Between Friends (15 page)

“
That’s such a lie.” He
arrogantly chuckles, “I dated Charlotte Anderson for over a
year.”

“
You broke up with her
three times in that year.” I snap, “Not to mention, when you
weren’t together, you slept with other girls. So that doesn’t
count.”

Ben studies my face and narrows his
eyes at me, “You think you are so high and mighty. Don’t tell me I
have relationship problems when you’re the one who keeps on dating
loser after loser after loser. First it was Donny the pot smoking
techie, then it was Will, the prostitute loving sicko, then it was
Marco the snobbish dork who may have had a mild case of Autism.
Don’t push your pointy little finger at me and place your judgment,
because you don’t have shit figured out.”

I gasp and want to slap him, “That is
so not true. I so have my shit figured out.”

“
Oh really?” Ben snorts out
a laugh that sends me into the red zone.

“
You
are
a pig!” I shout, “At least I
dated people and had boyfriends. You on the other hand can’t handle
more than a one-night stand. I feel sorry for any girl who has
fallen victim to your sleazy charm, including myself.”

“
Now you’re just being
mean.” Ben says and curls his lips in amusement.

He pushes up from the door and takes a
step closer in my direction. The closer he creeps, the more my legs
begin to tremble, “You’re mean! You slept with my friend Lydia from
spin class like eight months ago and never called her back.” I
shout.

“
What does that have to do
with anything?” Ben laughs, “Are you jealous?”

“
Of course not” I lie,
which seems to come natural to me these days.

“
Well I am.” Ben admits and
my knees buckle. His dark brown eyes lock with mine as he slowly
runs his thumb along my cheek.

“
You’re jealous?” my tiny
voice squeaks.

“
Yeah, I am. I don’t like
you hanging out with Steven.” He says with frustration and runs his
fingers through his hair.

My heart is pounding in my chest. Ben
may have gone through a lot of women in his day, but I have never
seen him so vulnerable and sincere. His eyes are desperate and
uncertain as he looks at me for a response. I can barely move, let
alone let words escape my mouth.

He lets out a sigh, “I know this is
confusing and crazy. But right now, this is what I want. I want
you.”

I am utterly speechless,
but I finally take a deep breath “Exactly. It’s what
you
want - right now. How
do I know you won’t wake up tomorrow and want something else? I
know what you’re like when it comes to this kind of thing. I’ve
seen it happen over and over again for the past ten years, so why
would I risk a sure thing with someone who might actually want the
same things as me? What about what I want Ben?”

“
You can’t be serious?” He
laughs.

“
Maybe I am.” I say and
spin around to walk into the bathroom.

“
Stop playing games with
me.” Ben says and follows me in, “I know all your little tricks,
your little wants and desires, and I know for a fact that you would
never want a house in suburbia playing wife to a doctor and making
shortbread cookies for your weekend guests.”

“
Maybe I do want those
things!” I shout whipping around to face him and feel a giant
teardrop trickle down my cheek.

Ben’s face drops in turmoil. He
scratches his head and begs me not to cry, but at this point I am
too far-gone that I can’t control it. I start sobbing and put my
head in my hands. Ben pulls me into his chest and wraps his arms
around me.

I am so angry with myself. Why can’t I
just tell him how I really feel? Why can’t I say I love him and
want to be with him? Why am I so scared? Nothing is making any
sense. I can’t believe I admitted to wanting something, like being
someone’s wife! What is happening to me? It frightens me how real
those wants are, because I never thought I wanted any of that. But
maybe I actually do want those things, because I want them with
Ben.

I let him hold me as my tears subside.
I gently push him away, but he holds my shoulders in a tight grasp.
I wipe away the stinging tears, and feel him staring down at me. I
feel small and vulnerable, and I don’t like it. Ben leans down and
kisses my cheek, then kisses my forehead. He gently places his
hands underneath my thighs, lifts me up, and sits me on the
bathroom counter. With one hand he runs his thumb down the side of
my face, and with the other he twirls my hair in his fingers. I
take a deep breath, feeling my insides tingle as Ben places his
lips on mine.

Chapter 12

One mind-blowing kiss after another,
and Ben tries to convince me to ditch Stephanie and Michelle for
dinner.

“
Don’t you have plans?” I
ask breaking away from his plump bottom lip.

He tucks a loose strand of
hair behind my ear and smiles, “I was supposed to meet Matt
and Eric for a drink, but I’ll ditch them if that
means spending more time with you.”

I blush and force my eyes to the
floor. Ben pulls his phone out of his pocket and holds it out with
a smile, “Call Stephanie and Michelle and tell them you can’t make
it. Please.”

Although part of me thinks
I should really separate myself from Ben and focus on what I want,
versus what I believe his intentions to be. For some reason, I just
can’t bring myself to do it. The thought of being alone with him
and having him exclusively in my arms is extremely tempting. His
bottom lip is screaming for me to suck on it, and the more I sit
here debating his request, the more I throb down
there
. I run my hands
along his strong forearms and stop at his thick wrists, feeling his
perfectly smooth skin. The more I ache, the more I desperately hope
his feelings for me are real and I am not just his new found
fuck-buddy.

His soft and pleading voice repeats,
“Please Megan.” And that’s all it takes for me to cave into his
proposition against my better judgment. I slowly take the phone
from his hand and dial Stephanie’s cell number.

“
Hello” Stephanie’s voice
perks up.

“
It’s me, Megan.” I say
while staring into Ben’s gleaming eyes.

“
Are you meeting us for
dinner or what?” She asks.

“
No, I am too
tired.”

“
Whatever” Stephanie
grunts, “Thanks for the heads up Grandma.”

The phone clicks off and she hangs up
without a goodbye. Ben gives me a playful kiss on the forehead and
squeezes my thighs. He takes the phone from my hand and tells me he
is going text Eric to say he won’t be meeting them.

I catch a glimpse of the text Eric
sends back:

Are you starting to grow a
vagina?

Followed up with:

There is a lot of tight
young ass in the bar tonight. You’re loss.

Ben blushes and dismisses his
messages, “Now, where were we?”

I gulp and watch him toss his phone on
the countertop. He smirks caging me, and places both his hands flat
against the mirror on either side of my head. He leans in and
kisses me with his tender lips, and thrusts his pelvis into mine. I
knock over Stephanie’s collection of perfume with my butt and hear
the glass tinker on the granite, but it doesn’t stop him from
shoving his tongue further down my throat. Part of me is telling
myself to stop engaging with Ben this way, but when he hoists me
off the countertop I wrap my legs around him and cave into his
arms.

Within minutes, Ben starts undressing
me. He rips off my housecoat, exposing my naked body and unbuttons
his shirt. He pushes me back against the bed, towers over me then
cups my breasts. He slides his hands down my sides, and forces them
onto the inside of my thighs and pushes them apart. I don’t move
when he slips his hands inside me, streaming kisses along my
collarbone. He presses his body against me, thrusting and rubbing
in ways I have never felt before. I let my hands trail along the
ripples of his stomach and creep their way to snap open his jeans.
I am about to explode from the quickening taking over my body when
Ben pulls away, “Not yet baby.” He smiles with a wicked gleam,
before his mouth is on mine swirling around with the most
refreshingly minty taste. He jerks away, and quickly buries his
head right there and I start to throb, hard. He slips a finger
inside me, and a moan escapes my lips. I grab the sheets as my body
begins to climax, my legs tremble and everything blurs as my legs
stiffen and I scream out his name. He pulls away with wide eyes,
“Holy shit Megan you taste so good.” He pants, pulling
away.

His hands find my hips, and he slowly
enters me letting a growl escape his throat, “Oh my God Megan, your
body is so beautiful.”

His erection moves in and out of me
filling my insides with pleasure. He hovers over me, and places his
face inches from mine. We lock eyes, and he studies my face, like
he is mesmerizing everything in this moment. I hold his gaze and
stare into the intensity, even though it makes me tremble beneath
him. Our movement is slow and strong, until he gives me a few more
pumps and releases inside me, never leaving his eyes from mine.
“Fuck.” He grumbles and collapses beside me. What the hell? Is he
angry with me?

Ben lets out a tense sigh, “That was –
I don’t even know what to say.”

“
Amazing?” I say and hope I
am right.

“
More than amazing.” Ben
says looks back into my eyes. Then he runs his fingers through my
hair and looks away. He gets up from the bed and gives me a shot of
his perfect ass, bends down and picks up his clothes. What is
doing? I quickly sit up on the bed and pull my knees up to my chin
feeling extremely exposed.

“
Want this?” he asks
holding out the housecoat. I nod and snatch it from his fingers and
mutter out a tiny thanks. He slides his shirt over his ridiculous
six-pack, and steps into his shorts and buttons them up. I wrap the
housecoat tightly around my waist and scurry over to my luggage. I
put on a pair of yoga shorts and tight white tank.

He flops down on the cotton sheets and
a smile curls at the edge of his lips, “Come lie with
me.”

He pats the spot beside him and I walk
over to the bed. He rips me on top of him and gives me a quick kiss
on the cheek. I roll over to the other side, and we huddle under
the covers to face each other.

“
I love it when you don’t
wear make-up and look au-natural.” Ben says matter-of-factly, “Your
blue eyes against those long brown lashes, makes my heart
melt.”

I blush and thank him, then remember
he told me something similar about six months ago. After our Sunday
jog around Millennium Park, we were hunched over and winded,
leaning on a park bench. I turned down my iPod from blasting “Spice
Up Your Life” and pulled the headphones out from my ears. I felt
Ben staring at me, so I glanced up to hear him say, “I love your
natural glow.” I thanked him, but then never thought anything of
it.

When he points this out tonight, I
think a lot of it. I think how over the years there were a lot of
little things Ben did/said to me that I should have paid more
attention to. Like, at our high school prom, when he ditched his
ditsy date as soon as the first slow song came on and asked me to
dance. Or last year at our office Christmas party, after our boss
Clint Reitman told a funny joke, Ben whispered in my ear that he
loved my laugh. Even a month ago, when I met him for a drink after
his late showing on a condo in Little Italy, as soon as I walked
into the bar, he made a point of telling me my legs looked great in
my red BCBG dress.

“
Get this” Ben says,
snapping me back to our conversation, “I forgot to tell you, but
before we left, I snagged that listing in Lincoln Park over Blake
Donahue.”

“
Seriously?” I laugh. Blake
is Ben’s realty rival. They both hate each other, and Blake won’t
hesitate to tamper with Ben’s listings or his clients.

“
Seriously,” He smiles and
props his head on the pillow. We both burst out laughing over how
pissed Blake must have been when he heard the news of Ben sweeping
in to grab that million-dollar listing.

“
You always get the best
listings,” I pout.

“
You get great listings
too.” Ben says giving me a kiss on the cheek.

“
Not like you.” I sigh,
“Everybody wants you. It’s not fair. What’s your
secret?”

“
My perfect jaw line,” Ben
jokes, and flashes me his side-profile.

I smile and toss a pillow at him. Ben
blocks the swat and whacks me back. We laugh, but he becomes
serious again, “You seriously are a great realtor. You are just way
too hard on yourself.”

I roll my eyes, and thank him. With
less than three years of my career under my belt that is far from
true. Ben on the other hand was able to take his career by storm
the second he got his real estate license.

We are full of smiles and continue a
gossipy conversation about the people in our office. Including a
discussion on our bosses’ recent weight gain, and Millie the
receptionist’s creepy looking boyfriend who sends her flowers every
other day. But all conversation comes to a screeching halt, when
the creaking hinges of the door startle us and Stephanie and
Michelle tumble into the villa. I push away from Ben feeling caught
red handed, but neither one of them flinches at the sight of us
lying inches apart on the bed.