Standing in the rear gardens of HEA Towers, Molly looked out across the giant inflatable obstacle course that had been hired for the day’s activity. ‘I thought this would be cool when they told us about it this morning, but now I’m not sure.’
Beside her, Ben scratched his chin. ‘What part are you not sure about? Climbing up the inflatable ladders? Falling off the giant slide? Being hit by the bouncy balls?’ He glanced sideways at her. ‘Or trusting me to help you over it?’
Trust was the buzzword of the day. Marriage was about trust, so the day was designed to see how much trust they had in each other, as they would take it in turns to be blindfolded.
She desperately wanted to trust Ben, but there were parts of him she didn’t know, parts he kept tightly buttoned up. He’d made it clear his body wanted her, but what was going on in his head, and in his heart?
‘Should I trust you?’
He flinched and refused to look at her. ‘You should trust that I don’t want to hurt you.’
‘Is that why you pulled away last night?’
She was pinned with a look from hazel eyes that swirled with emotions she couldn’t identify. ‘Yes.’
‘You know we nearly got split up today.’ The scavenger hunt had been aired last night. They’d come last, so a lot of people had voted to shake up their pairing, though not enough to make the threshold. ‘I could be doing this with Duncan.’ Most of the votes had gone to pair the two of them up. Were they right? Should she have chosen the man who’d openly spoken about marrying her, rather than the man who continued to make her play guessing games?
‘I know.’ He swore under his breath. ‘Sorry, I realise I need to communicate better, but it’s harder than I thought. Fact is, there are things I should have told you before I started kissing you.’
‘Oh, okay.’ What things? ‘Is this to do with Helena?’
His jaw tightened. ‘Yes.’
‘You know what I loved about Duncan?’
Ben snapped his head round. ‘He talked to you.’
‘It’s more than that. I knew where I stood with him. Even when he broke up with me to go on this show, he was upfront about why he was doing it.’
‘Like he was upfront about the videos?’
She reeled back. ‘Wow, you’re not prepared to talk to me about subjects that are hard for you, but you’re quite happy to raise things that are hard for me?’
His lids slammed over his eyes, and he muttered something under his breath which sounded like what the fuck am I doing, but she wasn’t certain. Even if it had been, she didn’t know if he meant what was he doing agreeing to clamber over inflatable obstacles, or what was he doing on the show. Or what was he doing with her.
When he turned to look at her again, his expression looked haggard. ‘Sorry, that was below the belt. I’m just … I’m jealous of him, so jealous it twists me up inside and turns me into a colossal, insensitive prick. It’s up to me to prove I’m a better choice. I know that.’
Silence stretched between them again, sticky, awkward. ‘Have you done one of these obstacle things before?’ she said finally, sensing they both needed a change of subject.
He shifted his hands into the pocket of his shorts. ‘Not this sort.’
‘You mean not the bouncy sort,’ she filled in, wondering what he might look like on a rugged, military-style course. Sweat making his muscles gleam, those strong, sexy legs covered in splashes of mud, which he’d then have to clean off with a long soak in a shower. Water streaming down his chest as tanned skin slid over hard muscles…
Arousal coiled, tightening her core, making her knees week. Oh God, thinking like this was bad. Really, really bad. ‘I’ve not done a course like this either.’ She swallowed convulsively, trying to get rid of the tightness in her throat. ‘I thought it would be shorter, somehow. More fun, less hard work.’
Molly heard a chuckle and turned to find Duncan had come to stand next to her. ‘Come on, Moll, climbing over a few inflatable obstacles isn’t hard work. Not now we’ve got you fit.’
We? What happened to him being proud of what she’d achieved?
Ben’s hand curled reassuringly around hers, but his focus was on Duncan. ‘Want to make this interesting?’
Duncan eyed him sharply. ‘What are you thinking?’
‘Loser does kitchen duty for the winners.’
‘Hang on.’ Molly tugged on Ben’s hand. ‘Shouldn’t we discuss this before you go making bets on my behalf?’
‘I thought you wanted to get out of kitchen duty?’
‘Well yes, but…’ Had he mistaken her for some sort of ninja? Reaching up on her tiptoes she whispered into his ear. ‘We’d need to win. Against Duncan.’
Ben ignored her and held his hand out towards Duncan. ‘Let’s shake on it.’
Duncan laughed as they shook hands. ‘Hope you like cooking ’cos you’re going to be doing a lot of it.’
Molly watched him swagger off, then turned to find Ben frowning at her.
‘You think we can’t beat Duncan over a few plastic obstacles, even blindfolded?’
‘It’s not just you,’ she pointed out. ‘It’s me as well. And it might have escaped your attention but this body is not made for flexibility, or speed, or skipping over hurdles.’
‘Your body is perfect. Jasmine looks like she might fall over if we blow on her,’ he added dismissively while she was still basking at the first four words. ‘And Duncan has underrated how well we work as a team.’
‘He has?’ She had to fight not to giggle. ‘I don’t remember us working that well in the Escape room. Or the scavenger hunt. In fact I seem to recall they beat us.’
Ben’s jaw set in a stubborn line. ‘We’ve learnt since then.’
‘You mean you’re going to listen to me this time? Trust me?’
‘Obviously.’ His jaw jutted. ‘Just make sure we win.’
* * *
Ben didn’t know what had possessed him to make the damn bet. Actually that was wrong, he knew. He hated the way Duncan had talked down to Molly, insisting the course wasn’t hard, that somehow he’d made her fit. And fine, he also hated the nicknames he used and the implied dig that he had a special relationship with her.
Buried beneath all that, like a dark cloud that hovered over him, was the knowledge he had to talk to her about Helena. Wiping the smirk off Duncan’s face would at least help him forget that for a few hours.
‘I’m feeling kind of nervous,’ Molly whispered as they stood at the start line.
She looked adorable with her blindfold on, and Christ, those tiny sports shorts she was wearing made him hard every time he looked at her. ‘Don’t be. We’ve got this.’
She groaned. ‘Please don’t tell me you’ve been getting the lowdown on how to set a record time. Like your supposedly foolproof tips on the Escape room.’
‘Of course not.’ He’d tried, but the team in charge of the course had looked at him as if he was deranged. Apparently it was a fun, team building exercise, mainly hired out to companies.
‘Go!’
To his shock, at the starter’s instruction, Molly ran out in front of him. He watched in amazement as she began to clamber up the first obstacle like a blind Queen Boudica on speed.
Okay then, this was on.
They ducked, dived and scrambled over the course, Ben guiding Molly from behind, mainly so he could watch her bum.
At one particularly high climb up the slide, she huffed. ‘Come on, give me a push.’ Clamping down his baser instincts, he put his hands decorously on her hips and attempted to hoist her. ‘Stop being a gentleman. Get your hands on my bum and give me a shove,’ she shouted.
It was absolutely what was needed, yet when his hands made contact with the backside he’d been ogling all afternoon, the same one he had wild, erotic dreams about, his body totally forgot they were in the middle of a race.
‘Ben!’ Once over the obstacle, she ripped off her blindfold. Cheeks flushed, red hair coming out of its haphazard ponytail, she looked daggers at him. ‘Stop daydreaming, put your blindfold on and get your arse over here.’
Quietly adjusting his hard-on, he tied on the blindfold, leaving a little gap because he wasn’t stupid, and clambered up over the wall to join her, as instructed.
He couldn’t have told anyone what the rest of the course involved. Only that every time she held his hand to guide him, every time she put her hands anywhere on him, he went willingly wherever she wanted him to go. All the while imagining those hands on him for another purpose. Undressing him, touching him, feeling him.
By the time they reached the finish line, he was a hot, horny mess.
‘We beat their time!’ Molly’s arms wrapped around him, crushing her breasts against his chest as her laughter rippled in a breathy gush against his neck. ‘Go us, we don’t have to make dinner.’ Still plastered against him, she drew back, whipped his blindfold off and peered up at him. ‘Why aren’t you more excited?’
‘I am.’ Unconsciously he pushed his hips closer to hers, and her eyes widened.
‘Oh.’
‘Yes. Oh.’ Her lithe warm body rubbed against his, the fruity scent of whatever it was she washed her hair with streaming up his nose, invading his senses … it was the most exquisite torture.
‘Should I move away, or…’
‘Or,’ he replied tightly, hands on her hips to keep her in place. ‘Sorry. Just … give me a minute.’ Though he had no clue how he was going to solve the situation if he didn’t get far, far away from her.
‘I’ve got a better idea.’ She slid round so her back faced him, her bum now against his groin which didn’t help the situation one little bit. Taking hold of his hand, she whispered, ‘stick with me.’
Frankly, he was at the stage where he’d follow her anywhere.
‘Hey, impressive circuit,’ Marcus called over as they shuffled past him and Maya.
‘Thanks.’ He pushed his hips against Molly and muttered, ‘Keep going.’
She led them part way down the garden to a small summer house. ‘We can wait in here while … you know.’
They stepped inside and Ben found it impossible to take his eyes off Molly, and his mind off sex. How could he when they were now alone in an intimate space? And when she looked so fucking sexy, all dishevelled, glistening with sweat and dressed in those damn tiny shorts.
Sexual tension hung heavy in the air, a billion sparks pinging between them, sending prickles racing over his skin. When her gaze dropped to the ‘tent’ in his shorts and her teeth sank into her lower lip, he was done for.
With one step he drew right up against her again, his mouth zeroing in on hers, his hands reaching to clutch the bum that had been driving him mad all day.
He knew it was wrong. Anyone could come past, hell, even a camera crew. Plus there were conversations to be had, and Molly deserved more than a frantic fumble in a garden shed. But fuck, he couldn’t stop. The ache was too painful, his need too great.
And she wasn’t pushing him away. Oh no, she was pressing her hips in tight circles against his erection, the friction sending spirals of pleasure coiling through him. Her mouth was eager, too, her tongue tangling with his, her hands running up and down his back before sliding to his buttocks, squeezing, eliciting a guttural sound from him.
‘Should stop,’ he muttered, his hand pushing under her T-shirt and finding smooth skin. ‘Christ, I’d forgotten how soft you feel.’
‘You’re not soft,’ she muttered, half laughing, half moaning when he pushed her against the wall and ground his hips into her.
This felt too good, his control shot to pieces. Determined that if he was going to come in his shorts like a hormonal teenager, he wouldn’t be the only one falling over the edge, he broke away from kissing her mouth to drag off her T-shirt and push up her bra. ‘Spectacular,’ he whispered reverentially, dipping his head to kiss the skin of her cleavage, then further to take a rose-coloured nipple into his mouth.
‘Oh God.’ Molly’s hands clutched at his head. ‘More.’
His own needs were forgotten as he realised he had a higher need, a higher purpose. To make this incredible, sexy, responsive woman detonate in his arms. Three years ago he’d been able to do that, had almost enjoyed watching her release more than his own.
‘Like this?’ he whispered, moving to give her left breast attention while using his fingers to play with the nipple of her right. ‘You used to love me playing with your breasts, didn’t you?’
‘Ben.’ Her voice was muffled against his neck, her hips thrusting mindlessly against the hard ridge of his fly. ‘Oh God, oh God, oh God.’ Suddenly she stiffened, then sagged against him on a long, strangled moan. ‘Sooooo good.’
Satisfaction burned through him and he held her limp body tight in his arms, hearing her breathing slowly quieten, her heart begin to slow. Enough, he thought. Seeing the pleasure bloom across her face, was enough.