together, Ellie. Not separately.”
Her insides flipped a few times. “We’re not a couple.”
“We should be. We kicked ass together, Smash. You know it and so do I. We can’t argue that point.”
“So what, you want me to relive it all and tell you so you understand what’s going on in my head?”
“I’d like you to share it with me but I won’t make you. I will need you to understand that I’m here for you. To be with you. To be your rock when you need one. Christ, Ellie, I’ve fallen in love with you. That hasn’t changed over this time you’ve been gone.”
She wanted to believe him. So much.
“There’s that look again. You don’t believe what I’m saying. You think it’s a line I use and then I’m going to hurt you.”
“It wouldn’t be the first time a man has done that.”
“No, it wouldn’t be, but women do it too. I won’t and I trust that you won’t either.”
“Why would you trust me?”
“Because I love you. I’m in love with you.” He moved closer to her until he could touch her. His large hands settled upon her upper arms. “I want to marry you, Ellie Forrester. I want to raise a family with you.” He rested his head against hers, holding her stare.
“I don’t know if I want children.”
He barely blinked. “So, it’s something we talk about down the road. I’d like to spend some time with it just being us. Husband and wife.”
She closed her eyes. Mrs. Ellie Harvey. Yes, she liked the sound of that.
“I have demons.”
“Of course you do, baby. You’ve lived. You’ve survived. We all have them to a degree.”
“Piper says I’m a survivor. That I should be proud of that.”
“Piper sounds very smart. And correct.”
“She’s my best friend and she told me to come back.”
“Like I said, smart.”
He wrapped his arms around her, holding her tight to him. She loved the lub-dub of his heart in her ear. A sound she’d missed while being away from him. So strong. So steady.
“It was my ex-husband.” She fought the shiver as she spoke the words.
He didn’t pull back and make her hold his gaze. Bennett allowed her to remain tucked where he couldn’t see her face.
“He was the perfect gentleman when we first started. I had no indication of what he was truly like until after I was his wife.”
Bennett’s warm breath along her ear, oddly comforting.
“At first it was small shoves and smacks in the face. Nothing major, then came the apologies and gifts. He’s a wealthy man, it was nothing for him to buy me some diamond bauble.” She wound her hands in his shirt, taking the time to allow his clean masculine scent to flow over her. “Then came the bruising. The black eyes, marks on my arms, legs, and stomach. After that, the broken bones. While he got good at hurting, I got exceptional at lying. He even went so far as to buy horses to use as excuses for my arm breaks, or fingers.”
Bennett stiffed against her but his hold on her never lessened. She was completely safe in the enclosure of his embrace. This was where she wanted to stay. Not even before Trevor turned into the abusive ass, or rather showed his true colors, had she felt this was with him. Not once.
“Funny how money can make people look the other way. No one listened to me. Not the cops, not his parents, only Piper. She hates him and confronted him. Of course he denied everything but that night he beat me so bad he had to have a doctor come out and treat me at the house, knowing that someone in the hospital would report it to someone he couldn’t buy off.”
Her body sagged and he held her up. “Piper helped me get here and filed the divorce paperwork. We sent it to him along with a note stating that if he contested the divorce we would show the x-rays and round up some of the doctors and nurses who had treated me. Either I wasn’t that important to him or he no longer wanted the hassle. There was no contestation from his camp.”
“And you saw him the other day, which prompted all the memories to come back in a flood of panic.”
“Yes. I thought he’d come for me after all those years, even though I saw him with another woman. It spiraled from there.”
“You sound like you’re apologizing and you don’t have to. I wish you’d told me this, yes, but it is in the past. We don’t have to mention it anymore.”
“Why aren’t you angrier?”
“Trust me, Smash. I’m furious but not with you. With him. I hate fuckers like that and would enjoy showing him what it is like trying to hit someone who can and will fight back.”
Bennett hefted her and carried her with him to the couch where he laid out, positioning her on top of him. The afternoon sun warm on her back, she burrowed closer to him, accepting the heat from both sides.
“So, what happens now?”
A good question. Bennett stared up at the ecru ceiling and held her to him. It was a good thing he’d not known about this when he’d seen the man there, for he surely would have killed him for daring to touch Ellie like that.
“Are you staying here?”
He held his breath while he waited for her to respond.
“I think so. For now, at least. While I was back in Kansas I was reminded of why it’s not my favorite place in the world.”
“Why is that?”
“They’d just started tornado season and we had two while I was there. Piper reminded me about the winters with the snow and ice storms. Why the hell would I want to give all this up for cold and snow?”
“We can go to the mountains if you’d like snow.”
“No, I’m fine just looking from afar.”
He chuckled at how fast she got that reply out. She pressed a kiss to his sternum.
“For what it’s worth, Bennett, I’m sorry I didn’t explain things better.”
Repositioning her so he could see her green-blue eyes, he ran his gaze over her features. “Don’t run without talking first.”
She wriggled on him, shooting more blood to his cock. “Deal.”
He cupped her ass and held her close to his dick. “God, I want to fuck you.”
Her gaze darkened and she leaned in to kiss him. He stopped her.
“We start this, we’re not stopping for a while and we have to talk first.”
She swiped her tongue over her lips. “Are you sure?”
“Yes, yes I am.” Fuck no. I don’t want to talk.
She sat up and drew off her shirt. “We can do both.”
His brain short-circuited. He wasn’t going to survive this. “Both?” His voice sounded no clearer than a bullfrog croak.
“Yes.” She inched back so he could sit. “We undress and talk at the same time, this way when we’re done with the talking we’re ready for the fucking.”
He ripped his shirt off with one hand and dropped it to the floor with hers. Her turquoise bra cupped her breasts and pushed them up, much like an offering. One he wasn’t about to turn down.
“I didn’t want you to know I had been weak enough to let a man beat me. And I was scared to let you in close, for fear you would turn on me like he had.”
He smoothed his hands up her sides until he reached the bottom of her bra band. Moving inward, he skimmed his thumbs along the underside of her lacy temptation. The tips were pointed and pebbled. As he swiped his thumbpads over them, she moaned and lowered her head, allowing the dark hair to fall forward over one eye.
“Bennett.” Her voice was more a beg than anything.
Fuck talking. He slammed his mouth on her own and thrust his tongue deep as he made short work of her pants. Not much later, he moaned in contentment as he slid his length balls deep inside her pussy.
Bennett stirred and drew the woman in his arms closer to him. Her back was to his chest and he held her around the midsection as he teased her sensitive breasts with his other hand. She made more small mewls in the back of her throat but didn’t waken.
Right now, they lay on a mess of blankets and pillows in her bedroom on the floor. The sun had set and he didn’t want to get up, but he was hungry. She moaned his name and guided his hand down between her legs.
Pushing two fingers into her slit, he sank them inside her, using the heel of his palm against her bundle of nerves that had lifted her to so many orgasms earlier. He sucked on her neck as he pumped his fingers inside her heat.
She came with a low cry and her hips bucked, taking in all they could. She still didn’t wake and he withdrew from her and crawled out of the nest they’d made. Drawing on his pants, he cleaned up in the bathroom, went to her kitchen, and rooted around in the fridge.
When a knock came, he walked to the peephole and stared out.
“What do you need, Dogfish?” he asked, pulling the door open.
“Wondered when you were getting back. How is she?”
“Recovering. Something you needed?”
“Nope, just doing my nightly check on her.”
“We’ll be over later.”
“See you then.” He left without another word.
After eating, more sex, another shower, and more sex, they were finally dressed and on their way to the bar.
“Have you ever been there when you’ve not been working?”
“Nope.” She sat in the middle seat of his truck, head on his shoulder. “I’m not typically looking to head back to that place. I spend enough time there. And I do have to work tonight.”
“Ellie,” he said. “I thought we were spending the night getting through this.”
“I have to, Bennett. Dogfish isn’t fully healed yet and Mikeyla’s gone back home.”
He got it but he didn’t like it.
He held her hand as they walked into Last Call and the place broke into whistles and whooping n’ hollering.
“When’s the big day?” Rachel asked as she hugged Ellie.
Bennett held her gaze when she turned her questioning one to him. “I didn’t do this.”
“We don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said, placing a kiss on his cheek and moving behind the counter.
Some of the local sailors glared at him then told Ellie how crushed they were she was taken. She joked with them as he made his way through the crowd of congratulations to his seat. Did they know something he didn’t? He’d mentioned it to her earlier but neither of them had done anything else in terms of discussing an upcoming marriage.
Interesting. Something for them to talk about for sure on the way home.
The night went fast and he enjoyed it, not as much as if he’d been alone with Ellie, but he still enjoyed himself.
They walked out together after everything was finished.
“Do you have any clue what they were talking about?” she asked as they rounded the first corner.
“No. I thought you might.”
“Not at all. I even checked my hand to see if I had any ring there I didn’t know about.”
He spun her into a business wall and kissed her until her fingers gripped the front of his shirt and she damn near rode his hip.
“Would you like one there?”
“What?” She stared up at him, kiss swollen lips and wide eyes.
“I’m asking you right now to marry me, Ellie. What do you say?”
“Yes.”
He whooped and kissed her once more. Now this was how you ended a night.