Dating Dr Notorious (29 page)

“I used one of Catherine’s old cocktail rings during the interview. I don’t think it’s even a real diamond. It was just big and looked convincing,” Ben said, shrugging and sitting down to his eggs. “I wanted to make sure it showed up on camera.”

Regina looked at Ben and laughed in stunned disbelief.

“Are you serious? You proposed to me on live TV using one of your dead wife’s cocktail rings? Ben, that’s completely horrible!
That’s so not nice
,” Regina concluded, and then burst out laughing until tears ran down her face.

Ben finished his eggs in record time and went to find the jacket he’d worn the day before. He pulled a tiny cloth bag out of a pocket and came back to the table.

“Up,” he said to Regina, who merely rolled her eyes at him.

“We have got to work on your manners, Benjamin. I am not your dog,” she said to him.

He smiled and pulled her to her feet, and then pulled her back down onto his lap as he sat in her chair. “This is the real ring.” He opened the cloth bag and rolled out into his hand a beautiful ring containing a blue sapphire flanked by diamonds and mystic opals.

She picked it up from Ben’s palm and held it out to where she could study it. “It’s the most incredibly beautiful ring I have ever seen.”

“The artist who made it called it
blue fire
. I thought it would suit you. It should also fit. I had it sized to match some other rings in your jewelry box. I bought it a couple weeks after we were together at Norfolk.”

She looked at him with a shake of her head. “Ben.” He’d bought a ring before he’d told her he loved her. His name was all she could manage.

“Sue me. I knew it was forever the first time I was inside you. You weren’t the only one who had a sense of us belonging together.”

Ben watched as Regina slid the ring on her finger and admired it there. It was a prefect fit. He smiled broadly, satisfied with his cleverness and her romantic heart.

“So let me see if I understand the situation. You lied on TV, proposed to me with one of Catherine’s rings, and pilfered through my jewelry box? Any other nasty habits I need to know about before I make a decision about marrying you?” Regina turned to study his completely unrepentant expression.

Ben shook his head. “What can I say? You bring out the worst in me, Regina. I keep telling you I’m tired of being nice.” Ben picked up the hand with the ring on it and licked her palm while she shivered in anticipation of more licking. Then he reverently kissed the top of the ring as if to seal it in place there.

When Regina sighed, Ben scooted her more firmly into his lap so she could feel his growing interest in sealing the deal in other ways.

“So why is it again I should marry you?” Regina asked. “Tell me again about the orgasms part.”

She rose, turned around, and sat again, straddling his lap and facing him. Hooking her feet behind his calves, Regina giggled when she felt Ben’s whole body tighten in response. She would never get tired of watching the color shift in his eyes when he got excited.

Ben stood with Regina wrapped around him and lifted her to the dining table, sliding their plates and coffee cups off into the floor in the process of climbing on top of her.

“Ben, stop! We’ll break the table!” Regina protested even as she laughed, but Ben was already unfastening and pushing off her clothes too fast for her to do much about stopping.

“It’s okay. I’ll thrust easy,” Ben promised softly, licking her neck and cupping her breast.

Regina was still laughing and trying to talk him off the kitchen table when he slipped inside her. Ben stroked in and out deeply as he stared into her eyes.

Regina was torn between appreciating the total concentration in his face and just flowing with the physical pleasure of him moving inside her. When Ben stopped moving and held perfectly still, her heartbeat thundered.

“I seriously love you, lady. You have to marry me.” Ben didn’t care it was a demand and not a question. There was only one answer, and he needed to hear Regina say it.

He moved again and Regina closed her eyes in appreciation of how well he filled all spaces inside her that had been so empty before him.

Seeing the deep satisfaction in Regina’s flushed face, Ben laughed and kissed her as he plunged deep in response to her arched body.

“If you say yes now, I promise not to tell anyone how I talked you into it,” Ben whispered in her ear, making her laugh.

“Oh, you
promise
?” Regina repeated, the words catching on a laugh in her throat.

“Sure,” Ben said. “You can trust me. I’m a nice guy.”

Regina laughed more as he pushed himself to the hilt inside her. Then he brought up one knee to brace himself on the tabletop, and lifted her hips forcing her to take the full force of his thrusts.

She called his name, her hands grabbing his shoulders to hold on to him.

From far away Ben heard a cracking sound, but a simultaneous climax with Regina pulled his attention away from it and to their pulsing bodies.

Afterward, he laid his head on her shoulder to get his breath.

“Did you ever say yes?” he asked finally.

Regina giggled wickedly and shook her head from side to side. But then she lifted his head until she could hold his face between her still trembling hands.

“How could I not marry a guy who can break a table and give us both an orgasm at the same time? I love you, Ben. Yes, I’ll marry you. I just hope you don’t regret it someday.”

Ben kissed her mouth, his tongue pressing deep as he heard the cracking sound again.

“Okay,” he said, “now be really still while I try to save us.”

Regina giggled again as the table groaned. She was going to end up in the floor; she just knew it.

“Hurry,” she begged, laughing.

Ben eased out of her, off the table, and onto the floor. Then he pulled Regina to him quickly as the table collapsed sideways.

They both stared at the crumbled heap of metal and the rest of the mess they’d made.

“Gee, sorry about the table,” Ben said, looking at the pile of metal and screws. “It was a girlie table anyway. The next one needs to be made out of wood. We don’t want to have this problem again.”

Regina laughed. Her dignity was nowhere to be found. She stood there next to Ben with some of her clothes around her ankles and others strewn among the mess.

The kitchen table was definitely history. Broken china pieces mingled with running coffee on the floor.

Ben looked as disheveled as she, but was grinning and obviously proud of himself.

“Good Lord,” she said, pulling up her clothes to keep from tripping over them. “I’ve agreed to marry a crazy man.”

“Too late to back out. I’m going to call Stephanie and have her announce your acceptance on today’s show. By the way, you should know I lied,” Ben told her. “It wasn’t intentional, but I just realized I couldn’t possibly keep this a secret.”

“What? The marriage?” Regina looked at him as he pulled up his jeans and fastened them.

“Regina,” Ben said, shaking his head. “What good is breaking a table if you can’t brag about it?”

Regina punched his shoulder and stalked off to the bathroom swearing.

Ben surveyed the broken table with a grin and decided he might as well take some pictures with his cell phone.

He was pretty sure this kind of thing only happened once in a man’s life.

True to his word, Ben made a call, and
About Town with Stephanie
took great pleasure in exclusively announcing the upcoming nuptials for Benjamin Kaiser and Dr. Regina Logan.

He and Regina held a very public engagement dinner and smiled for every camera pressed in their faces.

Headlines for the next couple of weeks were a mix of opinions regarding their potential success as a couple and whether or not Ben would hook back up with his brunette again.

Ben could only shake his head over the headlines. He had told them the brunette was history, but evidently the truth didn’t sell papers. Hell, even the truth about the lies didn’t sell papers.

Relieved he could finally laugh about such things instead of getting angry, Ben added more pictures to his growing collection.

Their wedding was elaborate, but blessedly short. They selectively allowed the more reputable members of the press, including Stephanie, to be in attendance as he and Regina exchanged vows at the Dolen Methodist Church.

Stephanie was claiming full credit for getting them together after Ben’s
faux pas
. Ben and Regina let her get by with it because it was mostly true, even if not the way she thought.

The reception, on the other hand, was a small catered affair at the country club where they met.

The press was not allowed. Unofficial pictures were strictly forbidden. Casey had hired a small battalion of retired and veteran soldiers led by Allen Stedman who manned the doors and policed the facilities.

They had no problems accosting anyone who even looked like they were trying to take a picture with a cell phone or camera.

Casey grinned at Allen as he moved around talking softly to the men, who seemed to be having as good a time as he was harassing the rich attendees who weren’t being polite to their hosts.

Seth had agreed to watch the outside of the club because it gave him an excuse to not be in the same room as Jenna for more than a few minutes at a time. He didn’t want to have to watch her dancing with other men.

He was just heading out the door to do another sweep, when a hand on his arm stopped him.

“Got time for a dance?” Jenna asked, wounded a little when Seth would barely look at her.

“I promised Casey I’d check on the security outside.” He looked to the door, but didn’t try to shrug off her hand. “Where’s your date?”

Jenna couldn’t leave things as they were between them. Her mom and Casey were getting married next month. It really was best for Seth and her to be friends, especially before then. She slid her hand down and linked her fingers with his.

“I came alone,” Jenna said easily. “Come on, one short dance.”

“Are you sure you can dance in those shoes?” Seth asked, following her to the dance floor, watching her move gracefully in a pair of barely-there strappy sandals with three-inch black skinny heels. Her composure was very different from the woman who’d thrown shoes across a bedroom a month ago.

All her damn dating must be giving her practice wearing grown-up clothes
, Seth thought darkly.

On the dance floor, Jenna turned into Seth’s arms, stunned for a moment by the flash of belonging that came instantly to her. She shook it off, conceded it was likely a leftover reaction to the passionate kiss they had shared during the night of her mother’s engagement party.

“So how have you been?” Jenna asked, trying to make casual conversation.

“Fine,” Seth answered, continuing to look over Jenna’s head and not at her.

“Seth, just because I’m dating other men doesn’t mean you and I can’t be friends. We’re going to be seeing each other at family gatherings. We should find a way to get along,” she said reasonably.

As they danced, Seth pulled her closer, pressing her body against his, feeling the rightness of it, and noting her arousal to his nearness. Her mind might be in denial, but her body wasn’t.

“I’m never going to be just your friend,” Seth told her bitterly, finally looking at Jenna for the first time since they started dancing.

Jenna was quiet for a moment, and then tried to be as reasonable as possible. “I—things can never work out like you want, Seth.”

Seth dropped his hands from her and stepped away. His jaw was so tense, he knew he’d have a headache from grinding his teeth later.

“Really?” he asked. “Who are you aroused for right now then, Jenna? Do you get like this with every guy? When you’re tired of lying to yourself, give me a call.”

Jenna watched Seth walk away from her toward the door. What he said was true. She did still want him, but that didn’t mean she had to act on the urge, especially when she knew from experience wanting would only bring more pain to her when he rejected her again.

Still, it was disturbing on many levels that the sight of Seth’s retreating back felt like losing him. Not being a woman who typically lied to herself about her emotions, her reaction to Seth was something she was eventually going to have to do something about. She was starting to see dating other men was not going to make her not want Seth. It was a sobering thought about the facts of her life.

Jenna gratefully took the glass of champagne offered by a passing server when she left the dance floor alone.

*** *** ***

Alexa sighed as she scanned the room.

She thought the champagne was wonderful and hoped her own reception next month would turn out as well as this one. She and Casey had decided to postpone their wedding a bit while he finished the security on Jim Gallagher’s first building.

Smiling, Alexa snatched a full glass of champagne from a passing tray and carried it to Regina, who was trying to sneak in a few bites of food between well-wishers.

Alexa handed her the champagne, bending to kiss her cheek. Regina looked amazing in her floor length blue lace gown. Ben looked like an advertisement for Sydney in his matching sea green suit. She was going to mention it to Sydney, as soon as he and Paul got back from their one-month trip to Italy.

“I can’t believe you two beat Casey and me to the altar,” Alexa said to Regina. “You sure were in a big hurry.”

“Ben wouldn’t let me wait.” Regina shrugged and laughed, watching her new husband talking to Casey.

His green eyes were shining with excitement. He was unbelievably striking in the suit Sydney had made for him. She wished Sydney had been there to see him.

Regina also couldn’t help noticing several women in room were constantly watching Ben, including several of his cousins. She sighed and felt her insides go to mush as always. Not in her wildest dreams did she ever imagine being with the kind of man she would have to chase other women away from all the time.

When she sighed again, Alexa laughed, which made Regina laugh.